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In this chapter, Noah has problems coping with life without Bobby. Eric and many of his teammates sit in on a school board meeting that will determine the fate of the Mayfield High School baseball program.
CHAPTER 14 AUGUST CRUNCH
<Sunday, August 10>
Summer was now in full force. Baseball was over, school was three weeks away, and the weather was sunny and hot almost every day. Many of the Mayfield boys were gone or would be gone on vacations with their families. Others weren't going anywhere. The boys were doing a lot of different things together, from riding bikes, to doing outdoor activities, to playing games, to just plain hanging out together, to sex.
But there was also a lot of interest in the upcoming school board meeting. Eric, Noah, Danny, and Carl had worked the phones making sure everybody was aware that the candidates for the head baseball coach position would be discussed at the meeting. Everyone was encouraged to meet at Eric's house on Wednesday afternoon to talk about the Thursday evening meeting.
The week got off to a rough start for one of the Mayfield boys. Noah woke up on Sunday in a deep funk. He'd been feeling better each day for the last week, thanks to the practiced ear of Dr. Sabine and to the loving care of his parents and siblings, While Noah was convinced that the psychologist was an idiot and had nothing to offer him, in truth his sessions with her were helping him a great deal. Jerking off with his friends on Thursday had seemed wrong at first, but then ended up feeling so right. And having Eric spend the night with him was very special. The fact that Eric was willing to sleep naked with him, yet never make any kind of a sexual move or even talk sex, showed Noah what a great friend he had in Eric.
Not that he ever doubted that. The night Eric spent with him after the accident, plus the past Thursday night, was the kind of gesture of friendship that touched Noah. On top of all of his intellect, was extremely attuned to the people around him. He felt Eric's kindness and friendship deep inside himself.
However, on this morning he felt disoriented. He knew why he felt that way. It was the fact that he kept trying to forget, the fact that it was his fault Bobby wasn't wearing his helmet. He wished he could tell somebody, but he was afraid that if he did then everyone would hate him. His prejudices against Dr. Sabine kept him from telling her what his feelings were.
Noah had always been so cool and calm and logical, but on this topic he refused to listen to his rational mind. He would, in fact, end up battling the demon within him for a very long time. The best he could do was try to bury it as deeply into his psyche as he could. He soon became successful at doing that, keeping the demon at bay for weeks or months until something would happen to bring it to the surface. Two days that would always bring the demon to life were July 18, the day of the accident, and September 5, Bobby's birthday.
On this Sunday, however, he had not yet learned how to keep the demon at bay. All he knew was he was being told what a bad boyfriend he had been. All he had to do, the demon told him, was tell Bobby to wear the helmet. All he had to do was pick up the phone and call him back and not worry about being a nag. It was his fault for sleeping with his sister, even if they didn't go all the way sexually. He knew he wanted to have sex with her, and that was enough. These thoughts and others flooded his brain.
He arose from bed, got dressed, walked to the garage and pulled out his bicycle. As he closed the garage door his mother came into the garage.
"Noah, sweetie, aren't you going to eat breakfast?"
"Later," was all he said as he went out the side door, hopped on his bike and rode off, his mother watching him recede down the street. She'd been told by Dr. Sabine that his progress would be up and down. The down parts, when they came, saddened her a great deal.
Noah rode to the cemetery, which was just at the northeast corner of the city limits. He peddled his bicycle through the grounds until he got to the grave of his best friend. He set his bike down, sat on the grass in front of the grave, and cried as he begged for the forgiveness of his the boy he loved. He sat there for almost two hours. He wasn't meditating. Perhaps if he'd understood meditation better he would have tried it to help cleanse his mind. What he did was sit and brood and feel sorry for himself as he listened to his demon tell him what a wretched person he was.
When he finally got home he pecked at a lunch his had mother laid out, then went up to his room. He knew what he wanted. When he'd thrown out the weed and booze he'd purchased from Randy he had left the impression with Marty that he was done with his silly idea. But he wasn't. He had a new stash of both hidden in the back of his walk- in closet. As he entered the room he decided that now was the time to see if drugs and alcohol really numbed the pain.
