Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2003 12:40:07 -0800 (PST)
From: Isaiah <brendell83@yahoo.com>
Subject: Discovering The Truth, Chapter 5 (Revised)

Discovering the Truth -- Chapter 5 -- A Long Friday

This story is 100% fictional.  Nothing written here has actually occurred
in real life.  Read this only if you are interested in a story about a
young man learning the truth about himself and the world around him.  Do
not read it if doing so will get you or the author in trouble.  It is
copyrighted by the author and subject to all laws that apply.

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

As we pulled into the drive, I stepped out of the car with my backpack and
thanked her. She nodded and drove away, probably glad to be rid of me. I
turned to face the house, building the resolve to enter it. I had been so
wrapped up in my own thoughts that I was almost on top of the car before I
saw it. It was one I hadn't seen before and was lacking a license
plate. Realizing I didn't care to whom it belonged, I trudged up the
driveway and through the front door. Striker didn't greet me at the door
like normal, but I barely noticed. All of my attention was focused instead
on the person sitting in the living room with Mr. and Mrs. Kinney.

"It can't be..."

I couldn't believe it.  How in the world did he get here?  Upon hearing my
surprised gasp, my father stood up from where he was seated on the couch.
I glanced quickly at the Kinneys, who seemed to be unaware of the magnitude
of this moment.  The last time I had seen my father he had shot me and then
put the gun to his head.  I was convinced he was dead, that he had blown
his brains out all over our lovely tiled floor.  But here he was all the
same.  He looked worse than I remembered him.  Instead of the clean-shaven
countenance I remembered seeing every day at the kitchen table, his face
was covered in a scraggly beard, more gray than brown.  His jeans were
filthy and had several tears.  Though it had only been a short period of
time since I had seen him last, he seemed to have aged years.  My mind
absorbed all of this and tried to process it.  Unfortunately, my mind had
stepped out to have lunch with my heart somewhere in the vicinity of my
throat.

We stood there staring at each other for almost a full minute.  Striker
entered the room, but quickly realized that now was not the time for puppy
exuberance.  I could tell my father was trying to think of something to
say, but the only thing I wanted to hear was "goodbye."

"Well, I was just telling the Kinneys here that I'm thankful they took care
of you this week," he began, gesturing behind him to them as he spoke.  "My
son doesn't deser-"

He must not have revealed exactly who he was yet to the Kinneys as they
both shot out of their seats when he mentioned his relationship to me.
Mrs. Kinney gasped loudly and, seeming to have rethought her sudden
movement, sat back down heavily, a hand clasped over her mouth.  Mr. Kinney
remained standing, and I saw something flash behind his eyes that seemed
very out of place.  Was that fear?  My eyes snapped back to my father, who
had turned to look at the sudden noise behind him.  I heard a car roar past
out on the street.  I had left the door open behind me after I had walked
into the foyer.  He looked as if he was about to pick up where he had been
interrupted, but I beat him to it.

"Your son?" I spat the words as if they were an abomination to my tongue.
"You may have taken part in my creation, but you sure as hell aren't my
father."  I tried my best to keep my voice calm during all of this.  I
could still feel the slight dull pain in my chest from the wound.  He had
already proven once that he was capable of attempted murder.  I didn't want
to give him the opportunity to show he could pull it off.

"Oh, so now you've got some balls, you little pussy faggot?  You should be
thanking me."  In the background, I could see the Kinneys were holding
hands tightly, watching this unfold.  I caught Mr. Kinney's eye and tried
my best to impart how sorry I was that I had brought this into their house.
I wasn't sure he understood what I was trying to tell him, but it was
something that would have to wait.

"Thanking you?!  For what?  Almost killing me?"

"For making you into more of a man than you've been your entire life.
Always whining and pussyfooting around.  At least now you seem to be able
to hold your own."  I couldn't believe that he actually thought he deserved
credit for...anything.

