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It was only a week till school went on break, and I was terrified.

At the moment I had locked myself into a stall in the boy's bathroom. Joseph and his lackeys were located on the other side of the door, my bag in their possession. Their taunting laughs were for once scaring me shitless. I didn't have my phone, because that was in my bag, meaning I had no way of contacting anyone. I heard clattering, they were emptying my bag. I pulled my legs towards my chin, I sat on the toilet seat in fear of them grabbing my legs. They had chased me in here, grabbing my bag in an attempt to catch me. I didn't know if I was lucky or not that I got out of the bag in time. The stall didn't have walls that reached the ceiling, nor the ground, which obviously made me worried.

I heard the bathroom door opening, meaning someone went to the toilet. At first, everything became quiet, but then the door opened again. They left without saying anything to the bullies. My hands were shaking uncontrollably in front of me. It won't take long until they left, they will get bored after awhile, I tried to assure myself. It didn't work.

Someone started banging on the door. It made the whole stall shake.

"Get out of there you pussy!"

"Why such unoriginal names..." I muttered to myself. To my demise, they heard me. The banging became louder, almost making me fall of the seat as everything was shaking. For a second I became afraid that the door would break in two. It's ok, mum and dad isn't home for a couple of days. Eric might be, but maybe they will leave my face alone. I contemplated every imaginable scenario that might happen before I could go home, all of them included me getting beat up. Badly.

Suddenly everything fell silent. I heard low mumbles behind the door and felt a chill go up my spine. The stall next to me opened and I froze in fear when I realised what they were up to. I stood up, just about to slide under the stall to get to the opposite one, when Joseph landed in front of me. I let out a scream of fear and backed away.

A sinister smile spread on his face as he roughly grabbed my forearm and locked my head under his arm. He unlocked the door and kicked it open. His lackeys were all waiting outside. I felt my eyes burning, I was about to cry, but I didn't want to give them that satisfaction, so I bit my lip. Joseph pushed me forward, into the group of large, bulky sportsmen.

They pushed me around in a circle. Like a brutal pig in the middle game. Eventually I wasn't even sure what was up and down. Two hands grabbed me, hard. Well, that will bruise later. I thought unemotionally. It was the end of school day, most students and teachers would be home by now. Nobody would come to save me. No one even knew that I still remained here; in the hands of my bullies. I looked up at Joseph, my head was spinning and I felt like throwing up, but I wanted to look him in the eyes.

His eyes were burning. That was not a good sign. For some reason he seemed angrier than I'd ever seen him before. I quickly averted my eyes. I was scared shitless. For some reason my very existence seemed to annoy him, but I was usually not the reason he became this angry. The last person that upset him ended up in the hospital. I gulped, fully aware that I might too.

The first punch was aimed at my stomach, successfully making me lose my breath. Gasping, I tried to stand firm, but the punch after somehow ended up even stronger. My legs buckled under me, but the hands of the person behind me held me up. The first tears fell.

The next punch hit me in the face and as pain exploded in my face, I felt myself bite into my lip, drawing blood. He hit me again, same spot, but at least I had lost the grip on my lip. Then it was my stomach, a kick to the legs, stomach again, again, legs, face, legs, stomach. This went on until he punched me in my face for the umteenth time. I thought I heard a crunch, but I didn't feel any pain.

Next came the blood.

My mouth had already started to fill with the blood from my lip, and now also from my nose. It was getting harder to breath. The grip on my arms slowly released me, and soon I was on the ground, immobile. I wasn't sure if I was sitting or lying down. However, I did know that my blood was staining my clothes and slowly, but surely, the tile beneath me.

A kick to the side made it clear that I was on my side, lying on the ground. After a couple of more kicks everything went quiet. Rough hands lifted me up and placed me with my back to the wall. They grabbed me by my hair and yanked my head back, making me look them in the eyes. My head was fuzzy, my body was numbed by pain. Joseph's body also seemed hazy, the features bleeding into each other. He still wore that disgusting smile, but his eyes were haunted.

Somehow he seemed to come closer, but just as I felt his breath fanning my face, the bathroom door was thrown open. A familiar whistling tune reached my ears and I felt, rather than heard or saw, the malice that spread through the room as the whistling came to an abrupt stop. I choked a laugh. Thank god.

"What the hell are you doing?" An eerie voice growled. I heard Joseph gasp and it didn't take long until he was thrown off me. My chin fell down to rest on my chest, no longer having the support nor strength to hold it up. After several grunts and skin hitting skin, I was embraced in a hug, or I thought it was until I was floating. I peeked through my lashes, and was met with Manfred's familiar features. Of course he would be in school, he had some damn course in Japanese.

He had a nasty bruise forming around his eye. I wondered what the others looked like. Manfred crouched down at some point, staying like that for a short while before continuing out of the bathroom and out of school. Even with the cold air, I felt myself drifting in and out of sleep. Or maybe I should say "unconsciousness".

Darkness.

I screeched and sat up when I felt cold water drip down my neck. Regretting it immediately as pain erupted in my whole body, I didn't stay in a sitting position for long.

"Sometimes I wonder how you manage to get such good grades when your IQ obviously is below average."

"Shut up Manny," I mumbled as my headache started to pulsate. Once again cold water dripped down my neck, this time I only flinched. I heard a sigh and then felt warm hands caress me. They touched me so softly that I almost felt awkward. That is until they accidentally pressed too hard, making me yelp.

"Sorry," Manfred said quietly before continuing whatever he was doing. I kept my eyes closed as the light made my headache worse and tried to relax under his hands. Soon he lightly touched my forehead. "You're pretty damn beat up, but nothing that won't heal. Come on I'll help you up." I peeked through my lashes at him. He was holding a hand out for me.

