Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 19:23:13 +0100 From: Justin Subject: Someone Like You, Chapter 3 Disclaimer: This series of fiction contains love and sexual interaction between two teenage males, if you are under the legal age to view material such as this, please discontinue reading, similarly, if you're not too keen on viewing material such as this, I also suggest you discontinue reading. All rights to this series are reserved by the author (me). This is a piece of fiction, and is not based on any real circumstances, any similarities in this story to any persons dead or alive, or any situations is purely coincidental. If you want to contact me with questions, suggestions or comments I'd be glad to read them and get back to you. Email address: someone.like.you.5704@gmail.com Enjoy! ---- *Jack's Dialogue* I woke up to the sound of the alarm clock buzzing at me, as if it was screaming at me to wake up. It was 6am and I was snuggled up under the covers of my bed, I hit the alarms off button and groaned as I heaved myself out of bed. I looked around my room for a jacket to throw over myself to warm me up after leaving the warm safety of my bed. I'd say my bedroom looked quite good for a teenage guy's room. There was a desk in the corner of the room, where my laptop sat along with a stack of CD's that I hadn't listened to in years. My walls were covered in a dark gray paint that followed the theme of my room; posters of random cartoons were over my bed along with a calendar. My windowsill above my bed was covered in an odd collection of things including a small sheep skull I'd found, a broken iPod Classic, a bottle of aftershave and a Family Guy DVD Jason had given me. I also had a walk-in wardrobe filled with clothes. I made my way out of my room and into the bathroom; I quickly did my business in the toilet and jumped in the shower. I still had the zombie- like state of mind which I usually kept until I'd had breakfast. After I'd washed, I got out the shower and looked at myself in the huge mirror hanging on the wall opposite. Unlike Jason, I was pretty vain, I liked my body, my nice toned and tanned torso, and my messy hair even looked good wet. I dried myself with a towel I grabbed from the cupboard and headed downstairs. I knew I'd be the only person awake at this time of the morning, my parents don't have work until 11am and my brother doesn't have any lessons until 12. Lucky for some. I was wrong though, as I went downstairs I heard the TV from the bigger sitting room, I walked in to find my dad with a cup of coffee watching the news. "Ah, mornin' son!" he said cheerfully. "Mornin'" I replied quietly. I was halfway to the kitchen before he called out. "Jack!" I stopped. "Come back in here please." This didn't sound good. I walked back into the room and stood in the doorway. "Yeah?" I asked in a moody teenager kind of way. "Take a seat." My dad said. 'This really can't be good' I thought to myself. I sat down and looked at him for a few seconds before he spoke. "Me and your mother," he started, what this actually meant is that he had been ranting about something to my mum and she just nodded and said 'hmm', my dad continued, "Well, we've been a bit concerned about you." "How so?" I replied. "Well... we can't help but notice that you and this Jason boy are spending a lot of time together recently... a bit TOO MUCH time together if you see what I'm getting at?" My dad said. What the hell was he going on about? "He's my best mate... Best mates do see a lot of each other. Just because you never had friends, doesn't mean I can't spend time with mine." I shot back. "That's not what I mean" my dad said shaking his head. "Me and your mother... we think he's a bit... soft, shall we say." Now I knew what he meant, he was just flaunting his homophobia. "Jason's not gay, if that's what you're getting at." I lied. "And how would you know this?" my dad replied. "Well for starters, I've known him since we were 10 and apart from that... He's got a girlfriend. Even if he was gay, what would be the problem with that?" I said. I wasn't entirely sure if Jason still had a girlfriend to be honest. He hadn't returned my texts when I asked him how it went. "Well... I wouldn't want his 'soft' behaviour to rub off on you." He said gruffly. "What?! Being gay isn't something you catch off of someone dad, you bloody moron! And I just told you, Jason isn't gay!" I said. He was starting to make me angry. "People like that choose to be the way they are, son. I just wouldn't want you mixing with the sorts that might sway you into turning into one of them." My dad said, with a fake grin on his face. "Gay people