Graham didn't sleep well that night.
He spent most of the night switching his gaze from the ceiling to his cell phone, reading texts received late into the night. Even if they were from himself, they still made him feel slightly less lonely. Despite the fact that he knew that he had written them, he still smiled when he read the message, imagining who they would be from and what else that mystery person would send. Things like "You are a wonderful person," "You have an amazing personality," and "I love you," were often ones sent at this hour. He always deleted them quickly afterwards though.
This morning was just like the last couple nights. He was thinking too hard about everything going on. Today was his fifteenth birthday. He was in the ninth grade – a freshman in high school. But unfortunately, today was Friday, and he knew in the back of his mind that there was a garbage can with his name on it waiting for him after school. He swallowed the thought with his morning cereal and, after hugging his grandmother good-bye, left for school.
Graham lived with his grandmother, the only living relative in his family, since his father left when he was very young and he lost his mother to cancer when he was ten. He never really mourned his parents though, and he never knew why. He did love his mum, but he thought he should be happy for her instead of crying over her. Graham never really cried in his childhood – his grandmother didn't allow it unless there was a sincere reason, and even then, he found it easier to just smile through it. He just shoved those emotions away for later, when he knew he could let them go.
He wasn't looking forward to school today.
The school day passed rather slowly, that feeling of impending doom lasting from first period to seventh. His classes were rather dreary: lectures in math, lectures in English, lectures in history, lectures in science, and dodge-ball in PE – nothing very interesting. Although they were going over sex ed. in health class, it still did not interest him like it did the other students. He was simply waiting for class to be over so he could dash home and avoid the usual Friday routine.
He counted down the seconds on the clock until it was time to go, gathered his things five minutes before the bell rang, and was standing at the door, staring at the clock on the wall. A few minutes passed, and the bell finally rang, and by the time it was done ringing, he was halfway across campus, dashing in his homeward direction. He hoped he was fast enough today. He continued running for a few minutes straight, and he did not stop until he was off of campus. He was panting a bit, sweat beading upon his forehead, but he was smiling. He was simply glad that he got away from the group of people who gave the phrase "Freshman Friday" its meaning.
He decided to stop at the store on the way home and grab something to drink. Once he was finished with his blue Icee, he walked out the double doors of the store, only to see the group he tried so hard to avoid. One slicked-back guy at the front of the group stepped forward.
"Hey, Cracker! You got enough cash to go around?"
Graham didn't answer; he simply turned and walked away from the group.
"Yo, Cracker! I know you heard me, and I know you got cash!"
Graham was walking away with his head down.
"Get your ass back here and ANSWER ME, dammit!"
"Get away from me!"
Graham broke into a run, only to be followed by the rest of the group, who managed not only to catch up to him, but to pin him against the wall of the back of the building. Graham was afraid of them at this point.
"Why do you guys do this to me!" Graham shouted out to them as steadily as he could manage.
"Heh, why the hell shouldn't we? You're scrawny and weak, and we all know that for a fact." Graham was whacked against the back of the building before they continued, "And you just let any old person step all over you. Pathetic."
He threw Graham down onto the pavement and kicked him over.
"You don't even have a girlfriend; what kind of man are you anyway?"
Graham didn't respond. He had no intention of even getting up at this point. Suddenly, a different type of voice echoed in his ears.
"Pitiful."
From behind the three boys in the crowd, a girl walked out, but not just any girl - she was that girl. That girl who had dated every boy in the school and then some. That girl who always wore a scarf to hide the hickeys on her neck. That girl who "accidentally" spilled the basket of condoms in Health in hopes that a handful would fall into her bag. That girl who was known at the school for having the biggest cup size out of all the girls. That girl who wouldn't be recognizable if she followed the school dress code.
That girl.
In one swift kick of her red high heels, she flipped Graham back over onto his back again and sat herself upon his lower stomach, looking down at him with a rather intimidating look in her heavily made-up eyes. Her cherry-lips puckered together into a small smirk as she glared down at him. Graham looked back up at her with a rather defeated look on his face, which made her smirk simply grow. She flicked her hair over her shoulder and leaned forward to position herself on top of Graham, looking him in the eyes. One of the boys whistled at them. Graham was unfazed. He just wanted to go home. He turned his head away from her with a rather irritated look on his face.
"Do you even have a dick?"
Her voice stung in his ears. His cheeks turned slightly red in embarrassment as he turns his head even farther away from her, avoiding her icy stare. He gathered up what courage he had left and managed to speak one quiet sentence.
"Do you even know that there's more to life than sex?"
A loud slap rang out and ricocheted off of the building they were next to. Her hand felt very cold against Graham's cheek. The next few minutes went by as a bit of a blur for Graham - the three boys, as well as the girl, managed to remove all the contents of Graham's backpack (as well as take anything of any value and scatter the remaining few items), give him a few more bruises on his body, and - as Graham expected - shove him into a nearby trashcan.
Graham decided that he didn't need to go home at the moment. He just sat there with his head lowered, almost out of sight.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Grahaaaaaaaaam! Where are you!"
Luke was still dressed in his school uniform and was running down the road, looking for Graham. He had arranged to meet Graham a few hours after school to study for an upcoming exam, but Graham never showed. Although they were three years apart in school, they still had some of the same classes in which they studied together. Graham had always shown up to previous meetings, he was never late to school - if you gave him an assigned time and location, he was there. Luke was now searching the route Graham took to get home every day, becoming more and more worried with each minute that passed without any sign of Graham.
