So much for a fresh start.
7
If Piers had meant what he had said, that evening, about us having a fresh start… If Rebecca hadn’t tricked me into making me look stupid… Right now, Mrs Price would, no doubt, be shouting at one of us for handing in a below par homework assignment. As it is, she’s just sat there, looking mortified at what she’s just done. Rebecca is still sniffling away in the corner of the room and Piers is still bleeding as he deserves to.
“Have another little think,” I said to Piers as I went back to the front of the classroom, “and we’ll have another chat in a bit,” I said. Back at the front of the class, I turned to Ben Griffin and Daniel Gordon. Two of Piers’ closest friends. Unlike the physical violence Piers liked to dish out, these two were too weak to do much damage, like that. Instead they preferred the tried and tested method of name-calling. Whoever said ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me’ clearly hasn’t been on the receiving end of people who spend the vast majority of their time using hateful words. I’ve lost count of the amount of times, in my short time in this school, where I’ve been on the receiving end of a bout of name-calling from these two narrow minded little pricks. It’s stupid of me, and others, to get hurt by it but… You hear something enough times and you start to believe it. It wears you down. “Ben and Daniel, can you come to the front of the class please?” I’m not sure why I said ‘please’. I don’t need to say things like that anymore. I don’t need to be polite. I’m the one in charge. It wasn’t a friendly request. It was an order.
They looked at each other, unsure whether they should or not. A quick glance at Piers, who was barely conscious from the last pistol whipping he received, and the two of them stood up; neither of them wanting to be on the receiving end of that kind of brutality. I wonder, had they known what was coming their way… I wonder whether they’d still have chosen to stand up. I smiled. Slowly they came forward. Both of them were tall individuals. Both with dark hair. Both with dark brown eyes. Same size, width-wise, too. You’d be forgiven for thinking they were brothers.
“Do you remember when David told you about Ben and Daniel?” I asked Mrs Price. She didn’t answer. How rude. “Do you remember he reported that they kept calling him names? I remember. He told you how it upset him and how he didn’t like it. He asked for your help and you told him not to be so silly. It was, after all, just name-calling. Which, by the way, is still bullying. Do you remember?”
“Yes,” she nodded.
“We were just playing around,” said Ben.
“Oh, well, that’s okay then… Please, take a seat…” I said. My sarcasm slipping out again. Ben, foolishly, went to move back to his seat at the back of the class, “Don’t you fucking move,” I hissed. He froze on the spot. Good lad. Not as stupid as he appears. “Tell me, what did you call David when you were playing around?” I asked. Neither of them answered. Maybe they’ve forgotten. “Faggot. Queer. Beaver-leaver. Homo. Gay. Gayboy. Rimmer… Just a few of the names…”
“We were just playing…”
“You knew it upset him. You knew he didn’t see it as playing.”
“We’re sorry,” said Daniel.
“Too late.” I tried not to show glee as they both looked as though they were about to cry. “Well… I suppose… We could kiss and make up…” They didn’t say anything. They just looked at one another hoping one of them would understand what I was talking about. They turned back to me with blank expressions on their faces. There was a pause. “Come on then, kiss and make up…”
After the video that Piers took on his mobile phone, was emailed to — as it turned out — everyone who subscribed to the school’s digital magazine, which was run by the students, it was Daniel and Ben who started the rumour that I was a peodophile. It was them who stated the whole video couldn’t be shown because it showed Rebecca’s younger sister dancing for me in her underwear. They admitted that was a lie when the police were involved but not so everyone could hear — only the officers, my mum and Rebecca’s parents. Rebecca denied being in the room at the time; her denial helped by the fact that the sound was muted with dodgy ‘porn’ music edited over it. Ben and Daniel never did apologise for the trouble it landed me in. It didn’t help that David was sulking with me too. He had warned me not to go and felt that I should have trusted what he said.
“I don’t understand,” said Daniel.
“Let me spell it out to you,” I said. “I want you to kiss Ben.”
Daniel looked down to the gun, in my hand, and then over to Piers at the back of the room. He turned to Ben and leant forward. After he closed his eyes he gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Well,” I said, “that was very sweet but… I think you can do better than that. Kiss him like you mean it. I want to see tongues. You know… Because I’m such a faggot.”
“We didn’t mean it!” said Ben; a look of panic on his face and his voice shaking. “Please… We didn’t mean it. Okay?”
“Okay. Thanks. Means a lot to me. Now… Kiss. And look as though you’re enjoying it.”
The fallout from the leaked video footage was more or less over by the third week. At least, it was at school. At home mum still wouldn’t let me go out and she still wasn’t entirely happy with what had happened. I kept telling her it wasn’t my fault but she just kept saying how embarrassing it was for the family. For the family? What about me? I didn’t ask to have the video shown everywhere. I didn’t want people seeing it. I’m the one who has to go out and see the people who have seen the video. It’s not like mum bumps into the people who watched it. It’s not as though mum bumps into anyone.
“Your father is going to be so disappointed when he gets home,” mum kept reminding me.
“Who cares what he thinks? Who cares what anyone thinks? It’s not like we’ll be here for very long! We never are!”
“And then what did she say?” asked David. I was sat with him in the cafeteria. It was the first time we had spoken properly since the video leaked.
“She said I was ungrateful. Apparently dad does all this for me… Moving around… The working… Apparently it’s all for me but that’s rubbish.”
“How so?”
“If they wanted the best for me, they’d have left me in the same school. They wouldn’t move me around. They’d want me to meet new people, make new friends and, more importantly, keep them!”
“Dad works because it’s what he wants. He doesn’t give a shit about me or mum. Pretends he does but… He doesn’t.”
David didn’t say anything. I guess he realised I just needed to vent.
“Well, I’m sorry for everything you went through,” he said eventually.
“Thank you.”
“But…”
“Don’t say it.”
“I told you so…”
I gave him a look which said ‘thanks for that’. He simply smiled.
“Everything sorted now though?” he asked. “I mean, with regards to the police and Head?”
I nodded, “I nearly got expelled for it.”
“I saw the film…” he smiled, “…impressive.”
“Oh, fuck you.”
David laughed.
“Look out… a new film in the making,” said Daniel.
I span around and saw Daniel and Ben on the table behind us. They were laughing, like they usually were when they were mocking someone or something. A real life version of Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum. David rolled his eyes.
“Who do you think will be the giver and who will be the taker?” asked Ben.
I didn’t say anything. There was so much I could say but… There was no point. I had already learnt that smart arse comments don’t make them go away. Today was all about trying something new; ignoring them. I looked at David and hoped he’d stay quiet too.