This story is a continuation of Matt Smith's (matterotica@hotmail.co.uk) fantastic story, 'Jack Hamilton Is Not A Nice Person'. I had often wondered what transpired directly after Jack storms away in the park. This was initially going to be a one-off, but while writing, I have decided to continue the tale that was left untold between Chapter 19, and the '6 Months Later' epiloge we see in Chapter 20. So, for those of you who have wondered what happened in the 6 months after Jack cut his puppet strings...here it is!
I would like to thank Matt Smith for creating the characters in the first place; and for his invaluable advice, input and suggestions which made this sequel possible. Espeically discussing his characters' motivations and psychology with me. Please read his story first if you haven't already! https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/authoritarian/jack-hamilton/
An additional special thanks goes out to Jasper Cooper (jax.cooper@yahoo.com) for his input, especially having to do with the kinkier stuff. (It'll come, I promise!) You can read his amazing story 'The Downfall of Nate Ramsey', the inspirtation for Jack Hamilton!, here: https://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/authoritarian/downfall-of-nate-ramsey/
CHAPTER 1
SEPT. 12th 2016
~~With that, Jack walked away. Nobody followed, they simply sat in silence, shaken by the words Jack had said. They were true, every single one of them.~~
Following the angry foot-falls of Jack's angry departure, the park stood as quiet as an abandoned graveyard, with only the chirping of crickets to interrupt the palatable and uncomfortable silence. Elliott felt literally sick to his stomach as he gingerly rubbed his bruised neck. Jack squeezed quite hard when he choked him, and it hurt to swallow. Ben stood there terrified and could not stop shaking. Salty bitter tears ran down his face in rivulets while his heart was thumping like a snare drum in his heaving chest. For a few moments, he thought Jack was going to attack all of them! Bryce felt like Jack bitch-slapped his very soul, and while he didn't lay a finger on him, his accusing words did far more damage than hands could ever do. "You're worse than Elliott", he had said. Bryce leaned against an old oak tree for support. Lincoln didn't want to deal with any of this. Confrontation - even mild arguments - made him extremely uncomfortable. Something of this magnitude was liable to cause a panic attack. He had no real vested interest in their plan from the beginning, and as it stood, things just got too real.
"I gotta go. My mom needed, uh, help with something tonight...I just remembered. I'll see you tomorrow or something", he lied as he gathered his belongings and made a hasty departure. He was more than a little sure that he was not going to hang out with these guys again. While screwing with Jack for ten days was fun at the time, he never meant to cause anyone any real harm. He felt awful for what he did, and it also didn't help that within that time, he actually begain to like the former bully!
The others just nodded their goodbyes to him and he quickly walked out of sight, not even bothering to ask Bryce, the designated driver, for a ride home. 'Screw it... I'd rather walk then get into a car with him', he thought to himself as he made his way back to the street. Meanwhile, the others were still too stunned to speak. Jack went from Jeckell to Hyde so suddenly that none of the boys could immediately process what just occurred. Everything was going so well! Forgiveness for their misguided notions of revenge seemed like a very real possibility. Maybe even friendship. Yet Jack utterly lost it. How could everything fall apart like this? It wasn't fair.
'Maybe introducing alcohol into things this early in the healing process was a bad idea', was a thought that didn't manifest itself within Ben until later tonight as he tossed and turned in his bed until dawn, in throes of shame and self-loathing. Ever since leaving Aaron's hospital room earlier, it was spelled out in no uncertain terms what they truly did to Jack. Bryce finally spoke.
"My God, what did we do!!?" he asked. They all knew the answer to that question. Aaron called it for what it was, after all.
rape.
The word that haunted them all afternoon, and would follow them for the rest of their lives. They all knew that no matter how many years go by, no matter what circumstances changes who they become, and no matter how sorry they were...they would forever be rapists. It was a stain on each of them, and a scarlet letter that they had to carry with them until the day the die. Only now were they forced to speak of it.
"I...I never..." Ben stammered, "I mean I NEVER once thought for a moment..."
He was suddenly interrupted by a ghastly retching sound as Elliott lurched forward and puked up beer and the half-digested Salisbury steak he had for lunch, which - in turn - inflamed his injured neck, causing excruciating pain made even worse by the violent coughing fits that followed.
Ben ran up to his boyfriend. "Elliott! It's okay. You're going to be okay, just let it all out" he said comfortingly while he inspected Elliott's neck. "Did that piece of sh...did he hurt you?" Ben could clearly see that Elliott was certianly not fine. There was a noticible bruse where Jack chocked him, and had Bryce and Lincoln not intervened, Jack may have seriously crushed Elliott's windpipe, or worse.
