Chapter Text
Snickers filled the Boy's restroom. "Holy shit his dick looks damned!" one adolescent voice remarked mocking the target of the slanderous banter. "Truth is he's never gonna pass," another commented followed by derisive laughter and the flush of a toilet, a precursor to the little show they planned to film.
"The battery's almost dead," the boy recording the scene said.
"Turn it on!" the ringleader, Liam, hissed under his breath not wanting to waste the moment.
Frustrated grunts and a futile "Stop!" broke the silence with aggressive smacking of skin and rustled clothes.
"What're you gonna do about it, huh?" the 16-year-old brunette head of the trio fiercely questioned his subdued prey. "You little bitch!"
"Fuck him up! Fuck him up!" one of his friends goaded on clearly taken with the unfolding action.
"Get off!" the pale kid, Toby, cried out. "Stop! Stop!" His pleas falling on deaf ears as a mop-haired cohort in a green hoodie dumped the contents of Toby's backpack on the dirty white-tiled floor. The one wearing a burgundy-colored rugby jacket had his arms pinned over the dark-haired boy's head, relishing how the defenseless fag struggled futilely.
"What're you gonna do!?!" he barked at the boy again.
"Get off!" Toby shouted back more terrified by what the three thugs had in store than the humiliation already showering on him.
"What're you gonna do about it!?!" the Caucasian jock challenged again while the dork's backpack was turned upside down. "Throw his shit on the ground!" followed by an order "Shut the door!" The thudding sound in and of itself a near death sentence to the kid getting swamped.
"Shut the fuck up!" Liam snapped as a friend of his in a blue hoodie approached from the door, recording the fun on his mobile phone. Their insults and degrading threats jumbled together as the near weeping Toby's jacket and shirt were jerked up and Nick drew a crudely sharpened pick with which to see if the pussy was really a man or a new toy made to take any ounce of shitty stress Liam had to let melt out of his system. The blade sinking in and cutting around Toby's belly button. While holding the bitch down by the left cheek, Liam couldn't figure the curious somewhat freaky shot of buck fever that swept over him the more his body pressed against Toby. The whimpers quenching the wolfish drive to drink in every drop while straining to keep down something more voracious.
As the torture was about to begin, the door open wide as it was the coach and school principal. They saw what would've happened, both of them wearing aghast faces as all four of the assailants was called into the office, except of course Toby. The coach took the shellshocked freshman to the nurse while principal didn't so much as allow Liam or any of his friends involved to protest or argue. Neither of them looking forward to the condemning moment they'd both have to endure in the office.
"There was an incident involving Toby...I'm afraid it's quite serious," the chestnut-haired principal explained in a moderate tone to both his and Liam's fathers, who were immediately called in following the assault. "They posted a video online but we know who was involved..."
Liam sat two chairs to the left of his victim bearing a vehement scowl. He hissed to get the attention of the boy who also dreaded having this embarrassing scenario come to his Dad's attention. "If you tell anyone-you're fucking dead." His warning not even so much as a hollow threat as he turned his face away while the principal continued. Surely there would be hell to pay. Toby couldn't help keep his sneakers on the ground, his stomach knotted dreading what his father would think of all this.
"We believe your son Liam had something to do with it but we're not sure," the principal finished relating what transpired to the men in her office.
"I'll talk to my son," Liam heard the unmistakable voice of his father reply first to which the principal expressed her thanks, though for Liam it was closer to an execution order. A slightly pudgy dark-haired 40-year-old man in a blue shirt, jeans and slim dark jacket approached Nick without any sympathy. With a direct a cold "Get up" Nick followed orders and they left the office, not even giving Toby a sideways glance.
