Chapter Three: Not So Mutual Attractions

Jon called me the day after the party, he said that he had a lot of fun with me. I said it was really no big deal. He asked if he could meet me somewhere. I told him it had to be close, I suggested the baseball field in Krusi Park . He agreed to meet me there, ASAP.

I got dressed in the most inconspicuous clothes I had on. I didn't want Jon to see me before I saw him. I wanted to see what was so urgent. So many possibilities went through my head. I got to the park in under a minute. I practically ran there because Jon lived closer than I did. When I got to the park, I already saw him sitting in a dugout. I walked up to him and sat down besides him. I could tell that he was troubled by something, I just didn't know what.

"So, Jon, what's on your mind?" I asked him.

"Ummm . . . Damn, this is hard to say." He started. "Well, last night at the party, I had trouble not acting gay when you were around." He paused.

"Go on." Hmmm . . . I think I know where this is going.

"Gabe, I . . . I . . . I love you." He stammered out.

"Ummm . . . wow." Oh great, I thought, "Thanks."

"But, dude, are you sure this love? Are you sure you aren't just totally blown away that you found another gay guy, so you think that you should like me?" Please don't say that you really love me, Jon.

"Gabe, I love you. I have always loved you. From the first day that I saw you." He said that in almost a pleading voice.

"Dude, it's cool that you love me, but, I just don't have the same feelings for you. I like you as a friend." I tried not to make it too blunt. "I'm sorry Jon. Please don't be mad at me. You're a really great that deserves someone else."

After I said that, he just welled up with tears. There was no sound, just . . . tears. I felt soo bad. I didn't want to make him cry, I hate seeing people cry. Yet, I knew that, that would happen.

"Jon, I'm sorry." I moved in to hug him. Jon just pulled away.

"Jon I just want to say . . . I'll always be here if you need me. Do you understand me?" I asked him.

"Yeah, okay." He sulked

"Well, Jon, I have to go. And . . . I'm sorry." I got up and left.

"Yeah." He wiped a stray tear off of his cheek.

"See you tomorrow?" I half said half asked.

"Whatever, tomorrow . . . yeah." Jon whispered

I had to go to my house to think about what he said. There was no complicated thought process of who I am what I'm about this time.

It was lunch and I had not seen Jon yet. I was starting to get worried. Scott asked me where he was and I said I didn't know. Eventually, I found someone that knew where Jon was. He was staying in his CORE class. Someone else said the he was mad because someone turned him down. Oh shit! That person was me. I felt so bad! I did this to him! Deciding to minimize his pain, I gave someone a note to give to him:

Dude,

What's wrong with you? How come I haven't seen you? Is it because of what I said. Call me tonight or see me after school. You know where to find me.

521-0639

I met up with Scott after school. We talked and laughed on our way to my house. Everyone likes hanging out at my house. It is a very strange phenomena. After school, on the weekend, whenever, my house was the center of most of my friends. When we got into my house I called to see if anyone was home. After no answer, I assumed the house was empty. I went to the fridge to get some orange juice and asked Scott if he wanted something to drink as well. He said he wasn't thirsty.

"Gabe, Jon says you beat him up." Scott looked into my eyes.

"What?!!" I asked alarmed.

"He said that he asked you out and that you turned down him and flipped." Scott looked worried.

"I did no such thing!" I can't believe Jon, how could he say something like this.

"But, Jon wouldn't lie about this." He stated.

"Look at these knuckles." I held out both of my fists for him to inspect. "Do these knuckles look like they've punched someone lately?"

"No." Scott said, confused.

Maybe Jon was trying to get some payback. Jon was gonna pay for that. I didn't know how yet, but he was gonna pay. Jesus, I couldn't believe why Jon would possibly say that, that I turned him down. Wait, he's out to Scott?

"When did he tell you he was gay?" I asked Scott.

"Ummm . . . when . . ." He stuttered, "A few weeks ago."

"Oh" A few weeks ago when what? "Okay, that's cool."

The next day I practically made Jon a new layer of paint for the walls.

"Since when do you get off telling Scott that I wigged out on you when you asked me out?!" I almost yelled in his face.

"Gabe, I'm sorry." He apologized, "I was just upset that you didn't like me too."

"Fuck you!" I spat in his face, "That's no reason to go and tell Scott I kicked your ass! He was almost never going to talk to me dude."

"I'm sorry, what can I do for you that'll make you forgive me?" He almost pleaded.

"Okay," I said, "Just give me my space for the next two weeks."

I walked away with clenched fists. “Gabe?” Jon said, behind me.

“What?” A yell over my shoulder.

“I'm sorry.” He yelled back. Yeah, that's gonna make a difference when I'm already pissed.

It was about noon , Scott had just received a phone call from Ashley Thompson. She said that Gabriel and Jon were fighting at Krusi Park . Scott didn't know what to make of the phone call. Ashley sounded pretty serious and Jon did say that Gabe tried to beat him up before. Scott thought about what happened when Gabe beat up someone in 6th grade. Suddenly, Scott thought of how bad Jon would be.

Scott grabbed his keys and was about to go out the door to run to Krusi Park , there was a knock at the door . . .

. . . I knocked at Scott's door. He took a few minutes to answer, and by that time my arm was getting tired of carrying Jon. When Scott answered the door, his jaw dropped open.

"I was walking over to Krusi Park and I saw some guys kicking the shit out of him." I took Jon inside and put him down on the couch.

"Jesus," Scott gasped, "What happened?"

I told Scott of how I saw him getting the shit beat of out him. When I broke up the fight, the leader turned to me and said, "Just wait . . . You're next sissy boy.". Scott said that he got a call from Asheley saying that I was fighting with Jon. Right then Jon grabbed my arm.