My legs wobbled under me, but Manfred kept me steady. He helped me as I limped to the bathroom. It was worse than I thought it would be.

Half of my face had gone purple, my nose was red and so were my eyes. The bruised side of my face was slightly wet, probably from the ice pack that was laying in the sink. I had a plaster on my forehead, and a lot more on my arms. My stomach was blue and covered by one large bruise that seemed to stretch itself around me. My legs didn't look much better. It was truly a wonder that I managed to stand on them.

I looked up at Manfred, scared of what evaluation he had made out of my wounds. He saw my expression and gave me a small, but reassuring, smile. Damn, I really need to learn how to do that.

"Nothing is broken or sprained, not even your nose," he said smiling. "You were lucky in your unluckiness... I think that is an expression," he mumbled the last part thoughtfully, making me giggle.

"I don't think so, but thanks." Manfred looked at me with a smile, but his eyes were filled with worry.

"I called you in sick for the rest of the week. I also called your parents, saying that you are sick. So don't worry about being marked as absent. I'll stay with you tonight, and come back tomorrow after school," he said and turned around to the sink. I inspected his face, the bruise trailed along his cheekbone, up his eyebrow. Like a crescent moon. I looked down on my toes; still red and dry. He had most likely gotten punched. I felt bad. It was my fault that he had gotten caught up in this mess.

"If you are thinking about what I think you're thinking about. Stop! It was not your fault. I have wanted to beat those assholes up for a long-ass time, and finally I caught them in the act," Manny said from the sink. I looked up in surprise and saw him watching me in the mirror. He sighed and began scrubbing the sink with a wet rag. It was stained with blood, probably my own, but Manfred seemed unaffected by the red mess. I noticed a large stain on his right shoulder, and realised that I must have been bleeding heavily when he picked me up.

"Sorry for ruining your shirt." My apology was quiet, and didn't sound sincere. He smiled nonetheless.

"Don't sweat it. Even if it's hard to believe, I do actually care more about your well-being than my shirt," he said jokingly. I smiled in return.

Even though it was a Monday, we sat up all night, talking, joking, even crying a little bit. Well, I did. Manfred just listened. When I at last fell asleep, the clock must have been at least 2 am, and it wasn't until the day after that I would feel sorry for Manfred. He had taken care of me during the whole night, even when he had to go to school. He had even made me breakfast before he left.

I didn't do much that day. I mostly lied in bed or chatted with Eric. He wanted to come over to tend to me, but I made up an excuse that I felt too bad for company, even though, I would love to have him around. I did, however, not want him to see me hurt like this.

Around five pm Manfred came back, made me dinner, and then left again, telling me that he would be back every evening for the rest of the week to cook him dinner. Which I appreciated as I was pretty terrible at cooking anything more advanced than pasta. He made it very clear that I had to call him if anything happened. Even if I just felt lonely. Around seven, Eric texted me.

From: Sir Eric von Awsome

Sir Eric von Awsome: How r u feeling?

Me: Better, but I'll probably not be back in school before the winter break.

Sir Eric von Awsome: :( then I'll be alone!

Me: Don't worry, we'll meet up after Christmas :)

Sir Eric von Awsome: Urrggghhh that's too long!!! I wanna meet up now!

Me: I'll tell you as soon I get better

Sir Eric von Awsome: You better!

Sir Eric von Awsome: oh, yea before I forget

Sir Eric von Awsome: you'll be at my New Years party right?

Me: I dunno... I guess? You know I don't like parties!

Sir Eric von Awsome: I know. But if I promise not to drink?

Me: You'll drink, don't kid yourself.

Me: But ok. As long you won't get completely wasted. Please, I don't want to experience that again -.-'

Sir Eric von Awsome: Ok, I promise! I swear on my own life that I'll keep myself tipsy and nothing more!

Me: Awesome.

We chatted a bit more, until I realised it had been over 3 hours. It was close to midnight.

Me: dude, it's almost midnight!

Sir Eric von Awsome: So??

Me: You have school tomorrow! It's the last week!

Sir Eric von Awsome: wtv, they won't miss me if I come an hour or two late :D

Me: .... Eric. Go to sleep.

Sir Eric von Awsome: Only if you kiss me goodnight ;)

Read 11:51 am

My face heated up at least 500 degrees. I wasn't sure how to respond. So in the end I didn't respond at all.

When morning came I felt like a jerk. Well, I sort of was one. I had ignored Eric, maybe he had only been joking! That made my action about ten times worse. My head felt heavy and I had a sour taste in my mouth as I stumbled to the bathroom. I wasn't sure how to face him, nor what to tell him. I groaned and rubbed some sleep sand out of my eyes. I wouldn't see him, I realised as I splashed some water into my face. At least not for a while. After all my face was still bruised beyond recognition, even if Manfred tried to tell me otherwise.

The former night's events made me feel incredibly nauseous. Not only could I not face Eric thanks to my face still looking blue, but he actually flirted with me. Or maybe it was my mind playing tricks on me, making his jokes way too serious. Maybe he was just teasing me, that would sure as hell be a better explanation. Eric was straight! He wasn't about to walk over to the rainbow side just because we had sex. Was he? My thoughts were interrupted by the signal of my phone.

Eric.

I reluctantly pressed answer, bringing the phone to my ear as I did so.

"Hi," his voice came from the other end, raspy and low from sleep. He sounded sexy. I immediately started to sweat out of fear that he might be mad since I ignored him yesterday.

"Hi," I whispered back. His breathing was steady.

"I just wanted to say good morning." There was a slight pause before he continued. "Good morning."

I was speechless. Was that all, moreover wasn't he mad? Not even annoyed? I took one shaky breath before responding.

"Good morning."