"You've got to be kidding me.  I thought you were dead, and I was actually
happy thinking that.  Why couldn't you have just pulled the trigger?"  I
knew I was treading on dangerous ground here, but I couldn't stop myself.
I had been trying not to think about what had happened to me, but now that
I was forced to look it right in the eye, I didn't have a choice.

"I think you should be leaving."  Both of us turned to look at Mr. Kinney,
who was standing about 5 feet behind my father.

"I'm not going anywhere without my son.  And mind your own business."  He
seemed to think that was enough.  My father turned and started walking
towards me.  For a brief second, I almost panicked, but for some reason I
just happened to look towards Mr. Kinney.  The look of fierce determination
in his eyes steeled me against the rising fear.  When my father got close
enough, he reached out a hand as if to guide me towards the door and away
with him.  I barked out a laugh, and he paused briefly.  I have no idea
what came over me, but in that moment a single thought reverberated around
my brain.  I did then something I was going to regret for a while.  As my
right fist connected with, and broke, the nose on Thomas Oswald's face, I
was not thinking that this was probably a big mistake.  Blood spurted down
his face.  Pain shot through my chest and right arm.  I wasn't going to
show this of course.  A look of absolute disbelief crossed his face.

"You...you punched me?"  The disbelief turned to anger.  He reached back
his arm as if he was about to hit me back, but Mr. Kinney grabbed it.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't bleed all over my floor, Mr. Oswald."
Twisting the arm, he guided my father towards the door and pushed him out
onto the stoop.  I guess he had had enough, because my father started to
walk towards the car at the end of the driveway.  I moved up next to
Mr. Kinney, who put an arm around me and the two of us watched my father
stumble towards his car.  I desperately wanted to believe that this was the
end, but my mind just couldn't accept it.  He had already come back once
after I thought he was dead.  I had a feeling this wasn't going to be the
last time I saw Thomas Oswald.

We watched him get into the brown sedan and drive away holding his nose.
As soon as he was out of sight I turned to Mr. Kinney, who was looking at
me with great concern on his face.

"Brandon...Brandon...?  Are you all right?"  His voice seemed to be coming
from far away.  Try as I might to concentrate on it, my mind was interested
in only one thing: the pain emanating from the right side of my body.  The
last thing I remember seeing before it all went black was Mr. Kinney
leaning forward trying to catch me.

***

I woke up slowly, my eyelids feeling like weights had been attached to
them.  My chest didn't hurt as much as it had, but I could tell it was
still tender.  My shirt was off and I could feel cold fingers gently
prodding the right side of my chest.

"When that Mr. Chase first told us about what had happened, I almost didn't
believe it.  But after meeting that man..."

"Me neither, Susan.  Who could do something like that?"

"Well, it obviously happened.  Look at this scar.  There's no way he's
going to be able to play football anytime soon."

"Oh, Jack...he's waking up."  I opened my eyes all the way.  Both of the
Kinneys were kneeling over me, a look of intent concern on their faces.  I
was lying on the floor in the living room.  "How are you feeling, Brandon?"

"I've been better," I said.  "How...?"

"Mr. Chase told us the truth," said Mr. Kinney.  "He told you about the car
accident thing so that you could tell us the truth when you felt you were
ready.  There's no way he could have lied about something like that during
an adoption process.  I'm just sorry that it had to be brought up like
this."  I nodded in agreement, and closed my eyes.  Trying to absorb this
new information was almost more than I could take.

"Did he say how he got here?" I asked, keeping my eyes closed.  It helped
me to focus on what was going on.

"He told us that he was a relative who had heard what had happened and was
wondering how you were.  He was only here a couple minutes before you
showed up.  To tell the truth, I almost didn't let him in the house...the
way he looked.  He looked almost like a homeless person."

"I thought that my father was dead.  He pointed the gun at himself after
he...he shot me."  Mr. and Mrs. Kinney looked stunned.  They didn't know
this part of the story...no one except me and my mom did before now.  And I
had no idea where she was.  Wait...Mr. Chase said that only one car was
missing from the driveway.  I filed this piece of information away for
later when I could try to figure something out.

