HARD AT WORK ============
Phew! Another long delay between chapters, but I had to stop to write "Educating Alex", a one-part story in the College section, but now that I've stopped that buzzing around my head: I'm back! Refreshed and ready to resume, and hopefully soon finish, New to this State. I apologize to everyone I have kept waiting for another chapter, what can I say? Sorry. So this is almost it, only one more chapter to go, I hope you like it.
DISCLAIMER ==========
This is a work of fiction; any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. The author asserts all legal and moral rights (copyright (c) 2000 - ardveche@hotmail.com) to this work and you may not copy it or transmit it in any way except in its entirety and with this disclaimer. This story features descriptions of sex between consenting (all over the legal age, at least in my jurisdiction they are) males:
- if such material is prohibited in your jurisdiction, please DO NOT READ ON, - if you're under the legal age to read such material, please DO NOT READ ON, - if you don't like, or are offended by such material, please DO NOT READ ON.
Now, if everyone who is still here is meant to be here, let's get on with it. All comments are welcome and gratefully received (email them to ardveche@hotmail.com or look me up on MSN Messenger).
NEW TO THIS STATE =================
Chapter 13 - Bad Luck
We sat like that for some time enjoying one another's warmth and the quiet companionable silence that descended. A couple of boats passed by, sailing the length of the lake, but that was the only thing to disturb the serenity and beauty of the afternoon. As the shadows began to lengthen, Curtis stirred and removed his arm from round my shoulders.
"So you want to talk? Or should we just head back?" He asked, sliding his hands inside his coat and rubbing them up and down his ribcage to warm them.
"Not right now." I replied after a moment's thought, I did want to talk to him, to try to make him see sense, but I didn't want to bring down the whole afternoon which had been so great for me. "Let's go back."
"Okay." We rose stiffly from the rock we were sitting on and struggled up the steep bank, Curtis's car was just another dark blob amidst the shadows by the time we got back to the campground. He handed me the keys.
"You want me to drive?"
"Yeah. I think that maybe I overdid it these last few days. I feel kinda stiff."
"Oh really?" I joked.
"Just try not to kill us." He said with a rueful shake of his head. We slid into the car, and the heater soon took the chill off the evening as we wound our way down the dirt roads back to the highway. It seemed hardly anytime at all before we were back at Lois's place. The journey back always seems shorter somehow, am I the only one who's noticed this? We were late for dinner, but Lois and my mom had left plenty for us to eat in the fridge and microwave instructions. They were in the parlor engaged in another epic game of Scrabble. If I ever get that way, I want someone to shoot me. We passed the evening quietly in my room, just watching TV while I read over the notes Kate had brought from school. It was all pretty straightforward and I figured I hadn't really missed all that much.
"I'm beat." Curtis eventually said with a yawn. "Gonna turn in. After last night's narrow escape, we'd better cool it for a while, huh? And I don't feel a hundred percent, anyway, so I wouldn't be much fun."
"Aw." I pouted, but saw the wisdom of his words.
"Besides, tomorrow's a school day, Andrew!" He grinned at me. "So I'm gonna go downstairs, 'kay?"
"Yeah. I suppose so." I sighed.
"Do I get a goodnight kiss?"
"Do you think you deserve one?"
"Always." His answer was simple, and utterly impossible to dispute. So I leant towards him, and we kissed for a long time before he finally pulled away and whispered a good night with a peck on the forehead.
"Night." I replied, unhappy to be spending it alone.
"You're oversexed anyway." He said as he turned to leave.
"Hardly!" I called to his back, but he ignored me and I heard his footsteps make their way downstairs, and then I was alone. And I truly felt alone.
The following morning, I was woken by the insistent clamor of my alarm clock. On school days, I purposely set it to a station I hate so I have to get out of bed to turn it off. It's worked so far, and I'm rarely late. I dressed with my usual care after my shower and made my way down to the kitchen. My mother had already left for work, but Lois was there bustling to and for, tending her houseplants.
"Good morning!" She chirped.
"Ha!" I replied.
"Did you sleep well?"
"I guess."
"Didn't hear anything unusual?" Her tone was arch.
"Such as?"
"Some sort of animal in the flowerbeds, perhaps?" She smiled wickedly at me.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I protested, smiling back.
