Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 15:22:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: John Meyers <johnmeyerz36@yahoo.com>
Subject: The Tragedy of Daniel and Jake Chapter 5

The Tragedy of Daniel and Jake
Chapter 5
By John Meyers

Disclaimer: Okay, this story involves an ever evolving gay teenager
romance, if this offends you, I think you need to take a look at the site
your on and start deleting your history and sign yourself up for
therapy... Anyway, I don't own anything copyrighted or trademarked that I
may have mentioned, including songs and artists. This story also involves
mild mentioning of non violent child abuse. If this offends you... that's
actually a good thing, because child abuse should offend you, but that
doesn't mean you shouldn't read the story. Also, if reading this kind of
material breaks any laws in your area, you should probably not read it. I'm
just saying, you never know who's spying on your computer. Really, you
don't. Oh, and uh, if you're not of legal age to read this material where
you are, you're breaking the law, so don't do that. There, now I can't get
in trouble when you get in trouble for reading this because we both know
you're not going to stop reading this just because some text on a screen
tells you not to. Just saying, anyway, I believe this is where I tell you
to read the story or something... So... Read the story............,.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

To Recap: It's Sunday, Jan 24, the day after Danny's birhday party. Mark
and Jake are both in the hospital. Jake was in a terrible car crash, Mark
was beaten up by Danny's friends Devin and Isaac. Daniel blames himself for
Jake's car crash because Jake was txting Danny while driving. Mark was
beaten up because he punched Eli, who now has a broken nose and stayed the
night at Danny's house. Although, his injuries don't seem all that
important when you take into account that we found out that Eli's parents
are horrible, making him essentially a slave for 3 years. Right now Danny
and his mom just found out about just how bad Eli's parents are, which is
where we're picking up...
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Danny's POV

	"What did you say?" My voice cracked. Eli just stood there, holding
the frying pan, while an egg slithered around on it, still partly in it's
shell. Tears were streaming down his face and I could feel heatwaves come
off my mom from anger. He opened his mouth several times like he wanted to
speak but no sounds came out. My mom took the pan from his hands and turned
off the stove.

	"Eli," She didn't seem to have the words, hell I didn't have the
words, but the amount of concern in her voice was overwhelming, even to me
and I wasn't even what it was directed at. I didn't have words, but hugged
him instead. He felt stiff, at first he didn't seem to know what was
happening, but then he hugged me back, burying his face in my shoulder. I
felt the tension evaporate out of his back and the tears soaking through my
shirt. He was in danger of breaking me in half from hugging me so hard.

	"Eli?" Tyler's voice rang out behind us, reminding us of his
presence, without another word my mom walked over and told him to go up to
his room. "But mom, I don't want to!" I slowly unlatched myself from Eli
and went over to him.

	"Come on, time to go upstairs." I hoisted him up and took him up
the stairs, wondering what mom must've been saying to him while the stairs
creaked beneath me.

	"Why's Eli crying?" Tyler asked me, he's way too young to be
exposed to this kind of stuff. I felt a tear roll down my cheek while I
went over what I should say.

	"Because his parents aren't like mom is with us." Yeah,
understatement of the year. "Stay up here for now, ok? I think mom and I
are going to talk to Eli." This wouldn't be easy and I tried to get him to
understand but even then, you can't expect everything to work out
perfectly.

	"But I don't want to stay in my room!" He whined, clearly wanting
to know what was going on.

	"How 'bout if you stay up here I'll talk to mom about letting you
have a friend over tonight?" I knew that'd get him.

	"Okay." He went and turned on his tv so I shut the door and went
back down the stairs, creak, creak, creak. When I got down they were both
over on the couch. Eli had his face buried in his hands and my mom was
talking, whisper quiet, to him.

	"I'm sorry." Eli wiped the tears out of his eyes. "I shouldn't have
dumped this on you, I just had a moment. I'll head back now." He went to
get up but I put my hand on his shoulder.

	"Like hell you are, you're not going back there if I have any say
so in it." He just looked at me oddly, like he couldn't believe what he was
hearing.

	"This isn't your problem." The emotion was clearly threatening to
overwhelm him again. He turned to plead to my mom but she obviously thought
the same as I did. He sat back down, and closed his eyes and ran his hand
through his hair. He looked about ten years older when he did that, the
stress clearly revealing itself. What do they do to him?

