Chapter 2

Sabastian

I looked around on the football field in a daze. "Smack!" A football from the distance hit me on the side of my head knocking me back a little in shock. Looking at the ground staring at the ball I heard a voice in the distance. "Bastian! You alright?" Looking up at my friend, I snapped out of my thoughts. "Uh, yeah, I'm okay. Sorry, I was just kind of out of it thinking." He puts his hand on my shoulder as he talks. "Yeah man. Okay. Just making sure everything is alright with you. You have been kind of out of it since this morning." "Yeah, I'm okay. I just have a lot on my mind. Thanks Brandon, I am just going to eat some lunch before classes start again." Brandon takes his hands off of my shoulder. "Alright man, just making sure. I'll talk to you later then."

Walking to the cafeteria, I heard a door close somewhere. I could hear the echo of the door closing. Looking around I noticed some stairs that lead up to the roof. I have never been up there myself, but everyone knows about it. I stop while listening to see if I can hear anything else. I hear three voices echoing in stairway, they laugh to each other. As I walk up the stairs the voices get louder the further up, I go. They started laughing again and I thought I recognized one of the voices. As I continued the voices stopped. I hear one of them say "Who's there?" I don't respond because I want to make sure I at least know what's going on first. I look up the stairwell while almost at the top and see someone's head pop over one of the rails looking down at me, "Bas!" The voice says in excitement. "What are you doing man?" He says still looking at me while I reach the top.

I stopped right in front of the three of them and he smiled while reaching out his hand for me to shake. I grabbed his hand while he asked, "What are you doing here?", "I could ask the same thing. What's up?" I let go of his hand as he continued to speak "Nothing much, just waiting for Ian to finish talking to the outcast.", "What outcast?" I asked in a concerned voice. "Some guy named Maybis, Maithus.", "It's Mathias." The other one said while laughing. The other two chuckled along. "Yeah, that guy." Shit, knowing Ian this can't be good. "Don't worry Bastian, I know he can be an ass sometimes, but he would never go overboard." He smirks at me. "Uh, Cas. I don't think you know what you're talking about. Mathias is frightened extremely easily, he has had a tough time with everyone, even losing his parents. He is pretty stand off-ish and I don't think Ian should be around him alone." He gave Bastian and confusing look, but before Cas could continue the conversation, they all heard a yell beyond the door. They all look at the door in quick succession then stare at each other with worried faces.

"What the fuck was that!" I said while reaching for the door handle. As I grabbed the handle trying to open it, I noticed it's locked. Looking back at the three of them I become upset. "What the hell is going on guys?". Turning back around while still holding the door handle, I unlock it. I could feel a hand grab my shoulder as I tried and open it. I tensed up at the touch. "Dude, I don't think…" He stops as I shrug his hand off his shoulder in anger. I don't give any response and finally opened the door and walked through. As it swung open, I heard a grunting noise. Fully open, I noticed Ian standing over Mathias's body with his shoulders tensed up in frustration. Ian was startled by the door opening and looked behind him to stare back at me. I could see his face is anger that I have never seen before.

As I continued to look at Ian, I noticed Mathias's body limp, unconscious with blood over his face. Ian's face turns pale, opens his mouth but before he could say anything I started to yell. "What the fuck are you doing Ian!?" Ian shuts his mouth closed and looks down at Mathias not saying a word. I ran towards the limp body, kneeling down to make sure he was okay. Putting my finger on his neck I could still feel his heartbeat. I could feel my blood boil from the anger of the situation. I stood up looking back at Ian. Ian takes a step back while opening his mouth with his eyebrows furrowed. "It's none of your business Bastian, he deserves it. He had it coming to him.", "You. Need. To. Leave. Now." I said with my jaw tensed, face turning red, and I could feel the hair on my body raise as my whole body tensed up. Ian's eyes narrow at Ian with a dark look. His eyes open wide in fear while his face turned pale. "I … I." Ian shuts his mouth, turns around and runs away from him.

I turn back around not paying Ian any more attention, getting down on my knees to feel Mathias's pulse and to see if he's still breathing. Shit, shit shit. He looks horrible. I can feel his pulse, but he is breathing very slowly. As my thoughts run wild on what to do, I pick him up in my arms and walk to the door quickly. The door closes behind me, I start rushing down the stairs and watch to see if anyone was around. Okay. Think! I can't take him to the nurse's office because they will ask too many questions. I don't want any more problems for Mathias at this point. I can't take him to the doctors either for the same reason. There are a lot of big wigs in this town that would just cover it up. I stopped my thoughts to look around once again while reaching the end of the stairs. Not seeing anyone I rushed past the cafeteria, and down the hall to the entrance of the school.

