Blackmailed by a Bully
8

Nathan walked over to his friends, ready to tell them about the item he'd found last night. He hadn't managed to catch up with them online or by text, and he was just dying to show off his good luck. "Guess who got the fireling pet?" he asked. Its drop rate was literally one in a million.

They said nothing, putting their heads down and scurrying away.

He'd experienced this kind of behaviour from his classmates before. The ones who would pretend to be his friends for a cruel joke. But he was pretty certain this was different, as much as it hurt his insides. "Hey... what did I do?" he asked, chasing them.

Brian, his best friend turned to face him, eyes full of terror. "You've been marked. If we hang out with you... Damon will target all of us. I'm really sorry Nathan."

With that, they turned and literally ran.

When Nathan turned around, he understood why they had scarpered so fast.

'Damon.'

He mentally prepared himself for the beating he was about to get. It was pointless doing anything else.

"Wow." Damon scratched his head, looking disgusted. "Your friends are a bunch of worthless pussies. I mean... what kinda people hang their mate out to dry like that?" For the first time in his life, he felt forced to agree with Damon-king of bullies.

"It's okay," Damon said, placing an arm gently over his shoulder. "You don't need those loser friends anymore. You're going to join my little gang."

He had to be joking.

Surely to God, he had to be joking.

"You've met Ben, Ron, Granger and Chelsea," he said, pointing at his friends.

"Uh, yeah, hi," Nathan muttered, feeling like he was in a dream or hallucination of some description.

"Alright, mate," Ben said with a smile.

"Hey," Chelsea smiled sweetly. "Can I give you a makeover? I feel like you'd be hot with a bit off effort."

Nathan couldn't control the look on his face. He felt like his skin was melting.

"Don't be a bitch," Granger said.

"I'm not!" Chelsea protested. "He'd be hot without those glasses."

"I wear glasses!" Ben cried.

"Yeah, but your ones are pretend. The lenses aren't four inches thick," Chelsea cried.

Without warning, she pulled the glasses from his face, blinding him instantly. Memories of Christian deliberately breaking his glasses on many occasions flooded his brain. "Oh my," she said, putting them on. "That's headache-inducing."

She leaned over, staring at Nathan.

"See. I told you he'd be hot without them, right?" she said.

It was strange, but she sounded genuine.

"Yeah. Do the makeover after school," Damon said. He turned to Nathan and whispered. "Just go along with it. She loves that shit."

Nathan nodded. Was he really going to hang out with Chelsea Farson after school?

It didn't seem like anything that would happen in the real world.

The group continued to talk to him as they moved toward their classroom.

"See, I knew he was like Superman and Clark Kent," Chelsea said with a proud smile. She passed the glasses back to Nathan, who was just grateful they hadn't damaged them. "You... like comic books?" he asked her.

"Doesn't everyone?" she replied. He couldn't picture the coolest girl in school reading the same nerdy comics as he did. She suddenly seemed a whole lot hotter. 'And dating Ben,' he reminded himself.

Ben was considered the hottest guy in the school. Of course she would choose him. They were the perfect couple.

Throughout the lesson they made conversation with him, treating him like an actual human being. It was too weird. Everyone was staring and whispering.

Someone commented loudly that it had to be a joke or a trick.

Nathan tended to agree, but what was he going to do about it?

Even if it was a trick, it was better than being beaten black and blue behind the bike sheds.

After the lesson, Damon whispered something in Ron's ear. Ron nodded and left. Then Damon turned to Nathen and told him that he had a surprise lined up for him.

'And this is where it turns nasty,' Nathan thought, trying to swallow away his fear. He followed them to the bathroom with a heavy heart.

Once inside, he saw Ron. He was hunched over someone, but Nathan couldn't see who it was. Ron was almost as tall as Damon and twice as wide. He was a monster of a guy. "What the hell is this?" a familiar voice cried. A voice that made the hairs on Nathan's arms stand up.

'Christian?'

"I'm going to punish him for you," Damon announced. "How does that sound?"

Christian twisted and stared up at him, eyes screwed up in confusion.

"Why?" he cried. "Why are you doing this?"

Damon kicked him in the head. "I do what I want. When I want."

Both Damon and Ron kicked him repeatedly, not bothering to avoid his face.

Damon turned to Nathan with a huge grin. "How badly do you want us to hurt him?"

Nathan thought about it for a moment.

His first instinct was to tell them to stop now. That this was enough. His first instinct was to show kindness to the one who had terrorised him.

'He made your life hell. He made you want to kill yourself. And he enjoyed it,' he reminded himself.

As he stopped to think about it, he realised the others were all pausing, looking at him and waiting for an answer.

"Fuck him up," Nathan uttered.

"Whoo!" Damon exclaimed with joy. He seemed more than happy to get the go-ahead. Both he and Ron beat the absolute crap out of Christian who could do nothing about it. As they beat him, Chelsea and Ben emptied his stuff from his bag into the toilet.

Christian had passed out before the bell went.

Damon sat on his unconscious body and lit up a cigarette as Granger crawled up onto the toilet stall to place his hand over the smoke detector.

Damon hadn't even asked him to do it.

'He's well trained,' Nathan thought.

As the others also lit up, Chelsea offered Nathan a drag of her cigarette.

Normally, he wouldn't touch a dirty cancer stick in a million years.

'But it's been on Chelsea's lips,' he thought.

He took a drag and was proud that he managed to not cough his lungs up onto the bathroom floor.

"First time smoking?" Damon asked.

Nathan nodded.

"You have to breathe it back like this," Damon instructed, showing him how it was done.

Nathan copied, and this time, he did cough rather dramatically.

He expected them to tease him, but they all admitted the same thing happening to them the first time.

"You'll get the hang of it," Damon said.

'Well, that's decided,' Nathan thought. 'I guess I'm a smoker now.'