	"Eli, I know you don't want to, but you need to tell someone what's
going on." My mom pleaded with him. "If not us then someone, anyone else,
but you can't go back there. Your parents are-"

	"Don't call them that!" His eyes sprang open and for the briefest
of moments the pain disappeared and his eyes were instead filled with pure,
undeniable hate. Good, I thought. At least he's not under delusions. "Those
people may be related to me, but they are not my 'parents'." He spat out
the word like a nasty swear and his face twisted into a sneer. My mom
looked like she was about to cry, but she had to keep it together, for Eli.

	"Would you be willing to talk to someone?" I could hear the
desperation in her voice, begging him to tell someone something.

	"Mam, this is just a huge mess." He addressed my mom. He never said
'mam'. Well, bar the "Yes mam, no mam." "I've thought about it so much that
I don't think talking would do anyone any good. I just think I need to get
back before things are worse." He looked me in the eyes, silently asking me
to step aside. I think I managed to communicate clearly that I wasn't
budging. "Look, this isn't your problem! I appreciate what you're trying to
do, really I do. But I really don't think talking to anyone would do any
good. Noone else knows, and I'd like it to stay that way."

	"But sweetheart, knows what? The only thing you've told us is that
they never asked if you wanted any of the food you made. Eli, that's bad
enough but from what I can gather it's a lot worse than that. Neither of us
is letting you go back there any time soon." She put her hand on his
shoulder. However emotional he was before, he looked completely calm now,
and that worried me.

	"Miss Eliza, I really need to get home." He made to get up again
but I put my hand on his shoulder and lightly sat him back down. I took the
seat next to him, putting my arm around his shoulders.

	"You're not going back there." She looked at me. "But, we've got to
go to the hospital and visit Jake and Mark, so you're coming with us." My
mom stood up, dropping the issue, making it impossible for him to keep
arguing. "We'll leave for the hospital in about an hour, you can shower and
everything upstairs." She gave him a comforting smile before going back to
the kitchen, putting dishes in the sink.

	"I can do that!" Eli quickly got up. I briefly wondered if this
behavior had been so far engrained in his mind that it became compulsory.

	"The only thing you're going to do is take a shower and relax. I've
got it honey." She started washing the frying pan.

	"Towels are in the linen cupboard." I stood up as well. Eli looked
sheepishly at me.

	"I kinda don't have any clothes. I wasn't expecting to stay the
night and everythi-"

	"No problem, I'm sure I've got plenty that'll fit you in my
closet." I took the stairs two at a time to find him something, not even
realizing that he wasn't following me until I got to the top of the
stairs. I went back down, creak, creak, creak. "You coming?" Eli was still
standing there, looking at me with the oddest look on his face. It was
somewhere between uncertainty and incredulity. "You okay?" He snapped out
of it.

	"Yeah! Uh, yeah, I'm fine." He smiled and it didn't even look
forced. I saw the first bits of light creep back into his hazel eyes. He
followed me back up the stairs and I started pulling shirts off of the
rack, hangars and all. I took three pairs of jeans and set them on my bed
too. I looked over all of them and picked up an orange American Eagle shirt
and held it up to him with some Abercrombie jeans. No no, go darker with
the jeans. I pulled a darker wash and held it up to him. Much better, but
get a different shirt. I thought about it for a second, absorbed in my own
little world, then it hit me and I picked up the only pink shirt in my
wardrobe. Holding them both up to him I couldn't help but smile.

	"Awesome." My thoughts bled over into speech. "If you need
underwear, my mom keeps several packs for unexpected guests. Don't ask me
where she got the idea, but they're completely unused. They're in a drawer
above the washing machine." I got him a towel and put it on the bathroom
counter. He was looking through two different unopened packs of underwear,
one were boxers, the other were boxer briefs. "Those'd look great on you."
I came up behind him, scaring him. His face turned red and he laughed.

	"Now you see, THAT'S flirting." He laughed, picking a pair of black
boxer briefs.

	"Alright, just leave me some hot water and tell me when you're
done." I walked back down the stairs as he shut the bathroom door. When I
got down I found my mom watching the news. She quickly turned it off when I
got down. "What are we going to do?" I suppose there wasn't any other
question that needed to be asked really. Just the one. She sighed deeply,
thinking, obviously.

