Be Rad - 27. Chapter 27

September 23, 1980

We got ready to walk out the door when I paused. “I think you should tell Jack first.”

“What if I don't keep the baby?”

“You told me you love him. You're going to keep that a secret?” She looked at me and swallowed. “I have a feeling that the same issues you're dealing with, like what will school be like, and what will this mean for your future, are the same ones he'd be thinking of. If you love him, you'd want him here with you.”

“You're right Brad. Stick around. And don't tell a soul.”

“Not even Robbie?” I asked.

“Not even Robbie.” Shit.

I walked over to his room and found him drying off. “What was that all about?” he asked. “It looked like a big deal.”

“It is, but I can't talk about it yet, OK? It has absolutely nothing to do with me, or us. It's Claire's thing.”

“That's cool,” he said. We wandered back over to my room in just boxers and sweat pants and we hung out and watched TV. I had dosed off, lying on his chest, when I heard a knock on my door. “Come in!” I said. Claire came walking in with Jack in tow. I freaked out and jumped up. Lying in bed with another guy, and lying on his chest no less, was totally gay. Claire was so wrapped up in her own issue she was oblivious. Robbie had a really pissed off look on his face. Pissed at me for inviting them in so cavalierly, pissed at himself for being so relaxed about contact with me, and pissed at Claire for bringing Jack into my room.

Jack had a really stunned impression on his face. I could tell he was trying to hide it, but it wasn't working. There was total silence in the room, and then he did something that was so classy he could have been my mother. He walked over to the bed, pushed on Robbie's chest, totally freaking Robbie out, and then lay down and laid his head on it. “Pretty comfy.” We all cracked up. He sat up.

“So are you guys, like gay?” he asked. I leaned down and gave Robbie a really short but intense French kiss. Jack seemed uncomfortable and turned away, but then turned back. I thought I saw a vignette of the conditioning society put on its men. He was repulsed because he was supposed to be, but then, after he thought about it, it wasn't a big deal. “It's no big deal. I'm cool with it. I won't tell anyone.”

“Thanks Jack,” I said. “It was just family around today, so we were a little more relaxed.”

“So which one of you is the girl?” he teased.

“Depends on our mood,” I shot back. “But you came in here for a different reason than learning about my sex life.” He nodded, and the mood got somber.

“So what's going on?” Robbie asked.

“Claire's pregnant,” I told him. I figured if she could out me to her boyfriend, I could out her to mine. She didn't seem to care.

“Didn't you guys use protection?” he demanded.

“Now is not the time to go there,” I said firmly, shutting him up. “So what are you going to do?”

Jack looked at me. “I love her Brad.” Aw. He was so cute. I smiled.

“That's really great, because I know she loves you too.” They just glowed. Young love. “Look, you know the lecture on how you’re too young to know if this is the right person, blah blah blah blah blah. But if you have this baby, it will, uh, complicate your lives. Do you want to be pregnant at Gunn?” I looked at Claire. “You know what people will say about you.” I looked at him. “And you get off pretty easy, because no one will give you shit for knocking her up, but you'll have a lot of responsibility headed your way. What will your parents say?”

Jack came from a wealthy family too. They lived in the hills not too far from us. His family had started a local grocery store chain, so that was where their money came from. “They'll be pissed off. They're not super-religious or anything though. I'm pretty sure they'll go along with whatever we decide to do.”

“Alright, go talk to Dad,” I said. “Don't worry, Jack. He will treat you with respect.” They nodded.

“We want you to come with us,” he said. I hadn't expected that. I figured that with Jack there, she wouldn't need me. But I was behind her 100%.

“Let's go.” I pulled on a T-shirt as we walked down the hallway to my dad's study. He was in there rummaging through some papers. It looked like the writing was Farsi. He'd taken on learning that language lately, ever since the Iranians seized the hostages.

“Well this is quite a delegation,” he said. “What can I do for you?”