Elliott tried to clear his throat while spitting out some lingering vomit and blood. "No. I mean...yeah. I guess. But it's fine. I had it coming" he croaked out in a damaged, raspy voice. "It's FINE!" he repeated emphatically, noting the veil of anger that was draped over Ben's face. Elliott then cast his eyes down and wiped away his tears and some snot.
Ben hugged his boyfriend tightly, oblivious to the bodily fluids that now currently coated the both of them. 'No one had THAT coming!', he was about to argue, but held back, as he tried to rationalize the series of events through the hazy labyrinth of his alcohol-coated thought processes. At that moment, he wanted to hurt Jack. BAD. After everything, had Jack learned nothing!? The guy had a serious problem with putting his hands on people, and Ben mind reeled with anger as he wanted to......'Make him pay, Ben?'....'Abuse him, Ben?' his intoxicated mind taunted. "no!!", he hissed to himself, under his breath. 'What's wrong with me!?" he thought.. How could he still think that way after he accepted that he was directly responsible for this whole mess? "It was me. It was all me", he confessed to Jack in his room. As Ben gently helped Elliott sit down on the thick, soft grass, he went over his role in all of this, and realized that he was mostly angry at himself. Oh, Jack was no saint! Not by a long shot. In fact, the jock was a terror who made Ben's life a miserable living Hell since he started High School. For the past ten nights, Ben went to bed reminding himself of this fact, along with one of two addendums - depending on his mood: 'I'm only doing this to help Jack understand what he put ME through', when he was rationalizing his own innocence. 'Jack is scum. He deserves all of this and more', when he was rationalizing his anger. Both midnight thoughts seemed so empty to Ben now. Just two self-delusional lies and mere hollow justifications to purge himself of the guilt he felt during their "games".
No. ultimately it was not Jack that Ben was angry at right now, he realized as he sat down next to a sniffling Elliott. He was angry at himself for letting Jack turn him into someone far worse than Jack EVER was.
Bryce sat back down last, and glanced over to Elliott who continued to cough while rubbing his bruised trachea. "Are you sure you're going to be okay? Do we need to drive you to the hospital or something?" he asked. Elliott merely shook his head.
While seemingly peaceful and serene, the sprawling park took on an ominous, foreboding quality. In fact, Bryce was damn near spooked as he took in his surroundings. Recent week and a half old ghosts of themselves still haunted the area as far as Bryce was concerned, and he briefly wondered if he would or could come back here ever again after tonight. He sighed and took a king-sized gulp from his beer bottle.
"Guys...we fucked up, and not just a little. We fucked up BIG TIME", he said.
Ben and Elliott nodded with downcast eyes. Ever since the gravity of what they did was made clear to them, they all understood with painful clarity that they committed crimes against Jack. Real honest-to-goodness crimes!
Sure, when they planned this all out, they talked about the many ways things could go wrong. Jack could very well refuse from the start and call their bluff. He could tattle on them. He could audio-bug them at any time and expose them. Hell, one of them could either get sloppy and let something slip to the wrong person, or even change their mind and betray the others. Or...Jack could snap at some point along the way and refuse any further cooperation. Which is ultimately what happened. After all, they were never REALLY going to turn Jack into the police for a fake rape that they tricked him into. They understood and discussed the ways things could go wrong, as well as the potential consequences, ad nauseum, just two weeks ago when they had their final meeting. At best? It was all the excuse Jack needed to make his bullying even worse. At worst? They could wind up in trouble...suspended. Possibly expelled. They debated, argued, and ultimately voted. They came to the final conclusion that the potential consequences were acceptable risks, because they far outweighed just sitting by and allowing Jack's reign of terror to continue without at least trying to change him. Elliott even said that day: "He's my friend....he's been my friend for ages. I care about him, but the way he's been treating you, Ben, the way he's been treating EVERYONE....this isn't like him. I swear it's not! He's actually a really nice person underneath it all. Something's happened to him and I wanna help him if I can. He needs a little jolt to bring him back to reality, and....I know he'll hate my guts for this whether it works or it doesn't, and that's my sacrifice to make. I hate this, but I'll live with it. We GOTTA do it...not TO him, but FOR him. Yes, even if it ends up getting us kicked out of school if we're caught. I'm in. All of nothing!"
