Tommy and Tanner Chapter 54
Warning:
This story contains scenes of love and sexual interaction between males of similar age. If the reading or possessing this material is illegal in your country, state, province, county, municipality, etc., please leave this site immediately and do not proceed further. If you are under the legal age to read this, please do not do so. It is not my intention to offend anyone or to get you in trouble.
The author retains the copyright, and any other rights, to this original story. You may not publish it or any part of it without explicit authorization from me.
This is not my first attempt at writing fiction. My longer stories on Nifty include: "Always and Forever" (March 25, 2004), "Jacob and Jacques" (May 30, 2004), "Zeke" (August 29, 2005), "Tales from Bentonville" (November 16, 2008), and "Second Chance" (September 24, 2010) under "High School" and "Someone to Watch over Me" under "Beginnings" in the gay male section. There are a few short stories also: "Brad and Alan's Canoe Trip" (April 22, 2004 under "Camping", "Of Angels and Dragons" (November 8, 2008) under "Camping", "A Christmas Tale" (December 22, 2009) under "High School", "Brazil Affair" (October 1, 2010) under "Beginnings," "Seth's Gift" (October 10, 2010) under the Science Fiction/Fantasy category, and "A Technological Christmas" (December 23, 2011) under "Beginnings."
I am listed on Nifty under the category of "Prolific Net Authors" which will make it easier for you to access earlier stories. Some of these stories are also posted at: www.storylover.us along with those of other writers that may interest you.
My only reward for contributing to Nifty is your emails. Please write if you like the story. Please include the name of the story in the title of your email because my email service sometimes puts them in the "spam" file.
Thanks and hugs to Tom and David (boxerdude) who edit for me so that there are fewer mistakes! They not only proof-read, but make other valuable suggestions.
Finally, David has a new site that is hosting a number of authors. It's at: www.saberpeak.com. My first story, "Always and Forever," is posted there.
David (dlee169@hotmail.com)
Tommy and Tanner, Chapter 54
Disgruntled young men and unpredictable drugs are a bad mix in any case. Add an instigator and supplier like Jordan Cook and the odds of things going terribly wrong are 10 to one.
Jordan saw a way to satisfy his long-festering grudge against Tanner Torrance by riling up three other bullies who were good candidates to act first and consider the consequences later. The trio of Bart, Dax, and Jackson had fresh grievances against their coach and should be easy to manipulate. None of them was in the running for the title of "sharpest knife in the drawer."
On an evening when they were free to hang around with him, and his brother Lance wasn't, Jordan drove them out to a forest preserve and supplied them with a few quality joints. Right now he wanted them mellow and compliant. Before the fight, he'd give them some of the new pills he'd acquired which would make them feel invincible. They would be fearless and out of control. Someone could end up seriously injured, and the younger, smaller Torrance boys were the ones he had in mind.
By 8:30 everyone was feeling mellow and was onboard with the plan he'd cooked up. Jordan hoped to get Lance involved last-minute so that he would fall in line without thinking or, if he did object, there'd be no time to inform the authorities. Jordan would have his revenge at long last!
At the end of following school day, Tommy, Tanner, Tuck, and Michael walked to the parking lot together. The boys were going to give Michael a ride home to make sure he didn't run into trouble on the way. When they arrived at their car, they saw that the left front tire was flat again. This time the sidewall had been slashed.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Tommy yelled. "Why?"
"You know why," Michael said. "It's because your dad stopped those pricks from pissing on me and possibly fuckin' my ass and now they're taking it out on you. I wish I'd never come to this school. It'd be less trouble for everyone."
"Dude, it's not your fault!" Tommy quickly replied. "Bart and his bunch have been redneck bullies all their lives. It's the way they were brought up. You can blame their parents, but don't blame yourself!"
"I can't help feeling responsible," Michael sighed. "Now your beautiful car has been messed with."
"It's only a tire," Tanner said philosophically. "It's not like they bashed the body or broke out the windows. It can be replaced."
"But you'll probably have to buy a pair depending on the tread-wear," Michael pointed out.
