Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 13:29:15 -0800 (PST) From: Jo Jo Subject: Wayward People Chap 17-"A Kid for You, A Problem for Me" Disclaimer: The usual rules apply here. If you aren't legal in your area to be reading material(non erotic, mind you) about homosexuals and the activities they may or may not participate in, then please don't read. This story has been copyrighted and is not to be used elsewhere in any way without the express permission of the author (that would be me). For everyone else, enjoy! Wayward People Chapter Seventeen-"A Kid for You, A Problem for Me" I guess I probably should have caught on to the fact that Reverend Thomas not being married meant something. Then again, if no one else had, it was to be expected. Still though, I'd always assumed that Reverend Thomas had a family somewhere. That maybe he had a wife and kids, and was just divorced. Not so. Alone alone alone was he, and that actually relieved me. I wasn't sure what I'd do if I had to explain to anyone else why I had decided to stay with Reverend Thomas. It had already been hard enough to do with my family and friends. My mother had pretty much been thrilled with the idea. She figured Reverend Thomas would be helping me to `see the light' and come to my senses. There was no more need for Dr. Sanchez because of it. My dad seemed to be disappointed enough for the both of them, as if my mom was, I certainly hadn't seen it. Of course, he still figured there was something wrong with me as well, so he thought it was a good idea too. Max and Troy threw fits. They hadn't talked to me for a few hours but once I was actually all packed up and ready to move in, they suddenly had a whole lot to say. Basically, neither of them agreed, but they weren't going to hold it against me. I'm sure Troy thought I was being stupid moving in with him, but that was to be expected. Given the circumstances of the situation, I'm sure I'd feel pretty much the same way were it Troy in my shoes. Sienna and Pete both thought the world pf Reverend Thomas, so they didn't really see where the problem was. It was all a very mixed bag of some people being happy, and some people being confused, and others being disappointed. Either way, what had been done had been done, and I had made up my mind. For now, this was where I wanted to be. It just felt...right to me. Of course, things could always change later on. I'd only been with Reverend Thomas since last Wednesday. As it was now Monday, it was time for another school week, and the start of December. So far, things had been going pretty well. It was like I was staying with a second uncle or something. Reverend Thomas was a pretty efficient man. Of course he had a rather large house. He was a preacher who made a living mostly off of personal donations, and considering he knew how to make people fall in love with him, he made a lot of donation money. But he was also a neat person. His house was in complete order. It actually looked more like some kind of upscale New York loft/apartment, rather than a Las Vegas semi McMansion. I got lost a couple of times the first day. He didn't have a maid or cook or anything as far as I could tell. Then again, it's pretty hard to mess up an entire house when you live alone, so of course it'd be neat. He'd made it clear to me that as long as I was staying with him, I could treat his place just like I would at home. Considering the fact that my mom ran a tight ship, I didn't foresee myself ruining any of his precious mementos anytime soon. It was a house that two gay men shared. What could go wrong there? "Morning, Michael," Reverend Thomas spoke. "I'm making breakfast." I had since learned that Reverend Thomas was an excellent cook. Who would've thought, really? As I walked into the kitchen and saw Reverend Thomas standing near his stove and smelled the bacon cooking, I actually grew hungry. He wasn't better than my mom at cooking, but he was certainly much better at cooking than my father. "So is it true what they say?" I asked, taking a seat at the table. "That all gay guys can cook." "I don't think so," Reverend Thomas replied. "Why? How many gay guys do you know?" He'd asked with a grin on his face, flipping around some pancakes. Strangely, I found myself getting more and comfortable with him. It was funny. All my life I'd gone out of my way to avoid him just because I was intimidated by him. But now that I was actually getting to know him, he wasn't that bad a guy at all. It was almost like I was getting attached to him somewhat. "So everything okay at school?" he