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Sal was used to being bullied. Having a prosthetic face is a calling card for bullies alike to come and harass him. It's like he had a target painted on his back, fresh meat for those types of people to bring him down because he was different. But it wasn't just the boys who bullied him, some of his tormentors he had in school before he and his father moved out of New Jersey, were female.
They weren't as physically tormenting as the boys were, but they were just as verbal.
Telling him that he was ugly with his blue hair and short stature, that he was a freak for wearing pigtails.
One of the girls even succeeded in removing his mask, making everyone in his class cringe in disgust by the appearance of his face. After that some of the boys then proceeded to shove him into a locker after the school day ended.
Where his father and the janitor found him two hours later.
Sal remembered, just waiting there, not even calling out for help, as he slump against the inside of his locker. Then all at once, he was falling to the floor as his locker swung open, he was just so numb to it all that he could hardly return his father's affection as he hugged Sal, crying, looking sober for the first time in months.
"I'm so sorry, Sal. I'm so sorry all this is happening, but I swear one day we'll get out of here and everything will be alright."
His dad had declared, had vowed. Sal had wanted to believe him, but even he knew that nothing would ever be okay again.
So yes, Sal was used to bullies, had his whole life.
What he wasn't use to was having friends to defend him. To have his back, to hold him up when he physically couldn't anymore.
The first time it happened was with Ashley.
It started when this one girl Natalie and her groupie friends were teasing him, how ugly he was, how his mask freaked them out and how stupid he was for wearing pigtails when he was obviously a boy. Which were all the usual things he's heard before. But then Natalie took it one step further by trying to take his mask off, Sal had an instant flashback to his childhood and he jerked away upon instinct.
Then Ashley came out like a bat out of hell and stood between the girls and Sal.
And Sal could only watch in a daze as she stood there, the sun reflecting off of her, making her look like an angel, a beautiful angel that was coming to his defense.
"You leave him alone." Ashley said in this tone that was obviously threatening. "Nat, seriously. Back off or I'll tell the principal that you abuse your power of being the P.E teacher's aid by skipping class everyday to go make you with your boyfriend in the girls locker room."
Natalie's eyes widened in horror. She looked like a deer caught in a car's headlights. Then her face actually turned red, as her eyes filled with anger. "You bitch! Why are you friends with such a freak, Ashley?"
"Because Sal is better than the rest of us here at this school." Ashley answered casually, like it was the most simplest answer in the world and she believed it. "I'm not kidding Natalie, if I see you bugging Sal again it will take just one anonymous tip to the principal. And bye bye special treatment.”
Sal watched as Natalie clinched her fists and Sal was scared that she might try and actually punch Ashley and start a fight. But thankfully Natalie breathed in, her eye still twitching in anger. "Fine, I won't bother your boyfriend anymore Assley but you know won't be able to blackmail me forever, and when that happens you better start praying."
To Sal's surprise, Ashley actually smiled. "Bring it, Natty."
And with that the girls walked away. Leaving the two of them alone in the hallway. Then Ashley let out a sigh and turned to him. "You okay, Sal?"
Sal blinked at Ashley, completely stunned by what had just transpired. "I— You... You helped me." He said stating the absolute obvious.
Ashley smiled at him, "Of course! I wasn't going to let those girls bully you! Or try to take your mask off, without your consent." Her voice is genuine and honest.
Sal didn't know what to say, or what to do. He never had someone, let alone a classmate actually stick up for him before. He never had someone that would go out of their way to help him.
It was all just a little overwhelming.
"Sal, what's wrong?" Ashley asked, looking concerned now as she saw the tears cascading from behind his mask and dripping off his chin.
He wiped at his chin, shaking his head and letting out a small laugh,"N-Nothing." His heart felt full and his emotions at Ash's display of genuine kindness towards him, making his feelings towards her grow that much more. "It's just... I haven't had any girl stand up for me before. Even before I had..." He gestures to his mask, "This. I didn't have any friends that were girls. And that became more scarce after this happened... I mean, what girl would want to be friends with a deformed guy?"
Ash placed a hand on his shoulder and his cheeks flushed immediately. "Sal, you'll be happy to know that I'm not like other girls, thank god honestly. I think you're amazing, and I’m happy to your friend. And no girl or boy for that matter is gonna bully you when I'm around, and when I'm not around Larry and Todd will make up the difference."
Sal smiled, letting out a chuckle, "Thank you, Ash."
She smiled back, patting his back gently, "You're welcome."
The second time was with Larry.
