Chapter 3, here we go!

I was sitting in the back of AP History when classes ended. I found history amusing, though it was still as boring as other classes when taught in class format. The bell rung out clear and everybody grabbed their bags and ran like the frigging apocalypse was coming. I flung my own backpack over my shoulder and started to whistle as I slowly inched out of the classroom and into the hallways. I saw one of the two kids from homeroom – Joey, I think – arguing with this other guy who was trying to offer him cookies. Specifically bone-shaped cookies. I guess it was some prank or something, because the other guy was smiling, and gods did it look evil. I bet every time that guy smiles, puppies die. I would have waved to Joey, but he looked frigging pissed and I didn't want to interrupt, so I just walked on.

"Hey, pretty boy."

It was Florence… I mean, Bakura.

"You think I'm pretty, huh?"

He flinched at his mistake, recalling the conversation we had earlier.

"Fuck you."

I raised my voice an octave and made the easiest comeback ever. FRIGGING EVER, PEOPLE.

"But we just frigging met!"

"Sod off, Marik."

"You do know that means the same thing, but gayer, right? As in, gay with a capital 'g', do the YMCA, Elton John gay?"

He groaned.

"Enough about Elton John and The Village people! I don't even listen to either of them! That would be you, you little closet dweller."

"I'm not gay and I'll have you know I bought Nevermind the day it came out!"

"Oh, you're so original."

"I have their first record too."

He kind of bit his lip and ignored me. After that, he sort of walked off. I just made my way to the bus and sat down in the back. I opened my backpack and sorted through it, because people like to steal shit, especially from guys with purple backpacks.

Notebook, check. Sketchbook, check. Textbooks, check. The Catcher in the Rye, check. Pen…

You have got to be fucking joking! That was my last good pen! Now I have to go ask for more, and my house is like the frigging orphanage from Oliver Twist, so I wish myself great luck in that department!

Then somebody in front of me dangled my pen down in front of my face.

"Looking for something?"

"Thanks,Bakura. I guess it's a good thing I'm so attractive, otherwise you wouldn't be returning it."

He growled maliciously as I yanked the pen from his hand.

"Yes, be mad, because petty theft is so amusing, Nothing."

"Nothing, huh? Never heard that bloody joke before."

"Piss off."

The bus stopped a few times while I drew fake blueprints of a magical NES that played Sega games. From the corner of my eye I saw Bakura get from the seat. I guess it was his stop. I finished the NES and decided to call it 'Nothing.' It seemed pretty fitting, because it would never happen. Ha! Imagine that – a Nintendo console booting up a frigging Sonic game! (AN: Cut to a decade later, when Sonic Adventure 2 is released for GameCube in February 2002. THIS JOKE IS AMUSING!)

I shifted my focus to the window, shoving the notebook in the bag as I saw my house zoom into view.

I got up and marched down the bus like a sexy bitch. Then I heard the biggest fucking bomb in my teenage life explode.

"Hey look, it's that Florence asshole's crush, right? Didn't he, like, tear up his schedule or some shit? Anyways, what a fag! Gawd, I wish they'd just, like, kick him out already."

It was some stupid girl, who probably listens to stupid music while she stupidly cheats on her stupid boyfriend. I turned to her and tried to look as creepy as possible.

"Yeah, the fag's sentiments are returned, bitch."

Her eyes were practically the size of dinner plates. Wait… that was basically admitting to it, right?

"By the way, I'm not the gay one in this conversation."

I cackled as I hopped off the bus. Boy, what a bitch she was. I hoped I'd never see her again. I sauntered right up onto the porch and into the living room. I found what I had hoped to never see.

"Oh, so Billy thought it would be nice to abandon ship and leave us all alone, now did he?"

Shit, my father! I was so busy mouthing off at the bitch on the bus that I didn't notice how long I was taking. I looked closely at him and I could tell he was totally hammered. Probably stoned, too.

"D-dad, my name's not Billy, I'm Marik, and I – "

He cut me off with a sentence I had no idea would screw me over.

"You're one minute late, Billy. One whole minute."

He started to pace around me like a madman. Which he was, so I gave him credit there.

"I'm sorry, please! There was this girl, on the bus, a-and she called me a name, and I had to –"

"One minute is enough for a thiefto break in, steal our treasures, and leave when you are off guard!"

"I didn't mean to do it! Please believe me!"

