Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, as are all of the characters. This story is about the conflicts and inner turmoil between two teen boys, one Black and one Latino and how they overcome them. If that bothers you then I suggest you don't read.
*Edited by Metis
JOIN MY YAHOO GROUP: for faster updates and access to other stories by me you won't find posted anywhere else.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MaddyA_Stories (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MaddyA_Stories) and e-mail me at Madasonaysha@aol.com (mailto:Madasonaysha@aol.com)
Other stories by me "Around My Way" last updated January 5th
"I HATE ANTHONY"
BY MADDY A.
CHAPTER THREE: BEST FRIENDS AGAIN?
Jackson seemed to be upset about something the next morning. He looked terrible, but Brian didn't want to ask him what was wrong. He thought that maybe he was still feeling sick from the day before. As good of a friend as Jacky was to him, he had a tendency to be moody. Brian didn't know if Jacky would think that he was being nosey or concerned and he didn't want to take the chance. Jacky would blow up at you one minute and then the next, he would be smiling at you. It was a thin line to be walked around Jacky, but all his friends had long accepted that. Even Regina didn't know what was bothering her boyfriend. As much as she loved him, she often thought of breaking up with him. When she met him the year before, she thought that he was the nicest, sweetest guy in the school. He didn't hang around the typical jock ass hole crowd like that jerk Anthony and he was well mannered unlike most of the guys in their school. Most of the other guys always talked about "fucking bitches"
and "smoking trees" all the time, but not Jacky. He just wanted to play ball and go to college. An ambition a lot of the other kids in school, both boys and girls, didn't have. Despite his handsome face, what most attracted Regina to Jacky was the fact that he had goals. However that was starting not to be enough. She loved him, she truly did, but it was becoming more of a brotherly, sisterly type of love. She just couldn't break that to him. Not yet anyway.
Brian walked into his English class with his head up high. He wouldn't let Anthony know how upset he had made him the day before. Mr. Rice was running late as usual and the class was left to talk among themselves. Brian had a couple of friends in that class, but at that moment he would rather a book. He had been obsessed with reading "A Separate Peace" for the past two days. He usually could read a book in two days, three days max, but he was trying to savor the book. He was just at the part where Phineas falls from the tree that Gene and he had climbed, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He was annoyed that someone would interrupt his reading at such a dramatic moment in the story and ignored it. The tap stopped for a minute as if sensing that Brian didn't want to be bothered. After a few minutes the tapping returned and Brian again pretended not to notice. It wasn't until hands roughly shuck his shoulder that he turned around menacingly. Much to his chagrin, his eyes met Anthony's. Brian immediately turned his attention to his book. Anthony sat back in his seat for a minute, silent in deep thought. He had moved to the seat behind Brian to apologize. He didn't want Brian to think that he had purposely tried to hurt him. Despite his good intentions, Anthony's temper began to rise. "Just who the fuck does Brian think that he's messing with?" Anthony asked himself. Never one to be ignored, Anthony began to violently shake both of Brian's shoulders. Brian tried to ignore it, but it was getting increasingly hard to. The way that Anthony was shaking his shoulders was soothing in a way, as if he was rocking a baby to sleep. Brian felt a familiar stir in a place that Anthony's touch shouldn't invoke. For a moment Brian let himself relax under the hands of Anthony and he would have sworn that he felt Beetles hands gently squeeze his shoulder, if only for a moment. NO!' Brian yelled to himself. His name is Anthony, Beetled died a long time ago' . The whole ordeal had only lasted for a minute maybe less, but it felt longer.
Anthony was too caught up in his anger of being ignored to realize that he was massaging Brian's shoulders. As if he was touching fire he removed his hands. Brian turned around to look at Anthony. He felt like something was wrong with the erratic way Anthony took his hands off of his shoulders. He thought that he was about to lash out at him again, but to his surprise he didn't see that normal evil look of Anthony's face. Anthony's eyes were downcast to the floor, transfixed on the tile work and a look of terror was etched on his face. A look that, not even when they were best friends, Brian had never seen. Anthony's eyes met Brian's and for a moment they just looked at each other. Anthony didn't know why he did, but he gave a slight smile to Brian.
He thought that Brian would return it, but he didn't. He just rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to his book. Anthony moved back to his assigned seat across the room. He was kicking himself for his slip up. "It's not right! It's just not right!", he yelled inside of his head.