	"I don't know. We need to tell someone. Child Services perhaps?
Except that even then I don't know what would happen. He might be moved
away." She looked at me. I think I knew what she was going to say before
she ever even said it. "We could see about him moving in with us." I
thought about it, and I knew I couldn't be fair. Part of me wanted Eli to
stay here, but at the same time, I didn't know how that would work. With
both of us being gay, my mom being a single parent, recently divorced too,
and her supporting two children already... "I suppose I could talk to
Clark."

	Ah Clark. Clark is my mom's current boyfriend. He's great. He's
pretty cool, has an eleven year old son of his own. He doesn't live in
Arkansas though. He lives out in Virginia doing work for the
Navy. Apparently he's retired, about 5 years older than my mom. They both
went to the same school together when they were younger, though of course,
he was in a different grade. He'd already offered to send us money every
month, what with my mom being divorced and supporting us and everything. My
mom of course, declined. He went through a pretty bad divorce a few years
ago, apparently he's still paying for it, and yeah, I mean that in the
financial way. His ex, was a huge gold digging bitch.

	"What should we tell Eli?" I needed to know what I was free to say
around him.

	"Don't say anything to him yet. I need to know what's going to
happen before we tell him anything. Did you see the way he kept looking at
us? It's like he hasn't had anyone care for him. At all." My mom had this
look in her eyes like she wanted to kill someone. I could bet I knew who
that was.

	"When he jumped up like that, I started wondering if his behavior
has become compulsive. Like, I wondered if we're going to wake up in the
middle of the night to find him taking out the trash or something." The
image flashed through my mind, of him, and that look that screamed, "THAT'S
MY JOB".

	"He needs to talk to someone, and I don't know who he'll talk
to. You're his friend, he may try to talk to you, or feel more comfortable
talking to you." I knew what she was trying to say.

	"Do you think I need to try to get him to open up?" I personally
thought he needed to as well, but I wasn't sure it wouldn't just make him
mad or uncomfortable with me trying to get him to talk.

	"Carefully, yes. Maybe talk about it tonight. I'll go by his house
and get his school things and some of his clothes later today." I thought
about it, coming up with an idea.

	"Okay, I think I can do that. I'm going to see if he's out yet." I
walked back up the stairs, creak, creak, creak. I listened through the
door. The showers still going. I walked into my room and into my own little
heat bubble. I began wondering if Eli thought it was too hot while I picked
up the duvet off the floor and threw it back on my bed. He probably didn't
care. I got the aforementioned orange shirt that I'd tried out on Eli and
got my other pair of dark washed jeans. I went over and started up Pandora
on my iPod. Without even thinking about it while going through my underwear
drawer I started lightly stomping my feet and singing along.

	"Few times I been around that track so it's not just gonna hap-pen
like that, cuz I ain't no hollaback girl-l." I knew it had no place
whatsoever, but in all honesty, this was one of my favorite songs of all
time. Most of my favorite songs came from the mid to late 90's and the
early 00's, having been so young around that time, a lot of them remind me
of when I was really little. A lot of the songs from that time period I
really enjoy. I was dancing a little in front of my underwear drawer, going
through several pairs before finally deciding on a pair of boxer briefs
that were blue and said, "Half man-Half Horse" On the front of them. "I
heard that you were talking shit, and you didn't think that I would hear
it. People hear you talking like that gettin' everybody fired up." I didn't
even hear the floor creak. "So I'm ready to attack, gonna lead the pack,
gonna get a touchdown, gonna take you ou- Ooout!" I turned around to find
Eli standing there in just a towel, smiling while laughing at me. The music
was still playing and my face was probably more red than a tomatoe.

	"Those'd look great on you." He mocked me from earlier, his smile
revealing those pearly white teeth. Water droplets were clinging to his
skin and his hair was plastered against his forehead, framing his eyes. He
was surprisingly muscular for someone so small. He wasn't bulky, but he was
really toned, he even had the faintest outline of a 6 pack. Even I only had
a flat stomach, which I maintain I'm fine with, but damn! I felt Mini Me
coming to life in my pants and I quickly balled up the underwear in my
hand, obscuring the provagative message on them. "I just forgot my clothes
in here." He went to grab them but I stopped him.

