The following day, Ryder entered the school much unchanged from the previous day, clad in a similar hood as before. He shiftily cut from one corridor to another, until he reached his locker. Then, he moved again, almost shuttling across the floor from one stop to another, as if deliberately trying to avoid Jake, Marley and Kitty.
He continued this similar approach to walking all though-out the day, until glee-practice. He had decided that, in light of recent events, he would be best off to quit (especially considering only Mr Schue knew about what had happened to him). So, instead he continued down the corridor towards the library, which, regretfully, passed by the choir room. Standing outside were Kitty, Tina and Marley, and by the time Ryder was close enough, Jake had joined the pre-practice gossip.
Kitty turned to face Jake, and revealed an exaggerated black-eye which was shoddily covered up by make-up. Normally, Ryder thought, as he looked across, somebody would try to conceal it better, but, Kitty seemed to wear it with a degree of pride, as though wanting to get attention for it.
"Kitty…what happened? Walk into a door or something?" Jake smirked and asked, as though he wasn't fussed on what happened, but, asked for gossip sake.
"I didn't. Ol' McFreaky here walloped me after I kissed him. I think he's either closet gay or a frigid. Either way Jake, I would watch out, he's likely to get nasty when he gets a stiffy!" Kitty persistently attacked, referring to and directly shouting at Ryder at the same time.
Ryder tried his best to keep walking, because, no matter how much he would like to persist, Kitty's tale was essentially correct. He did hit her after she tried it on with him. So, protesting against it would be a silly thing to do.
Just as he thought he had ignored it, Jake approached from behind, and tapped Ryder on the shoulder, and he turned around, almost frozen in fear. Ryder knew that he was like the Hulk, and turned nasty and violent when agitated or antagonised. He shuffled closer to the locker at the side of the hallway, when he noticed another approaching force – seemingly another person wanting to punish him for hurting Kitty. And, as sure as day, it was just that kind of person. Sam loomed over Ryder, flexing his strength effortlessly.
Ryder ducked underneath a punch and scurried to the choir room. He ushered the people in the corridor inside, and urged them to sit down.
"C'mon. I have something I need to say!" he spoke, with a sense of confidence, as though the first thing Ryder was sure of since he was molested.
The crowd sat down. Some of them, such as Jake, Sam and Kitty folded their arms or sat on the edge of their seat, expecting retaliation. Others, however, like Blaine and Unique, listened intently.
"Look, basically, I need to tell you all something. Something I'm not proud of…" Ryder continued, neglecting to notice as Mr Schuester snuck inside the room, and stood by the piano.
"Is it that you hit Kitty? Because we already know that!" Tina erupted.
"You did? You best leave now, because, if the board of governing show-choir judges finds out about this violence New Directions will be disqualified from Nationals!" Artie stated, obviously not noticing the more…serious repercussions of the fabled violence.
"Yeah, kick him out! Livin' la vida loca!" shouted Brittany, in the typical confusion that everybody expected.
"You mean 'Viva la revolution', Brit," Sam corrected.
"Isn't that a Coldplay song?" said Sugar, leaning in. Within moments, there was an array of different death-chants, confused questions and unified discomfort.
"Or we could all listen to what he has to say?" Blaine asked in rhetoric. Everybody seemed to shut up, as though he had a wise and commanding presence.
"Right…" Ryder started, but gulped. He tried again.
"…so…basically…" he continued.
"Get on with it, Freak Sinatra!" Kitty demanded.
"…I was molested!" he said, exhaling with a degree of relief. It was over…sort of.
"We know this story already. You were molested by your baby sitter when you were younger…that's not reason to lash out at three of us now…" Jake grunted, bemusedly…
"Not then…recently…about three weeks ago…Katie…she was a bloke…called Kane…" Ryder took long breaths between words, hyperventilating like never before.
"He…I sent Katie some shirtless and naked pictures…I told her all of my secrets. This, Kane, he told me if I didn't have sex with him, he'd tell and show you all of this private stuff, and, even when I retaliated…he…" Ryder became tearful. At least he had said enough.
Marley, as ever-forgiving as she normally is, stood up and walked over, before bestowing a hug upon Ryder's now-limp body.
It blurred from then on. A wave of hugs and apologies came and went, and Ryder bowed humbly. He then sprinted off, and hid outside, behind on of the bins. He was…happier, since he told his friends, but, something was still missing. He wasn't worried or scared about Kane anymore, but, his innocence and his livelihood was stolen from him…he would have to work at them.
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