Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:59:43 -0400
From: Ron <ronyx@woh.rr.com>
Subject: Writing for Joe   Chapter 5

The following is a work of fiction. Any similarities to anyone are purely
coincidental. The story is intended for a mature audience. It may contain
profanity and references to gay sex. If this offends you, please leave
and find something more suitable to read. The author maintains all rights
to the story. Do not copy or use without written permission. Write Ron at
ronyx@woh.rr.com with any comments.



Writing for Joe Chapter 5



"I'm telling you now. If you don't stop snooping around, shit's going
to hit the fan." Jessica sternly told Matt.

"Tiffany was serious when she told me to tell you to lay off her
brother." She was trying to get through Matt's thick head, but as usual
he had made up his mind.

"This is really big, I can feel it. There's a story here, maybe bigger
than the one last year." Matt informed her excitedly.

"I'm sure there is, but it can also spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E!" She warned
him. "We're talking about Wellston. He's already pissed royally at you
for putting him behind bars. It's hard to say what he'll do if you try
to throw in prostitution on top of everything else."

"But it's not fair what he did to those kids. No one's talking to me
yet, but I have a feeling that there's a lot more to this than meets the
eye.

"He wasn't whoring out adults, these were just kids!" Matt was
determined to get to the bottom of his investigation. He was sure that
Jeremy was involved. Hell, he was just a young kid. If Wellston had used
him and other kids in his prostitution ring, he was going to find out-one
way or another. He wanted to make sure he stayed behind bars forever.

From what he had learned last year, there may have been close to ten high
school aged students, male and female. He had been puzzled why there was
never a thorough investigation. It seemed that the road dead ended
whenever he thought he had a lead.

He had to talk to Jeremy again. The kid seemed to want to talk to
someone. Perhaps the guilt was too much for him to handle. Maybe with
gentle persuasion, he could get him to talk.

How though? That was the question.

"You're so damned pig-headed! You know that? You're going to continue
snooping around, aren't you?" Jessica was mad, but what could she do?

"These people don't play around. You're going to get yourself killed.
I'm surprised they haven't done anything to you yet. You know what
happened last year." She reminded him.

Matt had been threatened repeatedly after the police raid last year.
Calls were made to the school threatening his life. He had to have his
room changed and get a new phone number because of all the harassing
calls.

At one point the campus security had to follow him around for a week when
he found a note in his book bag threatening to shoot him. Nothing ever
came of it, but he looked over his shoulder for months after that.

"Look, I've got a hot story here. I can't just let it go. I'm being
really careful about speaking to anyone. Tiffany and Jeremy are the only
ones I've spoken to so far." He tried to comfort Jessica.

"Yeah, but they might not be the right ones to talk to. Rumors around
campus are that Tiffany is Wellston's girlfriend." It was common
knowledge that Tiffany was close to Wellston, and that she visited him
quite frequently.

"Alright, Alright. I'll be careful." Matt got up from the table they
were sitting at in the student union and stormed away. He loved Jessica,
but sometimes she could really get on his nerves- especially when she
might be right.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Listen up, everyone." Joe hollered out to the people in the newsroom.

"We have a deadline tomorrow. I want to see your final drafts on my desk
before you leave today." He instructed them.

He walked cautiously over to Matt. "Can you stay after everyone leaves?
I need to talk to you about your story."

The room was abuzz for the next two hours. Everyone was typing
feverishly. Joe walked around the room giving assistance to those who
needed his help.

Matt watched him walk around admiringly. He really had fallen for this
black Adonis. He was so confident strolling around the newsroom. He was
in complete charge. Everyone admired him and looked to him for guidance.

"Why is he so fucked up in his personal life?" Matt thought. He could
control everything in the newsroom, but was a disaster when it came to
his emotions. Matt was the only one who had ever been able to penetrate
that secret area of his life, so no one else knew the turmoil hidden deep
within this externally confident man.

After much newsroom tension and frustration, the last reporter left the
room.

"Sit down, Matt. Tell me what you've got." He pointed to a chair
sitting beside his editor's desk.

"Nothing I can say is substantive. Everything right now is just a
hunch... I talked to one of the boys involved and I've got a feeling I'm
on to something big." Matt informed Joe.

"I don't want you to do anything else on this story." Joe ordered him.

"Why, I'm just getting started? I need more time." Matt said in
frustration.

Joe pulled a piece of paper out of his desk. It had large letters pasted
on it. It looked like they had been cut out of a newspaper.

"Here, read this. I found it this morning shoved under the door of the
newsroom when I arrived." He handed him the paper.

