------
Unfortunately, his time away also gave Kenneth and Leon the chance to expand their pack, which now included a girl who was on Simon’s school bus. Lorraine Ryan. Well-developed, already, and showing it off under carefully teased brown hair and carefully made up brown eyes.
In the mornings, she got on the bus before he did and always sat in the back, but the Monday he returned, on the bus home, she made sure to get on after him.
He’d already dealt with Kenneth and his pack during recess, twice. But he’d been smart enough to stay near the monitors so they couldn’t get too wild and crazy. And he’d refused to respond to them, in any way. Just locked eyes on Kenneth as he howled and spit words Simon didn’t really understand.
Calling him homo...which, at the time, he thought meant homogenized milk, like it was a reference to how pale his skin was. And queer, which meant odd and he acknowledged he was not what was considered normal for a kid. It wasn’t till high school that he understood what was really being said.
But Lorraine never said a word to him. Even after she got on the bus...and turned a ring with a large stone in it around under her right fingers...and smacked him in the head with it.
He told her not to do that, but she just snickered and continued to the back seat where her friends held her place.
This went on through the week, only on the ride home. The driver yelled at him, once, for snapping at her after she smacked him, but never interfered.
Then on Friday, when she did it, he punched her in the stomach. It was actually a backhanded smack, but it was quick and hard. In response, she hit him, again, with that ring.
He smacked her, again.
She hit him, again.
He didn’t get up. Didn’t say a word. Just smacked her in the stomach, again.
By this point, there was a line of students behind her, watching, doing nothing as she hit him, again.
He smacked her, again.
She hit him, yet again. Harder.
And this time, blood trailed down his face and startled the other kids. He felt it. Tasted it. Didn’t try to stop it. But he also did not move, in the slightest. So she continued to the back of the bus.
He was let off at his stop, blood still coming down, as the driver just glared at him and shook his head. When he arrived home, his mother freaked and screamed, “What happened?” He shrugged and went to the bathroom to clean himself off.
He stayed in his room. Sketched scenes of monsters tearing Kenneth and Leon and Lorraine apart. Limb from limb as cities burned around them. Worked up a couple dozen over the entire weekend. Kept his door locked...not that he needed to. No one ever really bothered him. Even when he came out for meals, no one ever asked him why he’d been bleeding. It’s like it had never happened.
Then came Monday morning...
He got on the bus. Saw Lorraine at the back in her usual seat. Ignoring him. He felt a smirk cross his lips.
During first recess, he deliberately wandered away from the monitors. Waited for Kenneth and his pack to come roaring up. He stood stock still as they surrounded him. Said not a word as Kenneth and Leon both berated him in language he’d only heard his father use when he’d slammed his thumb with a hammer.
Simon simply looked at them, unmoved...
Until Kenneth shoved him.
He hadn’t noticed Simon was holding a pencil in his hand.
A new Dixon Ticonderoga #2.
Freshly sharpened to a serious point.
Simon jolted his hand up and rammed it into the underside of Kenneth’s arm. Hard.
And it stuck in the muscle.
No comments:
Post a Comment