This story is Copyright © 2011-2013 Billy Martin, All rights reserved. Distribution for commercial gain, including, but not limited to, posting on sites or newsgroups, distribution as parts or in book form (either as a whole or part of a compilation) with or without a fee, or distribution on CD, DVD, or any other electronic media with or without a fee, is expressly prohibited without the author's written consent. You may download one (1) copy of this story for personal use; any and all commercial use excepting educational institutions requires the author's written consent. Any and all linking by external sites requires the author's permission.
The
author may be contacted at:
billybratii@gmail.com
Disclaimer
– If you want a story with lots of sex, look elsewhere. This is
a love story. Seeing, as it is a love story, sex is in there, but it
is in realistic balance in the characters’ lives. The story
contains sexual encounters between high school age minors, and has
some violence. If this offends you, or if it’s not legal for
you to read, please do not read. Also this story is a work of
fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the
product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is
entirely coincidental.
One
last thing, I know that we all enjoy these pages and wish for them to
be here for a long time to come. We, the writers, take pride in being
able to give all of you a few minutes of pleasure. So please think of
the time and effort the staff of Nifty spent putting these pages up,
not to mention the money it cost to maintain the site, and donate
just a little bit to Nifty, so we can keep it going.
Donate
Trails
and Tribulations
Chapter
6
His Knight
“Uh,
Roger, umm, this isn’t what it looks like. Uh…” I
managed to stutter out. I knew I looked like a bank robber who had a
trail of money that lead to his feet, every shirt and pants pocket
stuffed full of money, and asked the cop that stopped him, ‘What
money?’ I blushed furiously, while I tried to think of a quick
cover story.
“Okay, Andy,” began Roger, as he
raised his eye brows, and leaned against the door frame. “What
doesn’t it look like to me?” Roger simply folded his arms
across his chest, and stood, watching us on the bed.
“Uh,
wait.” I was confused by Roger’s comment and attitude. I
took a shy glance at him, while my stomach did flip flops. “What
did you just ask me?” As much as I loved Roger, there was no
way I was going to get trapped into something, saying the wrong
thing. I mean, I didn’t want to admit to something I wasn’t
even asked about. God, I’m confused. I sat there, with my mouth
open, as I tried to figure out exactly what to say.
Before I
could make a bigger fool of myself, a grin split Roger’s face
from ear to ear. I swear to God, he just fell rolling on the floor,
tears streaming from his eyes, while he laughed his ass off at us.
Now, I knew that when people type ROFLMAO, it really is possible. Who
knew?
I looked at Joey; he looked at me, then back at Roger,
and shrugged. Here was my best friend, curled up, as he rolled
around. Tears streamed from his eyes, and laughed like a hyena. As he
gasped for breath on the floor, I just stared at him, flabbergasted.
I got up off the bed and walked over to where he laid.
“Uh,
Roger, what’s up bud?” I wasn’t as concerned as I
had been, because I felt that if this was the reaction I was going to
get from Roger, then it was a good thing, or at least, I hoped it
was.
It took a while for Roger to regain control of himself.
He finally leaned back against the door frame, and pulled his legs
beneath him, Indian style. He chuckled, at first, as he sat there.
Then, he looked back and forth between Joey and me. His face was as
red as Rudolph’s nose, that flying reindeer of
Santa’s.
“Roger?” I was concerned, and tried
to get something, anything, out of him.
“Oh my God,”
Roger gasped, as he continued to look back and forth between us. “I
have never seen ANYONE look like you two did, when you realized I was
here.” He paused, and patted the floor beside him. So, I sat
down along beside him. I looked him in the eyes, and raised a
questioning eyebrow at him, as Joey stood and joined us on the
floor.
“This morning, when dad called mom, he told us
some stuff about Joey’s Dad and why he needed somewhere to
stay.” He quickly added, “I mean live. Going back over
the last few days in my head,” Roger paused, and looked at me,
before he continued, “I remember how much you kept talking
about Joey. You also seemed overly concerned about him not being at
school. Especially, considering you had just met him the day before.”
The joking slowly subsided as Roger’s voice got serious. I
moved nervously, and sat beside him.
Roger took a good look at
Joey before he spoke again. “When Andy was cleaning you up that
day JT hit you, I noticed the way you looked at Andy. You looked at
him the same way Tonya Marshall looks at me, when she doesn’t
know I’m watching. That look only got magnified when Andy told
me you were his friend.” Joey nodded, and blushed. I tried not
to smile as I realized I hadn’t been the only one to be feeling
something that day. My attention focused on Roger, though, when he
turned to look at me again.
“Then when you were on the
phone with your Dad’s secretary
this morning, you had that same look while you talked to Margie.