asked, as he continued attending to the food. Things had actually been great considering the fact that I hadn't had to put up with Evan in quite a while. I liked that. "Would you believe it if I told you I'm the most loveable gay guy in town?" It was a joke because in actuality, people were still talking about me. I guess they were trying to figure out if I was in fact gay. And who knows what Evan had been telling people while he was staying away from me. "You know, if I'm supposed to be helping you then were going to have to get you to stop calling everything gay." Reverend Thomas walked over to the table, placing a plate of bacon down. "Okay, all cured. Who do I write my check out to?" He smiled before going back over to the stove. I knew that I could joke around with him like that because we both knew I wasn't going to be changing. I was only staying here until my parents realized that. The only thing was, I wasn't sure if they'd ever realize that. And as long as I still got to see my brother and Troy, I was okay with not going back. At least, that was the way I felt right now. "You know sooner or later your parents are going to realize there's not much I can do," Reverend Thomas spoke, coming back to the table with the pancakes. "But until then, I'm happy to have you." "Well as long as you keep cooking like this, I'm happy to be here," I replied, reaching over to grab a piece of bacon. Reverend Thomas smiled before going over to his stainless steel refrigerator to get some orange juice. "Uh, Michael, there was something I wanted to discuss with you," he started. He was reaching. I could tell. He wanted help with something, like my mom always did. "Okay" I replied. Of course, as long as I was staying here rent and problem free, helping out seemed like the least I could do. "Well, I think you probably already know my job is to preach at the church," he started, coming back to the table. "Yeah, I think I might've heard that somewhere." "Well, on the days I'm not busy with the church, I like to volunteer my time various places." Yes, like my mother. Continue... "Like where?" I asked. "Oh I don't know...the local clinic or battered women's shelter...here and there." Here and there was right. "Okay...so you want me to help you one day or..." "Well actually, a friend of mine works over at an orphanage and troubled children's home in town," he started, pouring me a glass of orange juice. "We got to talking about how with Christmas coming up in a few weeks that a lot of the children would feel left out when it came time for presents and such." I'd never really been a greedy person myself, so Christmas had never really been about presents for me. Of course, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't the main reason I was excited to celebrate Christmas every year. "Well, that's sad," I replied. "But I'm not sure I get it." "Well they'll be lonely," Reverend Thomas replied. "And I just thought it'd be a good idea to give them someone to talk to. Someone to guide them." "Wait a sec...you want me to mentor some kid?" I asked, trying to keep from sounding as annoyed as I felt. I wasn't sure where he thought I was in a position to be able to have the ability to mentor anyone, but I wasn't and I didn't. "Well I'm still working everything out," Reverend Thomas replied. "I was just hoping maybe you could tell your brother and friends about it. Get people interested." Yeah, I could talk to them. But I sure didn't want to mentor anyone. I knew kids didn't like me and I didn't like kids. This didn't sound like a good idea. "Well anyway, think about it," Reverend Thomas said, bowing his head to pray over his food. Oh I was thinking about it. Thinking about how it was NOT a good idea. "Sounds like babysitting to me," Troy spoke, arms crossed against a row of lockers. I don't know why telling everyone about what Reverend Thomas had said had been the first thing I felt like doing upon getting to school, but I had. It was probably because I tended to dwell on bad things a lot more than I should have. And me mentoring somebody would definitely be a bad thing. "Trust me, when you have three brothers and sisters, you know what it's like," Sienna replied. "So maybe somebody ought to be babysitting you then?" Pete joked. "Ha ha, very funny," Sienna spoke. "Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea?" I asked. Because no one had anything negative to say so far. There I was again. Expecting the negative. "I don't know Mike," Max started. "I mean, we don't know all the details yet." Yet? What did he mean yet? "Nor