Kurtis jumped when he heard the banging on the door, resulting in another surge of pain in his chest, he had been listening so intently to what was being said between his mother and his aunt downstairs that he had forgotten that Blaise had made his way upstairs. He carefully craned his neck so he could see past the TV at what he had heard being shoved underneath the door. He could just about see a square ,wrinkled, folded piece of paper He was pretty sure Blaise had put it there but didn't know how he was going to get to it. He knew that it was almost definitely going to be something bad and that he probably shouldn't read it but his curiosity had him in a metaphorical strangle hold and he knew that if he didn't go retrieve it now, his mum was going to find it when she eventually came back into his room.
Kurtis took in a large and deep breath, steeling himself for the imminent rush of pain, and using his right arm forced himself up off his bed, receiving a stab of pain in his shoulder in response to the action. Thank God his legs had not been targeted by Joden so were still usable. He slowly stood up and immediately felt a surge of unimaginable pain in his ches, causing him to hunch over and grab hold of the table to keep himself from collapsing. He could hardly bear it was breathing heavily as tears of pain began to form in his eyes. He felt as if a sledge hammer was being banged continuously against his chest but three times harder.
Despite this, his curiosity was still in control and he forced himself to shuffle awkwardly past his bed and around the TV to the door, hunched over and his hand supporting his chest. Having reached the door he paused, he now had to somehow bend down further and pick up the note. As soon as he even attempted to do so, his body almost seemed to scream at him to stop, the pain was more then he was used to and he was almost certain that it was more than should be normal for these injuries. However ,he pushed on, doing his best to ignore the searing pain in his chest and arms, and picked up the note.
He then made the equally painful journey back to his bed and lay back down on his back, his face towards the ceiling. The pain in his right shoulder was too much and he could no longer feel it, despite this he brought his right arm up to his face and ,eager to satisfy his curiosity, opened the note with one hand.
On it read: USE YOUR PHONE FOR ONCE AND COME ON SNAPCHAT YOU FAT PRICK. IF YOU DONT WE'LL EGG* YOUR HOUSE.
Kurtis didn't doubt the threat, it wouldn't be the first time they had egged* his house, Blaise knew where he lived so it was simply a matter of when. The last time they had done it, it was on Halloween last year and it was also the first time. His mum had been furious, luckily it had been on Halloween so he somehow played it off as a local prank people did around that time and since they had just moved in to the area, his mum had had no reason to not believe him. Kurtis knew though, that if they were to do it again ,now that his mum knew of the bullying , he would not be able to play it off or cover for them. His mum would insist on calling the police and they would get arrested and at most fined.
Kurtis didn't want that, nor did he want to or agree with his mum deciding to take yesterday's incident to court against the school and Joden's family for that matter, because he knew it would just make the bullying worse. Even if they got expelled, they knew where he lived and Joden and Blaise normally hung around in the area near the school so could still catch and beat him up after school, not to mention that it wouldn't stop their lackeys that were still at school from targeting him, but he knew it would be impossible to change her mind when she got this angry.
Kurtis was lost, he didn't know what to do. He knew that turning on his phone and going on Snapchat was probably not going to end well, but not doing so would result in his house getting egged probably multiple times and possibly even bricked*.
'going on Snapchat would probably not end well for me, but not going on Snapchat and letting them egg my house would also affect my mum just as much as it would affect me' thought Kurtis.
He lout out a deep sigh of frustration, which only served to remind him of his throbbing and broken rib and did not release any of his stress.
Right now Kurtis felt too tired and opted to take a nap and think about this later. He nestled as deep into his bed as possible without causing himself too much pain and closed his eyes, forcing himself to eventually fall asleep.
It was currently 5:30 pm and Kurtis found himself sat up in bed with his phone in his hand, switching on. After having taken a 3hour nap and eating a dinner consisting of home made fried chicken and fries with a steak burger and salad topped with two thick pancakes (and chocolate syrup) and washed down with a large cup of fruit twist Fanta (his favourite drink), Kurtis felt renewed and although his injuries still hurt, the pain had been significantly dulled by a strong jab of painkiller.
