Chapter Four: Payback

It was two days since I got beat up and I was coming back to school the first time. WHOOP DEE DOO! Actually, I had intentions other than slacking off in the classrooms. I was going to get even with the assholes who kicked the shit out of me. I didn't have a back-up plan but I knew I was going to take each person out, one by one.

Jon and I had come up with a plan that we would get James to bring each boy to us, saying that a teacher wanted to see them. When that person would turn the corner he would see Jon. But he wouldn't see me creeping up behind him. Jon would act like he was gonna kick some ass, while I got ready to pounce on him like a lion on a deer. Once we got him to the ground I would work on him with my feet, most likely somewhere painful (you know where). After a few minutes, Jon and I would switch places. The point would be to make him scream for mercy before we let him crawl off. That was our plan. And that was what was going to happen.

The first person was Matt. We worked him out pretty good and everything went to plans. Except for Alex, I wanted him to myself. Once Alex came to the hallway, Scott blocked one way and Jon the other. I stepped out from the lockers.

"Hey monkey fuck." I said, flipping a coin, "It's time you do your tax returns. Let's see . . . you seem to owe Jon and me quite a bit of pain and suffering. Why don't we just audit you now to get it over with."

Alex threw a punch and hit my stomach. It didn't hurt that bad. My stomach was pretty tough from having it beaten in. Waved a finger in the air.

"Stop it. You're making me misty." I said to him.

I punched Alex sqaure on the nose with a large crack emmitted from it. Soon, blood had started to gush from it. But, I was not finished yet. I wanted vengence. I was thirsty for it. I needed to be fed. Picking up Alex by his shirt I slammed him into a concrete wall. I flipped him around and started punching him as hard as I could. Finally, I got tired and let off Alex. He slid down the wall and had a look on his face that was totally devoid of life.

"Alex," I said close to his face, "If you can hear what I am saying, nod."

He nodded and kicked me sharply in the leg. I wince from the pain and need him in the face, splattering his bloody nose.

"You're not worth all of this energy. Go on home and cry to your mommy." I gave him one good kick in the nuts.

I leaned in close, "Never mess with anyone agina. Or else, oh . . . I'm sure you can guess how much more blood I'd beat out of you, boy.”

I took some change out of my pocket and threw it on his chest, "Here call your mommy. Have a nice day Alex. By the by . . . No one saw this, Jon and Scott were blocking the view.”

Jon walked up to Alex and looked at his watch, "Weren't you supposed to have detention a few minutes ago? My poor little delinquint. What are we to do with you."

"The least we could do for a friend." Scott walked past him, but then ran back and gave him one good kick.

Jon, Scott and I walked off to go to my house.

"I simply must say that you were incredibly vicious Gabe." Scott said.

"I must simply agrre." Jon added.

"Well . . ." I replied, "No one messes with me. And . . . especially . . . no one messes with my friends."

I knew that everyone agreed with what I had to say. Almost everyone at school knew that I would protect my friends until the bitter end. I guess those boys should have thought of that. Too bad, too. Those four boys could have saved themselves a lot of time.

It was May 7 th , about 5 weeks and 4 days until school was out. I had already began planning my birthday party. I took a poll in class to see what people wanted. The vote was for paint balling. I started a list of people I wanted to invite. My list started out with 21 people, but I had to cut it down to 8 people. That was because we only had enough room in both cars to fit that many people in. The possibility of asking another parent to drive became more realistic if I wanted teams.

I decided to ask Scott's parents if they wanted to drive some more kids. They agreed and I could now invite 16 kids. Oh joy! Yet, I still had the nagging problem of the guest list. I still had to decide who to bring. For the solution I sought Tom's advice.

Tom is a cool person. He is into James Bond and spy novels. He was also the perfect person because, to my point of view, he had no grudges and is a fair judge. It took Tom about a week and he gave me the list back to me, with one added name (as a payment for his services). I was satisfied with the list that Tom had come up with.

Next was to find the place, date and time of when my party would be held. Not to mention, I had to think if I wanted it to be a sleep over with one or two persons or many people. I decided that it was going to be a sleep over with just Scott and Jon. Now that, that was out of the way, I had to look in the Yellow pages to find a good place for a paint ball game. It did not take me long to find a place I wanted that place was the Paint ball Jungle in Sonoma . It was far away, about an hour and a half's drive away.

Next was the date. I was going on vacation from June 11 to June 17. So it would be a good idea to have it after the 18. I decide that the date should be on a weekday, not during the weekend when the most people come. Ultimately I decide to go on my birthday, June 22. I just had to hand out the invitations and I'd be set.

The next week I handed out invitations to my party. Scott, Jon and I also had a final confrontation with Trevor, Alex, Peter and Max. We were called to the office. Aparrently, the four boys were beat up and said that I had something to do with it. They also said that Scott and Jon saw it happening. As discussed earlier between Scott, Jon and I, we denied any knowledge. In fact, not only did we not having anythign to do with it, we were at my house playing video games. Mr. Edmiston sent us away saying that he would "keep an eye" on us. As if one eye would be enough.

The school bell rang and I started out the gates. I was anxious to get away from school. That day I had hit about two grand slams for my P.E. team. There was not one person that hadn't heard about what had happened. The satisfaction of watching people with their jaws wide open watching the softball go out of our school was enough praise for me. Besides, it was Friday and I didn't want to stick around anyway.

"Hey Gabe, wait up." Scott said running towards me.

