So Brandon's
finally tracked Nick down. Want to see
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Chapter 14
\\\ Nick ///
"HEY!! Get the hell off him!!" I heard Danny call out from behind me
somewhere as I was carried across the school's car park. I was slung over someone's shoulder and at
first I thought it was something to do with the house of horrors, but hearing
Danny call out behind me I knew something was wrong. I started trying to squirm free but whoever
grabbed me was holding on too tight, next thing I knew though we were falling
to the ground and I just caught a glimpse of Danny's costume so I knew he must
have tackled my assailant from behind.
As I tried to get my bearings I saw Danny and my attacker wrestling on
the ground and then the other guy reared back and punched him in the face,
knocking his wig off.
That was
enough for me to jump up and charge at the guy but he was ready for me. I sprang forward and he grabbed my arm,
spinning me round and pinning me to the floor beneath him. It was only then that I got a good look at
him and saw that it was the guy dressed as Michael Myers from our tour party,
but why did he want to attack me? As far
as I knew I hadn't pissed any other kids off at school so what was his
problem? He had me pinned down by
kneeling down so he was sitting on my stomach and then he brought my hands
together on my chest so he could hold them in place with one hand. With his other hand he started to remove his
mask and I instantly felt my blood turn cold.
"Finally
found you kiddo, did you miss me?
Thought you could get away didn't you?
Well don't worry; we can go back to being a happy family again
now." My dad sneered down at me. I was too terrified to move but luckily Danny
ran back over and tackled him, causing him to release me. It didn't seem to faze him too much though as
he stood up to face Danny with an amused smile on his face but I could see the
younger boy wasn't backing down at all.
"Stay the
hell away from my friend or I'll kill you!"
Danny said, as intimidatingly as he could but my dad just laughed at
him.
"You've got
some guts kid but I'm gonna give you a chance to get out of here before I'm
forced to do something you'll regret."
Danny didn't hesitate for a minute and launched himself at my dad, who
deftly avoided his first swing and punched Danny straight in the gut, but even
as Danny started to slump over my dad grabbed him by the hair and slugged him
in the stomach again, causing him to throw up, before Dad threw him off to the
side in a crumpled heap. By this time I
was back on my feet but I had no chance to do anything as he'd grabbed me by
the throat and looked me dead in the eyes.
"Don't even
think about it." He sneered and I could
see the look of malice in his eyes. "Now
you're gonna come with me, we're gonna get in the car and then..." He wasn't able
to finish the sentence as Luke suddenly grabbed him from behind, spinning him
round and punching him in the face. I
fell to the ground briefly as my mum ran over to check on me. Dad had backed off from Luke but still had an
amused look on his face. "Shoulda known
that bitch would go crawling back to you Anderson." Luke reared back to punch him again but my
mum pulled him back.
"Luke don't,
you're just giving him what he wants."
She warned him, and then turned to my dad. "Get the hell out of here Brandon. You know you're not allowed near us." My dad had stepped back a little more so he
wasn't in easy reach of Luke, meanwhile I looked around and saw Ben and Tom
tending to Danny while Noah, Lucas and Sammie helped me up and flanked me in
case my dad tried anything else. It took
me a moment to spot Jamie as he was back near the school on his phone.
"Yeah like I
give a crap about that." He
replied. "I should've known you'd bring
him back here. You always did have a
thing for this second rate has been and his faggot friends." Lucas stepped forward, looking madder than I'd
ever seen but Sammie quickly held him back.
"I came back
here to protect him...from you." Mum shot
back. "I couldn't let you carry on doing
what you were doing to him...and to me."
"Oh
really? And what did I do that was so
bad? I tried to make him more of a
man! He was fitter, he was stronger and
he was healthier with me around. He had
a chance to be somebody but instead you fed him with all that bullshit about he
could be whatever he wanted to be. I
KNEW WHAT WAS BEST FOR HIM!! I was
trying to toughen him up while you were turning him into some arty farty pansy
that'd probably spend his days singing and dancing like that little
faggot." He pointed to Lucas when he
spat out that last line and I could see Lucas was about to say something but I
was so mad I jumped in first.