They looked around nervously. “Daddy, I'm pregnant,” Claire said simply. JP hadn't really been giving us his full attention before, but we had it now. He looked up, not quite glaring, but intensely irritated, at Claire and then Jack.

As calm and collected as JP was, as fussy as he was about being fair and just, the first comment out of his mouth was anything but. “You got my daughter pregnant?” he asked Jack.

I thought Jack would freak out, but he didn't. He stood up bravely and just said “yes sir.” This was why Claire wanted me here. This is where I should step in.

“That's not very fair Dad. This isn't the 50's. They both got Claire pregnant. And you should give Jack some credit for coming here and facing you with her. He's not running away or leaving her in a lurch.” He glared at me, turning his anger toward me, but I just looked back at him calmly. I could see that infuriated him even more, until he realized that I had maintained my calm and control and he had not.

“And what does this have to do with you Bradley?” he demanded.

“Claire asked me to come with them to tell you. Just in case you wouldn’t keep your cool as you normally do.”

He eyed me carefully. Was that a slight grin? “Well, if Jack and Claire aren't afraid to be here with me alone for a few minutes, would you go get your mother?” I nodded and tore off to find her. It was like I didn't want to miss a minute of the drama. That and I wanted to make sure that JP didn't totally freak out on them. I found my mom in the kitchen with Tonto.

“Dad needs to see you in his study.”

“I will be there in a few minutes,” she said calmly as she continued going over some figures with Tonto.

“It's urgent, Mother,” I told her. I didn't call her mother unless I was irritated with her. She looked up at me, read my expression, and sighed.

“Very well. I will be back in a minute as soon as I deal with this 'urgent' matter.” I led her back to the study, ignoring her attempts to find out what this was all about. When I got back I found the three of them seated. JP was in a chair, while Claire and Jack were on the couch. I joined them on the couch and sat next to Jack. He looked like he needed the protection.

“Well this is quite the gathering. What did you want, JP?” she asked. Her normal manners, her normal formality and tact had vanished.

“Isidore, it seems our daughter is pregnant.”

Her eyes bulged. She paused for a minute, and then tore into Claire and Jack. “How could you be so stupid? How could you let this happen?” She got up and paced. “Have we not talked about birth control? I would have gotten you on the pill if I'd have known you were sexually active.” She turned angrily to Jack. “And do you not know to use condoms?”

“Mother, this is not helping. They came here for advice and all you're giving them is a lecture on what they should have done.”

“I do not need you to tell me what to do Bradley,” she said, turning on me just as JP had. I was the whipping boy for hire.

“Sometimes people make mistakes. What about Ace, Mother?” Silence. Total silence. I had just called her a hypocrite. She paced around a little more, and then sighed again.

“Yes, Bradley, sometimes they do.” She sat down. “What are you planning to do?” she asked Jack and Claire. I heard Jack exhale next to me. The worst was over. The initial shock had passed.

“I can't have this baby,” Claire said, tears flowing down her cheeks. I looked at Jack and his eyes were tearing up as well. I put my arm around him and my hand on Claire's shoulder.

“Having an abortion is a cardinal sin,” my mother said. I think she was just thinking out loud, but it was a horrible thing to say to Claire.

“Gee, did Brenda Hayes suddenly teleport in?” I asked sarcastically.

“There is no reason to be rude,” JP interjected.

“I agree. Don't you think it's rude to tell someone they're going to hell?”

“Enough of this. I'm sorry Claire. I was just thinking out loud. Thinking back to when I had to make the same decision,” my mother said.

“Why did you decide to keep Ace?” I asked her. She'd never talked about it before.

“It was in 1962 and it was in France and things were a lot different then. If I had an abortion, the priests had all told us we'd go to hell. If I had the baby, I'd be scorned by my family and the town. It was a hard choice.” She looked wistful. “But I loved Andre. We'd only been together for a few days, but I loved him. Something inside me told me to have the baby. And then there was this cute fantastic man who came along and saved me from the evil villagers, so it all ended up pretty well.” She smiled at my father and he smiled back. The love between them was very real. Not sexual love, but love nonetheless. “I was also a lot older than you, though, and I was not in school. I think that if I were in your situation, I would make the same choice as you.”

