Twisted - 1. Chapter 1

Michael watched the world fly by outside the car window. The blur of fields from the highway was all one long stretch of wheat gold color with the dead grass of a hot summer. The sky was clear blue and sadly cloudless. The car said the temperature outside was in the eighties, but it felt much hotter.

The car merged off of the highway and into some large city area. It was clogged with businesses in strips with a Park-n-Ride lot off to the side. His ride slowed to a stop at a stoplight, and he looked over at a small cluster of condos.

“Your new high school will be that way,.” Michael’s social worker, Beth,pointed toward the condos. “Just a block that way actually, I think. Are you excited to start there?”

Of course he wasn’t, the dumb bitch. But, he wasn’t about to say that out loud. He had already gotten a “don’t be rude” lecture from her. The happy pointing attitude was just a front. She had a glare that made any man know they were in huge trouble. It was worse than his mother’s.

Michael cringed at the thought, looking down to his hands. Small scars marred the skin there from broken glass. Beth didn’t let him sulk very long over it.

“Are you excited to meet your father?” Beth asked and glanced away from the road to look atthe teen in the car with her. Michael didn’t reply. Like he was supposed to be excited that his mother’s death had led to a new school and a father he didn’t even know existed?

Beth sighed, finally giving up. She was a pretty woman, although overweight. Michael imagined that she liked to eat small children. Maybe that’s why she was so jolly? Michael snorted, laughing to himself.

“What?” Beth immediately questioned. ‘Good god, woman.’ Michael fell silent again. The rest of the ride was stop and go.

Welcome to Suburbia, land of the stoplights and stop signs every freaking block. Not that Michael would be missing his inner-city life much, but it was still a major change.

Michael watched out the window as the neighborhoods slowly got newer and the houses got bigger. This wasn’t likely to go over well. He bet that the words “social services” weren’t common around there.

Beth finally turned off into a neighborhood called The Meadows. No meadows were around, at least not anymore. The development had taken over most of the place, aside from some state owned open space. Anything that wasn’t developed was brown with lack of rain.

Beth wound her way through the neighborhood and only did rolling stops at the signs. She pulled up in front of one of the houses, blocking a driveway that had a truck in it. Michael stared up at the house, not getting out of the car.

It was some bland color, a tan or off white, he wasn’t sure. The small front yard paired with the large house meant it had been built recently. The front porch had a swing on it, but that was all.

Beth urged him out of the car and waited for him on the walk up to the door. Michael stepped out of the car slowly, rising to his slight five foot seven inch height.

“Leave your bags in the car for now,” Beth instructed as they approached the door.

Michael wrapped around himself nervously, hands stuffed under his arms. Beth rang the doorbell and only had to wait a short while before the door flung open to reveal a taller man.

They looked nothing alike, Michael thought at first. The man—William—was tall, broad, and muscular. Michael had a fairer frame, more like his mother’s. He steered clear of that thought for the millionth time.

“William, it’s nice to meet you.” Beth held out her hand to the man. He shook it, though his eyes were obviously fixed on the teenage boy behind her. “This is Michael.” Beth half turned, opening up direct line of sight with Michael.

Michael said nothing and just stared at the concrete slab of the porch. “Come in.” William’s voice said. Beth stepped forward and Michael followed, watching her feet for guidance as he refused to look anywhere else.

William and Beth started to chat, but Michael tuned most of it out. He was dying to pull out his iPod and listen to it. My Chemical Romance was so much better than listening to Beth compliment the house while William showed her around.

“Michael?” Beth questioned, not the first time by the tone of her voice. Michael snapped his attention up from the now plush carpet they were walking on. “Why don’t you talk with your father some while I bring in your bags.”

Michael puffed up his chest with air to protest. “I can carry my own god damned bags.” Ah, and there was that look from Beth.

“Excuse me?” She lowered her voice. “I thought you and I had a talk about being polite already.”

Michael dropped his eyes again and said nothing. Beth sighed and brushed past him to leave the house. Michael dared another glance at William, who was inspecting him in return. So maybe they did look a little alike. William had dirty blonde hair, which was the same as Michael’s, except for that he dyed it black with a red streak in the bangs by his left eye. Michael’s hair was long enough to cover his eyes and it stopped just above the up-curved tip of his nose.

