Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2006 12:36:52 -0800
From: tenniswiz12@msn.com
Subject: Three Roads Chapter 33: The Names And Places Of Each Sad Occasion

This story contains adult and sexual situations between males. If this is
not to your liking....well you know the drill.


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Three Roads Chapter 33: The Names And Places Of Each Sad Occasion
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"How was the copy room?" Tim smiled as Delta came in to the office.

She smiled, "Great, I love it in there!" she said with mock excitement.

Tim chuckled, "You're so funny."

"Anything happen while I was gone?  Anybody break in or anything?" Delta
joked.

Tim laughed again, "Not in the last four minutes, no."  He had been doing
this for the past few days, holding meaningless conversations, where people
said things that weren't really all that funny, but Tim laughed anyway,
because what else was he going to do?  He had learned early on from his
mother that when you didn't have anything to smile about, pretend like you
do anyway.  She had always told him that no one was put on this Earth to
make you happy.  There were those moments when he would mindlessly stare off
into space and Delta would call his name and ask, "Are you ok?"

Tim would rush to put a smile on his face, "Yeah, just lost in thought."

Truer words had never been spoken.  He still couldn't figure out where he
had gone wrong with Toby, how he had let himself fallen so hard for
something that probably wouldn't have worked out anyway. He was staring off
into space again, but this time it wasn't Delta's voice that cleared his
thoughts, it was Nancy's voice.

"Yeah, I'm gonna need those copied so I can make a personal folder for the
President."

"Ok, I'll send those back to you in a few minutes.

"Thank you." Nancy said as she went back to her office.

"What's she want copies made of?" Tim asked, wishing he had heard the
beginning of the conversation.

"All the police reports and documents we've received concerning everything
that's happened around here lately."

"I see." Tim knew there was no cause for alarm.  The list that had been made
of the students the police wanted to talk to had been saved on the office's
shared drive.  That way anyone who needed to find it for whatever reason to
it would be able to easily access it.  When Tim had broken into the office
he had erased Toby's name from the report and then resaved it on the shared
drive. Delta disappeared and Tim assumed she had gone to make copies when he
saw Jack walk into the office.  He beamed when saw Tim, "Hi there."

"Hi."

"What are you doing?"

"The same thing I do every afternoon you see me here, working."

"I'm just trying to make conversation." Jack said, his feelings a little
hurt.

"Ok then have a normal conversation."

"Why are you being mean?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Tim saw Delta come back into the office and
head to Nancy's office.

"Sorry, I just have a lot on my mind."

"Am I one of those things?" Jack smiled.

"No, not trying to end up in prison."

"I'm well worth it."

"Could you go away please!"

"Hey there Jack." Delta said as she took a seat at her desk, "How are you
today?"

"Really good now." Jack said.  Delta missed his staring at Tim.  Tim simply
rolled his eyes.

Nancy came back to the front area of the office, "There were 44 names on
here."

"Huh?" Delta said looking up from her computer screen.

"There were 44 names on here when the list was typed the first time, now
there are only 43."

"Are you sure?" Delta questioned.

Nancy scoffed, "Yes, I'm sure or I wouldn't be saying anything.  There were
11 names in four columns.  Each of the columns were even, and they're not
now."

"I can pull it up on the shared drive, maybe it got cut off somehow."

Tim was pretending he was scribbling something important on a post it, but
he was listening as intently as he could without being obvious.

"I only have 43 names."  Delta confirmed.

"Yeah," Tim interjected, "I'm pretty sure there were only 43 names."

Jack looked from Tim to Nancy, confused at first and then he jumped in,
"Yeah, I think there were only 43 names too."

"How would you know?" Nancy snapped.

"The original was on Dad's desk.  I took a look at it, that's how I know."
He said looking Nancy in the eye.

"You're not supposed to be looking at university documents.  You, Dr. Brown,
and I have had this discussion before." Nancy reminded him.

"I didn't know what it was." Jack said simply.

Nancy stood in the middle of the office and it was her turn to be lost in
thought.  She was positive she saw 44 names on the original list, she didn't
move until she figured out what to do, "Does anyone know where those
original lists are?"