They were both still kneeling down beside me, but weren't saying anything.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see Striker making his way back into
the room, sniffing cautiously to see if it was safe.  I patted my left hand
on the floor, trying to coax him into coming over.  I could use some puppy
companionship right about now.  Apparently determining that things were
under control, he bounded into the room and jumped up onto my chest.  Oh
boy, did that hurt.  Mrs. Kinney gasped and snatched him off as I rolled
over onto my side in pain.  It passed quickly but I needed to learn not to
do stupid things like enticing a dog to jump on me.

"Why does it hurt so much?" I asked.  I had thrown the football just
yesterday while at school.  I hadn't remembered feeling this much pain when
I did it.  Maybe that punch just twisted it the wrong way.  Maybe I was so
happy things were going well that I didn't really notice it.  Who knows?  I
sure was now.  I remembered Dr. Carter telling me to take it easy and not
strain it for 3 weeks.  It was still near the beginning of the season, so I
wouldn't miss too much with the team.  They would be disappointed,
probably, but not as much as I was.  Just when things seemed to be going
better, he had to show up and mess things up again.

"Well, I'm no doctor...but I'd guess you did something when you punched him
that tore what had been trying to heal," said Mr. Kinney.  "You need to
take it easy for a while.  Feel like you can sit up?"  I nodded and with
their help managed to sit up and then move onto the couch.  It seemed to be
fine so long as I didn't move too quickly or hit it with blunt objects.  As
I was catching my breath, I heard the front door open.  My head whipped
around to face the door to the living room just about as fast as Mr. and
Mrs. Kinney jumped up from their chairs.  He wouldn't come back this
quickly, would he?

"Hey, I'm home," Meric said, rounding the corner.  He stopped short, his
backpack still slung over one shoulder.  "Uh...what's going on?"  It must
have looked a strange scene, all of us alert and me without my shirt on.

"Come sit down, Meric.  We have some things to talk about."  He slipped his
backpack off and put it on the ground near the staircase before coming in
to sit on the couch beside me.  Meric always had this way of fitting
seamlessly into any and all situations.  As soon as he sat down it was like
he had been here all along.  I turned a little to face him.  His eyes
traveled down my chest quickly, stopping at the scar on the right side.
His eyes widened a bit but he otherwise didn't say anything.  I filled him
in on what had happened that afternoon after I got home from Justin's
house.  He nodded when I was finished and seemed to be deep in thought.

"Did you tell them?" he asked.  It was obvious to me what he was talking
about.  I shook my head.

"Not yet, I was just about to before you came in."  I turned to face
Mr. and Mrs. Kinney, who both had a slightly confused look on their faces.
I was one for one so far on revealing my sexuality to those around me.
Shot once, hugged once.  Let's see how this one goes.  Of course, I was
nervous, but I had a feeling it would work out this time.

"Mr. Kinney...Mrs. Kinney..." I looked at each of them in turn.  "I'm gay."
I closed my eyes, uttering a silent prayer that they wouldn't freak out on
me.

"Ok," said Mr. Kinney like someone being told that a mile was 5280 feet
long.  I opened my eyes to see them getting up and heading towards the
kitchen.  Meric patted me on the knee and got up as well.

"That-that's it?" I asked.  I was dumbfounded.  Mrs. Kinney turned around
and smiled.

"Yeah.  Now hurry up and get washed up for dinner."  I grinned back and
took Meric's offered hand to get up from the couch.  In one of the most
awkward set of movements I'd ever had to make, I managed to get my shirt
back on without aggravating my side.  After a quick stop in the bathroom to
wash up, I headed into the kitchen to have dinner with my new family, a
smile firmly planted on my face.