"Lucky for you, young man, that those bulbs were coming out soon anyway."
"Sorry, Lois." I tried to look contrite and failed miserably. "Is Curtis up?" A change of subject seemed to be very much in order.
"I haven't seen him. Why don't you check?"
"No, I don't want to disturb him. He wasn't feeling too good yesterday, thinks he might have been overdoing it."
"Well, I don't like to say 'I told you so', so I'll let you imagine that I did."
"I think I ought to get to school."
"Yes, your mother left this for you." Lois handed me a sealed envelope. "She said to hand it in at the administration office."
"Cool. What'd she say?"
"That you missed a few classes for personal reasons."
"Okay. Guess that saves going into too much detail, huh?"
"Yes. Now go."
The walk to school was quiet, as I made my way through suburbia, more confidently now than the last time I'd tried this on foot. I arrived about fifteen minutes early, which left me plenty of time to go to the office and give my mom's letter to Agnes, then I headed up the hall to my locker to stow some of my books until I needed them later. It was there that David and Tyler caught up with me.
"Hey, Drew!" David called, trotting up to me. Tyler followed at a more leisurely pace; stopping to say a few words to some other guys first. "Good weekend?" He winked at me.
"None of your business, David."
"Hey." Tyler joined us. "How's dumbass?"
"Are you going to call him that every time?" I asked, but I was not really annoyed, as I knew that Tyler meant no harm by it.
"Probably." Tyler grinned broadly, showing off his perfect teeth. The cut on his cheek seemed to be healing up nicely.
"Well, don't." Was all the answer I could make.
"Sorry. Didn't mean any offense, I was kidding."
"I know, and he wouldn't take any. But too many people call him names for his friends to be doing it too. Don't you think?"
"I guess. Sorry, Drew." So, how about that? Tyler Ellis just apologized for something. It was clear this was a pretty rare event from the look on David's face. He seemed slightly stunned.
"Forget about it. What's your first class?" Maybe I should go into diplomacy, I seemed to be developing a real talent for steering awkward conversations into safer territory.
"What's your first class?" He stressed 'your', but it still took a moment to realize what he was driving at.
"Math." I answered having just checked my schedule minutes before.
"So what have I got?"
"Math." I let him have the point as a way of showing I wasn't mad with him. We grinned at one another, and Tyler laughed.
"You two should take this little act on the stage." David commented wryly, and found himself suddenly in a headlock being instructed to apologize by Tyler. The bell rang, saving David from any further torment and we bid him farewell as we headed to our first class, promising to meet up with him at lunch. The morning passed uneventfully, I moved from class to class and managed to pay greater attention than I had on Thursday so I got all the way to lunch without having a teacher yell at me. So a pretty good day in many ways. I stopped in the hall again to deposit my books before meeting the guys for lunch, and was just closing my locker when someone spoke to me.
"Hey! Fag." I ignored the voice, pretending he wasn't talking to me, though he obviously was. "I said, hey, fag." A hand grabbed my shoulder, I spun round quickly, knocking his hand away.
"I heard you." I didn't recognize the guy at all. He was a lot bigger than I was and a cold shiver ran up my spine, this was exactly what I had sought to avoid at school.
"So why didn't you answer me, cocksucker?" There was a superior smirk on his face. "Too busy thinking about your boyfriend?" He was accompanied by three other guys, and I knew that even if I could have taken him, which was doubtful, I'd have had my ass kicked by his cronies.
"Fuck you." It was the only thing I could think of to say.
"Yeah, you'd like that wouldn't you?" He pushed me hard by the shoulder so I bounced off the lockers behind me. There were several other people in the hall, but everyone was acting like they couldn't see what was going on.
"I think maybe you would." I replied evenly as I straightened my shirt, aware that my big mouth was probably about to get me into a lot of trouble. My heart was thumping. The grin disappeared from my tormentor's face and was replaced by a scowl almost instantly.
"You little creep." He pushed me again.
"Hey!" I turned my head to the left and saw Brian, the guy from the swim team, approaching along the hall. "What's going on?" He demanded of the bigger guy. After my last encounter with Brian, where I had singularly failed to impress him with my swimming, I could not have been more glad to see him.
"Fuck off, Brian. This is between me and the queer." It occurred to me that I had made no attempts to deny being gay to this big oaf.
