Alex's New Life: Next Generation Chapter 14
So Brandon's finally tracked Nick down. Want to see what happens next? If you're still enjoying this then don't forget to donate to Nifty to keep these stories coming https://donate.nifty.org/
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.