William’s hair was short and parted off to the side in an easy wave. They both had the same green eyes, though Michael liberally lined his with a black pencil. Nothing was thick and overly done; just enough to make his eyes pop a little.

William was tall, maybe around six feet, plus some. His skin was tan, probably naturally since it was unflawed. Michael had gotten his mother’s pale complexion, too. Michael wondered if the deal-breaker would be that he had snakebite piercings.

Beth came bursting in on their inspection and set two of Michael’s bags near the door. “There’s one more out there,” she announced. “I got it.” Michael spoke up and raced past her to the car. She gave him another look, but went on to talk to William.

Michael nestled a kiwi-green headphone into his right ear and hit the play button of his iPod in his pocket. He pulled his bag out from the backseat and listened to his music. Beth couldn’t complain—he hadn’t been listening to it when he met William. Now that was over, and he could listen to his music freely.

“Michael!” Beth admonished inside anyways. “Be polite and take that headphone out.”

“We’re not talking anyways,” Michael grumbled at her and avoided her hands that were grabbing at the cord.

“It’s fine,” William chimed in and held a hand up. “I don’t mind. Thank you for bringing him, Beth.”

Michael scowled and looked away, holding onto his bag. William was blocking the stairs to go up, and Michael didn’t know where his room was yet.

William and Beth finished their conversation, and Beth left after giving her number to Michael. William and Michael had another momentary stare down before William started to head up the stairs. “The room is pretty bland, but you can do what you want with it.”

Michael followed in silence, hauling two of his bags up with him. It was a large room, with half of the ceiling angling down. There were two windows on the far wall, one on the right and one on the left, and a twin bed tucked in the far right corner.

“You can repaint it or what ever,” William said, now looking at the room and not Michael. “I’ll get your other bag.” William squeezed by Michael through the bedroom door and went back downstairs. Michael dropped his bags on the floor just inside the room.

William came back in with another bag. “I already enrolled you in school, which starts on Tuesday, so we should be able to get your schedule. I think there’s some summer reading assignment, do you want me to get you the book so you can…” William trailed off because Michael was just staring at him.

Staring and not speaking seemed to creep people out and scare them away pretty well.

“Never mind.” William looked away awkwardly. He was young to be a father. How old did Beth say he was? Thirty-three? He would have been seventeen when Michael was born. Maybe he ran away?

“I’ll… I’ll let you do your own thing for now. I’ll call you down for dinner later.” William finally left, closing the door behind him. Michael stood in the center, eyeing the room warily. The walls were some off-white color, which he would definitely be painting over. Until then, Michael opened up one of his bags to some squished posters.

He flattened them out and then unearthed a small plastic box of tacks and started hanging band posters. He’d only been able to bring four of them on the move, but maybe he could figure something out to get the rest back…

Sighing, Michael sat on the edge of the bed. It was firmer than he was used to, but it’s not like he had any room to complain.

‘This sucks’.

He spent the time counting the little scars on the palms of his hands—he already knew that there were twenty little nicks, twelve on his right hand and eight on his left. That wasn’t including the scars on his knees that came from crawling through glass on all fours.

William called him down for dinner sometime later, though Michael wouldn’t admit he was hungry. He picked at the food, fully aware that the man was watching closely.

“So, Julia…” William trailed off, but obviously asking. Michael stilled his fork in the pile of potato salad on his plate.

“Never talked about you.” Michael stated and went to lean his cheek on the palm of his left hand, propped up on the table.

William stared down at his plate, apparently troubled by that fact. Another upside to the long hair; William couldn’t tell that Michael was staring at him—not obviously, anyways. “Then what did she say about me? As your father?” William asked. “You had to have asked at some point, right?”

Michael sighed. “She said you were too young to be a father and that you were better off without us.” William swore under his breath and leaned forward on the table. “Did you even know she was pregnant with me?” Michael accused. “Or was it just some fucking one night stand at a high school party, and then all the sudden you forgot her name and ignored her calls?”

“Michael, that’s not—“ William flinched when a spoonful of potato salad splattered onto his cheek. Michael stormed off upstairs before his father could say anything about it.

***

The drive to school Tuesday morning was tense. Michael refused to talk the past four days since his arrival. The night before William—Will he had corrected—drove him to a home improvement store to buy some paint.