Also, when we moved stuff around in Joey’s room, both of you
stole looks at the other.” There was a pause as Roger looked at
me. It was one of those looks best friends have when they have to
tell you something they don’t really want to. If it had been
anyone else, I probably would have wanted to run, but instead I
wanted to know what Roger knew. “Andy, I’ve known you my
whole life. Not once have you ever had a crush on any girl. Never
have you said to me, ‘wow, so and so is hot.’ There isn’t
one poster in that box over there, or on your wall, that has a single
girl on them.” Roger pointed at the box of posters, and then
motioned around the room at the walls.
“I’m kinda
sorry I scared you both, but not totally.” He sighed, and
looked down at the floor. “Andy, I’m really hurt you
didn’t trust me enough to be honest with me. Joey, I can
understand, but not you.” His face showed the hurt and then he
frowned. “Have I ever given you a reason to think I would care
if you were gay or not?” His voice held the pain.
There
was no denying that I had hurt him and I really never have kept
anything from him before. Even when I was in the depths of
depression, he was my safe harbor, my best friend; no matter what was
going on around me.
“Roger, I’m sorry.” I
had a hard time looking him in the eyes. I felt bad for trying to
hide this from him, but I also felt exposed. Finally, I met his eyes
with mine. I really hoped I could make him understand, so he would
forgive me. “I really am sorry, but you also have to remember,
I’ve only started to confront it the last couple of days. Until
I met Joey, there was no way of knowing for sure. Joey is the first
boy I’ve ever had these feelings for.” My throat felt
dry, and my hands were sweaty, but one look at Joey, and I knew I
could finally tell Roger everything. “To be totally honest with
you though, I don’t know when I would have told you. I was, and
still am, scared. You saw what happened to Joey at school, before
anyone even knew the truth. You know how this town is.” I
paused, and looked Roger square in the eyes, “Yet, you know as
well as I do, if we’re both honest about it, I would have told
you at some point.”
“Fine, you’re right.”
He said. I relaxed a bit as I realized my best friend was still my
friend.
“This town sucks about this type of stuff.
You’re also right in that I know deep down, you would have told
me, given the chance.” He paused, and with a mischievous
twinkle in his eyes, “But, my God, it was awesome catching you
two!”
Both Joey and I hit his shoulders at the same
time.
“Ouch” he cried with a chuckle. I leaned
over and pulled him into a hug.
“I love you, bro.”
I said, with tears in my eyes, as I realized Roger accepted me and
Joey for who we were.
“So, are you two like an item or
something?” Roger watched as I slowly sat back down after the
hug. He tilted his head and waited for me to answer him.
I
glanced over at Joey, and he nodded. “Yeah, I asked him to be
my boyfriend before you scared the shit out of us and he said yes.”
I paused, and looked at Roger, “Roger, we have to keep this
quiet, for now anyway. Joey and I have agreed not to tell anyone we
don’t both agree on. So, will you please let us decide who and
when?”
“Sure, no problem there. Who knows you guys
are gay and about the two of you?”
Leave it to Roger to
ask the hard questions right away. I looked at Joey, who just nodded,
and allowed me to field the question. I thought about it a moment
before I answered.
“My dad knows, but I didn’t
actually confirm it to him, at least not in so many words. I guess
from what you said, your family knows Joey is gay, but only you know
for sure we’re boyfriends.”
“Well, since I’m
the first and only one so far, I guess it’s my job to keep you
both on your toes and safe. Seeing how Joey is my new little
brother,” Roger playfully smacked Joey’s shoulder, before
turning to look at me, “my best friend just became my future
brother-in-law. Seriously guys, I really don’t wanna see any
sex stuff between you two.” Roger made a face and shook his
head. “A little kissing I think I can handle; however, I think
double dating is probably out of the question for now, too.” He
smiled and winked at me. Joey sat and watched us. Up till now there
had been worry and fear all over his face, but I could almost watch
the tension melt from his body as he looked at Roger.
Joey
smiled and spoke for the first time since Roger caught us, “Roger,
you’re like the brother I always wanted. I can’t believe
you’re saying all this.” He paused, and with a hopeful
look he asked, “Do you really mean it?”
“You
bet your ass I do. I saw what your old man did to you.” Roger
looked sympathetically at Joey, “No one deserves that crap
short of murder.” Then with deadly serious look, he said, “As
for JT, if he gives you anymore trouble, I’ll be right there
with you and Andy.” He reached out his right hand between us, I
placed my right hand on top of Roger’s, and Joey placed his on
top of mine. Then Roger said, “One for all,” then all
three of us said at the same time, “and all for one!”
Uncle
Steve’s loud truck horn broke up our little brotherhood moment.
