18 Weeks of Twoey - 14. Week Two Sunday September 14, 2014: Confrontations

During our run, Twoey asked more questions about Danny. Actually, he was asking about Danny's father. In particular, he wanted to know if Danny's father was ever physically abusive to him. As I said before, Gary and I saw bruises on Danny when he was younger but we don't know about now. I didn't think so. Anyway, I didn't even need to glance at Gary to know what he was gonna say.

“No, Twoey, we never saw any signs of anything like abuse.” Ha! Did you expect he was gonna give up our friend to the new guy?

At the big Sunday breakfast, I looked at Tommy and casually mentioned that Kathy Bailey and I went to the show last night with Gary and Mel. Liz rolled her eyes, but Tommy smirked. He knew exactly what I was doing. Of course, his mother perked up and was starting in on an interrogation when I shut her down with “Jeez mom, we went to the movies. Guys take girls to the show all the time. No big deal. It's perfectly NORMAL.” When I emphasized the word normal, I thought Tommy was gonna spit out his bacon!

Well, Pastor Pig-Fucker didn't get the memo because today's sermon was all about the gay-agenda and plans the homy-sexshalls have for indoctrinating ‘our innocent youth’ ...and of course he was looking right at me! I knew you probably didn’t believe me when I said she was spreading rumors she thought I might be gay. Well, as somebody once said, even paranoids can be right sometimes!!

For the next hour or so, I felt my blood pressure climb about 1 point per second or something. By the end of today’s circus I was fully 100% pissed-off--at both of them. Usually when we leave and my mother shakes the idiot's hand heaping praise at the door, I slip away as I would from a King Cobra.

But Not Today!!!

I grabbed his slimy paw and said in the biggest, boldest voice, “Gee Pastor Johnson, could you maybe print me out a copy of the gay agenda so I can make sure I don't get indoctrinated?”

He looked startled. “Well, you see, they don't actually put it all down in black-and-white, son.”

“What do you mean? How do you know what it is if it's not actually there?”

“Oh, we certainly can tell what they're up to!”

“I'm confused! I'm pretty sure I could use the same logic to prove there's a snake agenda!”

He scoffed. “Now don't get absurd!”

“Well, the way you were going on, I thought you knew what you were talking about!” I said the last part really, really loud; other parishioners looked up. Then I walked away, with him yelling some shit after me.

Tommy's mother was not a happy camper on our trip home. I shrugged. “I was only trying to take him seriously until he showed me he don't know crap.” I almost said “shit” which would have earned me a grounding for sure. She was upset about what the parish wives, who she meets with once a week, were going to think about her. “Hey, don't worry. I'll go speak with them too ...at the next meeting if you want.”

Well, that conversation ended abruptly--haha!

Now, if she'd only let me stay home on Sunday mornings. Fat chance! If she did it for me, she'd soon be the only one going to the con man’s church.

While ‘watching’ the football game, I was able to finish all my homework and get ahead in math and social. In fact, I discovered some interesting facts about the founding fathers. I'll try to work them into something significant with our current unit. We’ll probably have some sort of essay coming up. Certainly Bastich Burch can’t possibly run his entire course in multiple choice!

Before it came time for our disgusting dinner, Tommy motioned to me. We went up to his room. He sat on his bed and laid back, I did the same thing. This is how we always talk about stuff we need to discuss between us.

“I been thinking about your friend Twoey.”

“Uh-huh?”

“I’m not sure about him.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I been thinking a lot. I got a odd feeling.”

“Odd?”

“Yeah odd like there’s something ain’t right.”

I half chuckled. “Sam giving you weed?”

“No, I’m serious brother!” And he was!

“Tommy, I don’t know how to answer you, cuz I don’t know what you’re getting at.”

“What do you know ‘bout him?”

“What do you mean?”

“You said he’s from Syracuse.”

“Yeah?”

“Why did he shift to this little hick town?”

“His folks split.”

“But why go from a city to this place. It don’t add up. Ain’t it strange to you?”

“I don’t follow .”

“I think he’s gotta be running away from something. Something real bad is what I think.”

“Why would you believe that?”

“Cuz nothin’ else makes sense. He’s gotta be running away!”

“What if he is?”

“Don’t it creep you a little?”

“Why?”

“Well, I been thinking. You don’t really know shit about him. If it was so awful in Syracuse he had to escape to here, maybe you shouldn’t jump all over him before you dig out summore about him. Anyway, it’s what I think.”

“I jump all over him?”

