The Broken Boy - 2. Tug-of-War

I was so happy when the bell rang and school was over until the following Tuesday! Almost a whole week away from that stinking place! I really hated high school. I had liked elementary school and even middle school was okay. But there was just something about Mon Valley High School that just made me hate the place and everything and everyone in it. Everybody I’d known and loved from eighth grade had seemed to go off in different directions, and all away from me.

Joey had been one of my best friends in middle school. But then he and his parents left our church and started going to a new church in town. After that, he changed a lot. He used to be okay, but then he’d gone off into a new clique of kids from his church who were all about gathering around the flag pole for prayer and organizing bible groups and wearing purity rings swearing off drinking and drugs and such. They acted like they were so much better than everyone else because their parents were so important in the community and they were doing such pious things, it became obnoxious. If they actually believed half the crap they espoused I might have had more respect for them. But ol’ Joseph Q. McKenzie was the biggest pervert I knew. He hadn’t gotten any better than from when we were younger, and he admitted to me while we were still friends that he was only in the group because he was going to try to fuck as many virgin girls as he could before he graduated. And Sarah Taylor, my arch rival, was also in the group and was as far from a virgin as a girl could get. I knew for a fact that she’d had sex with her college-age boyfriend, and probably a dozen other boys. I knew about six other people in the group who were already on the path to being alcoholics and drug addicts as well. I hated drug addicts more than anything.

My close friend, Emily, had gotten so busy with cheerleading, volleyball, and softball that she hardly had any time to hang out anymore. But, the good news was that she was planning to open her pool for parties once the weather allowed it. Still, I missed having her around to chill out with. She was always good at cutting through people’s crap.

Dustin was deep into sports. He was on the varsity baseball and basketball teams, and was playing junior varsity football as well. Being over six feet tall had its advantages. His dad was always on him to practice so I was shocked when he had asked me to come over to spend the night. It worked out well. Brett was going out of town, so I wouldn’t feel bad about hanging out with Dustin. The only thing I hadn’t done was tell Brett I was going to Dustin’s while he was gone, and I hadn’t told Dustin that Brett was going away either. I probably could have told both of them and neither would have cared. But since the day they’d gotten into their fight over me, they had been enemies.

It sucked that my two best friends hated each other. They were always sniping at each other when they were together. And when I was with one of them alone, he always had to cut on the other. I hated it, and I think that was part of why I hated school so much. I was separated from Brett in classes, the one friend who hadn’t ditched me for sports, girls, or other activities. We saw each other occasionally, like we had in the hallway and on the bus. But there was never any time to just hang out together. I guess that was part of why we hadn’t gone any further than we had in our relationship. There was just no time for each other.

Brett sat next to me on the bus and Dustin sat with some of his baseball friends a few seats in front of us. Dustin had long ago stopped trying to sit next to me, but it was still an awkward situation for me. I always rode with Dustin when the baseball and basketball teams played road games, though. Dustin’s dad had recommended me to the high school baseball coach to be their scorekeeper because I’d done such a good job for him when I was younger. I may not have been any good at sports, but I knew how to do the numbers in my head better than anyone. It didn’t take long for me to get a reputation as one of the best scorekeepers around, and I’d been recruited by the basketball team too. I also did the scorekeeping for Miss Winston’s volleyball team, and I’d been helping her at practices since she’d recruited me back in middle school. So I guess I was pretty busy too.

In fact, the least busy of any of my friends was the boy sitting next to me on the bus ride home. Brett was content to have his guitars and his piano and his video games. And porn. Lots and lots of porn. Seriously, ever since Brett had discovered internet porn he hadn’t gone a day without it. He had more porn stored on his computer than a pornography store. He’d gone through gallons of lube in the past year. And he was proud of it. Most people don’t talk about masturbating. Brett talked about it constantly with no shame at all.

“So what are you going to do this weekend?” Brett asked. The change in his behavior since we started high school had been amazing! He wasn’t nearly as hyperactive as he had been. In fact, some days he seemed downright lethargic. He hadn’t been in trouble at all that school year, and in fact he seemed more focused than ever before. I asked him if his mom had put him on Ritalin and he denied it. But there was definitely something different about him. He’d grown several inches taller in the last year, but so had I, and I was still a couple inches taller than him. I was closing in on six feet myself.

