In this chapter Martin and Luke continue their game and Martin finds out a bit more about what it means to be Luke's 'mate'. And the cribbage league reaches its climax, and suddenly things get a lot more unpleasant...
When Martin woke up next morning he found that Luke was already awake and was propped up on one elbow looking at him.
“Morning,” said Luke. “Did you sleep well?”
“Yes, thank you. How about you?”
“It was perfect. So – shall we get up and have some breakfast?”
“Okay.”
Luke threw back the top sleeping bag – he had obviously already unzipped his side – and started to wriggle out.
“Your penis is hard,” Martin observed. “Does that mean you want us to mate again?”
“Well… not necessarily. For some reason it’s almost always hard when I wake up. But… I wouldn’t mind doing it again, if you’re sure you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind at all,’ said Martin, unzipping his side of the bag and starting to get out. “I liked it.”
“Great! I’ll find the oil, then.”
Martin, who was aware that his own penis was getting hard (though he wasn’t sure why, since it wasn’t going to be in use during this act of mating), got up and started arranging the blankets and the top sleeping bag into a mound once more, and by the time Luke had found the oil and the kitchen towels Martin was already in position with his bum in the air and his legs spread. Luke anointed himself and his partner and then lined up and pushed, and this time there were no problems and it slipped straight in.
From Martin’s point of view this felt really good: once again there had been that moment of discomfort at the start, but after that it just felt nice. The only problem was that once again Luke stopped before Martin was really ready for him to.
“Sorry,” said Luke, when Martin complained. “It just feels so good that I can’t hold it back. If you like it that much, maybe we’ll have to find something else to put in there for you – a carrot, or something like that.”
“I suppose we could try. But what feels really nice is having you lying on top of me. And your penis is warm, which I don’t think a carrot would be. I think I’ll like proper mating best.”
“Oh, well, we can probably do it again a bit later. Now let’s have a wash and then get some breakfast.”
They had decided that bacon and eggs wouldn’t be cheating too much – after all, there were probably wild boar in their jungle somewhere, and plenty of birds. Cooking them in a frying pan, on the other hand… still, that was probably better than becoming ill through eating the bacon raw. So Luke did the cooking while Martin tidied the tent, and after breakfast they lay back in the tent to decide how to spend the rest of the day.
“I’d like to do some more training this morning,” Luke said. “But how would you feel if we stopped being feral after lunch? We could get dressed and do some proper exploring.”
“I’d like that. I like being naked out here – you were right: that does feel nice somehow – but we can’t go too far in daylight without our clothes on. So we could go exploring and then you could come to my house for supper, if you want. And we could come back here to sleep – I’m sure my mother won’t mind if we stay out for one more night.”
“I’ll have to check, but I’m fairly sure mine won’t, either. So we can have a fully civilised twenty-four hours starting after lunch, just to see if we can survive together when we’re not being feral.”
“Okay – except… well, even if we’re not being feral you can still mate with me if you want.”
“You really like doing that, don’t you? Okay, then: we can keep doing that whether we’re wild or not. Now, let’s get on with our training…”
“You snore!” said Twitch, as soon as Miles woke up.
“I do not!”
“You do, too. Okay, not very loudly, and only when you’re on your back, like you are now. But you still snore. And your thingy sticks up while you’re asleep, too. Were you having dirty dreams?”
“I don’t think so. I can’t remember any, anyway.”
“I bet you were dreaming about Robyn, weren’t you?”
“No, I wasn’t!” protested Miles, indignantly. “If I was going to have a dirty dream it would probably be about you.”
“Really?” said Twitch, looking pleased. “How come?”
“Because you’re the only person I’ve ever done anything bad with. At least if I dreamed about you it would be based on reality.”
“If you dreamed about me it would be a nightmare!”
“I don’t think so.”
“It would – the censor would have to blank my face out, unless he wanted to give it an 18 certificate, and if he did that you wouldn’t be allowed to dream it.”
“You’re strange,” commented Miles, grinning at him. “I’m starting to wonder if you come from the same planet as my brother.”