do we need to," I replied. "Just because I'm living with Reverend Thomas doesn't mean I have to help him with all his little ideas." Because if the world revolved around getting everyone's done, we'd all be in trouble. "Don't you want to teach some cute little ten-year old how to write a good book?" Sienna joked, poking me in the shoulder. "You just wanna teach some poor girl how to go sis boom ba, don't you?" Pete asked. "And baseball? You're not even really all that great," Sienna joked. As I sat back and listened to everyone's reactions, there was one thing that became clear. They all were interested in doing it. And who was I to sit back and be the Grinch taking away from their happiness. After all, I'd already done that to them all enough already. I put a smile on my face and straightened up. "Hey, you know what? I think maybe we should do it," I said. I actually figured now that it was at least worth a shot. Of course, once we got involved there was no turning back. I just hoped that I wasn't going to live to regret my decision. "With enough time, my mind control always works!" Pete spoke, waving his fingers in the air. "Hasn't worked on me," Sienna spoke. "You're my best friend aren't you?" Pete asked. Finally everyone was happy again. I couldn't say for sure yet, but the worst to come was probably all behind me. Max had been trying to do his work in computer class, but he knew Evan was staring at him. He'd been looking over at him off and on all class period and it was starting to bug him. He'd been doing his best to just ignore him, like he'd been doing for a while now. But today, Evan seemed to want to talk to him about something. He let out an annoyed sigh and turned to look at Evan who quickly looked away from him, like he hadn't been looking at all. "What?" he asked. Evan turned to look at him slightly. "Nothing I just......." Max sighed and turned back to his computer, noticing Evan turning towards him. "Just...well...how've you been?" Max stopped typing and snorted. "I mean...I know I don't really have a right to ask-" `You're right? So why bother?" Max asked. "I don't know...I..." Max turned to face him. "What?" Evan stopped and stared at Max. "Evan, you and I should have never been friends in the first place," Max said. "If you couldn't get along with my brother, that should have told me something." Evan just stared at him. "But I'm over it now," Max replied, turning back to his computer. Evan just stared at Max for a few seconds before he slowly turned back to his own computer, trying to start working again. "Aww, they're all so cute!" Sienna spoke. Sienna, Max, Troy Pete and I had all gone with Reverend Thomas to the children's home to take a look around. Apparently, Reverend Thomas already had some things set up. I guess I was getting myself a kid! "They're not puppies at the pound, Sienna," Pete said. "You don't get to pick the one you want." "What about her? She looks like a jumper," Sienna spoke. "Flexibility is the key to a good cheerleader." I couldn't help but to chuckle at that. Sienna really was a smart girl who made about the same grades that I did. But sometimes, you'd never be able to tell with the way she acted. "Come on," Pete spoke. Troy kind of looked indifferent. Almost like he didn't want to be here but was because of me and everyone else. Taking one for the team, I guess. Reverend Thomas's friend led us towards the back where there were doors on either side of us as we walked down the halls. Most of the kids were in the front areas, so it was a lot quieter where we were now. "Hey you think we gonna have to mentor anyone today?" Max asked. He actually sounded kinda excited and I knew why. It was in my brother's nature to want to help people. I knew he was going to make a terrific father later. "Okay, here we are," Reverend Thomas's friend, Mr. Friedman spoke. He'd led us into a room reminiscent of school cafeteria. There were a bunch of tables everywhere and there were kids at some of them. "Have a seat," Mr. Friedman spoke. "Where exactly?" Pete mumbled so that only I could hear it. Sienna immediately went up to a small girl no older than nine and started playing Barbie Dolls with her. A kid about the same age had accidentally smashed a toy truck into Max's foot, who in turn started playing with the kid after he returned it to him. Pete, Troy and I took a seat at the same table as Reverend Thomas and Mr. Friedman. "Okay, so I'm sure this guy's filled you in on what's going on, right?" Mr. Friedman asked us. "Oh, sure," I replied. "We're supposed to be volunteering our time to