“I don’t know. Maybe watch some porn,” I said nonchalantly. I saw Dustin’s shaggy red mane turn slightly and I could tell he was trying to listen to our conversation.

“Oh okay. Cool,” Brett replied. “I’ll lend you some videos when you come to my place. Say, why don’t you just get off at my place? It’ll save you a walk.”

“I can’t,” I replied. “I don’t have a bus note.” Actually, I did have a bus note, but it was to get off at Dustin’s house. I had already dropped off my overnight stuff on the way to the orthodontist. Not that it would have mattered whether or not I had a note. Brett and I had gotten off the bus at each other’s house so often that it was more surprising when we left the bus separately. The driver had long ago stopped asking. And while it really would have made things more convenient to get off at Brett’s house, I didn’t want to hurt Dustin’s feelings.

“Are you sure?” Brett asked. “I’m just trying to save you some walking.” The bus arrived at Brett’s street and he hurried off on his way.

As soon as Brett was off the bus Dustin was sitting next to me. “I’d be careful about borrowing porn from him,” Dustin warned.

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“It’s probably all guys,” he replied.

“So?” I replied.

“Just saying…”

“Yeah, once we get to your house I’ll run up to his place real quick and then I’ll be back,” I said. It worked out great. I had to go to Brett’s before he left town anyway. Now I could take care of what I needed to with Brett and spend more time with Dustin in the morning.

“What’s the hurry? You can go to his place anytime,” Dustin said.

“It’ll just be easier this way,” I replied. “You know how Brett is. If I don’t go now he’ll pester me until I do.”

“Hey, whatever,” Dustin replied. “You may as well have just gotten off at his stop if you’re going to go up there anyway.”

Well sure, I probably should have done that, but I was so wrapped up in trying to keep both boys happy that I could barely think sometimes. I didn’t want to hurt Dustin’s feelings by getting off the bus at Brett’s house, but I didn’t want to hurt Brett’s feelings either. I was so confused! I hated having to work around their stupid feud.

Dustin and I got off the bus and went into his house together. His sister, Amanda, didn’t ride the bus because she rode to school with her boyfriend, Max. She wasn’t home yet. “You sure you have to go see Reilly now? You can pick up a porn video anytime,” Dustin said.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I won’t be long, I promise.”

“Okay, just don’t forget to come back,” Dustin said.

Dustin offered to take my travel bag and book bag up to his room. I walked through his backyard and started up into the woods. It wasn’t long before I was on the trail between my house and Brett’s house. I got to Brett’s place fairly quickly, and I wondered if he’d be ready for me. I opened the back door and walked inside. I took off my shoes and started walking up the stairs to his room. I could hear muffled music coming from Brett’s room. His door was locked. He was listening to some crappy 80’s music and singing along. There was a weird smell and for a minute, I thought maybe Brett had acquired a skunk for a new pet. I knocked on his door and heard the sound of Brett scrambling in his room.

“Oh shit! Just a second!” he cried. I heard the sound of his desk drawer slamming shut and he was hurriedly moving about the room. I heard him open his window and then what sounded like an aerosol can being sprayed.

“You alright in there?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s just you,” Brett replied, sounding relieved. “Yeah, just give me a second!”

“You jacking off in there or something?” I asked.

The door opened and a shirtless Brett stood in the doorway. “Yeah I was spanking it. Sorry… I wasn’t expecting you so soon. I thought you were my mom,” he said. He was chewing gum and he was just wearing the jeans he’d worn to school. I admired his half-exposed body. He looked like he’d just woke up from a nap or something. His eyes looked tired and bloodshot. I could smell air freshener wafting from his room.

“It stinks in here,” I said, walking in and sitting on his bed.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Brett said. “Sometimes the place smells like shit and I have to air it out. You know, with the animals and all…”

“Smells more like cum than anything else,” I said. “Is everything okay? You’re acting kinda jumpy, I mean more so than usual.”

“Yeah. I’m fine,” Brett replied. He had the goofiest grin on his face. I figured since I’d just interrupted him jerking it I wouldn’t say anything more about it. He squirted some eye drops in his eyes and looked nervously around the room. “Anyway… You ready for this?” he asked.

