Tuct Side - 42. Chapter 32

Sunday, November 25^th, 2012

Hey! West again. The older West, I mean.

It’s been a while since I checked in. I actually thought that I was interjecting a little too much aside from the interviews and personal accounts, but I guess that wasn’t the case. Anyway, I’m still here and writing this. And yes, I wrote the sex parts, too. I didn’t want to, but I just had to go and lose at a dare.

That’s a long story.

Anyways, I wanted to address that things are finally going to start coming to a head. I really didn’t mean to write this like a mystery because that doesn’t last for too long. That’s only half the story. Even I’m getting a little impatient.

Secondly, this is where basketball comes into play. Football was just something to pass the time. To be honest, nowadays, I really prefer to watch it rather than play. Not much happens after the last date either, so don’t mind the time skip too much. But when it comes to basketball, all the players are on the court, and everything seems to unravel just like it did then.

And that’s what we’re going to get into.

West: its Bball season!!! U excited?

Neil: ???

Neil: sure I guess? Its just Bball

West: u know we still havnt finished our match from the summer

Neil: we all know I wouldve won that

West: Yeah right! I had u on ur toes

Neil: Ill beat ur ass during practice

West: [video link to “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor]

Neil: [video link to “We Will Rock You” by Queen]

Monday, November 26^th, 2012

“Fuck! Holy shit…”

He hoped to god nobody heard him beyond the bathroom door. He didn’t know how to keep his mouth shut when some girl had her lips around his shaft. Beside him, Neil was managing just fine, low grunts rumbling in his throat as a second girl knelt before him. Both boys leaned against the stall doors in the boys’ restroom as they were serviced by two senior girls. A couple of cheerleaders the blond didn’t know names of that were secretly infatuated with the son of the local celebrity and the hotshot bad boy.

West liked girls as much as the next guy, but this time, it wasn’t the mouth on him that did the trick. Looking over and watching his rival slowly jab his length down the girl’s throat as those lightning eyes stared back at him was everything.

“Fuck, I’m gonna-” West couldn’t get the rest of it out, his fingers tightening in her long, brown hair.

Neil reached over and clamped a hot hand across his throat, his own body shuddering as he climaxed at the same time. Both ladies sucked their release down greedily, moaning over the hard skin in their mouths.

Several moments of ecstasy went by as West thought about how he got here. Lunch period has given him some free time, and he had sought Neil out only to find out that the noirette, who had recently and finally agreed to help them on the down-low, had been looking for him as well, two girls, also ex-Wildwood students, trailing behind him. They were wary of West at first, but when Neil signaled the ‘okay’, the blond found himself being pulled into the men’s restroom and with a pair of lips connecting with his.

It wasn’t his first rodeo getting head with someone else. He thought back to Patrick Baxter’s party when he was with Kaspar. Only this time, being next to the object of his affections made things… hotter. A kiss on the corner of his mouth snapped him out of his blissful reverie, and he blinked back into reality to watch the ladies sashay away, giggling under their breaths.

Beside him, Neil, who already tucked himself away, snorted as he fished out a lighter and a cigarette. West didn’t know what about that scene that did it, but it caused another wave of excitement to flood his groin.

“Jesus!” Neil chuckled. “Already ready for more?

West looked down to find his dick at full mast once again and let out an amused breath. Looking over, he caught the lengthy bulge in his rival’s dark jeans. “Could say the same about you, man.”

They shared a laugh before letting a comfortable silence settle over them, leaning against the wall as they came down from their orgasmic high. West stuffed himself back inside his shorts.

“Shaun and Enzo scoped out the class,” Neil spoke after several minutes. “Caught out five of Javier’s regulars. Two of them teachers.”

Every remaining iota of pleasure was sapped out of West’s body hearing that. “Shit! Teachers, too!?”

Neil gave him a bitter smile as he puffed out a cloud of smoke. “The ol’ timers gotta get their fix, too, Flo.”

He probably thought everyone in his school was as innocent as a kitten simply because they were on the eastern side, but West was not that naïve. Though, that did not mean it didn’t hurt to hear.

West swallowed, his gaze up at the bathroom ceiling. “I wonder if the cameras caught anything.”

Neil snorted again. “I can’t believe you guys got all that shit up. You’ve got balls, man.”

