Текст книги "The 8th"

Автор книги: Matt Shaw

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6

“Are you going to want us to pick you up?” asked my mum. The problem with my mum is that she wasn’t trying to be helpful. She was trying to be nosy. She just wanted to get a glimpse of my new friends. No doubt she wanted to thank them for taking me under their wings as I found my way around a new school. She was always the same. It was embarrassing. The friends I did make often asked whether my mum would be home before agreeing to come around for a night of gaming on the console. They said she freaked them out a little. I couldn’t blame them. Her only son, she had a habit of treating me as though I was still a baby. Definitely embarrassing. When she first saw the bruises Piers and his friends inflicted…She wanted to frog march me back to school and demand the Headmaster expelled everyone immediately. I tried telling her it wasn’t necessary. I tried telling her it would just make things worse for me but…You know how parents can be especially when they have a bee in their bonnet about something.

“I’m fine,” I muttered as I pulled a clean, black shirt from my wardrobe.

“Don’t you have anything brighter you can wear?” she asked. “You’re always dressing in black…Colour suits you so well…”

“I want black. Black is cool,” I said. I also perceived it was a power colour too. Mum once said she thought I was a Goth. I couldn’t help but laugh. I’m hardly a Goth. It’s not like I wear make-up and dress head to foot in black and go around listening to heavy-metal whilst cutting myself…Mind you, I don’t really know any Goths…Maybe they don’t do that? Maybe it’s just bad movies portraying them in a negative light.

“Well it’s nice to see you settling so quickly,” she continued. “Especially after what happened at the start of the week…Do you at least want a lift?”

“It’s fine, mum, really. I can make my own way.”

“Well, if you’re sure…”

I feel sorry for mum really. I know why she is so keen to be part of my life. It’s because she doesn’t really have her own life. She gets moved around just as much as me, because of dad. At least I have the chance to meet new friends and different people by going to school. She doesn’t have to work. In fact, dad said he didn’t want her to. He wanted her to be at home…Keep the house up together and meals on the table whilst he went out and provided. Old fashioned views, I guess. It did mean that mum didn’t get to socialize with people her own age, especially as she lacked the confidence to join local groups that would have opened the door to meeting new, like-minded people. She just stayed in the house and went a little more stir-crazy each day.

“Thank you, mum. Really. But I’m sure.”

She gave me a smile and said, “Well, I’ll leave you to get ready then…” and, with that, she left the room.

I do love her though.

* * * * *

My heart was beating fast and hard as I pressed the doorbell button to Rebecca’s house. I know this is all for the best; a fresh start. A chance to turn the hatred Piers and the others feel for me into something more positive. Doesn’t make me any less nervous though. Not a good thing, being nervous. I have a bad habit of being ultra-sarcastic, without meaning to be, or extremely quiet. Neither are traits which make me any more endearing. I wish David had come with me. At least there’d have been someone here who definitely liked me.

Footsteps from beyond the door. Someone is coming. The door opened and Rebecca was stood there. A vision of beauty. She was dressed in a short black dress which looks as though it’s barely covering her backside. I won’t lie; she looks hot. Really hot. Her face was done up with heavy make-up. Normally I prefer ‘subtle’ but…It suits her.

“You came!” she exclaimed. She actually sounded as though she was pleased. “I was hoping you would!” She reached across to my hand and led me into the house.

I already feel as though I’m out of my depth. She took me through to the lounge where Piers and his friends were sitting. There were six of them altogether. The room fell silent when they saw me. I feel sick but I can’t show it. Piers was the first to stand up and walk over.

“You didn’t grass,” he said, “I respect that…And look, we’ve both said and done some stupid things but…What do you say we start afresh?” he sounded sincere.

“I’d like that,” I said.

“You’re alright,” he said. He turned away from me and joined his friends again. Seconds later they were back to whatever it was they were talking about before I walked in.

“See,” said Rebecca, “a fresh start.”

I smiled at her. Was that it? Was that all that was needed?

“Can I get you a drink?” she asked. She didn’t wait for an answer. Still holding my hand she pulled me through to the large kitchen which was crammed full of various drinks – mainly of a ‘alcopop’ variety. “We pretty much have everything here,” she said.

“That’s a lot of alcohol,” I said.

