The next morning, someone's shaking my shoulder trying to wake me. I only roll over and pull my Canadian flag blanket over my head.

"Come on Mattie. Wake up bro."

"Non s'il vous plait laissez-moi seul. (no please leave me alone)." I murmur.

"Mattie get up; you know I don't speak French." He grabs my blanket and yanks it off me before pulling me out of bed. "Get ready." Once he leaves, I fall back onto my bed and wrap myself in my blanket, blocking out the world.

A minute later though, my shoulder's being shaken again, but with a different grip.

"Réveiller Mathieu. (wake up Matthew)" Francis tells me.

"Laissez-moi seul. (leave me alone)." I murmur again.

"Fine, but if you don't get up on your own, I'll 'ave to get you ready myself, non?" I know he actually will, so I may as well get up and ready myself.

"Gimme a minute."

"Alright." I hear him leave and close my door. I get out of my safe blanket cocoon and slowly get dressed in my usual jeans and red hoodie with the white maple leaf on front. I look around for my book bag only to remember I left it at school. I truge downstairs an get greeted by Al.

"Hey, I got your stuff from school." he tells me, smiling. "It's by the door."'

"Mhm."

"Well, Francis made some breakfast." He grabs my hand and leads me to the kitchen and has me sit down.

"Oh Mathieu, thank you for joining ze world today." he practically sings. I put my head on the table and mumble. "Here, I'm sure you'll feel better after you eat." He puts some breakfast down in front of me. I glance up.

"Where's dad?" I whisper.

"He's goin' to work early this week. Why?" Al tells me. So Francis is in charge. I turn my gaze to him.

"Can I just stay here?"

"Why? Are you feeling ill?" Francis puts the back of his hand to my forehead.

"Non, I just want to stay here."

"And brood? No, I will not allow et. Now come on and eat." I slowly start eating the food, not really tasting it. When I finish eating, Francis tells me he'll drive us to school. That makes me feel a bit better about leaving, but I still dread going. After I'm ready, we get into his Renault and he drives us to school.

"Mattie, I'm gonna protect you today so won't get bullied, OK?" Al tells me as we get there. Great, Francis had told him. I thought our talks were private, that's why we spoke in French.

"You don't have to do that. I'll be fine." I tell him, getting out of the car.

"Don't be ridiculous Mattie, of course I have to. I am the hero after all." He gives me one of his hero poses before we start walking. "You'll be perfectly safe."

"Sure." I mutter, having my doubts.

Al does a pretty good job keeping me safe. No one bothers me the whole day. At least until Al has chemistry and I have English on the opposite side of the building downstairs. As I walk to class, Mike and his buddies find me.

"Hey! Where ya been Matt?" Mike calls, walking over. He slings his arm over my shoulder when he gets to me, making escape impossible.

"N-nowhere." I quietly say, looking at the ground.

"You were somewhere. Where was it?" He leans in close to me, making me uncomfortable.

"Ha-hospital."

"Why?" Luckily the bell rings just then.

"Uh, the bell rang."

"I know. You see, the thing is, I've missed picking on my favorite fag."

"Don't call me that please."

He just laughs. "OK. You like queer better?" I shake my head. "Well, you are one. You know what else you are?"

"A person." I meekly say.

He laughs again. "No, you're shit." He grabs me under my arms and someone else grabs my legs as my books drop. They start bringing me somewhere, but I can't see where we're going. I try to get free, but they just hold me tighter.

"Let go of me." I quietly beg. Then they bring me into the bathroom and I start panicking. "S'il vous plait laissez aller de moi, s'il vous plait. (please let me go, please)"

"Oh, a French fag." One of the other bullies say and they bring me into a stall and put me on my knees.

"Non, not French, Cana-" I get cut off as they force my head into the toilet. Someone, Mike I assume, keeps their hand on the back of my head so I can't get up. They flush a few times until they bring me up, gasping for air.