It was after his dad and Lisa got married a month after Sal had turned sixteen. It had been a beautiful wedding, held at the church where various members of Lisa and Henry’s family showed up to attend along with some of the locals at Nuckfell too. Everyone was dressed formally, in the proper clothes that one would see in a wedding. Even Larry had cleaned himself up. Dressed in a dark green button up shirt, with his beard neatly trimmed, and his hair pulled back in a ponytail. Larry had even made it his goal to not smoke a single bit of weed the entire week before the wedding. Sal could only smile in sympathy when he noticed his best friend had tears in his eyes after the justice of the peace announced his dad and Lisa as husband and wife.
And for Sal, after seeing his dad miserable for years since his mom died, it also brought a few tears to his eyes as well, seeing his dad so happy again.
After the ceremony was complete and all the guests from the local town of Nockfell filed out and went home, Sal and his newly reunited family, along with various members of Lisa's family, stayed to clean up.
It was only after when he and Todd put away all the chairs did one of Lisa's very drunk relatives walk over to him and asked about the dress he was wearing.
Sal and Todd tried to ignore the man, until he started to get more insistent. Calling Sal such vulgar, inappropriate and hurtful names. Until Todd chimed in that Sal offered to be the flower girl since Lisa and Henry didn't have one.
But that didn't seem to be enough for the man, in fact that merely only seemed to piss him off more. He reached forward and grabbed Sal by his hair and pulled. The pain only lasted a second, before Sal felt the hand suddenly let go as Larry came out of no where and barreled right into the man.
Larry stood in front of Sal and Todd with his arms out, ready for a fight. "The hell are you fucking doing, Uncle Albert!?"
Uncle Albert looked at Larry as though it was the first time he ever saw him, "Larry... I wazn't doin nothing."
Larry glared at his uncle, "The hell you weren't! I saw you pulling on Sal's hair, which is not fucking cool, dude!"
Todd chimed in yet again, his voice holding no regret, "He also was calling Sal the most inappropriate words simply because of the outfit he is wearing."
Larry looked like he was about to punch someone's teeth in, as he turned back to his uncle, "You were fucking what!?" Sal noticed that Larry was clenching his fists so hard it looked like his palms might split open. "Listen, dude, I know that old people have a way of viewing things. But I would fucking appreciate it if you didn't bad mouth my new brother after my mom just got married." Larry unclenched his hands and let out a sigh, "So get off your ass and fucking sober up before my mom sees you."
Larry’s uncle blinked at him once, before standing up on shaky legs and walking away. “You okay, Sally Face?” He asked, concerned eyes trained on him, “He didn’t hurt you too bad, did he? I’ve gotten into a couple gang fights so I know that hair pulling can hurt like a bitch.”
Sal, despite himself, felt his throat close, overcome with genuine emotions, “I’m.. I’m fine.”
Larry’s eyes only widened in more concern, placing a hand on Sal’s shoulder, “Dude, your crying, are you sure he didn’t hurt you?”
“Yeah,” Sal nodded, letting out a chuckle, “You called me your brother.”
Larry blinked, the sentence confusing him, then grinned and ruffled Sal’s blue hair, “Well yeah, dude. After everything we’ve been through, and our parents getting married, of course you're my brother.”
“I always wanted a brother.”
Larry chuckled, and nudged his shoulder with his fist, “Me too, dude.”
It was the best moment of his life.
The third time was actually both Ash and Larry together.
His memory of his mother’s death was… fuzzing. Back as a kid the concept of death eluded him because he was so young. He merely thought his mother was in the hospital and that she would get better, hence why he chose a hot pink mask as his new face so that his mom would recognize him.
He remembered the sun on his face from that day, at the park as he and his mother waited for their father to show up from work, remembered his mother crying and a dog barking in the distance, he recalled his mom hugging him so tightly before a loud bang rang out and Sal was overcome with a white hot agony. And then nothing, he woke up in the hospital after that, where bandages covered his face and his dad told him that his mother was gone.
The doctors asked him questions about his health, he was even assigned a therapist and was given Gizmo a few months later, while his dad was constantly asking him what happened.
And while he remembered bits and pieces, the one thing that he recalled vividly was the dog barking in the distance, even nicknaming it the Dogman, at one point.
So it was only natural that he developed a fear of dogs, anytime he heard a dog bark in the distance, Sal would always freeze up with fear. It would even happen when he was around his friends. The trauma held him coming to the forefront of his heart, fearing for his friends lives more than his own.
Something that Larry and Ash noticed and gently asked him if he had a phobia of dogs one day, while they all hung out in Todd’s room. He was fortunate that he had such understanding friends, because all he had to say was that his fear of dogs and why he had this mask in the first place were linked.
Knowing that they relatively knew the truth, filled him a warm feeling, but like always that feeling didn’t last.
He had just walked out of the store one day, with a bag of groceries, heading back to Addison Apartments when he heard a growl behind him, his veins turned to ice as he froze in fear, slowly he turned his head and saw the dog standing there, baring his teeth and foaming at the mouth.
