Warning's in this chapter for detailed bullying.
Arthur broached the subject of Eames coming to Ariadne's party in one of their free periods, which they as usual spent in the serenity of the library.
"You invited Eames?" an odd expression came over Ariadne's face, and she cocked her head as if unable to believe what she'd just heard.
Arthur shuffled uncomfortably, feeling the gazes of both Robert and Ari burning a hole into him "Yeah, y'know if that's ok with you?" her face broke out into a wide smile.
"That's perfect! Because Yusuf asked if he could invite Dom and his girlfriend along as well! Do you guys realise this is the closest we've ever gotten to having a cool party" she squealed.
"This is the closest we've got to having a party at all" Rob interjected flatly
"Does Ari's fifteenth count?"
"You mean when we were sat on, and forced to watch the entire first season of 'Sex and the City" the two of them jointly shuddered at the memory "yeah I'm not counting that one"
"You guys are hilarious" she deadpanned "Anyways, my parents are out this weekend so we have the house to ourselves" she clapped her hands like some sort of weird, excited seal "this is going to be great!" the bell interrupted their talking, clanging loudly to signal the start of another lesson. The three of them packed up their stuff and hurried with the mass of people exiting their classrooms. This part of the day Arthur always associated with the image of the entire school acting like a school of fish, everyone going in the same direction as a group, jostling and shoving each other the entire time.
Sometimes that's what life felt like to Arthur, like he was just moving from one place to another, the same thing over and over again until it made him sick to think about.
Instead of going straight to his English class, he took a detour to his locker to drop off some of the heavier books in his bag. His locker was always easy to spot with the word 'fag slut' spray painted in bright orange, the first few times the cleaners had washed it off it just appeared again a day later and eventually they just gave up. The corridors were mostly silent so he was caught off guard when his hands were twisted behind his back, and a knee collided with his abdomen.
"Afternoon princess" a sickeningly familiar voice hissed in his ear. He tried to yell but a hand clamped across his mouth muffling any sounds, he thrashed Marco's hold kicking out as he was dragged roughly to the nearby exit, cruel laughter rang in Arthur's ears.
His heart slammed in his chest and he tried every way to escape, but each time he thought he'd gotten some leverage, the hold on him tightened further until it felt like the bones in his arms were being crushed. They got to the bleachers with Arthur still struggling desperately. Suddenly the pressure on his arms was released, and the hand disappeared from his mouth. He kicked the nearest attacker on the back of his knee and was rewarded with a grunt of pain, he grabbed at the ground to steady himself and scrambled up, if he could just get to where he could run, they would never catch him.
But his attempts were worthless when Arthur let out a yelp as hand grabbed his hair and yanked him brutally back, throwing him down on the ground at Marco's feet. The boys face was twisted into a nasty sneer, and his gaze was predatory as he, Nash and another jock who Arthur dimly recognised created a circle around him, cutting off any exit and leaving him at their mercy.
"I think you owe Nash a little apology for that don't you" Arthur didn't have time to roll away as Marco's foot collided with his already bruised abdomen. He gasped in pain, eyes pricking as he choked, and hunched in on himself to protect his body.
"What I want to know is what you've done to Eames" Marco purred menacingly "Ever since you started tutoring him he's gone all soft, won't even let us make a joke about poor little princess" he wrinkled his noise in disgust "Did you infect him? Turn him and, make him a faggot like you? Or does he defend your worthlessly ass because you do some favours for him?" he put particular emphasis on 'favours' and Arthur involuntarily shivered in fear. Marco grinned manically and delivered a swift and painful kick to Arthur's ribcage that made Arthur cry out.
"Marco let him get up" Arthur heard Nash criticise.
He could almost feel the anger radiating off Marco at Nash's interruption "What the fuck did you just say?"
Nash and the other jock shifted nervously, eyes down "Just seems wrong when he doesn't have the chance to defend himself" Marco laughed, a malicious and almost frenzied sound.