Mr. Rice came into class with a huge smile of his face like he always did when he was about to dish out a writing assignment. He sat on his desk with one leg propped under the other and a huge grin. His wore his long black hair in small neat dread locks and his dress of style would lead you to believe that he was afro-centric, but he was just the opposite. Yeah, he liked Angie Stone and burned incense, but only to get his girlfriend in the mood. He was a dead head who never had the pleasure of seeing Jerry Garcia live.
"Okay class guess what today is?" Mr. Rice asked the class. Someone yelled out Friday and the class snickered. Mr. Rice ignored the comment and continued talking. "Well yes, but that's not what I meant Mr.Jeminez. Today is the day of the grand return of creative writing." The class moaned like most teenagers do when faced with homework. "Now, now calm down. I know you all would rather be doing anything else then that, but listen before you condemn.
You are to work in pairs. Your going to pretend that you and your partner have been life long best friends. I want a fictionalized account on how you would react to the death or marriage of your "best friend". Since this is suppose to be fiction, I will be picking your partners and I WANT TO FEEL THE EMOTIONS PEOPLE! The more emotion that you put into your papers, the better your grades will be. Now stop your moaning and bitching and let me finish. I 'm going to give you a month with a one-week extension period to let you make any corrections you may need to. I expect five pages typed or ten pages written, college ruled paper only! Now the names of whom you will be working with go as followed……. Lopez with May, Sykes with Bullock, Daniel with Williams and finally Ramirez with Washington. Brian and Anthony both immediately protested.
"NO! MR. RICE!" Brian yelled. The class turned around and looked at him like he had lost his mind for yelling so loud. A few laughed but one groan could be heard, Anthony's.
"Yeah Mr. Rice. I am not working with that loser!" Anthony yelled. Mr. Rice looked at both of his students. He was not ignorant to the fact that the two boys didn't get along. He had seen Brian getting bullied one to many times by the likes of Anthony and his friends. He had a suspicion as to why Anthony took such an interest in Brian but he couldn't be sure that he was right.
"Mr. Washington and Mr. Ramirez, we will finish this discussion after school. " Mr. Rice replied.
"I have detention because of that little shit?" Anthony asked. Brian looked at him and the faces of the smiling kids. The humiliation that Brian was feeling was overwhelming and his dark brown face became consumed with heat.
"Fuck you!" Brian muttered just loud enough to be heard. He normally would ignore Anthony's degrading comments, but not that day. He felt a fury inside of him that he never knew existed. Anthony was about to respond when Mr. Rice cut in.
"Well, fellas. You didn't have detention until oh, about four seconds ago.
See you after eighth period." Mr. Rice stated before going on with the lesson.
After class, Brian was at his locker when he felt a someone shove him hard against its door. He looked up to see the evil dark eyes of Carlos.
"I heard what you was running your mouth off to my boy. You better watch your mutha fucking mouth faggot!" Carlos said before walking away. He had been called a lot of names but never had he heard the word "faggot". No, he had heard it before just not with such the intensity that Carlos had said it. He spoke as if he knew, not suspected that Brian was gay. Brian watched Carlos walk down the hallway before he went back to getting his books for the next class.
By the time lunch came around, Brian was all too ready to go home. He wanted nothing more to do then to go home after his last period of the day but he had his little "meeting" after school. Everyone could see that he was in a bad mood. Almost as bad as the one that Jackson was in. Regina, always hating to be stuck in silence, decided to get the conversation ball rolling.
"So…….what's new with everybody?" She asked.
"Well, nothing on this side." Riley stated.
"What, the Corny Cracker side?" Tracy interjected and caught evil glares from everyone at the table. Everyone hated it when Tracy would make one of her racist comments and they really were getting old. You would have thought as a black girl, she would know a thing or two about how tolerance, but evidently not.
"Tracy, why you always gotta say some dumb racist shit? You don't see Riley calling you a nigger or a Porch Money?" Jacky said. It was the first words that he uttered since lunch had begun fifteen minutes earlier.
"OH HE SPEAKS!" Tracy exclaimed.
"Shut up Bones!" Jacky replied before focusing his attention back to his cup of fruit cocktail.