"List.  There was only one." Tim reminded her.

"Ok, where is it?" Nancy asked, turning fully towards him.

He shrugged his shoulders, "Don't the police have it?"  He knew this was
false as well as the only original copy made of the list went to the
President which Tim had stolen from his desk and paper shredded at home.

"They might." She said more to herself than to anyone else.  She rushed back
into her office and once they heard the door close, Tim and Delta exchanged
exasperated looks with each other.

"Crazy, huh?" Tim said.

"What's on the shared drive is what's on the shared drive.  But to be
honest, Nancy has a knack for remembering things like that; she might just
be confusing two lists though."

"Could be."  Tim said as he turned back to his work.

**********

"Hey." Joey said into his phone.

"Hi," his older brother, David said into the phone, "I was just thinking
about you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Why?" Joey laughed after a moment of silence.

"I was wondering if you were coming home for Spring Break."

"Most likely, it's not like I have anything to do here."

"I thought you might have something to do with your friends or something."

"What friends?"

"Your friends." David emphasized a bit more heavily.

"I've only really made one."

"Is he or she genuine."

"I think so," Joey said, referring to Cooper, "but he has other friends
too."

"If he's genuine then you are lucky.  One genuine friend is more than
enough."

Joey rolled his eyes, "I know, but sometimes it'd be nice to have other
options, you know?"

"Why would you want people who aren't good for you around?"

"Ok, never mind."

"It's the truth."

"I know, I know."  Joey loved his brother more than anything in the world,
but he found it difficult to talk to his brother at times.  His brother did
not seem to understand that sometimes, whether it's healthy or not, that
sometimes you do things simply because.

"I have to go," Joey continued, "I have class soon.  I'll talk to you
later."

"Alright, bro, love you."

"I love you too."

**********

Eric playfully tossed his backpack into a corner of his room and laid on his
bed and breathed a sigh of relief; he was glad to be done with classes for
the day.  Dinner at the dining commons would be starting in about half an
hour.  Eric's recent horniness still had not abated, and he debated whether
or not he had time to jerk off.  He decided to wait until after dinner, and
instead of jerking off now, he could go hang in Cooper's room.  He was
getting up to head out the door when he remembered that he and Cooper
weren't exactly on speaking terms and he didn't know why.  Last week, Eric
knew he was n the wrong by getting drunk at the party and therefore felt it
was his responsibility to make contact with Cooper.  This time, however, he
felt quite different.  He hadn't done anything to Cooper, and did not
understand why Cooper was mad at him.  The only time he had managed to see
Cooper this week was at their weekly and mandatory resident's advisor
meeting.  Cooper spoke all of two words to him and then rushed off to class.

"Screw him." Eric said out loud to himself.

About twenty minutes later he found himself opening the lobby door for Tim.

"How's it going?" Eric asked.

"Shoot me in the face, please?"

Eric smiled, "I've seen better days too."   They headed up to his room and
Eric plopped himself down on his bed, while Tim took a seat at the desk.

"Any news?" Eric asked.

"About what?" Tim said, pretending he didn't know.

"The rape, the break in, anything?"

"Basically, they have nothing on the break in.  They're still thinking it's
someone on the custodial staff, which doesn't make sense because..."

"Because what?" Eric asked when Tim stopped.

"Nevermind."

"Just say it."

Tim didn't like the idea of giving any evidence to clear someone else's name
at this point, but he continued, "The custodians have access to the Office
for like an hour after it closes.  They wouldn't have needed to bust up the
panel like whoever broke in did."

"So they still don't know why the person broke in?"

"Not a clue." Tim smiled.

Eric returned the smile and he watched as Tim brushed his hair behind his
ear as he played around on Eric's computer.  Eric had never noticed how
often Tim did that, but it was as if it was an nervous habit for his friend.
  Eric found it very cute all of a sudden, "No news on Toby either?"

Tim shrugged, "Not any good news."

"What happened?"

"In a nutshell, he shot me down."

"I told you that would happen."