"It's okay, I guess we can afford that if we have to," Tommy reasoned. "Well, let's call Al's service and have it towed to a garage. Andy and Devin can give you a ride home; Tanner, Tuck, and I can wait for Mom or walk. Here come the guys now."
Tommy and Tanner decided to walk to school for the time being or catch a ride with their parents or friends. Tuck said he'd join them because they could all use the extra exercise to give them stamina for sports.
They would need to either continue that or buy a junker that they didn't care as much about.
On this particular morning, the older boys teased Tucker about the girl he had taken to homecoming.
"You're gonna have to marry her," Tommy said with a twinkle in his eye.
"No I'm not. We haven't done anything more than kiss, and I know you can't get preggers that way."
"But you still have to," Tommy continued. "She has a name that starts with the letter "T" and is four letters long like "Teri" and "Tori," so it's predestined."
"Jeez! You don't believe in fate, do you?"
"I do believe some things are meant to be," Tanner chimed in. "It was written in the stars that Tommy and I would fall in love. Call it fate, providence, kismet, whatever..."
Tucker could accept that for them, but certainly not for him at his age!
Detective Roberts, Dr. Moore, and Sgt. Quinn were going over the security tapes when the boys came into the office the next morning. Of course they'd made a report of the incident, but didn't hold out much hope that anyone would get caught, much less pay for damages.
"I'm not really any help here and I need to supervise the breakfast crowd," Dr. Moore said. "Make yourselves at home, but let the secretary know when you're leaving, please."
"We won't be long," Chris informed her. "We've isolated the image of someone in a letter jacket bending down by the car, but it's not clear enough for identification purposed. It looks like an "o" and a "k" on the back of the jacket."
"It could be `Cook' I suppose," Tanner ventured. "But I can't believe Lance would do something like that, and if he did, he'd be too smart to wear a jacket with his name emblazoned on the back!"
"I'll send this to a lab in the city to see if they can enhance it. In the mean time, keep your ears open in case someone brags about it."
"Hey guys, I heard something disturbing today," Ava said as she caught up with Tommy and Tanner on the way to their last class of the day.
"What's up?" Tanner asked.
"I overheard Brandi, Jordan Cook's girlfriend telling her friend, Lisa Gordon who used to be on student council, that she's gonna make a video of Jordon, his brother, Lance, and some football jocks beating up Michael and some prominent gay guys. It seems they're all pissed off over being caught hazing. And yes, the pun is intended. Anyway, they might be planning to jump you after school soon, so you'd better be alert."
"Better to be pissed off than pissed on," Tanner quipped. "But seriously, thanks for the warning. I suppose we might qualify as `prominent gay guys' and Jordan still hates my guts from two years ago."
"Yeah, thanks Ava," Tommy said. "You're a good friend."
"I used to think we'd be even closer than friends, but I knew before you came out that that wasn't gonna happen," she said wistfully. "I know your heart belongs to Tanner and that's cool. You know I want the best for you guys."
"You did figure us out a long time ago, didn't you?" Tommy smiled. "And you kept our secret until we came out."
"Keeping secrets is what friends do," Ava smiled.
After she'd gone, Tanner turned to Tommy.
"An ex-girlfriend could be a fearsome enemy; we're two very lucky guys."
"Yup; we're lucky."
Nothing happened for the rest of the week, and the boys wondered if it had been all a rumor to make them nervous. Maybe Brandi allowed Ava to overhear the conversation in the bathroom so she'd relay it to them. They began to relax, but didn't let down their guard completely.
Friday night's football game turned out better than anyone expected, including the coaching staff. Although the defense wasn't as strong as it had been, Michael took a leadership role and rallied the remaining guys to fill the gap left by the suspensions of Bart, Dax, and Jackson. The others were bigger than he was, but it was Michael who provided the motivation.
The win came in the final seconds with Devin kicking a field goal that put the Cougars on top. There was lots of cheering and screaming as the guys won against a tough rival and clinched their spot in the playoffs. Devin was carried off the field by his teammates.
When the sports news came on at 10:20, there were three boys who were not celebrating. It had been their hope that the whole program would fold without them. The win made them all the more eager to carry out their plan.
