The Castaway Hotel - 5 - 21. Chapter 21 - Bullies

Things went well for the next week, so we began to think the graffiti on Nick’s locker was an isolated prank – that was until something else happened. This time Trey was the target of the abuse. He was leaving the library after finishing some research for his project and was heading out to meet Kevin and Vinnie, to get a ride home. Kevin always worked out with Vinnie in the gym and training room after school, so I had allowed him to use the Grand Am everyday, to get them back and forth. Trey had already told them he’d need a ride home, so they were expecting him to join them as soon as they finished their workout. As Trey made his way from the library to the gym, a young man approached and began to harass him.

“Hey, if it isn’t one of the faggy sissy boys,” he said, mockingly. Trey tried to ignore him and keep going, but this guy wasn’t about to allow that to happen. He moved around and got in front of Trey and was immediately in Trey’s face, renewing his attack. “Hey, you freakin’ homo, don’t think I’m just going to go away. Just cuz your old man was a big shot with the school, don’t mean you’re protected or anything special.”

Trey just glared at him this time and the guy began to grin, obviously pleased with himself and what he’d said.

“Look, I’m not bothering you, so just leave me alone,” Trey advised him.

“You bother me by just being alive, you f**king queer!” the boy exclaimed, in an attempt to impress the group that was beginning to gather around them.

“Look, layoff. Okay?” Trey chirped back, with as much assertiveness as he could muster.

“No, it’s not okay. I hate little fairy cock suckers, so I hate you,” the boy challenged.

“I don’t even know you,” Trey countered.

“Doesn’t matter,” the kid sneered. “All I need to know is that you’re queer. Are you the fudge-packer or the fudge-packee?” After he asked his question, he began to laugh and look to his peers for support. A couple of his friends were laughing with him and egging him on, but most were just observing silently from the sidelines. Noting his distraction, Trey tried to walk away again, but the bully saw him and escalated the situation. As Trey turned away from him, the guy sucker-punched Trey in the back of the head. A sharp pain shot through Trey’s skull, but he was still had enough wits about him to bend forward to protect himself, but that didn’t work out the way he hoped. Instead of leaving him alone, his attacker began to throw a series of punches at Trey’s body and then kneed him for added emphasis, knocking Trey to the floor.

As you might suspect, Trey had never been a very physical person and had little hope of defending himself. He was hurt, scared and confused, and this combination of feelings made it nearly impossible for him to figure out what he should do next. Although he knew he wasn’t very muscular or coordinated, he felt he had to try to fight back, since no one was making a move to help him. When he did try to ward of his attacker, his efforts were, to say the least, quite ineffective and only served to embolden his tormentor. This, in turn, caused the bully to become even more aggressive, stopping only long enough in his attack to mock Trey.

“Oh, that almost hurt me, you little fairy,” he taunted, while adding a little laugh for emphasis. “That might be a punch to your boyfriend, but I’ve been hit harder by a three year-old.”

His tormentor continued chuckling, even as Trey tried to get up and escape, but that’s when the boy decided kicking was a masculine attack style. Without warning, he began to use Trey like a large soccer ball, kicking him with one foot and then the other, as if he were trying to dribble him down the hall. He kicked Trey in the ribs, groin, legs and even in the head. One kick to the face almost knocked Trey out completely, but still no one stepped in to help defend him.

At this point, the boy began to gloat and think himself vastly superior. He even figured those who were watching would shower him with their adoration for his efforts, but only a couple of his buddies gave him any noticeable signs of acknowledgement. The others merely stared or turned to leave, most disgusted by what they’d witnessed and ashamed they lacked the guts to do anything about it, but still no one came to Trey’s rescue.

Disappointed by the crowd’s reaction, the young man turned his anger back at Trey, giving him one more kick before he left. Since Trey was lying almost motionless, it was easy for his attacker to slam his foot firmly into Trey’s ribs, and when this happened, Trey felt something snap. There was no doubt in his mind that one of his ribs was now broken, so he rolled onto that side, ignoring the nearly unbearable pain, to protect the area from further harm. Luckily, it turned out he didn’t have to go to that trouble, since his attacker had decided he was through with him now. Trey merely watched as his abuser left with his friends, laughing about what he had done as they strode down the hall.

Trey continued to lie there for a few minutes longer, while he struggled to cope with the pain and gather enough strength to stand up. Still, no one came to help him. Instead, they all went their own way, leaving Trey to fend for himself.

After several minutes of sustained effort, Trey forced himself to get up and then slowly made his way to the gym, to find Kevin and Vinnie. Due to the excruciating pain he was in, Trey was walking slightly hunched over. He also felt it would help to protect his fractured rib, but that wasn’t his only injury.

By now, Trey’s face was also starting to show signs of bruising and swelling, but those weren’t the only reasons it was becoming fairly noticeable. There were also a myriad of small specks of blood drying on his face and clothing, from where his life-juices had splattered when he received the numerous cuts in and around his mouth. His brothers looked shocked when they saw him and immediately began to question him about it.