"Thanks, cause that's exactly what I want to hear right now."

"I'm just saying...."

"Can we drop it?"

"Ok."

"Your life isn't perfect either you know."

"Huh?" Eric asked not sure if he heard correctly.

"Your life isn't perfect either.  You shouldn't judge people so much."

"I'm not judging you...but I did say it would happen."

"Congratulations then, you were right." Tim said as he moved towards the
door.
"Where are you going?"

"Home.  I don't want to be here right now.  You should be supporting me
instead of...whatever this is."

"I didn't even say anything."

"You said enough." Tim said slamming the door.

"What about dinner?!"

*******

The following day, Tim decided to skip his classes that day.  He noticed
that it was becoming harder for him to go to class on the days he did not
have work, since most of his classes were after noon.  He was enjoying an
ice quite day at home.  His parents had both gone to work, and his sister
was in school, so he was walking around the house in his underwear.  He
heard his cell phone ring in his room, and he ran quickly from the kitchen
to get it.

"Hello?"

"What are you doing, you sound out of breath?"

"Jack?"

"Good guess."

"How did you get my number?"

Jack laughed, "Um my dad is the President of the university, I know a lot
about you."

"That's creepy."  Tim said taking a bite of the salami sandwich he was
holding.

"Where are you?"

"At home, why?"

"No reason...hey I got to go."

"Um, ok." Tim heard the line go dead.  He shrugged his shoulders and walked
back to the kitchen.  His thoughts turned to Toby and he wondered what he
was doing right now.  Tim's eyes widened and his mouth fell open; for the
first time it hit him what he had done to try and save Toby.  He had broken
into an office, stolen a document, and tampered with a document that was
going to the police.  He felt a tightening in his chest and he closed his
eyes and began to fan his face; he felt like he was about to pass out.  He
was trying to breath deliberately in an effort to bring it under control.
The doorbell rang and Tim jumped out of his seat.

"My God!" He whispered to himself, "Hold on!" he yelled.  He ran to his room
and put on some blue pajama bottoms before opening the door.  He couldn't
help but role his eyes when he saw Jack.

Jack raised his left eyebrow at the sight of seeing Tim shirtless, "Sexy."

"This is not a good time." Tim said aggressively, "What do you want?"

"Can I come in?"

"No, I'm busy.  Shouldn't you be in school."

"Today was only a half day."

"Liar.  If it were then Tati would be home too." Tim knew that the
elementary, junior, and high schools all had roughly the same schedules.

"Ok, so the school thinks I have a doctor's appointment."

"Go back to school." Tim said, he almost had the door closed when he heard
Jack say, "I know what you did."

Tim reopened the door and pulled Jack into the house, "You don't know
anything."

Jack rubbed his wrist from where Tim pulled him in, "I think you broke it."

"Stop being a baby, why did you come here?"
"You need my help."

"I don't need anything from you."

"Why are you being like this?  I'm trying to help you.  If my dad finds out
what you did, you can kiss your college career goodbye."

"What do you know?" Tim repeated, but with a lot less assurance this time.

"I know you erased Toby Black's name from that list.  There were 44 names on
that list."

"You don't know that."

"I do, I saw it on dad's desk.  I've been meeting dad at the school since
he's been there so I know a few people.  I knew some of the names of the
list and the only one you have a connection to is Toby."

Tim laughed.  He was nervous, he really didn't know if Jack was fishing
around for information or if he really knew all he claimed to know, but Tim
wanted to pretend he wasn't worried, "You don't know who's name was erased,
you're guessing.  I'm sure Nancy didn't let you anywhere near the list on
the shared drive, so you don't know what name was erased...if there was on
erased."

"Maybe...maybe not, but I bet my dad would believe me if I told him I knew it
was you."

"I don't know if I'd believe a sixteen year old who claimed to be in love
with a college boy and then suddenly accused him of a crime after the
college boy refused his advances."

"Look, I'm not here to fight..." Jack started.

"You could have fooled me."

"I'm sorry.  I'm just worried about you.  You can't do this alone, you need
me to help you."

