A/N: This is actual Part 6, not Part 5. But Part 5 borders on MA-Ratings, so to be on the safe-side, you can read that part here:

community./bullybl/96034.html

Otherwise, there are no plot points that occur in that part, so if you want to skip it, you can. I hope you're enjoying so far!


In spite of myself, I felt a whole lot better after leaving Gary's room that night. I wasn't as tense as I had been, and even though I still didn't really know where I stood with him, it didn't feel like that was a problem anymore. And hey, how many people could say that they'd gotten a blowjob from the Bullworth psychopath. Not many, I figured, so that was actually a point in his favor. I wasn't delusional enough to believe that he was 'better', or that I would be anywhere near as comfortable with him if he were in Bullworth instead of Happy Volts. I knew exactly who Gary Smith was: a slimeball, a weasel. A psycho who tortured everyone around him.

Of course, depending on who you asked at school, Petey included, I was a psycho who liked beating up on people. And really, I couldn't deny that, because, well, fighting was fun as long as there was a good enough reason for it. Gary's half-assed plans had been sort of fun. I couldn't lie and pretend that I hadn't enjoyed sticking it to everybody. And, to be weirdly honest, I wouldn't have done most of it if not for Gary.

Dammit, I realized it had been a long time since I'd been in a good fight. Well, since every minute with Gary felt like a fight, that was another unfortunate check in the pro-Gary column.

I hadn't even know there iwas/i a pro-Gary column. Hooking up with a guy really changed my perspective on a guy, apparently.

Now I had a problem though. Psychological Evaluations.

How the fuck was I supposed to pass a psych eval while having oral sex with Gary Smith?

I could lie, yeah, but that wasn't going to work for two reasons. One, I'm a shit liar. I've never been good at it. I never had the energy to keep up with a lie, I guess, because I always end up contradicting myself, or sounding like a 'tard and going "…uh…" at some point and giving it all away. Two, I was pretty sure that nurses and doctors that do those tests could at least notice that something was clearly broken in my brain.

So I was wandering around the hallways outside of Crabblesnitch's office, waiting for my appointment with the shrink. Wondering what I would say: "Yeah, I don't need an evaluation. Why not? I'm fucking Gary Smith, that's why. So I'm definitely already crazy. Didn't need a test to tell me that."

Somebody else had already told me how crazy I was and that person was currently stepping out of Crabblesnitch's office.

"Hey, Jimmy." Petey waved at me, his head lowered as he made his way toward me. He looked like he didn't expect me to say hi back. I didn't think I'd ever been that petty with him.

"Yo." That sounded like I wasn't being an asshole that was giving him the silent treatment. Petey started to walk away, going down the steps, and I cursed under my breath. Petey had been a pretty decent friend, and this was a little more than lame. I turned, leaning over the railing. "Hey, wait a minute, Petey."

Petey stopped, looking up from the steps. "What's up?"

I didn't have anything to say, I realized. I just didn't want him to walk away feeling rejected. So we stood there awkwardly for a minute, while at least two people pushed past Petey. I sighed. "What are you doing right now?"

Petey shrugged. "Not much. Why?"

I was grasping at straws…what did I need to do that could be done with Petey? "Halloween costumes." Petey grimaced; I imagined that, having hung out with Gary, he hadn't had many fun Halloweens. "I need one. Zoë wants me to take her to the Halloween party, and she's going as Robin Hood. So I need something really cool. And you could look for something too."

Petey blinked, frowning. "And you want to go get one now?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

"…um, you're next up for the evaluations," Petey pointed out.

I looked over my shoulder into the office, where I could make out Ms. Danvers talking to Crabblesnitch. I shook my head. "Fuck 'em. Don't feel like getting shrunk right now. I'll go later." It hadn't taken me long after untying Crabblesnitch to realize that, while Danvers still didn't like me, Crabblesnitch would pretty much let me get away with anything I wanted. I was going to take advantage of it until he changed his mind.

Petey sighed, resigned. Then, while I walked down the steps to actually walk with him, he smiled slightly. "Okay, sounds like fun. We can take our bikes into town."

It didn't take very long for us to get to the costume shop. I wondered to myself if this was where Gary had gotten our costumes. I got my answer pretty quickly, when Petey pointed out a Dorothy costume and said, "Gary made me wear that two years ago."

I tried to imagine it. "So the bunny was an improvement?"

Petey nodded. "A huge one."