I smiled at her. That's what Claire needed to hear. She needed Mom to tell her that she wasn't a monster for getting an abortion. JP chimed in. “After this, uh, procedure, we'll need to get you on birth control pills and we'll have to re-evaluate our policies on having Jack stay over.”

They were all cool with that statement. I was not. “Why would you re-evaluate your policies on Jack staying over?” I asked him.

“Brad, do we have to have this argument now?” he asked, irritated again. Then he realized that I'd gotten under his skin yet again, and he'd let it show, and that seemed to piss him off even more.

“Dad, you brought it up.”

“I fail to see how Jack sleeping with your sister in my house involves you in any way.”

“Because it's unfair. It's a double standard. You're treating Claire differently because she's a girl.”

He blustered, something he never did. “No I'm not.”

“Yes you are. It's discrimination, plain and simple. You don't ask questions or put restrictions on my sex life. You don't set 'policies' for Ace. Why Claire?”

“Yes JP,” said my mother, intervening in the conversation. “Why exactly is it different?” He was doomed. My mother had picked up on the basic feminist issue and grasped the situation at its face value.

He glared at me and looked around the room at the others, who just looked at him expectantly. Then he softened. “I guess there is no difference.” The conversation ended on that note. Claire hugged them both, while Jack shook their hands. I went to follow them out when JP stopped me.

“Bradley, a word please.” Claire looked at me concerned but I just winked at her.

“Yeah, Dad?” I asked.

“You are becoming quite a pain in the ass.” I knew he wasn't mad because he was smiling. “That was a nice thing you did for Claire, coming in here with them. And you were right to challenge my old stuffy views. I'm very proud of the man you are becoming.” I was shocked. I just stared at him. He moved forward and gave me a hug, a big hug, not a “man hug.”

“I could not agree more,” added my mom, and hugged me too.

Claire was waiting for me. “Did you get chewed out?”

“No. They told me they were proud of me.”

“Good. I'm proud of you too.” Another hug. This was getting way too emotional for me.

“Thanks bro,” Jack said. “Not only did you keep me alive, you figured out a way so I can get laid as much as Claire wants.” I laughed at that. Then he shocked me by giving me a big hug too. Damn he was fine. I broke it off before I got a hard on.

Robbie was waiting for me in the room. I relayed the conversation to him and he just nodded. “Good job, babe,” he said.

“You know what I'd like?”

“No, what?” he asked.

“All of this hugging and emotional shit is driving me nuts. I want a big, strong guy to rip off my clothes, push me down on the bed, and just fuck my brains out.”

He grinned. “You want me to go get Jack.”

I grinned back. “As a matter of fact...” then his lips were on mine and he granted my wish.

September 26, 1980

It had been a miserable and depressing week. Claire's baby had barely begun to grow, but all of us felt a huge loss, like a family member had died. I'd had to almost fight Ace to calm him down and keep him from beating the shit out of Jack. Robbie backing me up helped. Still, we recovered as best we could, and found ourselves once again at our stadium, home field advantage, to play our ultimate rival: Palo Alto High.

PA had a good team. People tried to explain why without sounding like a bunch of racists but it never quite worked. Palo Alto High drew in students from East Palo Alto, the part of Palo Alto that was east of highway 101 and was almost exclusively black.

I stood in the stands cheering the team on. Claire and Jack were there with me, as were Ace and Cass, and even Dan. Jack was right next to me. Somehow this whole experience had brought us closer. The more I got to know him, the more I liked him. He wasn't one of those guys trying to fuck everything that moved. I got the feeling that as long as Claire satisfied his needs, and he was so fucking gorgeous who wouldn't, and remained faithful, he'd be a happy camper. And that's saying something for a guy that was 16 going on 17.