don't CHOOSE to be gay! They're born like it. And why the hell should people like you discriminate against them?" I shouted at him. "I can see they've got at you. It's unnatural, lad. You can tell that they choose to be the way they are, you never saw them flaunting it around before about 50 years ago did you?" "I'm not gay, dad you idiot, neither is Jason! And you didn't see them before then because they were scared people like you would hang 'em or something." I bellowed back at him. "Why are you so protective over them?" he asked with a suspicious look over his face. "Got something to hide?" "They're people dad, what does it matter if they are attracted to guys instead of girls? I can't see why you're so bloody homophobic!!" After my last bit of shouting, I stormed out the room and made myself breakfast. Obviously my dad had got the message that out conversation was over because he didn't call after me. After I finished eating, I went upstairs and changed into a blue and grey checked shirt and some dark blue slim fitting jeans. I stuffed my school bag with everything I needed, grabbed my phone and stormed out the house without another word. Usually, I could tolerate and ignore my dad's stone-aged outbursts. But since Jason came out to me yesterday, I couldn't let it go without telling my dad how wrong his views are. My phone vibrated in my pocket as I walked out into the street. Jason was ringing me. "Mornin'" Jason said. "What happened to your phone last night then? I must have text you about 4 times!" I said. I was still angry after the heated conversation with my dad. "Sorry... I just went straight to bed last night and turned off my phone." "It went that bad?" I asked. "Bad doesn't even cover it... anyway, where abouts are you? I'm walking towards your house." He said. "Well I'm walking towards you; I'll see you in a minute." "Okay, see ya in a bit. Bye." *Jason's Dialogue* I hung up. I hadn't been completely honest with Jack, I'd got his texts, and I just didn't want to reply. I just wanted to try and escape from it all and didn't want to recount what had happened with Alice the night before. I raised my hand and felt the scratches on my face, there was no way that I could have hidden them, and I'd have to face the awkward questions. I saw Jack walking towards me from down the road, he gave a small wave. He stopped when he was close enough to see the scratches on my face. "What the fuck Jason?! Did she do that?" He looked shocked. I nodded. "Well I didn't get off lightly." "She's fucking mental, mate! What did you say to make her do that?" He asked. "That's just it... I didn't say anything that bad. She just flipped out at me. Today's gonna be hell; I've already had texts from half our group saying how out of order I am. I'm gonna be as welcome with them as a paedophile in a playground." I chuckled at my own joke. Jason just stared at me. "Well, I'll see if I can talk them round." He said. I was grateful that he'd try, but I knew it was pointless; Alice had the entire group wrapped around her finger. "Don't worry about it. I've got other places I can go to, I'm behind on coursework so I'll probably just stay in the computer room or something." This wasn't completely untrue; it'd be good to actually do some coursework for once. Jason looked at me for a few seconds, probably considering this. "Well, I'll come meet you there at some point." He said finally. I recounted what had happened between me and Alice while we walked to school. When we got there, most eyes followed me and whispers followed. I doubt people knew about the break up, but the scratches on my face were drawing a lot of attention. During my first lesson, my English teacher Mr Barnes took me out of the class asked if I'd gotten the scratches from home. This happened again in History. 'Great, now everyone thinks my mum is beating me.' I thought. At first break I stayed behind in History to write up an essay we'd been set for homework. Staying in there would mean that I could avoid the stares. Afterwards, I headed back to English for my second lesson, completely lost in thought. At lunch, I stalked off up to the school's main computer room; I hadn't seen any of the group or Alice so far, I wasn't sure if this was a good or bad thing. I saw Jack in English, but we weren't allowed to sit or speak to each other but he patted me on the back and headed off to sports when we left the classroom. I walked into the dark computer room and was greeted by the cool breeze of the air conditioner. The welcome from the rest of the people in the room was just as chilly; most of the people in the room were the various 'nerdy kids' of the school, they were