I glanced at the price tag for the costume, out of curiosity, and whistled. "Damn…so how long had he…dressed you?" I thought about what I just said, and laughed.

Petey chuckled too. It was weird. While he bashed Gary for what he did to the school, I don't think I'd ever heard him mope about the stuff that Gary did to him, personally. It was like he wasn't all that bothered by it or something. "Three years. When I was thirteen, he decided that I should be Raggedy Ann, 'cause of my curly hair. I was miserable."

"How'd he get you to do it? I would have killed him."

He looked at me as if I was insane. "I'm not you." That was for damned sure. He sighed, shrugging. "He just talked and pushed me around until I did it." There was a long awkward pause. "How…is…you know…"

I opened my mouth to answer. I had an answer to that that I'd planned on the bike ride over. Casually saying something along the lines of how he was alright, he didn't appear to be planning to escape, but he did seem pretty determined to perfect the art of deep-throating his sworn enemies. It was funny, funny enough where it might have masked the weirdness of the issue itself.

But then two things happened which I really wished I hadn't seen.

Two people walked out of the dressing rooms to look in the mirrors. From the women's dressing room, Beatrice walked out, dressed up in the costume I vaguely remembered her mentioning. There were few things more nauseating than Beatrice in a 'sexy' toga. I'd looked up Helen of Troy, after Lola had called herself that once and said that meant I should fight over her or something. Nothing about that particular sight said 'most beautiful woman of the second girl's dorm room from the door', let alone 'most beautiful woman in the world'. That wasn't what made me crack up hysterically, and it sure as hell wasn't the thing that made Petey choke.

"What. The. Hell?" It was the closest Petey had ever gotten to cursing, and if seeing Trent in a trashy go-go dress and long blonde wig couldn't make him curse, nothing would.

It sure made me curse. "What the fuck," I said at the same time as Petey spoke, laughing. I clutched my stomach, I was laughing so hard. Everyone knew Trent was a raging homo. He loved shocking people with it at every given opportunity. He liked laughing at his friends when they were made uncomfortable by the fact that he would pretty much make out with anyone with a dick and a mildly attractive face. The problem, though, was that Trent was no small guy, and there was nothing about him or the way the dress and wig fit him that said feminine. It all said train wreck, like Russell trying to write poetry.

Like me trying to write poetry, for that matter.

Beatrice 'eeped' and then went back in her dressing room like a scared rabbit. Trent's head turned when he saw us. "Like what you see?" he asked, eyebrow raised challengingly. Daring us to tell him what we actually thought about his dumbass get-up. I kind of wanted to. It wasn't that often that I got to tell Trent that purple wasn't his fucking color.

"Not in the slightest," I told him. Trent shrugged, as if somehow iI/i was missing out on something. Really, I was pretty sure that I wasn't. "Please tell me that's for the Halloween party."

"No, it's for my date with your mom tomorrow night," Trent retorted, rolling his eyes. "What do you think?" I glanced over at Petey, who shrugged. Trent snorted. "You guys are fucking lame. I look good. My date's gonna flip."

I frowned. "Who's your date?" I didn't know that Trent had a date. Or dated.

"Who do you think?"

I didn't know, but Petey seemed to. "But Kirby thinks he's in the closet." Kirby? Trent was dating Kirby? That would explain why Kirby ran whenever I got too close to standing near the pair.

Trent nodded with a grin. "I know."

"Is he coming out at the party?"

"He doesn't plan to." Trent took off the wig and scratched his head. That was worse than the costume without the wig. Infinitely worse. I felt queasy. "Not that I know about anyway."

Petey's eyebrows shot up. "Does he—does he know that you're his date?"

Trent's grin widened. "Not yet he doesn't. It's time that he owns up to his shit and deals with the fact that he likes it up the ass." Well, at least Trent knew what he wanted. That was the best I could say.

Then he frowned. "This costume's missing something. I've got the white boots at home-" I didn't want to know that they made white go-go boots in his size, "- and the bangles I stole from my mother." Great. Trent wore his mother's jewelry when he wanted to dress up. Things that would keep me up at night—not that I didn't have enough of those right now already.

"Stuffing the bra," I said automatically. Petey turned to me in horror for suggesting it, elbowing me. I snickered.

Trent shook his head. "Nah, I know that. I mean something else…"

"Make-up?" I suggested. Petey decided to bury his embarrassment by searching through the costume racks.

