Chapter 33

Book:Boyfriend for A Day Published:2024-5-1

Nate’s POV
It’s been precisely a week and three days since Tory’s outburst towards me. She has been ignoring me and whenever she didn’t feel like ignoring me, she would say hurtful things to me, like calling me crazy, or stupid. 
I know I shouldn’t care about the names but, I do. 
I’ve only seen Mr. Banner once this week and I think I’m starting to figure myself out.
Though I’ve tried to apologize to Tory several times, the words just hang in my throat, and before I even get the chance to say ” hi” she glares at me and walks out. 
I guess I’m lucky that Rachel didn’t die, according to Jake, she has very sensitive taste buds, so when she tasted the food, she could tell that something she’s allergic to was in it. She had an immediate reaction to it, she has been recovering in the hospital since and is gonna be in school tomorrow. I didn’t tell him that I could’ve stopped her from even taking a bite of the food though. 
Now, I’m seeing Tory in the hallway with Janelle and Joanne, I can’t help it – I need to get her to talk to me.
” Hey,” I say when I reach where she is. 
She’s dressed in our school’s uniform, her hair is perfectly sleek and she’s got it in a ponytail again. Her eyes suddenly lost their glimmer as she saw me and her brows furrowed in a frown.
” What?”
” Umm… How’s Rachel?”
” I don’t know, get out of my face.”
” Rya -”
” – would you stop calling me that?!”
” Right, Tory. I umm… I’m sorry” I said and her eyes widened in surprise before she masked it with anger.
” She’s dead, isn’t she? You’ve finally killed her!”
” What the – no, Rachel’s fine. I’m just saying that I’m sorry about all I’ve done to you. What happened with Rachel made me realize that….”
She paused, her eyes narrowing as she waited eagerly for me to say what I realized. 
I tried to say what I realized but it wouldn’t come out right, I just knew it wouldn’t so I kept quiet.
” Whoever gave you that line to rehearse did a poor job of making sure you nailed it” she said before she slammed her locker shut and walked away with her two friends. 
” Sup man” Zach said to me and I just ignored him and went to the restroom, two guys making out in the restroom suddenly stopped and stared at me in embarrassment before they scrambled. 
I sighed as I heard Zach calling after me and I locked the door, I don’t need his over cheerful self near me right now. I brought out my pills from my bag and swallowed them. 
I know Mr. Banner said no pills but it really helps me keep my emotions under control.
Usually, whenever I feel I’m going to have an emotional outburst, I take it and in a few minutes, I start calming down. The only problem is, I feel like the opposite is happening, like the pain of Tory’s words to me today and the overall depression I’m feeling is getting worse. 
” Shit!” I muttered as my chest started to hurt. What’s happening to me? 
” fuck!” I yelled as I felt a squeezing sensation in my head and fell on the floor, screaming. 
I started to lose myself and before I knew what was happening I fell and everything went pitch black.
All I could hear were whispers.
” Is he insane?”
” He’s probably having a seizure”
” This dude is loco!”
” Is that Nate?” I heard several people whisper but I couldn’t care less what thought of me when all I could feel was pain.
**********
I woke up on my bed, my pillow a little stained with blood, and my head banging hard as I sat up and tried to see who the blurry faces in my room are.
” Give him some aspirin” I heard someone say.
” Here,” a girl said and I blinked several times because it looked like Tory but when my vision became clear, it was Rachel.
I thought she was supposed to be in the hospital.
She raised my head a little and placed the aspirin in my mouth before she gently poured some water in my mouth and I drank it. 
” How are you feeling?” Mr. Jenkins said and I didn’t say a word. 
I was trying to remember what just happened. I just had an emotional outburst or a mental outburst in front of the whole school, everyone must think I’m crazy.
” Nate” Mr. Jenkins called again.
” I feel like shit” I eventually said as I felt my nose, some blood-stained fingers.
