Don't be a Dick by Gabby Follin (young adult books to read TXT) 📕

I know we have two hours of the day together. First period and last. I’d also see him in the middle of the day during lunch, which should help Alex keep motivated to finish the day.

We walked in the front doors and most everyone had scrambled off to class already to make sure they got in on time, but honestly I don’t care. They don’t give tardies till after the first week of school so I’ll be taking advantage of that.

When we were about halfway there to our first hour class, we heard some screwing around going on at the end of the hall. We saw four of the most popular guys in school. Brock, Jeremy, Bryce and James. Alex and I call them the Bj gang.

They’re known to the students as being hella rude and not the brightest kids. They always suck up to the teachers so the teachers think they’re sweethearts who wouldn’t hurt a fly, which I find to be absolute bullshit.

I looked over to Alex to see if he’d want to go a different way, but I couldn’t seem to get his attention. He was looking towards the floor, trying not to make eye contact with the bullies we were walking by.

But it obviously didn’t work. When anyone sees Alex, it’s like they see a punching bag and not Alex himself.

I turned my head just a bit to get a glance behind us, and I saw that all of the douchebags were looking our direction.

We made it this far and I didn’t really want to stop now so I pointed my head forward and kept walking. I was also begging to God that they wouldn’t fuck with us today. But of course, begging never works.

“Hey look, it’s Alex.”Brock said, stepping in front of us, making us stop in place.

“And his boyfriend Markie!”James and Jeremy said out, followed by a bunch of kissy noises.

“You know Mark, that you’re never going to get Emily right? She doesn’t like you! She likes me.”James said.

“No dude she likes me.”Brock said, pushing James down on the chest making him take two steps back.

James looked at Brock totally offended, I was kind of hoping they’d get in their own kind of fight so Alex and I could scurry off before any of them noticed.

But luck doesn’t work that way for me, James decided to let it go for now and pick on Alex some more.

“You know dude, if you killed yourself no one would even fucking notice besides your girlfriend here!”James said, thinking he was hilarious because he broke out laughing immediately after.

I decided to ignore his girlfriend remark and took a look over at Alex. He was still looking at the ground, he looked sad and I mean I would too…

Brock noticed that Alex wasn’t reacting to anything they were saying and decided to push it a bit. Literally.

“Why the fuck aren’t you looking at me, huh?”Brock said, giving Alex a shove.

Alex looked up, a bit angered from the physical contact that was made.

“Haha, whatcha gonna do baby? Fight me?”Brock asked, whipping his hands in the air, as if he’d give Alex the first punch.

Alex just stood there, a hint of anger hidden in his face.

“Awwww, guys! He’s scared!”Brock said, turning to the other guys, laughing.

Bryce took a place right next to Brock in front of me.

“Bet your girlfriend isn’t gonna do anything.”Bryce said, giving me a shove.

I took a couple steps back and got away enough to where all boys could surround Alex before I got my footing again. They basically made a barrier around Alex and Brock, making it almost impossible for me to get to and or see Alex.

“Come on Alex. Hit me.”Brock said, leaning down a bit holding his face out for Alex to take a hit.

Brock was a lot bigger and thicker than Alex. Alex would never win in a fight between him and Brock. Imagine all four of them…

Alex stood there angrily, fists at his sides as if he was considering the decision to punch him.

“Not gonna do anything huh?”Brock said.”Chicken.”

“You know you should just jump off a bridge!”James and Jeremy exclaimed out.

“No one would miss you! You’re worthless.”Bryce added.

“I bet you have daddy issues! Oh wait! Mommy issues tooooo!”Brock added.

“Does your daddy hurt you?”Bryce asked teasingly.

The amount of things they were saying were starting to piss me off too. It’s like they knew about his home life and how Alex was feeling, but they were saying the opposite of sympathetic words.

I wanted to punch Brock and the rest so bad but I’d lose the bet.

But Alex beat me to it.

I didn’t quite see it, but the next thing I knew, Brock was on the floor, hand to cheek while Alex was breathing heavily with one of his fists in the air in front of him.

Jeremy, Bryce and James looked back and forth between the two opponents.

“Dudes! What’re you doing? Get him!”Brock exclaimed.

In the next second, Jeremy and Bryce got Alex stuck in a corner and started to beat on him, while James was in front of me making sure I couldn’t near them or Alex.

Brock got up after a second of recovery and decided to join in on this beating that Alex was receiving from the other two.

I was starting to get really pissed and tried punching James out of the way but he just shoved me back. I tried jumping a bit to see how Alex was holding up and every glance I got, Alex was curled up in a ball taking the beating.

“Guys, leave Alex alone!”I yelled.

“What’re you gonna do about it?”James said, a smirk forming on his face.