Roger laughed and Joey smiled. It was nice to know we had Roger to
count on. As we got up to head over to Joey’s old house, I
walked over and grabbed the box of posters. Handing the box to Joey,
I followed them downstairs
“Joey, you can put this in
your room while I lock up the house. Hey Roger, tell Uncle Steve I’ll
be right there.”
They took off and I locked the back
door, closing the main door, and then locked the front door behind
me. By the time I was done, they were already in the truck. Roger
smiled at me as I rounded the front of the truck, because he had
taken the front passage seat, leaving Joey and me in the back. I
smiled at Joey as I climbed in and fastened my seat belt. I’m
not sure why we buckled up since we were just going down the street,
but it was second nature to us and safety first.
“You
boys ready?” Uncle Steve looked around to make sure we were
set, before he started up the truck. “Alright, let’s get
this over with.” Uncle Steve backed out of the driveway.
I
put my hand over in the middle of the back seat with my palm up and
looked up at Joey. He smiled as he reached over and took my hand in
his. I squeezed it reassuringly. I knew this wasn’t going to be
easy on him, and I wanted to show all the support I could.
When
I glanced back towards the front, I noticed Uncle Steve eyes on me in
the rear view mirror. I blushed. Damn it, I blushed like a fool every
time I get caught with Joey. What’s up with that? I never used
to blush. Thankfully, I was saved by the fact we had arrived at
Joey’s house.
When we pulled up to Joey’s, I
noticed Deputy Bob and Mr. Bennett were already there. After we
exited the truck, we headed towards the front door. Before we made it
half way up the driveway Mr. Bennett came over to Joey and asked,
“Joey, do you have a key for the house?”
“Yes
sir, I do.” Joey nodded, pulled out a key to show
him.
“Great.” Mr. Bennett paused, placed a hand on
Joey’s shoulder, “Son, you take your time. There’s
no reason to rush. No one will be interrupting you as you get your
things. Let me explain to you what the court order says.” He
smiled, trying to put Joey at ease. “Anything that was bought
for you, or was given to you, as a gift, is yours; and you may take
them with you. That includes all your school books and school
supplies, all your clothes, bike, any electronic devices and
accessories, like a DVD player, music player, or a watch for that
matter, and anything else bought for you, or given to you as a gift.
If you aren’t sure about something, I’m here to answer
any of your questions.” Mr. Bennett paused, and looked Joey in
the eyes. “Do you have any questions so far?”
“No
Sir. I really don’t have that much anyway, mostly clothes and
even that isn’t much.” Joey’s voice was soft, but
suddenly he looked up smiling. “I do have a bike though. It’s
out in the shed.”
“Okay boys, let’s get
started.” Uncle Steve seemed like he was ready to get this show
on the road. Then he reached over and ruffled Joey’s hair, “Why
don’t you go ahead and unlock the house, then you guys can get
started in your bedroom. After that, we can work our way out from
there?”
We nodded and took off for the front
door.
Uncle Steve and Mr. Bennett stopped in the yard to talk,
but Deputy Bob came with us. After Joey opened the front door, he
started to take his shoes off, but Bob stopped him, telling us we
didn’t really have time to do that every trip in and out of the
house. As I listened to him explain, I could understand why there was
no time to be extra careful. No one wants cops in their house any
longer than necessary. Plus, this was just part of his job today as a
deputy, and he wanted to be out of there as quickly as possible. I
was just grateful it was someone Joey had seen before.
The
first thing I noticed was all the religious stuff on the walls,
crosses and pictures mostly. As I looked around the living room,
something seemed to be missing. I knew Joey’s dad was a
preacher, there was no surprise with what was there, but as I looked
around, I knew something was missing; however, I couldn’t put
my finger on exactly what it was. I shook it off and followed Joey
and Roger down the hallway to Joey’s bedroom.
“This
is it.” Joey walked into his room and over to his closet. He
told the truth about his situation, especially when it came to
clothes. There were five sets of clothes hanging in his closet, along
with a suit. He gathered them all together, as he took the hangers
off the crossbar, and laid his clothes on his bed. His whole wardrobe
would fit into the school bag of most little kids. Joey stood there
looking miserable.
“I’ll take those on out to the
truck for you as you go through your drawers. Do you have something
like a bag, box, or suitcase to put your underwear, shirts, and socks
in?” I was felt a little nervous for Joey, because he looked
embarrassed again. I just didn’t want him to feel like this was
his fault. So, I tried hard to get him to think about what we were
doing and not how things looked.
Joey nodded and started
getting the rest of his stuff together as I headed out to the truck.
On my way out, I noticed the pictures lining the hallway walls. There
were a lot of pictures of different churches, with I guess, church
members standing out in front of them, and religious scenes, like
Jesus on the cross, and Mary holding a baby Jesus. I hurried past
them, because I wanted to get back to Joey, as quickly as
possible.