"I don't need your help, and you don't even know anything.  You're
speculating."

"Tim, think about it.  Nancy's not going to let this go and once they figure
out it was Toby's name that was erased, all fingers will point to you.  Did
you break into the office or did you have someone else do it?"

"Ok, get out." Tim said moving towards Jack.

"Wait!  I promise not to say anything...if you let me suck your dick."

Tim seriously considered for a few moments letting Jack blow him.  It was
unlikely that anyone would ever find out and Tim did believe that Jack would
keep his mouth shut if Tim granted his request.

"You know I can't do that."

"No one's gonna know."

"God, Jack!  You're sixteen years old.  How many times do I have to say it?
I don't like you like that, I don't want you like that, go play with some
legos or something, jesus."

"I hope you really love this Toby guy, because you're about to go down for
him."

"I'm calling your bluff." Tim said staring intently at Jack.  He was hoping
that he was being convincing with his behavior.

"Big mistake." Jack said.  He turned to walk out the door, but Tim grabbed
his shoulder.

"Help!!!" Jack screamed loudly.  Tim knew that most of his neighbors were
probably not home, but he didn't want to chance it.  He let Jack go and
watched as Jack ran down the street.  Tim closed the door and sat down,
putting his face in his hands.  Jack did seem to know a lot of information,
or at least was bluffing pretty well, but was he really going to go to his
dad with what he thought he knew.  Jack's words kept reverberating in Tim's
head, "I bet my dad would believe me if I told him I knew it was you."

Tim decided that he needed to find Jack and do whatever he needed to do to
make sure that his cover wasn't blown.  A fleeting thought crossed his mind:
If Jack was able to figure this out, even if by accident, Nancy won't be too
far behind.  Tim ran to his room to get dressed, he needed to find Jack.

******

Joey smiled as he grabbed the handle to his favorite bathroom in his
favorite building on campus.  Many students liked this building, it was
easily the nicest looking building of all the classroom buildings on campus
and all the classrooms were equipped with what were called "smart
classrooms".  But none of those reasons were why Joey liked this building so
much, this building, by far, had the most traffic of guys who were looking
to have a quick hook up with another guy.  Joey didn't come here often, but
when he did, it never failed to produce a memorable experience, and this
time would be no different. He walked into the bathroom and found that no
one was standing at the urinals.  He smiled, this meant the bathroom was
free for activity.  He walked to the stall all the way at the far end of the
bathroom.  He peaked in and saw a guy he had met there before.  He
remembered how he had blown the guy and smiled even more so when he
remembered having to wash his hair when he got back to the dorms, because
the guy had cum in his hair.  He was a little disappointed that this
encounter would be a re run of sorts, but he really just wanted to get off.
As he looked closer, he realized that there was a second  guy already in the
stall who was already on his knees.

"You have to watch from out there," One of the guys whispered when he saw a
person looking into the stall, "I'm just getting started with this
cocksucker here."

The boy on his knees looked nervous and quickly turned towards the opening
in the stall.  Joey could not believe that Eric was on his knees in front of
these two guys.  Part of Joey became massively turned on; was he really
about to witness Eric play around with a guy?  Part of him though, felt bad
for Eric.  Joey figured that Eric was probably lonely, just like him and
this was his way of getting something he felt he needed.  Joey had always
thought Eric would be the kind of guy to wait until he found someone special
before having sex.  But as one of the guys standing over Eric unzipped his
pants and pulled out his rapidly hardening dick, Eric looked as if he had
made up his mind.

*******

Eric walked down his hallway carrying a Taco Bell bag.  In his opinion, Taco
Bell was the best depression food there was.  Between the six taco supreme's
  he had ordered, three soft and three hard, he planned on going to bed
quite early and hoped the ceiling caved in on him during the night.  He
looked up as he made his way down the hallway, and couldn't help but smile
as he saw Cooper standing in front of his door, twirling his phone.

"I called you." Cooper said.

"Yeah, I was in the drive thru at Taco Bell," Eric said showing him the bag,
"I figured I'd see you."

"Hmm...interesting."

