No regrets

         Jeffery Dunham was your average teenager; he played videogames, neglected his chores, went to school, participated in sporting events, and broke rules, but unlike most teenagers, Jeffery had not a single friend in this unpleasant void we call life.  It was for no discernable reason that Jeffery was forced to walk life alone; he wore the right clothes, he said the right things, he did everything that was expected of him, but as is customary in high school, someone had to be the black sheep, someone had to be the social pariah.
         Jeffery was that scapegoat.
         Every day, without fail, Jeffery walked to school, avoiding the traveled routes, dodging his classmates, and staying out of view of the road.  Every day, Jeffery missed homeroom, and went to his first period class early, seated in the very back.  Undetectable.
         Time passed at a crawl, Jeffery avoiding the snickers and pointing fingers of his classmates, and praying to the god he was sure existed that the teacher wouldn’t call on him to answer a question - hoping that he wouldn’t give the other students any more reason to laugh at him.
         First period turned to second in a predictable slosh of minutes, and second to third and so on.  Time gave way quicker as the day progressed, and soon It was lunchtime. 
         Lunchtime.
         Lunchtime was as hell to Jeffery; avoiding the furtive glances of his classmates, ignoring their taunts and scoffs, pretending he didn’t hear their laughter, sitting in the corner with no-one to keep him company save his thoughts.  Jeffery was utterly alone.
         Lunch passed slowly, an agonizing crawl in an otherwise tedious but passable day, moving at a snails pace.  It was as though every hateful student in that hellish school conspired against him during lunchtime.  Every laugh burned like fire while every pointing finger chilled him to the core, every name and word they called him lowered his faltering self esteem and threw him into mortal despair, unraveling his shriveling character, driving his hate skyward.
         Jeffery was nearing his breaking point.
         Lunch ended as it always did, staggering from the cafeteria single file in a startling visage of military efficiency, Jeffery predictably bringing up the rear, intentionally lagging a few steps behind the one in front of him, be they boy or girl;  Walking the confining halls, past the rows of empty lockers and hollow, staring eyes, down the ramp and past the bathrooms, past ranting teachers and bored students, hated and ridiculed the entire way.
         After lunch came another predictable period of mockery and torture, scared to speak out, but terrified in silence, Jeffery waited in misery for the day to end.
         Countless periods came and went, unending minutes crawled by with grueling slowness, but finally the last period came, a glimmering beacon of hope in his bleak and miserable day.
         Jeffery revered the last period of the school day as a religious man might revere God, or a small child might revere Santa Claus; honestly it was the only thing that got him through the day.  The minutes ticked by with deafening force, each tick accompanied by a welcoming tock, marking yet one more second felled in his effort to end the day.  And finally with the sound of a glorious ringing bell the day of torture and misery was finished, racing from the room, Jeffery bounded to his locker, dodging punches and kicks, insults and laughs, running with his all to leave the school.
         There was a girl in front of his locker.
         Jeffery stopped, he had seen the girl before, had admired her beauty, silently hoping she would love him as he loved her. 
         Casually he approached her.
         She spoke to him, telling him of her feelings for him, inviting him to make a first move, Jeffery’s heart was pounding, he finally had one thing to live for, a girl he could soon call his own.  Opening his mouth to speak, one hand quickly covering the bulge in his pants, Jeffery began to spill his heart out.
         And than all hell broke loose.
         A boy from his class, a boy who had constantly ridiculed him from the day of his conception, pulled Jeffery’s size 28 jeans down around his ankles, showing for all the world his “affection” for the girl he loved. 
         Tears streaming his eyes Jeffery fled the school and his problems in a hail of laughter and betrayal.

         The next day was unlike any other, Jeffery showed up for homeroom. 
         He walked into the room with a quiet air of confidence, laughing at the taunts and insults, waving and smiling at his tormentors, fingers clutched tightly on his backpack.
         Jeffery went to first period, than second, and third, and so on the same way, ignoring insults and taunts, making the best of his bleak life.
         Lunchtime rolled around as usual.
         Jeffery sat alone with his thoughts, today in the very center of the cafeteria, ignoring all the world threw at him until he could take it no longer.           Jeffery left the cafeteria.
         Jeffery had left his backpack.
         
         Jeffery walked slowly away from the school as a single, powerful detonation roared from the cafeteria, smiling grimly as the bomb tore through his hateful classmates.  Looking back, fear and sadness ruled his expression as Jeffery realized the magnitude of the crime and horrors he had just committed.           Standing alone in the street, Jeffery lamented his fate.
         Standing alone in the street, Jeffery remembered the hell those people had put him through.

         In the end, Jeffery walked away from the flames and screams.
         In the end, there were no regrets.

         (934 words)