"Are you
fucking serious!?!?" I shouted as I
pushed past the guys to stand in front of my dad. "Your way of toughening me up was to beat me
and humiliate me at every opportunity like some sadistic drill sergeant, but
you know what, you're just a coward and a bully who can only pick on people
weaker than himself."
"Oh so now
you can..."
"SHUT THE
FUCK UP!!" I saw my dad take a step back
as I shouted that, clearly surprised that I was standing up to him but I didn't
care what he thought any more. "I don't
give a shit what you have to say!! You
came back here for what? To take me back
with you so you can beat me into becoming the son you always wanted? Well guess what; that's not gonna
happen. I've got a good life here with
some amazing friends, I'm finally doing well in school and I've even found I've
got a passion for music, which you tried to hold me back from. And you know what the biggest kicker is? All the bullshit you've been spouting about
making me more of a man and toughening me up is actually the only thing you did
right. I am tougher now, and I'm strong
enough to tell you and everybody else here that as hard as you tried, you
didn't stop me being gay." I couldn't
believe those words had just left my mouth but I suddenly felt empowered enough
to let it out and I turned round to see a big crowd behind my friends. "YOU HEAR THAT EVERYONE? THE NEW KID'S A FLAMING HOMO!!" I called out, and after a brief silence Casey
and her friends spontaneously started applauding, quickly followed by the rest
of the crowd.
I could see
the rage in my dad's face but hearing the support from the school behind me
made me swell with pride and I felt almost invincible. Nothing my dad could do to me now would
diminish this feeling as I finally felt like he couldn't hurt me anymore, but
very quickly his face changed from anger to a kind of smug satisfaction.
"So you've
finally decided to admit what I knew all along, very nice, but here's the
thing; you're not the only one who can come out with some big revelations
tonight. I've got one as well, anyone
care to guess what it is?" I looked
around to see confused faces as nobody knew what he was talking about. Some of the teachers had come to usher the
kids back inside but we all stayed put, trying to work out what my dad's big
secret was. "Oh come on, don't tell me
no one's figured it out yet."
"He's...he's
not your dad." Danny said weakly as he
staggered over with his arm draped over Ben's shoulder. I looked over to him and back to my dad to see
his smug smile grow even larger.
"Bingo!! Looks like the little fireplug figured it
out." Dad said then turned to my mum,
who was looking on open mouthed. "Don't
look so shocked Summer, you always knew he wasn't mine."
"What?!?! You knew he wasn't my dad? And you let him abuse me for all these
years?" I'd never felt so betrayed in
all my life.
"No!! I didn't know." She protested. "I mean...I suspected after you were born
but...we had a DNA test done and it came back saying Brandon was your dad. Tell him Brandon!!"
"That wasn't
on the letter I read, but then, who said we both read the same letter? They're very easy to forge." Dad replied with a wicked smile. Should I even be calling him Dad now?
"So if
you're not my dad then who is?" I asked.
"Who do you
think?" He replied, looking over at
Luke.
"What? You're telling me I've had a kid all this
time and never knew?" Luke asked,
clearly dumbstruck by the news. "How? Summer was going out with you when he was
conceived."
"No, she was
screwing both of us when he was conceived; only difference is I'm infertile,
y'know...shooting blanks...can't have kids."
"So why did
you convince me he was yours?" Mum
asked.
"Isn't it
obvious? What's the worst thing I could
possibly do to him? How about bringing
up his own kid to hate him and his family.
How about making my son a bigger success than Luke could ever be. Only problem is he turned out to be a
complete loser just like his real father."
"You mean
you treated me like shit for years just to get back at him?" I screamed, pointing over at Luke.
"Yeah, I
always thought you'd make your way back to him, so I thought why not make it
interesting." Brandon replied and then
turned to Luke with smug grin on his face.
"Looks like I win Anderson."
I couldn't
believe what I was hearing. I'd been
bullied and abused all my life as some sick act of revenge by a man who wasn't
even related to me. I'd tried to look up
to him, respect him, thinking that deep down he loved me and he'd prove it if
only I could be better, but all he saw when he looked at me was the face of
someone he hated. I couldn't take it
anymore and started to run for the school gates as I saw some police cars
pulling in. I felt a hand on my shoulder
as I ran and I instantly spun round, lashing out at whoever was there. My fist connected with Jamie's face and he
immediately crumpled to the ground in a heap.
