Chapter 7

The next day, Arthur arrives at school, it was a day like any other, but for some reason he felt a strange feeling, for him something was wrong. When he gets to class he sees Leon, he was cleaning his wallet with a piece of cloth, Arthur decides to go to him.

-Hey... how's it going? (Arthur)

Leon just ignores him and sits at the table, causing Arthur to leave him alone for now. The signal knocks indicating that it was lunch time and once again Leon takes his lunch and leaves towards the cafeteria without waiting for Arthur. Without being able to do anything Arthur eats his lunch while watching Leon alone in the corner with no one around him, it made him sad, his friend was suffering a lot with the loss of his mother and there was nothing he could do to bring her back, there was nothing he could do for him.

When the lunch hour ends, Arthur goes back to his room before everyone else, but before opening the door it looked like there were some people talking inside him, he then immediately opens the door and is faced with those sophomores he had quarreled the day before, for some reason they were around Leon's desk.

-Damn we have to get out of here. (student)

They run out the back door, Arthur didn't know what was going on, why were they here? He walks towards Leon's desk and sees that some things were written in pen.

-What is it? (Arthur)

"Die!"; “The world would be better off if you didn't exist”; “worms are just worms, you'll never be anything else”; “why don't you do the favor for humanity and kill yourself?”; “I think it's amazing how society accepts giving birth to people like you”; “because you don't kill yourself soon”. These were some of the sentences that were written on that table, people started to enter the room and Arthur when he saw Leon entering, enters in front of his desk so that he doesn't see it. But unfortunately he already knew what was going on, he walked in holding a cloth and started cleaning his desk. When he sees Leon cleaning his desk he notices that there was a mark on the corner of his mouth.

-What did they do to you? (Arthur)

-... (Leon)

-What did those guys do to you? Tell me Leon! (Arthur)

-Tell you for what!? So you can start another fight with them? You always talk and do what comes to your mind without thinking about the consequences. Because of you…because of you acting like this without hearing me that I'm going through all of this. If you hadn't started that fight none of this would be happening to me. IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!! (Leon)

-Leon... (Arthur)

Arthur stretches out his hand to try to comfort his friend, but Leon ends up hitting her to keep her from touching him.

-It's over, don't talk to me anymore please. (Leon)

-Okay... (Arthur)

Inside the sophomore class, classes were over and the group of kids who had been bullying Leon were leaving.

-Hey Derek, you think we should be doing this. (student)

-Huh? Do you happen to think that what we are doing is wrong? (Derek)

-No, that's not what I meant. (student)

-Tell me what was it then that you wanted to talk? (Derek)

-You know, that guy saw us doing this and if he decides to hit us again? (student)

-Yes, yes, if he gets mad he'll come at us. (student 2)

-I do not care. We have to make him pay for what he did to us, so I'll never stop tormenting that worthless man's life. (Derek)

-Hey Derek, look at this. (student)

-Which? (Derek)

-There was a letter on the floor when I opened the door. It's that guy who hit us, he told us to meet him in front of the gym where there's no one. (student 3)

-And now Derek, we're lost, what are we going to do? (student 2)

In front of the gym, Arthur has been waiting patiently when he sees them approaching.

-Why did you call us here? If you want to fight, you don't need to say anything, you can come up. (Derek)

-Hey Derek what are you talking about? Are we really going to fight him? (student 3)

-I wanted to ask you a favor. (Arthur)

-What? (Derek)

-I wanted you to stop tormenting Leon. (Arthur)

-You have a lot of courage to ask this, even after you've done that with us you still think we'll stop just for... (Derek)

-In exchange for that... in exchange for you to stop tormenting Leon... I'll let you beat me all you want. (Arthur)

-Hey, hey, is he serious? (student 1)

-Never! This is definitely a trap. (student 4)

-Hey Derek, I think we better... (Student 2)

-You will be beaten without defending yourself and without asking for help or calling some teacher for us to stop, if you do I accept your agreement. (Derek)

-OK. (Arthur)

-Fine, so we have a deal. (Derek)

Derek walks towards Arthur and when he gets in front of him starts to stare at him, looking into Arthur's eyes, he realizes that they were empty, as if he didn't feel any emotion. Derek opens a smile and knee him with all the strength in Arthur's belly making him kneel on the floor, right after that he started to beat him. Derek's group, who were at the beginning a little scared to see that the boy wasn't fighting back, started up and started kicking him. Arthur did not stop beating and in the middle of it he hears a noise like a branch being stepped on by someone, at that moment he starts coughing blood. When looking at that, instead of feeling remorse or pity and stopping, those students were extremely happy and excited about it and kept hitting Arthur more and more. After half an hour of direct beating, a heavy rain started to fall on the place and as the second year students were already satisfied they left, leaving Arthur lying there all bloodied without being able to even get up. Looking forward, he realizes that there was no one near him, lying there on the ground, in his own blood that mixed with the rain. Desperately he tried to move as he crawled, but gradually he lost consciousness until his vision began to blur and he passed out in the midst of all his blood mixed with the rain.

Regaining consciousness, Arthur was still too weak to make any move, but when he opened his eyes he realized that he was in a very bright room and felt devices around his body, looking to the side he saw the figure of his father. staring with a smile on his face.

-Good night Arthur, how are you? (Logan)

Looking more closely at his father's face he notices that there were red marks on his eyelid and just below it, his father must have been suffering a lot from the situation he found himself in, but he didn't want to worry him so he must have cleaned it up. his face before Arthur saw him.

-Where I am? (Arthur)

-Here is the regional hospital, a teacher found you lying on the floor and brought you here, they called me and I came running. (Logan)

-I see... (Arthur)

-Looks like you're still quite tired, so just rest well to recover faster. (Logan)

Arthur looks at the clock beside his bed which was reading 16:48, after which he subtly closes his eyes and goes back to sleep. When he wakes up again the clock read 20:18, he looks around and sees his father who remained there beside him, however on the other side of the bed he noticed that there were two people and when he looked better it was Leon with his father who were completely devastated by Arthur's situation, Leon stood with his head down crying.

-Leon? (Arthur)

-Why? Why did you do that? (Leon)

Arthur wonders what he was talking about.

-They warned me, they said "thanks to your idiot friend we will stop messing with you". Why did you do such a thing!? (Leon)

-Do you still ask me why? It's because we're friends Leon. That's why I did it. (Arthur)

Leon looks with a surprised face and goes back to be crestfallen crying even more, not knowing what to say to his friend.

-Moron. (Leon)