While Bryce recalled Elliott's vow, he watched him simultaneously cough and sniffle as he sat with his knees pulled up to his chest, and his head cradled in his two quivering arms. 'The thing is', Bryce thought to himself, 'none of us knew how serious this was at the time. That what we were doing was essentially planning a rape'
"What if he goes to the cops?" he said out loud, asking the question that they were all thinking. Still, verbalizing it startled Ben out of his reverie who was still shell shocked from Jack's sudden mood swing and violent attack against Elliott.
"No!" Ben exclaimed. "He wouldn't DO that to us! I mean, I understand that...that....well, shit! I didn't fuck him. Okay, maybe with my fingers, but it's not as if...."
"You forced him to fuck you, Ben. Multiple times." Bryce responded. "Shit, you rode him while we had him tied up. I would say that counts as 'fucking him'...against his will, actually. That's rape." Bryce didn't mean to come off so snippy, but he had to make the younger boy understand that he was just as guilty as the rest of them. In fact, Ben's attitude towards this was beginning to worry Bryce a little.
"But I didn't mean to, Bryce! It wasn't supposed to be serious...not like that!" Ben was telling the truth, as far as that was concerned. He had a good heart, and he really thought he was helping Jack. As an added bonus, he saw himself as some savior that was ridding the school of one less threat. As he kept messing with Jack these past ten days, however, he secretly and increasingly felt uncomfortable of the whole business, and it became harder and harder to give Jack orders. He had to put himself, mentally, in a place that scared him. At that point, however, he was already in too deep and didn't know how to turn the clock back.
"Well, it's serious, Ben. It couldn't get much more serious." Bryce replied.
"We all talked about this!" Ben was on the verge of tears again. His lips were quivering and he was whining now. "NO ONE GETS HURT FOR REAL! That was my number one rule....remember? We only wanted to put a little scare into him is all! To end his bullshit! To help him understand!" God how hollow those words soundeded to Ben, even as they came out of his mouth.
"I get that, Ben. I do! But go talk to Aaron again about people getting hurt....FOR REAL! Or go ask Jack how it feels to be demoted from captain and having his dreams shattered!"
"Now you just wait a moment! That stuff was not our fault! Things....got crazy. We went too far, like El said. I get that. But it seemed like everyone was having fun. Even Jack!" A point that Ben told himself many times the past few days, as if it somehow made things okay.
"It...doesn't...MATTER!!" Bryce said rudely, raising his voice a bit louder than he intended, as he stood back up and rubbed his aching temples. "Too far!? We went way WAY too far! It never should have even happened in the first place! Bryce started pacing as he continued to talk, now as much to himself as to Ben. "Damn, why didn't I see it!? I could have put a stop to....SHOULD HAVE put a stop to it. ALL of it. I knew Jack liked it too, so....I thought - somehow - that it gave us the greenlight to continue. That Jack even WANTED us to continue. And it was making him a better person. Win-win. But...one step led to another and I..."
"Let him." Elliott said in a froggy croaking voice as he finally looked up.
"Excuse me?" Bryce replied.
"Let him." Elliott repeated. "Let him go to the police if it makes him feel better. Fuck, we deserve it." He coughed a few more times as he glanced down at his designer blue and white striped button-down shirt, which Jack inadvertently tore when he lunged at and attacked Elliott. It was bespeckled with vomit and little beads of blood. Elliott's face also looked awful. Jack may or may not have gotten a few punches in when he tussled with Elliott on the grass. Bryce didn't know for sure, being that it all happened so quickly yet -at the same time - so far away in time. In fact, the entire scene felt like it happened five years ago, rather than a scant five minutes.
"You can't be for real, El!" Ben cried out.
Bryce stopped pacing, and just frowned as he looked at the two of them. Elliott wasn't wrong, but still...Bryce was understandably terrified of the potential legal ramifications.
"Yeah, I am. I hurt Jack. And I can say it now. I...I...raped him. My best friend! What was I thinking!? I don't give a shit what happens to me anymore. To Hell with everything anyway."
Ben and Bryce glanced at each other uneasily. Both fearful of the look in Elliott's eyes. Elliott then took an unopened beer bottle and inspected the thing, the same way a member of a primitive tribe might do if it washed up upon the shore of his secluded island. He suddenly contorted his face into an angry grimace, and chucked the bottle - full force - at an unsuspecting maple tree. "FUCK IT!!" he bellowed as the bottle combusted in a thousand shards of glass. An explosive rain of beer and foam fanned out in a liquid firework display, spraying all over Ben and Bryce.
"Dude! What the FUCK!?" Bryce yelled angrily as he wiped the stinging beer out of his eyes.
