When they returned to school that Monday, it was now the 9th of October, and six days since Curt’s arrest, three days since his hearing that determined that he would indeed be going to trial. Though none of them had officially been named as witnesses again, yet anyway; they still had more than a bit of fear upon returning to school that week.

As it turned out, Curt had not yet returned to school himself, yet. But the day was still less than pleasant as nearly the whole school were now aware of the extent of the charges to be brought against Curt, and who his victims supposedly were.

After a particularly hellish day had already been had, Kole and Sky were leaning against the lockers, rather close to one another, and speaking quietly. That was when Curt’s friend Scott passed by and scoffed loudly at the two. He then called out, “hey Kole, make sure you get written permission from Sky there before shoving it up his ass. Otherwise you and Curt might get your re-match as cellmates. Just warnin ya” he sneered back at them before walking away.

Only, as he did, Kole glared after him and Scott then tripped over seemingly nothing, crashing face first into the hallway floor as all the surrounding students pointed and howled with laughter as he tried to get to his feet.

“Kole” Sky scolded.

“What? If we can’t kill him, we can at least make his day as fucking unpleasant as ours” Kole defended, still glaring over at Scott who was now shuffling off down the hall in embarrassment.

“We already killed him in one life” Sky mumbled as he retrieved his book from the locker, “didn’t improve much.”

Once they actually entered their classroom, the abuse Sky had already endured all day still didn’t stop. A moment after he and Kole took their seats, a rather large boy named Devon called over, “hey Sky, would you have been ok with it if he used less fingers? I mean your ass is smaller than my twelve year-old sister’s. Probably a tight fit back there” he smirked.

Sky grumbled, “and I thought I was the one who couldn’t keep my mind off my sister’s ass. Least Star’s legal” he bit back.

“Fuck you, Vargas” was the only response Devon gave to that.

Then the boy’s friend, Grant piped up, “no, you can’t fuck Vargas; he gets bitchy if anyone but his boyfriend Kole puts it in there.”

That was when Kole glared back at the other boys and the legs of Devon’s chair gave out beneath him, causing his well-cushioned behind to painfully hit the floor, “least our asses don’t break the chairs” Kole bit out before turning back away from them.

“You have to stop” Sky mumbled.

“Why? You’re with me” Kole returned.

“Still, Kole.”

“I’ll stop as soon as they do” Kole grumbled as he opened his book as if he even cared about any of the words on the pages at all right then. Sky simply sighed, and did the same, shaking his head as Devon attempted to scramble back to his feet despite the laughter around the room then.

An hour later, they had finally managed to at least physically survive seven-eighths of their day. After seventh period, the locations of their next classes led to their plan to have Sky walk with Crista to his and her last classes of the day, while Kole and Star would accompany each other through the halls to their own final class of the day. Once Sky and Star squeezed one another’s hand briefly and he headed off with Crista, Star attempted a smile up at her new escort, Kole. Though that smile didn’t quite make it as she wasn’t feeling remotely happy after the way the entire school was acting now that they nearly all knew what had actually happened to Sky almost a month earlier.

She just sniffled as she forced back tears and shook her head, “they’re being horrible to him, Kole. He’s the victim. He’s already had to endure what Curt did, and now they’re just being... horrible” she repeated as she bit back a sob.

“I know, I know” he whispered as he moved to hug her. He then stepped back and tried to offer her a sad smile, “but you’re the one that’s crying though.”

“I cry. Sky does other things” she sniffled sadly, “he’s always been better with physical pain than me” she whispered.

“You mean he hurts himself?” Kole asked worriedly.

“Guess he thinks that at least then he can make the pain stop when he can’t take it anymore” she told him as she bit back another sob. Kole then moved to wrap her in his arms once more.

That was when one of the more popular girls moved past and saw the two embracing. She then called out, “what’s wrong Star? Did your brother-lover find someone else to get fucked by?”

On that statement, Star glared up at the girl through her tears and in that moment, the locker nearest the girl forcefully flew open, as the door painfully collided with the girl hard enough to nearly knock her off balance and most likely leave a bruise as well.

“Come on” Kole whispered as he pulled Star with him through the nearest door as the offending young woman tried to compose herself in the wake of apparently being assaulted by a locker door.

Kole hugged her tightly again as he tossed the door of the small dark room shut behind him. Once she finally stepped out of his arms with another sniffle, the two had a chance to note their surroundings. It appeared to be a supply closet of some sort. Kole’s eyes darted around the room then, coming to rest on a large portion of the floor that had obviously been repainted in recent years. That was when his breath caught and his entire body tensed.

“What? What’s wrong?” Star asked, noting his tension easily.

Kole took a few short breaths as he tried to pull his pretty green eyes away from that spot on the floor, but did not have much luck. “nothing, it’s fine” he breathed, though still couldn’t pull his eyes away from the large mismatched shade of obviously fresher paint on the floor.

