Tossed Away Kid - Chapter 18

This is a work of fiction.  Any similarity to anyone in real life is a coincidence.

A special thanks to the Late Ed Wooten for his editorial help.

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I woke up about noon Thursday morning without Danny.  Remembering that Mike and Mark were coming over to go running, I put on a pair of sweats and made my way to the bathroom.  After finishing my business I went into the kitchen for some orange juice.  The house seemed to be empty.  I looked in the back yard and saw Danny and Rick wrestling in the back yard.  I didn’t see Bill anywhere so I assumed that it was just the two of them. 

I walked out the back door quietly and watched them.  They were both laughing and giggling.  Neither one seemed to have an advantage as they rolled in the grass.  My first reaction was happy to see Danny having fun.  Then I was jealous of the fact that I no longer have time to have fun with Danny the way I used to.  Rick finally got the advantage and pinned Danny on his back.  He was holding his arms down over his head and their bodies were in full contact.

‘What’s this?’  Rick seemed to be rubbing his dick up against my best friend and boyfriend.

“I won and now I want a prize,” Rick said with lust in his voice.

“NO, I have a boyfriend.”  ‘God, I love him.’

Rick leaned down and tried to kiss Danny.  Danny turned his head away from his intruding lips and once again told Rick to quit it.

Now I was pissed off at Rick.  I knew I couldn’t let my emotions take control of this situation.  I wanted to kick Rick’s ass but I knew I’d be in big trouble if I did.  I finally decided to make my presence known.  “Rick, I think you better leave.”

Rick released Danny and I could tell he was pissed off at Rick.  I thought for a second he was going to punch him as soon as his arms were free.  The blood left Rick’s dick and went back to his brain when he saw me with fists clenched and fury in my eyes.

“It was nothing, Tommy, we were just having some fun.”

“I’m not stupid, Rick, you were having fun until you took it too far.  Right now I need to talk with Danny.”

He could see the fury in my eyes because Rick didn’t push me.  I really wasn’t in any mood to arrest Rick on sexual assault charges.  This is one of those cases when letting someone go is the best course of action.  I didn’t see Rick fondle Danny and I’m not even sure rubbing up against him is really assault.  However, Danny told him to stop and he didn’t.  This bothered me.

As soon as Rick left I walked up to my shaken boyfriend and took his hand.  I led him to the back porch.  “How long has this been going on?” I asked Danny.

“He’s been getting more and more bold over the last few days, Tommy.  I want and need his friendship but not if he keeps hitting on me.  Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean that I want sex with him.”

“Are you attracted to him?” I said calmly, looking into Danny’s eyes.  He looked at the ground.

“Sure, he’s cute.  But I don’t love him.  I enjoy his company and he’s not bad to look at but I’d never do anything to hurt you, Tommy.  We’ve been through so much already.”

“And we have much more to go through, Danny, and we don’t need Rick making trouble for us.  He needs to understand that he can look all he wants, he just can’t touch.  That is unless you want him to.  I can’t tell you how to live your life, Danny.  Hopefully what you want is also what I want.  We’ve been a team for many years now.  It’s never been you and me.  It’s been we.  I’m not really interested in sharing you sexually with anyone else.  I do feel kind of left out of your life right now, Danny.  I wish there was more time in a day.  The summer is almost over.  We are going to be separated again shortly for an unknown period.  I’m really not looking forward to it.  How do you think we should handle Rick?”

“I don’t feel the same feelings from him that I do from you, Tommy.  If you tried to kiss me and I told you to stop, you would: because you love me.  I think Rick is just horny and wants to experiment.”

“You think we should have your parents talk to his parents?”

“Tell you the truth, Tommy, I think that might cause more problems.  The guy that Rick is really interested in is Bill.  If Rick tried to kiss Bill he’d punch him out.”

“Well, I won’t touch Rick unless you tell me you need help.  And then I’m going to do things by the book, Danny.  I can’t afford to lose my temper.  I’m afraid I might end up hurting him.  I’ve learned how to fight this summer.  But I’ll only use it in defense.  I’m about to go for a run with Mike and Mark.  Why don’t you go see Rick while I’m gone and have a talk with him.”

“That sounds like a good idea.  I’m going to tell him I don’t want to be alone with him anymore.  For now I just don’t trust him.  He is a little bigger and stronger than me and I’d hate to have to fight him off.  It’s usually Bill, Rick, and me anyways.”

