Drifts - 7. Tommy

”How can a kid have so much stuff…”

Joel was wading around in the mess in Mason’s room, trying to attain some sort of order so he could vacuum. He knew this was something Mason really should do himself, but with school and hockey Mason had a full plate. What little time the boy had left, Joel felt he deserved to relax. Especially now that he had a girlfriend. A smile crept over Joel’s face as he thought of the two teenagers, so adorable in their puppy love. As far as he could tell, they were “taking it slow” and seemed content to kiss and make out. But then again, what did he know? He went by his gut, hoping it worked not only on Swedish youngsters but the US variety too. Mason’s dad had talked to his son about being in a relationship, so that was one awkward conversation bullet Joel had dodged. Still, he tried to keep an eye on things, ready to give advice or simply be there for Mason should he need it.

He had already removed several armfuls of laundry, including some truly smelly socks. How the boy had not sniffed them out and turned them in himself was nothing short of astounding. Maybe teen noses had a different setting. Joel couldn’t remember. Now, he was sorting through a mess on the floor in Mason’s closet. At the back, there was a pile of clothes, some sport magazines and other stuff such as inline skates, bats and balls for various sports. Slowly, Joel sorted through the items, folding or hanging the clothes he deemed clean and tossing the dirty ones towards the hamper, while thinking about where to store the rest.

As he reached the bottom of the pile, he noticed a bag, a small backpack with a Dora the Explorer motif. He only recognized it since Lucas’ nieces had gone through an obsessive phase where all items had to be adorned with that particular face to be worth owning or wearing. Puzzled, Joel picked up the bag. Why did Mason have a girl’s backpack? Young person’s backpack, he corrected himself without thinking.

He opened the bag and peered inside. It was mostly empty, but there were a couple of square packages on the bottom. When he pulled one out to see what it was, Joel dropped it in shock. Quickly, he got a grip on himself and picked it up again. A pack of weed, tightly wrapped in plastic. It had to be, unless Mason had developed a taste for strange looking tea. Joel went out into the kitchen, package in hand, and stopped at the counter. He placed the package in front of him and carefully opened a corner of it with a knife. Bending down, he sniffed the content and the smell confirmed his suspicion.

His mind was racing and he tried to breathe deeply to calm himself. He knew he needed to keep his calm, but it was proving difficult. Mason, their Mason was doing drugs? Not stopping to think and with fumbling hands, he called Lucas.

“Babe, I’m kind of in the middle of something here…” Lucas sounded stressed and Joel could hear Pierce in the background, obviously disgruntled about the interruption.

“I just had to tell you…”

“Is that you, Joel? You know I love you, sweet giant, but we really need to keep going here.” Pierce was pleasant enough, but clearly in his all business mode.

“Oh, hi Pierce…” Joel didn’t want to be rude, but his need to talk to Lucas was almost overwhelming. “I really have to talk to Lucas. Could you give him the phone back?”

He could hear a giggle and the rustle of clothes.

“Hey, sweetie. Sorry about that. You know how he is.”

Joel could picture how Lucas shrugged and rolled his eyes. Yes, he knew. This was too important to leave for later, though.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, but I need to talk to you now.”

“You never disturb me!” Lucas seemed to catch on to Joel’s tone of voice and he turned serious. “What’s going on?”

“Mason’s doing drugs.” Joel didn’t like how out of sorts he sounded, close to desperate, but he couldn’t hide his emotions.

“What?!?” The surprise and disbelief was apparent in Lucas’ voice. “What do you mean drugs?”

“I just found a pack of weed in his room. In his closet.”

“Oh, weed…” Lucas chuckled. “I thought you said drugs.”

“But weed is drugs! It’s illegal! Even here, right?” Joel felt his anger rise. “You should know this!”

“But, Joel… Sweetie, don’t be so goody goody and Swedish. Everyone does weed. It’s like having a beer.”

“No, it’s not! I can’t believe you’re so calm about this.” The laidback attitude of his husband was upsetting Joel. “We’re in charge of him and he’s doing drugs! What would his dad say?”

