Juarez walks down the hall, pushing his glasses back upwards on his nose as he glances around him. So far, so good, no bullies in sight. He sighs and opens his locker and gets out all of his text books and forces them into his backpack. It now weighted more than he did himself, but it is well worth it, he thought.
"Where you think you're going so fast, pip-squeak?"
The boy lets out a silent moan. So close, yet so far away. Juarez turns and looks at the giant behind him. "Eh...Hi, Brutus." He says anxiously and glances at the clock. Flipo. He was going to be late.
"I can't believe you were going to just rush out of here without saying goodbye to me first, runt." He chuckles, picking him up by his shirt collar. "And allow me to give you a good, old fashioned goodbye. You know you want it."
Juarez gulps. I most certainly do not. He tries to make himself look small and helpless. "Please, Brutus...Not today, please."
"Please? Who the heck thinks I'm going to listen to a pathetic nerd's pleases?" He laughs and slams him against the locker. "No. No, Walrus, we have a few bones to pick here. That chemistry test you got the answers for me, I got a C, I told you I wanted an A." He slams him against the locker again, his head hits it hard and he gets a little dizzy.
"And I warned you..." He coughs as Brutus has moved his hand up to his throat. "Ms. Surez gives out multiple tests, obviously you were too stupid to see if the answer sheet number corresponded to the test sheet."
"Who you think you're calling stupid, Walrus?" He then growls and picks him up like a football. "You need your mouth washed out. That's what." He smirks as he then carries him to the men's room.
Juarez pales but doesn't say another word. The faster it's over with, the quicker I can leave. Maybe they won't be too mad.
Brutus kicks open a stall and shoves Juarez's face into the water over and over before pushing him in as far as he can get him and flushing it. He laughs the entire time before dropping him onto the hard, ceramic floor and pushing the door open as he comes gasping and dripping up. "See ya around, Walrus." He smirks before leaving.
Juarez picks his glasses up off the ground, dries them off with the bottom of his t-shirt and picks himself up. He walks, head down to his backpack out in the hall and picks it up once again and leaves the building. He does not stop until he reaches a bridge, far out into the forest where he stops and tries to catch his breath.
"Finally, you're here!" A voice says and another boy steps from the shadows. "I was starting to get worried."
He drops the bag on the ground and shakes his head. "Got held up at school, Seb. How's Romeo?"
See looks under the bridge at the little blanket-warped toddler, shivering and sneezing. "Worse...It's too wet out here for him, Juarez. He's got a fever now."
Juarez sighs and pushes his glasses up again. "I guess that just leaves that I go back to Henry and beg forgiveness..."
"But you know what he'll make you do, Juarez. Are you really sure?" Seb looks at him with concern.
"It's not that I want to...But I'm going to have to. I can't let Romeo get any more worse and die because I refuse to go slaughter an orphanage, Sebastiano."
Seb nods slowly and pats his shoulder. "I won't tell him that's what you're doing. Just...Don't think of them as little Romeos...Think of them as...As...Little chickens. They'll be better off like this anyhow, it's not like they'll ever be adopted and they could end up in a gang like this one. Think of it like that, maybe it won't be so hard."
Juarez sighs and hangs his head. "I hate my life, I really do." He then murmurs as he gets a bundle out from a pocket at the front of his bag. He unwraps it and takes out two sharp daggers in sheaths and slides them on.
"Jua, we all hate our lives, but it's what we've got to do."
"I know..." He looks away and then back at Romeo down under the bridge. "I'll be back before one, okay?" He glances at Sebastiano.
Seb nods with a gentle look. "We'll still be here."
"I brought some textbooks you two can look through. Maybe he can practice his math and reading some more."
"You're procrastinating, Juarez."
"I know...I know..." He sighs and gives one last look at Romeo and Seb before putting his hands in his pockets and walking deep into the woods.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
