Disclaimer: The usual rules apply here. If you aren't legal in your area to be reading material(non erotic, mind you) about homosexuals and the activities they may or may not participate in, then please don't read. This story has been copyrighted and is not to be used elsewhere in any way without the express permission of the author (that would be me). For everyone else, enjoy!
Wayward People
Chapter Twenty Three-"17 Ways to Go from Bad to Worse"
Who the hell cared about turning 17 anyway?
You officially become a teen at 13.
Could get your permit at 15.
Could drive and get a job at 16.
17?
Officially were legal at 18.
Finally out of your teen years at 20.
And finally a real adult at 21.
But 17?
All those years, and yet, 17 was the least important one among them.
I never really cared about any of my birthdays, truthfully.
Since I wasn't needy, I didn't really care about the presents.
I'd be happy with a lifetime supply of pens, paper, and notebooks.
At least, I would have been happy......
And then I never really had any friends to invite to sleep over or come to a birthday party or anything like that, so I never really had much to get excited about.
A birthday was just always another day to me.
I hadn't done much thinking about my birthday while Pete was alive, but if he was, things would be a lot different right now.
I'd most likely be looking forward to spending my birthday with him and wondering what he was going to get me.
But.......he wasn't alive.
So, like usual when it came to my birthday, I just didn't care.
The fact that my grandparents had seemingly been so okay with me being gay had caused me to be able to sleep a little easier.
I was happy to finally get at least one good nights sleep.
If there was a God, which I wasn't so sure there was one anymore, then he at least knew that I could have used the sleep.
But me being back at home and getting a good nights sleep meant waking up at my old times again.
And whenever I had awoke on schedule, so had Troy.
And like another routine, we each walked out of our rooms and stood staring at each other.
I wasn't sure what to do for some reason.
This felt...weird.
Even though I was supposed to be angry with Troy, I still had that faint attraction to him.
Even while I was with Pete I couldn't seem to get rid of the feeling.
And now I was being forced to face the feeling again.
And that was why this was so weird.
I started towards to towel closet in a hurry.
I was gonna avoid all of this by just rushing into the restroom so that I wouldn't have to talk to him.
Apparently, he'd had the same idea because he rushed towards it as well, forcing the both of us to stop once we met up at it.
"Wanna get out of my way? I was here first," I spoke.
"Says who?" Troy asked.
I let out an annoyed sigh and rolled my eyes.
Now?
Now he wanted to be Troy?
Troy was an emotion all on its own.
First came Troy the emotion. Then came Troy the person.
Combine the two and.....
Troy and I just stared at each other for a little while before he sighed.
"Why don't you care about anything anymore?" he asked. "I mean, I don't care-"
"That's just it, you DON'T care," I replied. "Which is exactly why I know more about my worst enemy than I do you."
"Mike-"
"Three seconds ago I asked you to move," I said. "Are we gonna be here all day?"
I guess my foul mood was contagious because a frown grew on Troy's face.
"Don't be like this Mike," Troy replied. "You don't know what I can get like when people-"
"What Troy? When people what?"
Troy didn't respond.
We were just staring at each other before all of a sudden, the door to the bathroom opened and out came Gramps.
"Oh, you two are up?" he spoke.
He was holding a newspaper in one hand and had his reading glasses on.
I hadn't even noticed the bathroom was already occupied.
"If you were waiting to get in there, you might wanna grab a bottle of Febreeze or something," Gramps replied, before heading towards the stairs.
I looked over at Troy.
"After you," I said.
"Nah," Troy replied. "Didn't need to shower that badly anyway."
I wanted to say that breakfast was just breakfast as usual, but with my grandparents not only being there but knowing about me as well, things were...kinda like dinner the previous night.
I'd always known that my grandparents were cool people but I'd never really realized that they could also be quite eccentric.
They had their quirks, which I admired for some reason.
Because lately, I wasn't really a big fan of `quirks'.
"Left Janet, left," Shannon spoke. "No, I said left."