“That sounds like a better idea than going to his parents.  I think that would probably end any friendship you have with him.  He might even go telling everyone about us at our new school.  I look at it this way, Danny.  We can be happy together as long as we don’t go rubbing our relationship in people’s faces.  We don’t need to go marching down the street in a gay pride parade to show our love for each other.”

“I’m not looking forward to high school, Tommy.  Having Bill and Rick as friends will help.  I just wish that you were going to be there with me too.”

“I used to be scared of my farther, Danny, but I’m not any more.  I’m a tough kid and I know it now.  Ever since what happened with Jefferson at training I know I can face hate.  I’ve learned that the only way to fight hate is to stand up to it and show that you’re no different than they are.  My father isn’t any better than me.  He’s made his choices and I’ve made mine.  He no longer has anything to say about my life.  In the last two months I’ve been forced to grow up.  The key is to keep control.  I have a loaded gun strapped to my leg.  I’m trained to use it.  I’m also trained to fight.  If I’d  lost control of my emotions and done something to hurt Rick a few minutes ago, I’d be all done.  I have to answer to my superiors for my action.  I’ve been treated as an adult for the last few days and I like it.  Perhaps when this is over I can relax some but I’m afraid that from this point forward I can’t think about myself.  I have to do what is best for both of us, Danny.”

“I hear what you are saying, Tommy, but I have a hard time understanding it.  I know no matter what mistakes I make, my parents will be there to help me.  My life is not in danger.  Decisions I make aren’t going to possibly get someone killed.  Sure I’m worried that you’re going to leave and not come back, but I can’t understand the worry you’re facing.  I know it could happen.  If something happened to my parents I suppose I’d go live with my grandparents.  My biggest decisions right now are stuff like what am I going to wear today.  Let me ask you this, Tommy.  If I had let Rick kiss me and enjoyed it, would you have been mad at me?”

“I could never really be mad at you, Danny.  I know you love me as much as I love you.  I only want you to be happy.  If kissing Rick makes you happy then I’m happy.  If kissing me makes you happy, better still.  I think just seeing you wrestle like we used to all the time made me more jealous than if you had kissed him.  I miss the time we used to be able to spend together.  What upset me was the fact that he was trying to kiss you and was rubbing up against you and you didn’t want him doing that.  I’m not saying that I wouldn’t be hurt seeing you making out with someone else.  But it wouldn’t change the way I feel about you.  If we were just boyfriends I’d probably get upset, but our relationship seems to go way deeper than that.  I can understand your loneliness but you shouldn’t have to put out to have friends.  Besides I don’t think Rick loves you.  He just wants to get in your pants.  He’s in love with Bill.  And Bill’s not interested.  I just want you to be happy, Danny, I love you.”

“I love you too, Tommy, and I think saying you just want to see me happy makes me very happy.”

“Are we interrupting anything?” said Mike, walking onto the back porch with Mark in tow.

“I’ll tell you about it while we are running if it’s okay with Danny.”

“It’s okay with me.  I’ll ask Mom to get some bre’k’-lunch ready for you guys while you’re running.  I’m going to talk to Rick.”

“Thanks, Danny, and good luck.”

While running I told Mike and Mark briefly about what happened earlier.  They both felt I handled it in a very mature manner.  I’ve never really thought of myself as mature.  I sure hope when I’m 16 I don’t regress and have to grow up all over again.  It’s just too hard.  The idea of Danny kissing someone else bothers me more than I admitted to Danny.  I still want to see him happy even if it’s not with me.

We didn’t run more then a mile or two.  It was still early afternoon and well over 90 degrees.  It also felt like it was 100% humidity too.  By the time we got back to Danny’s house we were sweating buckets.  We took turns showering and eating.  Mrs. Smith made us sloppy joes.  We ate about 4 each. 

Danny came back and explained that he was able to salvage his friendship with Rick.  Rick promised to never try anything like that again and agreed not to be alone with Danny.  Rick was scared that I was going to get mad at him and beat him up.  Sure I’m mad at him but I don’t see any real harm done.  If anything it’s drawn Danny and me closer together.  It’s been a long time since we had a real serious discussion. 

