The Bully - 2. Chapter 2

It was two-thirty in the god damn morning and I couldn’t help but be irritated. If Grandpa hadn’t come up with his hair-brained idea yesterday at the church reception, I could still be in bed. Instead, here I was at the fucking door of the church parsonage, trying to decide what to do. There were no lights on in the house, and it sounded like everyone was still asleep. One choice was to ring the bell again, or pound on the door until someone woke up, but Grandpa would call that downright rude, and he’d be pissed if I was rude to the new pastor.

That left one choice, and I reached out to open the door, surprised that the city-folk had already learned that people rarely ever locked their doors out here. The parsonage was a neat bi-level home, much like the church. There was a basement, reached by steps going downward and stairs off to the left, leading upwards, reached the main house. Yesterday Danny-boy had pointed out which room he’d claimed, and I’d bit my lip at that. It was the same damn fucking room.

The stairs barely creaked as my large frame went up them, and I raised an eyebrow at the furniture in the living room. It was nice stuff, barely fitting in with the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere instead of some fancy city. It was only a few short steps down the hallway to the right, past several family photos leaning against the wall, waiting to be hung up, and I opened the bedroom door on the right.

Once I’d known the inside of this house as well as my own, but I realized how different everything was when I opened Danny’s door. It was hard not to laugh at the large king-size waterbed as big as my own. Whereas I had a comforter that had a mural of a setting sun, complete with white clouds, orange glow and mountains, he had a dark blue duvet. The walls were already covered with posters of sports stars: football, basketball, and baseball. One wall had posters of rock bands, another surprise, as was the dresser/desk combo covered with trophies. It was too dark to see what they were for, but I would find out eventually.

Danny-boy didn’t look like a big jock, he was too skinny, too wiry, too delicate for that.

Still, he had trophies, and as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw he was sprawled across the middle of the waterbed, his feet pointing towards me and his head pointed towards the other end, lying cross-wise. That did get a chuckle out of me since half the time I woke up the same way in my own bed. With all that room in the bed it was a shame to waste it by not sprawling out and moving as I slept.

“Wake up, Danny-boy.” I put as much cheerfulness in my voice as I could, despite being cranky from lack of sleep. The evening church service had run long, and I’d been forced to stay up late working out the plan for today with Grandpa. He was going to help the pastor return the truck today by giving him a ride back from Tonopah. That meant I had to handle all the work today for our fields. We had the usual work hands showing up at three-thirty since we were bailing hay, and I had to get the preacher’s kid there in time because the preacher didn’t have a truck for his kid to use.

“Wha?” Danny mumbled and I reached down to tickle his feet that were sticking out of the covers. It made me feel funny inside as I touched them. Like the rest of him, they were fine-boned, soft and delicate like they’d never seen a hard day’s work. Still, they were big feet, looking almost as big as mine.

“Wakey, wakey, Danny.” I said a little more loudly, but not so loud as to wake up the rest of the house. His feet retreated from my tickling touch and he groaned before sitting up, rubbing his eyes as he looked at me.

“What time is it?” He asked.

“Nearly two forty-five and we’re running late.” I said with a little gruffness added to my voice. “If we don’t hurry up, Grandpa’s going to be paying the hands for standing around doing nothing.”

“It’s too damn early.” He groaned before flopping down on the bed. I growled and grabbed the cover, pulling it off in a big sweeping motion. That was a mistake, a big mistake, I saw as it revealed Danny in nothing but dark blue boxer-briefs, complete with morning wood that left my mouth gaping in astonishment.

“It’s cold.” Danny mumbled before sitting back up. I turned around, my back to him and grumbled angrily.

“Get your fucking ass in gear.” I snarled. “You’re the asshole who decided it’d be fun to help the poor farmers, so let’s get going before you cost us money.”

“Okay, okay, keep your hat on.” He mumbled, and I heard him crawling out of bed and rummaging through his closet. I counted to sixty before turning around to see him pulling on some designer jeans. He had already donned an expensive-looking t-shirt.

