*All characters are over the age of 18*
"What do you think, Jeremy?"
I snapped out of my thoughts and glanced around. The entirety of the student government was looking to me for guidance. I was their president. I glanced at the screen behind the presenter, Liam, and quickly scanned the slide before giving my answer. It seemed to do the trick because he nodded and continued his presentation.
I adjusted the sheets in front of me. I needed to pay closer attention. The whole student body depended on all of us to give our A game and I couldn't help but feel I was letting them down. The only issue was all of my thoughts were occupied by Oliver.
Oliver was a large, jock-ish, kid in our grade who had absolutely no respect for authority. He and his clique of dimwits seemed to constantly be getting in trouble or just narrowly avoiding it. They were a constant thorn in my side and only a few days ago I had blown up on them. They wouldn't stop throwing different sports balls against the walls and I could just see the price of the property damage in my head and I couldn't take it anymore. As soon as I finished yelling, I instantly regretted it. The look Oliver gave me was of absolute anger and disgust with me. That's when he said the words that still were ringing in my head. "You're dead, Wheeler."
I knew I was in trouble. The last kid he had threatened like that was found crammed into a locker, bruised up and crying, banging against the metal door like his life depended on it. Oliver had been smart enough to wait a couple days so he couldn't be linked to the incident and the kid had refused to admit who had done it to him. I was afraid my time would come any day now.
On top of all that, Oliver made me feel weird. He had since the day I had met him three years ago. Once it was clear I was a scrawny little nerd he wanted nothing to do with, he shoved me away from him, hard. He was the only kid in the school who openly disrespected me. I wanted to hate him but... I can't explain it but I couldn't. I'd think of how he looked at or treated me and I just got these weird butterflies in my stomach. I couldn't even admit the weird dreams I had started to have about him.
The meeting had ended for a couple minutes before I even realized everyone around me was packing up. I quickly followed suit. Liam looked at me strangely as he passed my seat. "Everything ok, man?"
I nodded my head and smiled to him. "Yeah everything's fine."
He didn't seem convinced but decided to let it go. "You'll be bringing the supplies for the meeting next week? We'll be depending on you."
"Hey don't even worry about it."
Most of the other students had already headed out. Liam hesitated next to the door, as if waiting for me. He had heard Oliver had threatened me the other day and had been acting very protective recently. "You can go on," I assured him.
He glanced over at me. "You sure?"
I rolled my eyes. "Yes! I'm going to be just fine. Go ahead, don't wait for me."
He hesitated again, then shrugged before walking out the room.
I shouldn't have been too far behind him, but my laptop was not complying. Every time I tried to zip up my backpack, it would poke out further making the whole thing impossible. I sighed and dumped out my entire backpack before reassembling it. Everything finally fit together, but it did cost me an extra five minutes before I finally exited the room.
The school was empty besides me. The hallway I was standing in had all the lights turned off. The setting sun was casting shadows over me as I struggled to lock up the room. Once the lock finally clicked into place, I turned and walked down the hallway.
I had only made it ten steps before I heard footfalls behind me. I turned around, surprised, and saw too of Oliver's friends, Darren and Adam, on the other end of the hallway. Shit! I picked up my pace but so did they. I ducked into a side hallway hoping to throw them, but found two more of his friends, Shawn and Peter, waiting there for me. They both grabbed my arms and pulled me forward. I tried to call out and pull against them, but they were much stronger than me. No one came to help me. I was completely alone.
I silently cursed myself for letting Liam leave me as Darren and Adam caught up. They pushed my down the hall and threw me into a classroom. I stumbled a bit before regaining my balance and looking around. Sitting on the teacher's desk at the other end of the room was Oliver and all around him were various popular kids from our school, all from our grade. They seemed to enjoy the panicked look on my face. "Jeremy," Oliver said calmly over the laughter. "What a lovely surprise."
I tried to compose myself in front of them but there was a tremor in my voice as I said, "You can't keep getting away with this, Oliver. The other students may be afraid of you, but I'm not. As your student body president, I won't stand for-"
I was abruptly interrupted by Adam punching me across the face. My whole body fell to the side and I clutched the side of my face. "That's much better" I heard him say. All the guys around me roared with laughter as I turned and glared at Oliver. He seemed completely calm, a very small grin growing across his face. "Out there people may respect you. But in here." He stands up. "In here you're just another nerd for us to put in his place."
That's when the beating started. It felt like the fists were coming from all sides and soon I lost track of who was doing what to my body. There was a fist punching my arm, a knee connecting with my stomach, a hand slapping across my face. It felt like my body was being tossed around like a rag doll. I finally couldn't take it and began to crumple to the ground, but one of them grabbed the back of my shirt. I stayed there for a few seconds, my body hovering a few feet off of the floor as the guy held me suspended by the collar of my shirt. Then gravity worked against me, I fell onto my face, and I felt my collar a quite a bit of the back of my shirt rip off.
This seemed to give them pause for a few seconds. I used that time to roll onto my back. Looking up at them, I saw them hovering in a circle just above me, looking down, Shawn with a part of my white shirt in his hands.
Oliver laughed. "Well come on, Shawn! Finish the job!" Shawn seemed confused so Oliver leaned down. He grabbed the front of my shirt and ripped it open.
I let out a gasp and looked down at my bare chest. There it was on full display to them all. Dark hair had started to form this last year and it snaked all the way down my stomach until it formed a treasure trail just below my belly button. I had always been so modest in front of my classmates. I was their student body president, I wanted to present myself as untouchable. But lying there, a part of my body suddenly on display, I felt something burning in my stomach. Was that... excitement? My limbs began to tremble a little.
The other guys all began to laugh before leaning over and tearing my shirt to shreds. My tie was ripped off, then pulled inside out and tossed to the side. Everyone was ripping off my shirt, piece by piece. The pen I kept in my shirt pocket clattered to the floor as the pocket was torn into tiny little pieces.
I was flipped onto my stomach as they moved to the back of my shirt. As they focused on my shirt and less and less of it was on my body, I decided I could take no more of this and tried to make a break for it. Surprisingly, only one person seemed to notice. I heard him cry "Hey!" as I ducked out of their circle. I felt a hand on my foot and was able to kick off a shoe before finally escaping just outside their circle.