IF YOU DON'T STOP SOMEONE DIES

Matt looked at the note and gasped. He had seen this type of warning last
year. One had been placed under the door of his dorm room and another
under the door of the newsroom. That was when he had received police
protection for a while.

"Look, Joe." He said. "We saw these last year. Nothing ever came of
them."

"I don't give a damn!" Joe became agitated. "Give up this crazy idea,
now! If you don't, I'm going to Dr. Olsen. I should never have
suggested it in the first place."

"Listen, Joe. Just a couple more days." Matt begged. "These boys need
help. No one helped them last year when they should have. For all we
know, they still could be in danger."

"Goddamn it, Matt! Give it up!" Joe stood up and looked angrily at
Matt.

"I'm telling you now. The story stops here, now!" He spat out.

Matt said nothing. He looked deep inside his dark brown eyes.

What surprised him was that he didn't see anger in Joe's eyes, he saw
concern. Joe didn't want to see him get hurt.

He knew he couldn't say anything more. He had already made up his mind
that he was going to find out if the boys were in danger and needed
someone's help. If he stayed around, he knew Joe would make him promise
to give up the investigation.

So he grabbed his notes and started hurriedly putting them in his book
bag. On his way out the door he told Joe,

"I'll talk to you in a couple of days." With that, he exited the room.
Joe stood and watched him leave, knowing that this was not the end.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Matt was waiting outside the doors of James Madison High School when the
3:30 bell rang. He knew this was the final bell and that students would
soon be streaming out of the building.

He waited patiently watching the hoards of excited high school students
exit. They were laughing and horse playing around. He could almost tell
the students by their grade level. The freshmen usually left playfully,
yelling and screaming, occasionally trying to trip someone or steal a
book.

The seniors left walking quietly with an air of authority. It had been a
few years since he had been in high school. He wondered if a casual
observer noticed his change over the years.

After a while, he saw a cute, wavy brown-haired boy emerge through the
doors and walk gracefully down the stairs heading off in the direction of
his apartment. Matt followed him closely until they were a safe distance
from the school and out of range of anyone who might be watching.

"Hey, Jeremy," Matt said, walking up beside him.

Jeremy didn't even turn when he heard the voice. He had figured that
Matt, being the news hound that he was, would not give up with one
encounter.

"I told you the other day; I've got nothing to say to you." He said
with disgust.

"Look. I'm just trying to help you." Matt said pleadingly.

"What's in it for you? Another big story. Huge headlines and the media
interviewing you. Then what? You leave me out on a line, dangling."
Jeremy looked at him with sad eyes.

"Look, I know Wellston used you. He sold you into prostitution and let
others sexually abuse you." Matt was taking a chance. He knew his
suspicions had to be right. He was hoping he could bluff this young boy
into taking the bait.

"You don't know the half of it." Jeremy turned and began to sadly walk
away.

"Then tell me about it, I can try to help." Matt pleaded with the boy.

"I can't. There are people in this town that would kill both of us
right now if they saw us talking. We're already probably being watched.
My sister saw us the other day." He warned.

"I know. I've already received a threat." He informed him. Jeremy
threw him a questioning look.

"Listen, I gotta go. Please leave me alone." Jeremy said with tears in
his eyes. He began to briskly walk away.

Matt hollered out to him, "You still got my phone number?"

"Yeah." He replied, not looking back.

"Call me if you need me." Matt yelled.

Jeremy continued walking, saying nothing.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Joe decided to go to Matt's room to try and talk him out of pursuing
this story. In the years he had been working on stories, he'd never had
a bad feeling as he did with this one.

Even last year when Matt was being threatened, it didn't feel as ominous
as this story was. There was a dark cloud hanging over everything right
now, and he knew that he had to get to Matt and stop his investigation
before something went wrong. He felt guilty for even mentioning the story
to him.

As he walked across the campus to Matt's room, he felt as if someone was
watching him. The skin on his back began to crawl and goose bumps
appeared on his arms. Someone was lurking about; he could feel it.

The sun was beginning to set and the sky was getting dark. He could hear
rumbles of thunder in the background as a storm was approaching. All this
added to his fear, a foreboding that something was wrong.

As he neared Matt's dorm, someone stepped out of the shadows of a nearby
building and approached. Joe felt a sense of terror surge through his
body as he looked at the approaching figure. The man was huge! He looked
like he had just come out of the ring of a WWF match. He was 6'1 and
looked like he easily weighed 350 pounds. The thing Joe noticed
immediately was the fact that the man appeared to have no neck. His head
sat heavily upon his shoulders. The man's appearance was grotesque.

