TW // Depictions of abuse
CW // Profanity
Jax was rather disappointed to see that Logan was not at his seat that day. He wondered for a moment if he had been sent back to Mrs Woods’s classroom, but that idea was quickly dispelled when Kuro called his name during roll call. He probably just had a doctor’s appointment or something. At least Jax didn’t have to use brainpower to speak to anyone this early in the morning.
In case it hadn’t been made clear, Jax Dawson was not a morning person.
He was still a little annoyed at having PE in second period, but he was also thankful that it gave him a chance to wake up. PE took much less effort than any of his other classes and it got his blood circulating.
He at least got to speak to Raymond and Levi in PE. Levi was ever so slightly friendlier than yesterday. Jax smiled to himself, now aware that he was growing on the boy.
They talked about simple stuff: favourite colours, favourite foods, favourite movies and shows. Whenever one of them thought of a story to tell, they would share it. It was simple, but talking about the little things made Jax feel so much closer to them than he had with his old ‘friends’.
He barely got any work done on the group project. His mind was just elsewhere, and he did a little in ELA that morning when they were given free time. He figured he had done enough and that if he needed to, he could catch up in study hall. Thus, he stared at the wall the entire time. Ah, yes. The sand-coloured bricks were so very interesting, the precise divots between them ever so slightly darker. And then that science poster! The crisp, white paper, colours of red, yellow, blue, green, and lots of others stained the page and turned it into a beautiful image.
Jax vaguely wondered if he should try for a degree in English.
His mind flashed back to a short story he had written for a contest in eighth grade. That one was interesting. Maybe he would go back, edit it, and use it as a narrative for English when he was too lazy to write a new one.
That really got his brain working. I should split that sentence up. I remember thinking how much I loved that one when I was writing it, he thought as he reminisced over his past works. Maybe he could restore those old files to his phone and look through all of them. That could turn out to be a fun project.
The bell rang, somehow. He had sat there for the entire class? He wasn’t sure if that was correct. He had done a lot of thinking before his brain moved from the walls to the essay from his junior high days. Perhaps the class actually was over.
Students filtered out into the halls, stopping at their lockers or in the middle of the goddamn hallway to talk. Seriously, some people had places to be.
He weaved through the mass of students, making his way to his locker. The school food was absolute shit and everyone knew it. Still, it was the kind of shit their parents rarely made at home. When Jax had walked into the cafeteria that first day and smelled the grocery store garlic bread that the workers only heated up, he knew he needed to have a bite of it at least once.
While today wasn’t garlic bread and pasta, it was pizza day. The strange rectangular slices that were all too thin and looked the same before and after going in the blender were somehow still appetising to Jax. Maybe that would change when he sat down to actually eat it. Still, it was an experience, right? His old school had actually had half-decent lunches. He hadn’t tasted the plain dough in what felt like forever.
As he sat down alone at a random table for lunch, his mind drifted to his latest attempt at friends. He wasn’t really sure when they crossed the boundary between not-really-friends and friends. Logan was fresh on his mind. Raymond and Levi sat with their group of friends at one table, and Jax had decided to leave them alone at lunch until he was sure they were friends.
Logan was a different story. The boy had seemed like a loner if his actions in first and fourth periods were any indication. But Jax had yet to see the boy at lunch. It confused him. Where was the boy now?
Logan was not at school. No, Logan was in his father’s lake house regretting all his life decisions. His entire body hurt, a stinging pain that refused to go away. That wasn’t even the worst of it. Bringing his phone had been both a great idea and a horrible idea.
He had brought it. He had pressed record. It had recorded about an hour of William slamming Logan against a wall and cutting open his skin, blood dripping out from the wounds. Then he left to eat lunch, leaving Logan home alone. He had picked up his phone and stopped recording, satisfied with the results. He was about to put his phone away when he heard the door creak on its hinges. The sound spelt fear into his heart because it meant his father had forgotten something.
He had barely turned around to face William when his back hit the wall, the open cuts and bruises on it rubbing painfully against the surface. Waves of pain raced through his body as William kneed him in the gut. He tugged Logan’s hair back, pain shooting across his scalp this time.
"What,” William practically growled, "Did I tell you about that goddamn phone?"
Logan swallowed. He was screwed. If his father found out about the video, he was double screwed.
He pushed all the air from his lungs in a silent scream as a fist cracked across his face. That was sure to leave a mark. Fuck, he shouldn’t have brought his phone. He should have brought a smaller camera, something that would be hard to notice. Why hadn’t he been smarter about it?
“You bring that here again and I’ll make you regret it.”
That got Logan worried. His father had explained what he’d do at his worst if it ever came to it, and Logan was outright terrified that he would push his father to the other side of that fine line. If he did, he wasn’t sure he would live to see another day. His father’s wrath was a force, that was for sure.
His father had beaten him until he could hardly stand. Instead, he pressed his back into the wall and curled his knees to his chest, willing the pain to disappear. It hurt like a bitch, but it was the closest thing he had to being consoled.
Finally, finally, after what felt like hours, his father dragged him into the car to go home.
He hadn’t even eaten lunch.
When they got home, Logan was sent straight to his room. He had hidden his phone the moment the door creaked open, and luckily his father was too busy hitting him to think to take it.
He opened his computer and uploaded the file from his phone. From there, he moved it to his flash drive and unplugged it. Kuro would have it tomorrow if he went to school.
He couldn’t help but indulge the question that had been floating around in his eyes ever since that door opened. Was it enough? Was it worth it to be beaten black and blue for an hour of footage? Would the judges even take it if they went to court again?
He hoped it was enough. Despite being atheistic, he wanted to pray it was enough. He didn’t want to go through that again if it wasn’t.
Besides, he wasn’t sure if he would get off so easily if his father found his phone again.
He sighed, leaning back and trying to find a comfortable enough position to lie in for a while. His fingers hurt too much to do anything. His hands hurt, his arms hurt, his chest hurt, his everything hurt. And his limp. He could barely walk. How was he going to hide that at school? Was that even possible?
Maybe he could hang out in Kuro’s classroom the whole day. The school was lenient with him after discovering his situation, allowing him to skip classes if one of his teachers deemed it necessary. Skipping wasn’t the big deal, though — not calling home was. Typically, the school called parents for absences. However, the school would offer him leniency and not inform his father so long as he got his schoolwork done. Granted, he had a limited number of these, but he was thankful for it nonetheless.
Besides, he needed to talk to Kuro anyways.
Sleeping didn’t help one bit. Thankfully, he wasn’t required to come downstairs for dinner. A twinge of hunger ate away at his gut, but he ignored it. He had been forced to go nearly a week with only one meal before. What was a day without eating?
Despite his lack of comfort, the night came and went in a flash. All too soon, it was time for school again. He was already having trouble shrugging his pants on.
He was not having a great week, that was for sure.
Eh, he’s probably fine. Maybe even an impromptu vacation, Jax thought, biting into his pizza.
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