Chapter 8

"Are you ready?" Caine asked Kiaan.

Sammy felt a spark of jealously over the fact the two boys were planning to head off alone, which was ridiculous. Kiaan wasn't gay, and as such, he wasn't competition for Caine's heart.

'It's because you thought you were special to him,' Sammy realized.

...

'How stupid.'

The sadness and disappointment must have been plain to see, as when Caine caught his eye, the kind-hearted boy extended an invite.

"So long as it's okay with you?" Caine turned to Kiaan. "It's your house after all."

"Sure, yeah," Kiaan said, flashing him a smile that looked genuine enough.

'Do I truly have friends now?' he wondered. The idea still seemed unreal, like a dream or an elaborate rouse. That people could want or value his company. It seemed false.

Sammy hadn't seen Kiaan's house before toady. It was situated behind one of his family’s shops, away from the main road.

House was the wrong word; the place was a mansion. Giant pillars holding up the front porch gave the house a Greek temple vibe. It seemed like a king should live there.

As they followed Kiaan around the back into the kitchen, a beautifully vibrant aroma filled his nose.

"We aren't interrupting dinner, are we?" Sammy whispered, suddenly feeling out of place. He didn't want to be a bother.

"Have you boys eaten?" A woman asked, placing a hand on his back.

"They don't want dinner Mum," Kiaan said with a sigh, leading the others up to his bedroom. "I'll eat later."

The woman shrugged and returned to her cooking station, rolling something in pastry that could be a samosa. It smelled amazing.

A deep, empty rumble formed in the pit of Sammy's stomach as he exchanged sad glances with Caine, who pointed to his tummy and pushed out his lip. The food would have been greatly appreciated, but Sammy wasn't one to complain or ask for anything. His mother didn't cook Indian food unless it was from a plastic, microwaveable box. It would be nice to have an authentic homecooked meal. Mum rarely cooked anything from scratch these days, not since Dad had left.

"Log me on," Caine demanded, plopping himself in front of Kiaan's computer.

"He's bossy, isn't he?" Kiaan whispered in his ear before complying with the demand.

"What are you going to do?" Kiaan asked, watching with an uncomfortable smile as Caine searched his past messages.

"Don't worry, I won't look at your porn collection. I'm looking for messages and comments made by Grace," Caine revealed with a grin.

"Oh, there are loads from when her Mum got the sack," Kiaan said. "She told me to go back to my own Country, called me a dirty Paki. I'm not even from Pakistan."

"That's brilliant!" Caine cried.

"It—it is?" Kiaan frowned. "It didn't feel too great at the time."

"Hmm, well, feelings aside, she's given us the rope we need to hang her with. All I have to do is take screenshots, blur out her name and post it to your growing audience."

"Why blur her name?" Kiaan asked. "Aren't we supposed to be punishing her?"

"Oh, we will, but not straight away. It will be worse for her this way, not knowing if you will out her or not, plus seeing the honest responses from her peers," Caine explained.

"You are pretty good at this revenge game," Kiaan said. "Who needs magic when we have you, am I right?"

Sammy nodded in agreement.

"The spell brought us together, and I'm glad it did," Caine said, giving Sammy a long, meaningful look that made him smile and look away.

As the keyboard clattered away, Sammy filled the time by browsing through the comic collection on the bookshelf. Along with the usual suspects, he found a book with two anime guys kissing on the cover.

"That's my sisters," Kiaan blurted, grabbing the book.

"Girls like that to read that sort of thing?" Sammy asked.

"Most of those things are written by women for women, hence why they are so sickeningly romantic," Caine input, momentarily turning away from his work at the computer.

Sammy smiled, unsure of how to respond to that. Were gay relationships typically less romantic than straight ones?

He hoped not. The idea of just jumping straight into bed with the first guy he met scared him on so many levels. He wanted to go through the flirty beginnings and the dating phase.

'Maybe Mike is right, and I should have been born a girl,' Sammy thought. He tried to tell himself Mike's opinions no longer mattered, but it was one thing to think it and another to believe it.

"Ooo the comments are already flooding in. The rage of the online community is a magnificent thing," Caine cooed. Bathed in the phosphorescent glow of the screen, eyes wide and grinning, the boy looked almost demonic.

"People want to know who said all these things," Kiaan said, scrolling through the feed on his phone. "I'm getting so many messages off random people."

"Any hot women?" Caine winked.

"Miss Day messaged me," he said timidly.

When Caine started to make whooping noises, Kiaan desperately waved his arms to shush him. "She just wants to know if I'm being bullied by another student. She wants to help me."

As the pair argued about the teacher's intentions, Sammy took another look at the book. It sat discarded and forgotten on the top of the drawer, the beautiful faces of the characters taunting him.

'Forbidden love,' he read the title, making a mental note to look for the book online.

"Oh God," Kiaan gasped. "She's seen it."

Sammy saw how the boy’s hands were shaking and knew how he felt. No matter what the situation, there was always a lingering fear of the bully. Even as Mike had cried and groveled, the innate fear of him lingered and continued to haunt him to this moment.