He removed some old clothes off the top of a box and lifted the lid. Everything was still there. He pulled out the weed and some paper to roll a joint. Since his first try, Randy had shown him how to do it properly. What he didn't know was how to light the joint. Randy had told him, but he didn't try it for himself. He decided he just needed to roll it and put it in his mouth and light it. He'd placed some matches in the box so that wasn't a problem. He sat cross-legged in the closet and started to roll the joint the way Randy had shown him. He was interrupted by his phone ringing. He wanted to ignore it, but something told him that Eric was the person making the phone call.
Noah pulled the phone out of his pocket and saw that it was Marty. He decided to ignore it at the same time he tapped the receive icon. "Hello," Noah said, dully, when he realized what he had done.
Marty could hear the dullness is Noah's voice. "Hey, dude, I was just calling to see how you were doing."
"I'm fine."
"You don't sound fine." The sound of Noah's voice sounded off kilter and Marty decided to not mince words. The worst that Noah could do was hang up. "What's the problem?"
"Problem? There's no problem."
"That's not how it sounds to uncle Marty. You sound like crap."
Noah was ready to push the red hang-up icon. He looked down at the box as tears flowed down his cheeks. "Can you come over?" he said in a shaky voice.
"Don't do anything stupid."
Noah pushed the red icon and didn't move. He sat there until he heard his mother yell from downstairs that he had company. He didn't move, but yelled for his mom to send him up. All his mother could hear from the bottom of the stairs was his muffled voice.
"Go on upstairs," she told Marty. "He's been in a strange mood today."
"I know. He asked me to come over," Marty said.
"He's lucky to have friends like you and Eric," she said.
Marty didn't know how to reply to that, so he took the stairs two at a time and went into Noah's room without knocking. He was surprised to find the room empty. "Noah?" he asked tentatively.
"I'm in here," came a disembodied voice from the closet.
Marty walked into the large closet and saw Noah in the back, sitting cross-legged, his face wet with tears. He sat down next to him and caught sight of what was in the box. He waited for Noah to talk.
"I didn't throw it all out."
Marty could see the partially rolled joint, but he couldn't detect any of the sweet smell that marijuana gave off after being smoked. He also saw the unopened bottle of vodka in the box. "Did you use any?" Marty asked, meaning not only on that day, but since he had last been at Noah's house.
Noah shook his head, no. The tears started flowing again. Marty picked up one of the shirts Noah had taken out of the box and wiped Noah's smooth, pale cheeks.
"It hurts," Noah said. He wasn't willing to tell Marty why it hurt like it did. He wasn't about to admit how it was his fault Bobby hadn't worn his helmet. But he could tell Marty how much it hurts.
"Remember what I said about pain and about misery?" Marty asked.
Noah nodded.
"It's going to hurt for a long time. That's all I know. I've got things that hurt, too," (like living with my old man, he thought, and like being gay hurts sometimes), "and I used to be miserable." He pointed at the box. "That shit won't make it better."
"I know. I just want the pain to go away."
"It will for a little while. Then it all comes back, and you feel even worse because of what you did to kill it. All I know is that the crap in that box never did anything to help me, even when I thought it was my best friend."
Noah nodded as if he understood. He would end up understanding later, when he got his thoughts back in order. What he understood right now was that even though he had never once had his mind under the influence of alcohol or any mind altering drug, he had the idea in his head that they were the way out of the pain and misery he was feeling.
He closed the box, avoiding Marty's eyes. He pushed the box back into its corner and picked up some of the clothes that had been covering it up. For a moment his demon made him wonder why he had invited Marty over. He didn't want what Marty had to offer. His brain told him that the contents of the box had what he wanted, not the big eighth grader who was sitting next to him in his closet.