"El...." Ben said meekly, as he stood frozen in fear for the third time tonight.
Bryce ran up to Elliott and grabbed the quivering boy firmly by both shoulders and literally shook him. "Stop! Just STOP! RIGHT FUCKING NOW!" he said, staring daggers directly into Elliotts eyes. Elliott stared back at him - or rather, through him. Hyperventilating and panting. "Let's just....calm down. Okay!?"
Slowly, but surely, Elliott began breathing normally once again. Finally, he nodded. "Okay." he chirped.
"You cool?"
"Yeah" Elliott squeaked. A total lie, of course, but what else could he say? There was nothing cool about any of this, and he had a feeling that things would get a great deal worse before they would get better. In fact, Elliott was pretty sure that things would NEVER get better again. They had come way to far for that, and prison or no prison, Elliott knew that his life was destroyed.
"Good. Now let's talk about this." Bryce said as he handed Elliott a fresh beer. "Here. Drink. Don't throw." he added.
"Fine" Elliott took a swift gulp from the bottle on the sleeve of his already stained and tattered shirt.
"Assume Jack goes and rats us out to the cops. Say he's talking to them right now, You want to actually admit what we did? All of it!?"
Elliott nodded. "I really do, Bryce." He took another swig out of his bottle.
"I know how you feel," Bryce said. "Fuck, more than you know! But it can't undo what we did. It won't make you feel any better. Don't think I don't regret all of it. In fact, do you really wanna know how sick I feel about it all?"
"No, Bryce," Elliott replied. "You don't have to....it's not necessary to....:
"One!" Bryce counted on his fingers. "I'll never have a good night's sleep after tonight. Period. Two! I feel powerless that no matter what I could offer Jack, it couldn't begin to make up for what I put him through...."
"Exactly!" Elliott interrupted. "Which is why..."
"Three!" Bryce continued. "I'm so fucking disgusted with myself that I doubt I could face a mirror right now. Four! Yeah....I get that we're in this together, but I'm pissed I even agreed to this stupid fucking plan in the first place."
"Woah! Wait a minute!" Ben spoke up, taking Bryce's last comment rather personally. "No one twisted your arm, ya know!? And didn't you just say that you could have ended this if you wanted to!?"
Bryce ignored him. "And yeah....I KNOW you feel that shit too, Elliott! But I don't want the police involved! We could be locked up for YEARS!"
Elliott took one last chug out of his bottle, killing the beer, and slamming - but thankfully not breaking - the empty bottle on the grass. "Yeah...we could be, and guess the fuck what!? That's justice!", Elliott argued as he got in Bryce's face, pointing at him emphatically.
"No Elliott!" Bryce retorted. Raising his voice. "Shit, dude...if I didn't have a family I'd agree. I'd hand Jack a gun and offer him my life if that's what it would take to please him, but....my parents! They shouldn't suffer losing a son because I was too goddammed ignorant to know the difference between a stupid sex game I thought we were playing, and....and you know!"
"Rape, Bryce!" Elliott was screaming now. "R.A.P.E! It's not a 'uhh....you know'. Call it for what it is you fucking coward!"
Bryce clenched his hands into fists and took a step closer to Elliott, their chests touching. "Wanna say that to me again you fucking pscyhopath? Who the HELL do you even think you are?"
"Guys....STOP!" Ben pleaded, literally pushing the two boys away from each other. The tension in the air was palatable and thick, and it was reaching it's breaking point. "We can't come apart like this. I'm begging you! I'm so SO fucking scared right now! All we have is each other. So stop acting like assholes. Both of you!!" The youngest of them was so anngy and hurt, that had he been just a little bit older, a little bit bravier, and not hyperventilating so much, he would have given each boy a slap in the face to knock some sense into them.
Ben's words were like being doused by a large splash of ice water. Suddenly Elliott and Bryce felt so stupid and ashamed for what they were about to do to eachother. Had not intervened like that, there was no telling how far the two teens would have taken things. Suffice to say, they would both be rolling around on the grass right now, or slammed into a tree. "Sorry...I'm sorry." Elliott said as he slowly backed away from Bryce. He rubbed his neck, which was still painfully sore. "It's just that, you know...this is so..."
"I get it, El" Bryce replied sympathetically. "I'm sorry too. I'm just scared, that's all." He sighed and kicked a small stone and watched it roll out of sight. Bryce cursed at himself for allowing himself to loose his cool like that. Someone had to try to hold their shameful little group together, and sadly it had to be him. Danny and Aaron were not here, Lincoln ditched them, Ben was too young and - to Bryce's mind - a bit too nieve about what they had done, and Elliott was......'the reality of it all slammed into him' Bryce realized. 'He's a bit unstable right now.' So Bryce had to be the voice of reason, even if he didn't necessarily trust his own sanity at the moment. Still....