	"Don't worry about it, I'm bout to hop in the shower." (and take
care of a certain problem while I'm in there.) "You can change in here." I
quickly grabbed my pants and shirt and walked past him into the bathroom,
quickly shutting the door. I turned the nozzles and took off my clothes, my
(now close to rock hard) cock practically jumped out of my underwear. Damn
you Eli! I felt the water and hopped in.

	I quickly adjusted the nozzle on the shower head so it was on the
massaging feature, and then I carefully aimed it so it was hitting me hard
right above my ass. It had taken a few weeks, but I'd finally found out the
exact right place to aim it. I poured some of my body wash in my hand and
slowly worked it into my cock, my hand moving up and down the hard organ. I
took a step forward, and instantly felt my legs get weak as the water
started hitting me right on target. Images of Eli flashed through my
mind. First it was Eli with the towel in my bedroom, I ran over every
detail, using it to imagine what he must look like under that towel. I saw
toned legs, with a dusting of blonde hair, the images flew through my mind,
noting how he didn't have any hair on his chest or stomach, which likely
meant he didn't have any hair "down there" so to speak, either. I thought
about what his cock must look like, though I didn't get much further than
that because no sooner had I thought about it did I feel that familiar
tingling in the back of my balls, and then... BAM! Boiling hot cum flew out
of my cock like they were trying to hit the moon, plastering the shower
wall. I rested against the side wall, catching my breath. Damn you Eli.

	I washed off my now overly sensitive cock, and moved the shower
head so it sprayed off the wall. And then I finished up washing my hair and
body and got out. It was at this point that I realized that in my rush to
get in the shower and away from Eli that I... yeah, you guessed it. Forgot
my towel. I eased open the door slowly, looking around outside. I crept the
three feet to the linen cupboard and opened up the door. I'd just gotten a
towel down when my door, which is basically right in front of the linen
cupboard, (and when I say that I mean that it's only a few inches away from
it) flew open and Eli, who didn't even register that I was there,
walked. right. into. me. We collided, sending both of us sprawling onto the
floor. Thank god the towel fell where it did, though it did just barely,
basically covering from about an inch to the right of my, "family jewels",
so to speak, and nearly my entire left leg, leaving my entire right leg and
pretty much my entire waist, along with my whole upper body completely
visible. I swear I was a thousand times more red than I was before. I
quickly pulled the towel around me. "Sorry. Oh crap I'm so fricking sorry,
I didn't hear you come out, I- I thought you were in the bathroom." Eli
quickly got up, covering his eyes. I got back on my feet, barely keeping
the towel around my waist.

	"It's fine Eli, I just forgot my towel, and now I have it, so I'll
just," I made sure my towel was fastened. "Get back and change." I turned
and ran smack into a wall.

	"Danny!"

	"Nah, nah I'm fine." I smiled awkwardly, one hand pressed to my
forehead. "I hit my head all the time, I'm fine." I shot him a smile again,
backing into the bathroom, and shutting the door. FUCK! Fuck! Just Frickin'
A! God dammit! I'm so damn stupid. Here we are trying to open up our home
to him, and I go and make him so frickin' uncomfortable- Dammit all! I sank
to the floor. Damn this is going to be difficult.
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Eli's POV

	I went down the stairs, spaced out the whole time. I came this
close! This fricking close! Ugh, I can't do that anymore. I've got to be
more careful. What if I'd come out of his room and he was naked!? Like
things aren't awkward enough already. Hell, I almost think it'd be easier
if I just went back to John and Stacy. Is it better to feel constantly
awkward, or constantly resentful? Those were my choices. I knew what they'd
do. They're too nice not to. The question was, 'Do I even 'want' to stay?'
Do I want to go and be driven like a slave by those two, certainly
not. But, I still don't think it would be right to have them deal with
that. I've got so much frickin' emotional baggage from John and Stacy, that
I'm pretty sure I could fill more than my share of Uhauls with all of
it. They didn't deserve to have to deal with me. As I was walking down the
stairs Ms. Eliza-, sorry, 'Elizabeth' was walking up the stairs.

	"Oh don't mind me, I'm just going to put my hair up and put a
little make-up on. Is Danny out of the shower?" I'm pretty sure she knew
that he was out. She's probably trying to make me more comfortable.

	"Yeah, he came out not too long ago, but he just forgot his towel
so he's still changing."