“You might want to pick something else besides that outfit.” I warned him grumpily. The jeans were a little faded, but they fit him like a glove, as did the t-shirt. His hair was still a mess, but the creamy complexion of his face looked far too nice this early in the morning.

“Why?” He asked with a frown, looking down at his clothes as he finished buttoning up the jeans and moved to rummage through a drawer for some socks.

“You’re gonna get dirty today.” I told him harshly. “Those things will get ruined. You might want to wear something you won’t mind getting ruined.”

“These are my rattiest clothes, dude.” He snorted while putting his socks on and then rooting out a pair of nearly-new tennis shoes.

“You’ll want to wear boots.” I warned him.

“I don’t have any.” He frowned at me. “These’ll do. They’re nearly six months old anyway.”

“What size do you wear?” I asked him with a sigh.

“Shoes?” He asked and I nodded.

“Thirteen.” He answered and I did a double-take.

“I wear thirteens.” I said in disbelief.

“Double-wides I bet.” He retorted and I nodded, thinking as fast as my dumb brain would let me.

“If you wear two pairs of socks, I got a decent pair of boots you can wear.” I told him, doing my best to be nice. That’s what Grandpa had demanded of me, and I always tried to keep him somewhat happy. My pants would be way to big on his skinny frame, as would a t-shirt, but at least the t-shirt he could tuck in and not worry about too much.

I tingled at the thought of him in one of my shirts, and pushed that away viciously.

“Are you sure?” He asked with a crease of his eyebrow.

“Yeah, Grandpa would tear me a new asshole if I let you ruin your shoes.” I told him, seeing he was pretty much ready. Danny just nodded and pulled out an extra pair of socks before following me out of the room and then out of the house.

“Cool car.” He said as I got in the Wrangler.

“It’s a Jeep, not a car.” I growled while starting it up. Before pulling out I reached into the back and grabbed the thermos. “Here, it’s coffee. Sorry, no cream or sugar, we drink it black.”

“So do I.” He said with a grin that told me he knew I was trying to intimidate him with that comment. It was hard to resist the urge to peel out of the gravel drive, but I managed to pull out without making too much noise. His cutting loose with a big yawn didn’t help much. “So what are we doing today?”

“Bailing hay.” I answered shortly while heading towards the field where the workers would be waiting.

“Why so early?” He asked.

“It’s been drying since we cut it a few days ago, and this is the best time to get it with the right moisture content.” I explained. “Besides, once we get this field baled up we’ve got two flatbed trucks coming to pick up loads from our last harvest.”

“So what am I going to be doing?” He asked and I frowned.

“I’m going to have you drive the tractor.” I said. Normally I’d do that, but he’d probably get hurt doing anything else, like loading the bailed hay into the trucks.

“That’d be good, if I could drive.” He muttered and I looked over in shock, nearly going off the road before I recovered.

“What do you mean you can’t drive?” I asked with surprise, my voice going up an octave. With anyone else, I’d have been embarrassed, but for some reason Danny-boy’s hearing my voice go up like that wasn’t too bad. “You’re fifteen! Everyone knows how to drive at fifteen!”

“Not when you’re in the city, you don’t.” He countered, making me think for a moment. What he said made since. There were more cops in the cities, and unlike out here, they probably cared if you drove around without a license.

“I guess I’ll have to teach you.” I said, almost shuddering at the thought of being in the tractor’s cab with him for hours and hours, but if he was fifteen and didn’t know how to drive, well we had another field to cut next week and I could use him on a swather, which meant he’d have to be able to drive by then.

“You’re serious?” He asked with his mouth hanging slightly open and a gleam in his eye. “No wisecracks about the stupid city kid not being able to drive?”

“You’re not stupid.” I told him with a frown. “I’m the one here who ain’t exactly smart.”

“Says who?” He asked with a frown that matched mine.