"You want to come in?" Eric asked, hoping Cooper would say yes.  He had
missed spending time with him.

"Sure."

"Can you hold this?" Eric asked, passing his bag of tacos and drink to
Cooper.  He opened the door and was annoyed to find out that he hadn't
remembered to close his window.

"Sorry, it's cold."

"It's cool," Cooper said closing the door, "What did you do today?"

"Just class pretty much.  I did a little RA work too.  You want a taco?"

"No, I'm good.  Is that all you did today?"

"Yeah, it was mostly a lazy day." Eric said turning from Cooper to take off
his watch and set his keys on the desk

"Did you go to the cruising spot on campus today?"

Eric stopped, his hand in mid air.   He quickly regained his composure, but
he couldn't turn around to face Cooper, "I don't even know what a cruising
spot is."

"It's a spot where you get on your knees and suck a stranger or two off,
sound familiar?"

"You must have thought it was great if you stayed to watch." Eric said
finally turning around.

"I wasn't there."

"Then how do you know?"

"That's not important.  What were you thinking?"

"I don't know."

"Bullshit."

"I really don't know.  I was lonely I guess."

"Eric, you don't know where those guys have been, they could have anything."

"I know, I know.  You don't understand.  As pathetic as it sounds, Jon
leaving me hurt so much."

Cooper rolled his eyes, "Let me finish." Eric said to him.

"You don't know what it's like to go through all of junior high and high
school without a date, without anyone ever showing any interest, without
ever having a girlfriend.  And I know...I'm not straight, but that was part of
the problem.  And Jon comes along and he's hot, but he likes me too and
wants to get to know me. I finally let myself be ok with being gay and I let
myself imagine all the things I ever wanted to do with a guy; like hold his
hand and kiss him...and other stuff.  I'd been praying for someone, even a
girl, to look at me in the way Jon would sometimes.  And I ruined it.  I let
my mom's letter get to me and I ruined the best thing that ever happened to
me.  To be honest, I really just needed to do it.  I needed to know what it
was like, so I did."

"Eric, there were so many other ways you could have done it.  I don't
believe you did that."

"Ok, I understand you're disappointed in me or whatever, but it's my life
and I can do whatever I want."

"You know what?  Fuck you.  For the last few months, I have been sending you
all kinds of signals and have gritted my teeth while I listened to you talk
about him. You were lonely?  What about me?  I'm your best friend and I
could have talked you through it, I could have helped you.  But it makes me
sick that you devalue yourself by whining over some guy who doesn't want you
or sees you for the amazing person you are or for doing whatever it is you
and Brian did at the party.  You never once looked my way."

Eric was looking at Cooper as if he had never seen him before, "I don't
understand."

"I'm in love with you. I've looked at you in that way you're talking about
and you never looked back.  You picked total strangers over me."

"I don't know what to say."

"Do you love me?" As soon as Cooper said it, he wished he wouldn't have.  It
was a question he would never be able to take back and he knew that no
matter what happened, even if they were able to get past all of this, their
friendship might be forever changed.  Cooper felt like he had to vomit as he
looked at the fear on Eric's face.

"You can't ask me that. You can't ask me that."

"Fine, it's all out in the open now.  You do what you want with it." Cooper
walked do the door slowly, hoping with everything he had that Eric would
call him back, would stop him, would say anything, but he reached the door
and Eric was still silent.  Cooper closed the door behind him and wondered
how much he had altered his friendship with Eric.

*************

"Who the hell is Jack?" Toby asked.

"It's a long story that I don't have time to explain. We need to find him."
Tim said frantically.

"Tim, calm down.  What does this guy know?"

"I don't know.  What he said is what happened, but I don't know if he's
bluffing or not."

"Hold a sec.  Is Jack the president's son?"

"Yeah."

Toby laughed, "You're worried about a 16 year old?  He was probably just
mouthing off."

"Why aren't you taking this seriously?!  If I go down, you go down too."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"I'm just saying.  If it comes down to it, I can't lie."

"There's nothing to tell.  I didn't tell you or know what you were doing
until after.  I think you should just calm down and not worry about it until
you have to, if ever."