***

I woke up the next morning feeling much better.  The previous few days had
been long ones.  First I came out to Meric, got "drafted" to be the
quarterback for the school football team (which I wouldn't be able to start
on for a few weeks), managed to do something incredibly stupid while at
Justin's house, punched my dad in the face and then came out to my new
parents.  I figured I'd take it easy today, for a change.  I had decided
last night before going to sleep that I wasn't going to worry myself too
much over the bad things happening.  It seemed to me that that was a sure
way to get depressed.  Instead, I was going to concentrate on the positive
things and deal with the negatives as they came up.

A quick shower and hair-styling later I was sitting at the kitchen table,
slurping the last of the milk in my bowl of Frosted Flakes.  Today was
Friday, and we had a quiz in pre-calc that I was a bit worried about.  With
everything that had been going on, I hadn't had much time to study for it.
I'd just have to hope I had absorbed something while sitting in class
earlier in the week.  No sense worrying about it now.

"Oh, Brandon.  We have a couple things for you to do after school today."
Mr. Kinney was straightening his tie in the mirror that hung in the
hallway.  "You've got an appointment with Dr. Norris at 3:45 and we're
going to go by the police station to fill out a report on your father."

"All right, I don't think I have anything to do so that's fine."
Mr. Kinney nodded and finished with his tie.  Meric slapped his hand
against his forehead and I looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

"The party!" he said.  Oh no, that's right.  Jennifer had invited us to go
to a party at her house while her parents were out of town tonight.  I had
forgotten about it with everything else that had been going on and I really
wasn't looking forward to it.  Meric, at least, was going to be there.
Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, and it would be nice to try to meet some of
the other students at the school.  I was determined to fit in the best I
could in this new town.

"Party?"  Mrs. Kinney didn't seem too happy at the mention of that word.

"Oh, it's just a little get-together at Jennifer's house.  She was very
insistent that Brandon come."  I could see her winding up to fire the usual
questions.  Will there be any parents there?  Alcohol, drugs, sex, barn
animals?  You know the drill.  She was cut short by Mr. Kinney, though.

"Oh, let the boys have some fun.  I think they've earned it."  He was
smiling easily.  I could tell Mrs. Kinney didn't want to give up that
easily, but didn't want to be seen as the "evil parent," either.  She
finally nodded reluctantly.  I grinned, and with Meric, headed out to the
4Runner and our ride to school.

***

As we headed into the school building, I was amazed at how many people
already knew who I was.  Word traveled fast, I guess.  Dozens of people
were coming up and shaking my hand.  I was pretty worn out just walking
through the hall to homeroom.  Meric didn't seem to mind my getting all the
attention.  Of course, he had been popular here long before I ever showed
up.  And he wasn't the type to get jealous.

I slipped into my desk in homeroom, realizing that even with all of the
stops in the hall, I was still a bit early.  Only a few people were already
there.  I took out my math notebook and tried to do a bit of last minute
studying.  It was amazing that people did this all the time.  It was
unlikely they would actually learn anything 15 minutes before the test, but
every single day I saw people trying to cram before tests.  As the minutes
ticked by, the room began to fill up.  About three minutes before the bell
rang, Jennifer bounced into the room, her blond hair flying everywhere and
her mouth chewing the gum at a mile a minute.  She smiled at me and slipped
into the desk next to mine.  Great.

"Hi Brandon!" Chomp, chomp, chomp.  God, she was like a cow munching on
grass.  I turned from my notes and smiled at her.  "You looking forward to
the party tonight?  I know I am it's going to be so much fun because my
parents are out of town and everyone is going to be there and we'll play
games and get to know everyone and just hang out it'll be fun."  I nodded,
not having a clue what she had just said.

"I'll be there," I said.  "What time is it at again?"

"Well, it starts at 8:00, but if you want to come early I can show you
around if you like."

"Well, I don't know exactly what I'll be doing before hand, but if I can
get there early, I will."

"Great!"  I smiled again at her incredible exuberance and turned back to my
notes.  She must have noticed that I was trying my best to not fail a test,
so she left me alone for the rest of homeroom.  The bell rang much sooner
than I would have liked.  I hadn't even gotten to read through all of the
notes.  Oh well, too late now.