“Everyone chipped in.” Whoops. Was I supposed to offer money too? A little bit of cash towards the alcohol pool? I don’t have anything on me now other than the cash I need to get the taxi home. Could give her that. Could give mum a call to come and collect me…No. Forget that. I don’t need her seeing Rebecca. She’ll jump to conclusions, no doubt, that we’re a couple. Probably end up having the safe-sex speech and everything. Worse still, she’ll invite Rebecca over for Sunday dinner…Although, that wouldn’t be a bad thing…Ever since I first saw her I thought she looked nice. “Try that,” she passed me a red drink. Not got a clue what it is and what it’ll taste like but I don’t want to appear uncool by asking or refusing it.

“Thanks,” I said.

“David couldn’t make it, huh?” she asked.

“No, he said he was busy…”

“A shame.” Laughter boomed from the living room. “Did you want to go upstairs so we could talk? It’s quieter…”

“Ummm, sure,” I said. It was the first time I had had a girl inviting me upstairs. I desperately tried to sound relaxed and cool about it but I’m pretty sure I failed. She smiled and led me through the house, back towards the stairs. She went up the stairs first, leading the way. I always thought I was a gentleman but, as I stared at her tight little arse the whole way up…Well…I guess I’m not that much of a gentleman!

“It’s just through there,” she pointed to a door across the landing from the stairs, “I’ll be right there – make yourself comfortable.” She turned into what looked to be the bathroom and I crossed the landing to what turned out to be her room.

Weird. Everything is pink. I’m not sure what I expected but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a completely pink room. Pink walls, pink duvet…Even the carpet is a lighter shade of pink. Definitely a young girl’s room. You wouldn’t have guessed this was her room. I guess I half expected pictures of semi-naked pop stars hanging from the walls and make-up scattered around the place…Hell, I even thought I’d see different outfits dropped on the floor from where she was trying things on for her party. But, in this room, everything seems to have its own place. Speaking of which, dressed in black, I must really look out of place here!

“Sorry about that,” she appeared in the doorway behind me. I turned to look at her. Was it just me or did her breasts suddenly appear to be…Well….larger? No complaints here. I tried to avert my eyes so as not to offend or come across as a creep. She simply smiled and walked past me, brushing my crotch with her hand. Was that a mistake? That smell…She smells even more so of the sweet perfume I caught a scent of when she first opened the door to me. I’m not sure what it is but I like it. She sat on the bed and patted the mattress next to her. An invitation for me to join her? Embarrassingly, I felt myself harden. I can only hope she didn’t notice.

I crossed the room and sat next to her. I wonder if I looked as nervous as I felt. Come on, you’re supposed to be a man. Act like one. “I have to say, I wasn’t expecting your room to look like this,” I said.

“No? What were you expecting?” She turned her body to face me and dropped her hand on my leg. I am now fully erect and feeling incredibly awkward. “You look good tonight.”

“Thanks,” I stuttered. Stupid. I should have told her she looked good too and not just tonight. She always looked good.

She laughed, “You feel tense…Relax…”

Before I could answer she leant forward and kissed me on the mouth. Seconds later and she was kissing me again with her tongue down my throat. Aggressive…Nice…

She pulled away slightly, “You’re a good kisser.”

I tried to answer but my mouth didn’t want to work. Besides…I wasn’t sure whether she was just saying that. Being kind. I wonder if she could tell it was my first kiss. She leant in again with her left hand on my cheek. As she continued to kiss me, her hand stroked down my cheek with her nails scratching me ever so gently. Lower it went…Down my neck…Down my chest…Until it rested on my crotch. She made a funny ‘mmm’ noise from her mouth and, using both hands, fussed around with my belt until it was undone – allowing her access to do the same to my jeans. Is this really happening? I desperately wanted to touch her, like she was touching me…I wanted to feel the softness, and warmth, of her skin. I wanted to feel her breasts…I wanted to but didn’t. I was just frozen to the spot; allowing her to do as she pleased.

“Ooh, big boy,” she purred as she freed my erection from the confines of my boxer shorts. I feel like I should stop her. Perhaps get to know her a little first? I thought the correct order was a few dates, holding hands, couple more dates, a first kiss, more holding hands and then, eventually, some kind of sexual act. I didn’t think it would be like this. “I have some condoms in the drawer over there…” she whispered in my ear. Fuck it. Holding hands is lame anyway.

“Sure,” I stammered, my hands still frozen to the mattress.

She jumped off the bed and walked across the room, leaving me on the bed momentarily.

“Now!” she suddenly yelled. Within an instant, the bedroom door flew open and Piers burst in with a mobile phone in his hand and a huge, evil smile on his face.

