Page 16 of Lost
FAGGOT
Jack looked away. His pen went back to work half-heartedly, his doodled drawings less carefree than before. His shoulders were tense, angled to put his back to Lysander. Aiming to protect himself, Lysander realised.
“You’re gay?”
“Yeeep.”
Another series of balls landed on the desk, and this time Jack did react. He brushed them away with such force that they hit the back of the girl in front of him.
“I’ll understand if you don’t want to be friends anymore,” he mumbled, ignoring the agitated look the girl shot him over her shoulder. “I’m sure they’ll still be willing to let you join their gang, seeing as you had no idea I was contagious. Just tell them I lied to you.”
Lysander stood, taking the paper with him. Jack sighed a sound of deep regret. Anger flared in Lysander’s chest.
The boys watched him coming, the dopey grins never leaving four of their faces. The fifth — the one that sat in the very back of the corner — looked a little more cautious. Clearly he was the smart one. Probably the leader.
Lysander casually dropped the offending piece of paper onto the table in front of them. It fluttered down and landed word-side up, black ink glaring.
The boy closest to him lit up with a satisfied smirk. “We figured you had a right to know. You’re welcome for saving your a—”
Lysander lashed out. His fist met the boy’s nose with a sickeningcrack.
He only felt bad for a second.
The boy cried out the same time his friends jumped to their feet. The other one within reach stumbled back, crashing into the friend behind him, who in turn toppled back into his chair.Geniuses. The leader had fire in his eyes, but it was nothing compared to the final member of their group, who was practically falling over himself trying to get around the obstacle of tables and chairs. To get to Lysander.
Despite having expected it, Lysander didn’t have the faintest idea what he was going to do about that. It wasn’t like he’dplannedto come over here and punch a guy in the face. It had just happened. Dakota, he knew, would have said it was the right thing to do. It was exactly the sort of move she would have pulled, regardless of the consequences. She would have faced down an entire army of bullies to protect a friend. She would have stood her ground.
And here Lysander was, trying to decide whether to bolt or prepare himself to face down one in three…two…
“What’s going on over there?”
Apparently they’d caused enough of a commotion to attract the attention of their entire class, Mr. Bailey included. He still had one hand raised to his chalkboard, halfway through writing something about who cared what, but his eyes were on them.
Lysander’s would-be attacker pointed a finger as he and his buddies began to shout in unison. “He hit Jeffery, sir!”
“We didn’t even touch him!”
“Guy’s a maniac!”
Jeffery whimpered, both meaty hands clutching his steadily bleeding nose. Lysander took a step back as the teacher approached, keeping his hands at his sides.I’m not a threat. His right fist throbbed, and he flexed it experimentally. Not broken. Just satisfyingly sore.
Mr. Bailey took one look at Jeffery and sighed.Boys will be boys, his expression said.
“Mr Peersen, take Mr Hallon to the nurse.”
The guy closest to Jeffery took his friend by the arm and pulled him up, scowling as they hurried out of the room. Lysander watched them go. He should have felt worse about his role in this, but he didn’t. Not even when Mr. Bailey turned to give him his best stern teacher look.
“Mr. Maverick, grab your things and follow me.”
He did as he was told without complaint.
As he made his way back over to the corner where he and Jack had sat, he was able to see his friend’s face for the first time since he’d walked away. Jack stared with his jaw dropped, wide eyes never leaving Lysander. Lysander offered a reassuring smile as he threw his things into his bag and made to follow Mr. Bailey, hoping his actions had spoken loud enough. Jack opened and closed his mouth several times as if to say something, but no words came out. In the end all he could do was shake his head and lean back in his chair, half-finished doodle forgotten.
All life had been sucked out of the room when Jeffery yelled. The class was dead silent as Lysander followed his teacher to the door. Every last one of them was now focused on him. Some were grinning. Others looked as stunned as Jack. Much to his relief, only the boys in the back corner were giving him any sort of hateful look. One guy a few rows ahead of them even gave Lysander a double thumbs-up as he passed.
In the moment before he walked out the door, his gaze found Eliza Beth. She stared back at him, her lips parted as if she had frozen mid-speech. But it was the look in her eyes that stayed with him as he left. She looked amazed. Impressed.
Dakota would have been, too.
