Isaac knows that people can see the bruises and no one says anything. He knows that most people probably just assume that he's being bullied in school because it's all the rave now a days. It's the only thing people can talk about - or - it's the only thing that people used to talk about because like every hot topic it gains attention and people claim that they are going to stop this oh-so-important-epidemic and they make youtube videos about it and they make t-shirts and then pretty soon it dies down. Maybe people aren't talking about it so much anymore or the news stops putting out stories. Then pretty sure water is poured on what was once a wild fire - a campaign so to speak - of a cause that was once deemed so great that it soon disappears and just becomes a distant memory.

No one cares to ask and no one cares to know that his father has abused him for as long as he can remember. No one cares to ask and no one cares to know that yes, Jackson isn't the oh-so-straight-dating-Lydia-for-social-status-lacrosse-player that he likes everyone to think he is. No. Jackson likes Isaac. Jackson liked Isaac enough to reel him in of broken promises before turning in his once comforting hands into hands that continue the bruises and the scars that tells a story of years of torment.

Isaac hears how people talk about abusive relationships. To everyone else, they can leave at any time but they don't understand. They don't understand what it's like to not be wanted. They don't understand the desperate need for someone to actually want them. They don't understand that Isaac wants to be wanted to the point that he'll take the abuse because it's better than being utterly alone and miserably invisible.

It isn't the first time that Jackson puts on a show for the class. Isaac flinches the moment that Jackson suddenly gets too close and Isaac can see under his eyelashes the smirk that Jackson wears on his face. It's a smirk of pride - the smirk of pride that he can get a few chuckles from their fellow classmates and pride that he can get someone like Isaac Lahey to be intimidated by something so small.

But not everyone chuckles. When he looks ahead of himself he can see Scott and Stiles throwing nasty glances in Jackson's direction. He can see Scott say something under his breath before turning around in his chair. Stiles doesn't turn around immediately though but instead casts a glance in Isaac's direction before finally following his friends lead by turning around to the front of the room but that's mostly because the teacher is getting on his case and Stiles doesn't need another detention.


Sometimes, Isaac can't help but glance up into the stands to see who had come to see the lacrosse game. Scott's mother is there in her nurse uniform and he assumes that's because she will probably have to rush off to work right after it's over. Isaac barely ever sees Stiles' father there because he's off saving Beacon Hills from the bad guys that go bump in the night and to him that's understandable. Jackson's parents are there to see their son steal the spotlight but Isaac's eyes doesn't stay on them long as he glances along through the ground at recognizable faces until his blue eyes fall on two people that he had never seen before.

The man sat there with his eyes locked on the field. His blue eyes were intense and it almost seems as if that he looks with intent and when Isaac follows the man's gaze, he realizes that his eyes are bouncing from Scott to Stiles to back to Scott again. When he looks towards the woman sitting next to them, their eyes connect and Isaac feels immediately awkwardness to the point that he has to quickly look away. After a moment passes, he finally looks back and realizes that the woman is no longer looking at him and has instead stood up and began walking through the stands to leave.

Isaac doesn't have much time to ponder it because pretty soon he can hear Jackson's voice over everyone else's telling him to get his head out of his ass and his mind back on the game.


When the game is over and Isaac is about to walk off the field to meet with his father who will probably have nothing nice to say and will ask him why he didn't play the game better, he sees the same unfamiliar face again. He's standing off to the side of the field with a less than amused Stile standing in front of him. Isaac can't make out what either of them are saying but Stiles slaps the man in the chest with the back of his hand but before the obviously older man can do anything in retaliation, Scott approaches and his attention is taken off of the clearly agitated Stiles.

But Isaac doesn't get the chance to see what happens next before his father is practically dragging him off the field so they can get to the car and get home. He knows it only means trouble for him because he can never do anything right in his father's eyes and he knows that this time may mean a trip down to the dreaded basement.

And as usual, that will lead Isaac to going to Jackson's and that will lead to the vicious cycle beginning again.