help the kids." "Wow, he didn't leave anything out this time," Mr. Friedman laughed. It was strange seeing one of Reverend Thomas's friends. I actually hadn't assumed he knew anyone outside the church. Other than that guy Troy and I had caught him making out with. "You do understand the responsibility of being a mentor? And how important it is?" Troy, Pete and I exchanged glances. "Of course, I mean we-" Pete was cut off when a plastic baseball came flying into the room, hitting him in the back. "Sorry mister," a small boy about the age of ten spoke. Pete turned around. "Now Glen, you know not to be playing baseball in here," Mr. Friedman spoke. "I know. I'm sorry," Glen spoke, lowering his head. Pete smiled. "You like baseball huh?" he asked. "Uh huh," the boy replied. "I'm gonna play in the majors when I get older." Pete stood up. "Not unless you work on that throwing arm there," he replied. "Come on, why don't we go outside and work on it. If that's okay with you Mr. Friedman?" "Oh, no go ahead," Mr. Friedman replied. "I'll see you two in a bit," Pete said, walking off with Glen. "Well I guess those three have their children," Mr. Friedman smiled. Troy changed positions in his seat, sitting back with his arms crossed. "You know I gotta say," he started. "I'm not sure about all this. I mean, I just thought I'd see..." "Oh don't worry," Mr. Friedman spoke. "The last thing I want to do is push this on you. You don't have to volunteer your time." "Eric you idiot!" some kid shouted. "Give that back!" "Why don't you make me!" "Eric, Ryan stop it, now!" Mr. Friedman barked. Both boys stopped, the bigger one that had been bullying the other one dropping the notepad he'd taken and running off. The little one looked over at me and Troy for a few seconds before he picked up his notepad and walked slowly over to a corner of the room unoccupied by any other children. "Sorry about that," Mr. Friedman spoke. "Eric's a bit of a handful. Like's to pick on some of the other children." I, for some reason, found myself watching the smaller kid...Ryan. He was just sitting with his notepad, every now and then looking up and watching all the kids around him who were laughing and playing with each other. I noticed something. He looked sad. Lonely. "I suppose if you would like to, I could recommend someone for you to mentor," Mr. Friedman said, snapping me back into reality. "Huh? Oh....uh..." I started, trying to clear my mind. "Sure." Mr. Friedman got up. "Sit tight for few," he spoke. "I'll be right back." "Alright Drew," Reverend Thomas replied. None of us said anything until he was out of the room. "Well, Sienna and Max seem to be having fun," Reverend Thomas spoke. I looked over at Sienna who was trying to get the little girl from earlier to do the splits. And surprisingly, she could just about do them. And Max was smashing around toy trucks with one kid while keeping a smaller one from putting the toy cars into his mouth. From where I was sitting I could see Pete outside tossing a ball back and forward with Glen. They had the kids they were going to mentor, all just like them in some way. And they were having fun. "Michael," Reverend Thomas started. "Yeah?" I asked, looking back over at Reverend Thomas. I followed his stare over to where he was looking over at the Ryan kid still sitting alone, looking lonely. "I know this isn't the candy store where you pick what you like," he replied. "But what about Ryan?" I looked back over at Ryan. "What about him?" I asked. "I don't know....I just kind of get the feeling he could use a friend," Reverend Thomas replied. That was obvious. But who said I had to be the kids friend? I wasn't here to make friends. I had them. I still was a little annoyed I had to even be here. "Listen, Reverend Thomas, I don't think-" "It's alright Michael," Reverend Thomas said. "It was only a suggestion." A bad one. "Okay, here we are," Mr. Friedman spoke, coming back over to the table with a few folders in his hands. "Found what you were looking for?" Reverend Thomas asked. "Yep," Mr. Friedman replied. