Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 07:51:37 -0400
From: Tom Cup <tom_cup@hotmail.com>
Subject: Of Our Teenaged Years - Chapter 11 -  Gay Y/F

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The Innocents: Paulo and Beto Chapter 11: Added 7/24
Of Our Teenage Years Chapter 16: Added 7/22
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Of Our Teenage Years
By Tom Cup
Chapter 11
Sorry

Sam lay on top of me. His right hand caressed my cheek below my injured eye.
His smile shined down on me with the radiant heat of the sun, warming me
inside and causing my face to glow with a smile. We rubbed noses.  He
whispered that he loved me. I giggled with affection. All seemed right with
the world. Then I heard the front door slam and Sharon's voice.

"Where is he?"

Sam rolled off me and both our eyes stared at my closed door. Heavy
footsteps echoed towards my room.

"Sharon," mom's voice trailed behind the thud, thud, thud, "He's all right.
It was just a silly accident."

Sam was standing. I was sitting staring at my door when it swung open.
Sharon hadn't even bothered to knock. She stood with one hand on the
doorknob and her mouth agape. Her wide eyes met mine, then searched Sam's
face before returning to me.

"Sharon," mom said, gazing bashfully over Sharon's shoulder, "You really
should knock before entering your brother's room."

"Mother!" Sharon snapped before taking a deep breath and lowering her tone,
"Mother, I need to talk to Gerald."

Mom put her hands on her hips as if she was going to put her motherly foot
down on the issue but Sharon never saw the gesture.

"Well," mom said, "he does have company and..."

"Mother," Sharon repeated, her eyes still glued to mine, "I need to talk to
Gerald."

"I better be going," Sam said.

"You stay Sam," Sharon said, glancing momentarily over her shoulder at mom,
"Excuse us mom."

Mom's mouth hung open even as Sharon stepped into the room and closed the
door.

Sam stood in the corner visibly shaken. I was shaken too. I feared Sharon's
wrath more than I feared the wrath of either of my parents. Maybe my parent
knew when I was lying to them and just pretended not to know, I wasn't sure,
but with Sharon there was no use even trying to lie. She just knew me too
well. Besides, I didn't want to lie to Sharon. I didn't want to lie to my
parents either and yet I had, or rather let them believe the lie. But with
Sharon I couldn't even muster the strength to try to make her believe what
wasn't the honest truth. And besides, she already knew the truth. The rumor
mill at school had ground any hope of a mistruth into dust and blown it to
the wind. She sat down heavily beside me.

"OK," she said, "First, are you OK?"

I nodded as she examined the eye.

"You sure?" she asked.

"I'm sure," I said.

"Damnit Sam," she said extending her arm to him, "Don't stand in the corner
shaking like a fox being chased by hounds, come here. I'm not going to bite
you."

"I wasn't afraid of you biting me, just beating the shit out of us," Sam
whispered.

We all began laughing. I have to admit the thought had crossed my mind.
Sharon had always been parental in her attitude towards me. The effect of my
respect for her had rubbed off on Sam. Sharon waved Sam over, patting the
bed on the opposite side of her from where I was seated. She wrapped us both
in her arms. We wrapped our arms around her, both of us with our heads on
her chest. Tears fell from Sam's and my eyes. Sharon rocked us.

"OK," Sharon asked, brushing a tear from her cheek as she released us from
the hug, "What's the cover story and what really happened?"

I took a deep breath and told her the entire story. She listened and nodded.

"OK, we'll go with your story with mom and dad. No use getting them all
worked up. But I'm going to pound the shit out of Trevor."

"No," I whined, "Don't."

"Nobody punches my little brother around."

"It's only going to make it worse," I said, and then began imitating an
imaginary crowd at school, "Oh no he doesn't tell his mommy and daddy...no... he
has his big sister fight for him, what a queer!"

Sharon smiled and mussed my hair. She stood slowly, glancing from Sam to me.

"When I say I'm going to pound the shit out of him, Gerald, I don't mean I
am going to punch him out. Girls have better ways of settling scores."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Oh you'll see. Trevor will rue the day he ever laid a hand on you."

I became frantic. I stood and grabbed Sharon's hand as she turned to leave.

"What are going to do? Please Sharon tell me."

"Don't you worry about a thing. I'll take it from here."

"Please Sharon, I don't want things to get worse."

Her hand brushed my cheek before she kissed me, and then bent and kissed Sam
on his cheek.

"You know," she said, "You two make a really cute couple."

I was forced to release her hand as she made her exit.

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

I was sick to my stomach the next morning when the alarm rang for me to get
up and ready for school. Dad had checked on me after I showered and had
dressed for bed. He seemed suspicious of my bombardment story but let it
stand. He did tell me if I didn't want to go to school in the morning I
could take an extra day off. I declined. I wasn't going to give Trevor the
satisfaction of saying that he had beat me up so bad that I was afraid to
come to school. Besides I'd have to face him again sooner or later. There
was no use putting it off. That was how I felt as I fell asleep, but the
uncertainty of what Sharon might do had made the night one of fitful sleep
and mocking dreams. The sounding of the alarm clock filled me with dread.

Sharon was chipper at breakfast, which added to my despair. Everyone avoided
talking about my eye, which was a full-fledged shiner. I cover it as I poked
at my scrambled eggs. Mom's usual admonishment about starting the day with a
full stomach went unspoken, adding to my feeling of impending doom. Outside
a horn honked.

"Oh," Sharon said, "that's Doug."