“This is the same high school your mom and I—“ Will started off fondly.

“I don’t fucking care,” Michael cut him off.

Will fell silent, again, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “You should see if—“

“I won't.” Michael didn’t even let him finish again. Will finally gave up and pulled into the carpool lane of the school.

“Bus S-13 is—“

Michael was of the car and slammed the door before Will could finish. He would have been fine living on his own, dropping out of high school to work, but his mother had left the shocker that she wanted him to live with his father and continue his education should anything happen to her.

He felt a little hostile towards her, even. Julia had known this whole time he had a father, but never mentioned it. Michael pulled out his schedule, scanning down the class list. A few people accidentally bumped shoulders with him, receiving nasty glares as Michael tried to navigate his way to class.

Michael walked into his English class, albeit ten minutes late. He offered no pass or excuse to the teacher, who seemed to be stunned silent for a moment by the angry cloud that stormed into her classroom. Or maybe it was the snakebites and red streak in his hair.

Fucking suburbia.

He helped himself to a seat in the far back, though he wasn’t the only one with that idea. Some girl left her own seat to sit next to him. She looked a bit more his type, all black with black hair and a few band name bracelets on her wrists.

“You new?” She asked quietly under the teacher’s voice. Michael only nodded. “I thought so. I would have remembered you from last year otherwise.” She smiled widely. “I’m Katy.”

“…Michael.” He grumbled. Katy turned back around in her seat to face the teacher. Eventually the two were split up with assigned seats anyways, with Michael in the center and Katy somewhere off to the right and back a few rows.

The whole class was spent giving out a syllabus and rules, and Michael tuned out to his music. When class ended Katy caught up with him at the door. “So, what lunch do you have?”

Michael handed over his schedule, not quite sure himself. “Damn, you have B lunch. I have C. But we do have art together, too… I’ll see you later then, okay?” Katy handed his schedule back over and darted down the hall. It took him another few minutes to find his next class. She at least could have helped him with that.

It was a computer elective class, in which the teacher immediately chewed Michael out for being a minute late. “It’s one minute on the first fucking day.” Michael snapped back, raising many disbelieving eyebrows. The teacher, some Mr.-Some-German-name nearly went purple in the face. Michael got a five-minute yelling session and was sent to the hall.

Well, that had gone great.

He put in his music and waited until the teacher came back out to reprimand him again. Finally he was let back into class, seated near the teacher’s desk.

The class had been hell. It didn’t help that on the way out some jock asshole shoved Michael into the wall just outside the door. Did the teacher do anything? Of-fucking-course not. Michael scowled and flipped the offending classmate off in the hall, feeling a twinge in his left shoulder. ‘Great.’

The rest of the day was a little easier, since no teacher seemed to have as much of a stick up their ass as much as the computer one. Michael later found out that the computer teacher was called “the Nazi” for a reason.

School ended, and Michael stared at the line of busses outside. ‘Well, fuck.’What had Will been trying to say? Something-teen? Michael ran into Katy, though she didn’t prove to be helpful. Or maybe it was Michael’s fault.

“Where do you live?” She asked.

“Uh…” Michael looked around, though the houses obscured most of his view. “I think I came from that way?” He pointed off in some unknown direction. Katy raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? That’s all you know? Was it in the Valley or what?”

“Meadows!” Michael suddenly remembered. “I’m in the Meadows.” But, by then, the busses were already starting up to leave.

“Well, fuck.” Katy snarled and grabbed him by the wrist. “You can come to my place and get someone to pick you up.” She hauled him off to the closest bus and pushed him into a window seat.

It wouldn’t have mattered if Michael did know the right bus number—he didn’t know what stop, or the neighborhood in order to walk back.

“So where’d you move from?” Katy asked on the bumpy ride to her house.

“Just Denver,” Michael answered vaguely. Katy must have caught on that he didn't want to talk and let it drop.

They unloaded at the second stop for her bus and started walking. She lived in an older one-story house, with a large front yard and probably even bigger backyard. Michael would have gone for the yard space instead of the bigger house, unlike Will had.

Katy let them inside where two dogs were all over the place. The big one wouldn’t stop barking, and damn, could the tiny one jump. Katy wrangled them into a crate and offered Michael something to eat or drink. He opted for some chocolate chip cookies he saw on the counter and a glass of milk.