“Doubt it. Your brother’s quite good-looking. Actually, maybe we could make our own horror film: we’d dress you up as a girl and tie you to a tree, and then I’d pretend to be Frankenstein’s monster and come and terrorise you. It’d be cheap: I wouldn’t need much make-up…”
“I’m not dressing up as a girl for anyone, not even you.”
“Pity. You’d look sweet in a dress.”
Miles thumped him in the ribs, and the fight that followed resulted in both of them falling out of bed. They got up, remade the bed (more or less) and then pulled their underwear on and went to the bathroom to get washed.
After breakfast they set out for the dip to see what Martin and Luke were doing. As before they approached really quietly, this time going straight to the end of the dip where most of the undergrowth was, since they were fairly certain that if the older boys were going naked again they wouldn’t come too close to this end. But when they arrived there was no sign of life.
“Do you think they’ve gone?” whispered Twitch.
“They could be in the tent,” said Miles. “Let’s wait for a bit.”
And ten minutes or so later they saw Luke come out of the tent, walk a short distance to a thorn bush and pee into it. Then he went to the water container and rinsed his hands. While he was washing Martin came out and had a pee, too, and then waited to wash, which he did rather more thoroughly: he had a wash-bag with him, and he washed his face and neck fairly thoroughly.
“Bet that water’s cold,” said Miles, in a low voice.
“Perhaps on his home planet they don’t care about the cold,” replied Twitch.
They watched the older boys eat breakfast and then go back into the tent, and for five or ten minutes nothing happened. But then they came out, both still naked, and started training. The younger boys watched with interest as Luke drove Martin to run faster and faster, smacking his bottom when he was too slow.
“Looks like Luke is in charge,” commented Twitch. “If we play this game you’re not going to hit me like that, are you?”
“Depends if you’re too slow,” said Miles, grinning.
The older boys moved onto the rope, swinging and jumping off, and by now Martin had got the hang of it and didn’t need beating at all. The younger boys thought that looked like fun.
“Maybe we’ll come back after they go back home, then we can try,” suggested Twitch.
“If they leave the rope here,” said Miles, because at that point Luke scampered up into the tree, walked confidently out along the branch and untied the rope. But he simply repositioned it around one of the side branches and tied it on again, calling down to Martin to see if it made any difference to the swing.
“Not really,” reported Martin, after trying. “You’re a little higher up when you let go, that’s all.”
“Good, then we’ll leave it here,” said Luke, and he shinned down the rope.
They practised with the spear for a while, and Miles was surprised to see how good his brother was with it – though he still wasn’t quite good enough for Luke, who smacked him a couple of times. After the second of these Martin decided to fight back and they wrestled for a while, rolling about on the ground. But eventually Luke got on top and dug a thumb into Martin’s rib-cage until he surrendered.
He stood up and Martin stayed on his back on the ground, spreading his arms and legs wide in the submission position, and the watching boys were amazed to see Luke peeing on his defeated opponent’s groin.
“Well, you’re definitely not doing that to me,” commented Twitch when he had finished giggling.
“I can if I’m in charge.”
“Try it and you’ll see what happens.”
Next the older boys climbed the tree and Martin crawled out as far as the rope. He still didn’t like this at all and only forced himself to do it so as not to let his friend down. But even though the rope was much easier to get hold of in its new position – you just had to sit on the branch, reach forward, take hold of the rope and push yourself of the branch - he still couldn’t contemplate doing it without the safety rope attached. With the safety rope he managed to do it, not once but twice, but he still knew he wouldn’t have been able to get down the rope without Luke taking some of his weight on the support rope.
Nonetheless Luke was happy enough with his efforts not to beat him, and was especially pleased that he’d found the courage to climb back up for a second go after making his first descent, during which it was obvious that he’d been scared.
“Well done,” said Luke, shinning down the rope after Martin’s second safe landing. “Let’s rest for a bit before lunch.” And the two older boys retired to the tent.
“There’s no way I’m doing that,” said Twitch, firmly.