“Holy shit, Trey! What in the hell happened to you?” Kevin asked him. Trey looked at him and started to speak, but it wasn’t easy with all the swelling and the soreness he was feeling. Eventually he managed to get out a few words.

“Some guy… giving shit… calling names… then attacked,” he forced out. Both boys then eyed his injuries carefully, noting how badly he’d been beaten.

“Man, he really messed you up,” Vinnie told him. “Were you alone?” Again, Trey had some trouble getting out an answer to this question, but was finally able to respond.

“Kind of… other people there… no one helped,” he stammered, before taking another breath. Both of the boys could see the tears forming in his eyes, as he thought back upon what had happened. “Two… my friends…” he paused, knowing that wasn’t the right word for them any longer, “just watched,” he finished, this time wincing as he took a deeper breath.

The boys wanted to sympathize with him and make him feel better, but they felt a greater need to find out what had actually taken place. “What was wrong with them?” Kevin spat out. “Why didn’t they help you?”

“Scared…” he muttered, “maybe worried… labeled gay too.” After he got that out, he realized he’d probably never know the truth, since he didn’t plan on speaking to either of them again.

By this point, Trey was in tears and the sobbing was causing him even more pain. Kevin and Vinnie tried to comfort him, but there was little they could do. Once he was able to get his emotions back under control, they helped him to the car and drove him home, so he could tell me what had happened.

I was shocked when I noticed the other two boys giving Trey a helping hand to get from the car to the house, but I was dumbfounded when I got a good look at Trey’s appearance. Immediately I began to question them about what had happened, hoping there was a logical explanation for it. Once I had gotten a rough idea about what had taken place, I told Trey to get back in the car, so I could drive him to the hospital and get his injuries treated. I wanted to know exactly how much damage had been done to him and make sure he was going to be all right.

When we walked into the emergency room, the receptionist immediately asked if he’d been in a car or motorcycle accident. Once I explained what had happened, I filled out the required forms, while Trey was taken to get x-rays. After taking several images of various parts of his body, they brought him back to the E.R. and placed him in an examination room, where we waited for a doctor to come and look at him.

It was quite a while before anyone showed up, but the physician did a thorough examination of Trey, once he started. After the examination, he left the room without saying a word, taking the x-rays with him. A few minutes later, a nurse came in and asked me to come with her, as they wanted to show me a few things on the x-rays. I thought this odd, because the doctor could have done that in the examination room while he was looking at them, but possibly he didn’t want to alarm Trey about what he suspected. Therefore, I followed her out of the room, down the corridor and into another room, where she began pointing out areas on the negatives to me. This surprised me, since I was expecting the doctor to do this, but I didn’t say anything and merely observed what she was indicating.

It became immediately apparent Trey had a fractured rib, as he suspected, but fortunately there were no other broken bones. Once we’d finished going over the negatives, the nurse asked me to wait there a little longer, so the doctor could come and explain more about my son’s injuries and advise me as to what I’d need to do for Trey. This seemed highly irregular to me too, so I asked her why I couldn’t just rejoin my son and have the doctor tell both of us together. She said she didn’t know, but that is what she’d been told to do, so I gave in and waited patiently.

What I didn’t know was that while I was with the nurse, the doctor had gone back to see Trey alone, to question him about what had happened. I guess he or another member of the staff felt there was a chance that I, or another family member, had beaten him, but suspected Trey wouldn’t open up and tell them the truth while I was present. Once they were convinced no one in our household had done this to him, I was told I could rejoin Trey and the doctor would explain everything. Once again, I thought this a bit odd, seeing as how I had waited several minutes for the doctor in the other room, but the nurse explained it had suddenly gotten busy in the E.R. and the doctor felt this would save him a little time. More bureaucratic red tape! Why can’t they just do things the simplest way to begin with?

When I got back to the examination room, I found Trey in a highly agitated state and it was obvious he was glad to see me. He quickly explained the types of questions the doctor and others had been asking him and the insinuations they had made. This caused him to become visibly shaken, because he couldn’t understand how they could even suggest such outrageous things.

After I got over my initial shock about what had taken place during my absence, I explained to Trey that they were only doing their jobs and their actions weren’t personal in nature. If they didn’t do this whenever there was a possibility that something of this nature had actually taken place, they would never be able to protect kids who were being abused – physically, sexually or emotionally. Once he understood this, he started to calm down.

A short time later, the doctor rejoined us and handed me a couple of prescriptions for Trey, before explaining what Trey would need to do to take care of himself, so he would satisfactorily recover from his injuries. Once he’d finished, we asked him a few questions, listened to his answers and then thanked him for his help.

On the way home, I asked Trey many of the same questions he had been asked by the medical staff, including if he knew this boy or why he had singled Trey out. First of all, Trey said he didn’t recognize the kid and didn’t remember seeing him before, but he was sure he’d recognize him now, if he ever saw him again. Trey said the only thing he could think of as to why the boy attacked him was because he had just come out – especially since that was what the guy kept referring to. He felt it might have also had something to do with the fact that he wasn’t much of a fighter either, like Nick, so he also didn’t pose any type of threat.