"It doesn't matter, Billy. You need to learn how this household operates!"

He grabbed me by the neck and shoved me into the wall. I curled into fetal position and he started kicking me in the ribs. It hurt like hell, and I screamed in pain. He stopped to mock me.

"You're pathetic! What if the robbers come?"

He cuffed me right in the face and it left a bruise.

He released me and slumped over to the couch, and grabbed a beer, allowing me to slink upstairs to my bedroom. My room was both a prison and a paradise for me; prison in that I was locked in; paradise in that I didn't mind.

It wasn't anything special. A bare mattress that was my bed, a fold-out table that was my desk, and a trash bag full of clothes that was my dresser were all the furniture I had in there. Actually, scrap that. A bag isn't frigging furniture. So it was just a mattress and a folding desk, really.

I had some more personal things, of course. I had an old portable cassette player and four or five mixtapes. My favorite one was this 8-track bootleg I made myself. I didn't have a b-side ready yet, because I didn't know what to put on it, but the a-side was frigging amazing. I called it 'Marik's Mixtape' because that's all it really was. I had only two albums – 'Bleach' and 'Bricks Are Heavy' – because those were the only two I could get my hands on. I had some CDs too, specifically 'Nevermind' and of course the YMCA single, but I didn't really get to hear them that often because we rarely ever drove anywhere, and the only CD player we had was in the car.

Other than that, I had some yaoi manga, which was… pretty much gay Japanese schoolboy porn. I had about 12 or so magazines of it, I guess. There was Mr. Tweetums, a sparrow plushy from when I was a kid. Boy, do I miss the days he could actually make me feel safe in this frigging hell.

I collapsed on the mattress and pulled my bag next to me. I struggled through history, algebra, and chemistry for about three hours and then shut my notebook loudly and damn near ripped a hole through my bag when I put it back in. I opened my copy of The Catcher In The Rye from lit class and read the assigned chapters. Then I read through the rest of the book.

It was a story about a kid named Holden who went to this pretentious school he hated, and then he got kicked out because he flunked. And he hated so many things. He hated phonies, movies, rich people, dumb girls... hell, I don't know if there was much he liked except his siblings and coke and scotch. And then he ran away from the school to go back home, and he spent his time going to hotels and bars and talking to nuns and phonies and hookers and even his own little sister. He just up and left and gave no shits about it.

But when I got to thinking…

What if I ran away?

I dwelt on the idea for an hour, thinking it through.

My life was hell, my dad would never notice, and I could take everything with me. Even if I died out there, nobody would care all that much, because I had no friends. It was great.

I opened my backpack and shoved my cassette player and my mixtapes into it. I put in all my books and magazines, and I even took the CDs and Mr. Tweetums just because I could. I zipped it shut and slung it over my back. I grabbed the trashbag with my clothes in it, then I dashed into the bathroom and took my toothbrush and a coil of floss. My father was sleeping in the couch the whole time, and nobody else was home.

I walked straight out the front door and made a break for it.

I don't remember how far I ran, but it must have been all the way downtown because there were neon lights and trash cans everywhere when I stopped.

I was sitting in an unlit alleyway, in between a fence and a dumpster. It smelled terrible, but it was wide and sanitary enough and nobody who cared where I was would see me. It was really dark, though I couldn't tell the time. I took out an ugly sweater from the trashbag and pulled it over my head. I put the trashbag under my head and clung to my backpack like a stuffed animal. It was really cold that night, and I may not have realized it, but it was said that that night was the coldest one of the season. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

I don't know how long I slept, but when I woke up I was not in an alley. I was in some kid's bedroom, though it wasn't my own. An L7 poster hung on the wall, boxes of nerdy tabletop RPGs were stacked on bookshelves, along with what was possibly the largest and least organized collection of science fiction novels I had ever seen. There was a wooden desk that was cluttered with papers and CD jackets. Next to the desk, I saw a giant black CD player, and what looked to be a computer monitor. Whoever lived here was a huge frigging geek. I was on a small air mattress with an itchy gray wool blanket wrapped around me. I slid off the mattress and walked to the door. I was about to open it when it opened itself. I jumped backwards a few feet, and saw one of the kids from homeroom.

"Hey, man… I don't know if you caught my name this morning, but it's Yugi."

"Okay…hi, Yugi?"

"I guess you're betting why you're in here, huh?"