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that rowdy Eric kid trying to bother Ryan again. I don't know what it was but something in me just snapped. It all reminded me of me and Evan. I suddenly felt bad for the kid. He didn't have to be like me. If he could just stick up for himself.... I stood up and walked over to the two of them. "Hey!" I shouted, getting the Eric kids attention. "Why don't you go play somewhere else?" Eric looked from me to Ryan before shoving Ryan and running off. "Are you okay?" I asked. "I didn't ask for your help," Ryan replied. "I know, I just thought-" "I'm fine," Ryan replied harshly. Well fine. If he was going to be like this..... I walked back over to Troy and Reverend Thomas. "You know, I'm sorry...I'd love to help out....but...I can't," I replied. "I'm sorry." I turned and headed for the door, Troy right behind me. "Finally someone agreeing with me," he said. It was a little strange eating dinner with Reverend Thomas later that night. He'd made chef salad and he sat on one end while I sat across the way at the other. Normally he at least tried to hold up some conversation. Not so tonight. Maybe he was angry with me. Maybe he wasn't. Either way, I couldn't tell. I just crunched on my salad and tried to hurry eating when I noticed him looking over at me. "What?" I asked. "Nothing," he replied. I looked back down. Then I noticed him looking at me again. "I'm not a bad person you know," I found myself saying. "I didn't say you were." "It's just, some people are kid magnets and some people aren't. I got the short end of the stick." "You know no one's asking you to have all the answers," Reverend Thomas replied. "Only God knows everything." And I agreed. But how did he- "No one was forcing you to do anything." "I know," I replied. "It's just...that kid-" "Reminds you of yourself, doesn't he?" Unfortunately we both knew that was correct. Ryan did seem a little like me. But I didn't want to deal with someone who had issues. I didn't know if he had issues, I just preferred not to take that chance. "Well, you do what you want," Reverend Thomas replied. "It's your decision." And I decided that it would just be best if I left well enough alone. Unfortunately `well enough' didn't seem to want to leave me alone. `Well enough' had me dreaming about this Ryan kid. I kept seeing him getting picked on by that other kid and how he was all alone. I was alone. Until someone made the effort to want to get to know me. If no one was making an effort to get to know Ryan, how was he ever going to see how wonderful and how horrible it could be to have friends and a bunch of people who cared about you? I didn't know why I was so concerned with the kid. Especially after the little snot got that attitude with me. Then again 12 year olds do tend to think they know everything. After tossing and turning all night and realizing I hadn't gotten much sleep, I'd decided that I was going to have to do something about it. Sienna, Max and Pete were all scheduled to go pick up their `younger sibling' after school so they could take them to the mall. I had told Reverend Thomas about my change of mind, which he'd anticipated and had already told his friend at the home to assign Ryan to be my `younger sibling'. This project, I gathered, would last until after the holidays, which meant Christmas and New Years. And I didn't mind. It would probably take that amount of time just to get Ryan to start coming out his shell. If you could call it that. I mean, sure he seemed lonely, but he most definitely didn't seem shy. There had to be some other reason why he seemed to be so introverted like he was, and I was going to figure it out. "What made you change your mind?" Sienna asked as she, Max, Pete and I all walked the walkway up to the children's home. "Didn't you hear? He wants to be near his baseball captain boyfriend," Pete replied, putting his arm around my shoulder. "Okay, that's my brother your talking about," Max replied. "Didn't YOU hear? Your brother likes guys...or let's hope not, otherwise I might have some people to beat up," Pete joked. Max chuckled before Sienna rang the doorbell to the front. We hadn't even waited two seconds before two giggling little girls came rushing past us out the front door, being chased by a woman in her mid twenties, who looked worn out. "Okay...." Pete said. "Should we go inside?" Sienna asked, looking towards the open door. "Ah, right on time," Mr. Friedman spoke, appearing at the door. "Charlotte made me promise to get here on time so I could take her to buy some cheerleading pom poms," Sienna replied, as the four of us walked inside. "You didn't have to agree to take the children to the mall, you know," Mr. Friedman spoke. "That was very kind of you." "Hey uh, what was all that earlier? With the girl running after those other two girls?" Pete asked. Mr. Friedman led us back towards the room from yesterday. "Were always a bit short-staffed during the holidays," he replied. "Just last week I had two people quit on me." With some of these bad little children, it wasn't hard to see