All day at school, Seth watched the clock, unsure if he wanted the time to go by faster or slower. His stomach was in knots as he tried to figure out whether he should just call Roman and ask to be picked up, or if he should attempt the walk home by himself. On the one hand, he knew that getting a ride meant that D wouldn't be able to mess with him, but on the other hand, he was getting really tired of being afraid. The only way he ever stood a chance of ending the bullying would be if he could find the courage to stand up for himself. Unfortunately, past experience had taught him that any attempt to stand up to D and his boys always resulted in a lot of punches, kicks, and general abuse.
It wasn't really even the physical bruises that hurt Seth the most. He had actually gotten pretty good at cleaning up scrapes with peroxide and bandaging sprained fingers. But it was the psychological scarring, the invisible damage caused by the harsh, cruel words hurled at him in anger that was taking the biggest toll on him.
To make matters worse, Seth couldn't understand why D had chosen to target him in the first place. To his knowledge, he had never done anything even remotely disrespectful to D or any of his scruffy cohorts. In fact, he had taken great care to cut them a wide berth anytime he encountered them in school or out in public. He certainly had heard the rumors about D; that his dad was a drug addict who ended up in jail, leaving the boy's mother to try to find a way to keep a roof over their heads despite not having enough education to get a minimum-wage job. He had also heard that she was a former prostitute, but the current schoolyard dirt was that she was back to turning tricks again, often leaving D to fend for himself for days at a time while she went off on one of her frequent alcohol-fueled benders.
In a way, Seth felt sorry for the clearly troubled young man. Even though he had been serving as D's personal punching bag for months, he had inexplicably come to develop an odd level of sympathy toward his tormentor. He often found himself wondering if D was just as miserable as he was, but just lacked any coping skills aside from taking his anger out on others. If circumstances had been different, Seth might have tried to reach out to him, or perhaps even befriend him. But there was no indication that D wanted anything to do with him except to beat him up on a regular basis.
Seth's heart sank as he heard the bell ring, indicating that school was over for the day. On the way out of the classroom, he thought again about calling for a ride home from Roman, but at that moment he didn't really feel like having to deal with yet another awkward situation like he had dealt with that morning. Instead, he exited through the front doors and started walking through the courtyard in front of the school, trying his best to be as inconspicuous as possible.
His attempt at being invisible didn't work, however. He had just made it to the edge of the road when he saw a familiar figure approaching on his left. He glanced over and saw a short, stocky boy with black hair pedaling straight at him on a shoddy BMX bike. It was Sami, D's right-hand henchman.
"Hey girlie, where ya goin'?" Sami shouted, still moving toward him. Seth's pulse quickened as he instinctively turned in the opposite direction and picked up his pace, desperate to avoid any sort of confrontation. He pretended he didn't hear, but Sami rode past and began circling Seth like a shark, calling out mockingly, "Aww, don't run away, little girl...I just wanna talk to you."
"Please, just leave me alone," Seth responded, refusing to make eye contact. He could already feel the emotions welling up within him, and the last thing he needed was to have anybody see him crying.
"What's the matter? You're not scared, are you?" Sami retorted, his beady eyes narrowing as he circled around behind Seth and pulled out a sawed-off baseball bat from his backpack. He aimed his bike straight at his target and started to pedal as fast as his stubby legs could take him, veering off to the side at the last possible second and clipping Seth behind the knees with the improvised weapon, sending him crumpling to the ground.
Seth landed face down, his body sliding across the grass and finally coming to rest a few feet from where he fell. The impact knocked the wind out of him, and as he lay there gasping for air, he heard footsteps coming toward him. He was just about to attempt to roll over onto his back when he then heard the voice that never failed to send a sickening chill down his spine.
"Hey, not in front of the school, dumbass...you wanna get arrested again? What did I tell you about that?" D chastised, coming up to stand beside Sami. He cuffed the shorter boy on the back of his head to get his point across, then held his hand out, snapping his fingers impatiently. "Smokes," he commanded, looking down at Seth and smirking as he waited for the other boy to comply.
Sami quickly reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, handing one to D and lighting it for him. D took a long pull from it and then crouched down, blowing the acrid smoke directly into Seth's reddened face. "Well, well, well...looks like we got ourselves a damsel in distress, don't we?" he chided, taking another drag and blowing the smoke at Seth once more. "Whaddya think? Should we save her?" he asked, standing back up and looking over his shoulder at his partner in crime.
"Psshh...no way," Sami replied, lighting a cigarette for himself. He leaned over and folded his arms across the handlebars of his bike, his mouth curling downward into a scowl. "I wanna see the little bitch cry."
D let out a raspy chuckle, which then turned into a coughing fit. He loudly cleared his throat, hocking up a wad of phlegm and spitting it on the ground inches from Seth's head. He dug the toe of his boot underneath Seth's shoulder and kicked him over onto his back, then grabbed him by his tie and pulled up on it, causing it to tighten around his neck like a noose.
Seth's eyes widened in terror and he clawed at the piece of fabric that was threatening to choke him out. "S-stop...please," hebegged, his face turning beet red for the second time that day. He suddenly remembered the money that Roman had given him and jammed his hand into his pants pocket, pulling out the twenty dollar bill and holding it up so D could see it. "Here, take it...it's all I've got," he croaked, still struggling to breathe.
D paused his tormenting and looked at the money, then let go of Seth's necktie and snatched the bill roughly from his shaking hand. He sighed, blowing a puff of smoke out of his nostrils, then grabbed Seth's hand and yanked him up onto his feet, pulling him in until they stood nose to nose. D stared him down for a very long moment, watching the tears that were leaking from the corners of Seth's eyes with bitter amusement. "Consider yourself very lucky, little girl. 20 bucks is exactly what I charge to keep from slapping those tears right off your pretty little face," he growled. "And you can tell your sugar daddy that he's gonna have to start paying you more to suck his dick...unless you want to get hurt worse next time."
"Yeah, right," Sami piped up. "Lil' faggot probably does it for free."
D laughed once again, but this time his laughter was cut off as he looked over Seth's shoulder and saw something that made his expression go slack and the color drain from his face. "C'mon, let's go," he said to Sami, an edge of urgency in his voice. "We need to find somebody to buy us some beers." He turned and jogged across the street, flanked closely by Sami on his bike. The two disappeared down an alley just as Roman pulled up in his car next to Seth.
"Hey, I just got done at the gym and figured I'd swing by and get you, seeing as how it was on the way home anyway," Roman called out of the open window. "C'mon, get in."
Seth breathed a sigh of relief, brushing the dirt off his jacket. He turned away and quickly wiped the tears from his eyes, not wanting Ro to see him coming apart. He swallowed his emotions and turned back around, only to find Roman looking back at him with great concern. Seth opened the door and got in, his eyes cast down to his feet. He remained silent as Ro drove off down the street, relieved that the encounter was over, but sickened by the knowledge that his troubles were just beginning.