I guess all of the coach's hard ass routines paid off, because the Titans played like rock stars. Every one of them was awesome, especially Robbie, but Billy was the big star of the game. He finally got to play and picked off a pass, a perfect interception, and ran it back to Palo Alto's 10-yard line. A few more plays and we turned it into a touchdown. When the clock finally ran down, it was a very ebullient team that left the field and some super-psyched fans ready to party. The party would have to wait until tomorrow night, though, when Shelly Davis' parents went out of town.

We stepped out of the stands and headed to the parking lot when I spotted a couple of guys picking on a much smaller guy. I hated that. I fucking hated that. I grabbed Ace and Dan and headed over to them. Jack came along too. I didn't want to involve him; it was a sin to risk his pretty face. I knew the two guys who were the bullies. They were juniors, two thugs. They didn't run in our crowd, they ran with the hard core crowd.

“Hey. What the fuck are you doing?” Ace said as we got there, pushing one of the guys back.

“None of your fucking business,” one of the guys said. Ace slammed him against the wall while Dan took care of the other one.

“Why are you picking on my friend?” I demanded. “You got a death wish?”

“He's a little faggot,” Ace's guy said, and got Ace's fist in his mouth for his effort.

“Try again asshole,” Ace said. Jack pinned him back while Ace jacked him hard, and then jacked him again.

“Man, I'm sorry. I didn't know he was your friend.”

“Tell him you're sorry,” I ordered.

The guy grumbled some obscenities under his breath, and Ace took a shot at his nose, making it bleed. “Sorry. Fuck.”

“Tell him you'll never bother him again,” I demanded.

“We'll never bug you again, Mouse,” he said. I nodded and the other guys let them go. I helped “Mouse”. “Come on.” He followed me dutifully.

I looked at him and he seemed familiar. “How do I know you?” I asked him.

“My name is David. I'm in art studio with you. I'm into sculpture, and you're usually painting.”

Now I recognized him. “You're really good. You a freshman?”

He gave me a dirty look. “I'm a sophomore. I'm just small.”

“Mouse,” I said, and tousled his hair like a little kid. “I like it.” He glared at me, but I smiled back and tilted my head. He shrugged.

“Who's the kid?” Ace asked.

“Ace, this is Mouse. And this is Jack, and Dan.” He mumbled “hi” shyly and nodded to them. “He's in Art Studio with me. He's an amazing sculptor.”

“Oh yeah? He sculpt you yet?” asked Dan playfully. He was another guy that I was really enjoying now. Having him and Jack around sort of made up for the fact that I hardly ever saw Lark anymore. He was so into Karen it was obsessive.

“Nah. Not enough clay to make my dick,” I said. “So what are you doing tonight Mouse?”

“Uh, I'm supposed to go home. My mom is picking me up.”

“Why don't you hang out with us? I'll take you home later.”

“Uh, I don't know if she'll let me.” He led us to the parking lot and there was an older, pretty beat up car driven by a woman who was smoking a Camel. She had that leather skin that said she'd smoked all her life.

“Mom, these are my friends. Brad is in Art Studio with me. Can I hang out with them tonight?” She eyed us up and down and I could read her mind. What was her stunted son doing with four seniors (Jack looked like a senior)?

Ace saw me balk at dealing with parents so he jumped in. “If it's OK with you ma'am. I'm Ace, by the way. He can stay with us tonight or we can bring him home later.”

“No drinking,” she said, her voice hoarse.

“No ma'am,” Ace replied with his angelic voice. She just nodded and drove off. Mouse looked really nervous.

“Don't worry Mouse, you're with me,” I said, putting my arm around his shoulder. “We'll meet you guys at home.” I headed to the Ferrari and his eyes got huge.

“This is your car?”

“Yep. Hop in.”

I fired up the car and got in line to fight the traffic out of the parking lot. “Can I ask you a question?”

“You just did,” I teased.