"The truth is," Elliott explained as he grabbed another beer, "If Jack turns this into a legal issue, there's not much we CAN do." Elliott began drinking a bit faster than the previous beers, Bryce had noticed, allowing the foam to run down his chin, staining his already ruined shirt.
The other boys thought about what Elliott had said, letting it sink in for a few moments. Ben finally chimed in. "Yeah, but what does Jack really have on us? If the police question us, we just tell them that it was a simple misunderstanding. Kinky games, that...okay yeah...we took a bit too far. Which is the truth! No one gets in trouble, We shake hands with Jack and move on."
Elliott shook his head. "Ignorance is not a defense. It doesn't change a thing." Bryce knew that, legally, Elliott was correct. It didn't matter what he and the others THOUGHT at the time. Sex-games, bullying the bullier, screwing around....sure, they all sounded (comparatively) innocent enough, but actual crimes HAD been commited. How many of those men got arrested on 'To Catch A Predator' who claimed, "I didn't knew she was fourteen!"? The answer was ALL OF THEM.
"Okay, okay...fine!" Ben whined, "So we deny everything. It's our word...and Lincoln's, and Aaron's, and Danny's against just Jack's. Who the Hell are the cops going to believe? HIM or ALL OF US!?"
Elliott sighed. "Jack's brother knows what we did....fuck he was in on some of it! You know that! I have NO doubt others know as well by now. Felix for example? And speaking of Aaron...If the cops decide to pay him a little visit at the hospital, you don't think he would tell them the truth about everything!? Shit Ben, you heard him this afternoon! It sounded like he found God or something, so he's not going to lie about his sins"
"Oh my God." Ben said softly. barely above a whisper. Of course he knew all that. He was pissed at himself that he wasn't thinking clearly, and couldn't see how large this already was. Too many people were in on it - a mistake Ben clearly didn't think of from the onset - and if the police went around questioning everyone, surely the truth would come out. In his mind's eye, Ben could almost see Jack walking into the Holmepoint Police Department with Davis, his parents, and Felix. Perhaps they were all there right now, giving a painfully detailed report as some cigarette-reeking detective is jotting it all down in his little pad:
Ben's tortured mind was racing frantically with nightmare scenarios. Bryce meanwhile felt his world crashing down around his ears. Elliott was right. Painfully, horribly right. If Jack decided to press charges against them all, there was very little they could do about it. He never should have been involved in this in the first place. If Jack wanted to be a dick, surely karma would have eventually taken care of the problem for them. What right did he have to try to help Jack anyway? He remembered an old saying - one of his mother's favorites actually - 'The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.' It seemed to Bryce that he and his friends may have already crossed the vestibule and entered Dante's first circle. As Ben, Bryce and Elliott were pacing and trying to figure out what to do next, Ben had a sudden brainstorm. "The blackmail video!" he exclaimed enthusiastically. "We still have one Hell of a bargaining chip." "You're out of your mind.", Bryce replied. This had to be some dark joke, he thought. The boy could not be serious! "Not to force him to be our slave again or anything like that. God no! I learned my lesson. But I'm saying....maybe we can use it to go on the offensive. Tomorrow, the three of us - and maybe Lincoln and Danny, if...if they want - we go up to him in school and say something like, 'We had a meeting, Jack. If you're done with us then we have decided to accept that. But we do still have the video don't forget and, in a way, we still own you. All we ask: Our final demand as our slave, is that you forget everything that happened between us. Don't turn us in. Don't speak of it to anyone. Don't even THINK of what happened. In fact, it NEVER HAPPENED. Leave us alone and we leave you alone." "Are you INSANE!!??" Bryce asked. He couldn't believe this kid! "Ben....Jack made it crystal clear to Elliott the other night that he doesn't care about our threats anymore. Plus, if we're going to be honest here, did you ever take a good look at that video? You can hear some of us giggling. Hell, you can see Jack's earplugs for crying out loud! Explain that one away! Plus there would be the question of why we were casually filming it and standing around. We never could have used it for anything anyway. We were never going to! Surely Jack figured that out along the way, or at least had a pretty damn strong idea, at least as of the other day, that we were always bluffing. In fact, I'll do you one better....if that video ever sees the light of day, it would make US look ten times worse. In the end, we blackmailed ourselves with it. We just didn't realize it then" "Plus it's gone!", Elliott snapped. He quickly took his phone out of his pocket and showed the two boys his bare-bones screen. "I reset it