Chapter 6: Secret Place
"I'm happiest when I'm close to you,"
~Anon
Marco
...
Prestion looked me up and down, clutching his elbow in pain. "Jeez, what's their problem. You okay there bud?" I asked him. He nodded his head. I felt bad for him, even though we've only been talking for such a short time, I felt empathy for him. "Name's Marco. Hey, those yours?" I said pointing down at a pair of round glasses that fell out of his pockets. He picked them up without saying a word.
"You wanna go somewhere more private?" I asked.
He shook his head solemnly. "It's almost class time. You should get to class," he mumbled, looking down at his shoes.
"It's fine, I'm willing to skip class for you. If you don't mind skipping too."
Prestion looked up at me, but this time with a little grin on his face. I put my hand on his shoulder. "Is that a yes?" I whispered. He hugged me. And squeezed real hard.
"Thank you. Thank you so much," Prestion said into my chest. I didn't know how to respond. I looked down at his hair. He was shorter than me, not too much though, maybe about one inch or so. I put my hands on his back and hugged him. I could feel the eyes staring at me as people passed by. Even some whispers were heard, but with every word I managed to hear, I grippened my hug with Prestion.
"So, where are we gonna go? I know a pretty good place. Nobody goes there, well, not too many people. And that place is special to me," Prestion explained. I smiled at him and he smiled back. "So... let's go there?"
I nodded. He grabbed my hand and pulled me throughout the tightly packed hallway. "It's this way. It's kind of far, but trust me, it's worth it."
...
He dragged me all the way into the back field of the school, where sports would usually be played. Mainly football. Prestion kept pulling me and eventually reached the bleachers. "Under here."
He slid under the second row seats and I followed suit, somehow managing to squeeze myself through the decently sized gap. "Alright, all the way at the back," Prestion whispered softly. He crawled on all fours and reached the back wall. "So, here we are!"
I looked around us. "Kind of a anticlimactic, eh?"
Prestion looked at my face. "What do you mean anticlimactic. This is the best part of the entire trash can called school!" he yelled, quickly covering his mouth. "You do know that this is just a place underneath the bleachers? Literally like every other Friday there's a football game here. I don't think it's that much of a secret. What makes it so special anyways?" I asked him. He cracked a grin on his face. "Oh wouldn't you like to know? It's the first time I had sex!" he exclaimed.
I cocked my head in confusion. Prestion chuckled. "No you dumb ass. I would never. Well, this place is the first place where I had a kiss."
"Huh, that's it? A kiss?"
"You don't understand. It was..." he cut himself off. Prestion took in a heavy sigh. "It was the first time I've ever kissed a guy."
I looked at him.
"Well, I thought you were,"
"Gay? Yeah. I am. But don't get any ideas! We just met after all."
I put my hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Trust me, I understand. I'm going through a rough time too. It has something to do with this whole 'gay' shenanigans," I said, thinking back to what Jake did. There was a moment of nothing happening, until the bell pierced through it, shattering what could've been a period of meditation.
"Well, I should be going," Prestion sighed, standing up. I grabbed his wrist. "Hey hey hey! Where do you think you're going? You said that you would skip class."
"Oh my lord, you doofus, you said that!"
"I don't care. I promised so you pretty much did too. Unless you REALLY want to get back to class and sit down for fifty hours taking notes. Your choice."
Prestion once again, breathed out heavily. He opened his eyes, along with a smile on his face. "Fine. I'll stay, so what are we gonna talk about?"
I looked up at him. His figure towering over me as I sat.
"When did you come to Mcwell's?"
"Just last year."
"So you're eighteen?"
"Yup."
"You're short for an eighteen year old," I snickered. Prestion pouted his lip and punched my arm. "Hey!" I laughed, swatting his fist away.
"You're one year older than me. Of course I would be shorter! You dunce!"
He kept throwing punches at my side before stopping.
"Ahem. Continue with the questions will you?"