“You should know. You’ve tasted them,” the blond retorted without hesitation.

Being around ex-Wildwood adversary was dirtying up his tongue little by little, and, judging by the surprised laughter bursting out of him, Neil was loving the new attitude.

“That fuckin’ mouth of yours, though.”

The air warmed around them as the smell of the smoke permeated the room.

“So, five, huh?” West mentally cycled through the list of people that he knew. “That’s not too many come-to-Jesus moments we gotta have, right?”

“It has to be that small. If suddenly starts turning into a lemonade stand with everybody in the neighborhood comin’ over for a sample, attention’s bound to get into the wrong ears.”

“So, they start off with a few and let their customers do the work by spreading the news.”

“Yeah, but all ‘hush-hush’ like, ya know.”

Seeing as how the Saturns have been existing in Tuct Side for a while now, the number must be at an all-time high. West almost didn’t even want to think of what it could be.

“You ever go to the store an’ see those party-sized tortilla chip bags?” Neil grinned when the blond gave him a perplexed stare. “That’s a bag of poison for a lot more others. We don’t actually know the number of people on Javier’s shit in this school. Or in any other school.”

West’s stomach dropped, seeing where this was going. “And basketball’s a favorite over in these parts, so some guys will probably start using to get the advantage.”

“Nah,” smoke billowed out of the noirette’s mouth as it curled into that dark, arrogant smile. “Not with me on th’ team. Jivin’ Four’s about to be the Jivin’ Five.”

West was sure he felt his heart leap into this throat when the name entered into his brain. “That… actually sounds a bit better, I’m not gonna lie.”

“Damn right, it does.”

Kaspar and Justin would most likely balk dismissively at the name. Finn might be significantly more accepting. West himself? He kind of wanted a name change. He always thought that “Jiving Four” didn’t flow all that well. The words just sounded too different.

“Has…” the noirette paused, taking another drag to work himself up to ask, “has my brother bothered you at all? You know, at the group home?”

It was the last thing West wanted to think about no matter how important it was, which was a lot easier these past weeks.

“No. I haven’t seen him at all. As far as I know, he doesn’t show up at even for Theresa.”

“Fuck, Theresa. I don’t know how I’m gonna get her away from him.”

“Why not tell her?”

Neil stared down at the ground grimly as his fingers crushed the cancer stick in his hand, his face scrounging up in disgust. “That scheming pile of shit got her pregnant, man. They’re havin’ a kid before they seal the deal.”

Oh. No.

Shards of horror scraped down West’s chest. There was no question what Bran would do to the baby once it was given birth. It was basically a freebie. Bile was threatening to coat his tongue at the thought.

“And the kid…?” West whispered in growing panic and fear.

Neil was just as despondent. “You know what happens to them.”

The bigger boy moved over to the nearest sink and began washing his hands of the cigarette pieces. West watched him, not wanting to turn to the sickening conclusions his mind was coming to. Theresa and Bran would get married on Friday, confirming another Saturn affiliate to successfully lock down on a baby machine and start pumping out future members.

West sighed. “Thanks, Neil. Thanks for… I dunno, helping me. Us. I know they’re your family, but-”

“Nah,” Neil shook his head sharply. “They’ve never been my family in a long while. Just me and my music.”

“And Shaun, Enzo, and Nora. And Gia. That’s family right there.”

An unreadable expression crossed the noirette’s face before he turned off the sink, looked up at West, and grinned cockily. “I’m chokin’ you next time. We gotta keep that mouth of yours under control.”

Their snickers lightened up the dismal mood a bit. Though, the blond couldn’t help the pang of eagerness in his gut at the prospect of another blowjob. West followed Neil out of the restroom, where the former’s stomach hollowed out at the sight of Kaspar and Finn approaching them.

There was some major resistance on his ireful cousin’s side when West confessed to Neil agreeing to help the four out with their investigation, but he caved rather astonishingly quickly when he realized that the hunt for more information would go along much quicker. However, this fragile truce did not include any fraternizing.

The two rivals might as well be in a compromising position.

While Finn covered his mouth with a hand to hide his emotion, Kaspar’s brown eyes twitched as they coldly flitted between his unnerved cousin and the still-smoking singer. “You guys were in there for a while. We got worried and searched the other bathrooms.”