Mike's gripping my hair tightly, making my head hurt. He pulls my head back so I'm looking up at them. They look at each other, talking about something. I can't hear them, momentarily deaf. Some of them nod and I'm brought to my feet.

"How would you like that?" I hear Mike say when I regain my hearing. "I bet you'd like that."

Before I can ask what he means, I get dragged into another stall, but with only one of them.

"So, there anything you do outside fo school?" he asks. I stare at him, kinda shocked that he was trying to converse with me like a normal person. Apparently, he didn't actually care, because once I get over the shock enough to murmur that I play hockey occasionally, he grabs the collar of my hoodie and tells me, "Only to disappoint yourself. You're not on a team, so you probably suck. Which makes me wonder, is that why you joined? To be with all those strong, probably sexy to you, guys? You wanted each of them every night, didn't you? All for yourself to get down and dirty."

He hits me, bruising my check and making my nose bleed, and possibly breaking it. I wonder why he brought me in a stall privately for this, then he pulls my curl as hard as he can, covering my mouth to muffle the moan. It hurts a lot, but, there's also that feeling I don't think they know about. Then he knees me, probably as hard as he can. I let out a small moan of pain as I fall to my knees. He laughs at me and kicks my jaw. My head goes back, hitting the wall and giving me a headache. He drags me out by hood, then puts his foot on my chest so I'm lying on the bathroom floor, unable to get up.

"Well, I'm finished. Now what?"

Mike leans over and looks at me, smirking. "Aw, did we make you cry?" he asks in a mocking voice.

"C-can't you leave me a-alone?"

"Oh, but that wouldn't be fun." They pick me up and beat me a bit. "What about humiliation next time?"

"Why next time? My phone has a camera."

"Get it out!" So, one of them takes their phone out and starts recording.

"Alright, first thing to say is, this is Matthew Williams." Mike puts his arm around my shoulders, then asks, "Tell us, what are you that you shouldn't be?"

"Quiet."

"Yes quiet, but what else?"

"B-beaten."

"No. You're gay. Ain't that right? Admit it to the world." He pinches the back of my neck. "Tell them."

"I-I-I'm g-g-gay." I feel myself crying, not ready to admit it to people. I know I must look pathetic.

"Good, good. Now." He brings me over to a stall and flushes my head again. When he lets go of me, I run as fast as I can. I can hear their laughter behind me. I run out of the school, leaving my stuff behind again.

I get home and run into the kitchen. I pull up my hoodie sleeves and grab a knife. I turn the water on and quickly wet my face, trying to hide the bruises, then I start cutting through my bandages. I love the feel of the blood going through the deep cuts and leaving my body again. It's not long before I hear Francis' voice behind me though.

"You're home early Mathieu, non?"

"Oui, mas vous êtes trop, n'est-ce pas? (yes, but you are too, aren't you?)" I say a bit tearily.

"What are you doing?" He comes over and I try to hide my arms, but I fail. Francis grabs them and asks again, but in French, "Que faites-vous?"

"E-essayer de s-saigner à m-mort. (trying to bleed to death)" I shakily tell him.

"Nouveau? (again)" he asks.

I nod and whisper, "Nouveau." He brings me over to a chair and sits me down.

"Pourquoi Mathieu? S'il vous plaît dites-moi pourquoi vous le faites, je said que ce n'est pas seulement l'intimidation. Quoi d'aurre est-il? (Why Matthew? Please tell me why you do it. I know it's not just the bullies. What else is it?)" He looks me in the eyes, and I feel like I can trust him, and I try to tell him.

"Ils me détestent parceque je suis… je suis…(they hate me because I'm…I'm…) I can't tell him and end up sobbing. He hugs me and I sob into his shoulder.

"Mathieu, I'm going to have to tell your dad about zis. And you're going to go somewhere where you can get 'elp, ok?" I nod, not able to speak, but not wanting to go either.

A/N- i think gil's in the next chapter...dont worry.