Omorphi (51 page)

John, one of their new security guards, rapped on the window, interrupting his reverie, and gave him the all clear sign, and he climbed out of the car. Michael hadn’t seen Tad since yesterday morning and idly wondered where he was.

He fell into step beside Jake, and the absence of their usual banter lurked like a morbid cloud overhead, sure to cast a drizzly pall over their day. It was less than five minutes before they were spotted and surrounded, questions firing like engine pistons on the air.

“Hang on! Hang on! Hang on!” Michael yelled over the din of the crowd.

“Listen up!” Jake yelled.

The crowd quieted, and Michael took a moment to gather his thoughts. “We can’t talk to anyone about what happened, so don’t even ask.”

“We heard Christy’s dead!” someone called.

Michael winced. “Christy is not dead.”

“Can you tell us if he’s all right?” It was Lisa’s deep voice over the crowd.

Michael was more than a little grateful for her question. “Yeah, Lisa, he’s going to be okay. He’ll be back to school in a few days.”

“What happened to him?” someone else called.

“We can’t answer that,” Jake called over the crowd.

“How about Jerry? We heard he’s dead too! Duncan killed him!”

Michael swore under his breath.

“I’ll take it, Michael. Jerry is also fine and will be back to school in a few days.”

“What are they going to do to Duncan?”

“We have no idea. You’ll have to get that information from Duncan.”

“Duncan went to juvie,” someone called out.

Michael looked up to find Jackie Anderson, Duncan’s weak link, in the crowd. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean, what am I doing here? This ain’t just your school, faggot!”

Michael stepped forward, and Jake held him back. Lisa grabbed the back of Jackie’s shirt and lifted the little twerp into the air. “He means, why aren’t you in juvie, too, you stupid little homophobe.”

“Hey, let me go! I didn’t hit Jerry with the bat!”

“But you were there, weren’t ya, ya little shit!”

“No, I wasn’t! I wasn’t!”

“Yeah, ya were, and ya ran like a scared little girl!”

“Let me go! Let me go!”

Lisa set Jackie on his feet and swatted his ass so hard he fell forward and landed on his hands and knees. “Hope it stings for a while! Now, get outta here! In fact, all of ya better get lost! Jake and Mike can’t say a thing about what happened, so no more questions!”

The crowd broke up, and Michael turned to Lisa. “Thanks.”

“No problem, Mike.”

“You think you’ll get in trouble for hitting Jackie?”

She grinned her toothy grin. “What’s he gonna say? ‘She spanked me’?”

Michael laughed, and it felt good. “Yeah, guess you’re right.”

“Can you say anything, Mike? I don’t want to ask Smitty to call Davis just to know if Christy and Jerry are okay. You got my word it won’t go no further than Gav, and you know he knows how to keep his mouth shut.”

Jake and Michael glanced at John, who remained mute.

“Didn’t Stephen tell you what happened to Jerry?”

“No, Mike, he hasn’t been in school.”

Jake and Michael exchanged looks.

“I need to make a call. You finish talking to Lisa.” Jake walked away.

“You have to promise not to take things into your own hands, Lisa. That goes for Smitty too.”

“Word, Mike. Now tell me what happened.”

“As for Jerry, Jackie pretty much said it. Duncan took a baseball bat to him and broke his arm and gave him a concussion, but he’s going to be okay.”

“That little bastard. Were the others with him?”

“Ask Jake. He reached the trailer park before I did, and I think he said something about all of Duncan’s pussies being there.”

Lisa’s toothy grin had turned into an angry scowl. “What about Christy?”

“Jason threw a Molotov cocktail through his front window. His leg and hip are burned, but he’s going to be okay too.”

Lisa’s face turned an odd shade of purple, and steam might as well have been shooting out her ears. “That motherf—”

“He also tried to shoot me.” Michael held his shirtsleeve up to reveal his bandaged arm. “It’s just a graze.”

“Please tell me they got him!”

Michael shook his head in disgust. “He shot one of the guards and ran. He was crazed, Lisa, I mean really crazed. It was like he was on PCP or something.”

“Oh my Lord, Mike! What are the cops doing to find him?”

“They don’t have a clue where he is.”

“Well, that’s just bull. I’m callin’ Smitty.”