“I’m lucky to get one or two B’s a year, and that’s always in math.” I said with a shrug. “I’ve always gotten C’s. Everyone knows I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed with school work.”

“I see.” He said softly, looking out the side. The ragtop was down, so the wind was blowing his longish black hair and I had to concentrate to keep myself on the road.

“You know a lot of things others don’t.” He said after being quiet for a while. I was turning onto a field access road now, and could already see the men waiting around two F-150’s that had their headlights on. A quick glance at my watch showed we were only a few minutes late. Grandpa and I had already staged the equipment last night before going to church.

“Don’t worry, you don’t need to stroke my ego.” I told him sourly, frowning even more when he giggled, but he just nodded as we came to a stop.

“What’s up, bossman?” Miguel asked as we got out. He was in his mid-thirties and had the worn look of a lifetime spent in the fields. It was Grandpa’s rules that men who worked for us had to speak English enough to follow directions, and of course have legal green cards. Miguel had been our foreman now for two seasons, and did a good job picking good men. He also knew his place.

“We’ve got to get all the hay baled up by nine.” I told him, elaborating further on my instructions. Daniel not knowing how to drive meant some changes, but they were easy to deal with.

“That’s a lot.” Miguel said with a grimace when I was done. “Whose the new guy?”

“He’s the preacher’s son.” I said with a shrug. “Grandpa wants us to take him on.”

“Why you going to be working with him?” Miguel asked and I felt my temper rise again. He should know better than to question me.

“’Cause he ain’t driven a tractor in a while and I want to make sure he knows how to do it right.” I fumed and Miguel backed off a bit, holding his hands up.

“Sorry, mano.” He said. “We’ll pick up the slack.”

“You’re damn right you will.” I grumbled. “I have to head back to the house for something. We’ll be back in a bit, get the men started and those that’ll be following us ready. Got it?”

“I got it.” He said with a nod and I turned back to the jeep while Daniel frowned.

“If I’m going to be more trouble…” He started to say but I cut him off.

“Can it.” I told him. “Yeah, you’re going to slow us down today, but Grandpa wants to make sure your dad’s happy here, and once you get driving the tractor down, you’ll be a big help with the next cutting. Mikey’s field is almost ready to cut and so we’ll be doing that real soon.”

“That’s your brother, right?” Danny-boy asked and I nodded while pulling back down the road and heading towards the house. When we got to my house and went inside, mom was already up cooking breakfast for dad.

“Is something wrong?” Mom asked as we went past the kitchen.

“Nope, I just forgot something.” I told her. “Miguel’s got the guys starting already.”

“Okay.” She said softly. I just hoped Dad wasn’t out of the bathroom already. He always took long showers before heading to the mine.

“Dude, you don’t have to cover for me.” Daniel said as we entered my room and I rummaged around the closet for my extra pair of boots. He was looking at my trophy case.

“Don’t worry.” I told him as I found the boots and tossed them on the bed for him. An old blue work-shirt followed and I was treated to a view of his chest as he changed shirts. He was far more muscled than I’d thought, even having a six-pack of abs that disappeared under my shirt. It was far too big for him across the shoulders, but he tucked it in before slipping off his shoes and putting on his extra pair of socks before getting into my boots. When he was done, he stood up and held out his arms like he was waiting for my approval.

He got a nod from me before I headed out of my room.

“Here, you boys take these with you.” Mom said as we passed the kitchen, handing us both brown paper bags.

“Thanks mom.” I said with a genuine smile, and gave her a kiss on the cheek, forgetting for the moment that Daniel would see that gesture. My mom was special, and of everyone I knew, she was the only one who I really believed would love me no matter what.

“Not a word.” I grumbled to Daniel who was giving me a goofy grin as he looked in his bag. There was no need for me to look, I knew mom had been baking fresh biscuits and had put a few in there for us. There’d probably be an apple as well.