I stood kinda sorta watching as Shannon tried to get Janet to help her hang something in her locker.
Janet really only knew how to do two things well.
Be a bitch to anyone who wasn't popular.
And provide....'relief' to any and every willing guy, as long as he was hot of course.
Poor thing.
The doctor probably slapped the wrong end when she came out....
"Ugh, just here, I'll do it," Shannon sighed with anger.
"Why're you being such a bitch?" Janet asked.
"Didn't we learn how to tell the left from the right back in the fourth grade?" Shannon mumbled.
Oh my god, why was I hanging with these people.
All I had to do was think back to this morning's encounter with Troy to remember.
Right.
Because misery loves company.
"Dude I so failed that test yesterday it's not even funny," Evan sighed.
He was slouched against the row of lockers behind him.
As I quickly discovered, that's all these so called `glamorous' popular kids did.
It was nothing like the lives of the kids on shows like O.C., which I'd seen a couple of times.
Basically, they didn't seem all that exciting at all.
Which made me wonder, who exactly was more boring?
Me before?
Or them now?
"Did you already get it back man?" Clark asked.
"No," Evan replied. "But my parents won't let me fail anything else and you already know Principal Clownass is still watching my every move."
That's pretty much what happens when you punch your principal in the face.
He was lucky he hadn't been expelled.
"They spend my whole life out of town most days of the week, and now all of a sudden it's like they're here twenty four seven," Evan sighed.
Kind of reminded me of how I felt after my parents first found out that I was gay.
Which I had Evan to thank for.
Thanks, ass!
"Is winter not just the most boring season ever?" Janet sighed. "I mean the snow is too cold to play in, and the air is too cold to stand in."
And aren't you all just the most boring people ever?
"Janet, you don't do anything when it's summer," Shannon replied.
These may have been the popular kids, but this was still Wayward, Nevada.
They didn't spend their free-time shopping at the mall, or going to movies all the time.
Actually, I don't know how they spent their time.
After school I pretty much said `adios' to them and went on my way.
8 hours of them was enough.
"Yeah well no one's got anything going on, so you pretty much have to get used to it," Clark replied. "Besides, it'll be spring in like a month and a half anyway."
To me, it was a new season when it felt like a new season outdoors.
Not when Mr. Inaccurate weather man told me so.
I had something going on this weekend.
A birthday party I was supposed to be inviting people to.
Part of me wanted to bring it up to Evan and his friends just so that they'd show up to make Max and Troy angry.
But like I said, there was only so much of them I could take.
And half of them didn't seem to know their right from their left anyway.....
"Well, we'll think of something," Evan sighed.
Since when did this place turn into party central?
My mom wanted a party.
My frien....er, these people I was standing with wanted a party.
I DIDN'T want a party.
But hey, who asked me right?
That was exactly it.
No one asks me anything.
Did anyone ask me if I wanted my room torn apart and my private journal read?
Did anyone ask me if I was ready for my boyfriend to die?
Did anyone ask me if I wanted a 17th birthday party?
No!
And yet they wondered why I had an attitude problem....
"Ugh, well we'd better get to class," Evan started, getting off of the lockers. "Don't wanna add was late to class of my list of offenses."
He might as well.
He already had a permanent condo in hell waiting for him.
I fell in line next to Evan, Clark on the other side of me.
Evan had all but abandoned poor little Andrew, but I didn't give a damn considering he was just a lackey anyway.
Oh.
But I'd see Troy in there.
After the awkwardness of this morning, that was the last thing I was looking forward to.
Class today had been mellow thus far.
I'd gone as far as thinking that Paul was just feeling under the weather.
That had to be it considering he was always so upbeat.
I probably would have even liked Paul, if I liked anyone at all lately.
But, no one was getting any special treatment or attention from me anymore and that was just something that they were going to have to deal with.
"Okay, so let's talk about the unstable economic growth rate of America," Paul started, taking a seat on the corner of his desk. "What do you think America would be willing to do to increase more stability?"