Toby shrugged as he wasn't so much worried about repercussions from this prick, but he could tell his dad wouldn't be all too comforting about the whole ordeal. While he could always talk to his Mom, who was a walking psychology almanac, he doubted even with their help that it make a difference. While it shouldn't have mattered at that moment, he was stricken by a interest, more like a need to figure out that maybe, just maybe, Liam was insecure about something and that his dad was probably the source of the problem. He knew the minute the blinds in her office closed that she was going to lay the sordid humiliating truth out to his dad, Russ. Cries from earlier were on repeat in his head as Toby sat and watched his dad's face, nearly sick thinking how disappointed he probably was for not only saying things were great at school but not having given those assholes black good cracks in their mouths either. The principal let Toby go as he and his father left the school, the touch of that strong athletic hand behind his neck felt more like a hangman's noose. Walking past the onlookers made the obloquy fester even worse, no doubt the incident would be passing through word of mouth and social media in time to the jittery beat of his heart.
The 28-year-old, blue eyed clean-cut man tapped a hand on the steering wheel almost unable to reconcile the feelings difficult to put into words as Toby got into their SUV. "You okay?" he asked while the angry and conflicted mental gymnastics were making his limbs tense and face harden slightly.
"Yeah," Toby replied uneasily licking his lips while putting the seatbelt on. "I'm good."
"Well...call your Mom and tell her that." Russ handed Toby his mobile phone, face looking out the window still not sure what about the whole ordeal made him sicker.
Neither made eye contact, although Toby wanted to break the ice-the tightening silence in the car was a breadth from making the atmosphere stifling.
"You know it really wasn't a big-" Toby tried to dissuade it all claiming it was a rite of passage gone too far, yet that hope was squashed like a bug.
"Stop it," Russ said flat out already pissed after hearing the principal's account.
"All it was was some initiation thing. It's..." a feeble explanation though it was, his dad refused to let the matter rest.
"It's them who should be ashamed." Russ wasn't too sentimental a man yet he stared forward not wanting to get hot in the face thinking about what those bastards did to his son and why Toby allowed it to happen.
Liam cringed at the grip of his Dad's firm hand on the back of his neck as he was led out of the school, through the parking lot to the red Tacoma SUV. He didn't dare say a word other than "Sorry" on getting in. The distasteful scowl heavy on his father's face a 100% sign he was in a deep mire of crap.
"Now I have to deal with this bullshit!" the man seethed almost as if he wanted to smack his own son's head into the door. "You're a sorry little motherfucker, that's what you are..." the rest of the rant from Liam's dad drowned out as Toby was pulled back from his daze by Russ question.
"Why did you tell me everything was great at school?"
It was met with a brief silence and a timid "I'm sorry" to follow up. Liam's not so hollow threat rang in Toby's ears. If social suicide wasn't the worse to fear from this hellish scenario, being cornered by Liam and his gang again sent deeper chills through his body.
"Well-we don't lie to each other. Got it?" Russ cast an expectant face towards his son, whose eyes were downcast more ashamedly at his lap, just wanting the day to end if not the nightmare.
Toby simply nodded as the engine revved up and they left the campus.
"You hungry?" Russ asked not wanting to go home feeling too much of a wreck himself. "How about burgers?"
"Uh yeah," Toby agreed even though his appetite wasn't very high.
The drive home was no more lively than after they had left the school. Toby was more eager to not dwell another second on the horror until a ping from his dad's mobile caught his attention.
"Who's that?" he asked noting how quick Russ answered the text message.
"Uh, it's about the game," Russ said rather passively and mouthed a nearly inaudible "Tonight" while typing his response before unbuckling his seatbelt.
The only face Toby was glad to see embraced him immediately as his Mom came out of the front door in a pale pink shirt. While he welcomed the hug from her, it was little consolation as the flesh above his wound stung fiercely and his dad's discontent hadn't so much as melted away.
The venom in his own dad's voice over the restitutions he'd have to pay for the bullshit Liam's caused was another blow. Not my fault the pussy cried out...I wasn't trying to kill the bitch …if only he'd just took- Liam let the thought drop as the passenger side door was slammed in his face. Can't blame me the dork's kinda cute- Liam nearly slapped himself over that one and exhaled sharply as his Dad started the car. Don't give into those faggy thoughts. He'll break your shit off if he even thinks that's what this was about.