It was then that another thought entered his head and pushed him to his final decision. It would be years before he truly recognized the significance of that decision, but when he looked back at it he came to realize that his salvation began with what he did in that closet. As he covered the box he remembered something he had said to Bobby once a little over a year ago. He had told him that when life seemed to be really shitty, when it looked like nothing was going right in life, that was the time to take a look at what was right in life. He looked at Marty and thought about Eric and comprehended the fact that while his boyfriend, his best friend ever, was gone for good, he still had two best friends like those two who were alive. He knew that Marty and Eric had his back when things were bad. He knew he had a great family that loved him. He was part of a baseball team and his teammates had been there for him as his world got dark.
Noah stood up and moved past Marty and out of the closet. Marty wasn't sure what to do or what to say, so he stood up to follow the bespectacled twelve year old out of the closet. "I can't throw it away," Noah said as he left the closet, "and I can't ever use it. Help me."
Marty stopped. He had a good idea of what Noah meant, but he wasn't entirely sure. He decided to go with his own idea of what Noah meant. He turned around, tossed the clothes off of the lid, picked up the box, and carried it out of the closet. He saw Noah lying prone as he took the box out of the room and into the bathroom. He hoped nobody from the family came by, because he did not want to have to explain what he was doing.
Opening the box he stared into it. What he saw were the things he considered to be life's best treasures for years. His hands shook as he picked up the weed and took a deep whiff. He opened the bottle of vodka and smelled it as well. He began to doubt that he was strong enough to resist what was in the bathroom. Marijuana and alcohol had been a big part of his life since he was in elementary school and right now it was begging him for forgiveness. It was asking to be allowed back into his life. It was being what he had been told it was time after time after time, "cunning, baffling, and powerful." Marty could feel the power taking him over at the same time he could feel his own powerlessness.
He stuffed a baggie of pot into his pocket, then put the bottle to his lips. But before taking a sip he stopped and said the Serenity Prayer. The pause was enough for him to then get his own thoughts together and remember that he had come to help a friend, that the reason he was in a room that was full of what he was desperately craving was because he was working to be of service to somebody he knew and loved.
He pulled the bottle away and poured the contents into the toilet. He took the baggie out of the box and dumped them into the toilet. Finally he pulled the baggie out of his pocket, tossing it out as well. He flushed the toilet and watched its precious contents whirl around and around and then flush away for good.
He picked up the empty box and carried it back to Noah's room. Noah was still prone, but was now wearing only a t-shirt. He was naked from the waist down.
"Did you dump it?" Noah asked.
"All gone."
"Did you keep any of it?"
The question stunned him with its acumen. He had forgotten how perceptive the little boy was. "I thought about it," he answered honestly.
"I'm glad you didn't. I would have felt bad if you did."
"What happened to your pants?" Marty asked, although he knew the answer since he could see Noah's shorts, socks, and white briefs on the floor.
"I want you to fuck me," Noah said. "I need to be fucked. You said you would fuck me some day."
Noah's house was full of temptation today—drugs, alcohol, and sex were there for the taking. He had promised Noah sex and the thought of putting his dick in the smooth white ass that was staring at him had him getting an instant hard-on.
"I said I would when the right time came," Marty said. He was hit by a sense of déjà vu. This visit was so much like his last visit to Noah.
"What if I said the right time was now," Noah said. "I need to be fucked because, well, because I need to be."
"Then I'd say you were full of shit. You got something bothering you or you wouldn't have got out the weed and the booze. I want sex with you when you don't feel like you gotta do it."
"Then I guess you better go," Noah said.
"Yeah, I guess I better." Right then Marty wished he hadn't thrown out the contents of the box. Then he shook that thought out of his head, as he remembered the things from the program that were supposed to keep him calm. He had done the exact right thing for both Noah and himself and he knew it.
He headed for the bedroom door and opened it. Before he could step out, Noah stopped him. "Thank you Marty, you're a good friend. I'm sorry I wasn't a good friend today."
"You're a good friend every day, Noah. I love you."
Noah smiled for the first time all day as Marty slipped away. "I love you, too, Marty," he whispered. He then dropped to his bed and fell into a troubled sleep until dinner time. With Marty's help he'd enjoyed a minor victory against his demon, one of many victories he would need over the years until he was to finally able to stare down the demon face-to-face.