***

The math quiz turned out to be easier than I would have thought.  I guess I
had paid attention enough during the week to do well.  Meric, of course,
didn't bat an eye at it.  Was there anything this kid couldn't do?  After
the bell, we all piled out of the room and Meric and I headed out to our
normal place outside for lunch.  As usual, there were some kids playing
football on the lawn.  They asked me to join and I turned them down.  They
seemed disappointed, but didn't want to press the issue.

"I need to head inside in a few minutes," I said to Meric after we had
finished our lunches.

"Okay, we've still got a while, you know."

"Yeah, but I need to talk to Coach Thomas and tell him about my side."
Meric nodded.  I got up and picked up my backpack, wincing a bit.  It
didn't hurt all the time, but occasionally some movement would send some
pain shooting through my side.  It really sucked to be injured.  "I'll see
you in third period."

I headed through the halls towards the gym.  Along the way, I was greeted
by several high fives and smiles.  Would these people be as eager to be my
friend if they truly knew who I was?  Probably not.

I entered the locker room and headed towards the back to where Coach
Thomas's office was.  He was in there eating a sandwich and watching some
film on the TV.  I knocked on the door, pushing it open a bit.  He swiveled
in his chair, hitting the pause button as he did.

"Brandon!  What can I do for you?"  He looked so happy.  I hated to break
the bad news to him.

"Well, Coach.  I've got some bad news for you."  His face sunk and the
piece of sandwich he was holding in his hand fell to the desk with a plop.
Peanut butter and jelly.  Good choice.

"What?!  Don't tell me you've decided not to play for me!"

"No, no...I still want to play for Jefferson.  It's just that, well...I've
got an injury that's going to keep me out of physical stuff for about 3
weeks."  He seemed to brighten up a bit after I told him I was going to
still play and he wasn't as disappointed as I would have thought after I
broke the news to him.

"Well, that's not too bad, Brandon.  We don't play our first game yet for
two weeks, and it'll probably take you that long to get used to playing in
a real game setting.  You'll miss our opening game, but I'm sure Jack will
fill in fine for you.  You still need to come to practice, though.  We'll
just take it easy."  I nodded.

"Of course, Coach."

"How are you getting along with the rest of the team?  They treating you
all right?"  I was getting on fine with them.  I guess I had earned their
respect pretty quickly.  Well, except for their previous quarterback who
seemed intent on making sure I was miserable.  I didn't want to mention
this to the coach as it would make me seem like some sort of tattle tale.

"We're getting along fine, Coach.  Good group of guys."

"Well, I guess now's a good time for this little speech."  Uh oh.  "You're
going to be the leader of the team on and off the field.  It's up to you to
make sure they are on top of their game.  You need to lead by example.
Don't get into any trouble.  You seem like a good kid, so I'm not really
worried too much."  I nodded and told him I would be good and that I would
keep an eye on the team.  Our next practice was Monday afternoon, and I
told him I would be there.

The last two classes passed quickly.  Justin wasn't in school today, so I
didn't have to deal with that particular problem until after the weekend,
something I was very grateful for.  I met Meric by his locker and we walked
out to the parking lot together to wait on whichever of his parents was
coming to pick us up today.  On the way, I filled him in on what Coach
Thomas had told me.  He nodded in agreement to the little speech I had been
given.

"Quarterback is an important position," he said as we sat down outside.
"Have to be in control all the time."  I nodded.

Mrs. Kinney pulled up shortly after that and we piled in.  After confirming
that we had indeed had a good day, Meric turned on the radio.  We didn't
have that much time, since the doctor's appointment was very soon.  We
stopped briefly by the house to drop Meric and our bags off.  I hopped into
the front seat and we hurried to the medical complex that was near the
house.

"Dr. Norris is a good man.  He's been our family doctor a while now.  I had
to tell him that you had been shot, but didn't go into any details.  He
won't ask, either, so you don't have to worry about that."  To tell the
truth, I had been a little worried that I would have to explain what had
happened.