“Me neither – at least, not without the safety rope. And I’m not sure about it even then. Anyway, it looks as if they’ve finished for now, so let’s go home. It’ll be lunchtime soon.”
So they went back to Miles’s house for lunch, and after lunch Miles gave Twitch a ride on his carrier as far as the Greyhound, where they met the rest of the card-players. Once everyone had arrived they went back to the same place as the previous afternoon.
“Okay,” said Graham. “We’re going to play five games today and the other five tomorrow. That should mean that everyone gets two games today and two more tomorrow. Today’s first game will be me and Rob against Tom and Kevin.”
This was a fairly close one, but Graham and Robert won by five points.
“Oh, dear,” crowed Graham, “that’s the third time you two have lost, so we’re getting into serious penalty country. Let’s see… Lie on your back, Tom, and Kevin, you come and stand over him with your feet on each side of his thighs… yes, that’ll do. Now pee all over him.”
“Hang on,” argued Tom, “we haven’t got any clean water out here. How are we going to wash it off?”
“You aren’t, just like me and Rob couldn’t when we had to pee on each other last time.”
“Yes, but… I mean, that was the last game…”
“So what? We stayed around playing afterwards, didn’t we? So get on with it.”
So the brothers were made to pee on each other, from the neck down to the groin.
“You should have made them pee in each other’s faces,” said Toby afterwards. “That would have been funny.”
“I’ll remember that for the next time you lose,” said Tom, still dripping. Toby put his tongue out at him.
“Okay, now it’s Jamie and Toby against Miles and Twitch,” announced Graham. “Make sure you get him back for that comment if you win, Miles.”
Miles would have been delighted to do that, but unfortunately he and Twitch lost fairly easily.
“Nettles!” cried Toby, gleefully. “I like that one. Only I don’t trust you to do it to each other, so I’m going to do it for you. Get undressed.”
“Hey, come on, Toby,” protested Twitch. “This is only the second time we’ve lost.”
“So? It’s not my fault if you keep letting people off too easily.”
So Miles and Twitch had to strip while Toby went and picked some nettles, which he then used to sting their genitals extensively. Finally he made them lie face down on the ground while he thrashed their bottoms with the nettles.
“You wait till the next time you lose,” said Miles, getting up and rubbing his bottom.
“It isn’t going to happen. Jamie and I are too good to lose to you lot.”
In the next game Graham and Rob won again, this time beating Jack and Robyn.
“It’s the third time you two have lost, so I think nettles is fair enough,” said Graham. “You can do it to each other, and you don’t have to go quite as far overboard as Toby did, either: a quick wipe front and back will do.”
Neither seemed to enjoy being stung: Jack was erect again, which made it easier to sting his balls as well as his erection, and Robyn’s entrance seemed quite sensitive, making her wince and dance as she was stung.
Graham kept to his word and let them off fairly quickly, despite some grumbling from Toby, who wanted to see them given a proper beating. Instead Graham told them to get dressed and handed the cards to Kevin: he and his brother were playing Miles and Twitch next.
This time Miles and Twitch won.
“That’s four times you two have lost,” Graham pointed out. “I think that calls for something a bit more painful. What do you reckon, Miles?”
“Well… there’s a holly bush over there. Let’s try giving them a quick swipe or two with some holly.”
He climbed through the fence into the wood and cut a short length from the holly bush, and then made the brothers strip and bend over. He took a swing at Tom’s bottom first, and was horrified when the holly immediately drew blood.
“Oh, God, I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t realise… I’ll find something else.”
“No, you’d better give me one like that, too,” said Kevin. “It won’t be fair on Tom otherwise.”
“I don’t want to,” said Miles.
“I’ll do it for you!” volunteered Toby, eagerly.
“No, you do it,” said Kevin to Miles. “I trust you to do it once and then stop.”
So unenthusiastically Miles did it, but despite the half-hearted swipe he gave it still drew some pinpoints of blood.
“That’s it,” he said. “You’d better stay bare for a bit, though, or you’ll get blood on your underwear. And I’m sorry: I really didn’t know it would make you bleed.”
“That’s okay,” said Tom. “I wouldn’t have guessed, either.”
