Blood And Water Read Online Free PDF Page A

looking into his eyes might give something away, his slightly flushing cheeks confirmation that there was another agenda at play.
    They had never talked about what happened that night, or what happened next like a scenario deleted from the final cut of the play, but they both knew it was a moment that had shaped Rian’s life forever.
    Rian walked on past, turned into his own tiny cubicle and pulled the curtain across. Despite its flimsy construction – it was nothing more than a two-by-three open-top, three-sided, plywood box with a sink in the corner and a built-in chest of drawers to the side – he usually felt perfectly safe, but not that evening. Sitting on the edge of the bed, feeling the hostile vibrations from his brother on the far side of the blue painted wall, he felt anything but comfort. Gathering his wash bag and towel along with a clean vest, shirt and jumper he returned across the hall, to the showers, ignoring Seb with his head held high as he passed his open cubicle.
    “What’s the matter, Bertie?” Fitzer was standing in the hall with his moronic sidekicks, Decco and Murph, on either side.
    Rian lowered his head, keeping his focus on the ground, unwilling to risk meeting his aggressor eye to eye.
    “Had a little accident, did we?” Fitzer sniggered, looking to his companions for endorsement while sidestepping into Rian’s path. “Now I hope you don’t plan on whining your heart out to Sully. I don’t want to hear that you have. Understood?”
    “Understood,” Rian replied, dead in his tracks, clenching his fists tight, his eyes to the ground. He wanted nothing more than to punch Fitzer but resisted the urge, knowing full well what would happen if he did.
    “There’s a good boy,” Fitzer mocked with a gentle slap to the back of his head. “Because if you do, there’ll be more of this,” and with the threat he lifted his knee fast and hard till it come in contact with Rian’s groin.
    Immediately on impact his world imploded into whiteness, like a veil had fallen in front of his eyes. The pain shot like a burning rod, running the route straight to his brain and back again, a pain so bad it brought tears to his eyes and turned his legs to water – they wouldn’t, couldn’t and didn’t hold him up any longer. Holding himself, he fell to his knees and bit down hard on his bottom lip, doing his best to contain both himself and his scream, making sure both it and his balls stayed inside. When he opened his eyes Fitzer was gone. The door to the dorm was open with Seb standing at its threshold, books and pens in hand, looking down on him. Seeing his brother lying buckled on the hall floor, he reversed back into the room and closed the door after him. Rian closed his eyes and waited for the pain to subside and his vision to return to normal, then slowly uncurled and heaved himself up off the cold linoleum floor. Unable to stand upright, he hobbled like an old man to the showers. Choosing the only lockable unit in the row of twenty open showers, he fell into it and slammed the plywood door behind him. Safe within its confines he stripped down, threw his clothes onto the stool and turned the dial to release the water at full blast. He stood under it, letting the spray drench him all over, not caring nor noticing that it was hot enough to burn. Somewhere deep inside he felt brave for standing up to them: Robbie was too small to fight for himself. But weightier was the feeling of humiliation at being knocked down. In the end he had let them take him down. It was that or fight and be battered. But, above all else, he felt abandoned by his big brother who as good as gave him up to the shellacking. Despite their antipathy for each other, Rian never thought that in a moment of danger Seb would forsake him like that. If their roles were exchanged he knew for sure he would never do that; he knew instinctively he would safeguard his brother at all costs. They were the same blood: he would take his side