“I guess,” I said.

“You nervous?” he asked.

“A little,” I replied. “I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“Don’t worry,” he said lazily, blowing a bubble with his chewing gum. “It’s going to be easy. You’ll like it.”

“What if I mess it up?” I asked.

Brett scratched his cute belly right above his belly button and laughed. “You can’t mess this up. It’s not hard. Let me show you.” He stood up and faced me. Then he took my hand. He walked me over to his fish tank. “Look, there’s six fish in here and they each get three food flakes so that’s…” He stalled. “Fuck, how many is that?” he asked.

“Eighteen,” I replied.

“Yeah,” Brett laughed. “You’ll be better at this than me. Now let me show you how to feed Sneaker.”

Sneaker, or Sneaky as he was sometimes called, was Brett’s pet snake. I don’t know why I had volunteered to feed him and Brett’s other animals while he was gone. “Now, Sneaky only has to eat every other day or so. Sometimes he can go a whole week, so he’ll be okay. Since I fed him yesterday, he’ll be good until tomorrow at least.” He opened up Sneaker’s enclosure and fished him out. Sneaker wasn’t poisonous, but he was big and he was, well, a snake. “Isn’t he beautiful?” Brett asked, holding him gently in his hands. Sneaker looked suspiciously at me and twirled his tail around Brett’s wrist. “I love my little Sneaker-buddy, don’t I? Yes I do. I love my little Sneaky-snake!” Brett cooed. He kissed the thing on top of the head.

“You don’t expect me to kiss your snake, do you?” I asked.

“You can kiss my snake anytime you want,” Brett replied.

“You wish,” I laughed.

“I do… Let me show you where I keep his food,” Brett explained, putting his pet away. Sneaker’s food turned out to be live mice that Brett bought one at a time at the pet store. He hated that they had to die, but Sneaker had to eat, and he loved his snake more than the mice. He showed me how to feed his iguana and the guinea pigs, and told me for the millionth time how he wished his mom would let him get a cat. He had hoped that he would get one for his fifteenth birthday a few weeks ago, but instead he got a laptop computer. But that was okay too.

“So…” Brett said. “You’re going to Dustin’s tonight, huh? You spending the night?”

“How did you know that?” I asked.

“I can read your mind,” Brett laughed. “That and the fact that he told Joey and Joey told me.”

“Oh…” I replied. “I wasn’t aware that my travel plans were so interesting. Sometimes I forget that you and Joey are still friends. Anyway, I haven’t done anything with Dustin in a long time and when he asked me I couldn’t say no. I mean, his birthday’s coming up on Monday and all and you know his parents won’t do shit for him. He doesn’t know you’re going out of town, though.”

“Really? That’s weird. I mean, it’s all good though. You don’t have to hide things around me. Just because I don’t like the guy doesn’t mean that you can’t be his friend. Just be careful around him.”

“I will… I’m really gonna miss you while you’re gone,” I sighed.

“It’s only for a few days. It’s not like we’re never coming back. I really appreciate you taking care of everybody while I’m gone. I’m going to do something really special for you when I get back.”

“You don’t have to do anything for me. I’m glad to help out.”

“Oh, but I want to do this for you,” Brett smiled. “Just something for you to think about while I’m away.”

“You better be careful while you’re in the city then,” I warned. “You come back in one piece. This isn’t like a walk in the park, you know.”

“I don’t know. The park isn’t all that safe either, especially at night. There’s stuff that goes on there that’ll make you wonder what kind of town we’re living in.”

“Well, I guess I’d better get going,” I said.

“Aw, why?” Brett whined. “Mom’s not going to be home for a few more hours. We don’t have to wait for the trip to be over for me to do what I’m going to do for you.”

“I promised Dustin I wouldn’t be long,” I replied.

Brett frowned. “Okay, fine. Looks like it’s another evening with my hand. Go ahead and leave me all alone and go play with your best friend. Leave your poor horny real best friend here by myself. I understand.”

“Do you know how many times I’ve ditched him for you?” I asked.