In the middle of the next week as Tommy, Tanner, Devin, and Andy were walking with Michael to the Torrance's home after school; four guys jumped out from behind a clump of bushes and attacked four of the boys, sending Devin, Tommy, and Tanner to the ground. Andy managed to do a flip and land on his feet. Tommy rolled so his backpack absorbed the main force of the kick aimed at his body. Tanner barely avoided being stomped in the abdomen. Devin also rolled out of the way in the nick of time.
Michael didn't know what to do until he saw Lance headed his way. Then he balled up his fist and ran to meet him. He was dumbfounded to see Lance's next move. Lance put his hands up in the air forming two peace signs.
"Michael, I'm not here to hurt you. My brother sent me a text saying that you were attacking him and he needed my help. Obviously that's not the way this is going down. You're my teammate; I've got nothing against you."
Lance then offered his hand and the two of them went through some complicated ritual that only teenagers understand. They finished by grinning at each other big-time.
"What do we do now?" Michael asked. "You wanna get into the fight?"
"I think we should stay out of this unless it looks like the good guys are losing. Right now, I'd say it's the other way around. I hope my lying asshole brother gets the shit kicked outta him!"
Indeed, it did look like Andy, Devin, and the Torrance boys were in control. The minute they had managed to get out of the grip of their attackers, they shed their packs quickly, assembling in a kind of loose square with their backs to each other to prevent a surprise attack from behind, but with enough space to maneuver. Once the moment of surprise had passed, they felt in command.
It was then that Tommy spotted a girl with a video camera standing near Lance and Michael, at the edge of the small crowd of onlookers that had materialized out of nowhere. He assumed it was Brandi, but didn't have time to verify it.
The bullies, Jordan, Bart, Dax, and Jackson began to circle around the foursome hurling insults and drawing ever closer. Their potential victims remained calm, but turned the name-calling back on them.
"Hey cocksuckers, you'd better run home to your mommas because we're gonna teach you something about being queers," Bart bragged.
"Yeah? You probably know a lot more about sucking than we do, Johnson. Maybe you could give us some pointers!" Tommy taunted.
"Fuck you, asshole! Your ass is mine."
"Nope, Tanner won't share me with you even if I couldn't feel your tiny boy-dick."
"Shut the fuck up, queer. We're gonna put you in the hospital. You don't have Tim to save you this year."
"We can take care of ourselves, thank you very much." Tommy said confidently.
"Let's cut the bullshit and do this," Jordan ordered. "Lance, you take care of Michael and we'll get the rest.
"Hey, I'm not in this," Lance announced. "You said he was attacking you or I wouldn't be here at all."
"Don't be a fuckin' wuss!" Jordan yelled. "You have to help me take care of these fuckers. Brandi's gonna record you kicking the shit outta that nigger!"
"Let's stop this and all go home before it gets out of hand." Andy said, calmly. "We've got no beef with you, and I don't want to see anyone get hurt."
"Shut up, dick head, you're the one who's gonna be hurting." Jordan snarled.
"His dad's a cop, man. Maybe you'd better leave him out of this." Dax reasoned. "Bart wants Tommy and you want Tanner. The rest will run once we spill a little of their blood."
"If you touch my friends, you'll have to answer to me as well," Andy stated quietly.
"Yeah, like you're a big threat," Jackson laughed.
"If Lance and Michael aren't fighting, I guess four on four's fair, but I have to warn you that you could get hurt." Andy persisted.
"I'm gonna shut your fuckin' cocky mouth! Let's kill some queers for Christ," Jackson snarled, as he hurled his big body toward Andy.
His attack became the signal for Jordan to lunge at Tanner, Dax to rush Devin, and Bart to take a swing at Tommy. In a flash, all four of the attackers found themselves on the ground. It made them all the angrier because their assault had been repelled in front of their girlfriends and other onlookers, several of whom were recording the action on their cell phones. So they got back up in anger to attack again.