“Gross! What are you doing! Having a wank in Rebecca’s little sister’s room? You know how fucked up that is? She’s only eight. You fucking pervert!”

I didn’t know what was going on nor did I hang around for an answer. I got up as quickly as I could, turning my back to the mobile phone, and adjusted myself to hide my erection. The sound of Rebecca laughing, from the corner of the room, echoing through my worried mind…

So much for a fresh start.

7

If Piers had meant what he had said, that evening, about us having a fresh start…If Rebecca hadn’t tricked me into making me look stupid…Right now, Mrs Price would, no doubt, be shouting at one of us for handing in a below par homework assignment. As it is, she’s just sat there, looking mortified at what she’s just done. Rebecca is still sniffling away in the corner of the room and Piers is still bleeding as he deserves to.

“Have another little think,” I said to Piers as I went back to the front of the classroom, “and we’ll have another chat in a bit,” I said. Back at the front of the class, I turned to Ben Griffin and Daniel Gordon. Two of Piers’ closest friends. Unlike the physical violence Piers liked to dish out, these two were too weak to do much damage, like that. Instead they preferred the tried and tested method of name-calling. Whoever said ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me’ clearly hasn’t been on the receiving end of people who spend the vast majority of their time using hateful words. I’ve lost count of the amount of times, in my short time in this school, where I’ve been on the receiving end of a bout of name-calling from these two narrow minded little pricks. It’s stupid of me, and others, to get hurt by it but…You hear something enough times and you start to believe it. It wears you down. “Ben and Daniel, can you come to the front of the class please?” I’m not sure why I said ‘please’. I don’t need to say things like that anymore. I don’t need to be polite. I’m the one in charge. It wasn’t a friendly request. It was an order.

They looked at each other, unsure whether they should or not. A quick glance at Piers, who was barely conscious from the last pistol whipping he received, and the two of them stood up; neither of them wanting to be on the receiving end of that kind of brutality. I wonder, had they known what was coming their way…I wonder whether they’d still have chosen to stand up. I smiled. Slowly they came forward. Both of them were tall individuals. Both with dark hair. Both with dark brown eyes. Same size, width-wise, too. You’d be forgiven for thinking they were brothers.

“Do you remember when David told you about Ben and Daniel?” I asked Mrs Price. She didn’t answer. How rude. “Do you remember he reported that they kept calling him names? I remember. He told you how it upset him and how he didn’t like it. He asked for your help and you told him not to be so silly. It was, after all, just name-calling. Which, by the way, is still bullying. Do you remember?”

“Yes,” she nodded.

“We were just playing around,” said Ben.

“Oh, well, that’s okay then…Please, take a seat…” I said. My sarcasm slipping out again. Ben, foolishly, went to move back to his seat at the back of the class, “Don’t you fucking move,” I hissed. He froze on the spot. Good lad. Not as stupid as he appears. “Tell me, what did you call David when you were playing around?” I asked. Neither of them answered. Maybe they’ve forgotten. “Faggot. Queer. Beaver-leaver. Homo. Gay. Gayboy. Rimmer…Just a few of the names…”

“We were just playing…”

“You knew it upset him. You knew he didn’t see it as playing.”

“We’re sorry,” said Daniel.

“Too late.” I tried not to show glee as they both looked as though they were about to cry. “Well…I suppose…We could kiss and make up…” They didn’t say anything. They just looked at one another hoping one of them would understand what I was talking about. They turned back to me with blank expressions on their faces. There was a pause. “Come on then, kiss and make up…”

After the video that Piers took on his mobile phone, was emailed to – as it turned out – everyone who subscribed to the school’s digital magazine, which was run by the students, it was Daniel and Ben who started the rumour that I was a peodophile. It was them who stated the whole video couldn’t be shown because it showed Rebecca’s younger sister dancing for me in her underwear. They admitted that was a lie when the police were involved but not so everyone could hear – only the officers, my mum and Rebecca’s parents. Rebecca denied being in the room at the time; her denial helped by the fact that the sound was muted with dodgy ‘porn’ music edited over it. Ben and Daniel never did apologise for the trouble it landed me in. It didn’t help that David was sulking with me too. He had warned me not to go and felt that I should have trusted what he said.

“I don’t understand,” said Daniel.

“Let me spell it out to you,” I said. “I want you to kiss Ben.”

Daniel looked down to the gun, in my hand, and then over to Piers at the back of the room. He turned to Ben and leant forward. After he closed his eyes he gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Well,” I said, “that was very sweet but…I think you can do better than that. Kiss him like you mean it. I want to see tongues. You know…Because I’m such a faggot.”