<Thursday, August 14>
Eric's Thursday was an eventful one. He woke up early like he usually did. Last summer he would have had Scott next to him, either in his bed or in Scott's bed. Instead he woke up alone with morning wood. He took care of that issue with a quick wank, bringing his young teen cock to a quick orgasm.
He peed, put on a t-shirt, gym shorts, and running shoes, checked his clock, and went downstairs. He wasn't surprised when he heard a knock at the front door. He opened it so see Marty standing in front of him with a big smile. Eric and Marty had taken up jogging together in the morning three to four days a week and today was one of those.
"You and your early morning runs," Marty said. "Mornings are for sleeping."
"I can't stand wasting the day."
"Well, I've wasted so many days maybe I need days like this to make up for some lost time."
They ran to the town park and then around the park a few times. Marty could never help but feel a bit of emotion every time he ran past the bench he used to sit on, drinking vodka from a bottle in a paper bag, waiting for some man to pick him up and pay him for sex. He was picked up by a man, but it was for reasons that had nothing to do with sex. Their run eventually got to Marty's house. "Want to come in and shower with me?" Marty asked with a leer.
"You're a high school horn dog," Eric said.
"And proud of it."
"How about we pick a day when you bring some clothes to my house and shower there? I don't have a big brother to bug us."
"John is cool. He won't bug us."
"If my mom is working we have my house to ourselves."
"Okay. I'm just happy you want to mess around with me."
"I'm cool with it as long as Rich is."
"Me and Rich are really tight, but we're not boyfriends."
Eric thought they were boyfriends and just wouldn't admit it, but he didn't say anything. He and Marty fist-bumped and Eric ran home, feeling a bit horny yet again.
He arrived home, got naked, and jerked off for the second time that morning, thinking of Marty's big cock. He showered and got himself some breakfast. He was just getting ready to brush his teeth when his phone rang. It was Mark, Kevin's umpiring friend, and someone he and Noah had gotten to know better.
"How would you like another locomotive ride?" Mark asked after the two exchanged greetings.
"Serious?"
"Very serious. You and your buddy, Noah, obviously love trains and I'd love to set up another ride for the two of you."
"Wow, that would be great."
"Your catcher, Kevin, just had one, so it's only fair that you two young rail fans get another one as well."
"He did? He never said anything about having another train ride."
"I'm sure he was just waiting for the right opportunity," Mark said. "You'll be riding with me and engineer Sherman." Mark gave Eric the dates he and Sherman would be operating the run through Mayfield over the next couple of weeks. Eric told Mark he'd contact Noah about the dates. Then he'd talk to his parents and get back to him as quickly as he could.
That phone call had Eric very excited. He had truly loved his first locomotive ride the year before. He finally got to the sink to brush his teeth when his phone rang again. When he saw who it was he got excited yet one more time. His old buddy Shelby was calling him from Tacoma.
"Hey, Shelby. Whazzup?"
"Everything. Are we still good for our visit?"
"Yep. Next week, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights." Only Wednesday conflicted with the days Mark had given him for a locomotive ride. August wasn't even half way done yet, and even without any baseball going on it felt like there weren't enough days left in it to do all of the things he wanted to do. It would only get worse when soccer started the last week of the month. No wonder Noah referred to it as the August crunch.
"You guys are coming by car, right?" Eric asked.
"Yeah, Liam's mom and dad are going to drive us down." Eric's friends Shelby, Liam, Andy, Chase, and Mason would all be coming.
"That's a long way to drive. I mean they have to do it twice to bring you and to pick you up."
"Liam's mom is pretty cool," Shelby said. "They're gonna take Liam and Mason's little brothers to the beach for the three days. Those two are pretty tight, even tighter than Liam and Mason are."
"Well, my mom says she'll be doing a lot of shopping to feed us and I'll make lots of space in my bedroom to lay out sleeping bags and stuff. I can't wait to see you guys." Eric hung up, excited about the next week.
