The A-Z Club
Chapter Nine
warning: mentions of drug use.
"I can't." Alfred said.
"What?"
"I can't come with you." Alfred said. He rubbed his foot against the floor, looking down.
"Why not?" Arthur said, dropping his bag back to the ground. "You said you loved me."
Alfred pouted.
"I do. I didn't think...I can't leave." Alfred said. "This is my hometown."
"So? My family live here." Arthur said. He shifts from foot to foot, and steps closer, facing Alfred with his arms crossed tightly around his frame.
"But my family -" Alfred cut himself off. Arthur swallowed.
"Your family what?"
"My family care about me."
"Fuck you." Arthur said, picking up the backpack again and swinging it over his shoulders.
"Arthur." Alfred said. "Don't leave, please."
"Why not? It's not like I have a family here that care about me." Arthur said, feeling childish. He knew Alfred was telling the truth - that was the whole point. They were his entire problem, the cause of everything that went wrong in his life.
"I care about you, and so does Francis." Alfred said. "We should he enough."
"You don't know anything, Alfred." Arthur said. "There's no point in staying here. Francis doesn't care about me. He likes bossing me around. And you -"
"I care about you, don't you say I don't, because I do." Alfred interrupted. Arthur was scowling, nearly shouting when he spoke.
"You shouldn't care about me." Arthur said. "Because I don't care about you."
Then again, Arthur knew his was no saint. He was his mother's blood, and by proxy, a mean person.
He was the cause of his own problems. His family were the salt to the wound.
"Liar." Alfred said. "You're just saying that so I'll let you leave."
"Let me leave?" Arthur said, rolling his eyes. "I'm leaving regardless."
"I'm stronger than you. Besides, you said you loved me."
"I lied." Arthur said. "I don't love you. I don't even like you. I thought you were a cute, stupid little virgin and I wanted to fuck you. That's all."
Arthur was staring at Alfred, daring him to speak, his eyes intense. His breathing heavy, as though he'd ran a marathon.
"L-liar." Alfred said again, but this time he knew his voice lacked conviction.
"Ask Francis. We made a bet. If I slept with you then he stopped bothering me. I only said I love you so I could screw you."
"We didn't."
"I felt sorry for you. I pitied you." Arthur said. "I'm leaving."
"Arthur."
Arthur paused by the door, and looked back.
"Maybe I'm a gullible virgin, but you're a pathetic drop-out junkie waster."
Arthur made a bored, tutting sound under his breath.
"Maybe you should learn to judge a book by it's cover," He said and then he left.
Alfred watched the door for a few seconds after he'd gone.
He wanted to believe it was a lie, that Arthur was just being hurtful, but with everything he knew about Arthur Kirkland, he knew it was very much in character for him.
He went to the window and looked down, watching Arthur trudge down the street, heaving his backpack up his shoulders only for it to slip down again. At the end of the street, Arthur paused and Alfred could still just about see the expression on his face. He didn't look angry any more, just sad and lost, and maybe even a little bit scared.
"Alf?" A small voice said in the doorway. Alfred turned around. Matthew leant against the doorframe.
"What happened?"
"I was completely right about him." Alfred said.
88
Alfred's sadness for Arthur passed with every step he took, soon replacing itself with anger. He arrived at school earlier than usual, and he began to look around. He didn't imagine Francis to be the type of person to get to school early, but extra time searching for him was time well spent. He hadn't ever liked Francis, particularly. There was no dislike, but there wasn't anything tying them together or any kind of friendship other than Arthur. But that didn't mean that he couldn't be angry at Francis, or even feel betrayed by him.
He felt like strangling him.
Alfred searched in the library, glaring at Arthur's favourite desk as though it was the one that had made a humiliating and cruel deal. Why would Arthur do that? Want to out him? Want to make everyone at school hate him, the football team, his parents, even?
How could he be so mean?
Alfred didn't care, he said to himself. It was a stupid crush, nothing more.
Arthur was a nobody, and would probably die that way.
He hoped.
No, he didn't really think that. He did care. He cared a lot, more than he should.
That's why he was so angry.
88
Arthur didn't know exactly where he was going. This hadn't been the plan. He plan was ruined. He wanted to turn back, knock on Alfred's door and beg for forgiveness.
Of course he didn't do that.
That would have been the right thing to do, and everyone knows that Arthur Kirkland didn't make the right decisions. He didn't do anything right, and he never had done.
His throat was sore. His eyes felt swollen. He didn't cry, he never cried. He got on the next bus into the city and sat at the back. The ride would be long, long enough to close his eyes.
He had a new plan now, one more suited for a pathetic, drop-out junkie waster.
88.
"How is our Arthur this morning?"
Alfred had stopped looking for Francis, but Francis had found him. He gritted his teeth together, trying to remember to breathe slowly and not to lady out.
"I don't know. We had an argument."
"Do not worry, Arthur has always been a little grumpy in the mornings."
"It wasn't because it was morning, idiot. It was because of your stupid bet."
"Oh, merde."
"Yes, merde. Whatever that means." Alfred said.
"It means -"
"I don't care what it means!" Alfred said, "Did you think it was funny? To try and...and...get me to lose my virginity to someone like him?"
"Virginity is very overrated, Alfred." Francis said. "And no, I did not think it was funny. I thought Arthur would lose. He is not very charming. I wanted him to be safe. I made that bet because he is like a brother and I care about him."
"Bullshit."
"Alfred, I do not care about you. I don't know you. You seem nice but I care more about Arthur's safety than I care about your sex life. Now, where is he?"
"He stormed off." Alfred said.
"Why?"
Alfred shrugged, "The argument got heated. He lied to me. He said he loved me last night and this morning I found out it meant nothing."
Francis sighed. He began to walk away. It was going to be yet another evening of clearing up after Arthur, following his trail, and dragging him back to his house to sober up.
"Where are you going?"
"I apologise for making the bet." Francis said. "It was wrong of me to allow him to use you. But I need to find him."
"D'you know where he is?"
"Do you care?"
"A little."
"Then I have an idea. And I should find him quickly, if he's with who I think he's with."
Alfred watched Francis walk away, before deciding to run after him.
88
They spent most of the bus ride in silence. The bus was empty, apart from the bus driver. You could hear a mouse squeak a hundred miles away.
"Even if I forgave him, which I totally don't, by the way, I said some bad things to him, too." Alfred said, eventually.
Francis looked bored. "Like what?"
"I said his family don't care about him."
"That is true." Francis gazed out of the window.
"And I called him a drop-out junkie."
"Also true, I guess." Francis said. "Though a little mean."
"So the crack rumours were true? What about the dealing ones?"
Francis shook his head.
"Not crack. He took heroin for a while last year, when his stepfather starting getting worse. That's when he really starting falling behind at school. Lucky he wasn't in too deep. Deep enough, but he did not drown." Francis said. "And no, he did not deal."
"Oh." Alfred said. "I wish I hadn't said that."
He looked out the window of the bus.
"Don't you drive or something?" Alfred said.
"I drive, but I did not want to bring my car to a neighbourhood like this."