playing some kind of game on the computers. They all looked up at me for a second when I walked in, then quickly looked down again. I walked over to the closest computer that had at least 3 empty seats either side of it and sat down. For about 20 minutes I got a surprising amount of my English coursework completed. Jack burst in suddenly looking out of breath; he made his way over and sat next to me looking worried. "You're pretty lucky I'm the only one that knew you'd be in here." He said. "What? Why?" I asked feeling a little bit shocked. "Well... I went to the common room to try and talk everyone around. Alice's got them all under her thumb though, mate." He paused briefly and took a small breath. "It's not just them though. Most of Sixth Form pretty much hate you right now." "What the fuck?! Why do they care? I mean, I can understand our group not being happy with me, but what the hell has it got to do with everyone else." I said. I felt more worried than anything now, I was quite popular with the rest of the Sixth Formers and now all of a sudden, they all hated me. Jack shook his head, "Look, you know how everyone loves Alice in this place... well as soon as she told people you'd cheated on her they went mad. I heard some of the other guys in sport saying that they're gonna try and beat the shit out of you when they see you. There's a group of year 13's looking for you now!" This had to be the worst I'd felt in years. I was worried for myself, annoyed that everyone was believing the lie that I'd cheated, anxious about what my last lesson would be like and I was scared about what else there was to come. "Brilliant," I said sarcastically "Looks like I'll be leaving school today in an ambulance." "You're not the only one." Jack said looking down. "What?" "Well, when I was in sport and I heard them planning to beat you up; I sort of got a bit too wound up and kicked off at them, and I've just been chased around the school by the group of year 13's that were looking for you." I felt a surge of gratitude to Jack for his loyalty, but I thought he'd been a bit stupid at the same time. "Who were the guys in sport?" I asked, hoping it was a couple of the weedier people that chose to do sport studies. "Aiden Miller and Jackson Gale." He said. My heart sunk, Aiden and Jackson were probably the biggest people in the school, and if they were after me then I'd be lucky to leave the school today in an ambulance and not a body bag. Then it dawned on me that they could be after Jack too. "I hope you didn't say or do anything stupid?!" I said, raising my voice a little and ignoring the heads that were now turning to watch mine and Jack's conversation. "I sort of said they'd have to go through me first if they want to get to you." He said with a tone of fear equal to mine. It was like I thought. He HAD said something stupid and now he was probably just as hated as me. I decided I didn't want to be around Jack any more at the moment; he'd been too stupid and had probably made it worse for the both of us. "Can you go now Jack? I want to get on with my coursework." I didn't show any anger, but I noticed I did sound cold. Jack got up without another word, patted me on the back and walked out the room quickly. *Jack's Dialogue* After I walked out of English, I caught up with Jason; he was walking ridiculously fast with his head down, probably to hide the scratches. When I finally got close to him, I realised I didn't know what to say, so I just patted him on that back and headed down the stairs and towards the school's sports centre. It was a good lesson; I'd aced most of my opponents in tennis and had a couple of hard matches with some of the better players in the class. Afterwards I headed for the showers in the changing rooms, I was pretty much the only person that used the showers, everyone else was either too embarrassed or just couldn't be bothered. I got out and dried myself in the corner I usually changed in, then I heard them talking. "Yeah, he cheated on her." Said the booming voice of Aiden Miller "Bastard! Who with?" replied the softer voice of Jackson Gale. Aiden and Jackson were without a doubt the biggest guys in the school, both of them looked like they were topped up with protein shakes and steroids, both of them also had what I'd call an 'Unfortunate Face'. "No idea, nobody's seen the little low-life today." "Probably hiding at home or something, scared to show his face." "Just as well, when I see him, I'm gonna kick the shit out of 'im." Neither of them had noticed me, but at the last part of their conversation I decided to intervene. With just my towel wrapped around me I walked up to them. "You