When I made it to the truck, I carefully laid Joey’s
clothes on the back seat. I stood there, and stared at what little
Joey owned. But more than that, I had an itch I couldn’t
scratch. Something still nagged at me and had started to bug the crap
out of me.
On my way back in, I met Roger coming out with a
small bag containing all of Joey’s underwear and socks.
“Andy,
he really doesn’t have much.” Roger looked sadly at the
bag he was carrying.
“You’re right; I’m
going to talk to your dad about it. Could you help Joey finish up?”
I asked feeling frustrated.
“No problem, it won’t
take us but a couple more minutes.” Roger stood, shook his
head, and looked as frustrated as I felt. “Andy, I really feel
sorry for Joey.” He paused, he seemed to try and find the words
to express what he felt. I could see his face turn red, but whether
it was from anger or embarrassment, I wasn’t sure. “When
we’re done inside, I’ll go out to the shed with him to
get his bike and we can put it in the bed of the truck.”
Roger’s voice held sadness. He clearly felt as bad as I did
about the situation. I was grateful to know I wasn’t the only
one upset by how my boyfriend had been living.
I put a hand on
his shoulder and looked him in the eye. “Thanks, Roger.”
He nodded and headed on to the truck.
I walked over to Uncle
Steve and Mr. Bennett. “Uncle Steve, can I talk to you for a
minute in private?”
“Sure, Andy,” Uncle
Steve put an arm around my shoulder, and led me towards the side of
the house, “what’s on your mind son?” Uncle Steve
faced me and waited for me to let him know what had me so
worried.
“Uncle Steve, did dad say when he would be
home?” I asked, to give myself time, because I wasn’t
sure how I was going to ask the question that was really on my
mind.
“He talked like he would be home after he took
care of some other business unrelated to Joey, maybe a couple of
hours. Why do you ask?” Uncle Steve knew me all too well. He
smiled and waited for me to ask what I really had on my mind. I shook
my head. He was as hard to hide things from as dad was.
“Uncle
Steve, Joey doesn’t have anything. I don’t mean he
doesn’t have big and fancy stuff, I mean he only has five sets
of clothes. And those…” I paused, as I chocked back the
anger that had built inside of me. “Uncle Steve, I’m
going to call Dad and tell him I plan on calling Mr. Day to release
some funds to me, so I can buy Joey everything he should have; but
we’ll need a ride. Can you take Joey and me,” I couldn’t
help but laugh at what I was about to ask him, “shopping?”
Uncle
Steve chuckled. He knew how much I hated to shop. “Sure Andy,
I’d be glad too. Alice and I had planned on it anyway. If your
dad agrees, you can buy Joey some clothes. Alice and I had already
planned on taking Joey to Wal-Mart this evening to look for a
computer desk and maybe a laptop.”
I called Dad and
explained why I wanted to help Joey without coming out and saying
that he was my boyfriend. Dad agreed to allow me to call Mr. Day, my
fund manager, that’s not really his title, but it works for me,
to transfer an extra five thousand to my debit card account at the
local bank. By the time I got finished with my phone calls, everyone
was ready to head home.
As much as I hated shopping,
especially
for clothes, there
was only one place we could go for it all …the mall. Joey
couldn’t keep going to school with the same five outfits,
especially knowing that one of them was totally ruined with the blood
from his beating. Hell, I had more than five changes of clothes when
I was an infant. I wanted Uncle Steve to take us to the mall in
Pikeville to shop for clothes and a computer for Joey.
I
didn’t want Joey getting cheated. I mean we all had things from
Wal-Mart. It was fine for underwear and just plain tee shirts, but
Joey was living with Uncle Steve and he was my boyfriend. Besides, he
was cute as hell and deserved to be spoiled, especially after what
his father had done to him. I was never going to forgive that
man.
“So, are you boys up for a trip to Wal-Mart?”
“Can
we go to the mall, too, Uncle Steve? I think Joey is going to need
more than tee shirts and underwear. We can go into a few different
stores so he can see what he likes, if we hit the mall?”
God,
I can’t believe I was asking to go there. I hated the mall.
There was no way people weren’t going to understand that this
was more than a friend.
“Sure, we can go to the mall,
Andy. Then we can check the prices on the computers there and see if
they beat the ones at Wal-Mart.”
That was Uncle Steve
for you. He was always willing to check things out.
Everything
went smoothly at the mall. It went a lot better than I thought it
would. Okay, I actually had a great time. Seeing Joey try on
different clothes was, actually, kinda hot. I have to admit, there
was a time or two, when he tried on some of those low cut tight jeans
that showed off his cute butt, my jeans got really tight on me,
because little Mikey was trying to stand up and get out to play. I
talked him into letting me buy him one of those new Samsung Focus S
cell phones. I wanted to get the Samsung Galaxy Nexus for him, but
when he saw the price, he turned to me and said not only ‘no’,
but ‘hell no’. I agreed, as long as he let me get him a
cheap Sony Walkman for tunes. So by the time we got home, at ten that
night, we had six bags of clothes he liked, a new laptop, a cell
phone, an mp3 player, a new bedroom ensemble, and a desk for his
room.
