Author's Note: Yeeep, so this is chapter twenty-nine. I hope you enjoy, though it got a little thrown together. Getting closer to the final chapter (there's still eighteen more to go), I'm becoming impatient. I like the ending. :3

Archy the cockroach: Thanks for clearing that up! I kept getting confused about his last name (I like Tremblay better, since it's more unique), so I decided to write something before some boob internet yelled at me.

A Boy Named Troy

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Petey could not help but pace anxiously from one end of the trailer home to the other. Gary would most likely be returning home any moment and the younger boy had a feeling he would not like the surprise he had in store for him. The taller boy would probably glare, then sneer, and then yell. Pete loved him more than anything, but still feared him. That year without his medication couldn't be erased so completely yet.

"Are you quite sure that my staying here will be alright?" Gord asked from where he was comfortably sprawled out on the couch.

"Yeah, yeah, sure."

"Then stop pacing like a moron!"

Kowalski halted his feet, watching the ex-prep carefully. His body position and gestures read that he was calm or even aloof, but he seemed less able to control his facial expressions. A look of relief washed over Gord when he stopped walking back and forth, though he couldn't imagine why. "Are you okay?" The usually neatly groomed Vendome certainly did not appear to be. His clothes were torn and eyes puffy. A few dark blotches were starting to show on his face and neck. The latter were probably not from any kind of abuse though.

Gord scoffed. He was interrupted by whatever he was going to say by the front door creaking open.

"Femme?" Gary called out carefully, not moving a step away from the entrance. "I never leave the lights on, so it better be you in here." There was a certain growl in his voice. Pete liked to imagine that his boyfriend was a wild animal and only he could tame him. This wasn't a time for romantic daydreaming though.

"Yeah, it's me." Some sort of grunt came in reply (something that Smith would have never allowed himself to do a year ago because it would have 'lowered him to the idiocy of Jimmy') and by the sound of it he began remove his shoes.

Gord raised an eyebrow, amusement coming to his face. "Femme?"

"Shut up!" Petey tried to glare, but he had never been very good at that. "Doesn't Jim have any names for you?" The brunette visiably flinched at the question that was not meant to be malicious at all. The head boy was going to apologize, but was cut off by the owner of the home.

"Who the hell is with you?" The scarred face soon made an appearance in the living room, eyes narrowing down on Vendome.

"G-Gord." Pete answered meekly. "Jimmy's friend."

"What is he doing here, in my house no less?"

Discretion wasn't exactly the preps game, so when he muttered "I am surprised a smart boy like you can call this a house" under his breath, everyone heard.

"Careful richie, there aren't any prefects to pull me off you around here." Gary smirked. "Looks like someone had the same idea as me. What happened, your big bad boyfriend get a little rough in the sack?" The boy on the couch reached to touch a bruise on his left cheek. "Petey, don't make me ask again; what is he doing here?"

`*~~~*`

Honestly, Pete wasn't sure if he understood everything that had happened to Gord. He planned to try his best to explain it, but first decided to butter up to his boyfriend. To help buy some time to plan what he would say, he had the prep get off the couch and Gary sit down. "Why don't you just watch a movie while I go make us some hot chocolate?" he coaxed, pushing a tape into the VCR. Upon seeing the initial nudity and hearing the moaning, he quickly popped it back out.

"Filth." the ex-prep muttered and Smith laughed. Kowalski tried another one of the tapes laying out on top of the television, finding more luck this time.

"No matter how long you spend trying to find some way of bringing me around, it won't work."

"We'll see." Pete grabbed one of Vendome's arms and pulled him into the kitchen.

Stirring a dark powder in with milk he had boiling on the stove, Pete spoke to the prep leaned against a wall. "I'm still not entirely sure if I understand your situation completely."

"It is not complicated."

"You've been cheating on Jimmy, and now expect us to help. Does that sum it up?" Petey was surprised at how acidic his words came off. He shouldn't have been though; Gord hurt one of his closest friends and was probably going to cause the school to go into disarray again.

"I love Jimmy!" Vendome defensively snapped, sounding a lot like a certain girl. "I did not mean to hurt him. In fact, I was trying to help."

"By messing around behind his back? I could never do that to Gary."

"We are not like you two."

"It just had to be with a greaser, didn't it? Jim had come close to finally getting past his trouble with that clique, and you've probably just thrown all that progress down the drain." His stirring became harsher, spilling some of the liquid over the side of the pot. The stove hissed loudly.

"Maybe those grease bags deserve some type of punishment." Gord muttered.

Pete whipped around to face him. "Is that what this has all been about? Preps conspiring against the greasers?" Vendome shook his head. "Jim actually cared about you, so how dare you just use him for some stupid scheme!"

"You could not be more wrong!" Gord's voice was low and probably as close to dangerous sounding as it came. "It was Johnny who had devised a plan, not Derby. Even if he had made one too, I would not know about it since I have been removed from my group."

"Then why did Bif bring you to me?"

"Because you are the head boy and he thought you might be able to help me."

"What were you doing with him? From what I've seen, he would never go against Derby for all the gold in the world."

"He found me after I left Vance. After I crossed all the way through New Coventry, greasers harassing me the entire trek. Bif helped me gain enough courage to beg Jimmy to take me back."