Of course, the bullies' uncontrolled rage played into the hands of the disciplined boys whose martial arts training had taught them to keep their cool and turn their opponents' energy against them. The drugs that they'd taken to make them `invincible' were scrambling their brains instead. Things were looking good for our boys, until Jackson pulled a switchblade out of his pocket and lunged toward Andy again. Lance, who up to this point had been an observer, kicked Jackson from behind to distract him. In his fury, Jackson spun around to slash at Lance. That is when Andy delivered a hard kick to Jackson's ribcage, the sound of which could be heard from yards away. Jackson collapsed into a writhing, moaning heap.
By the time the police got there, three of the attackers were howling in pain. They demanded that the officers arrest their would-be victims for starting the fight and causing them grievous injury.
Jordan was sprawled on the ground, but wouldn't give in to the pain.
The cops were going to take them all to the station to sort things out, but it was obvious that at least three of them needed to go to the emergency room first. They called for an ambulance because Jackson was in no condition to be transported in a squad car.
"Hey, aren't you Chris's kid?" one of the officers said to Andy.
"Yeah, I am."
"Can you tell me what happened?"
"Sure. Tommy, Tanner, Michael, Devin, and I were walking home when these four attacked us."
"They're liars!" Bart insisted. "You can't believe him just because his dad's a cop!"
"I saw what happened and I'm the one who called you," Ava spoke up. "That girl, Brandi, who's running away over there made a video of the whole thing. Pictures don't lie!"
The younger officer sprinted after Brandi to get hold of the camera. In her haste, she dropped it and he picked it up. He didn't care whether or not he apprehended her at the moment as long as he got the evidence.
Within seconds another police cruiser pulled up and two more officers jumped out. They weren't really needed for controlling the situation because the ones who wanted to run were currently incapacitated and the other four were not afraid to face the law.
The newly arrived cops began to interview various students, including Lance who told the whole story without whitewashing his brother's involvement. Michael backed up everything he said and boasted about how Lance had intervened when Jackson had pulled the knife. Lance was still standing with his foot on it so that no one could take away that piece of evidence.
Ten minutes later, an ambulance arrived to take Jackson, Bart, and Dax to the hospital. All three were in intense pain from a variety of broken bones. Jordan knew he probably had serious injuries too, but wasn't about to admit it in front of other kids.
"I warned them," Andy shook his head sadly. "We didn't want to hurt anyone. They threatened to put us in the hospital and called us queers and stuff. They even said they'd kill us, but I wouldn't have touched them if they hadn't attacked us."
"Me neither," Tommy said.
"I didn't start anything either, but I'm not sorry to be one of the guys who finished it." Tanner added.
Devin nodded his agreement.
At that point, Tark came running from the school two blocks away because Chris Roberts had called him. Chris's commander had insisted that he not go to the scene because his kid was involved in the fight and it might jeopardize any legal case that could arise from it. Since Chris had to stay away, he knew he could count on Tark to be there for Andy as well as his own sons.
The first thing Tark did was to make sure that the boys were okay. They told him they were fine. Other than for a couple of scratches and a bruise or two, they had escaped almost completely unscathed. One of the medics with the ambulance crew had quickly checked them for fractures.
With a silent prayer of thanksgiving for their safety, Tark then hugged all four of them. The boys were on the verge of tears once the adrenalin had begun to subside, but they managed to keep their composure because of the discipline they'd learned at the Shogun gym. That still didn't subdue all the butterflies in their stomachs. The knowledge that they'd been capable of breaking bones and inflicting severe bodily injury put them in a somber mood.
Tark told the officers that he'd be happy to transport Andy and Devin with his sons to the station to make their formal statements. He offered to take Lance and Michael too if they were needed. He'd rather they didn't have to travel in a police car. The cops had no problem with that because they'd already figured out who had ambushed whom. Common sense told them that it would have been a death-wish for four average sized juniors to have taken on three seniors and a former student who outweighed them by at least 25 to 50 pounds each. In addition, the younger cop had been one of Tark's students and had great respect for him. He would have granted Tark anything in his power to give.
On the way, Tark told Andy how much Chris wanted to be there for him and why he wasn't allowed to be. Andy understood and thanked Tark for being his surrogate father. Sitting next to Lance, Michael observed all the interaction between Tark and the boys and it reinforced the feeling that his coach was someone he could always rely on.
