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When I woke up I had a feeling it was around the same time I had woken up yesterday afternoon. I looked out the window hopefully. Hmm. Just a few teenagers in a group walking around the corner. I didn’t think Drew would be in a pack like those kids. I went outside anyway and sat on the bench down the road. I listened to the singing birds and waited patiently, then I heard something that didn’t belong in the picture, loud thumping and shuffling, a boy whimpering and another voice grunting. I quickly got up and ran towards the sound, what if it was Michael? What if he was hitting Drew! My heart sped up and in a panicked rush I followed the sound to between a shed and an L shaped toilet block. It was at the other end of the park behind some houses. What I saw horrified me, Michael was kneeling over a thin pale boy with bruises on him, he was endlessly slamming his fist into the boy and he looked terrifying. His teeth were bared and animal-like in his rage. The boy was curled into a ball whimpering and gasping as each punch rocked him. That was all saw before anger consumed me and I ran into Michael and shoved him into the floor. He was much more muscular than me and bigger too but I really couldn’t care. He jerked under me and growled again like a beast. I punched him in the face with relish and anger, all I could see was him. I lifted up and punched him hard in the face again. Again and again was all I could think. Hit him hit him hit him. Hurt him. He still fought under me and managed to grab my neck with strong hands and try to strangle me. It hurt. But I was in this moment and I didn’t care about myself, only Drew crumpled painfully into the floor and Michael who had beat him up so hard. My Drew. I ignored my blackening vision and sore throat and hit the beast one last time in his ugly mean face.
I breathed heavily in and out. Michael had stopped struggling and his hand had dropped to the floor. I saw what I had done to his face. It was bruised in lots of colors and his lips were bleeding. The sight should have terrified me, made me feel guilty, but no, I thought. Good. I got off him and walked over to Drew. I knelt and looked at him, my poor boy, his face was almost as bad as Michaels and he was shuddering. He was still whimpering and I noticed tear tracks down his face. I touched him gently on the shoulder; I couldn’t live with myself if I had scared him. I didn’t want to scare him, not that. He looked up at me though shiny eyes and wet eyelashes. The look on his face was unidentifiable. It was powerful but I didn’t know what it was.
“Are you ok?” I asked carefully.
He didn’t answer me. At least with words. He shifted on the floor and leant into the wall, I knelt and then he fell into me. I was alarmed at first because I thought he had lost strength and collapsed. But then he wrapped his arms around me like he was strong after all. How did he have the power to do that? To hold me so tightly when he had been beaten so harshly. I felt a deep sentiment for him inside me; I didn’t need his words to know his thoughts. He trusted me. He thanked me. And he wanted me, to hold him. I held him close and tight into me. It was the most intimate thing I had ever felt. We sat on the floor and I held him for as long as I could, I never wanted to let go. I wanted to protect him forever. After a time he stopped shuddering and gave a shaky sigh. He lifted his head up and I could see a purple mark spreading beneath his eye. A yellow mark across his jawline and his lip was bleeding a little too. The bruises on his face made me so angry but I knew being angry wouldn’t help so I calmed myself down. I stroked the side of his face, careful not to touch his bruises. I ran my hand over his back soothingly. I was trying to calm him down, to let him know I was here for him. I did this again and again until he looked up at me and his soft eyes lost their scared look and he did something that shocked me.
He smiled.
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