He burped as he swiped up from the lock screen (After face ID) and navigated his way around the home screen before remembering he had deleted Snapchat and having to wait patiently for it to download.
His body was riddled with nervous anticipation as he fidgeted relentlessly with his phone case. Once it had downloaded he immediately booted the app and logged in to his account. He hadn't used this app for over two years now and his return to it certainly wasn't a happy one. Last time he had been on it he had deleted it because people kept on finding humiliating pictures of fat or ugly people and mentioning* him when they posted it on their stories. Even Denku.
When he had finally logged in and accepted all the formality crap about allowing access to his camera and location, he noticed that for once the small speech bubble on his left of the screen had a blue dot on it indicating he had one or more messages. The app had updated a lot and he didn't know how to use it but he eventually figured out (much to his embarrassment) that to go to messages you could still swipe to the right.
He immediately noticed that he had lots of old messages from people who usually bullied him, but that was probably from all the past times they had mentioned him on those pictures. However what really caught his eye was that he had been added to a group chat that was called 'Exposing The fat snake', much to his dismay. The bitmoji on the chat kept on changing and the thought bubble copied it, meaning that multiple people were currently on it. His had shaking profusely, he stretched out a finger and tapped on it.
.....
He felt like crying. As soon as they all saw his green haired and bespectacled bitmoji* pop up in the chat, they began showering him with wave upon wave of insults. They called him fat, ugly, useless, a prick but what hurt him the most was that a lot of them where also insulting his mum. They called her a bitch, a slag, Bela claimed that she was 90% made of plastic from all the plastic surgery she probably paid for, whereas Joden claimed that he had sex with her a couple nights ago and that it only cost 10p to a pound at most to rent her for a night. This earned him lots of laughing emojis in the chat and a couple of voice notes from some, recording themselves roaring hysterically with laughter.
Blaise didn't take part in or laugh at any insults thrown at Kurtis' mum, she was his aunt after all and even if he didn't for Kurtis he had at least the minimum of respect for her, however he did not stop them and was still throwing insults at Kurtis ,making up new ones as he went along. One that earned a particularly large reaction from the others was when he said in a voice note "your so ugly, your obviously not human ,so like... Are you an alien or summin? What do you think of the human race?" In a mock tone of curiosity.
Kurtis was burning with rage, he couldn't believe they had told him to come online just fir this, he felt like punching all of them and in that moment he honestly felt like he would kill them if he could. His vision blurred by tears, he tapped on the chat bar and as soon as the keyboard poped up, began furiously typing as fast as his chubby fingers would allow. He was doing something he never thought he would, he was insulting them back.
KURTIS' CHATBAR:
*laughing emoji**laughing emoji* look at all of u. Ur all pathetic, ganging up on one person like this. A lot of what our sayin is bullshit anyway. First of all I might be chubby but I'm not fat Denku is way larger then me and so r Catherine, Jenna and Oscar. Okay I'm ugly, and what? U all act like ur all so leng* but most of u really aren't. Especially u Kevin, Tana and Maylee*laughing emoji**vomiting emoji* alot of u here r just looking for attention, alot of u r just forcing this cause u want to be mor popular and wouldn't even be here if joden hadnt aded the whole fucking Yr. Speaking of u Joden, how r u gonna violate my mum about being a slag when ur mums always bringing a new man to ur house every week. Bela ur just jealous my mums more beautiful than u will ever be, we all know ful well my mum has never used plastic surgery, well at least she can afford it. Half of u here r in debt with ur banks to just pay for one term at skl especialy Joden u prick, ur parents put so much hope into u only for u to be dropped by every academy*laughing emoji* and to be bottom of the Yr at the school they're breaking the bank for u to attend*disappointed emoji*. Blaise Lemme not even start on u, swear down my mums the one that pays for all ur clothes and for ur enrollment at skl? Y tf r u targeting me , we both know how that ended for u yesterday, have u told ur followers how my mum decided to stop paying for u and how u will probably never see them at skl again. Jorden have u told everyone about u getting expelled and my mum sewing u and ur family in court *laughing emoji* . Bela ur just as much maybe even more of a slag then u claim my mum to be . Swear u said u liked Joden? Then y did I hear u talking with ur own followers last week about how u went to a party and ended up giving Head* to 4 Boys including Joden's cussin Jordan? Yh thats what I thought u pussies. How u all going to insult me when u urselves r way easier to insult? Nonsense*disappointed emoji* the rest of u followers and bitches r not even worth my time
Satisfied with his reply, his heart pounding and not even checking for spelling mistakes, he pressed the send arrow. Everyone in the chat had stopped typing when they noticed him typing and it took them all a couple of seconds to read the lengthy paragraph.
