Noooooo it's been so long again! Over a whole month. Really me? Anyway, just a few points I'm gonna mention for this chapter: there's pretty mild swear words, just at the beginning of the chapter. I'm not sure if it's something worth warning you about but I wanted to throw it out there. I usually try to avoid swear words in my writing. But the ones who are going to be saying them are the bullies, and remember, these are rude, teenage boys we're talking about. I thought that it would kinda express who they are a little more and capture their character (I don't mean all people who swear are rude! Sometimes swearing is just kinda fun, at least for me lol). Also, this is a small moment where things are pretty heated, so swearing is a likely thing to occur, y'know. So yeah. Just a heads up :)

"Shit!" I heart Jake say under his breath. "Damn! We gotta scram dude!" They all bolt to the other door that leads outside.

"Hey! Get the hell back here!" Mr. Hudson yells. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Mr. Hudson," I croak. "Don't go after them. There's no point."

"Chase...did they do this to you?" He stares with wide eyes at my bruised, beaten face. I may have also forgotten to mention that one of them had a permanent marker and had written something on my forehead. I'm not sure what, but it's probably not something good.

I can't manage to produce any words, so I just stay silent, looking down at the ground. Mr. Hudson walks over and sits next to me. It stays like that for awhile, until he breaks the silence.

"How long has this been going on, Chase?"

"About a year," I answer robotically. A small, barely audible gasp escapes from his mouth. I probably wouldn't have been able to hear it if I didn't have super-hearing.

I expect him to be saying things like "Why didn't you tell anyone?" or "You should've done something," but he doesn't. He just puts a reassuring hand on my shoulder, and that works for me.

I feel tears welling up in my eyes, and just like with Adam, I'm sobbing into Mr. Hudson's shirt. But this is different. I'm bawling, hysterically crying until I literally can't anymore. I haven't cried like this since I was little, but the reasons were different. Back then, I cried from having things thrown at me and getting physically hurt. This hurt is different, and it stings more than just a few punches.

It's like my heart is filled with bombs and they're slowing exploding one-by-one until the damage is too much.

Mr. Hudson has his arms wrapped around tightly, making me feel slightly better to know I'm being protected right now. My sobs are reduced to something like a hiccup, and then stop completely. I was almost wishing they had lasted longer, because now, I have some explaining to do.

"Chase...you know that-"

"Yeah, I know. I'm going to have to explain things to you and tell you what's been going on. Fine." I've given up. I can't pretend nothing happened, because it's obvious that something did. And whether I like it or not, I'm going to have to spill everything. Right here, right now.

"Everyone you just saw have been taunting me for the past year," I start. "They've been beating me up, too. Usually after school."

Once again, I'm waiting for a response such as "So this is why your grades are slipping," but nothing like that comes out of his mouth.

"P-please don't tell my family!" I suddenly start to bed. "They can't know! I-It will just make everything worse and-"

"I'm sorry Chase. I'm so, so sorry."

"Why?"

"I should've known. I should've been able to tell. I should've questioned more whenever you showed up to class late, or when you had a slight limp, or when you stopped raising your hand in class. I'm sorry."

I'm not sure what I should say. I'm not even sure of what I should be thinking about this moment, but all I know is that I want to be anywhere else but here.

"You know, I was bullied in high school, too."

This catches my attention and I perk up. "Really? Why?"

"Well, it was mostly by the basketball team, which I used to be on. I quit the team and joined a different club, and I ended up having much more fun there."

"So your old friends on the team started to pick on you?"

"Exactly. I wouldn't call them 'friends' though. Real friends don't do that."

That part really hit hard-I realized that I've never experienced real friendship. Not a single soul wanted to befriend me. There were some people who I could tell wanted to help me when they witnessed me being tossed around. I could see in their eyes they wanted to take action, but were too scared. This made me angry, because if they just could've broken that wall in their head, everything could've been different. I could actually have a real friend.

But who am I, to say that I'm angry? I can't even break the wall I have in my head.

"I-I don't have any friends..." I mumbled.

"Hey, I'm your friend, right?"

I stared at him. I couldn't help but let the side of my mouth tilt into a slight smile. "Yeah, I guess. Thanks. But still...they're never going to leave me alone."

"It sucks, I know. I know it's hard to tell someone about what's going on. But I also know you can do it."

"B-but..." I stammer. "I-It's almost impossible! It's like there's a wall stopping me! I...I just can't do it."

"Chase, I understand that it's going to be really hard." He pauses. "I've experienced it too. But we need to do something to stop this."

"N-No! T-those guys are going to kill me if they get punished..."

"Don't worry Chase, that won't happen. We'll make sure that you'll be fine. But I really think that we should notify your family-"

"N-no! I yell. "there's no way I can do that. Like I said, it's like there's literally a wall that's unbreakable that's blocking me." I feel like I'm on the verge of tears again. The volume of my voice is growing louder and louder. I'm surprised Mr. Hudson is still being patient with me.

"Well, you've told me everything, right? You've already cracked that wall, now all you need to do is keep on cracking it until it starts to disappear. It'll be a slow, hard process, but you can do it. I believe in you."

For some reason, this fills me with determination. He's right-I have cracked the wall, and I didn't even notice. "Okay," I say. "I don't want to tell my father, but I think I have another idea..."

"That's fine, Chase. What's your idea?"

"Why don't I tell someone else? Should I call him right now?"

"Yeah, I think you should. I'll have to talk to him too, okay?"

"Okay..." I pull out my phone and slowly dial in the number. They pick up almost immediately.

"Hello?"

"Um, hi. It's Chase. I need to talk to you, Douglas..."

And there's another chapter for you guys :)

ooooooh. A guest reviewer said that Douglas would be perfect for this story, so this is where he starts to come in. I was thinking to unveil who Chase called in the next chapter, but then thought whatever, why not now? Douglas is going to show up yayyyy.

I thought that Chase should call Douglas because I feel he connects with him more. I dunno, I just really wanted to put Douglas in the story, and thought this was the perfect time to.

Well here's review replies :)

T00thY: Thank you so much! here's the update :D

Stardust16: Yessss! He was caught! And yeah, Mr. Hudson is very laid back, and as you can see here, just a great guy in general. I'm really sorry I couldn't update very soon :( but I'm glad you like the story!

Unknowndiva: Yayyyy! It's great isn't it? sorry the update was so long but I'm glad you're happy that Chase was found being bullied because poor Chasey was suffering noooo

Susz: oh yes he is! lol but as you can tell he'll be severely punished later in the story. I think a lot of my readers would be satisfied if he was told off in this chapter but you'll have to wait hehe

Dirtkid123: WOOOHOOO! and thank you so much! I'm glad you like it :)

00Kennedy: Yep! and the big unveiling of who it was is in this very chapter :) hehe they're so going down (later in the story though lol)

LabRatFlutieKat: It's horrible, isn't it? :c but ohhhh yep they need to pay! Yeah killing is kinda violent lol but they definitely gotta pay. Make them payyyyy (i've also said that three times lol) and thank you! :)

Guest: oh yes it did! lol

Guest: Thank you so much! I appreciate it!

spicecat :O lol :O

Pikachu the best: Thanks! And maybe, I'm not exactly sure. I could try that though! I'm just worried that I won't be able to portray it realistically. But I will definitely consider it! Thanks for the idea.

Faolan: okay I seriously teared up reading that! that was so sweet. I may find a way to incorporate that into one of the chapters (if that's okay with you of course :3)