"He's never gonna defend himself anyway, that fag knows if he fights back, I'll kill him" Marco knelt down and grabbed Arthur's chin so he was forced to look at him and leaned right down into his face "That's right isn't it princess. Y'know if you try anything I'll kill you. Hell I'd be doing the world favour, getting rid of one more sick fag, no one'll care anyways, no one'll miss old 'Orphan Artie' the slut" he leered "Maybe I'll go and comfort your little friend Ariadne, she seems like she'd be gaggin' for it"
Arthur growled and smashed his head against Marco's, the other boy fell back with the force of it and Arthur took the opportunity to clamber up "Stay the fuck away from her!" he snarled so viciously that Nash took a step back before he and the other guy tried to help Marco up. Marco was still for a second, surprise written across his face, then Arthur blinked and a fist was colliding with his cheek. As he staggered Marco grabbed his throat and squeezed, his eyes slits as he spat at Arthur.
"You are going to regret that" Arthur froze with fear at the threat in his voice, his eyes were cold and hard, filled with a hatred that made Arthur more scared than he'd ever been in his life. Nash backed off slightly "Yo Marco maybe you should calm down"
He smiled cruelly, not breaking eye contact with Arthur "I'm perfectly calm, and I'm going to calmly break this fag's leg" he leaned towards Arthur, breath against his ear and Arthur strained his neck trying to get his head as far away as he could "Can't run track with a busted leg now can we" Arthur let out an choked sob and Marco hummed in satisfaction. He closed his eyes to painfully submit, resisting was so much worse, the jocks were untouchable thanks to this schools policy of turning a blind eye to their winning athletes. Hopefully it would just be over quickly.
There was a vicious snarl and suddenly the hand around his throat was gone. Arthur dropped to the floor gasping. He looked up to Eames standing protectively in front of him, fists raised and vibrating with anger, he looked at Arthur who could feel the wet stains of tears on his cheeks, and launched himself at Marco with what could only be called, an animalistic growl. Fists flew everywhere and both Eames and Marco's bodies became a blur of pained grunts and yells, Arthur could only sit there, frozen.
"Eames!" a voice yelled behind Arthur, and then he was being hauled up, Yusuf's face in front of him "Help me" he commanded. Arthur heard Eames yelp in pain and came back to his senses in a rush as he registered Eames was hurt; he and Yusuf grabbed the two as to drag them off each other.
Eames fought against Arthur's hold and once or twice Arthur's grip had slipped and Eames had jumped at Marco again. By the time they managed to get them fully apart Eames' lip was cut and bruises littered his eye and cheek. Marco had fewer injuries on his face but was practically doubled over coughing. Nash and the other guy were nowhere to be seen.
"If you ever touch him again it'll be the last thing you ever fucking do!" Eames roared, his voice hoarse "I swear to god Marco! I will fucking end you!" Marco spat at the ground in return.
"See if any college wants a losing team for their school! You can't touch me" he yelled back voicing Arthur's earlier fear. Eames growled low in his throat and re-launched himself, pushing against Arthur's bruised arms.
"Eames mate stop, you're hurting Arthur!" Yusuf yelled at his friend. Immediately Eames stopped struggling and whipped round just in time to see Arthur wince, his eyes were wide and his hair completely dishevelled, the cut on his lip was now bleeding profusely.
"What on earth is the meaning of this?!" Mrs. Cobb cried, striding out onto where they were gathered, immediately Marco straightened up, shrugging off Yusuf's hold.
"Just a football disagreement Miss" he smirked.
Mrs. Cobb huffed and narrowed her eyes at him "Why then, is Arthur bashed up as well then Mr. Ballaconi?" he shrugged nonchalantly
"Shouldn't jump in the middle of a fight miss" she didn't look as if she believed him in the slightest, when she looked at Arthur though he cast his eyes down. "Yusuf, take Arthur to the infirmary" the curly haired boy nodded "Marco, Eames, in the principal's office. Now!" she added when they didn't immediately move.
Arthur's was used to all this by now, occasionally Ariadne or Fischer would talk to the principal if the bullying got too bad - they recently stopped after he'd begged them – or he wouldn't be able to explain the bruises on his face to his aunt and she'd march down to the office looking for blood, once or twice a teacher had caught them, but Marco could usually explain his way out of it.
What he wasn't used to though, was Eames and Yusuf being involved. He sat in tensely in the infirmary next to the latter, unsure of what to say to the other boy. Right now Principal Saito was talking to both Marco and Eames together; Coach Saunders had walked past the infirmary a few minutes ago and given Arthur a dirty look, as if it was his fault Marco had decided to make Arthur the target of his aggression, before he'd strode down the hall to the Principals office.
