Disclaimer: No es mio. Que triste!
Warning: This story contains some mature themes in the form of homosexuality and homophobic slurs.
The Day of Silence
Tony was unusually silent that day. Jack arrived late, so he didn't notice until a little while after History class had begun. Instead of Tony's usual wiseass comments peppering the discussion, he sat in the back, quietly taking notes and keeping his eyes to himself. It wasn't until Mr. Quentin called on Tony and Tony refused to answer that Jack knew something was up.
"Higgins! Why did Plato have to write the dialogues of Socrates?"
Tony looked up from his notebook, wide-eyed, but silent. He shook his head.
"Just give it a try," Mr. Quentin said, putting the chalk down.
Tony shook his head again, and picked up a piece of paper on his desk. He held it out to Mr. Quentin, who walked forward to read it. Twenty curious necks craned around to watch.
"National Day of Silence," Mr. Quentin read aloud. "Please excuse me for not speaking today. I am participating in the National Day of Silence, representing the silence that my gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning peers are forced to suffer through every day." There were a few quiet giggles across the room.
"Kelly! Did you know about this?" he asked Jack.
Jack shook his head, sneaking a glance at Tony.
"So… you are going to talk today, right?"
Jack nodded. "Yes," he said; just to prove that he would.
"Good. Well then, good luck with that, Higgins," Mr. Quentin said mockingly. He smirked and returned to the front of the room.
He called on Tony six more times that period, chuckling every time he did it.
Jack caught up with Tony in the hallway after class.
"Dude," he said, "are you actually going to keep this up all day?"
Tony nodded and smiled.
"Dude…" Jack fiddled with the strings on his sweatshirt, unsure of what to say. He and Tony walked quietly to their next class – English, with Mr. Denton.
As they went to their usual seats at the back of the room, a boy by the name of Jason Houseman bumped into Tony roughly.
"Faggot," he muttered.
Jack was ready to leap to Tony's defense, but Tony shook his head, smiled at Jason, and sat down. Jack looked back and forth between them. Tony had commenced drawing little spirals in his notebook, and Jason just smirked and started making out with his girlfriend pointedly.
A minute later, Mr. Denton walked in to the room. He nodded at everyone, and gestured for them to sit down. After a few moments of shuffling and chattering, they did. Then Denton turned to the chalkboard and began to write.
"Today is National Day of Silence. Please take out 'Huck Finn'; read pp. 131-150 and answer these questions." He finished writing and handed back a stack of worksheets.
Jack was impressed, but not surprised. Denton was known by all as the 'gay' teacher. His soft eyes and gentle smile, his forgiving nature, his open mind – Jack thought all that made him pretty awesome, but to the rest of the sophomore class, Denton was just… gay.
Without the usual lively discussion led by Tony, Denton, and the token smart kid, David Jacobs, English class was extremely boring. Jack kept looking over at Tony to see if he had given up yet and started talking. He hadn't.
But by the time lunch rolled around, Tony was definitely showing signs of breaking down. He had begun to fidget incessantly, and make little whimpering noises when he desperately wanted to make a point, or an exaggerated thumbs up when he agreed with something.
Jack had become his unofficial interpreter, good at reading Tony's elaborate facial expressions and varying smiles. A few people came up and told Tony that they thought he was awesome for taking a vow of silence.
However, more than a few people took by Jason's example, and 'faggot,' 'queer,' and 'fairy' got used a lot that day.
Jack thought it was strange. Most of the time people thought Tony was pretty cool. He got respect for his opinions. He was loud, and outspoken, and as long as he wasn't cracking jokes about you, then he was a fun guy to hang around. Tony was one of those people that everyone either liked or felt indifferent to. He wasn't the guy that everyone hated.
Yet now, for some reason, he was surrounded by whispers. People stared at him as he walked by them in the hallway. They pointed. They gossiped. They laughed.
It wasn't until the last class of the day that it actually got bad, though. Math class was yet another subject that Tony excelled in, and Mrs. Vincent was frustrated that Tony refused to speak up. Half of the period she spent trying to convince Tony to talk. She bribed him and wheedled with him and threatened him… but Tony just smiled, and shook his head. Eventually, he started scribbling answers on a scrap sheet of paper, and then Jack would take Tony's usual place at the front of the room to copy down the equations on the board.
Jack could tell that it bothered Tony when Mrs. Vincent stopped them on their way out, and said "This madness will all be over tomorrow, right, Tony?"
Tony smiled, but his eyes looked sad, and his lips seemed stretched too tight, trying to hold back the words he desperately wanted to let loose.
Jack and Tony walked to Starbucks that afternoon, once they were done for the day. As they left the school grounds, Tony had quickly walked in front of Jack and done an elaborate mime that involved much dragging of his feet, fake swooning, crawling on the ground, and slurping through an imaginary straw. Jack got it after a few minutes, but made Tony keep it up for a while because watching Tony try to spell out the word 'frappucino' using body language was pretty funny.
When they arrived, Tony pointed to what he wanted, and handed Jack his money. Once he was properly caffeinated he perked up a bit, and he and Jack managed to carry on some semblance of a conversation – though nothing matching the intensity with which they usually rambled pointlessly to one another.
"Can't you stop now that we're out of school?" Jack asked.
Tony shook his head, and shrugged, making an 'x' with his fingers and pointing at something far off.
Jack looked over his shoulder, and then realized what Tony meant. "That's not the point. I gotcha."
Tony nodded emphatically.