	"Okay, I shouldn't be too long, then we can head over to the
hospital."

	I continued down the stairs and looked around again. I saw
something on the bookshelf. I don't know how I didn't see it before, but it
was a picture. It was us at his eighth grade party. We were at the
rollerskating place. We'd both already put on our rollerskates and I was
clearly none too balanced. Him though, he was amazing. He was more at home
on rollerskates than he was on feet I think. We were both standing there
and we had our arms around eachothers' shoulders. He was supporting me
partially and I kinda needed to be supported, but we were smiling like
idiots... Like we didn't have a care in the world. I was to learn later
that I did indeed have many cares in the world, that smiling like that mere
hours before was very unwise because it was repaid a hundredfold with
grimaces and sweat and labor. I no longer saw the picture of Danny and I, I
saw the picture of John and Stacy. My lips curled in a sneer and I was
doing my best to glare a hole in them from here. I found myself clenching
my fists when I snapped out of it. Fuck it. I knew it was selfish. I knew I
had no right to, but when they finally did ask me later... I'm going to say
yes. And not because I couldn't handle living with those two, but because
after three years of that horseshit... I think I deserve some
downtime. After three year of-

	"Do you remember that?" Holy shit! I practically jumped out of my
skin and turned to see Danny standing there.

	"Do you think you might try 'not' to scare me to death?" He was
laughing.

	"Sorry, I just figured I owed you after the whole party thing." He
wore that shit eating grin so well. "My mom told me she'd be down in about
five minutes and Tyler's getting dressed too." Okay. "I figured we could
watch something or another."

	"Sure, I think the news is on." He smiled at me oddly and turned on
the news. It was something about the recession.

	"How do you feel Obama's handling the economic crisis?" Danny
sounded a little sarcastic when he asked, but I knew he was a die-hard
liberal democrat. He's only sarcastic because he meant it to be funny.

	"I think he's doing the best that he can with what he has to work
with. I mean, let's be fair, it's not like we were in the best of
situations when Bush left office, so it's not like he really had a whole
lot to work with." I saw Danny nod, smiling.

	"Exactly. It's good to have someone else who sees that. It's all
too often that I hear people blaming Obama for everything, but a lot of
people seem to be oddly absent about realizing this situation started
before Obama."

	"Yeah. Although, come on Danny. Go ahead."

	"What're you talking about?"

	"We both know you're not going to leave off on this discussion one
sided. Just go ahead and say something for Bush so we can move on." He
huffed and crossed his arms, but I could see the gears in his head
turning. He'd obviously thought of something, but he was keeping it to
himself. "Oh come on, don't leave us hanging."

	"Come on boys." Mo-, I mean, Danny's mom came down the stairs. I
have got to stop doing that. Tyler ran down the stairs behind her. Danny
hopped up and I followed him, but as he was passing by Tyler he swooped
down and grabbed Tyler around the waist and put him over his shoulder, not
even breaking his gait. Tyler was laughing and screaming and Elizabeth just
rolled her eyes. Is this what their day to day life is like? It all felt
strangely alienating as we all walked out to the car and we rode to the
hospital.
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Danny's POV

	Good lord! I turned the radio station. No way am I listening to,
"Ca-Li-fornia Girls, we're undeniable!" I hated that song. I turned it on
my iPod.

	"Ooo Yeah, yeah!... I got a pocket, got a pocket full of sunshine!"
I loved this song though. It's super annoying but,

	"Eli, did Danny ever tell you that he can do this song in sign
language?" My mom glanced at me and we both smiled devilishly. She smiled
because 'she' brought it up. I smiled because I was very proud of that
particular skill. It took for freaking ever, but I learned how to sign that
song as a joke. I walked into journalism one day and that song came on, and
I swear to God I'm not one for attention, but when it came on I started
doing the signs, and of course someone asked me. When I told them that I
was, in fact, being serious, I went through the whole song. Albeit, more
slowly than she sings it, but then again it's much harder to sign quickly
than it is to sing quickly. That was my thing last year. Every person in
all my classes wanted me to do it and teach them.

	"I heard about it, but he never actually showed me." I hit the
rewind button and did the song for him in sign language, though I had to
stop to hit pause when the song was over before I could finish. We arrived
at the hospital and my mom got directions to Mark's room. We got up there
and Eli stopped as he got out of the elevator.

