Openly Gay

When you decide not to hide inside

"Oh my goodness! What happened to you?"
Adrian James stalked past his screeching older sister, and quickly hid away in his room. Not ten seconds after he had locked the door, Jane was pounding on it. Jane was a good big sister. She was someone who would help you with your homework, stick up for you, or get you out of trouble with parents. He didn't want her help with this though. There was a reason he had locked the door.
"Adrian Watson James, if you do not open this door right now I will make you explain to mom and dad how you got that bloody nose!"
After a beat, Adrian reluctantly slugged from his chair to the door. When he opened it, she got a clear look at his face. There was a bloodied tissue awkwardly resting in his left nostril. Not only had one of the larger boys punched him in the nose, but some of the other ones bruised him up a little too. He wore small cuts on his bare arms and face, like some kind of used cat toy. Worst of all though was simply how beaten down he looked. As if he knew this could and would happen, and was now just accepting it.
"Who did this to you?" Jane fumed as she grabbed his chin to better examine his injuries.
"No one," he answered, aggressively pulling out of her motherly grasp.
"Really? No one beat you up? You just decided to beat yourself up, is that it?"
With a groan, Adrian threw his body onto his unmade bed. Jane was great and all, but this was something she wouldn't understand. She was pretty, smart, and popular all throughout high school. If there was a president for something, she was elected. Everyone loved her, and she generally had nice feelings towards everyone else too. Plus, she never had kids pick on her for holding hands with her boyfriend.
Cause for a girl, that was normal.
Not so much for Adrian.
"Was it those boys who've been picking on you and Eric at school lately?" she ventured quietly.
Adrian flipped over and looked at her quizzically. "How did you know about that?" he asked.
With a shrug, she sauntered over to the bed and perched herself on the edge. Adrian adjusted himself so that he sat up straight across from her. It was true that since he'd come out with Eric, a lot of people had been giving him a hard time. Especially the Trey Mayfield and his crew. But he wondered how on earth Jane would know that, considering the fact that she had graduated two years before.
"I still have some friends there. They've been telling me you've been having a rough time at school, but I didn't think it was this bad. Has anyone done anything like this before?"
"No, this is the first time it's gotten to physical violence," he answered.
"Do you want me to go down there and straighten things out?" she suggested.
For some reason, he didn't like the idea of Jane handling this for him. Sure she had dealt with bullies before, but this was different. Then, it was just some kids picking on him cause they had nothing else better to do. Now? Now it was like they were insulting who he had chosen to be. It had become quite personal to him, and he didn't want her fighting his battles for him.
"No," he said simply.
"Your crazy if you think I'm going to let you spend junior and senior year getting beat up because you are dating him."
"What if I could fix it? Just give me till the end of this week. Come on Jane, please?" he begged.
After a moment of hesitation, she finally gave in and replied, "Oh, alright. Fine. You have till Friday to figure this out, or else I will. And if you get beat up again, I'm involving mom and dad."
"Jane, no! You can't-"
"One week Adrian," she commanded as she exited the room.
By the time he had cooled down from his conversation with Jane and completed his homework, it was time to go to bed. As usually though, he texted Eric right before he went to bed. Eric asked him if he was alright, or if he needed anything. Per the usual Adrian persona, he said he was fine. Eric assured him that things would get better, but Adrian already knew that. He knew that they had to get better by the end of this week or else.
The next day in the school's cafeteria, Eric and Adrian were in the lunch line with trays in hand and idle conversation surrounding them. Adrian pretended to take a great interest in Eric's story about his failed calculus test, but his mind was somewhere else. He still couldn't figure out how he was supposed to get people to leave him alone before the week was over. It's not like he could ask Eric for help. Eric had never had this problem, because all the girls loved him and supported the whole alternative lifestyle thing. Adrian however, wasn't nearly as social as Eric, so he had little to no one on his side.
"Does it hurt?" Eric asked quietly, pulling him out of the fog of his thoughts.
"What?" Adrian fumbled as he tried to decipher what context he had missed from the conversation. Eric just shook his head sadly, and fell silent.
They walked out of the lunch line, and pulled over to the side of the cafeteria. Eric placed his tray on the table, and brushed a lock of Adrian's hair away to view one of the more prominent bruises on his face. Adrain didn't fail to notice how Eric's expression twisted with an obvious represent of emotion.
"Oh, Adrian. How could they do this to you?"
It was at that precise moment that Trey Mayfield, head tyrant, pulled up behind Adrian and smacked his tray from his hands and into the floor. He and his cronies laughed as red sauce splattered all over Adrian and Eric.
"Oops, sorry. Guess I wasn't looking where I was going," Trey crooned, which sent the whole cafeteria up into a roar of giggles.
All with the exception of a few were laughing. Adrian simply sighed, wondering if they really wanted to pick a fight in a cafeteria. Eric on the other hand appeared furious. His cheeks were red with fury, his bright blue eyes alight with threat.
"Not enough to beat him up is it? You have to keep at it?" Eric spat at Trey.
"Aww, that's cute. Your defending him."
"It's almost sad really. Your just a jerk to him, cause you know that more girls are into him than you," Eric replied with a sweet sort of venom dripping on every word.
That was when Trey punched him.
Everything happened lighting fast after that. Eric stumbled ever so slightly, but then he was right there with a blow to match Trey's. It hit him square in the nose, just the same as the punch Adrian had received the day before.
"That one was for my boyfriend, you conceded jerk."
Trey then swept a leg under Eric, effectively knocking him off of his feet. This was futile of course, considering that it only gave Eric more power as he crouched and charged at him. Eric knocked him down with breath taking force. Who knows how long it would have gone on, had not Adrian plied him off of Trey.
"Enough!" Adrian shouted.
The whole cafeteria fell silent, and all eyes settled on him.
"This is completely and totally ridiculous. Both of you are acting like fools! Eric, you know your better than this. And Trey! I don't know what your deal with me is, but you need to knock it off. Just because we're a little bit different than you, doesn't give you the right to treat us this way. Tell me, do you say rude things to anatomy teacher, Mr. Hobbs? He's British, which makes him different from you, so you should be a bully to him too, right? Do you hit girls because they aren't the same sex as you are? No, you don't, because in all actuality you are a good person. So what if Eric and I decide to pursue a different lifestyle than you do? That doesn't give you the right to treat us any differently than any other student in this cafeteria. Last time I checked, we're all human. So let's start acting like it."
And with that, Eric offered Trey a hand up.
Then, the entire building bursted into applause.