“Worry no more, fire-crotch. We finished at the same time and talked for a bit,” Neil smirked before glancing at West. “I’ll text you names. You got this from here?”

The blond flushed and nodded frantically. “Yeah. Thanks again, dude.”

And, without another word, the noirette swaggered down the hallway and disappeared around the corner. Kaspar appeared even more irritated than two seconds ago.

“No, he didn’t do anything,” West lied. “We were just talking.”

Kaspar snorted, a fake grin stretching his lips. “Funny you say that. Two girls from his side of the fence giggled their way out of the cafeteria. Then we pass them by to see them all flushed in the face. Penny for your thoughts?”

“No need to get worked up about it,” Finn patted the redhead on the shoulder. “It was probably just a makeup malfunction.”

“They had goddamn bedheads!” the class president glowered into his relative’s skull.

An unfamiliar bubble of anger welled up in West’s chest. He could always breeze right through a verbal lashing with a bright smile on his face. He even found humor in their rage sometimes. But the ‘holier-than-thou’ tone his cousin took up started to irk him today.

West shrugged and questioned dryly, “What’s the problem again?”

Kaspar stepped right into the blond’s face, his skin mottled red as he seethed. “The problem is that you’re getting too mushy with someone that might be fooling us into believing that he has nothing to do with selling women, kids, and drugs for a gang.”

“Didn’t we already discuss this? He’s not.”

“How the fuck would you know? Even if he’s not all buddy-buddy with them, he knows a lot more than he’s letting on! I don’t understand why he can’t just lay out the fucking details!”

West rolled his eyes hard, so tired of trying to reason with his unreasonable cousin. “Remember the fucking bathroom discussion we listened to, dude!? They were forced to do all that shit! And I bet he has his reasons for keeping some shit to himself! They probably stick him with some hidden recorder against his will and send him our way! He still has to go back to them, you know!”

“But what if he likes all that now, huh!?” Kaspar folded his arms, quirking his head mockingly. “Then what? Don’t be shocked when he leads you to the wolves with his hotshot body and smoker lungs!”

For the first time in a long while, West felt the urge to punch someone. And who would’ve thought that it would be Kaspar? Instead, he thrust his hands into the air to keep from planting them in the redhead’s face.

“It’s always the negative with you! They need help, not a fight!”

“Well, maybe that’s-”

“Justin? You alright?”

West honestly forgot Finn was present for their heated argument, but he followed his friend’s line of sight to spot a wobbly, pale-faced Justin stumbling his way down the corridor toward them, sniffing and muttering to himself.

“Um, uh… yeah,” he nodded, flinching at the movement as if the question just caught up with him a moment later. “Yeah. Just feelin’ a bit… under the weather.”

All the indignation blipped out of existence to be replaced with heavy concern.

“You’re sick?” he placed his knuckles across Justin’s forehead, making the latter giggle briefly. “We should get you home-”

“Oh, no!” the tall boy shot back, nearly tripping over his own feet before quickly righting himself. “Practice starts today. It’s not a big deal, anyway.”

The worry was now overshadowed by a tidal wave of dread.

Five confirmed individuals. And a whole host of unknowns stemming from that. Could Justin be…?

The shriek of the bell interrupted, and the hallway began to fill up with students bolting out of their classrooms.

Kaspar sighed roughly before speaking again. “Anyways, what I wanted to say is that we should take a look at the cameras today. We can’t sit around on our asses in case they’ve already picked something up.”

Exhaustion took over West’s body as his shoulders slumped. Things just got a lot more complicated. Nevertheless, he nodded his agreement. “Yeah, that’s what we talked about.”

Finn approved as well while Justin’s was delayed by ten seconds, having nearly slept standing up until his ebony-haired friend poked him.

“Y-Yeah, bro. Sounds cool.”

“Okay,” the redhead breathed in relief, then turned to his cousin, seeming apologetic.

West was a sucker for the looks. He wrapped his hand around the back of his boy’s neck and looked into his eyes. “Are we good?”

Kaspar did the same. “We’re good, dude.”

The two exchanged pleased smirks and started trudging down the hall.

A sudden thought came to West, and he had to keep his mouth shut tight to hold in the laughter that was bound to explode after he asked this before speaking.

“So, if we were to get a name change, what would you guys think about the Jiving Five?”