"Get rid of all the homeless people for starters," Clark spoke up. "Those hobo's downtown, whenever I go-"
"Which is never so shut up," Evan cut in.
"No you shut up-"
"Guys, come on, I don't know about the two of you, but the rest of us are trying to have an intelligent conversation here."
Clark and Evan settled down.
"Alright, so you were saying Clark?"
"Well," Clark started again, straightening himself up. "It's like...they're just lazy or something and can't get a job."
"And what about the kids?" Paul asked.
"Kids?"
"There are homeless kids," Paul replied. "I've seen some."
"Well yeah, but those are just runaways," Clark replied.
Paul paused for a moment and stood up.
"Runaways, huh?"
He walked a short distance back and forward before turning towards the class.
"Honestly, I can't say for sure what possesses a teen to want to run away from home," Paul replied. "But obviously the title `runaway' is implying that their running from something."
"Yeah, their own B.O." Clark laughed along with most of the rest of the class.
I met a homeless guy once.
Didn't I? Okay...yeah...that happened, almost forgot.
As far as I could tell, which I couldn't, he hadn't smelled at all.
"What about runaways from other countries?" Paul asked. "Before you go knocking a runaway, keep in mind a lot of them feel like they have no other choice. I sympathize with a lot of their situations."
There was silence.
He was getting deep on us.
"Yeah well at the end of the day, they'll still be calling the bridge under the freeway home," Clark replied, causing more laughter.
After that was said the bell had rang.
I got up and grabbed my stuff along with Evan.
"What's with all the hobo talk?" Evan asked. "I don't feel like I got my learn on or anything."
"That's because there was no fun game to go along with it," I replied.
"Gee how I miss those," Evan laughed along with me.
I liked his sarcasm and dry humor.
I guess that was the only thing I could say I liked about him.
When it wasn't directed towards myself of course.
I didn't even bother with Troy anymore.
In fact, I couldn't get away from him fast enough, which is exactly what I did as Clark, Evan, and I all walked out of the room.
Troy stood up slowly, putting his backpack over his shoulders.
"Bless you," Troy spoke, after Paul had sneezed.
"Thanks," Paul replied.
"Hey uh...did you really mean what you said about runaways?" Troy asked. "About sympathizing with them?"
"I may think there are other answers, but a teen is still just a teenager," Paul replied. "They shouldn't be forced into a situation where they think living on the streets or running away from home is the answer."
Troy just stared at Paul, thinking.
"I may be jumping to conclusions here, but was there something you wanted to get off your chest?" Paul asked. "Something you wanted to say about this."
For a moment, Troy almost considered it.
But he just straightened up his backpack and put on a slight smile.
"Nah," he replied. "I'm okay."
"Well like I said, I'm around, you know," Paul replied, smiling back.
"I know," Troy replied.
And that was one of the things he liked about him.
Okay so I already had all my math out of the way.
I could take calculus next year.
And I could take English 4AP.
That would put me right at a-
"So why didn't you tell us you were having a party Mike?" Janet, who was suddenly in my face and in my way, asked.
Why couldn't the girl let me be?
Could she not see that I was busy doing something?
Stupid girl.
"What? You're having a party man?" Clark asked.
Why were they acting like they cared?
People here didn't have or go to parties all the time like they might have done somewhere else.
Really, this should be as foreign to them as it was to me.
I looked around the table to notice that everyone was staring at me.
And who told them anyway?
Troy?
Max?
"How did you-"
"Your brothers are already inviting people," Janet asked. "Unpopular people. Popular people are always the first people asked to things."
Says who?
You'd almost swear she was getting all of her erratic behavior and inconsistencies out of Airhead Monthly.
And they were still staring at me.
"Invite?" Janet asked.
Evan leaned over to my ear.
"Look, I know we haven't had the best....past and all, but if you just wanna invite me..."
No I didn't want to invite anyone because I didn't want to have this damn party!
I didn't want some poor excuse for a `let me try to get back in good standing with my son because I stole his personal journal and had a little look-see, finding out something I really had no business knowing' party.