Shelby and Eric had done their first sexual experimentation together. They started playing around towards the end of fifth grade, before Eric moved to Mayfield. They still communicated a lot and had stayed friends, even though they lived a long way from each other. Chase had been the other boy they'd done a lot of sexual experimenting with. He said he wasn't into messing around with boys any more, but he didn't mind everybody else doing it. Eric and Shelby both figured he could hang out with Scott, since the two of them were both into girls now.
Shelby had met Liam last summer playing baseball. Mason was a friend of Liam's and lived in Seattle. Eric had met both of them last summer and liked them a lot. Mason was a lot like Shelby, a small, skinny kid, who was fairly quiet. Andy was bigger and a bit louder. Chase was like Eric, outgoing and confident, a kid who was a natural leader. Liam was a wild boy in a lot of ways, especially when it came to sex. He loved having sex, especially with other boys. He was not yet into chasing girls and may never be. He all but said he was gay.
The other thing that made the day eventful was the upcoming school board meeting. All the boys in the Go to State group had been contacted about showing up at the meeting to support Coach Sanders. Eric, Noah, and Rich agreed to speak in the coach's favor.
They asked Marty to speak, but he declined. He said he didn't like talking in front of a group and wasn't good at it. That was less than half true. While he said he didn't like it, and didn't crave the spotlight like some, he did find a measure of enjoyment from speaking. The part that really wasn't true was him saying that he wasn't good at it; he had a great deal of presence for a fourteen year old high school freshman.
The Donkey and the Dawg, along with their baseball playing friends Cody and Zach, planned to attend the meeting, as did Bobby's brother Tyler. None of the high school kids planned to speak. They were worried about potential retaliation if Coach Gardner got the head coaching job. While Rich was an incoming freshman, he felt more connected to the middle school eighth graders. They were more concerned with getting the coach they wanted than they were with displeasing Coach Gardner.
The players arrived early. Because Avery Benson, the school board president, knew there would be a larger crowd than normal for the meeting, he decided to hold it in the high school auditorium instead of in the board room. He remembered how crowded the school board meeting room had become when the job status of Coach Collins had been on the agenda.
The boys weren't the only ones there giving their support to one of the candidates. A number of community members were interested as well, many of them ready to speak for Coach Gardner. The coach was a regular at the Mayfield café and didn't mind spending an evening at the Roadside Inn or at one of the local taverns with some of the Mayfield sports fans and boosters. He was as popular with that group, who saw the coach as one of them, as he was unpopular with the high school players.
But there were boosters who supported Coach Sanders as well, including George Bednarzyck, Noah's father, Hunter's father, and Eric's mother and father. The owner of Pooh Bear's Pizza and the owner of the Burger Barn were also there. While they didn't say publically who they supported, it was an open secret that they were behind Coach Sanders. Coach Sanders and his partner, Coach Miller, weren't at the meeting, but Coach Gardner was there, sitting with a group of his buddies.
"If the outside candidate ends up getting the job everybody is going to really wonder what all the fuss was about," George Bednarzyck told Seth McCall, Noah's dad.
Avery Benson knew why the big crowd was there, and it wasn't to listen to the school board discuss the budget and the purchase of English textbooks. As a result he had placed the hiring of the new baseball coach at the top of the agenda.
Benson started the meeting on time. He reminded everybody that the hiring recommendation had been made by the school administration, but that the final decision on the hiring of head coaches was up to the board. What he didn't say is that the board usually rubber stamped the administration's recommendation. He invited any input from members of the audience and told them that they were limited to three minutes each.
Eric checked to see what members of the Go to State Team had shown up. Noah and Scott were sitting next to him. Marty and Rich were sitting in the same row. He saw that Hunter, Lars, and the twins were there, along with Rodney and Jerome. Danny and Carl rounded out the members in attendance.
George Bednarzyck spoke first. The lawyer was a polished speaker and knew how to say a lot using very few words. He quickly told the board members how much work Coach Sanders put into the program, related how much he cared about the kids of Mayfield, and how the players both liked and respected him.
Eric spoke next. He was extremely nervous, but he comported himself well. His voice still hadn't broken, and sounded strange listening to just adults speak. Eric spoke to how Coach Sanders helped him feel a part of the program when he moved to Mayfield. He spoke to the support Coach Sanders showed for their Go to State Team and how he coached them to the middle school JV championship last year and won it again this year with another group of players.