“OK, we’ll talk about this when I get home.” A sigh travelled over the air waves. “Try to calm down, babe. It’s not like he’s shooting up. Gotta go. Pierce is setting up to kill me.”

With that the phone went quiet. Lucas had hung up on him. Joel stared at it and fought to keep his anger in check. After a few moments, Joel could think straight once again. He knew the attitude towards weed was different here than back home. Still, it was illegal and it certainly wasn’t good for a young boy to be smoking the stuff.

Annoyed and worried, Joel went back to Mason’s closet and picked up the bag again. He rummaged around inside some more and came up with two more packages. It didn’t make any sense. This was way more than just for personal use. His realization caused his anger to be replaced by a feeling of cold dread. Could Mason be dealing drugs? It seemed so out of character, but why else would the boy have so much of the stuff hidden in his closet? Joel was glad there was no practice today. He hardly ever called in sick, but right now he was feeling too upset to be of any good use in the rink.

After spending a few hours pacing around the apartment, Joel heard the door open and Mason come in. He hurried to the hall to give the boy a piece of his mind, but decided not to when he saw Mason wasn’t alone. He was with Tommy, one of the guys from the hockey team. Tommy was one of their better players, but impulsive and more often than not he acted before he engaged his brain. Mason had told Joel how Tommy was a bit on the outside at school since he had the same unfortunate habit there, causing the kids at school to keep their distance.

The kid was jinxed when it came to injuring his team mates. Nothing serious, but a few too many nosebleeds had caused more than one set of parents lobbying to get him booted off the team, claiming they didn’t want their sons anywhere near him. When Joel had asked for details concerning the boy’s “crimes”, all that had been presented were a few instances of horsing around gone too far and other much vaguer allegations that Tommy was disruptive. Since Joel had made it very clear he would not remove Tommy from the team unless more substantiated information was brought to his attention, the demands had ceased. Instead, some had called Coach get rid of the boy that way, but Coach only deferred to Joel as being in charge of the team on a day to day basis. However, Joel could tell Tommy’s chances were dwindling. It pissed Joel off to see Tommy judged so harshly with no actual basis, but he figured he could only try to be the best assistant coach to the boy. He refused to give up. Somehow, Joel just knew Tommy was a good kid at heart and he only needed some support to really shine. So far though, Tommy was making Joel’s decision increasingly hard to defend.

Today, Joel was in no mood to deal with a visitor, but he couldn’t get the words out to send Tommy home. The teens looked at him with almost scared eyes and hurried into Mason’s room. The door slammed shut. Joel snuck close to the door and could hear hushed voices, involved in an intense conversation. After a brief silence, Joel thought he heard a muffled shout. Then the conversation started again, more intense than before. Feeling strangely guilty for eavesdropping, Joel went back to the kitchen and sat at the table. He felt out of his depth and didn’t know what to do. He should go in there and demand answers, but what should he say? He didn’t want to come across as a stuffy grown up and Lucas had displayed a very relaxed attitude. Maybe he was overreacting. Then he remembered his training from back home and he really didn’t want Mason to be doing that. Could it be that Tommy really was bad news? Joel didn’t want to believe it, but maybe there was some truth to all those rumors about that kid.

He lost track of how long he sat there staring off into space, deep in thought. Suddenly, someone placed a hand on his neck and he startled.

“Hey, sweetie, sorry to scare you.” Lucas gave him a quick peck on the head and sat down next to him. “You sounded so upset about the whole Mason thing, so I decided to go home early. Pierce will have my balls tomorrow, but how cares?” Lucas chuckled.

Joel couldn’t join in his mirth. He leaned in and rested his head against Lucas’ shoulder. Lucas wrapped his arms around him.

“Baby, don’t be so upset. Everyone smokes a little weed once in a while. It’s harmless. Or well… It’s no more dangerous than alcohol. And you wouldn’t freak out like this if Mason had a stash of beer?”