“Kole, something’s wrong” Star whispered as she moved to touch his hand, “what is it?”

Kole took another breath, “just never thought I’d be in this room” he managed, though his voice shook with emotion, his eyes still glued to that spot.

“Oh my god” Star exclaimed as she looked around, finally understanding what it was that had him so obviously shaken. “This is where it happened, isn’t it?” she whispered, her own voice breaking with emotion then, “god, Kole, I’m sorry. We can leave” she stated as she tried to take his hand, though he didn’t move.

“I don’t think I really wanna be out there with all of them right now, either” he returned shakily. Then Star was the one who moved to embrace him, to hopefully help him hold back his own tears as well then.

After that hug lasted several more long moments, Star finally looked back up at him, “are you sure you wanna stay in here instead of going to eighth?”

Kole took another breath as he moved to take a seat on the floor against the wall, dropping his bag right inside the door to the tiny room and blocking the door from any surprise openings. “As someone else told me once; make me sure” Kole whispered as he reached his hand up to pull her down to his lap and into his kiss.

It wasn’t much longer before he had her shirt unlaced and his mouth spreading kisses over her breasts, trying desperately to replace all the horrible memories that room held with much better ones once and for all. Allowing him to continue visiting his attention upon her breasts for several more long moments, Star reached down to pull her panties down her legs, feeling his mouth smile against her hardened nipple as she did.

She then turned to take a seat astride his hips instead of just across his legs. Her fingers moved to quickly start working to free him from his pants. “You sure you want to, in here?” she whispered as those first piercings came into view.

“I think it’s pretty obvious my body and my brain are in two different locations right now” he smiled breathlessly as she returned the smile and finished unfastening his pants.

A moment later, Star was biting back her immediate moan of pleasure at the feel of him being inside her once more. She then began eagerly moving against him as they both tried desperately to make one another forget the hell of that day and that room and everything else in their lives; at least for a little while.

Meanwhile, Sky had walked Crista to the door of her last class of the day, gave her a sad kiss on the cheek and then started off down the hall again. Instead of going to his own class though, he found himself knocking at Miss Burke’s door with a sad sigh as she called out to invite him to enter the room.

She looked more than a bit shocked as she saw that it was Sky who had come to her door, but she easily smiled and gestured for him to take a seat. “I didn’t call you in today. Is everything all right?” she asked with concern as he dropped his bag to the floor and slumped into a seat on the small sofa in her office instead of the chair that sat across from her desk.

“All right?” Sky scoffed, “what do you think?” he mumbled.

“Did something else happen, Sky?” she asked as she moved from her own seat to turn the other chair around and slide it closer to the couch where he was attempting to bury himself in the corner of the cushions.

“You mean did I get raped again? Not today, but hey, there’s always tomorrow” he returned in the same sarcastic mumble.

Burke looked down sadly before responding, “at least you’re able to admit what happened now. That’s a step” she attempted another smile.

“A step toward what exactly?” he scoffed, “I didn’t want anyone to know. And now, everyone knows. Trust me, it’s not an improvement” he added sadly.

“I’m guessing things have been said to you today?”

“Ya think?” he scoffed.

“We can take steps to try to punish any students who may be harassing you, but---”

“You and your steps” Sky replied with the same combination of sarcasm, cynicism and just plain despair.

“So what do you need me to do?” Burke asked him after another moment.

“Ignore me til the last bell rings and then write me a note so I don’t get written up for wanting to avoid all the assholes out there?” he offered.

“I can do that, Sky. But you know it’s only a temporary fix.”

“Yeah, well, there’s only one permanent fix” he mumbled.

“What do you mean by that, Sky?” she asked with a bit of panic.

“No I’m not planning on blowing the school away, so you can calm down” he scoffed.

Burke only let out a slight sigh of relief, “then what did you mean by a permanent fix?” she asked in a near whisper.

“Well, you could always ask Curt’s other victim, Sammi. Oh wait, no you can’t” he added pointedly as he tried to choke down his emotions.

Burke then had to force back her own emotions in order to respond, “are you telling me you want to hurt yourself, permanently, Sky?” she whispered.

“Are you really that shocked? Please” he sniffled, still not able to look back at her.

“Sky, that is a very serious thing to say” she told him in the same pained whisper.

“Yeah, well my life is very seriously fucked up” he returned with another sniffle.

Burke had to take a few shaky breaths before trying to remember all her training and find anything at all she could say right then. She finally decided on, “you said you were terrified of people you care about getting hurt. And don’t you think that you doing something like that would irreparably hurt them?”

Sky simply flinched at her words, “it would kill Star, literally. She’d slit her own wrists if I did that to mine. And that is honestly the only reason I haven’t. But me living this life, in this much pain... that’s killing her too, just as much as it’s killing me.”