“Yeah, but I don’t care. I’m willing to get naked with you,” Brett replied. “Is Dustin going to get naked with you? Is he going to let you play with his dick? I don’t think so!”

We walked to the back door. Brett gave me a key so I could get in and a password to turn their security system off and on. I only half paid attention to what he was saying. I was just admiring how cute he was without a shirt on. He had just turned fifteen a week before and he was really starting to look less like a little boy and more like a young teen. He was more handsome than cute now, and I admired every square inch that he was allowing me to see of him. I loved his smooth chest and belly. I wanted to gently stroke his back between his shoulder blades. I wanted to massage his slightly asymmetrical shoulders, which were much more muscular than they’d been before. I could have just stroked his back all day from the nape of his neck down to where his boxer shorts were exposed above his pants. It seemed like he’d matured into the smoking hot teenager he had become overnight.

He had almost caught up to me in height right before I hit another growth spurt, and surpassed him permanently. He’d grown over a foot taller in the last two years and had settled at around five foot nine. At first his body had looked like he’d been stretched too far in such a short time. It was like he gained a foot in height but still weighed the same as he had before, but now he was starting to fill out and fit more comfortably into his body. He probably weighed the same as me, about a hundred forty pounds or so now. His face was less boyish looking and more handsome with each passing day. He still had some freckles, but they were slowly fading away. His light brown hair had darkened like mine had. But while my blond hair would lighten in the sun, his hair would only darken even more. He hadn’t had a haircut in a while, and his hair had taken on a wild look about it. He would surely have it cut before too long, because he hated the way it would curl and quickly become unmanageable. My hair wasn’t much better. While it wasn’t as curly as Brett’s hair, mine was kind of a cross between wavy and curly. It never got a chance to grow all that long, because if it started to get to the point where it could no longer be managed my mom would break out the clippers and trim it up. When Brett turned around to face me, he could tell I wasn’t paying the least bit of attention to what he was saying.

“Are you sure you want to leave?” he asked one more time. “I could take my pants off too, you know. I’d like to.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “I better go.”

“I don’t want you to go,” he said. He wrapped his arms around my waist and held me against him. I put my arms around his shirtless back, and he let me lightly stroke that spot between his shoulder blades that I’d always wanted to feel. He kissed me. I don’t know how long we stood there holding each other. Time seemed to stop while we were kissing. I felt him open his mouth and I instinctively followed his example. Very gently, we eased our tongues together. It wasn’t our first French kiss, but it had to be one of the best. We were always careful because I didn’t want to cut Brett’s tongue with my braces. He tugged my shirt loose out of my jeans and slid his hands up my back under my shirt. He slipped my shirt off so smoothly that it took a moment to realize that we were now holding each other bare chest to bare chest. He pulled me tighter against him and ran his hands all over my newly exposed skin. Our hips pressed firmly against each other, and he started to gently grind against me, causing both of our dicks to strain against our pants. I felt him begin to tug at my belt but he struggled with it enough for me to regain my senses, and I pulled away from him.

“We should stop…” I said breathlessly.

“No we shouldn’t.” Brett replied.

I found my shirt on the floor and pulled it back on. I readjusted my glasses and the front of my pants. Somehow, I had ended up with his chewing gum.

“Don’t go. Screw Dustin!” He put his hand on the bulge in the front of my shorts. “Your mouth says no, but your dick says yes! I’m so fucking horny right now! You’re so hot, Billy. Please don’t make me wait any more. I want you so bad! I just want to make you feel so good,” he pleaded.

“I can’t,” I replied, though my heart ached to leave him.

“Awww!” he groaned in frustration. He let me go and adjusted himself in his jeans. “Fine! Fuck off then! Jesus Christ! Do you know what you’re doing to me, Billy? Don’t you want to take the next step? God, I know I want to! I can barely keep my hands off you. I want you so bad! I’ve never wanted anything this bad before! Don’t you want to see what it’s like to go further than kissing and touching? I want to take the next step!”

“You know I want to...” I said. “But…”

“But you can’t,” Brett finished. “I know. I’ve been hearing that for a year now. I’m just so tired of waiting. I’ve never waited for anything this long before. You’re driving me crazy, Billy. I need to touch you! Just come up to my room. Please! I promise it will be awesome! I just want to show you how much I love you! I don’t want to hurt you. I want to make you feel good! Don’t you love me?”