Giving their statements wasn't any big deal for the guys because a couple of the officers had interviewed them in the past and knew them to be truthful. The men even tried to lighten the mood by joking with the boys about being regulars at the station.
"I think you guys should sign up for our frequent customers' rewards program. We offer free soda and bottled water. Can I get anyone anything?" the young officer asked.
All opted for water. That bit of kindness put Lance and Michael more at ease also – kind of like the biblical cup of cold water.
As usual, the boys were interviewed separately and each told almost identical stories without having compared notes. In addition, their statements were corroborated by Michael and Lance as well as the video that Brandi had taken. By the time the boys were finished, the authorities were completely satisfied that they had acted in self defense and said that no charges would be filed against any of them.
Their attackers, however, were going to be charged with a hate crime because they had used racial and sexual slurs. They had all made an unprovoked attack intending to inflict serious bodily harm. Jackson had an extra charge, that of assault with a deadly weapon. And Jordan, in addition to the current charges, had violated the terms of his probation by having contact with his former teammates. He was in the deep doo-doo.
During his questioning, he passed out from the pain of the injuries he'd received and had to be taken to the hospital where they taped up several ribs. Unfortunately for him, they didn't dare give him anything for pain until they determined what drugs were in his body already.
The evening news on TV didn't say much about the afternoon's incident other than to report that there had been a fight among high school students, but that it was off school grounds. It did mention that four students had been hospitalized as a result. None was believed to have life-threatening injuries, but one was in serious condition with a punctured lung.
Devin and Andy ate at Devin's house and the two of them went to the Torrance residence after dinner. The four boys were allowed to be together for the night even though there was school the next day.
For over an hour, they did their best to concentrate on homework before playing a couple of video games in the family room to relax. Tuck hung around close by, and they invited him to join them. He appeared to be in awe of them, just like he often was with Tim.
In the midst of their games, Tim called. He'd been in an exam and then had gone to dinner with Melody. He had turned off his phone during the test and had neglected to turn it on again until they were back at the dorm. Having just read the gist of the story from the boys' text messages, he wanted to talk more with Tommy and Tanner to see how they were feeling.
The two boys shared the phone, as they often did, so things wouldn't have to be repeated. After a minute or so, they switched over to the speaker function so Devin and Andy could be included.
Tim told them all how proud he was that they'd been able to hold their own. When they expressed regret over hurting the other guys badly enough to put them in the hospital, he admonished them not to feel any guilt.
"All four of them, especially Bart, have been spoiling for this for years! I guess I should include Jordan in that. He's had a grudge against Tanner for a long time too. And Jackson had a knife for God's sake!
Dax isn't as bad a dude and probably wouldn't have gotten into trouble on his own. But, he still should have known better! I hope at least the three worst ones get put away for a very long time."
Tim went on to talk about school a bit. So far, his grades had been excellent. He'd been playing intramural soccer and had done well in it too. Things were fine between Melody and him. All was going as planned.
After they ended the call, four boys, who felt suddenly drained, went up stairs to bed with Tuck tagging behind. He didn't go to bed immediately, but stayed up later to give Tori her bottle so Teri could finish grading papers.
Author's notes: Thanks to all who emailed this past week: Tim K, Kevin M, Paul R, Rutabaga, Ott H, Bill T, Roger L, Ori N, Jim C, Bill K, Trish R, Lisa T, Walt S, Wayne, Douglas and Lawrence, Vern U, JTR, Tom A, Steffan F, Paul F, Jim W, and Danny A.
The next is a note from my editor, David:
Please, on your next posting, let everyone know that their prayers and positive energy worked!!! Coco DOES NOT have cancer!! It is a Polyp and is treatable with prednisone and Pepcid!!!!! She is going to be just fine!! The Vet said he would have bet money on it that she was dying. He was so shocked and happy to give us the good news. We have our baby girl around for a few more years for sure!!!
And finally, I suppose the whole world knows by now that the 9th District Court has ruled that California's state law known as Prop 8 (banning same sex marriage) is unconstitutional. Their decision will be appealed, of course, but things are looking up.