“Wow, these smell great.” Daniel said cheerfully as he pulled out a biscuit and bit into it right away. “Yum, these are great.”

“Mom’s great at baking.” I said with a shrug, but inside part of me was happy that he was being so nice about mom’s cooking. In my mind, it was the best, and I was pretty sure he wasn’t faking his appreciation. Maybe he wouldn’t be so bad.

“I hope she can teach my mom a thing or two.” Daniel said with a chuckle as he finished off the biscuit, followed by a gulp of coffee from the thermos.

“Who knows?” I asked as I headed for the waiting tractor. The next two hours consumed every bit of patience I’d ever possessed, and I was almost ready to kick the slender city-boy off the god-damned tractor. He couldn’t drive in a straight line if his life depended on it, and pretty soon it would. We had the smallest section to bale, but we weren’t going to be done anytime soon.

“All you have to do is hold it steady you fucking nimrod!” I growled at him for the fifth time as he lost the track and veered to the right.

“You try doing it with all these fucking bumps in the field!” He shouted back and my anger seeped away as I started to laugh.

“I’ve been doing this since I was big enough to sit in my Grandpa’s lap and could hold the wheel!”

“You see, that’s unfair!” He shouted. “I haven’t been doing this since I was sitting in someone’s lap!”

“Maybe that’ll work.” I muttered to myself at the idea that popped into my head. I remembered that I’d learned best because at first Grandpa’s hands had guided mine on the wheel. It was from that contact with his skilled hands that I’d learned how to control the tractor. Perched beside and slightly behind the driver’s seat, I couldn’t give Daniel the same kind of guidance.

“What’ll work?” Daniel growled in frustration as he veered off again, this time to the left.

“Stop for a moment.” I told him and he at least managed that without too much trouble. He wasn’t really doing that bad overall, it was just that his control was lacking.

“What are you going to do?” He asked me with a hint of fear in his voice. That was the first time he’d really shown fear around me, and for some reason it pissed me off worse than his awful driving.

“Oh calm down, you pussy.” I growled at him, and the scowl that appeared on his face actually calmed me down some. The fact that of all the people I knew who weren’t my family, only Daniel wasn’t scared of me was something I was growing to like. The sun was well above the eastern mountains now, and while it was getting to be almost mid-morning, we still had enough time to finish up this section if we hurried.

“Don’t call me a pussy.” Daniel growled, and it sounded so much like me for a moment that I started to chuckle.

“Sorry.” I said as his scowl deepened. “For a moment there I thought you sounded like me.”

“Don’t be insulting.” He said, and my temper rose again until I saw his lips curl upwards a bit. A second later we were both laughing, and that laughter cleaned out all the ill feelings I was having.

“C’mon, stand up for a moment.” I told him and he moved out of the chair. He frowned when I slid into the chair, but then he looked confused when I spoke to him. “Now, sit in my lap.”

“Why?” He asked me with a frown.

“I’m going to show you how to drive like my grandpa taught me.” I answered with a bright smile. He just shook head.

“I’m not a kid.” He complained and I frowned back at him.

“Look, we’re behind schedule.” I reasoned with him instead of shouting for him to do as he was told. “If you sit in my lap and put your hands over mine, you can feel how I control it. Just relax and let yourself feel what I’m doing. You’ll catch on a lot quicker and we’ll get this field done.”

“That’s… that’s queer.” He said softly and I growled.

“I ain’t queer!” I all but shouted. The workers behind us might not have heard that, but I wasn’t going to take bets. When I continued it was in a far quieter voice. “Look, do you want to learn or not? This is the best way, trust me. I ain’t trying to feel you up or anything. You’re pretty enough there’s plenty of girls at school that’ll do that for you. Hell, let Missy look at you twice and she’ll be on her knees sucking you off before you had a chance to take a deep breath. She’s blown me and most of the rest of the boys in school.”