Danny made some rude comment about how if he had some competition from me in wrestling he wouldn’t need to wrestle Rick.  This led to us rolling around on the carpet.  Mrs. Smith made us take it outside and I finally got my good morning kiss. 

All too soon we were walking into Sergeant O’Brien’s office to start another night’s work and training.  I think I like the on-the-job training better.  I was quite surprised to see Detective Samuels of the State Police waiting for us.

“Hi, Tommy, Mike, and Mark.  Let me introduce Detective Samuels.”  We all shook hands.  “Tonight I have lots of paperwork lined up.  We need to do background checks on all the people we arrested and wrote tickets in the last two days.  You’ll be using the computers to look through City, State, and FBI records on each of them.  You’ll print out everything you find and put it together in a folder for the district attorney.  It’s boring work for the most part, however, you might find some surprises.”

“Detective Samuels is here to brief you on your upcoming assignment.  Take as much time as you need.  My office is all yours.”  With that Sergeant O’Brien left the office.

“It’s good to finally meet you, Mark and Mike.  Or is it Mike and Mark?  I need to go over the operation the way it stands and get some input from you guys.  We’ve made some preparations already.  I also need to tell what we know already.  I’ll start there.”

“Two years ago the superintendent of your father’s school contacted the State Police.  Apparently he wasn’t satisfied with the response of the City Police Department involving the beating of a student in your father’s school.  The City Police officially closed the case, saying they could find no witness and they believed that it was just some kid who got his butt kicked and didn’t want to seem like a sissy and stated that he was attacked by a group of football players in uniform.  The superintendent was afraid the district was going to get sued by the parents and that’s why they called us.”

“At first I was skeptical.  When I was young I was in the Navy.  I came out of the enlisted men’s club late one night and found a man lying on the ground.  My buddy and me helped him up and walked him with us.  We found out he was a marine.  He told us that he got jumped on by about 10 sailors.  He said he tried to fight them off but they were too much for him.  The next day I saw another friend of mine who had left the club a few minutes before I did.  I asked him if he saw a big fight involving a bunch of sailors and a marine.  He said that he came out of the club and this marine came up to him and started talking shit.  He got tired of hearing him and hit him once and he hit the ground and didn’t get back up.  You see my point.”

“My captain told me to check it out and find out what I could.  First I went to the hospital and found out that my first thoughts were totally wrong.  This boy was severely beaten.  Broken ribs, bruises all over his body, numerous lacerations, and concussion - I was shocked.  Rodney King wasn’t beaten half as bad as this kid.  The doctor felt that the lacerations were from being kicked by shoes that are worn by a football player or baseball player.  The kid almost died.  I did some checking around and the kid never seemed to have bothered anyone.  I talked with his parents and asked them if they knew of any reason why someone would do this to him and they were clueless.  They said he was very active in their religion which is Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints.”

“I called up my captain and told him I felt it was a hate crime.  He gave me permission to throw my whole staff into it.  Over the next several weeks we dug through hospital records of every student in your father’s school.  Searched through the local police records.  Did background checks and interviewed every administrator, teacher, janitor, and foodservice worker in the school.  We interviewed several hundred students.  We felt that a full investigation would scare off anyone from doing something like this again."

“What we found out was this.  This was not the first beating.  There were three others, which happened over the course of the last two years before the latest.  All three were reported to the City Police; however; they had no record in their files.  It seems that the chief of police is a friend of your dad’s.  The hospitals did have complete reports of the beatings.  We talked to every student who was beaten and found out that the same scenario was used every time.  Your father had given all of them detention for some minor offense.  When they left to go home someone wearing football a uniform grabbed them and dragged them into a room with six or seven uniformed football players.  Then without anything being said they were beaten.  Your father is also the head coach of the football team along with being the principal.  When we talked to him he said that he knew nothing about the beatings and if he found anyone involved he’d expel them.

“We didn’t have enough evidence to convict anyone so my captain decided to close the case until something turned up.  We felt that after our major investigation no one would dare try to do anything like this again.  We were wrong!  Last fall my captain called me into his office and told me it happened again.  This time a young man died.  I think I’m a tough guy after years in police work.  I broke down and cried in my captain’s office.  I felt so useless.  I swore that no one else was going to get beaten again.  My captain said he’d help me any way he could.”