I didn't want anything from THEM.
I wondered how my parents would feel about my not showing up to my own birthday party.
Which I would have considered doing had my grandparents not flown all the way out here just to attend.
"Look, I don't think..." I started, talking to everyone.
"Do you need me to bring anything? Like punch or cookies or-"
"No," I replied. "I think my mom's taking care of all that."
I just said it to shut her up.
I actually was starting to get a headache over how out of hand this was all getting.
And believe me, this was getting out of hand, and fast.
I didn't want these people at my party.
And I didn't want the damn party period!
"Cool, finally somebody's having a party," Clark spoke sitting back in his seat like he'd accomplished some great feat.
Evan was looking over at me like he understood me or something and the girls were looking over at me like I was suddenly the hottest guy in school.
So this was what I used to pine over.
For all intensive purposes, because of this party, I was now the most popular guy in school.
I didn't like all this attention.
Not like this anyway.
I looked over to where Troy was sitting with Sienna and a few other people laughing and actually looking like they were happy.
For a moment, I found myself envying their happiness.
I wondered whether or not I was gonna have that again.
"So about this party-"
Yeah about this party.....
"Wish list aplenty," my mother spoke. "Everything's coming together quite nicely."
She zoomed past Max, Troy and I coming home looking like she was trying to do a million things a minute.
"Now where's my Oprah?" Nana spoke from the living room. "Why can't you get Tivo like all the other young people these days?"
Nana had Tivo?
"I put in a tape for you Linda, don't you see it?" my mom called from the dinning room.
Nana was looking over our remote like it was older than she was.
"I'm used to more complicated extremes," she replied. "I told you we should have talked to the caterers tomorrow."
So high tech and hip.
I loved my grandparents.
"I could download it for you Nana," Max spoke, taking a seat next to here. "But keep it on the DL cuz it isn't exactly legal."
"Well," Nana started reaching into her pocket and taking out a twenty and handing it to Max. "You be a dear and do that for me, will you Maxwell?"
"Sure Nana." Max spoke standing up.
Now what could I do to earn twenty bucks?
"Oh so come over here and tell me how your day went boys," Nana called out to Troy and I.
Troy and I exchanged glances before joining my grandmother on the couch.
This certainly had awkward written all over it.
My mother and probably even Grandmother were expecting me to at least have some idea what Troy had done and vice versa, considering we shared the same classes.
But we didn't exactly talk to each other anymore.
"So, how was class?" Nana asked with a warm smile on her face.
Ugh.
I so hated to disappoint her.
"It was okay," I replied.
"Yeah it was...it was okay," Troy added so as not to be left out of the conversation.
Nana looked the two of us over.
Why was Troy's elbow stabbing me in the side?
I gently but not so gently nudged him away from me, which caused him to stumble a little.
Served his ass right!
"Alright what's going on with the two of you?" Nana asked.
I watched as Troy straightened himself out before responding.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"You guys aren't getting along?"
I looked over at Troy.
Was Troy still a lying jackass?
"We just had a little misunderstanding at school today," I replied.
"Oh well that's unfortunate," Nana replied. "You can lose friends if you hold grudges though, and neither of you want that do you?"
Troy could go shovel some Canadian snow for all I cared.
"I'll keep that in mind Nana," I replied standing in up.
Yeah, I'd keep the grudge part in mind.
People with grudges also made voodoo dolls.
I wonder if those things work...
"Oh Michael honey, did you manage to make a list of potential guests for your party?" my mom asked from the dining room.
Oh. For the party she STILL had yet to ask if I even wanted to have.
"Oh just....a few people," I replied.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell her `Evan and his friends' yet.
"Okay, well you can tell me who later," she replied.
Yeah, or not.
Yikes.
Parties.....
"Okay so a few people from the hospital are coming, and a few others from the church, of course Reverend Thomas," my mother started.
She had this rule we weren't supposed to do other things at the dinner table like watch television or read a magazine.