“You know I do, but I’m not ready,” I sighed. “I wish I was. I just… I need to be sure. I don’t know what I want.”

“I’m sure enough for both of us! I know what I want, and his name is William Aaron Roberts and he’s the most frustrating boy in the world! I’m not trying to pressure you.”

“Yes you are, liar! I just can’t right now, Brett,” I insisted. I had never told him no to anything, except for this. It was driving both of us crazy. “Please…”

“Okay fine,” he moped.

“I’m sorry… You want your gum back?” I asked.

“Eww, not after you had it in your mouth,” Brett replied.

“But you just...”

“Whatever. Just keep stringing me along forever. Fuck off with your big stupid best friend in the world then,” Brett said crossly. “I’ll just be here jerking off to internet porn, alone again, thinking about you, again, like I always do.”

“Brett…”

“Thanks for helping out while I’m gone. I’ll see you when we get back,” he said, opening the door and dismissing me.

“I really want to stay,” I moped.

Brett didn’t look at me. He stared outside at the woods. “No. You should go,” he insisted. “I wouldn’t want to keep you from your precious Dustin. I need to cum soon or my balls are gonna burst. You can either stay and cum with me or you can go and I’ll just take care of things myself like I always do. I don’t mean to be a douche but my balls are starting to hurt and I can’t wait anymore.”

“I guess I better go,” I replied.

“See you later, then,” he said.

“I lov…” But before I could even finish he closed the door and I kind of stood there looking at it for a minute. Why did everything in my life have to be so stinking complicated? It seemed either Brett or Dustin was always mad at me lately. I just wanted to make them happy! Why was that so hard? I couldn’t make one happy without making the other one mad at me. I knew Brett wanted to go further. Heck, I wanted to go further too! I’d had to fight so hard for the last year to keep from just ripping off his clothes and screwing the hell out of him. Every time I jacked off, I imagined his hands on me. How I wanted to make that a reality! I wanted to just strip naked and let him do whatever he wanted to do to me. But something was stopping me, and I was so frustrated with myself!

When I arrived back at Dustin’s house he had changed clothes. He was wearing a pair of worn out cut-off jean shorts and a faded Green Day t-shirt. “You’re back,” he informed me.

“You sound surprised,” I remarked.

“Can you blame me? I thought for sure you were going to ditch me.”

“Nope,” I replied. My body may have been there, but I’d left my heart on the other side of the woods. I wondered if Brett was still over there in his room with his hands on his dick, thinking of me while he stroked it. Surely by that point he’d shot his load and cleaned up.

“Where’s the porn?” he asked.

“Huh?” I replied.

“I thought you went over there to get some porn off of him.”

Crap! It was getting harder and harder to keep my lies straight. I thought quickly. “Eh, he didn’t have anything that interested me.”

“Okay…” he replied. I hoped that was the end of it. “I told you it was probably all fag stuff. So what do you want to do?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I thought for a moment. “Want to play chess again?”

Dustin found his chessboard while I changed out of my school clothes and into more comfortable attire. I had a Jerome Bettis jersey that Brett had bought me for Christmas that I liked to wear when I was playing around. By the time I finished changing clothes and joined Dustin in his living room, he had already set up the chessboard. I could never play chess with Brett. For one reason, he got bored with it way too quickly. He was more interested in playing around with the pieces than in actually playing the game. And for another reason, I had beaten him senseless every time we’d played. Dustin was a much tougher opponent. He beat me just as often as I beat him.

After we’d played for a while, Dustin’s older sister Amanda and her boyfriend Max came through the front door. They sucked face at the door and then they noticed us.

“Oh great, I forgot that Shithead was having his boyfriend over today,” Amanda sighed.

“Get bent,” Dustin cursed at her.

Without even batting an eye, Amanda grabbed hold of Dustin’s arm, the same arm he’d broken a year earlier, and bent it violently backward behind his back. Dustin screamed in pain and anger. “Ow! Stop it!!”

“You better apologize before I break your arm again, Shithead,” Amanda warned. She yanked hard on his arm and he cried out in pain.