"You're good at guessing."

He snorted.

"Well, I found you in the alley while I was taking out the trash and you were probably going to die if I left you out there, so…"

"So you dragged me in?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Can I ask you a question?"

"I should be asking more questions, but sure, go ahead."

"Why were you sleeping in an alleyway?"

"I ran away."

He sighed, as if it was unusual for people to run away from things.

"Yeah, but why?"

"…Because I got fed up with his bullshit."

"Whose bullshit?"

I couldn't mention my father. I couldn't.

"Can I ask you a few questions now?"

"Huh? Sure, fire away."

"Where's my stuff?"

"Oh, we brought it in. It's downstairs."

"What about the trashbag?"

"You mean the one you were sleeping on? I left it outside…why?"

"My clothes were in that."

"Oh. I guess I'll tell grandpa to get it then…though sitting next to a dumpster for that long probably made everything in it smell like shit."

I laughed halfheartedly.

"What time is it?"

He pointed at a clock on the wall that I hadn't seen before. I guess it didn't stand out much.

"11:30. You were out for about two and a half hours."

"Okay…Is there school tomorrow?"

"Yeah, it's a Thursday."

"Shit."

"You have all your stuff, right?"

"Yeah, but the bus…"

"It's not that far away. I'd say ten minutes walking, tops."

"One last thing…"

"Yeah?"

I looked at my feet and my voice cracked as I asked him the last thing anybody in his position would care to hear.

"Where will I go tomorrow?"

He sighed.

"You don't have any friends, do you?"

"Nope."

"I guess I get you, kind of."

"What about that Joey guy? Aren't you friends with him?"

"Yeah, but it's not really for much of a good reason. I really don't understand why, because he used to punch me out and call me a pussy. One day some creepy guy noticed and beat him up, and tried to charge me money for it, and I guess I just took the better path because both of them were total dickweeds, but at least Joey wasn't a thief. And…"

He looked downwards.

"And what?"

He didn't look up.

"And then there's that asshole."

"You can talk to me, I know plenty about assholes."

He looked at me funny, then his face went back to normal.

"There's this guy named Yami…and he follows me around, and all he ever does…"

He swallowed.

"…is try to get me to sleep with him."

I bit my tongue. Boy, was this a touchy subject for this kid or what?

"And he's not even nice about it! He says he wants shit like three ways, and he's so fucking depraved it hurts! And I can't ever get him to leave! He's a total prick!"

"Couldn't you just tell him you're not into guys?"

"No."

"Why the frig not?"

"Because that would be a lie."

I looked him in the eyes. His face did not fault or crack. He just looked scared as frigging hell, and I can't say I ever could blame him for that.

"You're gay?"

"No… just bi."

"Not as if the hicks in this town can tell the difference…"

"Yeah, and what's worse, there's this guy named Bakura who keeps beating me up."

"Why?"

"I was implying it was because he knows."

"I met Bakura. He's an ass."

"Isn't everybody?"

"Frig, I guess so."

He smirked at that. I could see myself hanging out with this kid.

"Yeah. By the way, I never got your name…"

"It's Marik."

"Really? I think I've heard that name before…"

"Yeah… it's an Arabic name, sort of. I think my dad was drunk or something when he signed the certificate. It was supposed to be Malik."

"Oh…that's…"

Crap, I brought up my dad. That was not a good thing!

"Yeah, I know, a bit strange, but I'm fine with it because Malik makes it sound like I'm frigging licking something."

He bit down on a huge grin. What was overly funny about that? Then he just dropped the smile, turning very serious.

"So... you didn't tell me why you ran away. Can you?"

I was so shocked he remembered. I guess bringing up Hank wasn't going to go unpunished.

"I had enough of my dad's bullshit. He's crazy, so I guess I just ran."

"Did he beat you up? You have that bruise on your face…"

I hesitated to answer. Yugi just looked at me sadly.

"My parents used to beat me, Marik. I know what it's like."

I lied through my teeth.

"No, he didn't. He's just nuts. The bruise is from Bakura."

"Oh, okay. I guess I can drive you back home after school tomorrow.'

"I can walk."

He sighed heavily.

"You really don't want to be helped, do you?"

"Frig, I guess not…"

"Well, you're free to use the air mattress, I have a spare. Just…talk to me."

"Alright."

I sighed, and fell back on the mattress, closing my eyes…

The end!