I had planned to help Joey change his bandages, but Aunt
Alice told me she and Uncle Steve would take care of it tonight. Dad
had called, and wanted me home when we were back. So, I said an
awkward good night to Joey, as everyone watched us, and then went
home.
After I woke up the next day, I went through my morning
routine, but this time, there was only one image in my mind while I
was in the shower, and that was of Joey. Of course, he was in varying
stages of dress, starting in those new low cut jeans he agreed to buy
because he knew I loved them on him. Before I knew it, the water was
once again washing down the drain all the evidence of my
naughtiness.
As I was getting dressed, I remembered that
Roger, Joey and I had agreed to get a ride to school with dad this
morning. So I rushed downstairs to make sure I caught him before he
left for work. I found him with his coffee in hand, and the newspaper
spread out in front of him on the kitchen table.
“Good
morning, Dad.” I called out, as I walked over to the cabinets
and poured myself a bowl of cereal.
“Good morning, Andy.
Did Joey find everything he needed last night?”
“Yes
sir, for now. Oh, we also need a ride this morning, if that’s
okay?”
“No problem son. You guys be ready in ten.”
Dad stood and walked to the sink to rinsed out his cup.
“Thanks
Dad.” I finished off my cereal, then called Roger to tell him
and Joey to come on over.
The ride to school was uneventful.
Roger sat up front, with Joey and me in the back. I did catch Dad as
he stole glances at me, but nothing was said. The conversation was
mostly about school and Dad inquired if Joey liked the stuff he had
bought the night before at the mall. I could tell Joey was a little
overwhelmed by it, but thankful for everyone’s help. He really
looked hot in the new jeans, and the blue shirt he was wearing went
great with his blue eyes and blond hair. It was then I realized he
was going to have all the girls after him, and that could cause
unintended problems with those girls’ boyfriends, but it was
only a small problem. One I could handle, since the guy in question
was Joey, and he was my hot boyfriend.
When we got to school,
Joey and I went straight to our homeroom, since we had left our books
in there the day before. Roger took off for his locker. It was hard,
no pun intended, not holding hands as we walked to Mr. Ison’s
room, but we didn’t.
* * * * * * * * * *
After
the jury had taken their seats, everyone else took theirs. Judge
Collins looked around the courtroom as he waited for everyone to
settle down.
“The first order of business this morning
is my ruling on the defense hearsay objection. Citing Rule 801a of
Hearsay exceptions, defense objection is overruled. The Commonwealth
may continue” Judge Collins stated with authority.
The
commonwealth attorney rose, and walked over to where the witness was
already seated in the witness chair. “Mr. McCray, what did Mr.
Brown say to you the night in question concerning his intentions
towards you?”
Mr. McCray turned to look at the jury, and
answered. “He said that if I didn’t pay him ten thousand
dollars, he would kill me and my family.”
“Why was
he asking for ten thousand dollars? Did you owe him that amount of
money?”
He hadn’t expected that question and it
left him squirming in his chair; but with his voice barely above a
whisper, he answered. “No, I didn’t owe him any
money.”
“Then why, sir, was he demanding money
from you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Mr.
McCray, I remind you that you are under oath. Once again, I ask you,
why was he demanding ten thousand dollars from you?”
Mr.
McCray looked nervously around the room, but didn’t
answer.
The Commonwealth Attorney looked up at Judge Collins,
“Judge?”
“The witness will answer the
question or will be found in contempt of court.” Judge Collins
said sternly.
Mr. McCray looked at the judge, then looked back
at the Commonwealth Attorney and said, “He caught me in bed
with his wife, while I was at their house to work on the
plumbing.”
* * * * * * * * * *
The morning went
well, until third period. It’s not like I hated math. I could
see where it could be helpful later on in life, but I knew I would
never be a mathematician, or a statistician. I mean, come on, a
mathematician is like a blind man, in a dark room, looking for a
black cat, which isn’t there, and a statistician is someone who
is good with numbers, but lacks the personality to be an
accountant.
I was pulled from my philosophical thoughts by
Mrs. Robinson as she told me to report to the principal’s
office. I was kinda concerned for a second, but then I remembered
Uncle Steve had called and notified the school what all took place
yesterday.
“Hi, Mrs. Perry,” I said, as I walked
into the office. “Mrs. Robinson said I needed to come
by.”
“Oh, hi Andy,” she smiled and picked up
a piece of paper and handed it to me. “Mr. Horn wanted me to
give you an excuse for your missed classes yesterday.”