They stretched out on the couch and Katy started up some old X-Men cartoon reruns. “Hell yes,” Michael stated when the first episode started.

“Xavier or Magneto in the newest movie?” Katy asked in all seriousness.

“Magneto could use a better name, but he was hot.” It was out of Michael’s mouth before he really realized what he was saying. Katy hesitated.

“Gay?”

“Yes.” Michael admitted. Katy nodded and went back to watching the TV.

“Yeah, he was hot, and maybe because he was the bad guy he just seemed to be all that better? Damn, I was really hoping we could have a fight between who was better…”

Michael chuckled as Katy turned to tell one of the dogs to stop barking. They got through four episodes before Michael’s forgotten cell phone was ringing. “Oh, shit.” Will had given it to him on Sunday. Michael answered to Will.

“Where are you?” He wasn’t yelling, but he was obviously mad.

“Well, I missed my bus.” Michael explained simply.

Will let out a calming sigh . “I told you S-13 this morning.”

“Aaaand I wasn’t listening. And I didn’t know what stop or how to walk back anyways.” Michael felt that he had a perfectly fine reasoning for not being home.

“So where are you?” Will asked again.

“I’m at a friend’s house. Katy. And don’t ask me where she lives, because I don’t know.” Michael chirped.

“Oh give me the phone,” Katy demanded and held her hand out. Pouting, Michael handed over the phone to her. Katy started to tell Will where she lived, and Michael stole the remote back to start watching more X-Men. ‘Yes, Rogue, you would be totally hot if you were a guy. And lost the accent. At least they were teaching kids to be accepting that people were “different.”’

Scowling, Michael tested his shoulder by rolling it. Yup, still hurt. Maybe even a little more now, that he had been holding it still.

“Shoulder hurts?” Katy asked and handed the phone back, now closed. “Yeah, some dick-head pushed me into the wall today.” Michael told her about the Nazi teacher, too.

“Oh God, I got yelled at by him last year. Some other class he was teaching made paper airplanes for their final, and I thought they were fucking around, so I stepped on one. He came out and was so pissed,” Katy relayed own little story.

“Yeah, well, I cussed at him, and then got sat out in the hall. Wonderful first impression, right?” Michael tried to make his story seem worse.

“He wouldn’t like you anyways.” Katy waved over Michael’s look. “Actually, I don’t think he likes anyone,” She added. They both laughed, and Michael grabbed another cookie out of the kitchen. He was just chasing it down with milk when the doorbell rang, and there was Will.

Michael headed for the door, only to jump and scream when some damned bird in a cage freaked out as he went by. “Oh, don’t scare the bird!” Katy smirked.

“It fucking scared me!” Michael screamed in protest as Katy unlocked and opened the front door. Will gave her a quick once-over before turning on Michael. “You could have called me and said you missed the bus.”

“This is your dad?” Katy leered at him.

“He’s not my dad.” Michael snapped and shoved Will aside to head for the car. He heard Katy apologizing after him. Will got into the car behind Michael, giving the teen a quick glance. “Bus S-13, second stop. I’ll walk with you tonight so you know how to get to the stop and back.”

Michael grunted.

“How was school?” Will asked and started the car. Michael didn’t answer; his shoulder was a little achy. Maybe he’d put some ice on it later, if he could do it without Will asking all about it.

It Turned out Katy lived on the opposite side of the city, and Michael couldn’t have been any further without being in another school’s district. “Do you have your license yet, Michael? You turned sixteen in November, right?” Will asked on the drive over.

“No, I don’t even have my permit.” Michael admitted sourly.

“Well, maybe that’s something we can work on, okay? So you can drive to Katy’s on your own.” Will smiled a little. Michael almost said he was gay right then and there, but he would fuck with Will a little.

Maybe stash gay porn somewhere in the house, or a sex toy.

Michael smiled at the evil idea, earning himself a worried glance from Will. They got home and Michael popped two painkillers and fished an ice pack out of the freezer. Will watched from the other side of the kitchen while he fixed dinner.

Michael slid the pack under his shirt and balanced it on his shoulder.

“Something happen at school?” Will asked over his shoulder.

“Nothing.” Michael snapped and went up to his room.