“We didn’t mean it!” said Ben; a look of panic on his face and his voice shaking. “Please…We didn’t mean it. Okay?”

“Okay. Thanks. Means a lot to me. Now…Kiss. And look as though you’re enjoying it.”

The fallout from the leaked video footage was more or less over by the third week. At least, it was at school. At home mum still wouldn’t let me go out and she still wasn’t entirely happy with what had happened. I kept telling her it wasn’t my fault but she just kept saying how embarrassing it was for the family. For the family? What about me? I didn’t ask to have the video shown everywhere. I didn’t want people seeing it. I’m the one who has to go out and see the people who have seen the video. It’s not like mum bumps into the people who watched it. It’s not as though mum bumps into anyone.

“Your father is going to be so disappointed when he gets home,” mum kept reminding me.

“Who cares what he thinks? Who cares what anyone thinks? It’s not like we’ll be here for very long! We never are!”

“And then what did she say?” asked David. I was sat with him in the cafeteria. It was the first time we had spoken properly since the video leaked.

“She said I was ungrateful. Apparently dad does all this for me…Moving around…The working…Apparently it’s all for me but that’s rubbish.”

“How so?”

“If they wanted the best for me, they’d have left me in the same school. They wouldn’t move me around. They’d want me to meet new people, make new friends and, more importantly, keep them!”

“Dad works because it’s what he wants. He doesn’t give a shit about me or mum. Pretends he does but…He doesn’t.”

David didn’t say anything. I guess he realised I just needed to vent.

“Well, I’m sorry for everything you went through,” he said eventually.

“Thank you.”

“But…”

“Don’t say it.”

“I told you so…”

I gave him a look which said ‘thanks for that’. He simply smiled.

“Everything sorted now though?” he asked. “I mean, with regards to the police and Head?”

I nodded, “I nearly got expelled for it.”

“I saw the film…” he smiled, “…impressive.”

“Oh, fuck you.”

David laughed.

“Look out…a new film in the making,” said Daniel.

I span around and saw Daniel and Ben on the table behind us. They were laughing, like they usually were when they were mocking someone or something. A real life version of Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum. David rolled his eyes.

“Who do you think will be the giver and who will be the taker?” asked Ben.

I didn’t say anything. There was so much I could say but…There was no point. I had already learnt that smart arse comments don’t make them go away. Today was all about trying something new; ignoring them. I looked at David and hoped he’d stay quiet too.

“Look…Look at the way they’re looking at each other…They’re going to kiss…”

“Look…” I said to my fellow classmates, “…Look, they’re going to kiss…”

“Please,” said Ben. “We’ve said we’re sorry.”

“And I appreciate it. Now kiss.” I raised the gun up to his face. “I won’t be asking again…”

Ben and Daniel looked at each other. A slight pause as they both processed what they were going to have to do.

“Wait!” I suddenly yelled. They pulled away from each other. “Wait…” There was relief on their faces. I took up a mobile phone, from the table on the teacher’s table, and loaded up the camera. “Okay, now you can kiss.” They knew I wasn’t joking. “And…Action…”

There was a long pause as they just looked at each other. They turned to the camera. Off shot I waved the gun in the air. They looked back to one another. They knew what they had to do. The funny thing is, though, they don’t know the half of what they have to do. Today, they are my performing monkeys and I’m going to make the most of it.

“Kiss him, faggot,” I hissed.

Mrs Jones shifted uneasily in her chair. Probably remembering her little show and tell for the class. I shot her a glance to keep her quiet. By the time I looked back to Ben and Daniel they were standing nose to nose. Be interesting to see who makes the first move. My money is on Ben. ‘Bender Ben’ has a certain ring to it. Daniel leaned forward and kissed Ben on the mouth. I’m glad I didn’t put any real money on it. They stopped and turned to me. I hadn’t moved. I was still pointing the camera at them. That wasn’t a kiss. Not a proper one. Not like lovers. I peered out from behind the phone’s screen and gave them a stern look…A stern look they both understood. They turned back to each other. This time it was Ben to make the move. He stepped forward and tilted his head to the side with his mouth slightly opened. Daniel moved closer too, his mouth also open slightly. Soon their lips were interlocked in a passionate embrace. I could be wrong but…They look as though they’re enjoying it. Certainly making for interesting footage. Wonder what the rest of the school will think of it when I email it to the same people Piers emailed when he made his little video?