"I see it." Caine smiled. "Let me reply."

Sammy and Kiaan both leaned over his shoulders to watch the drama unfold.

"DONT YOU DARE TELL THEM ITS ME! I'LL REPORT YOU FOR SLANDER!" her message read.

"It's only slander when it isn't true," he replied.

"I'LL REPORT YOU TO FACEBOOK! THEY WILL CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNT."

"I'm pretty sure that's not how the internet works," Caine typed, giggling as he did.

"She's such a dummy," Caine said.

"But since you didn't thank me for blurring your name, I guess I'll edit the post," Caine typed.

The 'your friend is typing message' showed for the longest time, as she was either frantically typing an essay of text or deleting and retyping.

"Please don't," the message appeared at last.

All three boys burst into laughter.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t, and I won't," Caine typed.

As the typing message appeared again, Kiaan muttered, "This should be good."

"I'm sorry," she typed, eliciting another round of laughter.

"Oh, pull the other one, it has bells on it," Caine typed. "You're going to have to do a lot better than that. I'll give you fifteen minutes."

The chat bar wheel turned for a moment before going blank.

"She's gone offline." Caine shrugged. "An odd move."

"Why would she do that?" Sammy wondered out loud. "Unless... you don't think she'd come here?"

The look of panic of Kiaan's face made Caine fall off the chair in laughter. "Don't worry brother, we are here for you."

"Oh geez, my Mum will just let her straight in too, she'll probably try to feed her and all," Kiaan panicked.

"I'm here. It will be fine," Caine soothed him.

Sammy wasn't as strong.

"I—I don't think I can face being in a room with Grace," he muttered.

"She's bullied you too?" Caine asked.

Sammy shook his. "She just watched with this horrible sneering smile while her friends hurt me."

"Sadistic little bitch," Caine spat. He stood and smoothed Sammy's hair with his hand, inspecting his handiwork before touching more gently. "I'll take care of her. I honestly feel zero pity for this one. If you want to head home, I'll call on you tomorrow?"

Sammy nodded, wondering if Caine felt pity for any of the victims. The only one he didn't know was Annabelle Ross—Damien’s choice. Apparently, she was a University student who worked at the games shop. What she'd done to offend Damien so deeply was a question for another time. All Sammy wished to do was leave before that horrid girl showed up to spew the same false apologies as Mike had.

They made him sick.

Sammy hated taking the shortcut through the park to get home, but it was cold and dark and looked deserted as he peeked through the metal bars.

As always, he kept to the wall as to not draw attention to himself. Seeing figures huddled by the gazebo, Sammy felt his heart thudding in his chest. That was where Mike and his friends hung out, and even though Mike had promised to leave him alone, Sammy dreaded bumping into him.

As he saw Mike loping over to him, that familiar feeling returned. The flight or fight response that was never sufficient to drive him into fighting back or running.

"Sammy, I thought it was you," Mike said, matching his pace as he caught up.

When Sammy didn't respond, Mike continued to speak. "I recognized your hair. It's hard to miss now. You kinda look like a Targaryen."

Sammy laughed, but it came out sounding more like a choked cough. He never pictured Mike as a Game of Thrones fan.

A painfully awkward silence fell as the pair continued to walk. It got to the point where Sammy couldn't stand it anymore.

"What do you want?" he asked finally.

"Erm, well, I..." Mike struggled for a moment. "I thought we might be friends now."

Gusts of wind howled through the trees so furiously Sammy thought he might have misheard. He stopped walking and turned to face the taller boy, wind whipping hair across his eyes as he squinted up.

"What?" he asked.

"I... I j—just, I thought we could be friends," Mike repeated.

'Is he for real?' Sammy wondered. The pained, embarrassed but hopeful look on his face appeared genuine enough but why would he want to be friends? It made no sense.

"Why?" Sammy asked.

This question appeared to stump his former bully. He watched as Mike shuffled on the spot, scratching his head and looking about before offering up an answer.

"I... I've been thinking about you a lot," Mike mumbled, as if that explained anything.

The cold began to sting Sammy's ears as he stood, rubbing his face as the wind whipped a light spray of rain in every direction.

He tried blowing into his hands and covering his ears, but it provided little relief.

As he turned to leave, desperate to get into the warmth of his home, Mike removed his scarf and wrapped it carefully around his neck and ears.

"Won't you be cold?" he asked.

Mike shook his head. "I'll be fine."

"Okay, well, bye," Sammy said and went to walk away.

Mike grabbed his hand. Not harshly, but he pulled it away sharpish when Sammy flashed him an angry glare.

"Just think about it. Please?" Mike said.

Confused and scared, Sammy backed away a few steps, turned and ran. He'd never once tried to outrun Mike before. The boy was taller, more athletically built and played sports so it always seemed pointless to try.

'So why run now?' he asked himself.

It occurred to Sammy that he wasn't running away from Mike, rather, the overwhelming situation Mike had placed him in.

Sammy mulled over his words all night; as he sat through dinner with his family, while searching for the yaoi love story online and as he lay in bed staring at the ceiling.

'He's been thinking about me?'