THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS!
Note: this chapter is from Max's POV. I'm sorry if it is a little scatty. I'd like to thank a Queen song for the title.
Chapter 14 You Don't Fool me
The ambulance is at your house again; how many times must they visit before you have killed us all and how do they all love you for it?
You have them all fooled. But not me; you don't fool me; not with those pretty eyes not with that sexy smile; not at all.
The day you arrived was nothing significant to me. Your presence didn't even affect me directly for nearly a year. We didn't travel in the same circles and although we lived down the same street we kept very different company.
For the most part the only thing that changed after you arrived was the atmosphere. The moment you opened were removed from that car and handed over to Tala's family a dark cloud appeared over the street and even in the summer sun nothing was quite as bright again.
Then you came out among us, you separated the men from the boys. You separated our fathers from our families leaving our mothers widows and us practical orphans when all our mothers could do was cry and curse you. I was lucky, my parents were already divorced but others weren't and I cried for my friends and their grief.
You hurt them all and they still loved you. Why?
It was like you had alien mind control powers. It was like the pied piper luring away the children. After our fathers were gone you came back for us.
I was innocent then. I was one of the boys and he was too. We were innocent to you then but still I wasn't fooled. There was no fun in you; no interested in the childish games the rest of us loved. Like a black whole you dragged more and more of us into your selfish misery.
Still I was cheerful. I still had him.
Then you changed things at school. Word travelled fast and the older boys decided to take a stand against the 'homo' in their midst. Most of us didn't know what a 'homo' was. You left with them; dragged off into the boy's bathroom at the beginning of lunch and none of us dared to come close. When they left they were doing up their flies and looking smug; they never bothered you violently again and even defended you against some of the more butch girls. Not that you needed it; I saw you the day you hit Mariah. She had a black eye for over a week.
Even teachers loved you leering at you suggestively over their desks and making jokes about keeping you after class and extra credit. And without sexual knowledge we had no clue why. Even with sexual knowledge I can't place together how you made them act like that; how you still make them act like that. You are a boy; a young boy and not everyone is gay!
But I drew the line when it got personal. I didn't care that our fathers loved you, that the teachers loved you, that my classmates loved you, I didn't even care that you hit girls; the only thing that I cared about was that you stole him. That you stole Tyson.
I thought that he was like me. I thought that he hadn't been taken in by whatever it was you offered the rest of them; that he saw through your adult games and lies…when really he was just oblivious. On my most innocent day I would have known that you were bad news. Not him. Not Tyson.
Is that what interested you? That he wasn't affected? He didn't avoid you like I did and didn't have the childish love that I did to make him immune to your charm.
He used to pretend to be happy and play like a child then you rode in like a knight in shining armour and killed his ogre of an uncle. I had watched him suffer for years at the hands of that beast; had to stand idly by as he was beaten black and blue by the man who was supposed to love him like a son. Then you swoop in and just kill him. Murder is against the law and you even got away with that! He told me all about it and how he loved you then, it was all he could talk about and it killed me.
I won't even pretend to believe that you are capable of love, I'm young and naïve but not stupid. My parents are divorced so I know that love can die and that sometimes it just doesn't exist.
I tried to warn him about you;
"Tyson he's with everyone on the street; he doesn't love you or anyone."
"No Max you're wrong. He might not love me but he has to be capable, he's really deep I can tell. He has really deep eyes."
"His eyes are red."
Red eyes I mean come on that says it all right?
"His eyes are beautiful. He could have a million clients and lovers but it wouldn't change what I feel."
And as if to taunt me you took your little fling out into the open. Kissing him in the street in front of the world. Using him all as a show to make me and your other lover jealous. I know that you knew I was watching just as Tala was. You are not human.
Tala was your real lover. Anyone with eyes could tell who you preferred even Tyson knew that. But he loved you so much and you treated him so badly. You wouldn't even touch him unless you knew that either me or Tala were there to watch.
All of that could have been forgiven however had you not set up his poor Aunt. He will never get over dragging that poor woman's name through the mud. They placed her in police custody and sent him away to where he is finally happy and away from you. He writes to me and phones me all the time.
He has finally stopped having nightmares about what he did. His guilty conscious ate away at him 'til he halved in weight and stopped smiling. They sent him to a 'recovery centre' for therapy usually reserved for suicide attempts. He's still waiting for you to contact him. But he asks about you less; I think that he and one of the anorexics are starting something that will hopefully clear him from the rest of your influence. (her name is Hilary and she is thankfully nothing like you.)
I find it offensive that you could ruin his life so easily and not even think twice about it. You have killed and set up people he loves, you have lead him on and done nothing to deserve the unconditional loyalty he has given you. You have ruined more than you could ever have fixed with your one good deed and you continue to flaunt your relationship with Tala.
The ambulance is outside you house and they are putting your step-father in it. You watch it from the doorway with no emotion on your face.
Why do they love you like they do? It makes no sense.
How could you have fooled them so easily? And why don't you smile at your victory?
Remember this; not everyone loves you, I stand testament to that and I am not alone. There are people out there, we will not suffer this to last much longer and we will avenge our parents and friends.
You don't fool us. And we will have our revenge.