It was cold.

I tucked myself in my layers of clothing as the rain poured. It was a Wednesday. And the road was wet—dust become mud, and stained my shoes with every step. Monsoon rains had become quite rare. I thought it was the reason why the girls on the bleachers seemed to enjoy themselves. I, on the other hand, is haunted still with such a heavy feeling.

They always say that a rain washes everything clean but I can't get myself to like it, at least for the reason that I look at my window and whenever it's raining, it's floods me.  I remember how life was before we moved to a new district. The old one had my memories of growing up, my old friends, and most especially my mom was still there. Apparently it was the place where I felt happy. Like really happy. Now I live with my father and my stepmother. She's great and all but she could never replace my mom. It is a whole different story.

~

I slid the door open and then realized how I was too early for school. The room was too noisy.

"He got kicked out for some reason."

I couldn't help but to overhear how that nosey fellow, Todd Matthews, that morning as he shared the news to his friends. I knew him since middle school so I could say that he knows everything that there is to know. It is different however; he didn't have any clue on what that reason was. His face fell.

I on the other hand knew well about it.

Well, it had been almost a good two days when Mr. Jameson with his awkward, thick-lensed glasses, stopped attending our class. I took the courage to ask his other classes and it seemed that he had been missing theirs as well. Nobody knew why until Principle Kaynes had been filling in for Mr. Jameson.

Come to think of it, Mr. Jameson had not looked pretty well the last time I passed by the faculty lounge. His grey eyes were really swollen and I could tell that he was crying. Mr. Jameson came out with a box.  He was completely different from the smart teacher I knew who happens to like telling jokes. I tried to ask why he was leaving. He never returned with an answer.

"Mr. Jameson is sorting out his personal issues so his return is still indefinite." The balding man propped himself before going back in writing something on the board.

It was a shame because Mr. Jameson was a really good man. I told Principal Kaynes that.

"If he is that good, perhaps, he is no man at all." was all he said. I wanted to know why he sounded like he was accussing him of something but he never let me ask any more questions.

~

I closed my door as quickly as I can before my dad ever had the chance to see my face. I looked at myself in the mirror and tried to contemplate things that occurred few days back and only then I realized what Principal Kaynes meant.

That day when I saw him crying, was not the only thing I saw. The moment he reached his car there was a man waiting for him. And I was astonished to see how he wrapped his arms around him. In a rather intimate way. I was happy and sad at the same time for him. Happy that at least he had someone to make him feel better. Sad to see that he was after all, different. And that's why he had to leave.

It is sad how people cannot see us for the good things we are and the good that is in us whenever we are branded as different. I, for one, knew well of this and I try not to feel bad about it even if it was the reason why people leave us and whenever we collide with their way, we become nothing.

They had hit me again to me, shoving me haphazardly; I fell hard on the cold floor.

“”

 We were good men, Mr. Jameson and I, but we were too good to consider fighting for ourselves and for the treatment we deserve; perhaps we were no men at all.

And sadly, there is nothing I can do about it but to sleep all tears and dark bruises away.