Disclaimer:
Magz does not own Bully.Author's Note: I had a lot of homework tonight. I drank half an energy drink to stay awake and now here I am, three hours later, still shaking. Haha. I can't get to sleep, so I decided to write this chapter.
Animeflamechick: I love stories that are about more than one couple! There are still a few pairings that will arise in later chapters of this fic.
Kai19999: Aw, thanks! I'm going to a town of less than two hundred people though (I'm not even exaggerating), so it probably won't be that magical of a week. I hope you are right about your feeling! ^-^
EvilChick101: I love Vance, but I actually do not like Johnny very much. I'm not overly fond of Derby either though, so maybe I just have a thing against the clique leaders. ^-^; You are too kind. :3
A Boy Named Troy
Chapter Fifteen
That time of year always made it difficult for Petey to concentrate. In just seventeen days, Bullworth would have its week of winter holiday vacation, making every student feel itchy as they sat in dreaded desks, waiting to be set free. Every student except Pete that was. He never seemed to be able to join them in their longing day dreams to be at home, surrounded by presents and loving family. He knew he would be forced to stay at school with the other boys who had a rejecting home. Remembering the past years, he sighed and looked up from his endless paperwork. There was a window above his tilted desk and outside feathery cotton candy like flurries were drifting down. No worries weighted them down on their peaceful descent. Kowalski knew that he would never be able to finish calculating grade reductions in the mindset he held.
)-v---
Petey had packed both his head boy and school work neatly into a simple black messenger bag before soundlessly leaving his room, the dorm building, and Bullworth grounds all together. When he left it had already been five 'til ten, so he figured it had to be around eleven-thirty by the time he reached a tagged Blue Skies road sign. He knew it was an incredibly stupid idea to leave so late on a winter night, especially since the only warm clothes he had were a puffy dark navy coat and a matching knitted hat and mittens. Something inside of him decided to go for it anyways though. It was a strange new feeling, dependency.
Most of Gary's neighbors tried to make their dreary trailer park into a more cheery place by decorating for the holidays. The singlewide to the right of his friend's home had bright red and green lights strung around the roof. It was a shame that more than half of the bulbs were missing or blown out. A townie, whose family lived on the other side of Smith, had set up a plastic Santa Claus and three reindeer that were plugged into an outlet somewhere inside via an extension cord. Petey was not surprised that his boyfriend had neglected to do anything special.
His knocks on the cheap front door came feable. Thick violet curtains were drawn, so Pete could not take a peek inside. A bad feeling that made its home in his stomach returned. "I sure do hope he's home." he thought to himself, pounding three more times. The chance that Gary would be out was slim to none. Smith spent most of his free time resting for a job that could barely pay for his home, food, and medication. It was a pathetic excuse for a life, but thinking about it made Petey feel uncomfortable. What would happen when the head boy graduated the following year? He had planned his whole life on going to college, getting a good job, and then rising in the ranks, but could he really leave his psycho behind? Sure Gary could try and tag along, moving to a cheap room wherever Kowalski's future university was, only, could he afford it? How many places would hire a non-high school graduate fulltime, especially one with a rep like Gary? It was not fair that they both had their whole lives ahead of them, but only one had a chance of doing something with it.
No one ever came and answered the door, but that was okay; Petey had a spare key. He let himself in, taking utmost care in being quiet at first. He imagined that Gary was already passed out on top of the sheets on his bed, probably only wearing boxers despite the cold. Pete planned to turn on the kitchen light and attempt to finish half of the stack of papers he had to fill out. His plan was ruined as soon as he walked through the door and looked to the right where the open living room was located. (There were actually only two rooms that were separated by private walls: the bedroom and the bathroom. The front door led straight into the kitchen that was only separated from the living room by where the linoleum stopped and brown shaggy carpet began.) The tall floor lamp next to the lime green, stuffing missing, two-person sofa was turned on to the brightest level. The TV was blaring. No doubt a VCR tape was playing, since Gary received no signal.
"Gare?" Pete closed the door behind him and kicked his shoes off. Before entering any further, he bent down and neatly arranged the sneakers against a wall.
Gary was lounged in the middle of the couch, both arms stretching out on the back. A much smaller, hat wearing person was comfortably leaning into his side. Neither of them bothered to remove their eyes from the television set. "Hey Petey. I thought you did grunt work for Crabblebitch and Danvers Friday nights."
The petite body next to the scarred man turned his head to get a glimpse at Pete. "Hi!" Troy brightly greeted before yawning.
"Hey buddy." he responded with a half wave before treading further into the house. "You were right there and you couldn't answer the door for me?"