“Alright! Alright! I apologize!!” he cried. Angry tears streaked his face.

Amanda let go of Dustin and she and Max laughed at him. She definitely took after her mother. She was a large girl with curly dark red hair. She had the same grayish blue eyes as her brother, but her eyes were cold and cruel like steel while Dustin’s were soft and warm. She had tormented poor Dustin all his life, being two years older than him. She had hooked up with Max a few years ago, and then she really turned into a bitch. Max was a known drug dealer, and was a notorious troublemaker. He and his gang of friends were part of the reason why I hated going to school anymore. They were a bunch of jerks, and Amanda fit right in. Even though Dustin was now taller and stronger than her, she still bullied him, and Dustin just took it and never fought back.

“Who’s the fag?” Max asked, jerking a thumb my way.

“That’s my brother’s little boyfriend Billy,” Amanda replied.

“What a fucking dork!” Max laughed.

“Leave him alone!” Dustin warned. He scowled viciously at his sister.

“Nice to see you too, Amanda,” I piped in, hoping to defuse the situation. I tried to keep the contempt out of my voice. “How’s it going?”

“Shut up, Billy,” Amanda replied. “God, you’re such a dork. Come on, Max. Let’s let the little faggots play their game before they fuck each other in the ass.” Then she kicked Dustin’s chessboard off the table. The pieces scattered everywhere. Amanda and Max laughed as they went upstairs. Dustin quietly started picking up his chess pieces and wiped his eyes.

“Why do you let her do that to you?” I asked.

Dustin snapped, “Shut up, alright! Just shut up!” He crumpled on the floor and buried his face in his hands. He startled me and I sat down on the couch. I didn’t know quite what to say, Dustin had never yelled at me before and I’d never seen him so distraught. He wasn’t crying, but he looked like he was about to explode. He knelt on his knees on the floor and grabbed two handfuls of his shaggy red hair. It looked like he was about to try to rip his hair out, but he didn’t. Slowly, the tension eased out of his body. He let go of his hair and ran his fingers through it. He smiled, but I could tell it wasn’t a real smile.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Dude, don’t do that stuff. You’re scaring me,” I replied.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, this time his voice breaking. “Please don’t be mad at me.”

“I’m not mad at you. I’m just kinda worried about you, that’s all. You totally don’t deserve to be treated like that.”

“Just forget about it,” Dustin sighed. “Let’s get out of here.”

"Okay, but I need to use the bathroom first," I said. I walked to the upstairs bathroom. I could hear music coming from Amanda's room. Her room was next to the bathroom and when I closed the bathroom door, I could hear them doing it. The bed was bumping repeatedly against the wall and I could hear Amanda screaming at Max to fuck her harder and harder. I took my piss and didn't bother to flush because I didn't want them to know that I could hear them. As I walked past her door on the way downstairs, I heard Max say he was going to cum, and Amanda warned him to pull out. Then they both screamed in pleasure. It made me a little sick.

I found Dustin sitting on his front doorstep. He seemed to have regained his composure, but he didn’t say anything. We didn’t say anything for a while as we walked past the trailer next to his house. I noticed a Ford Mustang parked in the driveway and pointed it out to Dustin. He always liked that type of car. He just nodded though and we walked on.

“Max is banging your sister,” I informed Dustin. “I heard them.”

“I know,” Dustin replied. “Everybody knows. You’d have to be deaf not to know. Mom and dad know and they don’t even care. They never get mad at her. They only yell at me.”

“What if she gets pregnant?” I asked.

“Wouldn’t be the first kid Max had. I don’t think she even cares,” Dustin replied. “She’d probably just abort it anyway.”

“Yeah…” I said. We reached the main road at the bottom of the hill and walked toward the store. “So why do you let her treat you like crap?” I asked.

“Why do you have to ask me stupid questions?” Dustin replied. “Can we not talk about my stupid sister anymore?”

“Okay, sorry,” I replied. I blew a bubble with the chewing gum I’d received from Brett.

“I thought you weren’t allowed to chew gum with braces,” Dustin said.

“What makes you say that?” I asked turning red. I was a little embarrassed about the way I’d earned my bubble gum even though Dustin had no idea how I’d gotten it. “So why don’t your parents do something about her?” I asked, trying to change the subject back.

