All the usual restrictions and disclaimers from the last story are in effect.
'21ST CENTURY BREAKDOWN. I ONCE WAS LOST BUT NEVER WAS FOUND'
I pried my eyes open at the sound of my cell phone going off on the table next to my bed. With an annoyed grunt, I reached over and swept it off the table to see who was bugging me at this early hour ... And already pretty sure who it was. Sure enough, the screen read 'Nick'.
I flipped open my phone, "You know, I really like the new Green Day, and your waking me up to their song is just mean! This is my first day off in a week and of course you have to ruin it by calling me at ... What the fuck time is it?"
"Ummm ... 10 AM," Nick replied, "So it's not too early. And you will always want to fuck Billie Joe no matter what I do, so wakey, wakey, gay boy!"
"You're just jealous I don't want to fuck you, mutie. What the hell do you want anyway?"
"Always so sure that evey straight guy is secretely gay and wants your ass; you, my friend, are a walking stereotype!"
"I only speak the truth.. So what did you REALLY call me about?"
"Well," began Nick hesitantly, "The ceremony is at 1 this afternoon, and I thought you might want to meet up with me and Cindy beforehand to get some lunch and well ... You know."
"Talk about it?" I scoff, "Whats there to talk about we haven't already gone over in the last few years?"
"Well I mean it is the 5 year anniversary of Tim's ..."
"Yeah I'm WELL aware of that?" I say angrily, "It's not something I can readily forget! I was a part of it too, ya know!"
"Dude, I was just trying to help," said Nick dejectedly, "We were all there, and you weren't the only affected by what happened."
I shut my eyes tightly and rubbed them as what Nick said washed over me.
"I know, dude. It's just ... just."
"Look, I know what Tim meant to you," said Nick softly, "I didn't mean to gloss over that. I was just trying to say that you weren't alone in it then and you aren't now."
"Yeah I know, I know. Yeah I'll see you guys for lunch. What time and where?"
"Well I thought we'd do Carinos since ..."
"It was Nick's favorite," I finish, "Ok, I'll meet you two in an hour."
"Alright, see you then, buddy. Oh, and you still can't fuck me!"
"Despite your delusions, I wouldn't dare. Cindy would kill you AND cut my dick off!"
"Hey at least your dick would be seeing SOME action, then! Well I mean aside from your right hand!"
"I'll have you know I can switch hit."
"Thanks, bro, I'll never be able to get THAT image out if my mind. See ya soon!"
Nick hung up, and I closed my phone and put it back on the night stand before lying back down on my bed. I knew it had been five years, but the reality of the situation still seems to elude me.
Tim was gone. But no matter what I did, I still couldn't escape the fact that I would still wake up every day thinking, however briefly, that I would see him again. Death was nothing new to me; I think by the time we're teenagers we all have suffered the loss of a friend or family member, and we learn the hard fact of knowing that person we loved has moved on, and we must learn how to cope and continue with life. I think it was the violent circumstances surrounding Tim's death that I'm still shocked by. I can still see him lying there as he bled ...
But I get ahead of myself. I should probably fill you in on the back story.
I have been best friends with Nick since we were little kids. We met on the playground when we were in third grade when Robert Hanley decided to play the bully and bean me in the eye with a baseball when I was up at bat for softball. Robert was in the 4th grade and the schoolyard bully. For some reason, as only bullies understand, he decided that I was the one he needed to pick on that day. I didn't quite get it as I hardly even knew him, but that apparently didn't seem to matter.
"HEY RETARD!" he yelled, "Hit THIS!". Before obviously throwing a ball aimed at me head.
As I was lying there in the grass with a hand pressed over my soon to be black eye, I heard another kid yell, "YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE!"
I looked up in time to see this new kid run straight at Robert, swing back, and hit him in the face with all of his might.
Robert went down and started crying and screaming. The yard aide finally came over to see what happened, and upon finding me and Robert on the ground -- me with a black eye and him with a bloody nose -- she immediately grabbed Nick by the arm and dragged him off to the principal's office while calling the school nurse over her walkie to come take care of me and Robert.
I would have said something, but I was still so startled and in shock by what had happened, my tongue was completely tied.
Later that day as I sat in the nurse's station with an ice pack on my eye, I glanced over to see the prinipal walk in hand-in-hand with Nick. The principal had a very strict look on her face.
"Your mother is on her way to pick you up, young man," she said to Nick, "You just sit here and behave until she gets here!"
The principal stalked off leaving me and Nick alone.
"Thanks for helping me back there, but why did you do it?" I asked.
"I dunno. I had a guy like that at my old school, and he used to beat us up 'till I finally hit him back, and then he stopped. So when I saw him hit you with that softball, I just wanted to teach him a lesson."
"Thanks," I said as I took the ice pack off my eye, "No one has helped me out before. I know you're new here so you want to be friends?"
"Sure! My name's Nick!"
"I'm Ryan."
Flash forward a few years.
We are both sophmores niw, and Nick is chilling at my place after school and my mom is watching the news where the talking head drones on:
"And we have more footage of the destruction caused by the recent mutant riots. What used to be a peaceful park where parents would take their children to play now looks like a war zone. Swings and slides have been reduced to ashes, and the sand in the playground has been melted into glass."
My mom is glued to the tv and murmurs occasionally about 'the mutant threat' while sipping from her Diet Coke.
I roll my eyes and say, "Oh come ON, Mom! Not ALL mutants are bad or dangerous! What about the X-Men? Remember when they stopped all those people in New York from being killed?!"
"Yeah from another mutant!" she angrily replies, "If you ask me, these ... THINGS should be rounded up and kept away from us normal people!"