to factory specs. Also, the website is shut down....the URL doesn't link up to anything anymore. And....I smashed up my laptop." "Isn't that overkill?" Bryce asked. Elliott had just bought that laptop a few months ago over the summer, and he talked about it constantly. It was an Alienware, a top-of-the-line, high-end gaming computer, and most likely cost the kid upwards to two thousand dollars! According to Elliott, it took years to earn enough money to buy it, and started saving his cash since the winter he turned fourteen. "Remember when I told you that Davis talked to me in his room in private when Ben and I went to his house to make amends with Jack this morning?" "Yeah" After all, how could he forget? Elliott told him as much at school today, but didn't go into any of the details, maybe because he didn't want to cause Bryce and the others any further anxiety, more likely though because Elliott was striken with enough guilt to shame him into silence. "Well, first he said if I ever so much as attempt to even SUGGEST the Jack do something he doesn't want to do, he'd tell his parents everything, as well as the cops." "Yeah...." Ben nodded. "He told me something similar. He can be scary when he's mad, huh? He's sort of like Jack in that way." "Yeah well, he knew *I* had the video evidence. Apparently Jack told him everything that night after the club. Every. Single. Thing. So what I bet he DIDN'T tell you, Ben, was that he forced me to purge my phone right in front of him in his room. Then he made my promise to delete the website the second I got home and......and to smash my laptop. With video proof of me doing it. Every piece of media I EVER saved - photos, videos, school work, game data, family memories....gone forever. He said I had to. It was either that or a criminal charge! So, I dunno...maybe you should thank me that I saved your asses. At least for the moment. But now....." "Elliott..." Ben said, shocked. "You never told us about that. Your laptop costed you a fortune! And...that's your whole life! I had no idea..." "So NO!" Elliott continued, dismissing his boyfriend with a wave of his hand. "There's nothing, Ben. And even if there was, I wouldn't do anything against him. Never ever again. ............ The quiet, yet anxiety-filled night ticked on - second by second, minute by minute - as Elliott, Ben, and Bryce sat in their makeshift camp in the park while nursing the last of their few remaining beers. They awkwardly attempted a bit of small talk to fill the void between the large gaps of uncomfortable silence. Ben blathered on about some Playstation 4 game he was hoping his parents were going to buy him for his 16th birthday. Bryce's subject of choice was the weather, as he commented on how humid it was getting, which segued into the long-range ten-day forecast. Elliott barely listened to them, responding with grunts, and the occasional "mmhmm". The only time he volunteered a topic was when he commented that he wished he had more beer. As it was, the few words he did speak were pretty slurred. The almost tangible uneasiness stemmed from the fact that each boy expected the police to drive into the park at any moment, with Jack in tow to point them out, before being cuffed and hauled into the local precinct for questioning. A police cruiser did drive by with his searchlight on, at one sphincter-tightening moment. The gasps from the boys were audible, and it took them a good minute and a half before they realized that it was merely a routine drive-by patrol. Elliott began fiddling with his phone while the conversation died down. He re-downloaded the Facebook app which was wiped when Davis made him reset his phone. He had to check something. He logged in and although he expected what was confirmed, his worst fears were realized. It was over. Jack hated him. He fucked everything up! Jack had not only unfriended him, but Elliott was also blocked from even seeing Jack's page as well! For the briefest of moments, a small tinge of anger crept up in Elliott. Cursing at himself, his irritation swiftly metamorphosed to both guilt and shame. A quick peek at Lincoln's, Ben's, and Bryce's pages showed that Jack was no longer on their friends list either.....although he didn't share this latest, albeit, predictable, turn of events. The mood was already pure gloom and, well, they would find out soon enough on their own.Sighing, Elliott scolded himself for losing his cool earlier and smashing that perfectly good bottle of beer. He realized with bitter satisfaction that he was really developing a liking for the stuff. Not only was the taste getting better with each bottle, but it made things hurt not as bad when you really got down to it. Perhaps he'd find a way to get someone to buy him more tomorrow after school, so he can drink a few more alone in the privacy of his own room. "So what do you wanna do?" Bryce asked him suddenly. It was getting very late, and his parents kept texting him to come home. He had to leave soon, although he had no idea how he could even begin to think about sleep tonight. Or ever. Elliott blinked in confusion."Huh? With the beer?" he asked. "Beer!? No! What