	"He probably doesn't want me in his room." I looked at his nose,
which was still swollen, though admittedly I wasn't expecting it to change
overnight.

	"He'll just have to get over it." I put my arm on his back and
guided him down the long white hallway to Mark's room. When we got in his
parents were in there. His dad shot me a furious look as I came in.

	"Out! Get out of my son's room! He rose from his chair, advancing
on me.

	"Arthur!" His wife yelled at him. "It wasn't this boys fault that
Mark is like this so CONTROL YOURSELF!" Arthur turned to his wife and his
anger seemed to be drawn out of his face. Now he just looked old. Old and
tired.

	"Sorry." He grumbled from the side of his mouth while he took his
seat again. Mark stirred, his eyes opening as he groggily took in everyone
there. He smiled at me.

	"Three times I've woken up since last night." He motioned to his
parents. "All three times it's been them yelling." Lisa and Mark looked
mildly incredulous and very guilty. His eyes caught Eli and they got big
and I think he started sweating. "H-Hey Eli." The nervousness in his voice
was tangible. "How's your nose?" Eli laughed slightly.

	"Mending, though you gave it your all didn't you?" He laughed
nervously. Mark's dad looked at Eli in a new light.

	"So you're the kid Mark punched?" He stood up.

	"Yes sir, but really it's nothing." Eli seemed nervous around
Mark's dad. Arthur extended his hand.

	"For what it's worth." They shook hands quickly. "I'm very sorry
about everything that's happened." Eli looked shocked, to say the least.

	"No- no problem, sir." Arthur went and sat back down. Lisa looked
just as shocked as Eli did.

	"So we never found out why it happened?" He was clearly wanting
answers.

	"Well-" I began but Mark cut me off.

	"Maybe I should discuss that with my parents in private." Mark
wasn't looking at them. He was looking straight at me. Straight at me with
the oddest look on his face. I couldn't quite decipher it, but I definitely
detected hints of guilt. "Y'all can go visit Jake while I do." I got that
hint. He wanted somewhere where they wouldn't be overheard.

	"Sounds good. Guys?" I walked out of the room, hearing them follow
me slowly.

	"What was that about?" Eli caught up to me. I thought for a second,
but nothing came to mind.

	"No idea."
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Mark's POV

	As they walked out my parents looked at me. I could barely meet
their eyes. Good God this is going to be hard. "Mom, Dad, there's something
I never told you about Daniel... Something that sort of explains why I
punched Eli. You see, a few months ago, Danny told us.-" I broke off. I
sighed deeply, trying to calm myself. "Danny told-" Why the fuck is this so
hard?! "Dannytoldeveryonehewasgay!" It all came out so fast it may as well
have been one word. My mom looked at me with widening eyes and the most
shocked of looks on her face, my dad just looked confused.

	"What did you say? Stop mumbling." DAMMIT! Now I've got to do it
again. I steeled myself, preparing to speak slowly.

	"Danny's gay." My dad did a double take and his lip curled.

	"When you say 'gay'?"

	"I mean, homosexual, dad." Frickin A. "And, uh, so is Eli." Now he
looked even more pissed. He looked at his hand, the one he'd shook Eli's
with, and immediately jumped over to the sanitizer sprayer and squirted
about 15 squirts into his hands, rubbing it in furiously.

	"So you mean they're both faggots?" His eyes were firey and he
seemed to be fighting against the urge to sneer.

	"No, I mean they're both gay, and no. They're not gay, 'together'."
My dad was pacing around the room, still rubbing the excess sanitizer into
his hands.

	"How long have you known?"

	"Well, Danny came out in October, but I've known since before then,
and as for Eli.. I've kind of always known. He never made a great effort to
hide it."

	"So you mean that you've known for months! And you're still around
them!" I could see the muscles in my dad's arms and chest tensing with
rage. "Is that why you punched that kid, because he's a fag? Forget about
your punishment! I don't think I've ever been more proud." My dad had a
maniacal smile on his face. He looked like a KKK member who'd just been
told that Black History Month had been cancelled. I looked at my dad with
disgust.

	"No, I did not hit Eli because he was gay! I hit him because I was
angry!"

	"Because he tried something with you? I'll have him thrown in jail
for sexual harrassment."

	"No, dad, just listen! I punched him because I saw Eli with his arm
around Danny."