My stomach dropped. The thought of Doug and George storming our school and
beating the shit out of Trevor caused my eyes to enlarge.

"You want to ride in with us this morning?" Sharon asked as she gathered her
books.

"No," I said shaking my head, "I'll wait for Sam. We'll take the bus."

Sharon shrugged and head for the door. I was hot on her heels.

"You're not going to tell Doug are you?" I asked when we were out of hearing
of our parents.

Sharon turned slowly and sighed.

"Yes, Gerald," She said, "I'm going to tell him but don't worry he's not
going to do anything. I promise."

"What about George. I don't want George to do anything either."

"Will you just trust me?"

I didn't have time to answer. I watched as she bound to the car, slid in
next to Doug, and kissed him on the cheek.

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

The first thing that Sam and I noticed when we arrived at school was that
Trevor had joined Chad's crowd of friends. I groaned. They snickered among
themselves. Trevor shouted something that I was thankful was drowned out by
the sirens of a passing emergency vehicle. The second thing I noticed was
Emily Parsons, and Missy and Kelly Michaels walking towards us. Emily was
arguably the brightest person in our class, and the Michaels twin, well, the
prettiest. The girls surrounded Sam and I and walked us passed the
astonished eyes of Trevor and Chad, who everyone knew had had their eyes on
the Michaels twins for quite some time. The girls tilted their heads toward
the gawking boys and smirked as we passed. Oh Sharon's sweet revenge.

"I think it's horrible what Trevor did," Emily said when we were inside near
our lockers, "When Sharon called my sister last night and told her, April
just had to tell me. I was mortified. What are they beasts?"

"I'm OK," I said, "really it looks worse than it really is."

"You're so brave," Kelly said.

"Not really," I blushed.

"And cute," Missy said, causing me to blush further, "and what you did for
poor Brian..."

So Sharon had told the whole story to April, who told Emily, who told... god
only knew who! Emily besides being the class genius was also the school's
broadcast system. If you wanted to keep a secret, Emily was not the one to
tell. The girl couldn't keep molasses from spreading during deep winter in
Antarctica!

I sat out of gym, as did Brian. We sat watching Mr. Scott explain the
expanded rules of bombardment. Trevor glared at us and received a swift
rebuke.

"I mean this," Mr. Scott said, "Anyone targeting the head or below the waist
of any player will be sidelined and face disciplinary action. Do I make
myself clear?"

The room rang with, "Yes coach."

I couldn't help but smile. My stock went up in the eyes of more than a few
of my classmates. I hadn't whined to the principal, the coach or my parents
about being beat up in school. Those that stood around and watched the fight
were off the hook. I noticed several of them nodding slightly in my
direction.

By lunch, there was a new buzz in the school. Sam and I sat at our table in
the back of the cafeteria but we weren't alone. Emily, Kelly and Missy were
joined by a number of their friends. The cafeteria was quieter than it
usually was but not at our table. My eye was forgotten as the girls chatted
about popular boys. The subject of Leif Garret came up and suddenly we had
something in common. I suddenly felt at ease around girls and even Sam
joined in the banter.

"Hey Gerald," I heard from behind me. It was Rick Patterson.

"What do you want?" Emily said turning and standing beside my seated
position. The table grew quiet.  Rick ignored everyone and extended his hand
to me.

"Sorry about what happened yesterday, man," he said, "I didn't have nothing
to do with it. I hope you know. I thought you played a hell of a game."

I stood and shook Rick's hand.

"Want to sit with us?" Missy asked making room between her and Kelly. Rick
smiled and accepted the offer.

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

I was on my way to my Social Science class when I spotted Mr. Scott coming
toward me. I waved sheepishly, acknowledging the trouble he had gone through
for me. He didn't wave back, but approached me and told me he needed to talk
to me. He entered my class. I watched outside the door as he spoke to Mr.
Ronald. Mr. Ronald nodded and looked passed Mr. Scott at me. I didn't like
the scene.

I was escorted to the principal's office: another bad sign. I was told to
take one of the seats outside of Mr. Carson's office. Mr. Scott went inside.
I heard him tell Mr. Carson that I was waiting outside. I was trying to
think of how to explain why I lied about my eye when Mrs. Archibald entered
the office with Sharon. She shrugged when she saw me, sat beside me and we
held hands, wondering what punishment would befall our conspiracy.

Mr. Carson appeared at his door shortly after Mrs. Archibald announced that
Sharon had arrived. He waved us in.

"Have a seat," he said as he sat on the edge of his desk facing us.  Mr.
Scott looked nervously out the window as Mrs. Archibald closed the door and
leaned against it.

"Let me see," Mr. Carson began, "I don't know quite where to start."

I wanted to blurt out that Mr. Scott and Sharon had nothing to do with the
lie that I had told but something didn't seem right. Mr. Carson wasn't
acting like he was mad about something I had done. He wasn't sitting behind
his desk with an authoritarian glare in his eyes. He was struggling to tell
us something. The traded glance between Sharon and I told me that she was as
clueless and curious about why we were in the office as I was.

"You probably heard the sirens this morning," Mr. Carson said.

I nodded. Sharon shrugged.

"I don't know any other way to say this," Mr. Carson said, "So I'll just say
it. Those sirens were in response to a call made by your mother. You father
had a heart attack this morning. I'm sorry. He didn't make it."

Sharon and I again traded glances and then looked at the three faces in the
room. Mr. Scott knelt beside me and placed his hand on my back.

"I'm sorry," he said.

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