The final game of the day was between Jack and Robyn and Jamie and Toby, and this time Jack and Robyn won fairly comfortably.
“I think maybe we should go for something embarrassing,” said Jack. “Strip off, you two, and make yourselves stiff. You can do it yourself, but if you’re not both good and hard inside a couple of minutes we’ll make you do it to each other.”
Toby really didn’t like that because so far nobody had seen him with an erection, but there was no way out of this, and well inside the two minutes they were both naked and erect. Jamie’s erection was a little longer, though Toby’s balls were bigger.
“Now you have to kiss each other’s cocks,” said Jack.
“What? Get lost!” was Toby’s reaction.
“Please yourself. But once you’ve done that you’re going to be beaten. If you do it, you’ll only be spanked; if not we’ll have to use holly, and it won’t just be one hit, either.”
“Come on, Toby, I’m not getting whipped with holly,” said Jamie. “You saw what it did to Tom and Kevin. I’ll go first, if you like.” And he dropped to his knees and planted a quick kiss on the tip of Toby’s erection.
“Now his balls,” ordered Jack, and Jamie did that too.
“Good. Toby, your turn.”
Toby looked unhappy (and if he’d seen Graham and Miles with their phones out he’d have been a lot more unhappy) but he did as he was told, standing up and wiping his mouth on the back of his hand afterwards.
“Good,” said Jack. “Now you get spanked – and I think it’ll be more embarrassing if Robyn does it. Naked and spanked by a girl in front of an audience – yes, that sounds pretty embarrassing. Jamie, you can go first.”
Robyn sat on the ground and Jamie lay across her lap and got spanked six times, quite hard. And then Toby took his place and got spanked six times very hard, each one making him yelp, and when he stood up afterwards, clutching his bum, his eyes were watering.
“That’s it,” said Jack. “Forfeit over. You can get dressed.”
They did so, hurriedly. It was interesting to see that, while Toby’s erection had disappeared, Jamie’s was still very much in evidence.
Once they were dressed Graham reminded them that they would be meeting for the final round of games the following afternoon.
“Well, it’s still possible for anyone to win and anyone to lose,” he told them. “At the moment Jack and Robyn and Miles and Twitch have eight points, me and Rob have got six and the rest of you have got four. We’ve all got two games left, so tomorrow should be interesting. And after tomorrow’s games, one team is going to be in serious trouble…”
Thursday May 29th
Yesterday was really interesting. In the morning we did some more training, and this time I managed to get down the rope a couple of times – though I know I couldn’t have done it unless Luke had been supporting me with the second rope. Still, it wasn’t quite as frightening as it had been the first time. After we finished training we went to rest in the tent for a while. I hoped Luke might want to mate with me again, but he didn’t say anything, and as he’s alpha it has to be his choice. So instead we rested for a while and then he cooked lunch for us: we had spaghetti with a sauce from a jar, which wasn’t too bad but wasn’t as good as when my mother makes it: she has her own recipe and uses lots of different ingredients, and it tastes really great. I promised Luke I’d invite him round next time she makes one.
After lunch we rested for a little while and then got dressed and went exploring. We went the way we had gone on the first day, but because we were wearing clothes this time we were able to go right down to the river. We followed the river until it reached the main road and then Luke showed me some more footpaths that started just past the railway station and eventually came out behind his house. It was quite a long walk, so when we got to his house we stopped for a rest and a glass of Coke. Luke got permission to stay out for one more night, and then we walked to my house. We spent the time before supper listening to music in my room, which we went back to after we had eaten, and then, when it was starting to get dark, we walked back to the dip. We’d had a good wash at my house, so we didn’t have to worry about the water being cold this time.
We lay awake talking for a while, mostly about music and books, and then we got undressed and went to sleep.
