Nick sighed. "I'm only doing this because Mark pleaded with me," he said "I don't really need a lawyer."
"You let me be the judge of that," Jack said, taking a seat outside the bars.
"How much did Mark tell you?" Nick asked, not wanting to be the one to out Mark to his father. "I mean did he tell you about... what's going on?"
"Told me about... his lifestyle," Jack said. "I know about you boys."
"You and Mark... well and Shannon are the only people who know about me being... about me being gay."
"Does your being gay have anything to do with why you beat that boy?"
Nick took a deep breath. "Not me being gay," he said. "But it was... along those lines. I guess."
"So why did you do it?" Jack asked. "What did he do to you?"
"I did it... so that Ethan wouldn't hurt anyone ever again. He doesn't care about... anyone and his values are..." Nick paused. "I guess it's going to come out sooner or later anyway so... I had a problem... with drugs... steroids. But I'm clean now. I've been clean since before Mark was in the hospital. Is that going to affect the outcome?
"It shouldn't come up," Jack said. "Prior bad acts..."
"I'm really screwed, huh?" Nick sighed.
"We'll see what we can do"
Nick fell back on his cot, once again staring at the crack in the ceiling. The heavy fall of footsteps could be heard echoing the hallway to the holding area.
"Well this just might be your lucky day, Messina," John said, swinging open the jail cell. "You are free to go."
"What?" Nick said.
"The charges have been dropped. The Harrison kid woke up. He's talking. Says that this was all a misunderstanding. You're free to go."
"Ethan says that this was a misunderstanding?" Nick said.
"I wouldn't argue with it if I were you, Nick," John said. "That kid just let you off the hook of a lot of jail time. I'd be grateful."
"Grateful." he said "He's the one who should be grateful."
"Take a walk, Nick," John said. "Before I find another reason to arrest you."
>>>>>>
The KAD welcomed Ethan back after about a week and a half and were now holding a meeting in secret. Ethan stood up front with Sean beside him.
"So here's the deal," Ethan said. "Coach has me benched for our next game on Sunday, but I managed to have Messina kept on the team. It took a lot of doing, but it's done."
"Do we really want to play with that faggot?" Sean said.
"Listen to me," Ethan continued. "I don't think Nicky realizes that we know he's queer. So what we're gonna do, is we're gonna get even."
"And how the hell are we supposed to do that?" Sean shook his head. "We start going after our own team and it's gonna look suspicious."
"That's why we're not going to go after our own team. It just so happens that I know the guys on the team that we're playing tomorrow. They've agreed to cover Nick."
"Who agreed?"
"It's taken care of," Ethan smiled. "We set up Nicky, he takes the fall. Faggot's not gonna know what hit him." They all chuckled. "OK, OK," Ethan said. "Listen up. This is what we gotta do."