Joel sighed.

“I guess you’re right, but I just never would have guessed Mason was into something like that.”

“Partying? He’s a teenager. Sure, he’s not a party animal, but he does hang out with friends. They are bound to try some things.” With a gentle hand caressing Joel’s neck, Lucas tried to comfort him.

“But drugs? I never thought…” Joel sat back up and rubbed his face with his hands.

“A smoke once or twice isn’t a major crisis. We’ll talk to him and do that curfew thing. Call his dad too. It’ll be OK.” Lucas squeezed his arm. “So… Where is it?”

“What?”

“The weed. Where is it?”

“Oh.” Joel got up and went into their bedroom. He collected the packages and placed them on the kitchen table. Lucas got a strange look on his face.

“Joel, what is this?” Lucas bit his lip as he usually did when he was thinking hard.

“The weed. Mason’s weed.” Joel couldn’t understand the need for the question.

“Fucking hell!” There was no missing the anger in Lucas’ voice. “This is way more than for just partying. Shit! The kid’s dealing?!? In our house?!? I’ll kill him!”

Joel had to stop Lucas as his husband headed for Mason’s room.

“Wait, wait! What are you talking about? You were all relaxed and now you’re like mad as hell.”

“This much weed would cost a lot of money! Mason would never get that kind of cash unless he was dealing in this crap!” Lucas was shouting. “I will not have anyone dealing drugs in my home! I’m a lawyer for fuck’s sake!”

“OK, but calm down. Let’s just talk to him. And he’s not alone. Tommy’s here too.”

“That kid?” The disdain could be heard clearly.

“He’s a good kid.” Joel couldn’t help getting angry. “Just a little impulsive.”

“Whatever. We’re talking to Mason now, friend or no friend.” Lucas tore his arm from Joel’s grip. When he reached Mason’s door, with Joel hot on his heels, the door was locked. Lucas pounded on the door. The voices inside the room fell silent and then the door opened. Mason peered out, wide-eyed. Lucas pushed his way inside.

“Mason, what the fuck are you doing?!” The shouted words made Mason shrink away. Joel went up to the boy and put an arm around his shoulders. He noticed the backpack lying on the floor at the foot of the bed.

“Don’t yell, Lucas. We can talk like civilized people.” He turned to Mason. “So, is there something you need to tell us?” Hearing Lucas inhaling as if getting ready to do more shouting, Joel held up his hand. “Be quiet!”

Mason looked between the two of them and then over to Tommy, who sat on the bed curled up and looking more or less terrified. Joel realized they weren’t handling this in a very mature manner, but instead acted like two bullies.

“OK, let’s all calm down. We need to talk about something.” Joel thought about how he should word this. “This afternoon, I found something in your closet. Something that made Lucas and me very concerned.”

“Listen Joel, I can explain. It’s just I have been… It’s only for… I was trying to…” Mason was rambling and it seemed to increase Lucas’ anger.

“There’s nothing to explain! This kind of crap will not happen in my home!” The outburst from Lucas made both boys flinch as if slapped in the face.

“Lucas, calm down. There’s no need for that.” Joel turned to Mason. “Just tell us. Don’t be scared. We want to help you.”

Nothing could be heard in the room except Mason’s and Lucas’ heavy breaths, both very upset.

“I can’t tell you…” Mason almost whispered the words.

“Fuck that shit! You tell us everything NOW!”

Joel thought Lucas was going to explode. He grabbed his husband by the shoulders.

“Stop shouting! How is Mason ever going to feel safe to talk to us if you’re acting like a lunatic?”

With a couple of deep huffs, Lucas regained control of himself and nodded.

“You’re right, I’m sorry.” He looked over to Mason. “Please, Mason, I’m sorry. Just talk to us. You have to tell us what’s going on…”

The words sounded so sad Joel almost felt his heart break. Lucas was really upset, in a way he hadn’t seen since the shooting. Mason opened his mouth a few times, but remained quiet. Tears glistened in the boy’s eyes.