This morning Luke’s penis was hard again when he woke up and so we mated again. And this time it felt even nicer to me than it had before, and in fact I got a really strange, but brilliant, feeling just before Luke stopped doing it to me. Actually it was a little bit embarrassing, because when I got up afterwards I saw that I’d wet the blanket a little bit: I must have lost control of myself and peed a little when I was having that weird feeling. Fortunately Luke had gone outside to pee, so it gave me a chance to blot it up with a bit of kitchen towel – although there was hardly any, and probably he wouldn’t have noticed even if I hadn’t blotted it up.
We had some breakfast and afterwards we tidied everything up, putting away all the things we wouldn’t need any more, and then spent the rest of the morning lying in the tent with no clothes on, reading. I’ve decided I really like being bare with him – I still get embarrassed when Miles sees me bare, and even more when his friends are with him, but having no clothes on with Luke doesn’t worry me at all any longer. It’s probably because we’re mates now.
Around midday we took the tent down and carried everything back to Luke’s house. It was easier this time because we’d used a lot of stuff up, and we were able to empty the water container, too, which made it a lot easier to carry. It still took us two trips, but it was a lot easier. We had lunch at his house and then read our books lying on his bed for a while, and when I thought I ought to go so I wouldn’t be late for tea he walked part of the way with me.
It’s been a really good week. Okay, I didn’t like it when he hit me for messing up my training, but he was right to do it so I would know what it would be like to be a real feral boy – and I think I’d have to be a lot tougher if I wanted to survive. That’s why I hope we’re going to go on training together in future. And apart from that it was really, really good, and if he wants to do it again during the summer holidays I’ll certainly want to, too. I definitely like having a mate…
On the Thursday afternoon Miles met his friends at the Greyhound and went to the woods with them for the final round of their tournament. He thought they’d done pretty well so far, especially since Twitch had only learned the game recently, but he was hoping they wouldn’t lose again today: the forfeits were getting both painful and embarrassing.
They were involved in the first game today, against Jack and Robyn, and they won a close game by three points. At first Miles was so relieved that he was inclined to let his opponents off with something easy, but Graham pointed out that this was the final day and so the forfeits had to be interesting to watch.
“And difficult to do,” added Toby, whose confidence seemed high today.
“Well… in that case I think we’ll make them pee on each other, like Tom and Kevin had to do yesterday,” said Miles. “At least that won’t hurt, and it’ll be interesting to watch.”
It was, too: Jack was so stiff he had trouble bending his penis down far enough to hit the target between his feet, and in the end he had to step back a yard and arc the water down onto Robyn’s body. Robyn obviously had no such difficulty: she simply stood astride Jack and peed straight down onto him, fascinating the boys, who had never seen a girl pee before.
“Okay, you’re done,” said Miles, once Robyn ran dry. Who’s up next?”
Today Graham was drawing cards at random to determine the order of games, and that’s why Jack and Robyn found themselves playing again, this time against Tom and Kevin. And they lost again.
“It was hardly worth getting dressed,” grumbled Jack, pulling his shirt back off. “So what do we have to do this time?”
“Make them have sex!” demanded Toby, and for once he found that one of his suggestions wasn’t immediately shouted down. “Go on – Jack’s still hard, so they’ll be able to easily.”
“Absolutely not,” said Robyn, folding her arms and glaring at Toby. “Okay, I like Jack…” (At that Jack’s face lit up) “… but I’m not ready for sex yet. It’s different for girls – we think it’s really important who you choose to do it for the first time with, and I’m far too young to think about that yet. And when I do it’ll be my choice. Of course, in three or four years’ time I might choose Jack, but we’re not doing it now, and that’s that. Got it?”
“Fair enough,” agreed Graham, despite a few groans from elsewhere (and Jack looked disappointed, too). “We’ll accept that it’s different for girls, so we can’t make Robyn do that. Tom? Kevin?”
“Well, I was thinking of making them pee in each other’s faces,” said Tom, “but as they only went a few minutes ago I don’t suppose they can do it again yet.”
“We could do it for them,” suggested his brother. And, despite further arguments from the losers, that’s what happened: Tom peed in Robyn’s face and Kevin did it to Jack.
“Thank God that was our last game,” said Jack, rubbing his face and upper body with the towel he’d thought to bring with him. “At least now we can sit back and watch nasty things happening to the rest of you.”