Joe turned and began to walk rapidly away. He could hear the man's
footsteps quickly approaching. For someone so large, he could move fast.

Suddenly he felt the man's hand slap down harshly on his shoulder and
roughly spin him around. He was looking directly into the face of this
grotesque being. His eyes were harsh. He had a huge scar running down the
side of his face. He had a military style haircut, and a small mustache.
To complete his horrible appearance, he had a tattoo of a cobra on what
should have been his neck. On him it appeared to be mashed down, like a
clown in a Jack in the Box.

"Don't hurt me; I don't have any money on me." Joe was shaking
violently. He knew this man could break his neck with just a twist of his
huge, stubby hands.

"Shut up, Pretty Boy. I'm not going to hurt you if you cooperate."
This huge man was Cobra, a close associate of Wellston. Tiffany had
informed Wellston that Matt was snooping around again and he had ordered
Cobra to take care of it.

"I've been here for over an hour waiting for your fag boyfriend to show
up." Cobra told him angrily.

Cobra grabbed Joe more violently and began to twist his arm. Joe thought
he was going to tear it off. He could feel his shoulder begin to give
way, and thought he was going to rip his arm from its socket.

"You tell Blondie, if he doesn't quit snooping around, he's going to
be a dead man." Cobra spat, continuing to twist Joe's arm even more.

"Ok! I will! Please don't hurt me!" Joe screamed in pain. It was
useless to even try and defend himself. Joe worked out regularly and was
in tremendous shape, but he was no match for this mammoth.

Cobra threw Joe to the ground like he was a rag doll. Joe balled himself
up, waiting for another assault. It wasn't long until he felt Cobra land
a solid punch to his side, knocking the wind out of him.

"Remember what I said, Pretty Boy. If he doesn't stop, Bang, Bang." He
pointed his finger at Joe and imitated shooting a gun. He walked over and
gave Joe another punch to his other side. Joe let out a loud scream,
wincing in pain as he felt the man's heavy fist sink into his side.

Through tears in his eyes, Joe watched Cobra lumber across the street and
head to a black limousine. Before getting in the car, he looked back over
at Joe and raised his hand.

"Bang. Bang. Tell him Cobra`s watching him." He could hear him shout.
Then he turned and crawled into the back of the limo as it peeled off,
leaving Joe writhing in pain on the sidewalk.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Listen, Punk." Tiffany yelled at Jeremy. "I've told Wellston about
your little liaison with that fag, Matt."

"What? You didn't!" Jeremy screamed. "Nothing's going on, I swear to
you."

Jeremy was getting excited. For a year he thought everything had finally
gone away. He was beginning to get his life back together. He was back in
school, making decent grades. He had even thought of joining the swim
team again.

Two years ago he had lead an average teen boy's life. He went to school
and did what was expected. He had dated a few girls, but had realized
several years ago that a girl could never meet his needs.

He had not given in to his homosexual urges; that is, until Wellston had
forced himself upon him. After that first day, it became a regular
ritual. He would meet Wellston in the storeroom whenever he wanted some
teen boy ass.

It hadn't taken Wellston long to take his virginity. About a week after
their first encounter, he met Jeremy in their usual rendezvous spot. This
time instead of pleasuring him orally, Wellston violently threw him again
a work table, yanked down his pants, and penetrated his virgin ass.

Jeremy could still feel the searing pain every time he remembered that
event. There was no love or intimacy, just raw, violent sex. His swollen
ass bled for days after the harsh intrusion. It wasn't long after that
when Wellston began to insist that he meet with `clients.' Over the
next year he made tens of thousands of dollars. He had a bank account
with over $30,000. It was to be his college fund- his way out of the life
he so despised now.

"He called Cobra. Cobra's going to take care of things." Tiffany
spoke, bringing Jeremy back to reality.

"Dammit, Tiff! Why couldn't you just leave things alone? Nothing was
going to happen. Matt wasn't going to get anything from me or anyone
else." He insisted.

"I don't care. I told you, Matt was trouble. Cobra will take care of
it." She began to laugh. She appeared rather content with herself.

"This shit's going to come back on you!" Jeremy warned. He got up from
the kitchen table where they had been sitting and he stormed up to his
room.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I hope you're enjoying the story. Write me at ronyx@woh.rr.com if you
want to leave feedback. I enjoy hearing from readers. Read my first story
posted in the high school section. It is entitled "Apple of Her Eye"
posted on March 28.