"Whatever, I'll be quiet, but I don't want to ever hear you say `nigger' again. Shit, you're only HALF black and if you ask me, you look like a total Ginny!" Jackson slammed down his fruit cup and balled up his fists. You could see the blues and greens of the popping veins of his neck, against the creamy mixture of vanilla and caramel that was his complexion. He looked one hundred percent Italian and it bothered him when people wouldn't believe that his father was black. He didn't like it when people assumed he was just " posing" as black and Tracy knew that and preyed on it.
"Shut the fuck up! I'm half Italian, not Ginny and if you ever call me that shit again, I'll-"
"You'll what?" Regina interjected. In all the months that they had dated and the years that they knew each other, Jacky was never violent. Yeah, he could have an attitude problem, but he was never "threatening", especially to a girl. She glared at Jacky and Tracy before both went back to eating their lunch. The whole table was tense and when the bell rung signaling for the last two periods of the days, the table cleared out all too quickly instead of the usual lingering that the group usually did. Brian watched as Jacky walked in the direction of the Gym. He knew that something was bothering his buddy and it was Brian's nature to want to help a friend when they were having problems. He sprinted down the hallway and charily approached Jacky. He knew that Jackson would act one or two ways.
"Hey Jacky, are you okay?" Brian asked. Jacky looked down at his friend and smiled. It felt good that Brian was concerned about him. Jacky put his arm around the shoulders of his friend as he talked.
"Yeah, I'm good. Just a little tired. My bad about bouncing on you yesterday, but I got sick seventh period." Jacky replied. Brian didn't know why, but he had this weird feeling inside of him as Jackson's arm lay around his shoulder. For one, Jacky was not very affectionate, not in the least. He would only give Regina a hug in school, never a kiss around other people. He had this weird thing about public displays of affection so Brian was surprised by Jacky's close contact. If that had happened a year before, he would have been doing back flips, but he was long over his infatuation with Jacky. High School crushes came and went for Brian as often as he changed his underwear, daily.
"Oh, well I gotta get to class, but I'll call you lada." Brian started to walk way but Jacky grabbed his arm to stop him. Again, the contact with Jackson was making him uncomfortable. Add that to the fact that Jacky was looking at him in a way that he had never seen before and Brian's unease was founded. Jacky looked at him pleadingly before he spoke.
"Yeah, do you want to come over after school? I mean, after your detention."
He asked Brian. It seemed lately that Jacky was always trying to get him alone. He could have asked Brian in front of everyone at the table, but it was like Jacky didn't want anyone to know that he was asking Brian to come over. Brian was feeling uneasy under Jacky's stare. It was like he was trying to look deep inside of him and Brian found that uncomfortable.
"I can't today, but maybe over the weekend. Yeah, Saturday works best. I' ll tell Riley and the girls and we can chill at my house. See ya later." Brian said as he rushed off. So, he lied. He could have went that day, but something inside of him said not to go. He left to rush off so he wouldn't be late for Chemistry. Before he turned the corner that led to his class, he turned around to look in the direction that he just left Jacky. Much to Brian's surprise, he saw Jacky still standing in the spot that he left him. He smiled when their eyes met and Jacky just waved. `Was he watching me?' Brian asked himself. So many questions inside of his head and no answers yet to be found.
Jacky stood there and watched as Brian left. A smile came across his face. He was unsure of what made him smile, but he was doing it anyway. What he didn't realize was that someone was watching him. Someone with angry deep green eyes.
Anthony walked up behind Jacky and startled him. He knew what he saw and he didn't like it. Jackson was staring at Brian as if he was his……. It wasn' t his imagination…or was it? Jackson was never affectionate, yet he was partially holding onto Brian as if he was his girlfriend. He wanted to know more, but thought better than to ask. Jackson's not like that.' Anthony said to himself. I'm not like that…..' He must have smoked some weird shit last night with Carlos for thinking even for one second that something could have been going on between Jacky and Brian. Besides he hated Brian…but why did he feel so angry when he thought he was with someone else?
"What's up man? You wanna come smoke with us tonight?" Anthony asked Jacky.
Normally, Jackson didn't like weed or alcohol, but he thought that it might help him deal with some of the problems he was having.
"Yeah, at Carlos's house? 7?" Jackson asked.
"No, mine and it's going to be at 6 I have detention." Anthony replied and both guys left to get to class.
Finally school was over and all Anthony had to do was deal with Mr. Rice and Brian for half an hour and then he would be free. He walked into class and saw that geeky ass Brian was already there. He sat across the room from him and at first, said nothing to him. He looked over and saw Brian quickly turn his head.