The third game saw Graham and Rob drawn against Miles and Twitch, and – in revenge for what had happened in their first game – Graham and Rob came out on top.
“Strip and make each other stiff,” demanded Martin, putting the cards down and reaching for his phone. Miles knew what he was doing but he didn’t say anything about it because he had every intention of using his own phone if Graham lost his second game.
They made each other erect, which didn’t take very long.
“Now,” said Graham, grinning, “this is an idea Kevin gave me, and I like it, so it’s what’s going to happen. Miles, kneel down in front of Twitch and lick his cock.”
Miles glared at him, but Graham showed no sign of changing his mind, and so reluctantly he dropped to his knees and licked the length of Twitch’s erection.
“Now open your mouth, put his cock in it and suck on it.”
“Oh, come on,” said Miles. “That’s disgusting!”
“I know. But you’ve still got to do it.”
Somehow Miles forced himself to close his lips around his friend’s penis and then he began to suck, though without moving his head. Twitch gave a gasp.
“No, you have to sort of slide it into and out of your mouth,” said Kevin, and he coached Miles until he got the idea. He carried on for about ten seconds and then stopped.
“That’s long enough, Graham,” he said.
“I suppose so. Swap places.”
And then Miles found out what had made Twitch gasp, because this felt really nice. He tried not to let it show in case he was laughed at, but it definitely felt good, and when Twitch stopped he felt really disappointed, even though Twitch had done it to him for longer than he had done when it was his turn.
“Okay, you’re done,” said Graham, sliding his phone back into his pocket.
“You wait,” Miles warned him, pulling his underwear back on. “Wait till you lose.”
“The next game will probably decide who comes last,” Graham told them. “At the moment it looks like it’ll be either Jamie and Toby or Tom and Kevin. If Jamie and Toby win their last two games they won’t be last, but otherwise they will. So you’re playing each other – let’s see if we can fid a loser!”
And Tom and Kevin won by thirteen points, which was unlucky for Toby and Jamie. To rub it in they then lost the final game, against Graham and Rob.
“We didn’t do forfeits after the last game because we already knew who was going to come last,” Graham told them. “And since they lost again they’ve got loads of forfeits to come, especially if we count them by Toby’s method. But maybe it’s unfair to punish both of them: maybe one of them played well and the other was crap. So we’ll give one of them a chance to get out of it. You’ll play a singles game against each other: whoever wins gets let off, and whoever loses gets all the punishments. Is that okay with you?”
“I don’t know,” said Jamie. “I mean, if we both get punished would we only get half the punishments?”
“Yes, but it would still be quite a lot.”
“It might still be better like that, though,” said Jamie.
“No, I want to play against him,” demanded Toby, convinced he was the better player.
“Well, if you’re sure,” said Graham. “Get undressed, both of you: you can play naked, and we’ll give the winner his clothes back. That’ll stop the loser from trying to run for it.”
“I wouldn’t run,” said Jamie. “I agreed to this before the tournament started.” But he started to undress, all the same.
Toby didn’t say anything, but after a few seconds he started to strip, too. While they were getting undressed Graham took the cards to shuffle them but managed a complete miss-shuffle, dropping the cards on the ground and managing to tread on a couple as he stepped forward to grab for them.
“Sorry,” he said. “We can’t really use these, because the bent ones will be too easy to identify. I’ll get the other pack out. Use this one to cut for deal.”
Toby won, and Graham gathered up the damaged pack, went to his jacket and came back with another one, which he put down in front of Toby. Toby offered the pack to Jamie to cut, but Jamie just shook his head and told him to go ahead and deal.
The game got under way. It was fairly close, but – aided by one spectacular box – Jamie steadily pulled ahead, finally winning by nineteen points. At that point Toby looked really nervous, but there wasn’t a lot he could do about it. Jamie was given his clothes back and quickly pulled them on, which left Toby naked and surrounded by grinning kids.