Yet tonight she was so busy planning the party that she hadn't even touched her food yet.
She was writing down all kinds of things.
She was bending a lot of rules lately.
Like the one about letting her gay son stay under her house in a community like this.
I guess that's what you did when you felt guilty about something.
"Boys who did you all invite?" she asked.
I looked over at Troy and Max.
I was interested to see who they had invited.
And to see which one of them told the biggest gossip in school I was having a party!
"Oh well I just invited Sadie," Max replied. "And a few guys from the swim team."
"Yeah and I just invited Sienna," Troy replied.
I guess that was about when everyone looked over at me.
Oh yeah, they were waiting on me to speak up.
Okay...
"Let's see, Janet Elrod, Shannon Murdock, Clark Forrester, a few of their friends and Andrew and Evan."
I think I heard my parent's forks drop.
This was news to them.
So far, neither of them knew I'd been spending my time with the very guy who forced me to come out to my parent's, among other transgressions.
They probably figured I'd be a future suspect in his murder. The last thing they figured was that I'd invite him to my birthday party.
"Um did you say-"
"Is that the little fucker you said picks on you at school?" Gramps cut in.
"Dad," my dad spoke.
"What?" Gramps asked. "I'm just saying."
"Michael, honey, why would you invite him to your party?" my mom asked in a sympathetic voice.
For some reason that notion pissed me off.
"Oh but mom don't you remember? It was you that said not to ostracize him at school," I replied.
Yes I was throwing that back in her face.
And she deserved it.
"But Michael-"
"Oh no it's okay Evelyn," my dad cut in. "You don't have to worry. I'm not letting him come."
And then he went back to eating his food like he hadn't just said something to piss me off further.
"What?" I asked.
"You heard me," my dad replied. "That little crazy kid isn't invited. So you just need to tell him-"
"No," I replied.
No?!
This was my party right?
My unwanted party, my guests. Simple as that.
"Mike-"
"It's my party," I replied. "I'll invite who I want."
"No you won't," my dad replied, sounding like he was really ready to challenge me on this.
"Then I won't show up," I replied.
Come on.
I was just waiting for them to kick me out again.
I had Reverend Thomas's number on speed dial.
Well, not really, but I could live in his house and he'd never know I was there.
Then my dad did something I wasn't expecting.
He just put on a smile and shook his head.
"Alright Mike, you wanna invite that kid, go ahead," he replied.
"What?" my mom spoke, looking over at him.
Yeah....what?
He was looking at me while chewing his food waiting for me to say something.
It suddenly occurred to me that the last thing he probably wanted to do was throw me out of the house.
He was willing to compromise with me because of that.
And that scared me a little.
I was used to hating my parents.
It was what I was good at now.
And them being so nice to me.....I'd thought that they were trying to buy my love back...but now...
I don't know.
I was still confused.
And I wasn't about to start liking either of them again.
But at least I saw them in a new light.
"Uh....okay," my mother started, sounding a little thrown off. "I guess I have a few more names to add then."
Yeah I guess she did.
And I guess this officially meant that I had decided that I did want this party.
"My mom said she'd make me a dress for the party," Janet spoke.
"Your mom always makes the cutest outfits," Shannon spoke.
Ugh god.
Me wanting to die was only a metaphor compared to how I was feeling now.
Anyone have a gun?
"This party? Do we need to like...bring a gift?" Clark asked.
Yes cheapskate. That's pretty much the invitation to a birthday party. Showing up with a gift and all.
I didn't care either way.
Be cheap.
See if I care.
"Yes dumbass," Evan replied, putting his arm around my shoulders. "My boy Mike here wants all the presents he can get, right Mike?"
I looked over at him.
Did he just need to touch everyone that badly?
He was always doing that.
"Could you," I started, moving Evan's arm. "Get off me please?"
Evan grinned and turned around to look into his locker.
"Everybody's looking forward to this party," Shannon spoke.
"Yeah, everyone," Janet replied.
Wait a sec...
Who exactly was...'everyone'?