fuckin' leave Jason alone alright?" I said angrily. They both looked down at me and laughed. "Why's that then ickle Jacky?" Aiden laughed. "Just leave him alone. Half the shit you've heard is all made up bullshit!" "We'll get him, Jack. He's scum." Jackson said, sneering. "Well you'll have to go through me first." I said, still worrying about the welfare of my best friend. Aiden leaned down a little and whispered "Oh, we will, don't you worry." He shoved me and he and Jackson left the changing room laughing, leaving me in there alone. I stood there for a few seconds thinking about what would actually happen. I had English again after first break, but I was so preoccupied that I didn't even make any sort of eye contact with Jason. Straight afterwards I headed for the Sixth Form common room. Our group of about 9 people were sitting in the usual corner of the room, they were in deep discussion when I arrived and abruptly stopped talking as soon as they noticed me coming closer. I noticed Alice sitting in the centre of the group. "Erm, hey." I said cautiously. I didn't get a decent response, just a series of grunts. "I wanted to talk to you guys." I started "I don't think any of you are being fair alienating Jaso-" "Yes we are! He cheated on me! He doesn't deserve to have our friendship" Alice shot fiercely. "Why'd you think that he cheated on you?" I said. "HE ADMITTED IT TO ME!!" She shouted, tears started to run down her face and the guys in the group shot me dirty looks. "Did he? I don't think he did." I said matter-of-factly. 3 of the guys stood up and glared at me after I'd said this, the tallest; Daniel actually cracked his knuckles at me. "What?" I said "Don't tell me you're seriously buying all of this crap she's spreading about Jason. Why would he cheat on her? I mean, the only other girls that he actually talks to properly are the ones in this group!" Alice looked around at the 4 girls that were around her and shuffled slightly away from them. I found this kind of funny, but thought it best not to laugh. "Just get lost Jack, you've made things worse!" said Julia, the black haired girl that was sitting closest to Alice. I didn't stay where I wasn't welcome and I thought it'd be best to try and get to Jason and update him. I left the common room and saw a crowd of year 13 boys standing just outside. "Oi, Jack!... seen your mate Jason anywhere?" said the tallest of the group of about 7 people. The others looked at me intensely. "No! And if I had I wouldn't fucking tell you bunch of jokers anyway!" I was riled that so many people had such a massive grudge against Jason when all he'd done was end something that was making him so unhappy. But Alice was the school's sweetheart and anybody that crossed her usually didn't end up having a great time. I'd said the wrong thing. The group of year 13's looked fierce and started walking towards me. I ran. I charged down the Sixth Form corridor and turned left onto the balcony by the staff room. I carried on running; I heard the booming stampede of the people I'd just insulted charging after me. I thought to myself that I had to find Jason, but I had to make sure I didn't lead them to him. I ran past the staff room into an English corridor and ran to the end of it and out of the fire exit. I darted down the emergency steps and blended into the crowd of the schools courtyard. I turned and saw the Year 13's looking around trying to catch a glimpse of me. I carried on walking into until I was back inside the schools canteen and I made my way back towards the Sixth Form corridor but went down the stairs that led to the IT corridor. It was deserted down here and smelled of B.O; most of the people that used these rooms obviously hadn't heard of deodarant. I was gasping for breath, of course, being a tennis player, I have good stamina, but running around and entire school does take it out of you. I peered into the closest room and saw Jason sitting by himself typing out some long document. I burst in there quickly; I didn't want to stay in the corridor for too long in case I was found by the group that had just chased me. I sat down with him; he looked pleased to see me at first, even though he still had a miserable look in his eyes. I explained everything that had happened and decided to tell him that it wasn't just him that people didn't like; I thought that this would make him feel less alone in the situation. I was wrong though; when I had told him how I was chased, he went cold and quiet and told me he didn't want me around him. I felt confused and for some reason, when he told me to go it felt like I'd been suddenly cut deep with a knife inside me. He didn't sound