“I’ll tell the authorities about what you did, they’ll take care of it.”I said, threatening.

James started laughing hysterically as if that was the funniest he had ever heard in his life.

“No one’s going to touch us kid.”Bryce said, listening in on what was being said behind him.

“We’re basically invincible. Everyone loves us here.”James said, throwing his hands in the air in the motion of “whatcha gonna do”.

“We don’t love you.”I said.

James face went straight,”We can make you hate us.”He said, threateningly.

I didn’t want to try him because I knew he’d do as he said. He could beat me to a pulp, like they were doing to Alex.

I’m going to be honest, this isn’t a best friend thing to do but… I wasn’t going to try and interfere and help him. I wasn’t going to get my ass kicked too, no way.

But I could just try yelling at them.

“Guys cut it out! You’ve hit him enough!”I yelled at them from behind.

“And we’re gonna hit him some more!”Jeremy said, at least acknowledging what I said. But that’s not the response I was hoping for.

I just stood there, hearing each hit be as loud as possible as a foot or fist connected with Alex’s body. It was painful to hear, I obviously couldn’t see, but I could almost feel Alex’s pain, but not.

I looked around my surroundings for something that I could use to try and help us both get out of this situation, all there was, was a fire alarm on the wall but I obviously couldn’t set that off, I’d get in huge trouble. I looked down one end of the hallway and saw nothing of use but then when I looked down the other side of the hallway I saw a person walking in our direction. I wasn’t completely sure if they were a teacher or just a student delivering something to the office, even so, they could report this. I stood there, not making a sound, watching the person walk closer and closer. I guess James traced off my glance because he started to freak out.

“Guys! Teacher!”James yelled.

He hit all their backs and began to sprint down the opposite end of the hallway.

The rest of them looked the other way to see there was a person there, and they started laughing and darted off after James too.

“We’ll get you guys again soon! Just you wait!”Bryce called down the hall.

I watched as each of them were pushing each other while running down the hall to try and knock one down and get them in trouble, but like they said, they’re practically invincible, can’t be touched. When I saw the last one dart around the corner, I decided it was time to check on Alex.

At this time, feelings of regret and shame started to find their way into the back of my head and my stomach. I felt guilty for not trying to save Alex now, but why didn’t I before then?

I looked down at the hallway ground to see that Alex was still in ball form, waiting for more hits, but luckily there weren’t going to be any more.

I bent down next to Alex and put a hand on his back.

“Alex…”I whispered.”It’s okay now, they’re gone.”

As I let Alex take a second to realize what was happening, I took a look back in the direction where the person was walking towards us and saw that they weren’t there anymore. They must’ve turned a corner or went inside a room… I don’t know but they’re gone now and they won’t be much of a help.

I decided it wasn’t important and that right now, I needed to take care of Alex. I looked back down on him and he was looking at me. He was still in his ball position but this time looking at me with eyes that were showing complete and utter fear.

“Why did you let them do that…”He whispered weakly.

I looked down at his face, feeling as bad as I ever have in my life. I just let my best friend in the world get beat up and I didn’t even try to fight for him. I’m such a coward.

“I… I don’t know… I’m sorry Alex..”I whispered to him back.

As I studied Alex’s face a little more thoroughly I saw that a tear had escaped his eye, and he wasn’t even trying to hide it.

“We need to get you to the nurse…”I saw quietly, starting to get up, trying to attempt and take Alex along with.

Alex then smacked my hand away from his body. I looked at him in confusion and betrayal.

“I’m trying to help you.”I said to him confidently.

“I needed that a few minutes ago, where were you then?”He asked me.

He had enough strength in him to sit up but at that point it looked like there was no hope for him getting up by himself. But he tried anyway, he at first tried to get up without using anything, but that failed and he fell right back down. He yelped in a bit of pain when his body hit the floor again.

“Alex let me…”

Alex shot an angry look in my direction,”Shut up.”He said to me.

I took a step back, trying to give him space, hoping he’ll forgive me a little bit in this session of struggle.

He tried to grab onto the wall and get himself up, he got himself up about halfway and was already breathing quite heavily.

I didn’t want to try and interfere because I was afraid that’d make him more mad but I was desperately trying to think of a way for him to forgive me even just a little bit.

I tried to grab a hold of his hand so he could have something to prop against but he gladly denied the offer.

“We need to get you to my mother.”I said to him.

My mother, if I didn’t mention, is the school nurse, which explains why she needs to be here early. She is a good nurse and it’s kind of convenient because if I get hurt or if I need medicine, she knows what to give me!

“You mean I do.”Alex said, leaning against the wall, still trying to catch a breath.

“Alex, I can help you get there…”I said to him.

He shot me another dirty look,”You haven’t helped for the past ten minutes and now you want