“Thank
you, Mrs. Perry. I hope you have an awesome day.” I turned to
leave and bumped into a smiling Joey. “Hey,” my day just
shines brighter every time I see him. “Did you get called to
the office too?”
“Yep. I don’t know why
though.” The urge to hug him, hold him, kiss him was so
freakin’ strong, I had to look back at Mrs. Perry to get
control of myself. When I looked back, even his eyes were smiling at
me. I was so falling for this boy.
“It’s for,”
I paused. “Uh, what was the question again?” I couldn’t
even think straight. Oops. I chuckled to myself. Of course I couldn’t
think straight, I’m gay after all.
He laughed, “There
wasn’t a question.” Then he lightly punched me on the
arm.
“Oh, yeah,” I said, as I rubbed my arm. “It’s
for an excused absence for yesterday.”
He got his excuse
from Mrs. Perry as I waited on him in the hall. When he met me in the
hall, we both looked around, seeing no one, he leaned back against
the wall by the lockers and smiled. I leaned into him for a quick
kiss as we held hands. After we broke apart, we both looked around to
make sure we hadn’t been seen and quickly dropped our hands to
our sides.
“I’m sorry Joey; I just had to have a
kiss.”
He smiled, “Me too, Andy. I thought you
were going to kiss me in the principal’s office.” Then he
turned serious. “We do need to be more careful. If we get outed
here at school, I don’t know what we’d do.”
“Yeah,
you’re right. This is going to be harder than I thought.”
Joey had me thinking, and a frown crossed my face. “We better
head back to class. Hey, I want you to look for me at lunch, and you
can sit with me.” I smiled, and raised my eye brows. “It’ll
give you a chance to meet my other friends.” I said, as I tried
to lighten the mood and give us something to look forward to. He
smiled, and nodded, as we bumped fists.
I back tracked my
morning classes, showed my first, and second period teachers my
excuse, before I headed back to math. By the time I got back, the end
of class bell rung, as I showed Mrs. Robinson my excuse. I quickly
grabbed my stuff and headed to lunch.
Gary and Roger were
ahead of me in line, and I noticed Joey was a couple of people behind
me. I let the two girls between us go in front of me so I could be
with Joey.
“This will be your first taste of our
friendly chow line, huh?” I teased Joey.
“Yeah, I
didn’t get a chance to eat the first day, thanks to JT.”
He rolled his eyes and smiled. I swear, even rolling his eyes made
him look adorable.
“I wouldn’t recommend the
Italian Surprise.” I said straight-faced. “However, the
hotdogs and fries are safe. It’s kinda hard to mess those up.”
I smiled, and lightly elbowed him in the side.
When we sat
down at the table, Roger, Gary, Debbie and Timmy were already
there.
“Hey guys, this is Joey.” I wasn’t
sure how much to say about Joey. Should I say he lived with Roger
now, or why it happened? This wasn’t going to be easy, and
these were my friends. I figured I’d let Roger and Joey decide
how much to say.
Everyone was friendly to him, and asked the
normal questions, like where are you from, but strangely, no one
asked where he lived. I guessed Roger had talked to everyone. I
watched as everyone interacted with him, and they seemed to like him.
Even Timmy was nice to him. I still hadn’t figured out why he
gave me such strange looks on Monday. I guess whatever it was, he
worked it out.
I still had to write that assignment for Mr.
Ison, which was due tomorrow. So I spent forty minutes on it in study
hall, during sixth period. On the ride home Roger let Joey and I sit
together on the bus; and he sat in the seat in front of us, like Joey
had on Monday. Joey seemed, to me anyway, to be less tense than he
had been the last few days. Even though I wanted to spend time with
him, I knew I had to get my homework done before I did
anything.
“Joey, I hope you don’t mind, but I need
to get my government class paper finished for tomorrow and some other
homework.” I said, and hoped he would understand.
“Andy,
it’s cool. I have the same paper, and I haven’t finished
it either. Plus, I have a lot more homework, too.” He looked
around to see if anyone could see us before he took my hand in his.
“I wanted to ask you if it would be okay if I spent some time
with Roger and his family, so we could get to know each other. Maybe
after supper, I could come over to see you, or you could come over to
our house?”
I smiled, as I realized he was trying to fit
into his new home. I was happy to hear it. “That sounds like a
plan to me. Why don’t I call after supper and see what’s
up?”
We split up when we got to their house, and I went
on home. I walked in, closed the door, pulled off my shoes, went into
the living room, and sat down on the couch. I closed my eyes and
thought of Joey. Things were better for him, and having a boyfriend
was a lot easier than I expected. I couldn’t help but smile
when I thought of Joey and us being boyfriends.