“I’m not interested in having this Missy suck on my cock.” Daniel said in a low voice that spoke of danger ahead. “If this is how you want to do it, fine, I’ll do it. Dad’s said the salary at the church ain’t enough for me to have an allowance, so I have to earn my money. That’s fine with me, but if you use this to embarrass me at school, I’ll make you pay for it.”

“I ain’t telling anyone at school I had a prissy boy like you sitting in my lap.” I replied angrily and let out on oomph as he sat heavily in my lap.

“Let’s get this show on the road.” He said with disgust and I held back the curse that was going through my head. Daniel was almost as tall as me, but he was slender, and my arms fit easily around either side of him. He placed his hands over mine, and I saw how much wider and thicker mine were than his. Daniel’s hands were softer too, and the silken touch of them stirred something deep inside me.

Well, I was a teenager, so having him in my lap, on top of a vibrating tractor shouldn’t cause too much surprise that my jeans would get a little tight.

“Here, see, it’s gentle, steady movements that you need to use.” I told him as we got into gear and began to move down the field. “No jerking, no sharpness, just smooth, gentle movements is what you need on the wheel.”

“Yeah.” Daniel’s voice was softer than I’d heard so far, but his hands on top of mine showed that he was at least paying attention.

Two hours later, we were done with our section of the field, and Miguel’s crew had finished their sections as well. Daniel had gotten good enough that I let him drive the tractor back to the equipment shed on his own, and he did a good job of it too. Miguel was snorting though.

“Neat way of showing him how to drive.” Miguel said between snorts. “Too bad he wasn’t a girl.”

“Shut the fuck up.” I snarled and Miguel paled. He’d been with us long enough that he was in the real nice double-wide trailer my Grandpa kept for his best hands, and I knew his wife would castrate him if she lost the nice home. They had four kids and with that trailer they could keep two kids per bedroom without paying all their money just for a roof over their heads.

“Sorry, bossman.” Miguel’s voice was placating, but did nothing to soothe my temper. It was too bad Daniel wasn’t a girl. If he had been a girl, I’d be putting some serious moves on him right now. Then again, if he’d been a girl I probably wouldn’t have been teaching him how to drive by having him sit in my lap. You just didn’t do that kind of thing with a girl.

“Forget it.” I told him and paused for a moment. “While you’re at it, make sure everyone who saw it forgets it too.”

“Got it.” He nodded before I waved him off. My Jeep was all too happy to take off across the now empty field on a shortcut to the equipment shed. Daniel surprised me when I got there by having the tractor parked perfectly where I’d told him to park it for the day. I’d have to do maintenance on it later today, and he’d get to learn about how the equipment worked.

“Not bad.” I said as Daniel got in the Jeep.

“Thanks.” He said with a grin, and then got a sober look on his face. “You know, you were right, I did learn better that way.”

“Just remember that I was right, and don’t tell anyone!” I mumbled and he snorted.

“No worries on that account.” Daniel said. “If I was a girl, Dad would be arranging a shotgun wedding right now.”

“True.” I laughed, setting him off into a fit of laughter as well. It was really funny considering what Miguel had just said, and when I told him what Miguel had said and we laughed even harder. By the time we drove up to the sheds where the baled hay from the last harvest was kept, we’d both laughed ourselves out.

“Wow.” Daniel said as he looked at the tall, forty-foot high sheds. They were really nothing more than wood columns supporting a tin roof, but they were tall and filled with hay.

“We’ve been lucky this year.” I told him as we got out just as the first big-rig flatbed pulled into the lot. “The weather’s been dry and we’ve got a good crop. If things go the way the weather service is saying, we’ll get a damn good fourth harvest this year which’ll mean extra money.”

“That’s good.” Daniel said while rubbing his hands together. When I gave him a curious look he grinned evilly. “My dad’s the preacher… you make more money, you tithe more and the church gets more!”

“Should have known you were just being greedy.” I laughed. It was weird, I couldn’t remember laughing so much in a long time, and the truth was I really didn’t know this Daniel. I wasn’t even sure if I liked him, or if he was just something new I’d get tired of in a few weeks.

