From the last chapter: I need to talk with Mark and get his view of what is happening, especially since he lives with Mr. Mike and plays football with my son. I don't believe that Mark is afraid of Mike any longer, but I am not really sure about that either.
Mark's POV:
I was really shocked when Mike told me that he was going to hold off on submitting his conversation as to why he acted like he did last spring. It is the conversation that he had with Maria that he had promised to have ready before we started the high school football playoffs. Now he claims that he will have it ready no later than New Year's Eve. What is he still hiding?
My feelings toward Mike are really messed up. Let me explain this to you the best that I can. When I first started to live with Marty and Mike's home following being put out of the house because mom could not deal with having a gay son all was great. There was one exception and that is that I have always been the type to get a summer job(s) on the weekends to have money in my pocket. It was money that I was proud of because I had earned it. Mike, on the other hand, just had to ask Marty for money or use a credit card and there was never any questions asked. In my opinion he was a spoiled kid even though I loved the guy both as a friend as well as a football player.
Than when Mr. Mike came into the picture as a neighbor as well as a friend, I took a shine to him like a son does to a father. The day that Mr. Mike asked me if I wanted to move into his condo, was the day that my life really changed. I was no longer the scared kid who did not have a parent figure that loved me. Mr. Mike has 4 nephews ages 23, 20, 18 and 16 with a niece age 15. So I figured that he could easily have been my father with his youngest nephew my age. When Mike threw that rock that caused Mr. Mike's guide dog, Bagger, to lose his eyesight in his one eye I could see the scared look on Mr. Mike's face when ever he heard Mike's voice things continued to change.
Back to my feelings about Mike: As I stated already he is a spoiled kid that could cause his dad to loose the man that he loves so much Mr. Mike. Mike, seemed to do a 360 during football season after I was the only player named or should I say voted to serve as "Team Captain". Mike, decided that his studies needed to improve so he became more studious, and to top that off he had gotten a weekend job at Friendly ( a restaurant and ice cream store), so that he could earn his own pocket cash. I did not know that Marty had cut off his credit cards, and that Mike had chores to do at home in order to get his allowance.
While talking to Maria, she dropped the bomb shell about Mike. He was offering to move in with his mom and his step-father [the homophobic football coach that we had the first year in high school before Marty took over as head football coach]. She asked me if it would bother me if Mr. Mike took a job in Emerald Beach, Florida as he was still real gun shy of Mike. I didn't answer but continued to talk with her. I asked Maria about Mr. Mike's nephews and niece; Dan, Brad, Cliff, Ben and Anna. Her response shocked me totally as she told me that they where actually his children and that his former wife had taken away the night that Mr. Mike's three brothers had been beaten in Patterson Park. She said that Mr. Mike had not seen his kids since the time he kept a vigil at the University of Maryland Hospital while his brothers fought for their lives. She also told me that she believed that Mr. Mike had taken me in as his son to fill the hole in his heart for his real children.
I spoke at length with Marty and Mike about Mr. Mike and his 5 missing children. I also told them that if Mr. Mike wanted to take the job in Florida that I planned to go with him, since he was now listed as my legal guardian. That was the first time that Mike really showed some emotions by breaking down crying while saying," I have really fucked up". I asked Mike what he meant by that statement, and he replied," I knew the day that you moved in with Mr. Mike that I was going to lose you to him, especially after I acted like a jackass and threw that rock".
Maybe I was right when I told Maria that I am not afraid of Mike anymore because he has started to realize how much he has screwed up both our relationship as well as the one between Marty and Mr. Mike. I really do love the big lug, but he has to earn Mr. Mike's trust again.
Maria and Mr. Mike got some bad news so we are off to New Zealand to bury Mr. Mike's biological mother -- not the one who raised him then dropped him when he told her that he was gay, but his real mom who was 90 years old according to Maria. I got all my assignments from my teachers in order to accompany Mr. Mike that week before Thanksgiving and the week after.
The only good thing was that since we had the best record in our league we had earned a bye the week before Thanksgiving, and our opponents had to play the weekend after Thanksgiving. I hope that it's Pikesville, so that we can prove to them that we are not just the new kids on the block, but a team to be dealt with in the future.
I am not sure when this gets to you, but I hope all readers have a Merry Christmas and that you have a Safe New Years. So please do not drink and drive as we want you as readers in the rest of 2005 as well as in 2006.
TBC..... Hopefully it will be Mike and Maria's talk