Page 8 of I've Walked Where You've Been
Matty sighed. “Let’s go to the room, yeah? I need to fucking sit down.”
Ethan followed him silently, for once, and closed their dorm room door softly behind them as they stepped inside.
Matty looked around. “Where’s that first aid kid we were given at the start of the year?”
“I don’t need a first aid kit.”
Matty ignored him. “Oh, shit, yeah—the bathroom.”
By the time Matty came out with the kit, Ethan was sitting on the edge of his bed, glowering at the floor.
“Ok, just a bit of disinfectant, I think. Too big for a Band-Aid.”
“I’m fine.”
“Can you just let me do this?” Matty barked out, regretting his tone instantly. “Fuck, sorry, just. That was scary for me too, okay? I could feel you freaking out. I just need to…just let me, okay?”
Ethan stared at him for a moment before nodding mutely.
Matty’s mind was quiet and blank as he held Ethan’s arm gently, dabbing at his elbow with antiseptic. “Anything else?” he asked, voice low as if wary of breaking the silence.
Ethan unfurled his hand, showing him the scrape there.
“They push you against a wall or something?”
Ethan nodded. Matty dabbed the blood away and then cleaned it up.
“Anything else?”
Ethan shook his head. Matty let go of his hand, realising he’d just been holding it for the last few seconds.
“Okay.” He put everything away in the kit, sitting back on the floor and looking up at Ethan. “Does that, like…happen a lot? Has it happened before?”
“Not like that. They’re just…”
“Why are they picking on you?”
Ethan snorted. “’Cause I’m a freak, apparently.”
“The hell does that even mean?”
“The hell if I know. They just don’t like me.”
“You gotta tell me if that keeps happening. This is bullshit.”
“Oh, why, so you can join in?”
Matty had to take a moment to process that, looking up at Ethan incredulously. “Are you fucking serious? I just saved your ass from a pair of losers that are apparentlybullyingyou in a fucking bathroom, and you say that shit to me?”
“Whatever. As if you don’t think the same thing about me. You might not beat me up, but you’re as bad as them.”
Matty gaped at him for a moment before his face crumpled into a scowl. “You know what?” he growled, standing up. “Fuck you.”
Matty made sure to slam the door behind him as he left.
**********
“I mean, can you fucking believe it?” Matty ranted, pulling up fistfuls of grass in irritation.
