Chapter One

Dante's POV

Hakim stared at me with his green eyes full of disgust. Those emerald green eyes that I loved so much were now cold and icy. He hated me with all his guts, and he never failed to show that with every little chance he got.

“ Fag”, he hissed. He couldn't get creative with his abusive names. It usually made me feel obligated to sit him down and teach him how to properly use abusive names.

“ What did I do this time, Hakim?” I asked, trying so hard to keep my composure as his eyes bored into mine. Some students walked past us and saw what was happening, but the terror in their eyes could only allow them to stare at the whole thing from afar off.

“ I'll tell you what you did”, Hunter interjected, “ I saw you staring at our dicks in the locker room, and it wasn't your first time doing it, you fucking pervert”, he spat on my face.

“ Spare me the crap. You guys flatter yourselves too much, they wasn't even much to stare at”, I said as I wiped the spit off my face, trying to wriggle myself out of Hakim's grip but he was just too strong.

“ Don't give me that bullshit Dante. I've caught you staring at me so many times in the past and it's just freaking annoying, you fucking homo. It's time to teach you a lesson”, Hakim snarled.

He was wrong, but at the same time he was correct. I had been staring, but who wouldn't expect me to stare? The dude was drop dead gorgeous, with a chiseled body and a sex god physique, even his face card was something else. If being handsome was a crime, he would've gotten a hundred years sentence.

I've always had a crush on him since middle school, and he wasn't always this hateful. He was my friend.

Our mothers basically grew up together and went to the same high school, and we lived next door to each other, and so the friendship was transferred from our mothers unto us.

He was born a few months earlier than me, and was always the protector, while I was the protected. He was more like a mixture of a big brother and a friend, but all that changed when we got into sophomore year.

His attitude completely changed. He joined the school football team and started following Hunter and Hazel, and it was only a matter of time until he became popular, so popular that even seniors were swooning over him. He started dating the hot, popular chicks in school, and our bond slowly faded away.

It was gradual and intended, and I couldn't resent him for it. I was the nerd, the soft, unpopular, skinny guy while he was the king of Northwest High, but never would I have imagined that he would turn into the demon staring at me right in the eye.

“ Are you even listening? You demented stupid creature”, he said, following up his words with a slap to the face, one that had my tooth flying from my mouth. I could only hope that it wasn't my front tooth.

“ So what if I did? Huh? What if I did stare at you? I've always liked you, and I am not ashamed of that”, I said with rage, tasting my own blood. I didn't know where the stupid courage had come from, but I knew that I was overcome by a certain kind of madness, the kind that could only suffice because of Hakim, and I prepared myself for the worse, fully aware that the flying tooth was just a tip of the iceberg; he was warming up.

“ You like me?” His question sounded more like a statement, and the taunt on his face made it obvious that he had desecrated his tongue by repeating the statement. For a moment I thought I saw something in his eyes, a flicker of an emotion, an emotion other than hate, but in the blink of an eye it was gone, back to the scrawling hateful, spiteful, cold eyes.

“ Yes Hakim. I've never tried to keep it a secret, nor did I ask you to reciprocate my feelings, so what's the point of all this? Please, just let me go”, I said, desperately trying to free myself from his grip, all to no avail.

That dude was strong!

“ Beat his ass, Hakim”, Hunter encouraged him. If only eyes were guns, I would've killed that sickly son of a bitch that was poisoning his mind.

“ I don't like the way you look at me, Dante. I don't like it one bit. It makes me angry, so angry that I feel like smashing your head against the wall, but I'm gonna give you one last chance to take back what you said, and maybe I'll let you off the hook this time”, he paused and looked at me.

Take it back? Deny the fact that I liked him, and that I still do? Why should I?

“ I won't”, I said firmly.

“ You won't?” Hakim said, his anger steaming, boiling hot.

“ I think he hasn't had enough beating, Hakim. Show him what it means to fuck with you”, Hazel said encouragingly, adding petrol to the already burning fire.

Hakim drew closer and grabbed my throat, pinning me to the wall, “ say you made a mistake, say you have no feelings for me and I'll let you go”, he said, sounding desperate, as if he was the one to be beaten and not the one to do the beating.

Why did it even matter to him that I liked him? If he didn't like boys, couldn't he just ignore me?

“ I like you, Hakim. I've had feelings for you since we were kids. My heart skips a beat every time you're near, and I will die a happy man if you kiss me and killed me”, I declared, pouring out my heart to him in front of the whole school.

I must've really had a death wish.

I couldn't just explain what happened, my madness must've escalated into another level. For a moment, the look on his eyes turned gentle and his grip around my throat loosened.

“ I can't believe this. That bitch just confessed his love for you”, Hunter roared, “ Hakim, why don't you give him a kiss or something”, he said and Hazel joined him in laughing like people that were being fingered in the ass. Hakim's grip instantly got tighter.

“ Fuck you, I'm not gay”, Hakim snarled at Hunter, and turning to me he said, “ one last chance Dante, take it back and promise you won't look at me again, let alone come close”, he said, the gentleness in his eyes disappearing into thin air, replaced by fury.

Nope. I won't shut my feelings up - the young, stupid, stubborn me decided.

“ I still like you”, I said with a hysterical smile, with the intention of annoying him.

That was the last thing I remembered, before waking up in the hospital with broken ribs and arms.

Luckily, dad got transferred, so I had to leave Northwest High; not that I even wanted to stay.

My love for Hakim was replaced with intense loathing, and I made up my mind to forget everything about him.

And I did, I forgot everything about him, until my first day at work, when I had to face him again.