Jack sighed, and leaned back in his chair, stirring his smoothie slowly. "Dude, you're so boring when you're quiet."
Tony grinned apologetically.
"So… silence, huh? I guess that makes sense. I mean, like, if I were gay I wouldn't want to tell anyone at our school. They'd just… well, like, you saw what happened today. Everyone thinks you're gay now, just 'cause you're supportive."
And then Tony went quiet. Very quiet and very, very still. After a moment of staring at the table, he looked up at Jack, and his eyes said everything that Jack needed to know.
"Oh… whoa. Okay. Dude… I had no idea. Seriously… wow. Wait, really?"
Tony nodded slowly.
"Are you sure?" Jack asked.
Tony nodded again, trying to smile. His eyebrows were furrowed in a silent question.
"I mean," Jack stumbled for words, "like, I'm totally cool with it. I just never knew, is all. Y'know?"
Tony grinned, and nodded vigorously.
Jack paused. "So, like, do you have a boyfriend?" he asked. He nudged Tony across the table.
Tony bit back a laugh, and shook his head with a sorrowful smile.
"Oh well. That's cool."
They grinned at each other across the table.
"Promise not to get a crush on me, okay?" Jack asked.
Tony rolled his eyes, and gave Jack a look that clearly said "you wish".
They left a little while later, after Jack made Tony swear to tell him absolutely everything the next morning. The walk home was mostly silent, except for Jack occasionally bursting out with "How could I not have known?" or "Dude, why didn't you tell me?"
Tony was all smiles and grins, just shaking his head, and shuffling his feet along the cement.
At one point, Jack asked what Tony was going to do about school.
Tony looked at him for a moment, and then shrugged and looked at the ground.
"'Cause, dude," Jack said, "everyone really does think you're gay now. And before, like, that was fine, 'cause you could just tell them tomorrow, 'No way, I'm only a supporter,' but now… you'd be lying."
Tony nodded guiltily.
"So? Are you gonna tell people?" Jack persisted.
Tony shrugged and sighed.
"Well… whatever you do, man, I'm behind you." He punched Tony's shoulder gently.
Tony grinned, and shoved him playfully.
"Dude, this is hard! I keep expecting you to make fun of me for saying something stupid, but you seriously haven't slipped up at all today!" Jack kicked at a rock in his path.
Tony smiled with pride.
"Y'know, I haven't even, like, insulted you or anything. 'Cause I totally could, and you totally wouldn't be able to do anything about it," Jack said.
Tony raised an eyebrow.
"Dude, you seriously wouldn't. Like… I could tell you how your mom is a whore, and I slept with her last night," Jack said.
Tony shoved Jack again, and Jack laughed.
"Oh, man, have I ever told you that your sister is hot? I mean, seriously, I'd tap that."
Tony rolled his eyes, and punched Jack's bicep a few times.
"And I don't mean Gloria. I mean Maria."
Tony's face took on a delightful expression of horror, and he threw himself at Jack. Jack fended him off quickly.
"Aw, man, I'm not a perv. Maria's twelve, dude. Don't worry."
Tony elbowed him in the ribs one more time, and they resumed walking in silence.
Finally they reached Jack's apartment, and stopped for a moment in the doorway.
"I assume you're not gonna be online tonight," Jack said.
Tony shook his head.
"Oh well. See you tomorrow then."
Tony nodded and turned to go, when a boy on a skateboard whizzed past his nose, yelling "Faggots!" over his shoulder.
"Whoa," Jack said.
A few seconds later several more boys from school rolled past them. The last one trailed slightly behind, and just as he and his friends were about to turn the corner, he stopped, grabbed his crotch, and said "Suck my cock, fairy boy!"
Tony opened his mouth, and then closed it again, though the look in his eyes made it obvious that he wanted to yell something back. Instead he shook his head, waved goodbye to Jack sadly, and headed in the direction of home.
Jack just stood in front of the entrance to the building for a few moments, marveling at what a strange day it had been. He was about to stick his key in the lock, when he heard more insults coming from around the corner.
"Queer!"
"Cock-sucker!"
"C'mon, faggot, aren't you gonna fight back?"
"Scream for it, faggot! Where's your boyfriend? Where's your little fairy friend?"
"I've got something better for you right here, dick-licker. Bet you want it, huh?"
In a moment, Jack's keys lay forgotten in the doorway, his backpack was abandoned on the steps, and he was running down the block. His shoes slapped against the pavement, and as the taunts and sickening sounds of a fistfight grew louder, he began to pray that he got there in time.
The sight that greeted him as he lurched around the corner was the one that would cement the day in his memory forever. The skateboarders were in a semicircle around Tony, taking turns at throwing punches. Tony was pinned to the wall, his face bloodied, his arms cradling his stomach.
Jack recognized all of the boys from school. The one currently pinning Tony to the wall was even one of the people who had come up to them and congratulated Tony for his forwardness. They were all familiar faces, but in the moment all Jack could think of them as was "enemy".
He threw himself at them with more fury than he'd every felt before. It was six to two – and Tony wasn't fighting back – and very soon Jack could feel his strength begin to weaken. He started screaming as loud as he could, hoping that someone would hear what he had heard, and come to their rescue. As fist after fist landed in his gut, spots started to darken the edge of his vision, and all he could do was keep screaming, keep hoping, keep fighting.
The last thing Jack saw before he blacked out was Tony's face: bruised, broken, but entirely conscious… and entirely silent.
Based on the real life experience of too many. For more information on the National Day of Silence, visit www dot dayofsilence dot org.