"Everyone?" I asked.
"Well yeah," Shannon replied. "You didn't think we were the only people coming did you?"
I looked around at everyone who were all suddenly a lot quieter.
"Who all did you invite?"
No one answered me.
And that pretty much told me all I needed to know.
They were never ever going to be invited to anything else. Ever.
"Well don't think too much about it," Evan replied. "A party is still a party."
No this was a birthday party.
And who did they invite?
"Well we should get to class," Janet started. "Meg Shepard came to school with pigtails. Pigtails!"
Shannon and Janet walked off giggling something like the silly little girls they were, leaving us guys alone again.
It was like they could almost swear they were from L.A. or something.
"Don't worry about it Mike," Evan started, reaching to put his arm around my shoulder but thinking twice after I flashed him an evil glare. "More people equals a better party."
Again, they were acting like they'd been to plenty of parties to compare this one to.
Was I the only one who had a headache with all this party talk?
I decided to try something.
Something called getting away while I still could.
I started walking away, under the strange assumption that I was my own person and could walk myself to class.
But once the rest of them caught up to me, I realized that I was silly in thinking that they, like the drones they were, were going to let me go anywhere on my own.
"So do you think Paul is gonna talk about some more homeless people today?" Clark asked. "I mean, cuz if he was looking to argue I could've went all day."
Which was completely true considering that Clark was also on the debate team.
How he got away with that and was still popular, I would never understand.
"Man did you hear that loser?" Evan asked. "He probably lives in his car or something."
Maybe.
Teachers didn't make much money these days.
Paul was a nice guy.
He just wasn't Mr. Jacobs.
And I wasn't a nice person lately, so I wasn't in the mood to defend someone that was.
"I don't know, I just hope the guy isn't wearing another one of those tight homo shirts again," Andrew laughed, hoping to fit in.
All of us looked over at him.
"It's called tucking in a shirt dumbass," Evan replied. "God, why don't you just find some band geek to talk to or something?"
Andrew stopped walking along with the rest of us in the middle of the hallway.
I noticed it but Clark and Evan hadn't.
In fact, I don't even think that they cared.
I looked back at him.
He looked a little hurt. Maybe even a little lonely.
What did he expect out of being best friends with Evan Parker?
That's how I knew I definitely didn't want to be his friend, everything else we'd been through notwithstanding.
Being friends with Evan Parker would be like killing yourself without actually being dead.
Which is exactly what I'm sure Andrew felt inside right about now, not having his popular best friend liking him very much right now.
So even though I knew that I wasn't friends with these people, they all seemed to think that I was.
I didn't care though.
I was still hanging with them, which as much as I hated to admit was becoming oddly comfortable.
It became especially comfortable when I didn't have to put up with hearing Sienna, Troy or Max's whining.
Lord knows they did enough of that.
"And this, children, is what we'd call an unnatural species bond," Sienna spoke, arms crossed, standing side by side with my brother and Sadie.
"Oh hun, didn't we break up?" Evan replied, turning around. "I signed the divorce papers and all. I believe you now have to stay ten feet away from me at all times. Unless you wanna reconcile?"
"Save it," Sienna spoke. "I'm not here for you. I came to talk to Mike."
I looked over at my brother who had this concerned look on his face.
"Mike, what are you doing?" he asked. "I mean, I thought you'd be over this by now."
This?
What was `this' supposed to be?
And why was I supposed to be over it?
"You two might have made the stupidest decisions of your life cutting off ties with me but that doesn't mean Mike is quite as stupid," Evan replied.
I wasn't sure what to say.
I didn't particularly like any of them, so who exactly was I supposed to be siding with?
"Come on Mike, don't you remember what he did to you?" Max asked.
"Which wouldn't have been possible at all without your brown nosing," Evan replied. "But that's water under the bridge now right, Mike?"
Evan was right.
If Max hadn't given Evan the ammo he needed to harm me, he wouldn't have done it.
And as for Sienna, I still hated that she was too stupid, just like me, to see that her best friend was dying.