“Well, yeah! Ain’t you made him part of your gang and then even had him in here after school? I mean, you only ever done that with Gary. And I watch him when he’s around you--like when he was here, and how he looks at you when the guys pick you up to go to school too. I been watching him and he looks at you strange.”

“Strange?”

“Yeah. I can’t really explain it, but it ain’t like other guys do, it’s sorta too strong. I don’t know how to say it, except it freaks me out.”

I turned to face him and he did the same. I could see worry in his eyes. I tried to ease his concern.

“Tommy, I was sorta shitty to him last week and I’ve been trying to make it up to him. Maybe the look you noticed is only him trying to analyze me to see if I’m really serious. Don’t worry about me. You know I always have everything under control. Twoey’s a really good guy. I mean, he even took time to talk to you when he was here, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, I guess. But I’m gonna be keepin’ my eye on him anyway ...just sayin’.” And he broke into his cute little chuckle.

See, he was always trying to protect me. But from a big bad Twoey? That absurd image even made me chuckle.

There was a fascinating bit of news from Kathy during her phone call tonight. It seems one of her spies saw Twoey coming out of Danny's house yesterday afternoon. Wow! A whole new spin on his question this morning. What did he see while he was at Danny's? Why does he think Danny's father might be physically abusive to him? Gee, Gary and I don't ever go there! I know this bears further investigation. I hope my Girl Scout FBI keeps their eyes open! But I think I'm gonna hafta warn Twoey, without him knowing about my spies, he better stay the fuck away from Danny's house. Seriously.

Twoey

Today was all recovery mode. Wow! Danny was very energetic yesterday. He sort of hurt me a few times. I'm sure he was simply emotionally pent-up with his father and all. I know fathers can be shitty. Mine certainly is.

Mom was probing, but I told her I haven't been sleeping too well with school starting and all, and needed a day to rest up. I don't think she bought it for one minute, but she's leaving me alone. I did a little homework, listened to music, and texted Erik and Danny a few times.

Finally, I had enough and took a walk down to the lake. I wandered over to the same spot Danny and I were skipping stones. I continued a little farther down. I should really take a whole day and totally explore all this! It was very beautiful here and the shoreline changes a lot as you walk along. Pretty soon I got to a spot where I found two trees at the water’s edge and all around them were those tall grassy kind of things growing in the water, whatever they’re called. The sun was right in my eyes, shining through those trees.

Because of the glare, I almost didn’t see him. But someone else was there. Another guy. He looked about my age, and awfully cute. What the hell, I wasn’t gonna hit on him, but I had to say something, we were only a few feet apart.

“Hey.”

“Oh, I didn’t see you come up. I was standing here lost in thought.”

“Um, ...sorry if I intruded.”

“No, not at all. I wasn’t thinking about anything really. I come down here most Sundays. Even in the snow and sleet. It’s sort of my day for thoughts, and this is the perfect place for reflection.”

“Are you sure you can’t get a better reflection over by the rope swing? The water’s a little too full of weeds here.”

He chuckled right away. “I’m Donny.”

“I’m Twoey. I’m new here, but I don’t think I’ve seen you in school.”

“What year are you?”

“Sophomore.”

“That’s why. I’m a freshman. They keep us on our own floor. I’m not sure if they think we’ll infect the upper classmen or the other way around.” Which made us both chuckle.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to your reflecting, Donny. Maybe I’ll bump into you another Sunday.”

“Maybe. Well, ...seeya!”

I wandered away back into the park. I continued a little and three cute girls walked by, one giving me a serious examination. Well how interesting! After they passed, I had to look back over my shoulder and found she was doing the same! I was about to chuckle to myself when I ran right into this kid who felt like solid concrete. I turned, blushed and apologized but he didn’t look happy.

“Watch where the fuck your walking!”

“Sorry. I should have been watching, I was...”

“I know what the fuck you were doing!” He stomped away, continuing to shadow the three girls.

Hehe--guess I must have interfered with his stalking. I walked a little farther, took a bench and did a little of my own reflecting. What was I going to do about Danny? I had no idea. Maybe I should let next week evolve on its own and take my clues from there. I think I could seriously settle in with Danny, but why would he want me? I’m such a clumsy beginner. I’m sure Danny is anything but a beginner; he seems polished and experienced. I’ll bet he went out last night after I left too. Probably up to Syracuse. Those were pretty sweet clothes he picked out for after his shower, and there’s no place in this town where anybody dresses like that. Nah! Danny was way out of my league! I better let things take their natural course.

Later in bed, I had a funny thought. I wondered if Mike ever thought about what had become of me? What if he had and tried to find me, but didn’t even know where to look?

Yeah, sure!