Toby and Tim turned as they heard keys turn the lock of the door.  Both of
them noticed that Richard did not seem at all surprised to see them standing
together, "No need to worry about what?"  he said immediately as he walked
through the door.

"Nothing." Toby said.

"You guys were talking pretty loud, plus I've been standing outside the door
for the last few seconds, what's going on."

"You already know anyway." Tim said.

"Oh my God, is he helping you?" Richard asked looking at Toby.

"Sort of."
"Fuckin hell, Toby."

"I didn't know he was going to do this."

"Do what?" Richard said.

"I don't have time for this.  I'm going to go and try and save your ass
again." Tim said storming out of the room.

"Toby, did he break into the office?"

"Yeah, I asked him to tell me if he found anything new, and I guess he took
that as break in and erase my name from any lists."

"That could be considered tampering with evidence."

"I know."

"Why did you go to him for help anyway?"

"Because he has the most access to information.  This has all been blown way
out of proportion."

"No shit.  Is there anything else I don't know?"

Toby smiled involuntarily, "I'm an idiot."

"Maybe," Richard said, "But you can fix all of this before it gets too
late."

"I can't.  It's all gotten too much."

"Toby, I'm here.  We can deal with it.  You know your parents would be there
too if it came to that."

"I know, but are you going to be there for me...no matter what?"

"Through thick and thin."

"Richard...I did something really stupid."

"Tell me you didn't break in with him."

Toby shook his head, "I let Tim give me a blowjob."

Richard was confused for a second, "Recently?"

"Umm...like a month or two ago.  We were going through a lot and..."

"Stop talking.  Is this a joke?  Cause if it is it's a really bad one."

Toby shook his head again, "I didn't realize how much you cared for me..."

"Until after you let someone else suck your dick?"

"It's not like that."

"When did it happen?"

"Like a month or two ago."

"Be more specific."

"I guess it was like the day I told you I wanted a break."

"Huh, well looks like you'll get your wish after all."

"Oh come on it's not like we slept together, it was just a blowjob."

"What's that matter?!"

"Cause it didn't mean anything."

"You're lying.  Do you still like him?"

"This isn't high school."

"You have no grounds to be an asshole toward me right now."

"Fine, I do.  What do you want me to say?  I always told him that we could
only be friends cause I was with you."
"Until what?  You wanted to take a break so you could get your dick sucked?"

"Don't pretend that we didn't have problems, we have problems now."

"Yeah, my boyfriend is a lying coward."

"What about you and Bliss?"

"What about it?  I told you nothing happened."

"Yeah, that's what you keep saying, but how do I know you're being honest
with me."

"You are unbelievable.  Here you are running around with your ex boyfriend,
months ago and never bothered to tell me.  And you have the gall to sit here
and question my honesty?!"

"It happened once."

"It should have never happened!  You can't stay here, you need to leave."

"I'm not going anywhere.  I want to talk."

"I'm done.  I'm so done.  I've barely seen a good friend of mine because of
you.  I didn't get to pursue an avenue that I really really wanted to in
order to show you how much I care about you.  And while I was doing all
this, you were getting a blowjob."

"I was unhappy, but I'm not anymore...not about this.  I realize how much we
mean to each other.  Forgive me.  You have to forgive me."

Seemingly out of nowhere, Richard rushed his face to his hands and his body
began to convulse as he sat down on their bed, "Toby, I really need you to
leave."

"I don't want to leave you like this."

"Leave!!"

Toby grabbed his keys and a sweater. As he closed the door, He looked behind
him at Richard who still had his face in his hands.  Even though there was
no sound, Toby knew that he was crying.

**********

Eric was lying in his bed staring up the ceiling.  He was wishing that there
were some device for him to rewind back to yesterday.  Yesterday, he felt
like he had a best friend and his integrity, today both of those seemed to
be a million miles away.  He thought back to Cooper's face at the party when
he had put two and two together and figured out that something had gone on
between Eric and Brian and how know that he knew what that face meant, he
was all the more devastated by it.  There was a knock at his door, and he
was afraid to open it.  He wasn't sure that he could take anymore bad news
today.  He opened the door and he saw someone who looked to be in worse
condition than he was.