angry, but he didn't make any sort of eye contact with me. What had I done wrong? I was just trying to make him feel less alone in this whole situation. I got up, patted him on the back and turned away, there was a twisting feeling inside me and for the first time in years I felt like I needed to cry it out. I walked out the room swiftly and made my way to the boy's toilets nearby. Why was I feeling so cut up just because Jason had told me to leave him alone? Maybe he wanted to try and deal with it himself; I thought it'd be best if I just didn't see him for a while. This was going to be difficult though, we had Sociology next, the last lesson of the day, and it was the one subject where me and Jason were allowed to share a desk. I checked my face in the mirror; my eyes were watery and my face was flushed. I rubbed my eyes and left the filthy toilet and decided to head up to Sociology 5 minutes early. I didn't encounter anybody hostile on my way to class. I walked into the small, windowless classroom that our Sociology teacher, Mrs Sands taught in. She was preparing notes on the white board at the front; she turned around when she heard the door close behind me. "Oh, hello Jack. You're early." She said. She was a short woman in her early 30's with shoulder length black hair and similarly dark eyes. She seemed to always look tired, but she was always very mild mannered and kind. She also spoke with a slight lisp, as if her tongue was too big for her mouth to handle. "Yeah... I know, but I had nowhere else to be so I thought I'd come and start early." I replied, still with that weird upsetting feeling inside me. 'Stop being stupid Jack! He only asked you to leave the room so he could carry on with his coursework!' I kept thinking to myself, but it didn't calm the odd feeling of rejection inside. "No Jason today?" She said. This did nothing to help how I was feeling. "Yeah, he's in. I think he's just finishing off some of his English coursework." I replied "Ah, well at least he's in today. Could you put these sheets on the desks for me please?" she indicated to a pile of A3 sized sheets on her desk. "Yeah, sure." I put a sheet on each desk, wondering when Jason would arrive. When I finished laying all the sheets out, I sat at my desk just as the rest of the class arrived. Jason and I sit in the corner usually, so nobody really glanced in my direction as they all entered; there were only about 12 of us in the class. After everybody had filed in, the door shut. Jason wasn't here though. I kept looking at the door for the next 5 minutes while Mrs Sands quietened the class and started talking about what we were going to be doing that day. Eventually I had to start taking notes down as Mrs Sands had shouted at me for 'daydreaming'. Pfft daydreaming?! I was sitting here wondering what was going on; this was the one subject that Jason actually loved being in. Had he decided not to turn up so that he didn't have to sit with me? This though made a ball rise up in my throat and I just carried on taking notes to try and push the thought of Jason out of my mind. Then, 20 minutes later, Jason fell into the classroom with a bit of a stumble. He murmured an apology to Mrs Sands for being late, she told him to hurry up and take a seat. He walked over to me slowly wincing slightly with every step on his left foot. As he came closer I noticed his eyes were slightly red. He sat down with another wince and glanced at me for a millisecond. "Jase, what's up?" I said concerned. I put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. "Get off me!" He hissed in reply and jerked so I had to take my hand away. I looked down at my notes and felt my eyes fill with tears. Why did Jason suddenly seem repulsed around me? I knew, even then, that he didn't want to be sitting there next to me. A tear dropped onto my paper, and then another. Then, in the corner of my eye, I saw a tear fall onto Jason's paper. I wiped my eyes, convinced not to let anybody see that I was upset and looked over at Jason, his face was scrunched up and he was stroking the shoulder I had squeezed. Where my tears had been ones of sadness, his had been of pain. "Ask to go get a drink of water, and then wait for me outside." I said sternly to Jason. I had been such an idiot! He wasn't repulsed by me; he was in a monumental amount of pain! Jason nodded; eyes closed and slowly raised his hand. He was allowed out of the class and about a minute later I asked to be let out of class to go to the toilet, Mrs Sands impatiently agreed and carried on teaching. I walked out of the classroom with nothing but concern for Jason in my mind. Jason was leaning against the wall outside