"Ah the newest addition to my favorite family of clients," Dr. Norris said
as we entered his office a short while later.  He had several framed
certificates on the wall and with his white coat and glasses definitely
looked the part.  I smiled a little.  "Come on into the examining room and
let's see what we got here."

I sat down on the raised bed that all medical examination rooms seem to
have and took off my shirt at his request.  He spent a few minutes checking
my vitals, and then focused in on the right side of my chest, poking every
now and then and asking "Does this hurt?"  He finished his exam and pulled
out a file folder from a cabinet and spent a few minutes looking through
it, nodding to himself.

"Well, Brandon.  After looking at the results from some tests and such from
the hospital in Greenville and doing the exam here, I think you're going to
be just fine.  You just need to give it a rest for about three weeks, which
I think you already know.  I heard that you are going to be playing on the
Jefferson football team, but you need to take it easy for a while."

"Thanks, Doctor.  I knew about that and already told my coach that I
couldn't do anything physical for three weeks.  Do you have any idea why
that one thing made it hurt so much, even after I had been doing other
stuff?"

"Well, you're actually a pretty quick healer from what I can tell.  It
looks like the tissue and everything in your chest was well on its way to
knitting itself back together.  It was slowly being weakened piece by piece
by you doing those things, until it finally got bad enough that you felt it
hurt.  That part of the chest can be very sensitive.  I'm amazed you didn't
notice the pain before then." "Well, I did notice it a little, but didn't
think much of it.  I guess that was pretty stupid of me."  He nodded, but
smiled.

"It's all right, just so long as you take care of it now.  It should still
heal fine.  But no football!  Now, put your shirt back on and go enjoy your
weekend.  I've got a son that goes to Jefferson, so maybe I'll see you play
sometime.  Lord knows that team could use some help."

"I'll look forward to it, Doctor Norris.  Thanks!"

Mrs. Kinney was waiting for me out in his office.  I filled her in on what
he had said, which really wasn't anything new, but it was good to get a
professional opinion and to know that nothing was permanently damaged.  Our
next stop was the police station, which I wasn't looking forward to at all.
We spent about 30 minutes there filling out a report and giving a
description of my father to one of the detectives on duty.  He told us that
he would be in touch with the department back in Greenville and would keep
us updated as soon as he heard something.

When we finally got back to the house, it was about 5:30 and I realized I
was very hungry.  Mrs. Kinney told me she'd have dinner ready about 6:30,
something light since we'd probably be eating at the party, and I headed
upstairs to find Striker and Meric.

I knocked softly on the door to Meric's room when I got there, but didn't
get a response.  I slowly opened the door and looked inside.  He was draped
across his bed asleep. Striker had thrown himself across Meric's
midsection, and was contentedly rising and falling with Meric's light
breathing.  I smiled and closed the door quietly, hoping not to wake them
up.  He had a bit longer to sleep and we'd probably need all our energy for
the party tonight.

***

It was a little after 7:40 when we pulled into the driveway of the Zegus
household.  They had a really nice house, even nicer than the Kinneys.  I
couldn't see exactly how much land they had as they had a fence blocking
most of the backyard from view.  There were already a few cars here,
probably from older students who could drive themselves.  Meric and I were
getting pretty close to being able to do that, and I was really looking
forward to it.  Maybe I could even get a job and get myself a car.  We
stepped out of the 4Runner and waved goodbye to Mr. Kinney, reaffirming
that we would be ready to go at 11:30.

I glanced over at Meric as we walked up the driveway to the front door.  He
was wearing a long sleeve light blue and white shirt from Abercrombie over
a solid blue shirt.  His dark brown shoes looked really good with the dark
but well worn jeans he was wearing.  It was actually a little chilly
because of the cold front passing through, so I had dressed a little warmer
than usual as well.  I had on a white turtleneck sweater and jeans similar
to Meric's.  I thought we looked pretty good, and we should, considering we
had spent the better part of 30 minutes picking out the outfits.  Add that
to the time spent in the shower, shaving and getting our hair just right,
it had been quite an ordeal.  As a teenager, any social event called for
such intense preparation.