My thoughts
drifted to my mom, and I wondered what she would think of me being
gay. How would she feel about me having a boyfriend? What would she
think of Joey? I stood, walked over to the fireplace, and looked at
our family pictures. I looked at one dad had taken, of mom and me, we
both smiled happily, as we looked at each other, with our foreheads
together. I really missed her. I took the picture off the mantle and
hugged it, as if I the picture was her.
That is when it
finally hit me. Now I knew what had bugged me the whole time I had
been at Joey’s house. I didn’t see one picture, in the
whole house, with Joey in it! I mean, one look in my living room, and
you could see pictures of me with my parents’ at all different
ages. Damn his parents, they didn’t even love him enough to
have a picture of him up anywhere in the house. That is going to
change tonight. I grabbed my backpack before I ran upstairs to my
room. I took my camera out its case to make sure the batteries were
charged, and to see if I had enough memory left on the card to take a
bunch of pictures. After I found everything I needed, I smiled as I
thought of Joey. Then I got to work on my paper and the rest of my
homework.
After supper, I still hadn’t finished my
homework, so I called Joey and Roger. They still had homework left
too. So we decided they would meet me here in the morning for a ride
to school and to just wait until tomorrow afternoon to meet up,
before the ball game. Besides, I thought, it was good they had some
time to bond. We also agreed that everyone would spend the night at
my house, after the game. I guess I would have to wait until tomorrow
night, after the game, to take some pictures of Joey. With all the
excitement of the last few days I was exhausted. It wasn’t five
minutes after I finished the paper that I was sound asleep, dreaming
of my beautiful Joey.
After school the next day, Joey, Roger,
and I hung out at my house playing some Madden football and Major
League Baseball 2K10, on the Wii. It was awesome watching Joey play
against Roger. He had the cutest facial expressions, and the way he
would move was funny. He would actually dodge a tackle, just like he
had his man perform in the game, it was almost comical. It brought a
huge smile to my face, but once I thought about it, I guess I
probably looked like a dork playing the game. When I tried to imagine
what I looked like when I played - I cringed. So, I figured I
wouldn’t mention anything about it.
About four thirty,
we decided to call it quits, so we could get Joey’s bandages
changed before we headed to the game.
Aunt Alice took Joey and
I to the game around five forty-five. Roger decided he would come
later, because he didn’t want to hang out there for an hour and
a half with nothing to do.
“Boys, give me a call when
you’re ready to come home and someone will come and pick you
up, okay?” Aunt Alice asked as we exited her Park Avenue. She
smiled at Joey as he stood alongside me.
“I will, and
tell Roger to look for us when he gets here.” I nodded, closed
the door, and waved.
We watched her drive away and turned to
walk to the entrance of the football field.
Joey was quiet
beside me. Finally, he looked at me and asked, “What do you
think Mr. Horn will have us doing?”
Every time I looked
into his eyes, it was like looking into my past, future, and present.
I could see my life in them. Time would stop and nothing else
mattered. I sort of got lost every time I looked into his
eyes.
“Andy? Hello? Are you with me?” Joey
stopped, and grinned at me. I stared at him, lost in his eyes, and
didn’t honestly hear a word he had said.
“Uh, umm,
yeah, what’s the question?” I stammered, and went into
full blush mode.
“Hello boys. You’re early. I like
that.” Mr. Horn said, as he pulled a card table out of the
storage building, by the entrance. One thing you could say about Mr.
Horn, he was efficient. He quickly looked us both over and smiled. He
turned to Joey first. “Son, why don’t you head over to
the concession stand and help with popping the popcorn and setting up
the cups for the drinks. Susan will show you what to do, okay?”
“Yes
sir.” Joey turned to me and smiled. I could tell he wasn’t
comfortable with the idea of us being separated.
“Mr.
Horn, Joey and I aren’t going to be working together?” I
wanted to know before Joey could leave. Joey stood frozen in place,
and anxiously waited for Mr. Horn’s answer. Mr. Horn finished
setting up the card table before he turned to look at us.
“Andy,
I need you to help me here at the gate taking in the money and
handing out the ticket stubs.” I think Mr. Horn could tell we
weren’t thrilled with this idea, because he added, “Since
most everyone that’s coming will be here by mid-way in the
first quarter, we usually stop making people pay then and close up
shop.” He paused, and smiled at us both. “When we’re
through here, you can go get Joey and watch the rest of the game.
How’s that boys?”
I looked over at Joey; he nodded
and smiled at me. I guess knowing that we wouldn’t be separated
for long, made this a lot easier to deal with.
“That’s
awesome Mr. Horn, thanks.” Joey and I bumped fists and he took
off for the concession stand. Oh my god, his butt looked so hot in
those new tight ass jeans he had on. Instantly, I started to feel a
stirring from little Mikey. The naughty thoughts I received as looked
at him would definitely get an xxx rating. However, now was not the
time to out myself to the town, so I turned back to help Mr. Horn.