Rabies
Great…
Slowly, very slowly, he gripped the bag he held in his hand, took a deep breath and tossed it in the dogs direction, hoping that would distract the dog long enough for him to make his escape as he blindly booked it down an alleyway. But it didn’t take him long to realize that in his desperate attempts to escape the dog, he quickly had gotten lost in the twisting alleyways that Nockfell had. He tried to calm himself, tried to gain some composure back into his senses, but he could hear the dog chasing after him. His thoughts were filled with nothing but a paralyzing fear, his mind flashing back to that day, where his mother held him so tightly in her arms, her agonizing screams piercing his ears to the point where he thought they’d bleed.
He couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think about anything other than upending doom that would befall him as he saw the shadow of the dog standing before him. Sal pressed his back against the gate and pulled at his pigtails.
Then he felt something solid barrel into his side, the force of it caused him to crash to the ground. His ears rang, his head was consumed with a vertigo that felt his stomach churning, as he felt the lunch he had eaten hours ago coming back up the longer he laid there.
When his vision cleared he saw Todd standing over him, “Are you alright, Sal?”
“T-Todd?” Sal blinked at his friend, tears dripping down his cheeks, his brain unable to process what he was seeing as reality or just a dream, he desperately held onto Todd’s offer hand, equal parts overjoyed to see a familiar face and terrified for him, knowing he could be in danger, “T-Todd?”
Todd helped him sit up while his friend wrapped an arm around his shoulders, “Please, try to breathe, Sal. Or else you may go into shock.”
He tried to do what Todd said, and for a while it was actually starting to work.
Then something caught his attention behind Todd, he tilted his head to the side to get a better look only to see Ash and Larry fending off the dog by themselves.
Then the fear he felt before, the fear he felt for himself was now replaced with a paralyzing dread for Ash and Larry, as the image of his mother’s dead body flashed in his mind, he tried to get up and help his friends but his body refused to move.
Eventually, Larry and Ash were able to scare the dog off when Ash kicked a trash can in the direction of the animal causing it to trip and let out a loud snarling whine before it ran off in the opposite direction.
He heard both Ash and Larry let out a long exhausted sigh before leaning against the brick wall and sitting down, high-fiving one another
Sal sucked in a sharp breath as his body finally decided to move, “Ash! Larry!”
He ran towards them like his life depended on it, falling to his knees when he watched them, Looking at the state of them both made him want to vomit.
Both Ash and Larry were covered in scratches. Ash had a nasty gash above her temple from where she hit her head against the wall that was bleeding profusely, while Larry had a puncture wound on his arm from where the dog had bit him and a bleeding nose. “Oh my god… Oh my god…” He felt like he was going to pass out from the fear and guilt he felt.
“Hey, Sally Face, you okay, bro?” Larry asked him as he wiped at the blood from his nose with his hand.
Ash let out a puff of air, dabbing at the blood from her gash with her sleeve, “Yeah, you scared us half to death when you mass called us in a panic about a dog chasing you.”
“Yeah… lucky Todd was able to track your phone and we all rushed over. But man, that was a close one, bet your glad Ash and I were able to get here before that dog did anything to you.”
But Sal was hardly listening to the words his friends were speaking. His body trembled, his mind felt dizzy, and fresh tears were slipping down his cheeks.
“Oh Sal.” He heard Ash whisper, before he felt her gently pull his mask away from his face. The removal of his prosthetic was like lifting a veil away from him and he suddenly felt exposed like a nerve, he felt like he was feeling everything all at once and also not at all. He could have very nearly lost his friends, today.
Hell, he could still lose them, Ash could have a concussion for all he knew and Larry could have rabies from that dog bite.
“Dude, it’s okay.”
Sal shook his head, tears still falling from his eyes, “No it’s not!” His hands shook as his body moved and he wrapped both his arms around his friends, pulling them both into a tight embrace as he sobbed. “You idiots! Morons! How you could!? You both could have fucking died! Why would you do that!?”
Sal felt Ash and Larry return his embrace, as Ash pressed her shin into his hair, “Because we love you, Sal. You’re the glue that holds this group together. Why wouldn’t we save you from something you're afraid of?”
He felt Larry pat his head, “Yeah, dude. Before you, I was just a loner kid smoking weed and living in the basement, no way I’m letting some mangy dog hurt my brother.”
Sal felt his throat close, and he swallowed hard, as he held his friends tighter to him, “God, I love you guys too. Just please, be more careful… I don’t know what I would do if I ever lost you guys. You three are my family.”
They all held him, until Todd suggested they both get their injuries treated.
And despite the fact that the doctors were choosing to keep his friends overnight to make sure Larry didn’t have rabies and Ash didn’t have a serious concussion. While he still was consumed with fear over having almost lost his friends, Sal felt himself smiling, grateful to have friends like these.