"Would there be any point in my doing that?" Gary did not sound at all annoyed with his younger boyfriend's nagging. "I gave you a key for a reason." Never ungluing his eyes, he patted down on the little space left that was next to him. Petey set his bag down on top of his shoes and proceeded to slip off his coat and lie it down a little farther away from his other items. It was quite chilly inside so, like Troy, he decided to leave his hat and mittens on.
The three of them spoke very little until the movie was over. It was an old cartoon film about a boy who could travel into storybooks and how he met a twelve year old, overly breasted, female fairy who he fell in love with and needed to save from an evil English rhino. Jimmy must have bought it for his unofficial ward. Gary laughed a few times, declaring it was amazingly camp. Each time he moved, it would jostle Troy awake, who would fall asleep again on Smith within minutes. The older two decided that it would be a good idea to let the child be alone in a darkened living room for the rest of the night.
Pete disappeared into the bedroom that had little room for anything but the oversized bed first. Gary soon joined him, after rewinding the tape and shutting off all lights but the bathroom's and the one in the room they now stood in. "So what's Troy doing here anyways?"
"Hopkins barged in about an hour before you did. He said that Gord went missing or something and that he wanted to go look for him."
"Gord's missing?" Petey questioned with concern.
"Wonderful," Gary rolled his eyes. Without hesitation, he began to unbutton his baggy thin jean work shirt that had grease stains on it. A year ago, when Smith was still safe at school and his family willing to pay for him to live, Pete would have thoroughly enjoyed watching the taller male strip off his clothing. Now though, a chest that had once proudly boasted some lines of definition, was thinning and allowing ribs to show. "We have established that you can, in fact, hear." His pants went next before he sloppily flopped down on his bed, folding up his arms under the back of his head. "They had a lover's quarrel and Preppie Boy ran off."
"I heard about the fight." Kowalski shifted his weight to his left foot and then back to his right. "Jim wouldn't say that he loved Gord." He empathetically looked down with a small frown.
"Ha," the taller one arrogantly started. "Yet another thing that I can do better than Hopkins."
"What?"
"Relationships. I cream the king in relationships." Petey shrugged, unsure if it was the truth or not. An annoyed look crossed his boyfriend's face. "You have got to be fucking kidding me. Do you honestly think that fat asshole makes a better partner than me?" The head boy kept his mouth shut. "Speak femme."
Very quietly, timidly, Pete finally replied with a growing bother in the pit of his stomach, "You won't kiss me in front of people."
Gary chuckled softly. Did a trace of relief brush against his tired features? "But that's just personal taste. Even if I was the straightest piece of man candy around, I wouldn't fool around with my super model wife in public. Would you really want me to slobber all over you with the crowds of pigheaded bigots watching?"
His frown didn't dissipate. "I guess not."
"However, if the moment ever came along when someone asked, I would admit how I felt about you."
"Really?" He was beginning to warm up a little.
"Hell yes. I am not ashamed of any of the things we do." The touches of a shy smile tugged at the corners of the head boy's mouth, but it soon disappeared with the next comment. "I'm not even embarrassed by the things I do to you."
"Gare." Pete warned, but, of course, it was ignored.
Gary's thin lips curled into a devilish grin. "And I am pretty damn happy about all the things you do to me." A rose color filled the face of the younger teen. "Are you coming to bed or what? I'm tired out from having to watch goddamn Hopkins' ward all night."
)-v---
Petey woke up early the next morning, light from the sun barely making it through the bedroom window with the curtains tied open. Besides his hat and one mitten slipping off sometime during the night, Kowalski was very much the same as he was before he retired. Gary was still asleep, mumbling a little. He was actually latched onto the shorter boy's side, which was a surprise; usually, he was too restless of a sleeper to stay in one place too long. If Pete did move onto college alone, he was sure that he would miss these calm moments the most.
"Mhmm, Femme… what time is it?" Smith garbled. He must not have been completely unconscious.
Petey knew that he would be unable to move from Gary's grasp, so he did not even embarrass himself by attempting it. Instead, he just estimated his answer by the height of the sun. "Around five."
"I wonder if Troy is one of those monsters that wake up early." The head boy doubted it after thinking about the child's school parents. "You know, I'm kind of attached to that brat."
"So am I." Pete smiled softly.
"His eyes brightened up so much as soon as I opened the door last night. You should have seen it." Kowalski wrongly assumed that the sincere statement was nothing short of sweet. It made him want to throw away his life, just so he could crawl along the bottom of society forever with Gary.