the classroom still clutching onto the arm I had squeezed. "Tell me. What's happened?" I asked quickly, my eyes wide open staring at him. "Nothing! I just tripped as I left the computer room and fell into the door!" He snapped back. It was a pretty transparent lie. "Why were you late?" I said, still trying to get answers from him. "I was- I went- I- I had to find something." He looked to the floor. It was so obvious he was lying. I just can't see why he would be lying. Then it dawned on me and my heart sank. "Come with me." I said. My mind was racing and my heart was beating fast as I led him to the nearest bathroom. When we walked in I checked to make sure it was empty and opened up a cubicle door and told him to go in there, I would prefer it if we weren't walked in on, it would cause awkward questions. He did everything I said with his head bowed and without arguing, he must have known what I was about to ask him to do. I followed him into the cubicle and shut the door behind us, it was a little cramped. Jason looked up at me and quickly looked back down again when we made eye contact. "Can you manage it yourself?" I asked. "I don't think so." Jason replied shaking his head. "I'll do it then." I said. I reached for the buttons of his shirt and I undid them and helped him take it off. This couldn't have happened. After I had taken his shirt off I looked at his torso. There wasn't a place on his body that didn't look battered. He had bruises, cuts and grazes all over him. I looked at him in complete shock; half of his body was covered in his blood, god knows how it didn't seep through his shirt. I touched below the cut that was still bleeding and Jason breathed in sharply and grabbed my wrist tightly. "What bastards did this to you?!" I shouted at him. He mumbled in reply. "What?!" I yelled again. I was seething with rage and I was angry at myself for letting this happen! "A bunch or Year 13's." He said a little louder. "Right." I started, I was thinking of what to do now, I knew the guys that did this to Jason would be outside by the bike sheds, I was wondering whether or not to take Jason with me when I went to kick the shit out of each and every one of them. "You're coming with me now." Jason nodded reluctantly and followed me as I stormed out of the school's main entrance and towards the bike sheds where, sure enough, the year 13 guys were standing around laughing and smoking. "-he didn't even put up a fight did he lads?" I heard one of them laugh. "Nahh, he probably knew he deserved everything that he got." Another one replied. I walked up to the largest of them all, a guy I knew as Harrison, and before he could say anything I thrust my knee hard into his groin and threw my fist hard into his stomach. He crumpled on the floor and the other 5 or so year 13s were upon me as soon as he fell. I felt fist after fist hit me in any place they could reach; I squirmed and flailed my arms hopelessly trying to cause as much damage to any of them as I could. Pain suddenly seared across my chest and I heard a crunch. I screamed in pain and continued to fling my fists as hard as I could at any of the 5, no 4, no... 3 guys attacking me. I heard another yelp of pain and I saw Jason being kicked on the floor by 2 of the people that were beating me just moments ago. I released myself from the hold of the 3 remaining guys with some newfound strength and tore towards where Jason was being repetitively kicked while he was covering his face. I launched toward the bigger of the two guys and punched and kicked every part of him that I could reach. I wasn't going to let anybody hurt Jason anymore! I finally kicked the bigger guy hard in the nuts before turning and finding more fists flying towards my face. I was wrestled to the ground and I heard another gut-wrenching crunch as I hit the floor and my left arm was in more pain than I had ever felt in my life. I screamed and another crunch filled my ears, now my right leg was in unbearable pain. Still, fist after fist was colliding with my face and ribs. I heard Jason cry for 'no more' and scream for help, lights were obscuring my sight and I could hear crackling and snapping noises. The lights I could see were popping and everything went dark and silent. I let myself fall into the sleep that would let me escape the pain. --- I do love a bit of a cliff-hanger. Sorry for the week late post, I won't make excuses... I've just been doing other stuff. If you've already emailed me before... DO IT AGAIN! I like hearing from all of you and it lets me know that the story is worth carrying on. ;D Email me with your comments at: someone.like.you.5704@gmail.com Thank you for reading!