I was scared to death. Deon forced me to walk right next to him when we stepped inside the school. I was a jittery mess. I kept stumbling on my own feet, and every time he made any sudden movements, I flinched in fear.

“That would be funny if it wasn’t so fucking annoying,” Deon grunted after I jumped away from him just because he was brushing his long hair away from his face.

I couldn’t help it. I had no idea what he was going to do with me, but I knew it wasn’t anything good or friendly. I felt like I was a sheep, willingly walking toward the slaughterhouse. I was so afraid that when we finally reached our class, and Deon forced me to sit next to him at the back of the room, I was almost crying.

“Now–” Deon turned to look at me, and I flinched, holding my bag against my chest. “Can you just fucking chill? I swear, if you shit your pants…”

I shook my head vigorously. “I… I… I… w-won’t…” I stammered, but my panicking mind didn’t come up with the words to speak.

Deon looked at me like I was out of my mind. He had no idea I really was losing my sanity because of him.

“Whatever,” he muttered and turned to look at the teacher.

I couldn’t see anything around me. I didn’t even know what class we were in. All I could do was sit in my seat, pressing my bag tightly against my stomach. I couldn’t even breathe when I was sitting so close to Deon.

“Theo! Where are your books?” our teacher, who turned out to be Mrs. Ellis, asked in an annoyed voice.

I turned to look at her slowly. Everyone in the class was staring at me and Deon, and I could see the question in their eyes. They were wondering why Deon was sitting next to me. Then I saw Sean, and he looked angry as hell. He had a black eye and a busted lip, and my first instinct was to look at Deon. His face was fine, but he had a few bruises around his knuckles.

“Theo!” Mrs. Ellis shouted, and I snapped my head back in her direction. “If you don’t have your books, then don’t bother showing up in my class!”

“I… I…” I stammered and hurried to open my bag.

I could hear the quiet snickering all around me, and I blushed in embarrassment.

“Do you have your books?” Mrs. Ellis asked angrily.

“Y-Yes, I h-have…” I mumbled, but I was too nervous to remember what class she was teaching. I wanted to start crying, and I almost did when I remembered the things she had said about me. “I ha-have them here s-somewhere…”

“Here they are,” Deon said and grabbed my tattered English books from my bag, showed them to her, then slammed them on my desk. “We’re fine now,” he added.

Mrs. Ellis glared at us for a moment and then turned around without saying a word. I peered at Deon. He wasn’t paying attention to me. What he just did was the kindest thing anyone had done for me in a long, long time.

“Mr. Williams!” Mrs. Ellis shrieked, freezing my heart all over. “This is the last warning I’m giving you! If you have your books, then OPEN THEM!”

Her face turned dark-red when she shrieked the last part at the top of her lungs. I hurried to obey her, hoping she wouldn’t kick me out. The other students were laughing at me without even trying to hide it anymore. I kept my eyes on the book. I didn’t want anyone to see my tears.

I was so tired of it all…

Quitting school wouldn’t solve anything. I knew it at that moment. Maybe I should just hang myself… I already had the rope. My life would never get any better, no matter what I did. Mrs. Ellis had just reminded me of that. Even adults hated my guts.

“Page sixty-seven.”

I flinched at the sound of Deon’s whisper, and I peered at him from the corner of my eye.

“Just open it,” he hissed at me without looking in my direction.

“Theo!” I jumped when Mrs. Ellis screamed my name again. “Did you hear what I said? I swear to God, if you can’t tell me what page we’re on–”

“Sixty-seven,” I said without hesitation. “We’re on page sixty-seven,” I repeated, hoping Deon hadn’t lied to me.

Mrs. Ellis wrinkled her nose in disgust, but then turned her back on me once again. I let out a relieved sigh and opened the right page.

“That makes it two,” Deon whispered, but when I turned to look at him, he was staring at his book.

“What?” I muttered so quietly that even I had a hard time hearing myself.

“I’ve saved your ass twice now,” he said under his breath.

I stared at him. He was so focused on his textbook that I believed I’d just imagined his words. I wanted to ask why he had helped me. What did he want from me, anyway? Was he just messing with my head?

Someone coughed, and I quickly turned my attention to Mrs. Ellis, who was luckily getting ready to start the class. I really didn’t want to make her angrier at me, so I tried my best to concentrate on what she was teaching.

For a short moment, I thought I’d get through the class without getting in trouble. Mrs. Ellis was determined to get me expelled, so she kept asking me questions, clearly hoping I’d give her the wrong answers. I got them right most of the time, so I really thought I was going to make it.

But then, someone threw a paper ball at me. It hit me on the head, bounced off and hit Deon. He grabbed it as it was rolling over his desk… and opened it. I didn’t think he’d care about it, but he read it, frowned, and turned to look around. I followed his gaze and saw one of the students looking at us. I was pretty sure his name was Peter, and he seemed really anxious when he noticed Deon holding the paper that was meant for me.

I was about to look away from him, but then I saw Deon scrunching the paper, and he threw it at Peter, hitting his forehead.

“Deon! What do you think you’re doing?!” Mr. Ellis spoke with wide eyes.

“He dropped it,” Deon said and shrugged. “I tried to give it back to him, but I guess I have a bad aim.”

Mr. Ellis stared at him for a moment, pursing her lips without saying anything. She squinted her eyes when she looked at me, like everything was my fault. Then she turned her attention to the board and continued her lesson.

I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t take all the fear and ridicule and hate. I started crying, and no matter how hard I tried to stay quiet, the closest students noticed it.

“Look at that ugly face,” they sneered quietly. “That’s the faggiest thing I have ever seen!”

“That’s it! Mr. Williams! Get out of my class!” Mrs. Ellis shouted. “I have tried to be patient with you, but you are just fooling around and disturbing the other students!”

“He’s not fucking doing anything!” Deon surprised us all when he shouted back at her. “The others are bullying him! Are you fucking blind?!”

“Mr. Steele!”

“Do not yell at me,” Deon said. “You’re just a mean old hag targeting the weakest kids. I don’t know if you’ve heard of this thing called social media–”

“All right! Enough!” Mrs. Ellis shouted.

We were both going to get expelled. I was sure of it. I was shivering uncontrollably in my seat, waiting for Mrs. Ellis to respond to him. She looked mad. She looked beyond mad. The whole class was silent in shock. We all knew Deon did whatever he pleased, but he had never spoken like that to any of the teachers.

“Turn the page sixty-nine!” Mrs. Ellis said, trying to act calm and collected, but failed. “NOW!”

Deon shrugged and turned the page of his textbook. Everyone else waited for a few seconds before they snapped out of their disbelief.

“That’s three,” Deon muttered.

I’d stopped crying. I couldn’t believe what he had just done. I couldn’t believe Mrs. Ellis didn’t throw me out of her class. I couldn’t believe she didn’t say a word to Deon about his disrespectful behavior. And I wasn’t the only one.

“What…?” someone whispered. “What the hell just happened…?”

I would’ve loved to know that too.