Chapter 2

17 Years Later

The alarm began to buzz and David swung out of bed instantly to stop it. He had to walk across the room to shut it off, having long ago found that unless he was forced to get up he would just hit snooze. He heard movement outside his room so he quickly threw on his boxers. He looked into the mirror and tried to put on a fake smile. Unconsciously he tugged at the choker around his neck.

He began getting dressed for school and thought about the day ahead of him. He always dreaded going to school. It wasn't that he was stupid or anything, quite the opposite. For as long as he could remember anything he questioned or wondered about came to him extremely easily. It was the constant fights and insults that made him dread his daily routine.

He often wondered why people still singled him out when he was no longer a typical nerd. About a year before he had been overweight and he had finally decided to change things in his life. He got a simple gym membership and changed his diet. It was amazingly simple and yet extremely difficult for him.

He headed down to the kitchen and started the stove, letting the eye heat up. He knew he had time, but Beth had made a habit of showing up early. Beth was the last of his childhood friends that hung out with him still. He cracked a few eggs and tossed them into the pan and ran back to his room to put some gel in his hair and spike it up. With that finished he ran back into the kitchen and flipped his eggs. The doorbell rang and he dashed over to it.

"Hi Beth," he said without looking to see who was there. He left the door open as he ran into the kitchen and kicked off the heat. He quickly scarfed them down as Beth sat as his breakfast table. His parents wouldn't be leaving for another few hours yet. He got up from the table and put the dishes in the sink.

"You know if you got up 5 minutes earlier you wouldn't have to rush around like this right?" she smirked at him knowing full well they had an hour before his classes would start.

"Yeah, well if you just came 5 minutes later I wouldn't have to rush either."

He grabbed his backpack and headed towards the door. He opened it for her and she led the way. He noticed that while Beth had always been tall he had just recently passed her in height, which he loved to rub in any chance he got. He knew she hated being teased about being taller than the other boys in class and while she acted like she hated his teasing he knew better.

They walked towards the school and enjoyed the coolness of the morning. They chatted about their weekend and about an upcoming test they had in Science today. The unspoken rule between them was that nobody talks about how the others treated him unless he spoke about it first. They had only talked about it once and that had been quite some time ago.

They reached the school and Beth looked like she wanted to say something to him but he shook his head. He knew that if she hung out with him at school she would receive the same treatment that he got. He could put up with anything they could dish out, but didn't want Beth caught up in things as well.

This plan had been working well for him for the whole school year, but as Murphy's Law states; 'If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong.' The same group that usually hassled him during school hours apparently got wind of him showing up early to avoid them. They looked thrilled when they saw Beth.

"So Beth, how long have you been hanging around with this loser?" Jack moved closer and sneered at them. "You know, we didn't really give two shits about you before. But now I think maybe we will have to pay extra special attention to you now." David stepped forward to block the path between them. Beth gave him a look that told him he should stay out of this but he was having none of that.

"You can pick on me all you want Jack, but please leave her out of this." He groaned at what he just said. How cliché could he get?

"What are you now Davey-boy? Mister Hero? Shut the fuck up before we beat your ass. At least we can get to it later, after we take care of her." Jack reached past David and grabbed her arm. David had not once in his life felt this angry. Normally he just took whatever they dished out and pretended life is fine. Not today, not in front of Beth.

"Get your fucking hands off her Jack!" David grabbed Jack's arm and then he felt a punch land in his side. His buddy Dan was always one for a sucker punch. David staggered back a step and Jack threw his arm around Beth holding her tight. Beth struggled against him and Jack just laughed at her. David could feel the rage building up inside him. Dan swung at him again and he saw black. He shook his head trying to clear the fog from his mind. He felt the choker around his neck begin to get warm. Beth screamed and David saw red.