“I did some more investigating and was able to get the whole story.  I was right all along.  Someone from the football team sent me a letter explaining my worst fears.  Your father is responsible for all the beatings and has a group from the football team who carried it out.  Your father was seen letting them in the main building just before the young man died.  The gym and locker rooms are in a separate building away from the rest of the school and are locked all day long except the main entrance with a security guard.  The letter said your father unlocked another door.  Unfortunately the letter was anonymous and is not admissible.  All our evidence at this point is circumstantial.”

"My captain isn't exactly the type of officer who would ignore a murder case.  He expects me to solve it.  One afternoon we were discussing the case.  He told me of a new program in Chicago where undercover police officers are recruited from the student body.  This way it's harder to determine who's working undercover.  My captain suggested I contact Captain Wright and see if I could arrange something.  On my way home from work that night your name came over the radio, Tommy, saying that you were en route to the hospital.  I've never been one to believe in destiny, however, I instantly had the feeling that you were meant to solve my case for me."

"After meeting you at the hospital I contacted Captain Wright and explained to him my problem.  That's when he told me about Mike and Mark.  I felt they were perfect because of the experience they already have dealing with bullies.  Also coming from a small town I felt they would fit in better than kids from the inner city.  When Captain Wright described Mark to me I felt he'd be perfect to try to work into the football team.  And I felt Mike would be able to partner up with Tommy.  The next day after getting the full story from Tommy, I went to work.  Since then I've been able to place several undercover police officers within the staff of the high school.  I've made arrangements for the three of you to live.  Mark, you're going to be the rich kid.  You’ll be living in a big house all by yourself.  Or so people will think.  Mike and Tommy will be staying there also.  However, you will ride a bus home and go into a different location before you go over to the house Mark is at.  It's very important that nobody knows the three of you are together.  Mark is going to be playing the role of a bigot, redneck, and football jock.  Mike is going to play the part of your boyfriend, Tommy.  He's going to pretend to be a freshman too.  It looks like you’ve grown about two inches since last time I've seen you, Tommy.  And put on about 30 pounds of bulk."

I hadn't realized just how much I've grown until Detective Samuels said something.  All the exercise and running has helped to bulk me up.

"We suspect as soon as your father finds out you’re in school, Tommy, the rumor mill will go into high gear.  We have been able to arrange your schedule so you and Mike will be together all day long.  We have taken every possible precaution to insure both of your safety.  Because all the beatings have taken place after school hours it will be very easy to have extra police available.  We will only be using state police on this assignment.  From my past experience local police are not be trusted.  You will wear wires, carry guns, and wear bulletproof vests throughout the entire operation.  None of you are scheduled for physical education so you will not have to worry about someone seeing the fact that you are wearing wires and carry guns.  There are no metal detectors at your high school so you won't have to worry about that.  Do you guys have any questions?"

"When do we start?"

"You'll be leaving in two and a half weeks.  Their football camp starts one week before the start of school."

"I hate to complain," replied Mark.  "But I hate football.  I mean I can punt the ball 90 yards.  I can kick field goals from 60 yards.  I can throw the ball 100 yards.  If you set up a tire at the fifty yard line I can hit that tire nine out of 10 times and seven out of 10 times it will go through the tire.  I could probably start for the Lions at six or seven different positions next year.  I also play defense very well.  I can run the 60 yards dash in 4.6 seconds.  I hate football."

"I'm shocked, Mark, it sounds to me like you could play in any college you want."

"I don't really hate football that much, Detective Samuels.  I just love my knees.  It's the same reason I gave up boxing.  I know my abilities and my talents and it doesn't matter to me if anyone else knows them or not.  I'm also smart and I could make more money in sports in one year than I could make as a doctor in ten.  But a doctor is what I want to be.  Do you understand?"

"Of course I do, Mark.  You'd rather help people than hurt people."

"Well, I'm glad you understand."

"You guys have any other questions?"

We talked for a few more minutes and just generally got to know each other better.  Then Detective Samuels left and we went to work on our assignment for the evening.  It was very interesting work too.  We found that many of the johns had previous sex offenses.  Many of the clerks have also had other minor offenses on their record.  We ordered a pizza for dinner, which was very enjoyable.  After staring at a computer screen for seven hours I was very happy to be able to go home.  Just two more nights and I'll have two days off to spend with Danny.  Danny's birthday is just two weeks away and I'm going to try to plan something special.