"What! Your staring at me now?" Anthony demanded. Brian wasn't staring it was just when he finally got the nerve to look in his direction, it was the same exact moment that Anthony had decided to look in his.
"No, I wasn't staring at you. I was looking at the clock over your head." Brian lied in a quiet voice. He wasn't sure why Anthony had that effect on him, it wasn't like he was totally afraid of him , but whenever he was around him, he just felt inferior. Anthony had that affect on a lot of people.
"Shit! Your so fucking weird. Now I'm stuck in detention with you….great!"
Anthony yelled. He was slouching down in his seat and tapping his fingers annoyingly against the table. His furrowed black eyebrows framed his dark green eyes almost menacingly but Brian thought he still looked like that eleven-year-old boy that he once knew. Just in a bigger body. Brian wanted to respond, but he was not up to it. Luckily Mr. Rice came strolling in, chatting on his cell phone. He hung up immediately when he saw the intense stare down his two students were having.
"Mr. Rice you can't expect me to work with Brian. We are NOT friends! I already talked to Tyrone, he said I could work with him and I don't know him either so it won't matter." Anthony stated. He didn't think he couldn't handle being around Brian.
"Yeah, Mr. Rice. I'll work with ANY ONE else…just not him." Brian stated and it was true. He didn't think he could handle being around Anthony. One of many things the two boys were unaware that they had in common.
"Well boys, tough luck. You guys are going to be working together for the next month in a half. I know you to don't get along but your going to have to learn how to." Mr. Rice told them. Both guys groaned and let the argument end. They both new that they couldn't win. Mr. Rice continued. " Now all you have to do is pick a category. Marriage, Death or Birth of a new child. Which one?" Neither boy answered so Mr. Rice picked for them. "Seeing how you too seem to be at a loss for words, I'll pick for you. Mr. Ramirez your going to pretend to be lifelong friends with Brian and your going to write about how you are feeling after his death."
"Shit, I wouldn't care" Anthony interjected. Brian glared at him and pushed down that feeling that was telling him that he was hurt by what Beetle, no, Anthony, had said. Anthony didn't mean what he said but he had to say something.
"If your finished Anthony….. Brian your going to write your half of the paper as an angel in heaven watching your best friend cope with your death. Now gentlemen you may leave, but I suggest you make plans to get together because Mr. Washington I expect nothing less then an A+ from you and it's up to you to make sure that Mr. Ramirez gets no less than that either. Good day fella' s." Mr. Rice stated and both boys left. They could have exchanged numbers then but Brian had rushed out before Anthony could get it.
Brian sat on his bed, alone in his house yet again. He wished his mother was home so he could talk to her, but he knew that even if she was, she couldn' t understand what he was going through. He had to be around Anthony again. When Anthony stopped being his friend, Brian became cold and distant for a while. He was left feeling hurt and abandoned. It wasn't until he got to high school, that he started to become the person that he was before Anthony left him. Brian was unsure how he would feel being around Anthony now. Half of him was afraid. Afraid that those old feelings would return for the one person that he hated. The one person who hated him…………..
TO BE CONTINUED
AUTHORS NOTE: I JUST WANT TO TAKE THE TIME TO RECOMMEND TO YOU ONE OF MY FAVORITE STORIES CURRENTLY ON NIFTY BY A BUDDY OF MINE.
"ANGST" BY JOJO CAN BE FOUND IN THE HIGH SCHOOL SECTION LAST UPDATED JAN. 11TH.
THIS IS ONE OF MY PERSONAL FAVORITES AND HAS SEVENTEEN CHAPTERS POSTED. IT RUNS LIKE A TELEVISION SHOW IN 'EPISODES' AND I LOVE IT. AFTER YOU READ IT, DROP THE AUTHOR A LINE. HE'S REAL COOL AND WILL RESPOND.
"WHATS HAPPENING TO ME" BY MY DEAR FRIEND KHAYMAN RICE HAS ALSO UPDATED HIS GREAT STORY SO CHECK THAT OUT TOO IT IS WORTH READING AND DON'T FORGET TO SEND HIM AN E-MAIL TOO. WE DON'T GET PAID FOR THIS AND THRIVE OFF OF YOUR E-MAILS SO SEND YOUR FAVORITE WRITERS YOUR WORDS OF SUPPORT.
**http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MaddyA_Stories (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MaddyA_Stories)