Meet me outside the boys' cabin at 10:30. I'd really love to finally talk to you. If you show up, I promise I'll have a great surprise waiting for you. - Rachel
It was a cool summer night outside, with crickets chirping and a breeze rustling through the branches of the trees overhead. Eli fumbled with the drawstrings on his hoodie, peering cautiously around in the woods outside the boys' cabin. In her letter, Rachel had not specified where exactly she wanted to meet him, all she'd said was outside the bunks. Now Eli was worried that maybe one of the camp counselors would find him first before he could see her, and he'd get in trouble. Nobody was supposed to be outside the cabins after 9:00PM.
But Eli steeled his resolve, allowing himself to feel excited of where the night might be going. He thought of the other letters Rachel had left him on his bed the previous couple of days. He had enjoyed reading them over and over, but had lacked the courage to approach the girl himself during the daytime. She was so pretty, and she thought he was cool, what if he made a fool of himself? But her last letter had finally given him the willpower to collect his nerves and take a chance. Still, he was glad she had initiated the meetup.
What would be the surprise, he wondered? Did she want to be his girlfriend? He'd seen lots of boys and girls kissing at camp, maybe she would want to kiss him, too? Wait until he told Demetri about that, if it happened, he'd never believe it.
"Hey, Eli!" a voice called out. Eli looked over to see three figures step out from behind a couple trees. He recognized them: Jacob, David, and Aaron, all of them thirteen, a year older than he was; actual teenagers. He had barely interacted with them at all during camp so far, he'd only really noticed them as the kids who had raised a big ruckus during the previous Shabbat after the counselors had told everyone to leave their electronics in the cabins that day. Jacob, the boy who'd called out to him, asked, "Were you looking for someone? Maybe we can help you."
Eli blinked, confused, and fussed more with his hoodie's drawstrings. He stuttered, "I-I…I…."
David laughed, setting the box he was holding down. "Man, you really fell for it, didn't you?" he asked, shaking his head at Eli's gullibility. "I can't believe it. Geez, what a loser. How dumb you gotta be to not even notice the difference between girls' and guys' handwriting?"
In a falsetto voice, Aaron mockingly shrilled, "Oh Eli, you're so smart, you're so funny, I can't believe how cool you are, Eli." All the boys guffawed at the performance, pointing their fingers at him in open contempt. And that's when it sunk in for Eli that it had all been a setup, a cruel prank. Rachel hadn't written him those glowing letters, the other boys did.
He started to slowly back up, shuffling his sneakers in the pine needles under them, shrinking some into his shoulders. Only to then have big arms suddenly grab him, as a fourth boy attacked from the shadows, wrenching Eli's arms behind him. Asher, the last member of their posse. Eli tried to squirm out of his grip, but the bigger kid kept his hold tightly. "Where are you going, nerd? Don't you know it's after curfew? Should've stayed in the bunk," he said with a laugh.
Aaron poked Eli on his forehead. "Did you really think any girl would think you're cute?" Eli looked away from him to avoid the question, to avoid those penetrating eyes. It felt like his chest was tightening up, his breath becoming quick and shallow, and his chin was starting to quiver. "Yeah, I asked Rachel if she'd kiss you for ten bucks. You know what she said? She said she'd rather kiss a skunk's ass than that freaky lip of yours."
That got them all laughing at him again. Eli didn't understand. He'd never directly interacted at all with the boys during camp. Why had they chosen him to target? Why were they making fun of him? Why were they being so mean?
Reaching down into his box, David pulled out what looked like a handful of gym socks, and as he tossed one each to Jacob and Aaron, Eli saw that the ends of them were swollen round, like someone had stuffed a ball of some sort into each of the socks. They almost looked like maces, the way the other boys started to swing them in preparation for the attack. Eli's stomach dropped, and he started shaking, knowing what was about to happen. He squirmed harder in Asher's death-like grip, but to no avail. Meanwhile, David looked at his leader and asked, "You sure he won't tell on us? I can't get in trouble with my parents again, man."
"Don't worry, he won't squeal. Watch this." Jacob stuck his sneering face next to Eli's and goaded, "Go on. Call for help. I'm giving you a fair chance. Go on, do it." Eli parted his lips and tried to make the words. His mind screamed at him to cry out, but his tongue wouldn't move, leaving his mouth opening and closing, but no words coming out. "See?" Jacob said. "He can't do it. He's a fucking r-" He threw the r-word out with such casual disregard for the distress it caused Eli to hear it.
Jacob then swung his makeshift weapon and whacked Eli hard in the abdomen with it. All the boys whaled into him with the tennis ball-filled socks, at his stomach, his head, his legs, anywhere they could hit. Each strike became more sensitive and unbearable than the last, made all the worse by the insults they threw at him. Nerd. Loser. Freak. They unloaded a whole repertoire of vulgar words on him, their voices like nails raking on a chalkboard, until they all muffled together like white noise in Eli's ringing ears.
"Aww look, he's crying," mocked Aaron after striking his knees one last time.
"What a sissy," Asher spat, finally letting him go. Barely able to stand on his own swaying legs, Eli couldn't even hear their put-downs anymore. His heart was thumping too loud in his chest, his head was pounding, the trees in the woods were spinning in his vision, and the tears were burning his eyes as they started pouring down his cheeks. He registered their laughter, however. And then, suddenly, David dumped something over his head, something cold and slimy.
Eli fell to his knees and instinctively gripped at his hair, recoiling with a shriek when his fingers touched the slimy substance, which he couldn't even recognize at that moment was leftover sloppy-joe meat from the mess hall. He curled into himself on the hard ground, then rolled over onto his stomach and buried his face in his arms in the dirt. It was too much, he couldn't handle it. Hysterical cries tore from his throat, finally releasing a sound that was too little, too late to have saved him from being ganged up on.
His screaming sobs got the other boys to finally leave, as they rushed back towards the cabin as lightning-quick as their feet could carry them, in case any camp counselors were drawn to the scene by the noise and found out what they had done. "Better keep your mouth shut, Eli. Snitches get stitches!" Jacob threatened before he darted. Eli didn't hear him, didn't notice them run, he couldn't concentrate on anything other than how much everything hurt.
He had no idea how long he was lying there in the woods crying, his whole frame shivering. Eli just kept going until his body gave up. Choking down a sniffle, he suddenly felt nauseous, like he wanted to throw up. It required all his remaining energy to snake his hand into the front pocket of his hoodie and shakily pull his iPhone out, dropping it on the ground by where his head laid on his other arm. It took even longer for his trembling fingers to put in the password and fumble with the display to find the number he wanted from his contacts.
Pressing the speaker button, Eli listened to the phone dialing, hoping they wouldn't already be asleep. Thankfully, someone picked up. "Hello?" It was his father. "Eli, is that you?" Eli only could sniffle in response as he tried to form words, but the painful lump stuck in his throat made it feel like he really was going to throw up. "Eli?"
"What's wrong?" came another voice. His mother's.
"The ID says it's Eli's number," explained his dad, "but I'm not hearing anything but background noise. Maybe he pocket-dialed."
His mom must've taken hold of the landline because Eli heard her voice more clearly on the speaker. "Eli? Eli? Honey, are you alright?"
Fresh tears pooled in his eyes. And at last his voice cracked, and Eli sobbed into the phone, "M-Mom? M-Mom, I w-wanna go home…."