"Leave him alone, Mike."
"This has nothing to do with you." I squirmed against the wall where Mike had me pinned by one shoulder still, trying to break his grip.
"It does now."
"Since when did you stick up for fags?"
"Drew's not a fag." Brian answered, presumably thinking that he was coming to my defense. He took a step closer.
"Sure he is. Saw him smooching with his boyfriend up at the lake yesterday." At the lake? So Mike must have been on one of the boats that went by, either that or he was sneaking about in the woods. He must've seen the expression on my face. "Didn't think anyone could see you, huh? Pair of homos, you and that weirdo Reid?"
"Is that true?" Brian asked me, I made no response, glaring at Mike and struggling.
"Let me go." Brian's intervention, if not actually helping me directly, at least seemed to be drawing more of a crowd, this seemed to discourage Mike who presumably feared a teacher would soon arrive to see what the problem was.
"I'll see you later." Mike said letting go of me. I straightened up immediately, with overdue defiance, only to have him slam his palm against my forehead, making my head clatter painfully and loudly off the locker door. He and his cronies stalked off with muttered curses and snarls in my direction.
"Thanks." I said to Brian as they left.
"Whatever." He replied and walked away without another word. Suddenly lunch didn't seem like such a good idea, I knew Brian would go and join the 'jock-squad' as he did every day, and I would be far from welcome with the group. Bedsides which, I had a headache now and my stomach was so knotted up that I had completely lost my appetite. I had English Lit. after lunch, so I sloped off to the library to kill the time and stay out of people's way. I felt thoroughly miserable, what had started out as a promising day now looked like being the worst of my life. Why did we have to have been seen? Why did people have to make such a big deal out of it anyway? Surely the important thing was the love between two people, not what sex they were? I grabbed a book at random and moved to the middle of the room, where I could be easily seen, and where any conversation would be impossible. I didn't want to talk to anyone and that seemed the best way to avoid it.
When the bell rang, I made my way swiftly to my next class and headed straight for a desk near the back of the room. I quickly took off my jacket and sat down, opening the book I had picked up in the library in the hope of avoiding any awkward questioning from my classmates. And from Kate in particular. I hoped the class would fill up quickly and that there would be no possibility of her sitting beside me, but I knew it was futile. People were sure to dawdle from lunch, but not Miss Vice-President - she was right on time. I realized, even as I was thinking this, that my bitterness was being unfairly directed, but I couldn't stop myself. I was angry at the world, and I wanted to blame somebody for my predicament.
"There you are. The guys missed you at lunch." Kate deposited her backpack on the desk beside mine.
"I was reading." I answered without looking up.
"So I see. Since when were you interested in..." She paused, tilting her head on one side to read the spine of the book I was clutching "... 'The Coastal Ecology of the Pacific Northwest'?"
"It's for a project." I replied.
"Sure. So what really happened at lunch?" She lowered her voice before continuing. "Are you pining for Curtis?" She smiled broadly at me, but I made no reply. "What's up, you seemed fine this morning?"
"Miss Tomski! This is an English class, not a caf‚." The teacher's stern tone, silenced Kate for the time being. I continued staring at the book I was holding, not making eye contact with her as she unpacked some things and settled into her place.
"I'm not letting you off that easy, Drew. I want to know what's bugging you." She said at last.
"Nothing."
"Sure, that's why you're the life and soul of this little party."
"Just drop it, okay?"
"No. It is not 'okay'. Something's up with you and I want to know what." Kate hissed back at me.
"Nothing is up."
"What is wrong with you two?" The librarian demanded. "If you can't be quiet I'll have to separate you.
"Sorry, Miss Carter." She was silent for a few more minutes and feigned interest in her own assignments, all the while sneaking glances at me which I studiously avoided. I was in turmoil, what had Mike meant by 'I'll see you later', what did he have in mind? How was I going to be able to continue at this place now that I had been seen kissing Curtis in public? How many people would he tell, how many would stop talking to me or, worse, start bullying me once they knew? What was I going to do?
"You're not getting out of here without giving me an answer, mister." Kate kicked me under the table to get my attention.