Luke continued calling for Graham for another twenty minutes before spotting a book that Graham always had with him on the ground. He immediately picked it up and held it in his arms, wondering how Graham could have possibly forgotten his favorite book. He eventually spied more of Graham's belongings, and followed a trail of them to the back of the building, as well as Graham himself, only his legs visible from inside of the trash can.
"Graham!"
Graham didn't respond to Luke's call at all. He didn't even move.
Luke ran over to Graham and helped get him out of the trashcan with a bit of effort, but after he was out, Graham still wasn't responsive at all to Luke. His eyes were somewhat glazed over and his breathing was very slow.
"GRAHAM!" Luke shouted as he placed both his hands on Graham's shoulders and shook him rather roughly, "Graham! Answer me, dammit!"
Graham only winced in response. Just from this, Luke knew almost exactly what had happened. Luke had heard about this happening to Graham before, but he never had been the first to find Graham after it happened. He looked Graham in the eye, and Graham looked weakly back at him.
"Man...why do you let them do this to you?"
No answer. Graham looked down slightly.
Luke gave up on trying to talk to Graham and decided a different approach. Luke sighed and, after a bit of hesitation, wrapped his arms around Graham and pulled him into a somewhat awkward-feeling hug. It brought Luke back to his childhood a bit, but he swallowed his nostalgia and focused on the situation at hand.
Graham's eyes shot open. He inhaled sharply before attempting to speak.
"Why...?" Graham's own arms wrapped themselves weakly around Luke, "...why do they do this? Why do they always do this to me...?"
"Because they know you won't fight back, Graham..."
"But-"
"They know that you'll just take it, and they know that you're scared of them."
"I-I-"
"Graham...I know that I'm right about that."
There were a few moments of silence before Graham interrupted it.
"L-Luke...I don't feel well...not at all..."
Luke helped Graham over to the trashcan he was previously stuck in, and turned away as Graham threw up the bright blue drink he had earlier. Graham sunk back down to the ground after that, looking worse than ever. Luke walked back over to him and helped clean off the blue liquid from his face and shirt. He then pulled out an unopened water bottle from his bag and handed it to Graham, who promptly drank it. Another ten minutes passed by before Luke spoke again.
"Feelin' any better?"
"Luke...I..." there was a pause, "...I think I realized something..."
"What's that?"
Graham didn't answer right away. Instead, Graham did something that Luke never actually expected to see Graham do. Something inside of Graham seemed to shatter as he crumpled over forward, his head lowered in grief. He was hugging himself tightly and visibly shaking. Luke crawled forward a bit and reached a hand out towards him.
"Graham...hey, it'll be alright..."
Graham took in a shaky breath as he lifted his head up towards the sky.
"I HATE GIRLS SO MUUUUUCH!"
"H-Hey, you don't really mean tha-"
Graham had started sobbing at this point. His hands were in little fists below his eyes, and he looked like he did as a child again through Luke's eyes. Luke smiled sadly at Graham and put an arm around him in an attempt to comfort him.
"It'll be okay, Graham. You'll turn back around and like girls when you're a bit older, I know you will. And they'll get nicer to you once you're in an upperclassman!"
"No they w-won't...!"
"I know they will, Graham, I mean, you're not a jerk, and girls like that! You're tall, you're not fat, you have, like, every turn-on that girls like! C'mon, you'll be in a relationship before you know it and you'll take back everything you just said-"
Graham sniffled. He glared up at Luke.
"You think it's that easy!"
Luke paused. He didn't expect Graham to snap like that at him.
"You think it's easy for me to forgive all the girls who picked on me!"
"What about the girls we used to play with when we were younger?"
"They were still kids back then! But they changed now, they changed into self-absorbed sex-addicts and I hate it!"
"Graham..."
"...I hate it..."
Luke sat down in front of Graham and put his hands on Grahams shoulders once again. Graham looked back up at Luke with a pitiful look on his face, and Luke sighed.
"Not all girls are like that, Graham. You just happened to meet some of the bad o-"
Luke was cut off, and he couldn't speak at the moment.
In those few seconds Luke was speaking, Graham had taken one hand and placed it upon Luke's cheek. His eyes didn't leave Luke's. Graham still had that tearful look on his face. Luke was frozen.
Graham slowly leaned in, closed his eyes, and touched his lips to Luke's, tears still running down his face. Luke had no idea what to do.
A few moments passed before Graham pulled away from Luke, his cheeks red.
"I..."
Luke was first to speak a full sentence after clearing his throat a few times.
"You-You do realize that I'm dating a girl right now, don't you? Annonette, she's my girlfriend."
Graham lowered his head a bit. He apologized.
"I didn't know you weren't straight."
Graham decided that he didn't want to stick around to hear what Luke had to say. He got up and ran for home as quickly as he could, ignoring Luke's shouts. He wiped his eyes as much as he could so his grandmother wouldn't notice. He ran back to his room and buried his face into his pillow. He wasn't allowed to cry at home anyway. At least, not for something like this. Not for this silly drama. He eventually fell asleep right there.
The next morning, Graham received a package at his doorstep. It contained his bag and all of his belongings that weren't taken by his four attackers. There was also a small, handmade card inside of his bag.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Dear Graham, Congrats on coming out of the closet! We're happy with your decision, and we hope that you're doing better this morning. By the way, Luke's not mad about what happened yesterday, he was just surprised. He told me what happened, but I'm not telling anyone else, okay? Hope you're doing better, and hope to hang out with you again soon! Both of us! Sincerely, Nettie Janette
Luke Triton
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Graham smiled for the first time in a few days.