do you wanna do about Jack!? Let's decide now before we go home. I gotta bail soon" Elliott took a few moments to try and organize his disjointed thoughts. "Nothing at all." he replied. "Um...I won't WILLINGLY turn myself - or any of us - in, if that's what you're worried about." "Kinda was" Bryce admitted. "BUT....." Elliott added as he stood up - an ordeal that was harder for him than he thought it would be. He staggered a bit, and almost fell right on top of Ben. "IF the police do get involved, I won't lie to them. I'm going to be honest about everything we did." Elliott spent a long time thinking about this and nothing would change his mind. His only goal in life from this point on was two-fold, to atone for what he had done, and to make Jack happy. Turning himself in would certianly atone for his crimes, but he didn't know as of yet if it's was Jack wanted. Elliott did NOT want to go to prison or have a criminal record that would further destory his life once he was released, and he was beyond scared about that possibilty becoming the only option. He would accept it for Jack, however. "Nooooo....." Ben moaned. "Ben please" Elliott replied drunkenly as he swayed to and fro, as if he stood on a raft floating down the Mississippi with Tom and Huck, rather than having both feet planted on dry ground. "We owe that to Jack. The truth. And whatever happens to us happens. We....." For a second it looked as if Elliott may throw up again, as a nauseous, vacant countenance washed over his face. "You good, El?" Bryce asked. Not liking the pale green look that Elliott now sported. "Yeahh...um....so what was I talking about again?" "Jack! And how you said that you...." "Ohhhhh duh!! Hahaha!" Elliott said as he slapped his forehead. "Earth to Ellie! Anyone in there? But yeah, so Jack's my best friend. I wish you could have known him years ago. I owe him everything!" Bryce and Ben just stared at him. There wasn't anything either one of them could immediately say to any of this. Even drunk off his ass, Elliott was one hundred percent right. And, as he pointed out earlier, there truly wasn't anything they could do anyway. Another fairly long period of silence followed, during which, Ben's mind was racing. "Look El," he finally said. "you're not wrong. We do owe him something after all we did. I get that. So I say we make a deal with him. Let him do to us, every single thing we did to him! We'll be his slaves." Bryce shook his head. "He's not like that, Ben." "Nope! He's not like us! Not like We Three Pieces of SHIT!!!" Elliott yelled. He's not like Lincoln! Not like Aaron!" "Elliott! Keep your fucking voice down, man!" Bryce admonished. Elliott was properly smashed now, and if Jack didn't bring the police to the park, Elliott's intoxicated screaming would sure do the job in short order. 'One way or another, I feel like I'm going to leave this godforsaken park in handcuffs.' thought Bryce. "S...sorry Brycie," Elliott replied meekly. "Sorry Ben. You're THINKING and I like that! But...there's *hick* no way Jack would agree to that. Oh, I'd let him OWN me. He could keep me in a doggy crate in his closet and force me to wear nothing but a tail and big floppy ears and speak in nothing but bark-barks if it would please him now....but...*hick* it wouldn't!" Elliott almost fell over again, and Ben had to jump up to catch him just in time before he face-planted himself onto the ground. "It'd make him feel WORSE!" Elliott said as he clutched Ben, looking into his eyes and beginning to sob. "He's better than us." Elliott may have been a drunken emotional mess right now, but in actuality it was Ben who truly concerned Bryce. The younger boy just didn't seem to appreciate the gravity of the situation they found themselves in or what they have done to a fellow human being. 'Or maybe he understands things all too painfully well' considered Bryce. In many ways, Ben was far too intelligent for his own good. In fact, he was brilliant. With that brilliance, however, came manipulative calculation. Only someone with a sharp, devious mind could've concocted this entire Elizabethan revenge drama against Jack in the first place. On top of it all, his young age made it so he couldn't process - let alone react - to negative or hurtful emotions in a mature way. Ben was not inherently evil, though. Bryce thought. He knew that Ben harbored more regret than any of them, because he had to live with the fact that he planned this all out. He could see the hurt and guilt in the boy's young fearful eyes. That being said, however, as Bryce scrutinized Ben, he briefly wondered what kind of man the boy would grow up to be. It seemed that the jury was still out on that one. As the evening went on, there was something else that Bryce came to slowly realize. Jack was not going to spill the beans. Yes - he was livid at all of them, and rightly so. More than that, he most likely hated them all. How could Bryce possibly blame him? However, during the past week, Bryce began to truly get to know the real Jack Hamilton. The Jack Beyond The Mask, as it were. Not the facade that he cloaked over himself for the benefit of some