“Now, let’s see,” said Graham. “By your calculation, you get sixteen forfeits for losing the fifth game and thirty-two for losing the sixth. But you’ve got Jamie’s as well as your own, so that gives you… gosh, ninety-six forfeits! Of course, we won’t actually give you ninety-six, but what you get will have to be worth ninety-six forfeits. So we’ll have to beat you with nettles, and with holly, and with a proper cane; you’ll have to suck our cocks, like we made Miles and Twitch do; we’ll piss on you – several times, and all over, including in your mouth – and all of the boys will have sex with you. That should do for starters.”
Toby’s face was a picture. At first he was sure Graham was joking, but then he realised he wasn’t, and at that point he looked genuinely terrified.
“Lets start with a nice whipping,” suggested Graham. “I think we’ll use the holly first, then the blood will make it easier for us to fuck you. Let’s have a competition: let’s see who can make a teacher’s pet yell loudest.”
He got Kevin and Jack to grab Toby while he went into the wood and came back with some good leafy pieces of the holly bush. They got Toby face down on the ground and Graham took the first swipe with the holly. Toby screamed, and small spots of blood appeared on his bum.
“Six each, I think,” said Graham. “Who wants to go next?”
Robert picked up a length of holly, but before he could use it Twitch grabbed his arm.
“Stop!” he cried. “Come on, Graham, you can’t seriously do this to him!”
“Why not? He’s been trying to get us to do worse and worse stuff since we started playing.”
“Yes, but this is far too bad!”
“Not for him, it isn’t. Come on, Twitch, he laughs at you worse than any of us. I’d have thought you’d want to get him back for it.”
“I don’t mind making him do normal forfeits, but what you’re talking about is way beyond normal forfeits. You’re talking about torture. And if we all join in, it’s bullying – really bad bullying, too.”
“But it’s Toby, for God’s sake! You know what he’s like: ‘Please, Miss, I know, Miss, ask me, Miss, I’m cleverer than all the other kids, Miss…’ He deserves sorting out.”
“Not by all of us, and not like this. I don’t want to be a bully.”
“Then go home! Nobody’s making you stay, if you’re too chicken to join in.”
Twitch turned to Miles. “I don’t want to do this,” he said. “Please come with me, Miles.”
“He’s staying – aren’t you, Miles? One thing Miles isn’t is chicken.”
“Please, Miles? You’re not a bully, I know that…”
Miles looked from Twitch to Graham and read the same expression on both faces: both of his friends wanted – no, needed his support. He felt really bad, because he was going to have to disappoint one of them.
“Look, Graham,” he said, “I don’t know Toby as well as you do, so maybe you don’t need me. And it isn’t safe to let Twitch walk about on his own…”
“No! Don’t go, Miles – you’re one of us. Come on, it’ll be a really good laugh… and maybe we won’t do all that stuff to him…”
Miles felt himself wavering: maybe by staying he could stop Graham and the others from going too far. But Twitch tugged at his sleeve. “Please?” he said again.
“I’m sorry,” Miles said to Graham. “I’ve got to go with Twitch.”
Graham stared at him, and then spat on the ground. “Go on, then, you traitor,” he said. “Get lost. We don’t need you, anyway.”
“I know you don’t,” said Miles, trying to keep his temper. “But Twitch does need me. That’s why I’ve got to go.”
“Yeah, right. Fuck off with your boyfriend, then, and don’t bother coming back.”
Feeling really bad, Miles helped Twitch through the fence and walked back through the woods with him, pushing his bike. Behind them they heard Toby yell again, and again…
He gave Twitch a ride home but declined the invitation to come in for a bit. Instead he rode home, wondering if he would be able to mend his fences with Graham and the others, or if he had just lost all except one of the friends he had made since he moved here…
Suddenly things have gone off in a nasty, unexpected direction, and Miles has been forced to make a choice. And in the next chapter there will be consequences.
I hope you're still enjoying it out there. If you are and you haven't told me so lately – or if you have but want to again – here's something that might be helpful: gothmog@nyms.net
Copyright 2009: all rights reserved. Please do not reprint, repost or otherwise reproduce this or any part of it anywhere without my written permission.
David Clarke