I
helped Mr. Horn set up everything the way he wanted it; and in no
time, people started arriving for the game. I took my spot at the
table and smiled, as I greeted everyone. I handed them a ticket stub
after tearing it in two and putting my half in a bag. This was the
school’s way of tracking how many people attended, and so they
could check the money against stubs. Mr. Horn was took the money, so
I didn’t have to worry about that part.
Once I had
gotten into a routine, I barely noticed who I greeted. Finally, I
looked up and Roger was stood there with his hand out as he waited
for his ticket stub.
“Hey Roger,” I started as I
handed him his stub. “Save Joey and me a seat. We’ll
catch up with you about half way through the first quarter.”
“No
problem. Just bring me a drink and some popcorn with you.” He
smiled.
“Deal,” I agreed. We bumped fists before
he headed in.
The crowd outside slowed down once it got near
game time. People around here take their football very seriously. You
tried to never be late for a game.
As if I couldn’t tell
from the noise of the crowd, I could see the scoreboard from where I
sat. We were up fourteen to nothing in the first four minutes of the
game. After a few more minutes, the number of people that wanted in
to watch the game had slowed to just a trickle. I started to look
around and daydream.
I had been dreaming of what life with
Joey might be like when I heard the yelling, and it wasn’t
about the scores by the teams either.
Confused? How you think
I felt when I realized who was doing the yelling?
“What
do you mean he can’t go to the game? He served his five day
suspension.” JT’s Dad yelled at Mr. Horn.
“Mr.
McCray, his suspension doesn’t end until Monday morning. While
he is on suspension, he isn’t allowed on school grounds.”
Mr. Horn stood up and faced Mr. McCray’s anger.
That’s
when I saw JT, as stood by his dad. Then he noticed me, too. “Pa,
that’s the punk that sucker punched me!”
Okay, I
could see this was going to end badly, no matter what was said. So, I
decided to just sit there, stay quiet, and let Mr. Horn handle it.
After all, he is big enough to be a defensive lineman for the Green
Bay Packers.
“Why is that son-of-a-bitch allowed here
and my son isn’t?” Mr. McCray asked, as he pointed at me
with his eyes full of hate.
“Mr. McCray, I’m going
to have to ask you to leave. I won’t allow any adult to
verbally attack, or otherwise abuse, one of my students. If you won’t
leave on your own, I’ll have a law enforcement officer remove
you from school grounds.” Mr. Horn walked around the little
card table and stood between Mr. McCray and me.
By this time,
with all the noise and shouting, people had started to gather around
to see what was up. I began to feel penned in, even with Mr. Horn
there.
JT looked at me with fire in his eyes, he pointed his
finger at me and with venom dripping off every word he yelled. “I’m
going to kick your fag boyfriend’s ass, and when I’m done
with him, you’re next.”
I jumped up at that. I
didn’t want to get in Mr. Horn’s way, but there was no
way I was going to stay quiet after that threat. No one was going to
threaten Joey, not after what he has been through. I looked at JT and
saw red.
Every muscle in my body tensed up, ready to strike. I
bellowed back at him, “JT, if you ever lay a finger on Joey
again, I swear to God, I’ll kill you!”
*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
OK,
so that's it for Chapter 6. WOW. Andy sure lost his temper. That's
the second time Andy has told JT something similar. Was it a major
mistake for Andy to threaten JT that way? How will Mr. Horn react?
And how will Andy deal with having a cute boyfriend while in a secret
relationship, when he realizes he isn't the only one that thinks Joey
is cute? Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. I would
love to hear your feedback and comments. You can email me at:
billybratii@gmail.com
Depending
on my editors and beta readers, I'll probably publish a chapter every
week or two, at least for the foreseeable future,.
I want to
thank James C., Jon, Wagner, Tom, James F., Mick, Bobby, JT, Robert,
Bradley, Matt, Bryan, Brad, Kenneth, Peter, Steve, Paul, John, Mark,
Chris, and Ian for their kind e-mails with words of encouragement and
advice. It really helps to know that someone is reading and liking
your work. I hope my writing will bring entertainment, but also cause
you to pause and reflect.
There's a number of organizations
out there that offers help in a multitude of ways. They include, but
not limited to -The
Trevor Project
,
PFLAG,
Teen
Line,
and The
Mail Crew.
Also did you know that the most common type of cancer affecting men
between the ages of 15 and 35 is testicular cancer? Here's a link for
more information on the subject. The
Testicular Cancer Primer
Never
feel like there's no help, whatever the problem may be.
And
don't forget to DONATEto
help keep Nifty going!
Thank you.
Billy Martin