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

“I don't know. You were getting your ass kicked and I hate seeing that. And now that I know who you are, I know how talented you are, and I thought it would be cool to get to know you. Is that alright?”

“Are you kidding? It's like a high school dream come true. Dork gets saved by the coolest guy on campus and they become friends.”

I laughed. “Hey. I'm the one who saved you, not Ace.” He rolled his eyes. I looked sideways at him as I punched the Ferrari. I already knew he was short, probably only 5'3. And he was really small, had really fine features. You could call them feminine. He could easily pass for a woman if he wore drag, the only thing blowing it would be his Adam's apple. He wore his hair long, hanging over his face, in a style that was totally unfashionable, and he had long dark clothes that were way too loose. He looked like an artsy guy. His clothes had spots of dried clay on them, which made me giggle. He turned to look at me and I got the first good look at his eyes. Wow. They were like pools that sucked you right in. Damn near hypnotic and the most unique color I'd ever seen. Almost a pale green. “So where do you live?” I asked him.

That really made him nervous. He didn't answer me at first. “I live in the eastern part of town.”

“East Palo Alto?” I asked. That would explain the crappy car his mother drove. “That's within the Palo Alto boundary, not Gunn isn't it?”

“That's why I don't talk about it. I used a friend's address instead of mine so I could go to Gunn.”

“Why not Palo Alto?”

He swallowed, and I felt bad for grilling him. I was making him uncomfortable. “I got picked on a lot there.”

“Well hey, Mouse, I'm sorry to give you the third degree. I'm just trying to get to know you. You won't have to worry about getting picked on anymore.”

“Really?” he said, and looked at me with hero-worship.

“Really.” I drove up to the gates of Escorial and they opened for me.

“Wow. You live here.”

“I do. It's just a big house. You'll like it. You'll be comfortable. Don't worry, OK?” He nodded.

We parked the car and strolled in through the front door. My parents were still there, having just gotten dropped off by Rafael. “Hello,” JP said.

“Mom, Dad, this is David, but his nickname is Mouse.”

“Well it's very nice to meet you,” said my mother, and that was it. She had him wrapped around her finger. “Should I call you David or Mouse?”

He looked up at me nervously and smiled. “You can call me Mouse, ma'am.”

“Welcome. You must make yourself at home. Brad, do you have plans to go out tonight?”

“No, Mom. Big party is tomorrow night. Just a few people coming over.”

“Excellent. I will have Anna put some finger food together for you. Why do you not show Mouse around?” I took Mouse on a quick tour, with me doing all of the talking while his eyes just bulged.

We were munching on food in the kitchen when Billy and Robbie came barreling in. They started grabbing food and stuffing it in their mouths.

“Hey Mouse,” said Billy.

“Hey Billy,” Mouse said shyly. He didn't take his eyes off of Billy, not even to stare at Robbie. Hmmm.

“Hi. I'm Robbie. Welcome,” Robbie said, shaking his hand. Mouse just beamed. Two massive football players as friends. His whole high school life had changed.

“So what brings you here?” asked Billy, making the poor kid really uncomfortable. I glared at him.

“Alan Dougherty and his scumball friends were picking on him. He's in my Art Studio class so Ace, Dan, Jack and I saved him and spirited him back here.” Billy nodded, but he looked kind of guilty. If I had to guess, I'd say it was because when Mouse was getting picked on in the past, he'd done nothing. Sometimes Billy's self-absorption really pissed me off. “Anyone gives him shit, it's like they're giving me shit,” I said firmly, staring straight at Billy. He looked at me for a while until he understood me.

Claire and Jack walked in, looking like the perfect couple. “Hi Mouse,” Claire said with a huge smile. She kissed him on the cheek and he blushed three shades of red. “I'm sorry those guys were picking on you again. Hopefully Ace explained it to them.” We all laughed.

“I have to check on a few things. I thought we'd go swimming. Can I leave Mouse with you Claire?”

“Sure. Come on. Let's go find you a suit that fits.”

