That day I met a guy who reminded me of who I wanted to be. 

 

“Hit him hard!”

“Oye oye what’s the matter? He stopped moving suddenly”

“What a bore! Don’t you have a little more fight in you?”

I could faintly hear heavy voices around me as I lay on my stomach on the ground. This was not something new. I had been a subject of amusement to these boys for over a week now. Every day after school they would round me up and ask for money. Whether I was able to satisfy their greed or not was never a matter of concern. Their ultimate aim was to beat me up. Either they would take the money and then beat me up or beat me up and then take the money. I preferred the first way. I felt that maybe if I acted obediently then they would be less rough, it used to give me a mental satisfaction that the hurt they would inflict from the latter would be harder to bear with than this.

“Is he dead or what?” one of them turned my head towards the sky to confirm. I blinked when the harsh sunlight touched my pupil giving them a signal that I was still breathing.

“He’s fine guys lets carry on!” and a frenzy of kicks followed. My whole body felt so numb that I couldn’t even tell where they were kicking anymore. After a while they stopped, or at least it felt like they stopped. I couldn’t tell anymore. Next I felt a cold gooe material fall on my head and knew what it was. One of them might have spit on me. This again, was something that happened every time. I actually used to wait to be spit upon as it meant that they were through with me. Even with my blurry vision I noticed my black wallet fall on the ground. It would be empty by now.

“Try and be at least a little fun next time jerk”

And so they left.

I lay still for what seemed like a lifetime. No one came for me. I was never a loner. But from the day I was chosen as Miko and his gang’s toy, everyone deserted me. Its ok, I understand how they feel. Miko and his minions were truly scary. No one dared to go against them and if they did then there was no telling as to what would happen to them. There are rumors that once a guy tried to stand up to his friend and was never seen again.

When I could finally feel my joints and legs again, I pushed myself off the ground slowly. It took a while to stand. I had picked up my wallet during all this for bending down again to pick it up would have been impossible for me. I checked out of habit and as expected it was empty. I don’t even know why I got into this situation but it all happened out of the blue.

One day suddenly they surrounded me in the cafeteria, took my money and left and since that day it has become a practice. There are a couple of gym teachers who know about everything but help these boys instead. They even help these boys cover up in front of other teachers.

Slowly I started limping towards the school gate. I was in the backyard at the moment so getting out would take a lot of time in my current situation. I just hoped I wouldn’t see them again today.

But for some reason god seemed to be pissed off with me.

I wasn’t even half way through on my way home when I spotted the bunch smoking and taking to a group of boys from some other school. I froze in my position for a couple of minutes hoping if I could just disappear into thin air and never come back. One of them noticed me of course, I wasn’t much far.

“Hey isn’t that our little buddy Kota?” Sam pointed at me laughing and everyone turned their heads around to look at me. They were all smiling.

“Yes it is” Miko said jumping down from the railing on which he was sitting. “Whatcha doing here kid? Wanna hang out with us?”

“N-no… I-I…” I couldn’t speak. I could hear my breathing get uneven and my heart sounded like it was thumping near my ears.

“What?” One of them, I didn’t know who because I was looking down, yelled at me. “I hate pussies like you dude. We just asked you something!”

“N-No I was just going back h-home!” I exclaimed with all my might.

“Eh? You are rejecting our offer? This is a golden chance kid” Miko started pacing slowly towards me and with every step that he took forward, I took one backward.

“Let’s play Tom and Jerry!” someone shouted and instantly I turned around and started running. These bullies sure had stamina!

I took random turns in order to lose them, they were fast. But even in this condition there was no way they could catch me. The only thing that I was good at, was running. I was even a runner up in a ‘state level running competition’. Catching me was not going to be easy.

So why don’t I run every day? I was thinking the same thing now. Actually I did know why. Earlier I didn’t run because they would catch me the next day in class anyways but if they did something to me right now, then considering my current situation, I might not even survive; for real.

I was starting to lose speed now. Running wasn’t easy like this and I was so out of breath. I had to hide. Looking around I saw a small alley in which there was a big dustbin and some stuffed polybags. Seeing no other choice left, I jumped into the dustbin and closed the door shut. For a moment there was pin drop silence but I noticed soon enough that I was not alone. A set of eyes sparkled at me and terrified we both shouted.

“HEY! WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL GET OUT OF HERE!” there was another boy in the bin and from his hoarse voice, I imagined him to be somewhat tough.

“I c-can’t please” I replied panting.

We stared at each other for a brief moment and then he spoke again.

“At least open the lid. We will die of the stench if not for the people after us.”

That day I met a guy who reminded me of who I wanted to be.