"Hey, I think he's better!"

Jonathan was indeed starting to awaken from his daze, his environment becoming clearer to him with every new second that passed by. There was a bright light blinding him, but otherwise the room seemed cool and calming. For a second, he wondered why he needed calming in the first place.

Then, it struck him.

He immediately bolted upright, feeling the tears staining his cheeks, the smeared makeup. No, this could not be happening. He had done so much to protect them, had sacrificed his own dignity, and Roman… Roman did that. It was as if he was trying to make them as best a target as he could.

"Hey, Buster? You good..?"

The voice was rather recognisable, being as nasal and soft as it was. Thomas was looking over him worriedly, and so were Sunny and Brandon, to his surprise. Brandon was even twisting his hands in a way that obviously hurt him.

Jonathan nodded briskly, then, knowing it was probably not enough, smiled in a way that he knew looked more like a grimace than anything else. Still, it wasn't his fault.

"Really, i knew it from the start and you didn't listen to me Buster," said Thomas, shaking his head and tutting. "He's too close to you, you really should make him submit to you before things turn nasty."

It was as if the world wanted him to talk. There was no way on earth he was going to do it, but there he was, tears in his eyes, wishing that he could just speak and tell them everything he wanted to say to them, everything that bothered him, if he were to put it lightly.

"Anyway, are you feeling better? It's lunch break right now, we can go to the bathrooms to look for some small fry."

Suddenly, like a ghost from a horror movie, a lady with monstruous bags under her eyes appeared behind Thomas. With a booming voice, she nearly shouted, making Thomas jump and probably pee himself a little bit:

"No. Jonathan stays here," said the nurse. "You go now."

The small gang left quickly after that, tail between their legs, but Brandon did bother to turn around and give Jonathan a little wave and smile before he passed through the threshold of the nurse's office.

"You saw your brother being gay and passed out," the nurse explained in the same booming voice. "I prescribe a good dose of anti-bigotry and some paracetamol."

Jonathan didn't see his brother for the rest of the day. Roman seemed to have fled the school along with his newfound lover, but despite his absence, the whispers about him were very much present, and the questions that Jonathan were asked were getting quite annoying to answer. He felt himself getting whiplash from the constant nodding and shaking of his head. A stroke of genius allowed him to write on the front and back of his binder 'Yes' and 'No', which meant that all questions were answered quickly with that one item.

The most annoying person of all, however, was Thomas. He refused to drop the subject even once, even refusing to go on his usual bullying sprees because of the opinions he constantly wanted to give to everyone, and the constant flow of mostly repeated questions that he asked Jonathan.

Despite all this, the boy complied. There were other things on his mind, namely the worrying aggressivity that Thomas and the small furious gang displayed openly, even though there was nothing to channel it into just yet. He knew they were planning on jumping his brother. And he knew he'd have to put himself on the line again to stop them.

"Hi."

The brunet jumped out of his skin for what felt like the upteenth time today, whoever it was having managed to creep up on him while he was buried in his thoughts. He looked around, puzzled to find nothing that could have made that noise, then he looked down. It was a kid, barely tall enough to possibly be from any other class than the very first year, which was confirmed by the colour of his tie.

"Are you the brother of the boy who likes boys?"

Sighing, Jonathan flipped his binder to show him the positive answer side. To his surprise, the kid's face lit up and he grinned at Jonathan, as the older boy's heart sank with dread as he understood what was happening.

"I like boys too!"

The senior shushed him, looking around, but the hallways were empty and the blond bastard was nowhere to be seen. Jonathan motioned to the kid to take his hand, which, because he was barely out of elementary, he accepted happily. With eyes darting around rapidly, he pulled the kid through the hallways, avoiding the glare of gossiping students by keeping the kid close by. The red wisp of hair seemed to appear out of nowhere, and Jonathan immediately made a beeline to it. Just before he got there though, he stopped, deciding to wait for the halls to clear. If he destroyed his own lacking reputation, he wouldn't be capable of helping Roman.

To his surprise, Sherwin stayed too as the students slowly trickled out as the bell rang for the next class. When it was all but empty apart from a few hurrying slackers, the redhead went to his locker and imputed the code, keeping an eye out as he did. Jonathan couldn't blame him, as Roman and himself had been forced to do the same thing in their own time.

This time though, the idea was to not spook the kid and have him run away on the brunet. He made sure that his footsteps were heard as he approached, and the redhead heard them, immediately slamming his locker shut and turning to see Jonathan. He was tense, every fibre of his body alert and trembling, but not in fright. No, the look in his eyes was dead, apart from the anger that ignited them as a flame.

Immediately, he pointed to his cheek, as darkened by bruising as it was, and all that Jonathan had to say to that was a shrug, although under his nonchalance guilt brewed and spilled over in his gut. It was probably visible on his face, but Jonathan was by far not expecting any mercy from the filiform boy. Still, he was here on a mission, and he was determined not to leave before he had accomplished it.

He would have spoken then, were it not for the presence of the younger boy. He was innocent, but he was also naive, and even if he didn't laugh at Jonathan right away, he was likely to tell his friends about the odd way he spoke.

"Why doesn't Thomas like you?" the smaller boy asked, as naively as Jonathan suspected. Turning his back on the both of them (did he really trust him that much already?), the redhead pulled a small whiteboard out of his bag and wrote a couple words on it, before showing it to the youngest of the small group.

"Oooh I see! But does that mean he doesn't like me either?"

Sherwin's expression, just like Jonathan's earlier on, went from puzzled to concerned extremely quickly. He looked around, as if the blond boy was going to jump out at them at any moment, before taking the seventh-grader's other hand and giving him a sharp tug, that effectively detached him from Jonathan. Despite his protests, Sherwin pulled the boy behind him and stood between him and the other older boy, eyeing the latter murderously.

The brunet made a motion towards the whiteboard, trying to signal that he wanted to use it. Sherwin, however, snatched it away, leaving Jonathan to sigh and pull a piece of paper and a pen out of his bag.

See you behind the left side bushes after school. Promise I won't jump you, I just need to ask you some things about my brother.

There, that should do it.

Or not.

No, was the prompt and sharp answer, accompanied by a glare that could have melted iron.

How about at your place then? he wrote back. I can tell your parents that I want to apologise to them, which I sincerely do want to do, by the way.

Sure, was the reply that came back to him. But don't hold your breath, we've had our fair share of fake excuses.

And with that, the redhead turned on his heels and left. Jonathan was left there wondering what he had got himself into, and what was going to happen to him from now on.