I raised my brows in cheerfulness. I think talking to him made him forget about the bad things in his life. I just don't know if I should bring them up.
"Do you have any sisters or brothers?"
"Nope. None. Nada."
"Huh, okay then. What about pets?"
"I have a bird. His name is Radiant."
I smiled. He was a nice kid. But I just wanted to know why he was being bullied or looked at as an out caster. I wanted to know, but I didn't want to push him too far.
"Okay. So, if you really want me to continue then I will. But this time, I'm going to ask you some more serious questions. Is that alright?" I asked him softly. He shifted his view to the dying grass beneath us. It was silent for a couple of seconds, only hearing the wind howl in the fall weather. "Sure. Hit me," he eventually mumbled.
I brushed my dirty blonde hair off my eyes and took a breath. "Alright, number one. When did the bullying start happening?"
"Five months after I got here. When I came out to my close friend. Or so I thought they were."
My face changed from a face of comforting to concern in a snap.
"Do you- want to keep going. I can stop if you're uncomfortable. I just don't want you to pressure yourself."
"I'm fine, keep going."
"Did this person, tell people that you were? And let me guess, you trusted them a lot so you decided to tell them and only them. Correct?
Prestion nodded silently.
"Okay. How many people did this person spread your sexuality to?"
"Too many. Too many to count. The entire school knows. I never wanted it to be like this. I never did. I never did anything to the bullies and the shitheads at this school, but they think that they can destroy me. And they're right. Everyday whenever I head to school, I hear whispering, laughing, and just the constant threats. I don't want that anymore. But, it is what it is."
I looked at him sadly, and he looked back up. Tears were forming in his eyes.
"I see. Did you have anyone to talk to? At all? In the past year?"
"No. No one, everyone just saw me as a gay piece of shit. Everyone would try and avoid me, try and hurt me. Like you saw. It's been going on for so long. An entire year. Nothing has changed," he cried as a tear rolled down his cheek.
I grabbed his chin and rubbed the tear away with my thumb. "It'll be okay. I'll try my best to protect you from those assholes. You don't deserve this. You never did anything, so you don't deserve to get anything wrong done to you. I promise I'll stay by your side Prestion. I don't want you getting hurt anymore," I said solemnly, pulling him a tight hug. He kept crying for a while, and with every tear and gasp for air from sobbing. I tightened my hug.
He pushed himself off of me and looked into my eyes. "Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you," he sobbed as he dug his face into my chest again. I smiled. "You're welcome Prestion. Everything will be fine."
He continued to cry until it steadied down. And eventually he stopped and pulled his face off of my now soaked sweater.
"Sorry about that," he sighed. I chuckled.
"Don't worry about it. I'll always be here if you need me. Say, what's your course you're taking this year?" I asked him. Trying to lighten up the mood and taking his mind away from all of the drama happening in his life.
"Photography. With Mrs. Weir."
I smiled.
"Me too! Wanna sit next to each other in class?"
Prestion chuckled, wiping some remaining tears off of his face.
"You're not kidding right?" he questioned me skeptically.
I shook my head. "You can even sit with me during lunch. Maybe even meet some of my friends."
He clutched his heart and another tear started to well up in his eye.
"You're... You're letting me do all of that? With you? Gosh, no one ever let me do that. Hell, I don't think anyone ever talked to me. Seems sad when I say it out loud now, huh," he chuckled, wiping the tear that escaped his light grey eyes.
"I mean, we are kind of friends now aren't we. Weird. We only talked for about an hour, and here we are. Friends. It's odd how this friendship bullshit works."
Prestion looked up at me again and hugged me this time, placing his head on his shoulders. I put my arms around him and hugged him too, resting my head on his hair.
"You have a great hug," Prestion said on my shoulder.
"And you have nice glasses. Say, how come you don't wear them?"
"Because I can see without them you dunce."
I chuckled and Prestion did too.
"So, what do you say about sitting next to me most of the time?"
Prestion loosened his grip and brushed my hair with his hand.
"I would love that."
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