“Um, I don't know if, uh, I don't have to go swimming...” He was nervous.

“Nonsense! Come on,” Claire ordered.

I turned on Billy. “You think if you see him getting picked on again, you can help him out?” I didn't say it nicely, and it wasn't a question, it was an accusation.

“Sure, Brad. I guess I didn't really notice him before.”

“Try spending less time in front of the mirror,” I said, and stormed off with Robbie in tow.

“You were kind of rough on him.”

“He pisses me off. He never looks around him, never thinks about other people, and never does shit for anyone. He just goes through life following the crowd and worrying about himself.”

“You going to change the whole world one person at a time?” he teased.

I dragged him into the room and started ripping his clothes off. “I need a shower,” he said.

“No you don't. I love it when you're hot and sweaty, so I can really smell you.” I nuzzled into his balls, inhaling his essence. I loved the way he smelled right after practice, or a game. In a few hours, if he didn't shower, it would get pretty rank, but not now. I inhaled his dick and got him hard in a flash, and then I brought him to one amazing orgasm. I started to put on my bathing suit, pleased that I'd satisfied him, but he stopped me.

“No YOU don't.” He threw me on the bed and jumped on me, lowering himself down on me and taking me inside him.

“I love you,” I told him for the millionth time.

“I know,” he said, and milked me dry.

We headed down to the pool and Claire looked worried. “Mouse has been in there for a while now.” I nodded and headed to the dressing room.

I gently opened the door and found him sitting on the bench wearing the suit Claire gave him, gently crying. Robbie came up behind me. I lowered my eyes and took in his body. We both gasped at the same time. His entire body was covered in bruises.

“My God, Mouse, what happened to you?” I asked.

He jumped up and tried to run, but Robbie grabbed him gently by the waist and lifted him up. It was hysterical, because Robbie just held him off the ground while he tried to run. It was like a cartoon. I started laughing, then Robbie started laughing, and then even Mouse started laughing.

“Hey. Let's do this. Let's just go swimming, hang out, and enjoy ourselves, OK? Then later on maybe you can tell me how you got so beat up.” He nodded.

“You know Brad. I think if I let him down he's going to run away.”

“You think so Robbie? What do you think we should do?”

Robbie carried him toward the pool. “NO!” Mouse yelled, but in a playful way. I heard the others gasp as they saw him but I tried to focus his attention on Robbie and me.

Robbie tossed him into the pool and jumped in right after him. As soon as they came up I did a cannonball next to them. Billy came swimming up to me first. “I'm sorry if I made you mad, Brad.”

“Don't worry about it. I'm sorry I jumped on you. It was really rude, especially since you were such a star. You made the kicker look like a total slug.”

“What?” Robbie said, and dunked me. We had a blast in the pool, played Marco Polo, volleyball, and just horsed around.

I was just about to get out when Billy swam up to Mouse and dunked him. Mouse spluttered and fought back, but Billy grabbed him from behind. I saw Mouse struggling, and then he stopped. Billy moved his hand gently across his back, across the bruises and the cigarette burns, and Mouse just collapsed into him. I was amazed at Billy's soft, caring touches. It made me feel guilty for reaming him just a few minutes earlier.

Still, I knew that Mouse had problems bigger than I could solve. Claire had gotten out and was dried off with a robe on. “Can you go get Dad?” I asked her. We both looked at Mouse and she nodded.

A few minutes later JP came in, looking cheerful. His youngest son had been the star of the football game, Robbie also had put in a star performance, we were all pretty happy. Then Mouse jumped out of the pool and JP almost passed out. It was amazing how much abuse his little body had taken. That and he had a raging hard on tenting his pants out. I smiled to myself. “Five and three/fourths inches,” I whispered in Robbie's ear. He snaughed, and got a dirty look from JP. Jack was the quick thinker and tossed Mouse a towel. Mouse gave him a look of gratitude. “Maybe six,” I said to Robbie.