“What, you expected me to be altruistic?” He asked and I frowned.

“Al True what?” I asked and he stared at me for a moment before explaining what the word meant. When he had, I nodded, carefully filing it away. Sure, I wasn’t smart, but I could remember things pretty good, and that was a nice word.

Miguel had gotten the forklifts out of the nearby shed and lined both of them up in the loading area. I looked over at Daniel who was looking at them with curiosity and knew he’d never driven one of them either. If the truckers weren’t on such a tight schedule, I might have taken the time to show him how, but the tractor this morning made me sure that I didn’t dare take the time now. We could do that later, after the harvest was done. Two of the hands were already taking the samples so that we could verify the baled hay was still good, properly nutritious for their destination so I got into one of the forklifts while Miguel got into the other.

“What?” I exclaimed as Daniel’s weight settled into my lap. He turned his head and I could see the grin on his face.

“You’re teaching me how to use this thing, right?” He asked in a sweet tone that bordered on mocking. A quick glance showed the trucker had already seen this and was smirking at us. Part of me wanted to push Daniel off of my lap, but that trucker’s smirk irritated me too much. If I pushed Daniel off, the trucker would have won a point on me.

“Okay, this is how you operate this thing.” I said to Daniel as he put his hands on top of mine, and his feet on mine. We went over the controls, and then I was moving into action, lifting the hay and transferring it to the flat bed truck with long years of practice.

“I think I got it.” Daniel said later, when the truck was almost fully loaded. I nodded and slipped out from under him. If he messed up now, it wouldn’t take long to fix. As I stepped back to stand next to the still-sniggering driver, Daniel moved the forklift for the next load and I smiled with pride at how easily he did that.

“Before this morning he’d never driven so much as a car.” I said in an aside to the trucker who shook his head and gave a look of shock as Daniel easily maneuvered the load onto the truck. He was done in a few minutes, and even Miguel as nodding in approval at his work.

“You’re shitting me.” The driver exclaimed when he was done and the load was being tied down.

“Nope.” I said with a shake of my head.

“Thanks, Eddie.” Daniel said as he strode over to me. “It’s a lot easier learning it that way.”

“Same way my Granddad taught me.” I said and the trucker shook his head before walking off. Yep, that was so much better than having just shoved Daniel out of the forklift.

“Thanks.” Daniel said softly while the driver checked his load.

“Not a problem.” I said as my stomach growled. He sniggered at me, but it didn’t make me angry. By now I knew him well enough to know there was nothing negative in that. “You hungry?”

“Yeah.” He said. We’d already finished off the apples mom had given us earlier.

“Well, it’s almost lunch time.” I said. “How about we head home and get something to eat?”

“Sounds good to me.” He replied and we headed back to the Jeep. Fifteen minutes later we were walking in the front door of my home and I was telling him how all the family had pitched in to build it, just like Mikey’s house.

“That’s pretty cool.” Daniel said with genuine respect. “Back in California you almost never see people doing stuff like that. We were lucky if any of my Uncles would help us even paint a room, not that we ever did that much.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“Most of our houses were rented.” He said softly as I led him back to the game room.

“So?” I asked.

“Well, you can’t paint the inside of the house when you’re renting it from the owner.” He said in a tone that suggested I should have known that. How should I though? I’d never lived anywhere but here in the house my family had built.

“Sorry.” I exclaimed and he just shook his head.

“No, I’m sorry, I guess I forgot you’ve never lived in a place like that.”

“I don’t think I’d want to either.” I replied honestly and he shrugged a little as we entered the game room.

“Oh wow, this is so cool.” He said with a gleam in his eyes as he looked around.

“Yeah, and now that Mikey’s not around, it’s all mine.” I said with a hint of gloating and he smirked at me.

“Not bad, Eddie, not bad.” My new friend said and I realized that maybe, just maybe things were going to be better.