Opening the front door, I looked around again and didn't seem to notice anyone around. Thank God no one is around to see me. The bell must have already rung for everyone to go back into classes, and I must have been in thought that I didn't hear it ring. I don't know where he lives so the next best thing is just to take him to my place. My father should be at work still, so I won't have any trouble there. I started jogging to my house.

About 15 minutes pass as I rush across the street seeing my house in the distance down the block. By the time I reached the front door I could feel my heart beating fast when I opened the door. Closing it behind me with my foot, I rush to my room down to the second floor. I enter my room and reach the bed. Slowly lowering Mathias down on the bed, I rush to the bathroom to find a first aid kit. In the bathroom I open the medicine cabinet to find a little white box that reads "First Aid Kit" with a red plus next to the name. Going back to the bed I lean down on my knees and open the kit. Grabbing some damp wipes and some dry cloth I start cleaning the dry blood on his face. Mathias's face twitches in pain from some of the bruising. I noticed that his eye was swollen along with his nose. Throwing the stained cloth and wipes away in the trash, I close the Kit and put it back into the bathroom cabinet.

I take his shoes off and set them on the ground. Lifting the covers over Mathias to tuck him in while looking at him closely. Poor guy why did this happen to him? I doubt he did anything wrong. What the hell is Ian's problem? When school gets out, I need to talk to Cas to figure out what the hell they were thinking. I walk to my door and close it before I sit down on the ground laying my back on the side of the bed next to him. I brought my knees close to my chest, laying my arms over them and laying my head sideways down looking at the ground. Without realizing it, I start to drift off to sleep.

Groggily I heard a door in the distance then heard someone call my name. "Sabastian?" I heard my father say. "Shit, what time is it?" I say in a quiet voice to myself while looking at the clock. 4:15 PM, is shown in red LEDs. Getting up on my feet I look back to the bed to see Mathias still asleep. Before I could do anything, I heard my name being called again but this time closer. "Hey! Sabastian, are you here buddy?" Reaching my bedroom door, I opened it looking back one more time at Mathias's sleeping face and then closed the door behind me while ascending the stairs.

As I reach the top of them, I look around to see my father in the kitchen opening the fridge to grab something to drink. Walking into the kitchen I began to speak. "Hey dad. Yeah, I'm here, what's up?" I said while taking a seat at the kitchen island. My father closes the fridge door opening a beer, throwing the bottle cap in the trash and took a swig before giving a response back. "I tried calling you, but you never answered." I say nothing, still looking at him. As I open my mouth to speak, he continues. "I got a call from your coach at school telling me you never came back after lunch. He asked everyone on your team if they have seen you, but no one seemed to know." He said raising up an eyebrow in question while taking another drink of his beer. I could feel my face pale and had no idea what to tell him. Oh no. I don't know what to tell him. I can't tell him what happened at school can I? Well, here goes nothing. "Sorry dad, I just wasn't feeling good after lunch. I think it was something I ate or maybe it was the heat. I'm not exactly sure. I rushed home and took a nap to see if I would feel better." I told him with a blank face hoping he would believe my lie.

My father walks around the island not saying a word, sat down next to me on one of the bar stools and looked back up at me. "Hmm." He says thinking. Taking another drink then setting it down on the island counter. "Bastian. Please don't lie to me, you have never been any good at it. I'm your father, you can tell me anything I promise. Are you being bullied?", "What? No!" I said quickly. "Then what is it Bastian, come on you know you can trust me right?" I looked down at my hands fidgeting in response. I sighed and looked back up to see his face. I told him everything that happened, and that Mathias is still unconscious in my bed. My father didn't give a response right away while he thought of what to say. Minutes pass that feels like an eternity he finally spoke. "Listen. I understand your situation all too well son. The departments here will probably try to cover it up to make it seem like the town has no problems. Come with me to your room so I can see if I can help in any way." Before I can open my mouth in protest he continues to speak. "Don't worry. We won't take him to the hospital, it's best to let him stay here for a while." I just nod, standing up while he follows me to my room.

We reach the inside of my room and my father walks up to the bed while I follow behind him. He gets down on his knees to look at Mathias. He turns around looking at me. I noticed my father's face in a grimace while he spoke. "We have a problem Sabastian."