“Don’t. He’ll know the information came from me.”

“Screw that, Mike. I’ll have Smitty call Davis and act like he’s letting Davis tell him what happened. Smitty can put the word out on the street to find Jason.”

“Was Smitty able to find out who gave Jason the bomb?”

She shook her head. “He only knows it wasn’t one of ours. He put the word out to find out who did the providing. So far, nothing.”

The first bell rang as Jake hung up and walked back to them.

“My dad wasn’t able to get much out of the school office. Only that Stephen’s dad called him in sick yesterday and today.”

Michael raised brow. “That doesn’t sound right. Stephen’s never sick.”

“Got me. Maybe he’s just that upset over Jerry getting hurt. I don’t know, but we gotta get to class.”

“Yeah, okay. Lisa, don’t call Smitty until we talk at lunch.”

“Yeah, all right, Mike, but we gotta do something.”

“I agree.”

T
HEY
met at their usual lunch table, and Michael and Jake were bombarded with more questions from friends. It wasn’t long before Jake lost his temper and shut everyone down with a shouted “Enough!”

Michael tried to soften the verbal blow with, “Look, we can’t say anything because it’s an ongoing police investigation. So let’s move on to another subject.”

The table calmed, and everyone settled into their usual conversations.

“Listen, Mike, I want to call Smitty and have him call Davis. The Jason thing is out of control.”

“All right, but don’t say where you got the information from.”

“He’ll know, but I’ll have him call Davis, like I said.”

“Okay.”

She left the table, and Michael looked at Jake. He shrugged. “I don’t think it’ll hurt.”

She returned a few minutes later, pleased. “He’s all over it, Mike.”

Michael smiled. “Thanks, Lisa.”

“Brought you something.” She handed him some literature from the gay youth center.

He leafed through it. “You think Christy’s like this?”

“You know it.”

“You think I’m not good for him?”

She chuckled. “Depends. Can you picture him in a black lace teddy?”

Michael smiled. “How about white?”

“Then you’re good for him. Buy him a get-well gift. Something special just for you two.”

Michael studied her for a long moment. “I might offend him.”

“Not a little girl like him, Mike. She’s dying to get out.”

Michael grinned. “How do you know so much about this stuff?”

She gave him a knowing smile. “You think I hang out with guys.”

“Yeah, so?”

“They’re girls, Mike.”

Michael gaped at her.

“George is a girl.”

“No way.”

Lisa smiled again. “Born Georgia Lee Lange. I volunteer at the youth center. You and Christy oughta come down sometime.”

“We’ll do that, thanks.”

“In the meantime, buy Christy something special.”

“Have any suggestions?” Michael knew she did.

“A negligee.”

“A what?”

“Here.” She handed Michael a card. “Freddie will fix you up.”

Michael showed Jake the card. “Hey, bro, you ever been to a place like this?”

“Nope. Can’t say I’d mind checkin’ it out, though.”

M
ICHAEL
left Jake at practice and headed to the hospital to see Christy. He crept into Christy’s room and was disappointed to find him asleep again. He pulled a chair up to the bed and sat, taking Christy’s small hand into his and giving it a gentle squeeze. He was pleased that he’d gone to sleep holding his rose and note. The quiet squeak of a nurse’s shoes had him turning back to look at the door. A nurse, whose nametag read Carol, winked at him as she approached and quietly took Christy’s vital signs.

“His pain was pretty bad today,” she whispered.

“Did my dad check on him?”

She nodded. “A couple of times. He prescribed more pain medication, and Christy’ll probably sleep the rest of the day and through the night.”

Michael’s grief-laden heart felt heavy and sore. He wanted to see laughter in Christy’s beautiful eyes again.

“Is Jerry one of your friends too?”

Michael nodded.

“He was asking about Christy.”

“Do you know if a guy named Stephen has visited Jerry?”

She thought for a moment. “Was he the boy who came in with Jerry?”

Michael nodded again.

Her expression pinched, then became somber, all signs of nurse-nice dissipated on the air.

“Did something happen?”

“No. It’s only that, well, I really shouldn’t say anything.”

“What happened?”

“I guess that young man’s—Stephen, I guess—well, his father didn’t know he was gay, and it turned into kind of a loud, if you know what I mean, problem when he came to pick him up from the emergency room. We had to call security.”