why. "So you can see why I'm so happy to have the five of you volunteering your time." "Oh, Troy's not coming Mr. Friedman," Sienna replied. "I'm quite aware of that," Mr. Friedman replied, as we turned the corner that led to the room. Five? Well then who...... All four of us stopped once we saw what he was talking about. "Hey guys!" Evan spoke. Evan. Here. Now. Why? "Uh, Mr. Friedman, what's he doing here?" Sienna asked. "Who Evan? Well he came by this afternoon offering to volunteer his services," Mr. Friedman replied. "He claimed to be friends of yours." Mr. Friedman walked past us to attend to some rowdy kids in a corner while the four of us just stared at Evan. Why on Earth? This was no coincidence. And none of us told him. So how did he found out? "I was just showing Eric here how to do ten push ups properly," Evan spoke. "Evan says I could be just a strong as he is when I grow up!" Eric spoke excitedly before hyperly running off to go do something. It figured that out of all the kids he could mentor, he'd have set his sights on the bully in training, Eric. "Evan, what the hell are you doing here?" Sienna asked, sounding pissed. "Careful Sienna," Evan spoke with a coy smirk. "They're children around." "Exactly, which is why you need to go," Pete spoke, starting towards Evan. But he stopped once Glen ran up to him all excited to see him. "Pete! Pete, guess what? I struck Fred out yesterday and he was running around the grass and then I stopped him and then I-" "Slow down there Glen," Pete smiled patting Glen on the head. "Sienna, look!" Charlotte spoke, before doing a cartwheel. "It was straight that time!" "That's great Charlotte," Sienna spoke, as the small girl ran over to her. None of us could do anything about Evan with these kids around. "I'm ready to go to the mall to get my pom poms now," Charlotte spoke. "Yeah and remember that baseball glove you promised me Pete?" Glen spoke. And just like kids under twelve, they were anxious and impatient. "Well I see you found your clones," Evan spoke. "Don't worry though, I'm sure they're the smarter versions of you." I was about to proclaim my distaste of Evan being here before I noticed Ryan trying to get his notepad away from Eric once again. I rushed over to Eric, grabbed the notebook and handed it to Ryan. "Hey!" Eric whined. "Don't start kid, I'm bigger than you," I said. "Not for long," Evan spoke, walking over to Eric. "And next time, you have to punch him first." I looked over at Ryan who looked flustered. "I said last time I didn't need your help-" "Yeah well too bad, you got it anyway," I replied. "You wanna come with me to the mall or not?" I knew that I sounded a bit harsh, but it just seemed like that was what it was going to take to get through to this kid. Ryan started looking less flustered. "The mall?" "Yeah," I replied. "I-" "Of course he wants to go," Evan spoke. "We're going, right buddy?" "Right," Eric replied. Ryan looked a little flustered again, so I put my hands on his shoulders and bent down a little to look him straight in the eyes. "Don't worry about him," I said, soothingly. I guess that was all that it took because a few seconds later Ryan looked considerably more calm. "Fine," he replied. "I'll go. But don't touch me again." Too bad he hadn't lost that attitude of his. Evan chuckled as if something was funny. It was weird how much he and Eric looked alike standing side by side. Almost like father and son. It was a scary thought to think about Evan passing his mutant genes on to some poor kid. "Hey," Pete spoke, walking over to me with Glen in tow. "Everything okay?" "Yeah, everything's fine," I replied. "Pete, let's go already!" Glen spoke, pulling on Pete's hand. "Here you go," Mr. Friedman spoke, handing me a set of keys. "You can take our van, that way all of you can go together." I looked over at Evan. Go together? Him included? Ugh....remind me why I changed my mind with this thing again? "Can I-" "No Derek," Max replied. "What about-" "No!" Derek Jenkins was the seven year old Max was looking after. As expected, he was a handful. He was seven after all. And once we got to the mall, he wanted to mess with everything. He kept trying to run off and go mess with things, and Max had to keep catching him or stopping him. It was actually kind of funny to me, seeing Max not have that parental edge he always seemed to have. Sienna, was faring a lot better. Charlotte Roy was a sweet little eight year old girl, and smart too, much like Sienna. She stayed mostly quiet and well behaved accept when she was giggling at things Derek would do. Glen