I was tempted to stop and check on him but I had to go, I couldn't stay there
any longer, not with that monster.
\\\ Ben ///
This was not
the way I had expected the night to turn out.
Nick had run off to god knows where, Jamie was being checked over by his
mum and Noah, Uncle Luke was sitting on the floor looking overwhelmed by what
he'd heard, and Summer was giving a statement to the police as Brandon was
being arrested. Meanwhile I was helping
Tom hold Danny up as he was still dazed from the beating Brandon had given
him. I suddenly saw movement to one side
and turned to see Lucas striding over with fury in his eyes. Before I could do anything he'd grabbed Danny
by his shirt and slammed him into a parked car, causing the younger boy to cry
out in pain.
"Tell me
everything you know RIGHT NOW!!" He
yelled as he stared down the terrified kid.
"Lucas, get
off him!!" I shouted, trying to pull his
arms free but they wouldn't budge.
Sammie quickly ran over and pulled him away as Danny slumped to the
ground, crying in pain again. I bent
down to help him up again while glaring at Lucas. "Take it easy will ya? He's been battered enough tonight."
"I don't
give a fuck!! Aren't you mad about this
as well? Your uncle's just found out
he's got a kid and you're not mad that he didn't tell you?" Lucas yelled, jabbing his finger towards
Danny. Before I could answer though
Uncle Luke came over to see what was going on.
"You ok
Danny?" He asked gently and got a weak
nod in reply. "So how did you know about
Brandon not being Nick's dad?"
"I kinda had
a hunch when I saw Nick and Ben together, not long after he moved here. Haven't you noticed they looked pretty
similar?"
"Maybe a
little, but I mostly saw a lot of Summer in Nick's face."
"Well I saw
a few similarities so I decided to do some research into all of your
pasts." That definitely answered the
question about what he'd been doing recently at least. "I compared old photos of you and Brandon
with pictures of Ben and the few I could get from Nick's phone. And when I saw that stone head of Brandon I
could definitely tell they weren't related, there just wasn't enough likeness
there, so I started looking into whether there was any way to prove they
weren't related. I pretended I was doing
some research into the school's past and managed to speak to some of the
retired teachers. A couple of them told
me that he'd been suspended from some of his competitions when he was growing
up for using some performance enhancing drugs, even some illegal ones that
could damage his fertility and that's when I knew I was onto something."
"So did you
know he was my kid?" Uncle Luke asked
and Danny just shook his head.
"Not
definitely, I thought he might be but I didn't have any proof. All I knew was he couldn't be Brandon's and
he looked a little like Ben so I started looking into how to get a DNA test
done; I even asked one of the science teachers if we could do it as an
experiment in class, but he said it wouldn't be right without everyone's
permission. I was going to see if there
was another way to do it but...well when everything happened tonight I just
blurted it out and hoped I was right." I
couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"You've
known about this for weeks and you never said a word! Didn't you think you should've said something
to me? Or to Luke? Goddamnit what the fuck is wrong with
you?" I spat.
"I'm sorry;
I just didn't want to say anything until I was sure." Danny had tears streaming down his face now
but I was still pissed off at him. I was
about to lay into him some more when Uncle Luke stood up and pulled me off to
the side.
"Hey, lay
off the kid alright." He said quietly.
"How are you
not more pissed off about this? You've
just found out you've been lied to for years AND HE KNEW ABOUT IT!!" I jabbed my finger toward Danny as I screamed
that last part while Sammie came over to see if I was ok.
"Yeah,
you're right, I should be mad, but yelling about it out here isn't going to
help anything. Now listen, we all need
to calm down and process this ok? You guys just go home and we'll deal with
this tomorrow."
"What about
him?" I asked, glaring over at Danny.
"I'm going
to see what else I can get out of him, get him checked over and then take him
home." I walked back towards the school
with Sammie, Lucas and Tom so we could give Uncle Luke and the others some
space, and so I could call my dad to come pick us up.
"Soooo...Nick's
gay then?" Tom asked. Always one to try and fill the awkward
silence. "Looks like we've got the
dancing queen and the drama queen now then."
He added with a nervous smile.
"Shut up
Tom." I snapped back.
"Yeah, not
the time mate." Lucas added with a grim
look on his face and we just stood there in silence, waiting for my dad.