Unease flooded Arthur's body and he started biting his nails, not knowing what else to do. Eames hated fighting, hated shouting, hated anything that resembled severe aggression. Arthur had never seen Eames like that, so angry that you could practically see his body shaking with emotion, sure he'd seen Eames annoyed, but never angry, never enraged like he'd been with Marco. He couldn't bring himself to believe that Eames might've just gotten more lax with his aggression than he'd been before, it just didn't seemed like something he'd do. He worried his nail, wondering anxiously what affect this whole ordeal would have on Eames.
"Has he ever been like that before?" Arthur asked. Yusuf's head shot up, momentarily surprised before his expression changed to one of discomfort.
"No" he admitted "I've never seen Eames go mental like that before. He doesn't like being angry, he deals with it on the football field defending his team mates or in some other way, but never hitting someone like that" the boy looked worried.
"Do you know?" Arthur asked outright, knowing that Yusuf would understand that he was talking about the abuse if Eames had confided in him.
Yusuf slumped down in his chair "Bits, he got piss drunk one night and blurted some stuff out, when I tried to talk to him about he just shut me down" he wrung his hands, something in his voice gave away that he was thinking the same thing as Arthur.
"You're wondering if how he's coping with it" he stated matter-of-factly, Yusuf nodded, "He's lucky to have you as a friend"
Yusuf huffed in amusement "And he's an idiot for letting you go" Arthur widened his eyes at the statement, wondering just exactly how much Eames had told him about the breakdown of their friendship.
"I have my theories about what happened between you guys" he continued as if he'd heard Arthur's thoughts "All I know for sure, is that I haven't seen Eames happier than he's been in the last three weeks with you back in his life" he looked Arthur directly in the eye "So even if he does something, monumentally stupid, please don't give up on him" Arthur frowned at the slightly venom in his tone.
"What do you mean 'if he does something monumentally stupid'?" for a moment something flickered in Yusuf's dark eyes, but then it was gone and he waved Arthur off.
"Just that you know how he does stupid stuff sometimes" his voice sounded weird "and that sometimes it can be monumental. Just general stuff"
"Right" Arthur was more confused than ever now.
"Um, this is slightly off topic" Yusuf added sheepishly "but I wanted to bring something with me to Ari's on Saturday, and I wondered if you knew what she'd like" Arthur laughed, relaxing and the two boys chatted about their mutual friend until the nurse came in and checked Arthur over. She was strongly for calling his aunt, but Arthur assured her that she wouldn't be home now anyways and it was nearly the end of school so he could survive another few more minutes. He waved goodbye to Yusuf and walked down the corridor to his lessons, the truth was, that had been an incredibly close call with Marco and the more people he was around (even ones who hated him), the safer he felt.
He had reached the door to his classroom at the same time Eames came out of the bathroom across the corridor, his lip had stopped bleeding, but a dark purple bruise was already quickly forming around his right eye. For a few moments the two of them just stared at each other, then Eames span and quickly stormed down the corridor.
"Eames wait!" he called out to Eames rapidly shrinking form "I—" but the other boy was already out of the front doors, not looking back once. Arthur stood rooted to the spot, one hand on the doorknob to his classroom, the other outstretched towards where Eames had been. After a beat he lowered his arm.
There was something Arthur hadn't talked about with Yusuf, something which had filled him with a mess of happiness, confusion and guilt which now more than ever, all swirled around inside him. It was the simple fact that, Eames had saved him. There was no other word for it. Eames, who for years had just ignored Arthur, who, was never a partaker in the popular crowd's regime to crush Arthur's spirit and exile him as a social outcast, but must've been somewhat aware that it was going on, had put himself in harm's way to help Arthur. A thousand questions plagued his mind, why now? Was the most prominent one.
But there was a part of him, a part that for the last five years wouldn't listen to the fact that Arthur loathed Eames with every fibre in his being. The part that he thought had disappeared after Eames so swiftly abandoned Arthur after the incident, and seemingly through him to the wolves, rejoiced.
He wasn't sure which emotion he preferred.
I really wanted a chapter where Eames would help Arthur against Marco, I felt it someway redeeming for his part in the breakdown of Arthur's friendship and it made sense within the story. Marco also is all my hatred for homophobic people embodied and trust what goes around comes around and bites you in the ass. Thanks for reading and reviewing! :D