A couple of men spoke for Coach Gardner. Then Noah talked about how knowledgeable Coach Sanders was when it came to baseball and how much he respected him for letting a little nerdy kid with glasses be a part of the team. That elicited a few chuckles from the audience. Rich spoke next, talking about how much he had learned and how fairly he'd been treated by Coach Sanders during his three years at Mayfield Middle School.
Things got a little ugly when a big man with a thick beard and longish hair walked up the microphone. A high school boy had been sitting next to him. Eric learned later that he was the man's son and that he played football and baseball. He was a senior and expected to be the starting catcher for the varsity next spring.
"I just wanted to say that I've known Coach Gardner since he started coaching here at Mayfield and I know him to be a good man. Both my boys played for him and liked him. Ralph, my boy over there, is excited about playing for Coach Gardner."
"Sure he is," the Donkey whispered to the Dawg, "because he can get away with whatever he wants." Ralph was a party boy. Coach Collins and Coach Gardner had a habit of looking the other way when they found out their players were at a booze party. They threatened stuff, but then never followed through. "His dad is scoring points hoping to get his kid a starting spot." Ralph had yet to play varsity ball because Mike's friend Zach was a much better catcher and had been with the varsity since he was a sophomore.
"I want my boy to have the best, and that would be Coach Gardner. And there is the matter of Coach Sanders and his lifestyle."
"Oh, oh, here it comes," Eric whispered to Noah.
"Everybody in this room knows the coach is a homosexual living in sin with..." That was as far as he could get before Avery Benson picked up his gavel and rapped it on the table. Benson sensed what was coming up, but he rarely had to use the gavel and it took him a moment to locate it.
"We are not going there, Paul," the board president said. "That has nothing to do with this discussion."
"Fuck it doesn't," Paul Richardson said, "it has everything..." Bang! The gavel came down again.
"I said that's enough."
Richardson glared at Avery Benson, but went back to his seat. A murmur went through the audience as the next speaker walked up. Marty went pale when he saw his dad walk up to the microphone.
"What the fuck is he doing here?" he whispered to Rich. Rich shrugged.
Marty's dad introduced himself and said, "My boy played for Coach Sanders at the middle school for two years. Had I known the background of the man I would have yanked his ass off the team."
"That's bullshit," Marty said loudly enough for everyone to hear.
Once again the gavel came down, but Marty's dad went on. "Ain't no way my boy plays for a faggot. You make that man coach and my boy won't play and I know others who feel...," but the gavel came down again. "You can't keep us from speaking our minds," he continued.
"I will suspend this meeting if we don't get order now," Avery Benson said. Benson didn't have to go that far, however, as another man walked over to Marty's dad and guided him away. Marty recognized the man as the town's police chief, Chief Mullen. He knew Chief Mullen had a son who was a junior and who played in the baseball program. Marty hadn't seen either his dad or the chief enter the auditorium.
Marty felt totally embarrassed by what had just happened. He was positive his father was drunk. He also was sure his dad would be in trouble, because Coach Miller, their summer coach and Coach Sanders's partner, was also his father's boss.
Avery Benson decided to end the discussion on the coaching opening before things got out of hand. He happened to like Coach Sanders. He liked his knowledge of the game and the high expectations he set for the players. He particularly liked the extra effort he had put forth in pairing up Danny with his son, Carl. The fact that Sanders was gay did not bother him at all. He found himself upset with the two speakers who had made it an issue. Benson diplomatically thanked those who spoke and said the board would announce its decision to the administration by Tuesday of next week.
The players who showed up for the meeting certainly did not want to hang around for the rest of the board's business and quickly left the auditorium. On the way out a number of them agreed to meet at Bob's Burger Barn to talk about the meeting.
Eric walked to The Barn with Noah. Most of the boys had ridden their bikes to the high school, but Eric and Noah had come with their fathers. They were offered a ride by Noah's dad, but The Barn was only a couple of blocks away and they said they'd walk. They each had something they wanted to talk about one-on-one and this was their chance.