"I uh...Cooper's not in his room, and I know you hate me, but..."

"I don't hate you, Toby." Eric said, "Are you locked out or something?"

"No, I just don't have a place to go right now.  And if I stay by myself I
don't know what I might do."

"Come in." Eric said.

Toby slowly shuffled into the room, "Where can I sit?"

"Wherever."

Toby chose to sit on Eric's bed, "Is here ok?"

"Yeah." Eric said taking a seat next to him.

Toby could feel the warmth of Eric sitting next to him and he was pleasantly
surprised that Eric hadn't refused him.  He was sure that he would as Toby
hadn't exactly done much to get in his good graces lately.  It was that
combination of warmth from Eric, both physically and symbolically that made
Toby start to cry.  Eric didn't hesitate for a moment to wrap a sympathetic
hand around Toby, "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry."
"It's ok."

"I've messed up everything.  I don't have any friends, Richard hates me, I'm
a horrible person."

"You're not a horrible person.  We all get off track sometimes."  Eric
didn't believe that Toby was a horrible person, but he wasn't sure if he
believed the other statement he made to Toby.  He thought about what he had
done today in the bathroom, and thought maybe he had said that because he
needed to hear it just as much as Toby did.

"You don't understand," Toby said between sobs, "Someone got raped because
of me, Tim's in trouble because of me, Richard is beside himself because of
me."

"Toby, did you let that guy in who raped that girl?"

Toby simply nodded.

"The police would want to know that.  You really should tell them." Eric
said seriously.

"I know.  But I can't do it by myself.  I'm so afraid to go.  What will
people say?"

Eric wanted to tell him that he couldn't worry about what other people
thought, but he knew that that had been one of his problems.

"The people who you matter to will stick by you...Cooper and I could go with
you if you want."

Toby knew that he needed to do the right thing, and he was tired.  He had
held that secret in for so long and the one about cheating on Richard, that
he felt if he didn't confess to what he knew his soul would rip him apart
from the inside out.  The last thought he had before answering Eric was :
It's about time you do something the right way, "Yeah, I think I should go."

"Good, let me call Cooper."

********

Eric knew that Cooper would probably ignore his call so he left a voice mail
giving him a quick run down of what was happening.  Cooper called him five
minutes later and the two of them accompanied Toby to the police department.
  On the way there, Toby called his parents and let them know what he was
doing and why.  His mom and dad were as supportive as he knew they would be,
and within an hour of his call, they were on their way , making the six hour
drive to Sunnyvale to be with their son.  The police questioned Toby for
hours, and it was well into the night when he was finally let go, with the
instructions that while he was not under arrest, it was best that he not
leave the county so he could be easily contacted.  He would have cried again
when he saw his parents, Eric, and Cooper all sitting together, but he was
so drained from everything that happened that all he could do was smile and
be gracious that he had friends and family that cared for him.

"We've worked out some arrangements so your parents won't have to try and
find a hotel this late at night," Cooper said yawning, "You three are going
to take my room, and I'm gonna bunk with Eric tonight."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Eric jumped in, "We need to talk anyway."

Toby knew something was going on between Eric and Cooper.  At first he
thought that they might have been stressed once he had told them everything
he knew about the rape, and Richard, because they had been so silent on the
way to the police station.  But he could tell that something had happened
between them, they seemed to be very uncomfortable around each other.

"Thank you guys very much."

Toby walked arm and arm, his parents on either side and Cooper and Eric
following close behind as they began to make their way out of the police
station.  Toby turned his head casually as they walked and soon Cooper and
Eric also followed his gaze. Toby stared ahead impassively, but Eric and
Cooper looked on in disbelief as a police officer slowly led Tim through the
station in handcuffs.


Hope you guys liked this one, it was a bit dramatic, no?  There's only one
left before a bit of a break for me.  I'd love to hear what your thoughts
are.  So feel free to shoot an e mail to tenniswiz12@msn.com J