I barely finished knocking on the door when it was flung open.  Jennifer
stood on the other side, framed by the light hanging overhead in the foyer.
She was...beautiful.

"Hi guys!  So glad you could make it!  Come on in, there's already a few
people here down in the game room."  We followed her inside and downstairs
to the basement.  I could feel the bass of the music playing long before we
actually got near enough to make out the rest of the song.  I didn't
recognize it, but I wasn't exactly up on the latest party music, either.
There were three people already there playing pool and another couple
talking over by the bar.  Wait, what?  The bar?  Uh oh.  I guess I should
have expected this, but it was still a surprise.  Meric headed off to the
pool table to see if he could join in, leaving me alone with Jennifer.  I'd
have to remember to get him back for this later.

"So, let me show you around, Brandon.  Do you want something to drink?"
She had walked over to the bar and gone around behind it.  She pulled out a
large bottle of vodka, and was mixing herself a drink.

"Uh, just some water please."  She seemed disappointed I didn't want to
join her in something stronger.

"You sure?  My parents don't care.  They bought this stuff for us."  Sound
like great people.  I shook my head and took my bottled water from her.
Taking her own drink, we headed around the room, first introducing me to
the people that were already there.  I had seen most of them in the hallway
at school at one time or another, and they all seemed to know me.  She took
me back upstairs and showed me the rest of the house, as well as the back
yard, complete with large swimming pool and deck.  It really was a nice
house, and I told her as much.

"Thank you, Brandon!  You're such a nice guy.  I'm glad you could be here!"
I smiled and looked down.  Oh boy, she had already finished her drink.  I
had a feeling that it wasn't her first, and wouldn't be the last.  This
night might get interesting.

We ended up back downstairs after greeting a few more people at the
doorway.  Bryce showed up about 15 minutes after Meric and I had.  When we
answered the door, he seemed surprised to see me with Jennifer's arm around
my waist (this had happened almost immediately after we had been alone).
He didn't say anything though, and we followed him downstairs to rejoin the
party.  She had to go back upstairs occasionally to let more people in, and
by the time the party was in full swing, there were easily 40 people there.
I recognized quite a few of the guys from the football team, and we talked
a bit about me missing the first game and the status of the team in
general.  They seemed genuinely excited that I was going to be their QB
this season.  Everyone seemed to be having a good time.  About 8:45, the
doorbell rang again.  Jennifer seemed surprised that someone would show up
this late.  She didn't seem very sure of herself when it came to moving
about, having downed at least two more drinks, so I offered to go let the
person in.  If I had known it was Jack, I wouldn't have been so eager.

"Oh...you're here," he said by way of greeting.  I nodded but didn't say
anything else.  I closed the door behind him and pointed towards the
staircase that led to the basement.  He headed down and immediately went to
go hang out with a group of football players.  I was next up on the pool
table, and was looking forward to making a fool of myself.  Sure enough, I
managed to sink the white ball more times than anything else, but it was
all in good fun.  Just about everyone seemed to be drinking alcohol of some
sort.  I noticed that Meric wasn't participating, as well as Tom and Bryce
from the team.  They seemed to disapprove very much of their teammates
drinking, but didn't bring it up.  It had probably been argued about often
in the past.  Since there were still two weeks until the first game, I
figured I'd not worry about it too much.  Once we were playing, though, I'd
have to have a word with them.  Coach Thomas had put his trust in me to be
the leader, and I was going to do my best.

The one person drinking that I was worried about was Jack.  He seemed to be
the kind of person that got angry when they were drunk, and he was getting
very loud.  Around 9:45 Jennifer turned down the music and got everyone's
attention.  Apparently she wanted us to play a game together.  It just so
happened that she had a giant twister pad, easily large enough for all of
us to play on.  I wasn't too interested in contorting my body given the way
my side was feeling, so I offered to be the person deciding which body
parts would go where.  Jennifer seemed pretty disappointed that she wasn't
going to get to rub up against me, but I was pretty sure she'd think of
another way to accomplish her goal.  By this time Jack was pretty well
drunk and was getting even louder.  A few people had moved to the other
side of the mat away from him.