“Yeah right!” Dustin scoffed. “They don’t care what she does. Mom’s too busy going back to school to care. And dad? Right… Like that’s gonna happen.”

We bought some soda pops and a few comics at the store and started walking back to Dustin’s house. We read our magazines as we walked along and made fun of the characters in the stories. I felt really bad for Dustin. If a stranger did the things to him that Amanda did, they’d be arrested. But Amanda got away with it because she was his sister and it made me mad.

When we got back to Dustin’s house, we saw that Max’s car was still there. So we messed around outside in the back yard for a while. Dustin played around with a baseball bat and I pitched, badly, to him. I hit him more than he hit the ball, and we both laughed. He apologized for about the hundredth time about the trick he’d pulled during the basketball game at school. After a while, his dad’s car pulled into the driveway. Frank Smith staggered into the yard.

“That’s not the way to stand when you’re waiting for the fucking pitch,” Frank scolded.

“We’re just playing around for fun, dad,” Dustin replied.

“That’s half your fucking problem. You’re always fucking around instead of concentrating!” Frank rebuked him. “I swear you’re worse than a fucking nigger…” Then, it seemed that he noticed me for the first time. “Billy Roberts? What the fuck are you doing here?”

“You said he could come over tonight, dad,” Dustin reminded him.

“I did? Fuck, that’s right,” Frank replied. He wasn’t mad. He always acted like a jerk. “Where’s your fuckin’ mother?” he asked.

“She’s still at class, dad,” Dustin answered.

“Fucking bitch… Don’t know why I even came the fuck home. They’re having wing night at the fuckin’ club. I could have just fuckin’ eaten there. God dammit! Go get me a fucking Budweiser out of the cooler, Shithead.”

“Okay dad!” Dustin replied. He ran off into the house. I was left alone with Frank. He looked much older than his age. His skin was tough and leathery, and his once dark blond hair had faded into a pale straw color. He sat on a stack of bricks and eyed me up.

“How’s scorekeeping for the team working out for you, kid?” he asked.

“Pretty good Mr. Smith. Thanks for suggesting me to the coach.”

“Shit, that ain’t nothin’. It was the only way that fuckin’ lazy piece of shit son of mine would play this year,” Frank replied.

“You mean he didn’t want to play?” I asked.

“He never wants to play. Damn kid’s fucking lazier than fucking shit. He fucking cried and whined about playing until I got you to help out the team. Fucking lazy piece of shit, that boy.”

Dustin quickly returned with his dad’s beer and that was thankfully the end of my conversation with Mr. Smith. He hounded Dustin about everything from the way he held the bat to the way he threw the ball. Finally, it got a little too dark and I asked if we could go inside. Really, I just didn’t want to see Dustin get yelled at anymore and hoped I could get Dustin away from his dad.

As we walked toward the house, we saw Amanda and Max leaving. Amanda asked her dad for some money and he gave her twenty bucks and grumbled about her being as bad as her mother. I noticed she was walking funny and seemed in a different mood while her dad was around. But as soon as Frank went into the house and left us alone with her, she turned on us. “What the fuck are you gawking at, fags?” she sneered.

“Harder, Max. Harder,” I mocked her. I don’t know where from inside me it came from, but I just couldn’t take the way she was treating Dustin anymore. I had to say something to knock her down a peg.

“What did you say, you little dork?” Amanda asked, incensed. Dustin stared at me with his mouth agape.

“Don’t cum inside me, baby! I don’t want to get knocked up,” I mocked again. I hated her so much I didn’t care what the consequences of ridiculing her would be. I just wanted her to know that I knew what she had done earlier that day.

Amanda seemed to grow larger, but I stood there defiantly, unafraid of the big bad bitch. “You say anything, and I’ll rip your fucking balls off. You hear me, faggot? Don’t fuck with me,” she warned me.

“So that’d give you two sets of balls then, huh?” I laughed and walked into the house. Dustin asked me if I was crazy and maybe I was. But I just didn’t want to see my friend get hurt anymore. I would have gladly taken a beating from Amanda if it spared Dustin from one, even if only for one night.