Excerpt:

There was a kid being beaten up about ten feet away from me. It didn't look good but I didn't care to get involved. His aggressors got him onto the ground, two of them held him down, while the third took out a sharpie.

When they were done I went over to him. "F A G O T" was written in dark black on his forehead. I helped him up. He leaned onto my shoulder, like he was hurt, but then he started rubbing me. He was gay - and high. I could tell from the way he talked, and the smell of pot on his clothes. I didn't pull back, not that I wanted anything from him, I was just indifferent.

"You're looking really good right now you know."
"What'd they write on my forehead?"
"You could maybe lick it off for me?"
"Or maybe we could go up to the bathroom and wipe it off."

We did. I didn't ever catch a name from him. I remember his hair was short (a buzz cut) and blond, and he had blue eyes. He was the perfect Hitler youth, except he was gay. He had a larger than average nose. He more or less dragged me to the bathroom and to his credit he didn't actually try anything funny - at first - he just wiped off the marker as best as he could. He got the G and the O out completely so all that was left was an oddly spaced "F A T".

We didn't speak to much. He told me I was an ass for standing there while he was being beaten up, but then he hugged me and took me into a stall.

I tried to close my eyes and pretend he was a girl.

~

"I'll go out first, you should stay in here a while so no one finds us out." He pulled a handful of after dinner mints out of his pocket and swallowed them all whole, one by one. Then he left.

I actually felt pretty good, in a physical sense. I sat in the stall. I saw other peoples feet as they came in and went to the bathroom. I sat in the bathroom for a long time.

I began to realize what happened.

The window suddenly looked very appealing.

I looked out and saw the sky. When I jumped I didn't look at the ground. I stared straight into the sun. A beautiful, sweet sticky orange, that got further and further away.