The game looked to actually be a lot of fun and I was sorry that I wasn't
able to participate.  But, it was amusing to watch people try to stay up,
especially considering most of them probably couldn't see straight.
Everything seemed to be going well until I heard a scream from the opposite
side of the mat.

"Get...off!"  I didn't recognize the voice, but it definitely belonged to a
girl.  Everyone had stood up to see what was going on, so I had to move
around the outside of the mat to see for myself.  I wasn't ready for what I
saw.  Jack was lying on top of some girl I didn't know and was trying to
kiss her.  Everyone seemed to be frozen in place, so I quickly moved down
there to help.  I grabbed Jack by the shoulders and pulled him off.  He had
been holding onto the shirt the girl was wearing, and part of it ripped
off, showing her bra.  He stumbled backwards, unable to stop himself in his
drunken state, and he fell over backwards with a loud "oof."  I turned
quickly to see if the girl was all right.  Jennifer had moved over by then
and had given the girl a jacket to put on over her ripped shirt.

I turned back to face Jack just as his fist connected with my jaw.  My head
snapped back and I stumbled, finally dropping to one knee to steady myself.

"Don't you ever touch me again, asshole.  Who do you think you are, coming
in here and taking my team?"  It was kinda hard to understand what he was
saying as his words were pretty slurred, but I got the general idea.  I
knew everyone was watching us.  I needed to be very careful about how I
handled this.

"Look Jack, I was just trying to help this girl.  She didn't want you doing
what you were doing."

"Mind your own business!"  He seemed to think that any more words were
unnecessary and took an unsteady step forward, trying to hit me again.  I
stepped aside pretty easily and he just fell over onto the carpeted floor.
He moaned a couple times and then threw up.  I just shook my head in
disgust, and turned to face Jennifer.

"I think the party's over, Jennifer."  She had a very surprised look on her
face, but she nodded slowly in agreement.  Everyone was shocked at what had
happened.  A line formed as some of the kids placed phone calls to parents
to come pick them up early.  Meric walked over to me and patted me on the
shoulder.

"I think you handled that pretty well," he said.  I nodded, still keeping
an eye on Jack.  He seemed to have passed out lying in a pool of his own
vomit.  The girl he had been groping was sitting in a chair quietly crying.
I pointed her out to Meric, who immediately went over and sat next to her.
If anyone could calm her down, he was the one.

***

Meric and I were the last two people to leave the party.  I wanted to make
sure that Jennifer and the other girl, whose name was Theresa, were going
to be all right.  One of the football players had agreed to take Jack home,
and I knew that I was going to have to deal with that one on Monday.  We
told Mr. Kinney about what had happened on our ride back to the house, and
he agreed with Meric that I had handled the situation pretty well.  I had
promised myself that morning that I was going to take it easy this day, but
I guess it just wasn't in the cards for me to have an easy day.  I took a
shower when we got back to the house and crawled into bed, glad the week
was over.

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

Well, long time no see, eh?  It's been about 3 months since I posted a
chapter for this story.  I've been incredibly busy with school and other
things in life, and I apologize for such a long delay, especially
considering the cliffhanger I left at the end of chapter 4.  I can't
promise anything about when the next chapter will be up, but it certainly
won't be three months.

As always, I would love to hear from all of you.  You can e-mail me at
brendell83@yahoo.com or IM me on AIM or YahooIM at Brendell83.  I love to
chat, so feel free to contact me if you want to.  As a new thing, I started
up a livejournal where I will try to post updates on the story as well as
discuss interesting things I come across in the news or elsewhere.  You can
find that at "http://www.livejournal.com/users/brendell"

Until next time

~Isaiah