Requital hope

Forty

One thing that was as important to me as the picture of me and my grandma was a shirt. it was one of Kat's. While I did move on with my life after her death I kept that shirt in my locker to remember her. I had thought my lockers were the safest place for things like these, but with all that's happened I can say I was sorely
mistaken.

"What the hell..." I sighed angrily under my breath. One of the guys seemed to catch it and came over.

"Holy..." He whispered. Our murmurs and whispers drew the attention of every soul in the room and eventually everyone was coming over, including the coach who had just entered.

"What the hell Martin?!" He shouted, calling me by my last name.

"I... I don't know, I think someone might have sabotaged my locker." Was this going to become a thing now? Is there someone out to get me? I still don't know what I did to deserve this.

"No, they were looking for candy." The coach spouted with sarcasm "NO SHIT IT WAS VANDALISM." He yelled as if it were obvious, and it was.

"Nicholas, show him where the spares are. Hurry up, I don't want anyone being tardy,
especially for this game." Coach shooed us off with a sigh.

"Understood." Nicholas responded, throwing out a goofy salute.

We got out in the now almost abandoned halls of the school and headed for what I assumed to be the coach's office.

"Dude, I think someone is pranking you. Nicholas said, walking alongside me.

"It's much more than a prank." I informed him.

"It's far beyond personal now. When I find out who did this it's not going to be a pleasant sight."

"Yo man, I think you need to chill. You don't want to repeat the Parker incident do you?" He reasoned

"It's much more serious than that, and there's no going back now." I grumble. The 'Parker incident' Nicholas was referring to was something that happened a couple of months after Kat's death. I overheard some of my classmates talking trash about Kat and her suicide. Looking back on it now I know they were just immature and idiotic, but back then I didn't give a shit. During lunch break, I hauled Parker out of the cafeteria and into the dirty school bathroom. He was demanding that I let him go the whole time. I shoved him against the wall and began throwing a barrage of solid punches at him. By the time I felt like he'd had enough my fists were covered in blood and let me just say he looked much worse. I panicked and left him in the bathroom, sitting in a puddle of his blood. Most of it was from his nose but I cut him up pretty bad.

One of the students found him there and took him to the nurse's office. When he regained consciousness he told one of the teachers that I was the one who beat him. I ended up getting suspended for a long time. But after that incident, everyone didn't dare mention her name, whether it be good or bad.

I've had anger issues for awhile now, but they haven't really been anything to worry about as of recent. Aside from me getting easily pissed off by my friends and family, they haven't been present, and when I met Yibo they became almost non-existent. He's like the ice to my burn, he keeps me calm and happy. Whenever he's around things seem much more bearable. Hopefully, he brings me good luck for the game tonight.

Speaking of which... I have decided to tell him how I feel, whether or not he returns those feelings. I just hope he won't resent me if he doesn't feel the same way I do. But like I said, I'm going to tell him, right after the game is over.

"Here we are." Nicholas said, snapping me from my thoughts. He pulled out a key from his pocket and unlocked the door to the coach's office. We entered the darkening room, the setting sun shining its final seconds of light through the blinded window near the coach's desk.