"How can you say that?!" I almost yell, "Mutants are people too! It's not as if they CHOSE to be that way! They're just trying live their own lives just as we are!"
"WE are not trying to change society," she angrily replies, " WE are not trying to 'recruit' people like that one mutant did in New York, WE are the normal ones! THEY should be taken care of!"
"Oh yeah! What if I was a mutant, huh? What would you do then?"
"Dont say such horrible things," she whispers angrily, "I would rather die than have a mutant in my house!"
Throughout all of this, Nick was just sitting there sulleny until my mom finished the last of her tirade. At this, he abruptly stood up, grabbed his backpack and said, "I gotta run. I promised my dad Id be home early and help mom with dinner."
"Oh ... of course, sorry, Nick," my mom stuttered, "I need to finish dinner as well. We'll see you later."
And with that, my mom got up and headed into the kitchen.
"Nick, wait," I said as he hurried to the door, "I thought you said your parents were gone for the week!? What's going on?"
"Nothing ... I just ... I just gotta go!"
Nick turned and threw open the door and ran down our driveway and to the sidewalk.
Somewhat stunned, I sat there staring after him and wondering what I should do. Nick had been acting a bit differenty the last few months, but nothing like this. He had never just run off like he just did.
I jumped up and over the couch and burst through the front door and down to the walk looking for a sign of Nick. I just barely caught a glimpse of his blue backpack as he rounded the corner at the end of the street.
"NICK! NICK WAIT UP!" I yelled, but either he didn't hear or ignored me, so I took off after him, running as fast as I could.
He definitely had a really good lead on me, but I was the one on the varsity track team, and I was soon able to start to close the gap on us.
"NICK SLOW DOWN! STOP AND TALK TO ME!"
"NO! LEAVE ME ALONE!"
"DAMMIT STOP!" I yelled as I finally overtook and nearly tackled him. "Why did you bolt like that?! What's going on?"
"Nothing!" he cried with tears running down his face, "Just leave me the fuck alone!"
"Dont give me that shit! Why did you just freak out like that?"
"Nothing! Just go away; I don't want to talk to you!"
"WHY! We're best freinds! We talk about everything! There is nothing we can't talk about!"
"You wouldn't understand! You don't know what it's like!" Nick said miserably.
As he said that, it triggered something in my own mind ... My own struggle I have been dealing with I felt the same way about.
"Try me," I said softly, "We all have our secrets. Please, I would think of all people you could trust me the most. You're my best friend and I love you like my own brother. PLEASE talk to me!"
Nick slouched, almost defeated, and looked at me like a lost puppy for a few moments before saying, "Ok, but not here ... Let's go back to my place."
Without any words between us, we both turned and silently walked the last few blocks to his house. Once there and inside, he tossed his backpack across the room and flopped down on the couch with his head in his hands. Not knowing what to do, I sat down next to him and said nothing.
"Ok, you have to PROMISE me you will NEVER tell ANYONE about this, ok."
"Ok,"
"PROMISE!" he almost yelled.
"OK OK I promise!"
"On our friendship!"
That caught me for a moment, but when I saw the look on his face I said, "Ok, I promise ... on our friendship."
Nick nodded and then slowly stood and walked next to the big screen tv and unplugged it and set the cord down. He stepped back and pointed his hand at the cord on the ground and looked to be in extreme concentration. Suddenly the cord began to wiggle and shake before slowly rising into the air. When it was eye level with Nick, I saw a bolt of electricity fly from his fingers to the cord and the tv suddenly turned on to the same stupid news show that my mom was watching.
"HOLY SHIT!" I yelled, "So this means you're ... You're ... a."
"Mutant," he finished, lowering his hand which caused the cord to drop and the tv to power off. Nick sat back down and again put his head in his hands.
"Look," he said, "I know you put on a good face with this whole mutant thing with your family, but I know I'm sure you thought you'd never meet one, so if you are weirded out and want to leave I understand," he said dejectedy.
I sat there for a second, not really knowing what to say or do. Sure I support mutant rights and think they are the same as you or I, but it still came as a shock my best friend was a mutant and I didn't have a clue. But then I thought of my situation and snapped back to reality.
Nick still sat there, crying silently now and muttering something about being stupid and talking.
I couldn't help but letting tears fill my eyes too as I kinda understood what he was going through.
"Hey, buddy," I murmured.
"Yeah"
"This doesn't change a thing. You're still my best friend, and I don't think of you any differently."
Nick finally looked up in total relief.
"Really?!" he asked, "You don't think Im a freak?"
"Hell no! That was one of the coolest things i've ever fucking seen! And don't worry, I won't tell anyone."
"Thanks, that means a lot. I was so petrified about your reaction. I just didn't want you to hate me."
"Never happen," I reply, and now getting a bit brave after what Nick trusted me with, "And I actually have been wanting to talk to you about somethig big too."
"What, that you're gay?" he asked me while wiping his nose on his sleeve.
"HOW IN THE FUCK ..."
Nick finally smiled "Dude, it's not as if I couldn't tell. You don't talk about girls and I ALWAYS see you checking out guys in the locker room."
"SHIT! I thought no one would notice that!"
"No one does except for me. Come on, I know you better than anyone else so OF COURSE I noticed ... And NO I'm not gay! Sorry to burst your bubble, but I happen to have asked Cindy to the homecoming dance next month."
We both shared a nervous laugh before I continued, "So we both know a huge secret about each other ... And since you trusted me with yours, I trust you with mine ... we're equal."
"Equal," Nick agreed, "So ... you seeing anyone from school?"
I felt the blood rush to my cheeks as I shyly responded, "Well there's this guy named Tim."
That's it for part two. As before, feedback is welcome. Send it to ender2155@gmail.com