"Gabe," He spit out, "Watch yourself. And don't do anything stupid to get even. They could really hurt you."

I knew he was right. But I also really wanted to get some payback, and one person couldn't do that much damge to me. It would have to be more like four or five to get me on the ground at least. "Maybe I should go to the cops.”

“You can't do that.” Jon was scared, more scared than when I was holding him up on the wall. “Don't snitch them out. Please don't.”

“Oh well,” God damn it. “I'll figure this out tomorrow."

"Scott, I'm gonna go back to my house. Take care of Jon, okay?" I asked him.

"Sure." He replied

It was the day after Jon got the shit knocked out of him. Jon had to stay home because he hadn't recovered completely. I was heading to my locker to get my binder out for first period with Mr. Miro. Right when I was about to enter my last number, someone had slammed my head into my locker. I turned around and let loose a hard swing into . . . the air. Two people from either side of me punched me in the nuts. I turned around to see how many people there were and if I could take them.

"Hi pretty boy." Alex said.

"Hey monkey dick." I spat in his face.

"We told you, you were gonna pay." Matt sneered at me.

"Now, it's time that you'd pay the piper." Someone behind me said.

Uh oh. Those three are practically a mafia family. I swung hard at Alex, who was obviously their leader and knocked him in the jaw. Alex fell to his knees as blood started to seep from his mouth.

"That bitch just broke my jaw!" Alex exclaimed to the others.

Matt and Chris (the guy that was originally behind me) advanced on me and started punching me. I couldn't do anything. There were two guys on my arms and one guy sitting on my feet. Not to mention the little problem of staying conscious while I got the crap kicked out of me. Every punch felt like someone was putting their hand through my head and ripping out part of my brain. My head hurt so bad and I got so dizzy that I was just about to pass out. I thought I just about had it when I heard someone yell.

"Leave him alone!" The voice was distant and warbled.

I thought it was Scott's voice. But, I couldn't be sure because my vision was real fuzzy and my hearing was shot. All that I saw of the person was a fuzzy outline against what looked like the lockers. When the figure came closer I saw it was Scott. He stepped forward and grabbed the guy that was kicking my stomach and threw him what must have been four feet into a locker. After that, the pain numbed out of my body and everything went black.

Scott mashed the guy that was kicking Gabe in the face. Kicked Alex off of Gabe's legs and Matt and Peter off of his arms. Scott's arms flew like thunder bolts into all of the boys' faces. Soon, Trevor dragged Alex and Peter off and Matt limped away. Scott had to drag Gabe into the office. That was not really any easy task for him, Gabriel was a few pound heavier and Scott was already feeling muscle burn.

Scott saw two guys walking down the aisles. "Hey, can you help me?"

"Sure-ooooohhh shit!" One guy exclaimed.

"What the hell happened to Gabe?" The other asked

"Gay bash." Scott stated. "Just help me pick him up and take him into the office."

The three boys picked Gabe up and carried him into the office. Scott went into the nurse's office and signaled the two boys to bring him in. The two boys came in and laid Gabe down on a bed inside the nurse's office. The nurse went up to Gabe and put a salt stick up to his nose. When Gabe woke up the nurse started asking Gabe some questions.

"Do you know where you are?" Someone asked me, as I sat up and looked around.

"Do you think I'm an idiot?! I'm in the nurse's office and you're the nurse. What else is on my test of the day?!" I snapped

"How are you feeling?" The nurse asked me.

"Like shit!" I said back.

"Can you see well?" She checked my pupils.

"Hmmm . . . I just got my brain knocked out of my ass, you guess." I rubbed my eyes.

"Who did this to you?" She started rubing some alchohal to clean my cuts and wound on my face and arms. It started stinging like someone had just poured sclading hot water on me.

"Ummm . . ." I had to think for a few seconds. "Alex Rosco, Matt Kindell, Peter Winston and Trevor Gunn."

The nurse brought over some bandages in a box.

"Thanks, but I think I can put a few bandages on. That is, if you don't mind." I said.

"Not at all, I'll just check on your friend over here." The nurse started looking at the cuts on Scott's knuckles and face. Even when Scott looked like shit he still had the ray of light around him.

I started putting on the roll of gauze on my leg and some bandages on my arms. OW! OH! EH! Why did I have to put on such a macho show by putting them on myself? I thought to myself. Scott should have killed them. At least he came to my rescue.

"I'm going to need to call both of your parents. I need your phone numbers." The nurse picked up the phone.

"My dad's number is six-six-nine nine-five-seven-six." Scott stated.

Scott saw that I couldn't really take it right now so he said, "Gabe's dad's number is eight-three- five sven-eight-three-two."

After the nurse made the first call both of ours parents agreed that Scott should stay with me at home for the rest of the day. I was happy that Scott could stay next to me, but it hurt to smile (how ironic).

I had to stay a few more minutes to give Mr. Edminston the details and names of the Gaybashers. Then my dad picked Scott and me up and drove us to my house. Where Scott put me down on my bed. Scott and my dad had a descussion on what had happened and dad left for work. Scott pulled up a chair and sat by me. And asked him to come closer because I could really only whisper.

"Thanks Scott, " I kissed him on the cheek, "You're a real lifesaver."

ust then I noticed what I had done. I looked at his face to see just a glimpse of what he could have been thinking. He just blushed and said it was okay. What a sec . . . he blushed. He didn't back away or say, "Ewwww!" He blushed. Hmmm, he did have a girlfriend, he could be Bi. One can only hope.