Eric told Noah about Mark's invitation of another locomotive cab ride. Noah was obviously excited and wanted to do it yesterday.
"Well, I got some company coming first," Eric said. He told Noah about the upcoming visit of his Tacoma friends. "We can do it after they leave."
"We're going away on vacation week after next," Noah said. "What if we did it on the Thursday after your friends leave?"
"That's one of the dates Mark gave me, so it works," Eric told him. Noah grinned again.
The next topic Eric wanted to bring up was a little bit more sensitive. It had been less than a month since Bobby's accident and Eric knew how Noah felt about his former boyfriend. He wanted Noah to get out of himself and get involved in things again, and joining him with his Tacoma friends seemed like a perfect way to do that. However, he knew that the visit would involve sex, probably a lot of sex, and he wasn't sure how Noah would feel about that. He wondered if Noah would be ready to mess around with other boys so soon, even after his willingness to jerk off with Carl and Danny the other day. Nevertheless, he brought up the topic. The worst that could happen would be Noah saying he wasn't interested in coming over.
"Yeah, I think I can do that," Noah said.
"We could end up messing around. They're all horn dogs," Eric said.
"I take it we're talking about more than jerking off?"
"We are."
"I have to do stuff some time. I mean it's not like I'm looking to do stuff with a new boyfriend. I messed around with lots of other boys even before the accident." Eric was always amazed at how perceptive Noah could be about life. "If I just come over for maybe one night, that would be okay, I think." Bit by bit Eric saw Noah coming out of himself. At that time Eric wasn't aware of Noah's demon, he didn't know about what had just happened with Noah and Marty and the drugs and alcohol. From what he saw and knew, Eric thought Noah was getting better.
"Well, whatever you want to do is cool with me."
"I'll let you get into it with your friends and come over on Tuesday," Noah said, not sure if that was what he really wanted.
"Sounds like a plan to me," Eric told them as they approached The Barn.
Two boys who rode their bikes were Rich and Marty. They were the first to reach the Burger Barn. After being embarrassed by his father, Marty didn't want to hang around to talk with anybody. In fact, he didn't want to hang with anybody at the Burger Barn.
"You can't help it that your dad is a dork," Rich said.
"You're too nice," Marty told him. "My dad is a fucking asshole. I wish I didn't have to live with him. He was drunk on top of being an asshole, which is the way he is `cause he's an alcoholic like me."
"You were that way, too," Rich said.
"Yep, and I could be again pretty easy if he keeps being like that." Rich stared at Marty as they mounted their bikes and Marty knew exactly why. "Sorry, that was a dumb thing to say."
"It was really dumb."
"Well, I said I was sorry. And I am. Sometimes I just say dumb things."
"You don't plan on drinking do you?"
"Look, I said I was sorry, so get off my case already."
Nothing else was said as they peddled to Bob's Burger Barn. They were the first ones there. Bob saw them come in. He knew where they had been.
"Are you guys all alone?" He asked.
"Nope," Marty said, "lots more coming."
"Then take the back room, you guys can all meet there."
"Thanks."
Rich and Marty sat in the back room waiting for their teammates to show. Marty had been a little worried about money, but he soon saw that he had enough for a burger basket.
"Can I stay the night at your house tonight?" he asked. "I don't wanna be home tonight. My dad knows I was at that meeting."
"I have to ask my mom, but I'm sure it will be okay. I don't blame you for not wanting to be there."
Marty remembered about amends and said to Rich, "Sorry I got on your ass."
"It's cool. Hell, you're cool. I'm glad we're friends again."
Marty wanted to say more, based on what he had told Eric. But he didn't get the chance as the twins came in with Lars and Hunter. It didn't take long for the back room to fill up. All of the Falcons who were at the meeting were there, along with the Donkey, the Dawg, and their buddies Zach and Cody. The boys noisily ate, joked, and talked about what had happened at the meeting.
They were all in agreement about two things: They wanted Coach Sanders to be the varsity high school coach, and they were certain that it wasn't going to happen.
Next: Friends and More