Trent nodded. "Maybe, maybe." He started going back into the dressing room. As soon as he closed the curtain, Beatrice fled out of the women's one, clutching her costume as if for dear life and hiding at the accessories' wall. "You think I could get Mandy to do it if I paid her?" He tossed the dress over the curtain bar of the dressing room.

I pulled out a prison costume, and then a priest costume. Held them both up for Petey to look at. "I don't know, probably," I answered, while Petey shook his head at both of costumes.

"A purse!" Trent suddenly said after a few minutes. "That's what I need. I'll steal my mom's."

"Okay…good for you," I glanced at Petey, rolling my eyes as I put the costumes back. "You do that." Trent left the changing room, costume in hand and heading towards the cashier. "Later." He nodded goodbye distractedly, intent on finishing his purchase.

As soon as he was gone, I snickered again, shaking my head. I think I felt horrified. Or ashamed. Or amused. I wasn't sure. At least Trent seemed happy with his shit. "Things that I--"

"—didn't need to see," Petey finished, nodding in agreement. Then he scowled. "I don't know how to do this."

"Buy a costume?" I stared at Petey. He turned red, and nodded. "Didn't you at least pick your costumes before Gary did?"

"My mom did." He took in my expression and added, defensively. "I was twelve." He frowned and looked down at his feet, fidgeting. "I wouldn't even be going if Crabblesnitch hadn't said that the Head Boy had to come." I felt a little bad. Petey didn't seem to enjoy the attention that being Head Boy got him nearly as much as I had thought he would.

I tried to cheer him up. "I could get you Trent's costume in pink." Petey made a disgusted face and shook his head no. "Look, you want me to find you something?" Petey looked hesitant, but then shrugged, moving out of the way of the rack so I could look at what he'd been looking at. "While I do this, look for something that would look cool with Robin Hood."

"Maid Marion?" Petey suggested.

I glared at him. "Zoë already suggested that, so thanks, but no." I grabbed a cop costume and a gangster costume, both in sizes small enough that I thought that Petey would be able to fit them. Tossed them both over to Petey, and, surprisingly enough, Petey was ready to toss me a ninja costume already. "You picked that one out quickly."

"I'm not cool enough to be a ninja. You are." I checked the costume. It was my size, but I wasn't really excited about being a ninja. Not when I could name at least two nerds who were probably going to do the same. "You want me to try these on?"

I nodded. "Sure, why not? See which one you like best."

Petey went into the dressing room. Unfortunately, as soon as he did, he brought up the same topic that Trent had distracted us from in the first place. "So, you didn't say how he was. Is he doing all right?"

I was quiet for a moment. Then I shrugged. Remembering he couldn't see it, I added, "Yeah. He's okay. Eating and everything."

"Still psycho?"

"Yup. But less hostile." I paused. "Most of the time. When he is, I think he likes being hostile. He's weird." Really, really weird. Trent levels of weird. Weirder than Trent. "Think he…he's attracted to me. In a homo sort of way."

An even longer pause, followed Petey sticking his head out of the dressing room, clutching the curtain closed. "What?"

I laid the ninja costume on top of the rack. I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to look as if this wasn't a big thing. As if that fact hadn't led to me feeling up on Gary in an insane asylum. Like this shit happened all the time. "Yeah."

"Gary?" he hissed. "But he wanted to kill you."

"Think he still wants to."

"Well." Petey considered this. "That does sound like Gary." Then he narrowed his eyes at me. "What did you say to him?"

"When? Which time? Unfortunately, we talk a lot."

"You talk a lot because you sneak in and see him, so you can't pretend like you don't sort of like it," Petey pointed out. I don't know why Petey was one of the few people in Bullworth with the balls to point out problems with my logic, but I could always count on him to do it. "I dunno, whenever he said he was interested. What, does he want to date you?"

I shook my head. "Don't think so. Didn't say anything about that. Just that, you know, he was kind of obsessed and hated me, and that was kind of like sex." Funny, how things sounded more reasonable when Gary said them. That was one of the many problems with life, in general.

One day, Gary would tell me dingoes ate the baby that he'd carried for nine months after Russell knocked him up, and someone would believe that shit.

Petey stared at me for a moment longer before his head popped back into the dressing room. "And what'd you say to that?" He sounded less shocked now, but something besides being in the curtain muffling his voice. He sounded a little upset, but I got that. He wasn't there, and so with the information that he had, I could see how this all sounded traumatic. Fuck, with the information I had, I could see how this all sounded traumatic.

"I left." I figured, for the sake of total disclosure, I should add, "After he kissed me."