Young was a mostly good nine year old. But he was also Derek's best friend and since Derek got into things, a lot of times, Glen would want to get into things too. The only difference was, Glen really wanted his baseball glove, so he was probably afraid to misbehave too badly for fear that Pete wouldn't buy it for him. As for Eric Carter, the eleven year old that had the misfortune of having Evan looking after him, things were different. Eric thought Evan was so cool, that he pretty much did exactly what Evan did. From walking just like him, to doing the same things he did, to getting the same snack when we'd stopped at the snack cart. I guess you could say he was behaving well enough, but considering the fact that he was doing that Evan did, I figured it would only be a matter of time before he did something bad. As for me and Ryan Daniels......I'd pretty much figured Ryan not to be much of a talker. He only talked when he had something to complain about, which usually happened when I tried to do something for him. I bought him a bag of chips when we got snacks but he complained about the kind I'd bought him. I bought him a notebook when we stopped in a store that had them, and he complained that he didn't like the kind I'd bought. I bought him something to drink when he was thirsty and...well you can figure it out. I got the feeling though, that if someone else bought him the chips or the drink or the notebook, that he wouldn't be complaining nearly as much. He was starting to get on my nerves. "Okay guys, I think Charlotte's been waiting long enough," Sienna spoke. "I'm gonna take her to the toy store to get some pom poms." "I wanna go to the toy store!" Derek exclaimed giddily. "Derek, you're on Santa's Naughty list," Max replied. "Maybe next time we come back, if you behave, I'll buy you something." Derek stuck out his lip and pouted. I knew Max was happy just then. He'd finally gotten his parental-like upper hand back. And I could almost guarantee that Derek was going to be well behaved from now on. Sienna left with Charlotte and Pete went to a sporting good store with Glen, leaving Max and I alone with Evan. "Those two think I'm a bad guy," Evan spoke. "You don't think I'm a bad guy, do you Eric?" "Nope," Eric replied. "Those guys are just losers. Especially little Ry Ry, the baby." Eric started laughing and Evan grinned at him. "Hey, why do you have to corrupt this poor kids mind?" Max asked. "One Evan the terrible is enough." "You know, I thought one fag would be enough for our little town too," Evan replied. "But no matter what you think, someone always proves you wrong." "Ryan's a fag," Eric said. "Aren't you Ry Ry?" Ryan looked upset again. "Tell em Ryan!" "Shut up Eric!" "Or what?" Eric asked. "Okay you know what, maybe we oughtta just-" I stopped when Ryan started running the opposite directing from which we'd just come. "Ugh," I mumbled, going after him. "You're a dick," Max spoke, shoving Evan. "At least I'm a dick who doesn't like dick-" "If I didn't have to watch this kid-" "What kid?" Evan asked. Max stopped and turned around. "Oh god, he ran off again," he said. "Derek!" I found Ryan sitting in a corner near a water fountain. It was behind some railing, since we were on the second floor of the mall. He was balled up and crying. Even though Evan had picked on me all the time, I rarely let myself cry. But that was because I had since trained myself not to let him get to me. Ryan's own Evan, Eric, was getting to him and doing the same things. I approached him cautiously. He was turned to the side looking down. I couldn't tell if he knew I was here or not. "Hey," I started. He sniffled and turned away from me. "Go away!" "Ryan...I can't...I-" "I'm just your stupid charity case," Ryan spoke. "I know you don't care about me or how I feel." I sighed and took a seat next to him. I knew that I was going to have to tread carefully. He was a 12 year old kid after all. I didn't want to hurt his feelings any. "Look, I know what it's like to have everyone ignore you," I replied. "And I know what it's like to have someone pick on you." Ryan didn't say anything. "I'm not as stupid as you think-" "I just....I shouldn't even have to be going through any of this!" Ryan exclaimed. "If she hadn't died...." "Ryan?" Ryan rubbed his eyes and looked over at me before standing up. "Can we just find your friends so we can go please?" he asked. I looked up at him before standing up myself. "Alright," I replied. If that was what he wanted. I knew going into this that it wasn't going to be easy. Granted, I hadn't known