“It’s mine.” Tommy’s weak voice shook them out of their paralysis. The three of them all turned to the boy who was still curled up on the bed. The quite large hockey player looked more like a ten-year-old kid, all innocent and fragile. It was hard to imagine him as a drug dealer.

“Tommy…” Mason tried to get his friend to shut up.

“No, you shouldn’t take the blame. You’ve had it hard enough already.” Tommy unfurled his long legs and stood in front of them. Standing as tall as possible, he looked as if he tried to be brave. “I know you found the weed. It’s mine.”

“Why the hell is it in my home?” Lucas was back to shouting, despite Joel’s attempts to calm him down by rubbing his back. Tommy recoiled at the sound of the harsh words and looked ready to take off, given half a chance.

“Tommy, you have to tell them the truth.” Pleading, Mason put a hand on his friend’s arm.

“No, you promised!” Tommy shook him off. “You said you wouldn’t tell!”

“But you can’t handle this on your own. I told you you’d need help.”

“I can’t! You know I can’t!”

The boys seemed to have forgotten Joel and Lucas were even in the room. Joel held Lucas back a few times when he opened his mouth to speak, since Joel felt Mason and Tommy needed to have this conversation, whatever it was about.

“You have to.” Placing his hands on Tommy’s shoulders, Mason stared into his friend’s eyes. “You can’t go on like this. This has to stop!”

The rumors and accusations about Tommy flashed through Joel’s mind again; how he was a bad seed, a rotten apple about to spoil the whole bunch unless they got rid of him. This however was something far more serious than boys getting in a fight. Drugs in a rather large quantity. And if they were right about him dealing, it was very serious.

“I had to stop him…” Tommy sounded miserable, his face displaying his inner turmoil.

“Who?” Stepping closer to Tommy, Joel made sure his voice was low and friendly.

“They would take me away if anyone found out. I had to stop him…” It was as if Tommy was lost in his own world, talking to himself.

“I don’t understand. Can you tell me what happened?” Calming voice, calming energy. Joel tried to remember what Lars used to say about getting kids to talk.

Finally, Tommy snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Joel.

“My mom has this guy she’s been seeing. She doesn’t know, but he’s been using our place to keep his stuff and for selling too. He does it during the day when she’s at work, but I’ve caught him doing it. He says it’s nothing, but I don’t want him to do it in our home. Mom won’t listen to me. She thinks I’m making it up because I’m jealous.” It was clear what Tommy thought about that analysis. “At first, I couldn’t find where he kept it, but a few days ago I found it in the attic, in my baby sister’s old backpack. He even used her backpack!”

“So you don’t use the stuff?” Joel hoped the answer would be what he expected.

“No, of course not! Only an idiot would do that! I can’t smoke and play hockey!” Apparently, it was a preposterous suggestion.

“You stole your mother’s boyfriend’s weed and brought it here?” Lucas had calmed down, but Joel could tell he was still upset. And rightfully so.

“I brought it here.” With surprising maturity, Mason intervened. “Don’t blame Tommy.”

“I didn’t know what to do. I kept thinking social services would take me away from her if they found out. To get it out of the house, I put it in my locker, but Mason said I’d get expelled if they found it there. He offered to help out and I was desperate…” Tears were forming in his eyes. “I’m so sorry…”

“OK, we need to get this crap to the police and file a report.” With an action plan in place, Lucas could finally let go of his anger. He grabbed Tommy’s coat and handed it to the boy. “You have to explain this to the police. And to your mother. I’m guessing when she hears this from not only you but us as well, she’ll have no choice but to believe you. I’ll make sure she believes you.” After a reassuring pat on Tommy’s shoulder, Lucas opened the door.

Tommy slipped into his coat and nodded. The relief was clear on his face. Joel wondered just how scared the poor boy had been the past few days. And Mason too. Why hadn’t he felt comfortable coming to them straight away? Then again, loyalty between friends and team mates was a good thing. They would have some serious talking to do tonight, though.