meaningless and vapid 'school status' that wouldn't count towards anything anyway, once he graduated. The real Jack was the Jack that Bryce fell for, and he knew in his gut that while Jack was very likely never going to speak to any of them ever again, he wouldn't destroy their lives worse than they already were at this point. In a way, this added to Bryce's shame. "Guys...let's get out of here." he said as he stood up and stretched. As they all gathered up their belongings and began walking out, Elliott took a long, painful look at....the spot. The spot where they and Jack,. just a little over a week ago..... "God, I'm so sorry Jack. For all of it." Elliott whispered a bit louder than his drunken lips intended. Bryce overheard him, and followed his eyes to where it all first happened. "It turns out we're the bad guys after all." he added. "The monsters." Agreed Elliott. It would be six months before Ben and Bryce came back to the park. As it turned out, Elliott never stepped foot in it again for the rest of his life. ................ Ben had somehow convinved a very drunken Elliott that he was going to sleepover. He was worried about his boyfriend and wanted to make sure he didn't puke on his own vomit in the middle of the night. Ben also currently had Elliotts soft, flacid cock in his mouth. Initially he felt bad taking advantage of Elliott while he was in this condition, but it was Elliott himself who made the first move once they sat on his bed. It made sense....both boys needed some comfort in order to at least attempt to put Jack on the back burner. Tomorrow was coming no matter what, and with it, many uncomfortable possibilities. It wasn't working, though. For twenty minutes, Ben was sliding his wet, saliva-dripping mouth up and down Elliott...gliding his tongue all around the head while taking him into his throat. To no avail. He couldn't even make Elliott's penis twitch, let alone get hard. As slurping sounds filled Elliott's bedroom, Elliott added to the sexual symphony by moaning a bit, but the boy knew he was doing it as just a courtesy. "Oh fuck yea Ben....mmmmm" Elliott moaned insincerely. "Keep going" Ben increased his suction as he began to deepthroat Elliott's soft cock faster and sloppier - a task made easier by Elliott's soft state, yet he was still pretty large even when not aroused. Ben's saliva was dripping down now, allowing the boy to take Elliott's egg-sized balls into his mouth along with his entire shaft. He used the spit that pooled on the base, to get it slick and ever so slowly, slid it into Elliott's tight ass. 'I swear, if THIS doesn't get him going...', Ben thought angerly to himself. He timed his fingering to be in-step with his sucking. As he bottomed out on Elliott's dick, he pistoned his long, slender finger deep into him, bumping his prostaste with each pass. Elliott kept moaning, but his thoughts were somewhere else entirely. Every single time Ben's finger slid into his hole, Elliott was reminded doing the same thing to Jack that first night. Needless to say, there was nothing pleasurable about the experence whatsoever. At the same time, he watched Ben suck his cock, and was reminded of the time the boy woke up Jack with the same unwanted oral treatment. His shame and guilt were rapidly increasing. Ben was relentless now, slamming his mouth and fucking his face into Elliott's crotch. He used two finger's to penetrate his boyfriend and even seductively moaned around Elliott's cock, hoping to finally get a rise out of him. It was at this point that Elliott stopped moaning all together. Ben looked up, confused, and popped his dripping mouth off of Elliott and removed his fingers from his anal cavity. "This....isn't working for you, is it?" Ben asked. "Sor...sorry, Ben" Elliott replied, sitting up. He knew that he should be embarassed by his lack of performance, but he oddly didn't really give a shit. "It's....you know....all that alcohol I had. I guess it gave me whiskey-dick" "All you had was beer, El" Ben said as he sat down next to his boyfriend. "Same rules apply. You'll find out one day for yourself. But still...I'm really sorry. I'm a shit boyfriend I guess" Elliott said. Ben knew that the alcohol wasn't the full reason, but was not about to press the issue and risk a very uncomfortable conversation. Lord knows there was enough of that today, espeically in the park. What truly disturbed him was that while he working over Elliott, he also felt strange about sex now. "Well...don't feel bad. I still love you, silly. We....we can try again tomorrow!" he exclaimed, brightly, feigning a smile. "Yeah." Elliott replied. "Tomorrow". Both boys opted to cuddle instead. There was some comfort to be found in eachother, at least for the moment. Something disturbed Elliott, however, something that he himself could not articulate even within the dark resesses of his own head. Trying not to think too deeply about it, he lost himself in the moment. The minutes ticked by as they held eachother there.... ...In the darkness. The erotic, pleasurable sounds of two boys having sex were long gone, replaced by the heartbreaking sounds of two boys quietly sobbing.