"Right, that's it. Miss Tomski, move to another desk, please. Down here at the front, where I can see you. Whatever you and Mr. Quinn have to discuss can wait until after school, I'm sure." This earned a chorus of laughter from the rest of the class as the teacher closed her book with a snap and glared at the two of us over her glasses. Reluctantly, Kate got to her feet and moved to an empty table a few over. "I'm surprised at you, Kate." Well, at least I was to be spared any more questions as I plunged back into my well of self pity and my pretense of reading up on coastal ecology. The class went on.
When the bell rang, I was already halfway out of my seat, and I bolted along the hall, desperate to put some distance between myself and Kate. I had already decided that I was through for the day and that I was going to take off. I scurried along the hall, my knuckles white from clutching my backpack, and my head down, eyes firmly on the floor. Suddenly, there was someone standing in my path, and showing no signs of getting out of the way. I panicked, afraid that this was the 'later' Mike had been talking about. Stopping abruptly, I looked up to see David standing there with an amused look on his face.
"You were in a hurry, buddy. And you're going the wrong way too." He stated, crossing his arms across his chest.
"Yeah." I muttered.
"So what's up? Brian told us Mike was hassling you."
"Nothing's up." The lie was so obvious I winced. "I'm fine."
"Sure, that's why you skipped lunch."
"We're going to be late." I thought a change of topic was the safest course. Our chemistry teacher's irascibility was well known and much commented on - in fact, it had been David who warned me about it in the first place.
"I guess, let's go." So much for sneaking out unnoticed. Now not only was I being compelled to go to chemistry, there was no hope of giving David the slip before the end of school. "But you're gonna tell me what's going on afterward, okay?"
"Whatever."
"Good. C'mon." He threw an arm round my shoulders, which I quickly shrugged off. It was bad enough that Mike and his gang were giving me a hard time without me getting David tied up in it all as well. I started walking. "What? What'd I do?" David demanded of my retreating back. I made no response, and our arrival at Dr. Bates room cut off any chance he had of renewing his questioning of me. I never thought I'd be happy to see that lab coat - but I was this time round. I brooded on my problems throughout chemistry class, this was exactly what I tried to avoid at Conroy's with Aaron, thankfully this time Dr. Bates seemed not to notice that I wasn't paying attention. I was acutely conscious of the empty seat next to me, and wondered what Curtis was doing right at that moment. I missed him, and wished that I could talk to him, I guess I was really starting to think of him as a lifeline in some way. Sure, talking to David might well help, but he wouldn't make me feel as safe and needed as I knew Curtis could.
"Class is over." I was brought back from my reverie. "You can go home now." David was standing beside me with a grin on his face.
"Huh?" I was still miles away.
"What's got into you today? You've been really weird."
"I know. Sorry."
"Hey, don't apologize to me." He shrugged, for all his earlier pushiness, David was a good guy and was prepared to wait until I was ready to talk. "Let's go grab Ellis, yeah?"
"Sure." The thought of seeing Tyler again was a pleasant one, but it was colored by the prospect that Brian would be there. Oh well, had to face everyone eventually I guess. The guys had been so supportive when the they found out about me and Curtis, I could only hope that continued now that Mike and his moron friends knew about it too. We walked along the hall together, not talking about anything, me lost in thought, him giving me time to think.
"Hey, Vincent! Vincent!" David ignored Mike, he and his buddies were lurking by the doors as we walked outside - I guess there was a certain inevitability to that. "Better watch out, fag boy might try to jump you!" This got a chorus of laughter from his cronies.
"Mike, why don't you go home and fuck your sister some more, let off steam." David answered calmly and kept walking.
"You little bastard! I'll kick your faggot loving ass!" Mike pushed himself away from the wall and took a few steps towards us. David spun on the spot, dropping his backpack and taking up a ready stance, his eyes flicking from Mike to each of his buddies in turn.
"Come on then." He asked.
"Don't be dumb, Vincent. This doesn't concern you." Mike looked a little hesitant now that David had squared up to him, this was not what he'd expected.
"He's right, this is my fight, David." I said quietly to my friend.
"And you're my friend, that makes it mine too." He replied without even turning to look at me.
"Why don't you just walk away, Vincent?" Mike took another step towards us and the others all adjusted their postures, ready for a fight.
"Why don't you make me, tough guy?"