” Well, you were shouting and screaming all over the place. What was that about?” Jake said as he stood and folded his arms.
” What are these pills?” Zach asked.
I sighed knowing that I couldn’t hide it from them anymore.
” They’re antidepressants”
” Why do you need them?” Mr Jenkins asked.
” Because it calms me when I’m depressed”
” I thought you were seeing Banner for this issue? Didn’t he give you drugs?” 
” He said I wouldn’t need drugs”
” So why’d you take this then?”
” Because I was feeling pretty low and it’s always helped. Mr Banner hasn’t exactly done anything to help me.”
” What exactly is wrong with you?” Zach asked.
” Before you answer that. All of you here must swear to keep whatever Nate says a secret ” Mr Jenkins said, they all looked at each other and then at me before they said ” okay”
” It’s called alexithymia” I said and then explained everything Mr Banner had told me to them. Excluding the part where I’m in love with Tory.
” No wonder you’re such a douchebag”
” Thanks, Zach” I replied dryly and he grinned.
” These don’t seem like antidepressants though. It’s fake” Rachel said drawing our attention to her. She held the pills in her hands and rubbed them a little, the once white pills turned pink and I froze.
” That’s impossible, I’ve been taking those, and they…..” My voice trailed off as I realized that they did look a little Fuller than before in the container.
” Someone switched it” I said.
” But who would do that? It’s not everyone that can just enter your house” Jake said.
” It’s Rex” Rachel said.
” How’d you come to that conclusion?” Mr Jenkins asked as everyone stared at her.
” He’s the only one asides Isabella that can come in here” I said.
” So it’s probably both of them” I added.
” Why would he switch your pills though? He’s dating Tory now isn’t he?”
” I don’t know.” I said but deep down, I actually think I have the answer.
” Well, let’s give you some time to rest. See you tomorrow?” Mr Jenkins said.
” I’ll be fine by tomorrow so, yeah.”
” Okay, guys remember, you can’t tell this to anyone” he warned sternly and I wondered why he was going through such lengths to hide my disorder.
” Yes sir” Zach and Jake said before Mr Jenkins left. 
” Take care bro, you know we’ve got training with coach Glenn so better be ready”
I groaned as I sat up and nodded before Zach left my room. It was Jake and Rachel left now and something told me he was low-key kinda pissed at me.
” Jake, I’m sorry” I said as I looked at him to find him glaring at me, his arms folded and legs crossed as he leaned on the wall.
” Rachel already told me everything, it wasn’t your fault really” he said much to my surprise.
” Stop harassing my friend though” Rachel said and I scoffed.
” I mean it Nate!”
” Geez, fine. She pretty much made certain of that four days ago with her lovely words” I said sarcastically.
” See you tomorrow at practice, try not to break Rex’s leg like you broke Ken’s” Jake said almost coldly and I sighed as he left.
The last thing I’m looking forward to is having to go through a series of Coach Glenn’s test to see if I’ll make a better QB than Rex. After my football match against Rex, he thought I did better than Rex as QB and scheduled tomorrow for practice to see if Rex is okay or if I’m better.
********
The next day I felt okay so I got dressed for school, putting on our team’s football jacket on my uniform.
My day was almost spoiled when I saw Tiffany and Mr. Roswell leaving that morning, she said some things I’d rather not recall and I chose to ignore her. 
I also ignored Tory all day, I didn’t dare talk to her. After school was over and I had passed the coach’s test, making me the new QB, I waited till the rest team members left before I went to the boys’ locker room to change into my football jersey.
Rex didn’t seem to care and that baffled me, he and Jake just changed in the locker room and later left. Zach wanted to wait for me but I told him off.
When I entered the now empty locker room, I barely took off my jacket when I heard someone enter and the next thing I knew, about seven guys started brutally hitting me with baseball bats. 
” What the-” I was cut off when one of them hit me so hard on my head that I fell and probably started seeing triple but that didn’t stop them, they kept on battering me till everything went pitch black.