	"And it disgusted you?"

	"NO! It made me angry, but not disgusted. I was angry because, I
guess after all this time of knowing, and Danny being like a little brother
to me, I got protective and I punched him."

	"You can't be hanging around these people any more! They're
corrupting you! I can tell! The fags are getting to you!"

	"Dad will you stop acting like a redneck for two seconds!"

	"You see! There it is! They're changing you!"
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Danny's POV

	When we got into Jake's room his parents were still there. His dad
was fast asleep in the chair next to his bed. His mom, however had just
gotten back from the cafeteria to get coffee.

	"He was awake the whole night, I only just a few minutes ago
convinced him to get some sleep." She'd taken the seat on the other side of
Jake's bed. She told us that the doctor had come in about a half hour ago
and checked Jake's pain medication. Apparently he'd woken up several times
during the night and had fallen asleep again just before Debra had gone to
get coffee. I looked at Jake's sleeping form, although I couldn't keep my
eyes off of the casts and bandages. "They say he'll make a full
recovery. Though they're not sure about his memory. They think he'll
eventually remember most of everything, but there may still be blindspots,
so to speak." She grabbed his hand, squeezing it concernedly. It struck me
that I wanted to do the same thing.

	"Do you know how long it'll be before he wakes up?" I studied the
IV in his left arm.

	"The doctors said it'll be a few hours. You could come back then, I
think he'll be awake." My mom said we would and we left. Part of me wanted
to stay but I just went along anyway. When we came back to Mark's room, I
felt the change in the atmosphere from how it had been when we left. Mark's
dad was glaring at Eli and I, and his mom couldn't look at either of
us. Mark himself looked more guilty than I ever thought him capable.

	"What? What's wrong?" Arthurs' lip curled and he stood up.

	"You know very well what's wrong you disgusting abomination!" I was
physically taken aback. What? I looked at Mark and he was torn between
looking at Eli and I. O.M.F.G. Did he really? I locked eyes with him,
attempting to silently communicate with him. But I guess it failed so I had
to say it.

	"Did you 'just' tell them?" Really!? How the frick could he do
that!?

	"Yes, but-"

	"Mark! Why! How could you wait all this time and not even tell ME
that you hadn't told them!" I felt betrayed, why didn't he tell them? Is he
ashamed of being my friend?

	"It never came up! Look, I just, it never really did! And you know
how I am, I can't just randomly blurt out, 'Hey mom and dad, Danny's gay.'"

	"How about when they asked you how the mall went that day? Did it
not even cross your mind to tell them THEN!?" It never came up was such a
lame fucking excuse.

	"I don't know! I just, I knew that they wouldn't take it well and
so I thought-"

	"No! No, you obviously didn't 'think'!" I felt the fire in my words
and IT WAS WELL DESERVED!! I was literally shaking with rage. "If you had,
maybe you'd have realized that when I came out, it obviously meant that I
didn't care about other people knowing!" Mark's dad butted in.

	"I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU HANGING AROUND MY SON AGAIN!!" I just
looked at him with the same look of disgust he was giving me. Then I turned
to Mark. I shouldn't. I don't need to, that's taking it too far. I was
seeing red.

	"You know what Arthur?" Don't you dare! If you say it I'll never
forgive you! "I don't think," YOU HAD BETTER NOT! "You'll have to worry"
FUCK YOU! "about me, 'ever' coming around your son again!" I turned and
pushed the door so hard it swung around and hit the wall before storming
out. The entire way to the elevator I heard Mark calling, "Danny! Danny,
I'm sorry!" I hit the button before any of the others could even get back,
watching the doors close I felt myself crying. Then I slid down the
elevator wall and just sat there, tears sliding down my face while I kept
thinking of how much I'd just hurt Mark...

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	So there's the end to this chapter. How do y'all think it went? Was
the ending a little predictable? I was writing, so I couldn't be a fair
judge on that point. Anyway, review to johnmeyerz36@yahoo.com Oh, and I
think I'll have one more chapter up in August. I'm getting busier and
busier with school coming up, what with all my medical books finally
showing up in the mail yesterday. Oh, by the way, did anyone catch the
comma in all the periods up in the disclaimer? If so, I'd love to know,
just as a curiosity. Thanks. So, have fun, don't text and drive, use
protection, and every other safety warning to all of you!