And now that he was gone....she....was fine?
I didn't get that.
And I didn't like it either.
Evan and co may have been a bunch of pathetic assholes, but at least they were assholes that didn't let people die.
"You know what?" I started. "Why don't you find your own way home? I have plans."
Well...I had plans now at least.
I just didn't feel like being around them at the moment.
"What...Mike you're supposed to-"
"Wrong," I cut him off. "You keep forgetting that I don't have to do anything. I do exactly what I want now."
"Right on," Evan spoke, giving Clark a high five.
I guess this male empowerment thing excited them or something.
I was just too upset to care.
And I meant what I said.
I was going to do exactly whatever each individual moment possessed me to feel like doing.
Everybody else could just....well....I didn't care.
"Come on guys," I spoke, shutting my locker and taking off.
"Later," Evan spoke. "Make sure to tell your mom not to wait up for brother dearest."
"Jackass," Max mumbled.
I'd heard that but I didn't know if he'd meant me or Evan.
Maybe it was both.
"And the punch bowls are over there," my mother spoke, greeting a few people at the door.
The more-than-likely-spiked-by-now punch bowls, sure.
But man when the popular kids started flapping those rumor telling gums of theirs, people listened.
There had to be nearly a hundred people here to which I could easily attest to knowing exactly no more than 15 of them personally.
Everyone else was just a face in a crowd.
"Seriously, you know how much liquor I would've brought if I'd known it be this many girls here," Clark spoke looking around.
I'd file that under the too much information category.
"Just go and get it done already," Evan mumbled.
"Wait what is he-"
"We made a bet," Evan replied over the music. "To see who could get the most numbers."
And I'd file that under the Obviously Over Sienna category.
I guess guys did bounce back faster.
The two of us sat there for a few moments after Clark left just looking around.
I suppose if I had to admit it, my mom had done a pretty good job getting this all together.
Of course, I wasn't surprised as she pretty much had the party planning thing nailed down to perfection.
My grandparents found it all amusing, but they actually had the d.j. start a rap song I was unfamiliar with and started dirty dancing.
Cool most of the time, but that wasn't one of the times.
You'd think they'd be too old anyway.
But so far things were okay.
I didn't really know where Sienna, Max or Troy were and I wanted to say I didn't care, but when you spend most of your time around people like Evan, you start to miss things and certain people.
Not that I was definitively admitting to anything like that.
It was just an observation
"Oh Evan," Sienna spoke with a wide smile.
Now, seeing Sienna wasn't the shock.
But seeing who she was with was the real shock.
"What the hell is this shit?" Evan asked, looking her over.
"I believe you know Troy already, Evan," Sienna replied. "You know? My boyfriend?"
I wasn't sure, but I could almost swear that Evan was glaring at Troy like he wanted to beat him down.
It was a different `I wanna beat you down' look than the one he usually flashed Troy.
And I thought that whole thing was just pretend anyway.
And now they were saying it was real?
What was wrong with her?
Them?
"What's going on?" I asked jumping up.
"What Mike?" Sienna asked, in a faux sweet voice.
I looked over at Troy for some sort of explanation but I should have known better by now, as he was unreadable whenever he wanted to be, which was pretty much all of the time.
I was getting angry and I didn't know why.
I wanted to tear into him right then and there.
And I might even have.
Had one of my school teachers not come up and interrupt things.
"Oh hey Mike, Evan," Paul spoke. "Happy birthday by the way."
Why was he here at my party?
My mom didn't know him. So she wouldn't have invited him.
"Um, I'm sorry....who invited you?" I asked.
"I-"
"I did," Troy spoke up. "I had to stay after class to take a test and got out and you already left. Without me."
Well in my defense I'd also left my own brother as well, but they both found their way home.
"Paul gave me a lift home," Troy added.
I looked over at Paul.
I wasn't sure how much I'd liked him before, but staring at him just then I felt like I hated him for some reason.
I hated that Troy was still pretending to be Sienna's boyfriend.
