Work Text:
The first two years of high school had been a mess for Jeremy. He wanted this year to be something new and much more exciting, something more fulfilling and hopefully he’d finally be brave enough to ask Christine out. That was his plan, and sure it didn’t have any steps to it, but he would stick to it and hopefully be able to get with the girl of his dreams. He made his way down the hall, not a care in his mind until he felt himself ru.n straight iron someone else.
Dustin Kropp.
Jeremy knew about almost everyone at the school, he knew who to avoid, who was sort of okay and what would happen based on what he did, by that he knew that almost any word he used would be the perfect word to get himself beat up.
“What the hell, loser. Why don’t you watch where you’re going?!” The slightly taller teenager shouted at Jeremy, and Jeremy took a few steps backwards until he was against a wall of lockers,
“Um, Im sorry, I wasn’t thinking-”
“Hell right you weren’t, you don’t even know how to walk without being a rude ass and running into people,”
“I told you, I’m sorry!”
Jeremy couldn’t react with anything more than a scream when a fist came flying towards his face and hit him, Jeremy stood, he was almost instantly dizzy and the pain in his nose was bad to the point that he was feeling nauseous, but before he knew it Dustin landed another punch on him, this time getting his left eye,
“Jeremy!” He heard a voice shout from a distance,“Are you bleeding?!” He heard the voice again but louder this time,
“The fuck do You want, Michael,” Dustin turned and looked at Michael,
“I want you to get away from my best friend and stop being a jackass,” Michael stated loudly, Jeremy opened his eyes and smiled a bit when he saw Michael, but he wasn’t sure what Dustin would do to him, So of course he was anxious as fuck.
“Michael!” Jeremy said, sliding down the locker to sit on the ground, the pain in his head was just too much he wasn’t sure how much longer he would stay awake.
Michael made his way over to Dustin before he looked him in the eye and punched him in the face, similar to what Dustin has done to Jeremy’s eyes,
“Go away, or else,” Michael spoke calmly as he looked at Dustin,
“Or else what?” Dustin asked, still acting brave,
Michael took off his glasses and looked towards the other boy before he ran off,
“Michael, you saved my life,” Jeremy said, a small smile displayed on his face,
“I wouldn’t say that I saved your life, but I did get rid of that pest,” Michael smiled gently and made his way over and kneeled next to Jeremy,“Dude, your nose looks horrible,”
“Gee, thanks Michael,” Jeremy muttered as Michael removed his jacket and gave it to Jeremy. Jeremy looked at the red jacket, then at Michael and back to the jacket,“What am I supposed to do with this?” He asked,
“Are you that dumb?” Michael chuckled a bit,“Press it to your nose,” he said thinking trying to brainstorm ways to help Jeremy,“And stand up, we’re gonna go to the nurse,” Jeremy nodded in response and slowly made his way up to standing, a little to fast for his body’s liking. He swayed and black dots began to fill his field of vision,
“Whoa! Dude!” Michael said as he dove to catch Jeremy,“You’re not doing well,” Michael whispered more than himself than to Jeremy, he held onto the boy for a minute and steadied him before he wrapped an arm around his waste,
“Dude this is kind of gay,” Jeremy mumbled as the two began their walk,
“What did you say?” Michael jokingly said,“I can’t understand you from under the jacket,” Jeremy rolled his eyes and kept walking, soon the bous made their way into the nurse’s office and seeing them the women jumped and ran to Jeremy, ushering him towards the back of her office to help him.
Michael sat towards the front of the office and waited, reflecting on what had happened. He couldn’t believe that Jeremy was attacked, there nothing Jeremy could’ve done that would’ve been that offensive to get hit. Second, was Michael going to get suspended for punching another student, he honestly wasn’t sure.
He heard Jeremy cry out in pain from the back, the nurse must’ve been looking at his nose, or cleaning it, either way might’ve ended in pain. Michael sighed and his heart hurt for Jeremy, he wasn’t there to protect him what kind of friend was he?! A horrific one, that’s it. Michael was pulled from his thoughts when he heard the nurse speaking,
“Jeremy I’m going to call your father, you can go sit by Michael if you would like to,” Jeremy nodded in response to the nurse then he made his way over to Michael and sat down his head down,
“Dude are you okay?” Michael asked as he gently put his hand on Jeremy’s shoulder, but in response to his question all he got was a small shrug,“Im sorry that he did that to you, next time I’ll be there sooner so you won’t have to even risk getting hurt,”
“But Michael, maybe if I paid attention to what I was doing then I wouldn’t even of had the problem of him getting mad at me,” Jeremy poignée out and in response Michael just shook his head,
“There was no reason for him to punch you, especially if you apologized..You apologized right,” the boy asked, slightly worried about what Jeremy was going to say,
“Of course I did!” Jeremy exclaimed, slightly offended by Michael’s question,“What kind of monster do you take me for?!”
“A real scary one,” Michael responded, then he laughed a bit and looks at Jeremy who just rolled his eyes.
“Mr. Heere, You father said that he would be here to get you in just a few minutes, Why don’t you say bye to Michael and let him get back to class,”
“Right um, bye Michael, thanks for everything, I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Maybe I can swing by tonight! I need more practice driving anyways,” he laughs a bit,“My mom did just get me an awesome PT cruiser,”
“You’re a loser dude,”
“So are You!” Michael said while laughing as he made his way out of the nurse’s office. But that was the moment he swore that he would never allow Jeremy to get hurt every again, he would always be there to protect him no matter what happened. Even if it meant risking his own life, he would do it if it was to safe Jeremiah Heere.