I told him he was probably right and suggested it might be wise to learn some type of self-defense. He wasn’t happy with that suggestion, but I told him to think about it and possibly he’d begin to see the benefit of being able to ward off such attackers, which he reluctantly agreed to do.

Once we got home, some of the boys wanted to run down to the school, so they could see if the kid was still around. It was obvious they wanted to settle the score NOW. In fact, Danny, Brandon and Shannon finally admitted they wanted to go down to the school and kick some ass, as they so graphically put it, but I kept them under control and at home. I told them that Trey and I would handle this, even though we hadn’t discussed just how we were going to do it yet, but I knew Trey’s primary concern was to prevent it from making it worse for himself and his brothers. With this in mind, I assured the boys it would definitely be handled a bit differently than they would like, but we also had to think about the types of repercussions such actions might generate. Not only that, but I certainly didn’t want them sinking to the same level as Trey’s attacker.

After dinner I talked to Trey about what had taken place again, while making sure I did so while we were alone. I felt I needed to get as many details about what had occurred, which included finding out who had been there, either actively or passively, and then I discussed with him about how he felt we should handle the situation. At this point, he still wasn’t sure about how we should approach this, but he did have strong feelings about what he wanted to accomplish.

First, he wanted to get even with the boy and make him suffer in some way too, but at the same time, he didn’t want to draw any more attention to himself or the family. He was adamant that we had to be careful with whatever we did, so we didn’t end up making any of the other boys a target. He told me he would feel awful if one of his brothers, especially any of the younger ones, were victimized due to his attempts to get even. He also let me know that if it looked like anything of that sort might happen then we’d just leave this where it was now, with the boy getting away with what he’d done. He’d rather see that happen than witness someone he loved go through a similar beating or worse.

Keeping this in mind, we discussed some possible ways to handle the situation, but didn’t make any definite decision. Trey wanted time to think his choices over, so he could analyze them thoroughly, but he also thought it might give us a chance to come up with a better plan of action as well.

I didn’t want to rush him and I certainly didn’t want him to be uncomfortable with whatever we decided to do, but I also didn’t want to see this young man get away with what he’d done either. I felt if we gave even the slightest indication that we weren’t going to seek some sort of justice for this vicious attack, then it would send out a message to this particular bully, and others like him, that it was open season on anyone who was different or considered deviant. It would more or less signal that they could beat people up, or do other equally despicable things to them as well, without having to worry about any repercussions coming about due to their actions.

Not only did Trey and I struggle to come up with a way to handle this situation, but we also discussed ways to end all types of harassment. After much debate, we finally concluded we would file reports with both the police and the school district, with Trey making statements about the events that took place. He would give as many details as he could remember, but he was reluctant to provide the names of any of the witnesses he recognized, but who failed to come to his aid. He was concerned that doing so would only alienate him further and possibly cause some of those people to retaliate too, for pointing them out.

As a way to get past this, Trey would just admit he didn’t know the boy who attacked him, but then he would stretch the truth a bit by saying he didn’t have a chance to see who else might have been there. Trey was especially hesitant to drag his former friends into this, figuring they had already proven they weren’t friends, but he still wanted to give them the opportunity to come forward on their own. Maybe they would even come to him and apologize for letting him down. I think if they did that, he might even forgive them for their inaction, but it would have to be their initiative, not his, which started that process.

During our discussion, we also agreed to make this a sexual harassment issue, because the boy had admitted targeting Trey because he was gay. Not only that, but it would draw more attention to the incident this way, especially with the school district. The district had compiled a very rigid harassment policy, which included a whole section on sexual harassment, so I was going to utilize that knowledge to our benefit.

Trey understood by doing this his orientation would be made a primary issue and many more people would hear about him, but no matter how much he wanted to avoid drawing more attention to himself, he felt this attack had already brought so much notoriety to this fact that it couldn’t get much worse. What had happened to him didn’t fit neatly under the express guidelines of sexual harassment, although I was going to insist he was singled out solely because of his sexual orientation. I was doing this because I knew those provisions could be used to bring more pressure to bear to locate and punish the culprit responsible for the attack. We also felt it was our best option, so that’s what we planned on going with.

When Trey went to make his statements, both the school investigators and the police wanted him to look through the past couple of yearbooks, to see if he could recognize his attacker, but those efforts proved unsuccessful. We concluded this guy must have been absent on the day the pictures were taken, made a conscious decision not to be included in the yearbook or had just moved into the district, so his picture wasn’t available for identification purposes. Although we weren’t sure which case it was, it didn’t really make of a difference. Without a picture, it would just be that much harder to locate him.

Out of desperation, I finally decided to offer a $1,000 reward to anyone who could identify Trey’s assailant, as long as it was sufficient to lead to an arrest. Although the police suggested this would bring the nut cases out of the woodwork as they sought to make a quick buck, I knew that no matter what person anyone pointed to, Trey would be the one to confirm if that was indeed the correct individual. With that in mind, we made the reward announcement public.