Kurtis immediately regretted having sent it. It was rare that he lost his cool like that and he hadn't been thinking straight. He was scarred, he knew this was all going to end badly and at this rate, his house was going to get egged anyway and most likely bricked.
As expected, the chat was enraged, all of them began typing desperately as Kurtis sat there feeling guilty, he hated insulting people, his mum had taught him to never do it and he would always avoid it if he could.
On their own respective ends, Joden, Blaise and Bela were outraged. Bela and Blaise because they had been exposed and even if they denied these allegations, even if they insisted, not everyone would be 100% convinced ,especially in Blaise's case were it made sense since he never let anyone go in to or see his house except Joden since they were neighbours and why he only got new shoes once a year and never had full school uniform.
Joden didn't even care about the supposed Bela accusation, he was angry because he had been forced to remember how much of an embarrassment and waste of money he was to his struggling parents (who didn't live together) and by Kurtis of all people. The matter of the academies was a very sensitive topic for him, in fact yesterday the reason he had been in a particularly foul mood was because the academy he had been applying for (Chelsea F.C) had rejected him via message that morning and it had hurt him more than usual because he had supported that team for as long as he could remember, which is why he didn't like talking about it. Also because as much as he wanted to say and even if he did say otherwise, he couldn't deny that it was true that his mum often brought in new men ,claiming to be 'searching for the right one' when asked about it.
They were all shocked that Kurtis had retaliated for the second time now and in such a rude and cocky way at that. Joden decide to stop this commencing trend in Kurtis' behaviour as soon as possible and needed a violent way to let off some steam ,so with a knowing smirk on his face he sent Kurtis a private message
- Where r u getting this confidence from u fucking prick, Since ur so confident, On Saturday come Braunsbury Park and we'll see how loud you talk then. If u don't we'll brik ur house
Kurtis' heart sank, a part of him wanted to accept but the more rational part of him was much louder and was screaming at him to pretend he had never seen the message, but he couldn't , one unpleasant surprise he had received when using the app for the First time in two years was that you couldn't half-swipe* messages anymore (well you can but it was much harder now and he didn't know how to), so he had accidentally pressed on it.
He knew it was a demand and not optional. If he didn't accept they would brick his house.
He gulped and fingers shaking, he typed
-okay
Kurtis was mentally drained, he decided that that was enough drama for the day and ,ignoring the group chat and private messages from both Bela and Blaise, turned off his phone, closed his eyes and also ignoring the slowly returning unbearable pain from his injuries, immediately fell asleep.
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* to be egged/to Egg someone -This is when eggs are thrown at a house depending on weather your house is being egged or your egging a house
*Leng -Slang term for sexy and or really handsome
*Bitmoji -Snapchat avatar
*Half-swipe -This is when you half open a message by keeping your thumb or finger on the message and swiping half way across the screen.
Thankyou for reading. Please leave a review and let me know your opinions.