Petey's head popped out of the dressing room again, this time moving so fast that the cop hat that he'd put on fell off his head. "He kissed you? On the lips?"

"Yeah." Again, just so that I was upfront about everything, "And then I went back." I bent down and picked up the hat, holding it out to Petey.

Petey didn't take it. He just stared at me, his mouth dropped open for a moment. I put the hat back on his head. That seemed to wake him up enough for him to say, "Why? When? What?"

"Dunno. Last weekend, after my date with Zoë."

"And what happened?"

Honesty was a bitch, because there was no good way to say what happened next. So I took a deep breath, and just gave him an answer. "I kissed him." Petey turned pale. "Then we made out." Paler. "Then he gave me a blowjob." Petey ducked back into the changing room. "Hello? You still there?"

"Yes…" he mumbled. I could hear him take his own deep breath. He stepped out of the room, dressed in the cop costume. "I don't like this one. Maybe the other one." I nodded. As soon as he stepped back inside, he spoke again. "And you stayed for all of that?"

"No, he gave me a blowjob after I left. It was a spiritual one." Petey didn't answer. He did toss the cop costume at me, harder than I thought he could. "Yeah, I stayed. Then we sat for a little while and then I came back to Bullworth."

"This is great," Petey groaned. "Just great. I knew something would happen. I just knew something—I didn't know that you'd go and have sex with him—"

"—we didn't have sex." This was an important part of the scenario. "There was no sex."

"You might as well have!" Petey argued. "It's Gary Smith—then again, he's the only person nearly half as crazy as you are—"

"—I am not crazier than—"

"—you are when you start having sex with—"

"—I am not having—"

Petey stepped out, in the gangster costume, holding his arms out and turning so that I can see it. I nodded, and he walked over to the mirror. "So, what, are you guys dating now? Are you going to go back? What's going to happen when Zoë finds out? And this one's better."

"No. Probably. If she does, she'll eat my balls for breakfast, so we don't let her know. Not yet, anyway. And you're right, this one's pretty cool. I think you should get it."

Petey damn near cringed at the word 'cool'. He shook his head. "Grab that prisoner costume for me, will you? It's more appropriate for Bullworth and my life." I snorted in amusement and went to get it while Petey went back into the changing room. "Why are you going back?"

"I don't know," I admitted while handing him the costume. He handed me the other two costumes, and I hung them back up. "I want to. I'm not…I still don't like him."

"But the sex is good."

"It's not sex."

" 'Kay, Bill."

"Bill?"

Petey stuck his head out again. "Clinton? Our old president. How do you not get that reference?"

"Um…I'm sixteen and don't care?" I answered. Petey rolled his eyes and went back inside. "But yeah. I mean…Bullworth gets boring…and as much as I hate to admit it—"

"—Gary's not boring," Petey finished for me. I grunted in response. "I know. Everyone knows that. I can see that, I just…" He trailed off, and finished changing into the costume. He stepped out. "What do you think?"

I shrugged. "It's all right. I like the other one better."

"Of course you do. The subtlety is lost on you," Petey grumbled. He trudged over to the mirror and looked at it. He adjusted the little prisoner hat. "It needs more shackles."

"Okay…" Didn't have any clue what he was going on about. "But I thought I should tell you. About the Gary stuff."

Petey sighed and turned to face me. He looked tired. "Look, it's not that you're talking to Gary. I kind of…sort of, a little bit, miss him. He was one of my only friends, you being the other one. And as shitty as he treated me, I liked him. The only reason I haven't gone to see him is because I know he could pretty much make me do anything if I sit with him long enough, and I didn't want to take that risk. But you…"

He shrugged. "You can probably hold your own with him. That's good. But Gary can't be trusted. I only survived being his friend so long because I assumed that. And even if he doesn't look like he's plotting, he is. And it just…it's weird, okay? You're you, and he's Gary—even if I could see the attraction between you two, and I sort of can—"

"Really?" I didn't.

"You're the only person who can keep up with him, and he's the only person who can screw with you," Petey replied, almost dismissing the point. "You're my friend. And I kind of like Bullworth calm. So sleeping with Gary? That's drama. And I don't like it."

He chuckled, but he didn't sound amused. He shook his head. "Not like I could get you to stop anything that you wanted to do, no matter how stupid it was." He pulled the hat off his head. "I'm getting this costume."

I wasn't sure what to say. So I said the only thing that came to mind. "I'll get it. It's a present."

He tried smiling. "Thanks."