And I hated that Paul had given Troy a ride home.
And I hated that I hated that stuff.
It was such stupid stuff, really.
So why did it all make me so angry?
"You weren't the one that brought the books were you?" Evan asked. "No one wants books, but that's such a teacher thing to do."
"I'm more a believer in getting what you want," Paul replied. "You like cash right?"
Why was he here?
Why had Troy invited him?
Why did he have to be such a good looking man?
Why did he have to be my teacher?
Why did I hate him so much?
"Uh, hello in there..." Sienna spoke. "Earth to Mike...."
I looked over at her.
And why did she have to have her arm wrapped around Troy like she did?
"Um, everyone, if I could have your attention up here for just a few moments," my mother started on stage.
The music was dialed down and everyone got quiet as they turned to the front.
I had a lot of questions.
"First off, I'd just like to thank you all for coming tonight despite the weather conditions outside," mom continued. "I know we'd all like to keep frostbite away."
Why did I have questions?
"Well, seventeen years ago, I had....a most wonderful blessing from God bestowed upon me. A child."
Troy....he didn't say much.
"Michael was my firstborn, my....joy in life," she continued. "I know that we haven't had the most fulfilling of relationships, especially lately, but the fact that God has blessed him to be with me for seventeen years already...well for that I'm very thankful."
People only have questions when they don't know the answers. And I didn't know the answers because of Troy.
"Michael hasn't been the most outgoing of my two sons, but the gifts that he does possess....those....they are the things that make him truly special."
I didn't know anything about Troy because Troy had decided not to tell me anything.
And that was supposed to be the end of it?
Says who?
"I know you may not agree, but I really do love you Michael."
He was getting away with it.
Excuse me if I wanted to know the basics.
Everyone wanted to know the basics.
He didn't tell me.
Didn't anything with me.
But first chance he gets he's playing pretend boyfriend to Sienna and inviting the sexy evil teacher to MY party?
Who did he think he was?
"What part of Canada are you from Troy?" I asked.
Mike, Sienna and Evan looked over at me.
"What?"
"Ontario? British Columbia?"
Troy looked around.
"Mike I don't think-"
"No you're always thinking Troy," I cut him off. "And planning. That's why nobody knows anything about you. Because you planned it out that way."
"Mike-"
"What else is there about you we should know?" I asked. "I mean, I don't even know if you're into guys or girls."
My voice was growing louder, drowning out my mother on stage, and for that reason, everyone had started to focus their attention on me.
"Mike, you're just upset about Pete-"
"Fuck yeah I'm upset about Pete!" I shouted.
Quite a few people gasped and there were now whispers aplenty.
Troy looked like he was growing just as upset as I was.
"You don't wanna say something-"
"I'll regret?" I finished for him. "I think I'm a little past that, don't you?"
"Mike-"
"So what's your real name? Alex or-"
"Mike, stop!"
He out his hand on my shoulder, kind of forcefully.
I don't know what happened but I snapped.
I pulled back and punched Troy with everything I had.
I was upset.
I jumped on top of him and tried for another punch, but Troy punched me off of him and held me down.
It was almost like he knew what he was doing.
Something else I didn't know about him.
"Okay, break it up, break it up!" Gramps spoke, pulling Troy off of me, while my dad pulled me back.
"Gee this is kinda familiar looking," Evan mumbled. "Sans the liquor and the principal."
Some birthday.
Surrounded by a bunch of people I didn't want to be surrounded by.
Listening to lies I didn't want to listen to.
See what I meant about birthdays?
There was absolutely nothing at all good about turning 17.
"If I'da known you could punch like that I mighta got you started on some boxing or something," Gramps spoke. "That's a sport you could do."
"Dad," my dad spoke.
"What? I'm just saying," Gramps replied.
Nothing good about turning 17 at all. YahooGroup (w/ advanced chapters of the story): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JoJoPresents-GayFiction/
Personal email: crossingboi2004@yahoo.com
Copyright 2005