“You mean Stephen’s dad decided he was gay just because he came to the hospital with Jerry?”

“No. Stephen told him right there in the emergency room. He said he wanted to stay with Jerry because Jerry was his boyfriend. Well, it turned just awful real fast. I’ve never seen a preacher hit anyone.”

Michael’s jaw dropped. “He hit Stephen?”

“Punched him right in the face and walked away. The boy hasn’t been back since.”

Michael swore a low oath and rubbed a hand down his face.

“I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“I won’t say anything. My dad might have told me anyway.”

Michael looked at his watch. Jake would be done with practice in fifteen minutes, and they were supposed to go shopping for Christy. Maybe they could swing by Stephen’s house or at least give him a call. “If Christy wakes, will you ask him to call me?”

“Sure I will, but I doubt he’ll wake. As I said, his pain was pretty bad today. Why don’t you give the nurse’s station a call a little later?”

“Yeah, okay.” He bent and kissed Christy’s forehead and stroked the blond curls back from his forehead. Christy was beautiful even in pain-filled sleep.

M
ICHAEL
dialed Jake as soon as his phone connected with the guidance system in the SUV. “You done with practice?”

“Yeah. How’s Christy?”

“Knocked out on drugs. His pain was bad today.”

“Sorry to hear that, man. Are we still going shopping?”

“Yeah, but I think we need to take a detour to Stephen’s house first. He came out to his dad, and I think that’s why he hasn’t been in school.”

“Where’d you hear that?”

“The nurse at the hospital said Stephen came out to his dad when his dad came to pick him up from the ER the night Jerry was brought in. She said his dad punched him.”

“Whoa, that’s uncool.”

“Seriously uncool. Do you want to meet me at Stephen’s?”

“You sure that’s a good idea?”

“C’mon, Jake, we set him up with Jerry.”

“And now you think that makes us responsible for his dad’s prejudices?”

“No, but it means we contributed to a problem.”

“I’ll meet you there, but call your mom and let her know where you’re headed.”

“Thanks, Jake.”

“Always here for you, bro.”

M
ICHAEL
knocked on the rickety screen door and waited. He glanced at Jake after a few minutes of silence.

Jake shrugged. “Maybe they’re not home.”

“I don’t like this, Jake.”

Jake opened the screen door and rapped hard on the front door. After a few moments, the door creaked open on its hinges, and Stephen’s tall, wiry father glared down at them.

“Father Engel?”

“Fine team captain you turned out to be, Michael.”

Michael didn’t know what to say, and Stephen’s sudden appearance next to his dad’s shoulder saved him. “I got it, Dad. Go back inside. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Don’t go anywhere.”

Stephen opened the screen door and stepped outside. “I won’t.” Stephen closed the screen door gently and waited for his dad to close the front door. “What are you guys doing here?”

“We heard what happened at the hospital and wanted to check on you.”

Stephen gave Michael a long, considering look before gesturing to his bruised face and black eye. “I’ll be all right. My dad felt so bad about hitting me, he cried. He doesn’t want anyone to see me.”

“Is that why you haven’t been in school?”

“Yeah.”

“Everything okay?” Jake asked.

“No, but I think it will be. I didn’t handle it very well. I freaked out about Jerry and just blurted it out. In public, which sure didn’t help matters.”

“Do you trust him not to hit you again?”

“No, I mean, yeah, it’s not like that, Michael. It was a one-time thing. My dad’s never hit me before, and my parents really love me. They just can’t… they just can’t stop believing that my eternal soul is going to go to hell for being gay. They pray for me every morning and have prayer circles every night, but they’re not mean about it. They just want what’s best for me.”

Michael ran a hand through is unruly curls. “I’m sorry, Stephen.”

Stephen smiled a crooked, swollen smile. “Why? You didn’t make me gay.”

“No, but we set you up with Jerry.”

Stephen shrugged. “I’m glad it happened. It’ll make things easier in the long run. How is Jerry doing?”

“Good. He’ll be out of the hospital in a few days, and Christy’s there to keep him company.”

“Christy’s there?”

Michael gave Jake a sheepish look. “Yeah, ah, Jason attacked us yesterday morning. We can’t really talk about it.”