that Evan was going to choose today of all days to start bothering me again, but even without him this was hard. I had thought Ryan and I were alike. And in some ways we were. But there was more going on with him. More than I knew. And with plenty of time left until the holidays, I knew that there was plenty of time to get to the bottom of it all. If he'd just let me help him like Pete helped me. ******************************************************************************* "And then she drop kicked Derek when he tried to take her pom poms," Sienna laughed. "You should have seen it. It was hilarious." "I told him to be good while I was gone," Max spoke. "Too bad I can't ground him. That always works." Yesterday certainly had been an interesting experience. I never would have guessed how hard it was to be responsible for a kid. Granted, Ryan wasn't my kid. None of them were our kids. But without families, it was like we kind of were their parents in a way. And boy were they giving us all a run for our money. Ryan was helping me to see a few things I hadn't seen about myself. Of course, I hadn't known anyone who'd died like he had.... She... He said `if she hadn't died.' I assumed he was talking about his mother. I hoped he'd tell me about it, but I wasn't holding my breath. "Glen's getting better with that arm of his," Pete spoke. "He thinks the glove made him Babe Ruth all of a sudden. He won't take it off now." "Sounds like you guys are enjoying yourselves," Troy spoke. "They have a little Canadian kid there, I think," Sienna said. "But you don't feel the holiday spirit all the way up in Canada apparently cuz he's a little grinch too." Troy just smiled, choosing not to start something from Sienna's comment. "You know, when I have kids, I want a daughter like Charlotte," Sienna said. "I mean, she's so perfect. Just like me." "Yeah, you can get over yourself now," Pete said. "I'd say your hopes of having a perfect child were cut the minute you decided to eliminate my half of their would-be gene pool." I felt like it had started to rain inside the school, and Evan was the cloud hanging over me. "Uh, Evan, aren't you a little lost there?" Troy suddenly spoke up, crossing his arms. Evan smirked at Troy before leaning back. "Oh I lost my map and I don't know where to go, save me save me!" he spoke sarcastically. "Actually this is a free country and I can go wherever I want. Or do you not have that right up and Canadians Land?" "Go away Evan!" Troy barked in a low growl. "I just thought your friends might wanna hear about this story I heard the other day," Evan started. "About this rich kid who spent his days threatening small town high school teens and wrote them big checks to get out of town. You guys heard that story?" Everyone just stared at Evan being his usual jackass self. But apparently, whatever he'd said shut Troy up because he let out an annoyed sigh and ran his fingers through his hair. "Yeah, kinda figured that." "You know, you're right about this being a free country and all, but I think stalking is actually against the law," Sienna said. "My pretty little dear, what an awfully big head you have there," Evan spoke, touching the tip of Sienna's chin, who moved around. "Since when did everything start becoming all about you?" "Why don't you just leave Evan!" Max angrily exclaimed. "Why don't you just make me, Max!" Evan exclaimed back. "A jackass, you've always been a jackass," Sienna started. "And you've always been a bitch who doesn't put out-" "Oh that's it!" Max shouted. "And hooking up with a freshman the minute you break up with me!" Sienna shouted "Don't even go there man," Evan growled glaring at Max. All of this commotion was confusing me. How'd it start? Where was it coming from? All I knew was that it was giving me a headache. "Guys..." Pete started. "Your little bitch here-" "Just LEAVE Evan," Sienna said. "And I didn't know-" "Guys," Pete started again. I looked over at Pete who looked a little pale. "Pete?" I asked. "Are you okay?" Pete turned to me. "I think....I think I..." was all he got out before he fell into me, causing me to fall to the ground. Whatever commotion that had been going on before stopped once Pete fell on top of me. "Oh my god, Pete!" Sienna exclaimed. His eyes were closed and he felt really cold. "Pete!" I shouted. "Ain't that a bitch," Evan chuckled. "Pete, wake up man," Max spoke. "Pete....." YahooGroup (w/ advanced chapters of the story): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JoJoPresents-GayFiction/ Personal email: crossingboi2004@yahoo.com Copyright 2005