"What does he do? Suck your cock?" Mike sneered at us. "Guess he won't be doing that with a broken jaw, huh? No wonder you're defending him, looks like he'd give pretty good head." The cronies all laughed again. I was still standing, mind not really functioning, as my friend got ready to take on five guys in my defense. I could hardly believe what was happening, we were outnumbered and outclassed, we were going to get the shit kicked out of us, absolutely no question.
"David, let's just go, okay?"
"Yeah, David, just go. Go home and fuck your boyfriend there." Mike mimicked my words, making his voice higher pitched and reedy.
"Mike, you're a real asshole, you know that?" David's voice had lost all its equanimity now, and he seemed really pissed. Suddenly things started to happen, Mike lurched forward and swung at David who dodged to one side, I reacted immediately throwing myself towards Mike and swinging wildly. I got in one good punch before I was grabbed by one of his cronies and yanked backwards while another drove his fist into my gut knocking all the wind out of me. Pain blossomed throughout my body and I gasped for air as I dangled limply in the guy's grip. I was hit again, this time in the face and things went black for a moment as I reeled and collapsed to the ground. I was aware of people running towards the fray and of voices yelling something, then a foot caught me viciously in the ribs and I curled into a fetal position. There was more shouting, sounds of scuffling then of running feet and then silence. I was rolled onto my back and a familiar voice was asking if I was okay.
"Drew? Drew? Are you okay?" There was a strong cool hand on my forehead and I slowly opened my eyes to look up at Curtis who was kneeling beside me.
"Curtis?"
"Yeah. You okay?"
"I'm okay. Help me up." I struggled to my feet with his assistance and wiped my sleeve across my face, there was a little blood from my lip and everything ached but I seemed to be all right other than that. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to meet you after school." He replied. I became aware of other people gathered round, David, Tyler, Dan (from the 'jock-squad') and Kate.
"What happened?" They quickly filled me in on what I missed. Tyler and Dan had spotted Curtis waiting for me by his car as they left the school and had gone over to talk to him while they waited for David and me, and they had been joined by Kate who was worried about me. Then David and I had come out and had our heated exchange with Mike, which Tyler had been sort of expecting having been told about my earlier confrontation by Brian. When the first punch was thrown, Curtis had immediately run over to help, heedless of his own injuries and he had been followed by Tyler. Between them, with me out for the count, they probably would have been roundly beaten, but Dan had joined the fray to help Tyler out, and Mike and his buddies scattered.
"Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I need a Coke." David announced grinning broadly and then wincing at the pain from his face. He'd taken a few hits from Mike, but had fared a lot better than I had, but then I had borne the real brunt of the attack, being their principal target.
"Me too." Tyler agreed. "Lets head down to the mall, huh?" I glanced over at Curtis to see what he was thinking.
"Yeah, c'mon you guys, we don't bite!" Dan said clapping Curtis on the shoulder and grinning at both of us. So the six of us piled into Tyler and Curtis's cars (Kate coming with me and Curtis to make sure we didn't just head off on our own!) and drove down to the mall where we enjoyed a coke together and rehashed the fight we'd just been involved in, trading insults of one another's fighting style. Curtis was visibly ill at ease in the little group, and I squeezed his hand under the table more than once to try to reassure him. He always responded by smiling weakly at me and making a renewed effort to join in the conversation. It was clear he was making an effort for me, and I was deeply touched by it. I was almost as touched that the others were making such a show of accepting him into their little group, but whatever happened he was never going to be comfortable with this sort of thing, he was just too quiet and private a person for it to work. We wandered back out into the open air, and I thanked everyone profusely for coming to the aid of David and me.
"No problem, buddy." Tyler answered first. "I've been waiting for a chance to kick Mike's ass, too bad he got a few punches in before I arrived though."
"Yeah, he'll think twice before starting that again." Dan laughed.
"I could've taken him." David pulled himself up to his full height and assumed a scowling expression which earned him only laughter from the rest of us.
"Sure you could, hero." Curtis, to my deep astonishment, answered giving David a little push and a smile.
"I could take you anytime, Reid!" David replied.
"Really?" If anyone else caught the look on Curtis's face as he said that they gave no indication of it, but David's jaw dropped and I had to laugh. It was so good to see my boyfriend opening up to my new friends as he had to me that I almost didn't mind the bruises I had earned along the way. The only problem now was explaining it all to my mother.
TO BE CONTINUED... ==================