"Oh, " I looked at Scott, "Hey dude."

"Man, what's your hurry?" He asked.

"On Fridays, the further away from school I get, the better off I am. A way of ditching detention form 6 th grade that kept with me." I said.

We rounded the corner and made our way towards the crossing guard.

"So, Gabe . . ." He started, "Ummm . . . Do you wanna spend the night?"

I looked back at him, "Damn, dude, you make it sound like you're trying to ask me out."

Scott let out a nervous chuckle and turned in front of me and said, "So, when can you come over?"

His tone was one that I have only heard once. That was when he really needed to talk to me about something. I looked into his eyes to see just how urgent this was. His eyes were starting to water and get all red.

This is serious, "Right now. I can get my mom to drop some clothes . . ."

Scott didn't even what for me to finish what I was saying. He took off practically dragging me. Not even stopping for a breath. This had to be real serious. I wonder what it is. We got to his house in half the time it would normally take us. His eyes were even more watery now too. I signaled him to come sit by me on the couch.

"Okay, dude, what's up?" I asked him.

"Well . . . fuck . . .this is hard to say . . ." He started crying.

I held him and started to rock him back and forth. "Dude, what is it?" I asked.

"Gabe . . . I'm gay!" He cried out in my chest.

"Dude, I'm co. . ." I started saying, but, he cut me off.

"I love you though." More tears came out. "I have loved you for the longest time. When I first met you two years ago I had the biggest crush on you. When you told me you were gay I was sooooo happy."

“Dude! Why have you taken so long to tell me?!” I almost shouted in surprise. “Do you have any idea how bad I've wanted you to be gay?!

We probably looked like two water faucets. I was so happy that he felt the same about me. My emotions were totally overwhelming me. Then, I thought about what had happened to me, and I got scared for him. What if he gets beat up? What if all of his friends disown him? What if . . .

"Gabe? What's wrong?" Scott interrupted my thought train.

"Dude, Scott, remember what I went through when Ahmad outted me?" He already saw my point.

"Shit" His eyes widened.

"Don't worry Scott I'll be there with you," I hugged him again, "And I won't let anyone hurt you. Anyway, I owe you one. You saved me from getting my head bashed in."

Scott and I went up to his room and collapsed on the bed. I gave him a kiss on the cheek and he faded into sleep. We were both pretty beat by the emotional exertion we had just gone thorugh. We went to sleep within a minute.

I looked at my watch and noticed that my mom was probably home by now. Scott was sleeping, he's so cute when he sleeps. I know this is probably said a lot but, he really looks like an angel when he sleeps; His lips parted a little and the way he breaths. It was like looking at a painting of a god or something. I pulled up so that I was right next to his ear. I gentle nudged him to bring him out of his angelic sleep.

"Scott," I whispered in his ear, "I'm gonna call my mom and ask her to bring my stuff. That is . . . unless, you think you can't control yourself with me."

I bit softly on Scott's ear. He giggled and I hopped off the bed to ring my mom. She picked up and I asked if I could spend the night at Scott's. My mom said that it was okay and that she would drop off my clothes soon.

That day I hadn't eaten a bite, and that was getting to me. Scott had told me there were some leftovers in the fridge. We walked into the kitchen. I like his kitchen. Well, I love cooking and, I also love eating; since his kitchen was pretty much equipped with all of that fancy cooking stuff, I could whip up something good, and fast.

Scott was shuffling through the fridge. "I think there's some leftover pizza in here."

I was right next him, also rummaging through the fridge. Except, I already knew there wasn't anymore pizza in the fridge. I was hungry and decided to eat something. Not wanting to wake Scott up by asking him if he had any leftovers, I slipped off the bed and went into the kitchen. I rummaged through the fridge and found the last piece of pizza. It was in one of those really hard to open tupperware containers. I was fighting with it when it popped open and landed on the floor. I trashed it and went back in bed with Scott.

I pulled out some noodles, flour, cheese, butter and a pan from some of the cupboards..

"Scott, you want some maccaroni and cheese?" I asked, "It's homemade."

Shortly after we finished the food my mom came by. She said the usual "don't get into trouble" and left. Satisfied at the oppuritnuity to be alone with the one I loved, and who loved me back, Scott and I kissed briefly. But, I noticed something. The house was unusually quiet.

"Dude, where are your parents?" I asked.

"They're gone for the next week." He said, "I just didn't want to stay here alone. I also wanted to tell you so I figured, 'two birds with one stone', right?"

"Yeah, I guess." I looked around the house.

"So, uh, what do you want to do?" He looked in to my eyes searchingly.

"Sorry dude, I at least want 5 dates first. It wouldn't feel right then." We started cracking up.

"Jerk!" He playfully hit me with a pillow.

We walked into his room and started tossing a baseball back and forth. I was still in deep thought about what had happened. Everything just went so fast. From Mr. Joe Straight to . . . I had no idea what.

"Scott," I started, "I'm a little confused. Are you gay or bi?"

"Bisexual, I like guys and girls." He stated.

"I'm familiar to the term." Bisexualism seems to be very popular these days.

"By the way, that was great game that you played today." He complimented me,

"I especially liked the home run. Was it, 'Do it for Scott' that I heard?"

I blushed in response. "It might have been."

He laughed and jabbed me in the shoulder. I yawned and told him I was tired from the game. I fell on his bed. Scott was right behind me. He said he was tired too and might as well go to sleep too. I cuddled up with him, kissed him on the cheek and went to sleep.