"I'm guessing he didn't."

"I swear, the only reason I ended up with Vance was because I had been manipulated by that dirty Johnny V. When I saw how much my time with Vance calmed me down in my relationship with James, I was too scared that things would go back to being so terribly rocky again to end things. I know my actions were wrong, but my heart was in the right place!"

Clapping sounded and Gary appeared in the kitchen's entrance. "Drama drama drama." he chuckled darkly, clucking his tongue. "That nearly sounded like a line stolen from your vault, Femme."

"Gare…" Petey sighed. The smallest boy there was starting to actually feel a bit of sympathy for the cheater. No, that wasn't completely true. He had felt sorry for Gord as soon as Bif showed up at his desk with him. This new feeling was understanding starting to sink in. It was a lousy thing for the prep to have done to his friend, but at least it hadn't been entirely selfish. Hadn't Petey been afraid that Jimmy would go back to Trent a few months ago? That would have simply been for pleasure, with no regard to Gord.

"I still won't let him stay with me. There is no place for ridiculous Bullworth drama here."

"C'mon Gary. It'd only be for a few days, until we find somewhere else for him to live." Pete tried to vouch for the prep, already knowing of his living situation from Jimmy.

"You cannot just leave me to slumber in a bush all night long!" Gord spoke up for himself. His desperation showed as much as his annoyance.

"I don't see why not." Gary retorted, just as irritated.

Petey knew nothing else to do, so he chuckled nervously. "Don't be so harsh Gare. What if you had your heart broken? Wouldn't you want some kindness showed to you then?"

Smith dismissed this with a half grin and, "We'd never split up, let alone have you being the one to boot it." The prep may not have noticed the way Pete bit his lower lip upon hearing this, but Gary did. Nothing ever slipped past Gary Smith.

`*~~~*`

"Ow, ow Gary, what's your problem?" Petey asked as his boyfriend roughly lead him into the bedroom by his elbow. Nothing else had been said between the three of them, Gary just started shoving the smaller boy away. Kowalski knew that he had been brought into the other room where the door was slammed shut for privacy, but he couldn't think of why they needed it.

"What the hell was with that cutesy 'I'm unsure of that' bullshit you pulled back there?" Smith fumed.

"Gary, what are you talking about?" Pete had an idea of what he was talking about though. Instantly, he regretted the previous use of his body language.

"Don't lie, you know what you did." The head boy didn't say anything to this. "You bit your fucking lip!" the furious Gary explained.

"Calm down." Pete raised his hands, palms out, in front of himself defensively. "A lot of kids think they'll be together forever, but then they grow up and only a handful actually do."

The tall slender guy crossed his arms, displeased. "Who says we can't get all old and become a drain on society together?"

"I never said we couldn't!" He tried to explain his reasoning, but only ended up with his foot further in his mouth. "It's just that I have to move on soon, to my future." That came out much worse than he meant it to.

Gary's tone went eerily calm and a quizzical look came to his face. "Are you trying to say that I have no future?"

"No! Of course not!" His dirty secret thoughts were finally coming out into the open. "Um… it's just…"

His mistake ridden boyfriend ignored his bumbling. "Do you actually think that I wouldn't shoot my brains out if I thought that I'd have to crawl along here at this low forever?" That sounded like something he would do for the sake of his pride. "Sure I'm stuck at this demeaning job and crapshack now, but I won't be forever. In a couple of months, I'll be eighteen and then I can go through one of those online programs and get my high school degree." So far everything sounded reasonable. A heat rose up in Petey. "Once I have that, things will get easier. I'll be able to get a slightly better job, work my way through some two-bit community college," Gary was now smirking slightly. He was probably already thinking of getting out of Blue Skies.

Kowalski was not entirely convinced though. "Gary, high schools refuse to take you because of last year. What college will risk having you?"

Smith's eyes darkened, but his smirk remained. "My past will be locked away on my juvenile record. Local schools may have heard of me, but I doubt the whole country has been alerted to one teenager having troubles with his mental health. Hell, I'd even be willing to change my name, but I don't think it'll come to that. How fucking rare do you think 'Gary Smith' is?" Feeling ashamed, Pete's face turned even redder. "I am not going to let Bullworth hold me back in life. I am a genius; somebody is going to want me."

Petey had a feeling that Gary would do much better in the business world than himself. He was like one of those characters in soap operas: smart, handsome, devious, and ruthless. "Gare, I am so sorry… I was so busy worrying about what will happen to me, that I didn't even stop to consider you getting up out of here." He concentrated hard on staring at his shoes, slightly afraid that he would burst out in tears. Gary chuckled and pulled the smaller boy into body, wrapping his long arms around Petey.

"That is exactly why I am the brains of this relationship." Pete smiled into his boyfriend's chest. He was thankful that he had been forgiven so easily. Gary even seemed to have forgotten about Gord who was still in the other room. "Even if," his attention was called back. "by some rare chance, I am unable to get out of this life, would it really be so bad down here with me? Sure we'd have to work hard at debasing jobs that don't pay nearly enough, but we could save money. One day we would have enough to rent a house, maybe even adopt some brats." Kowalski beamed at the mention of kids. "Or, to save money, you could just knock up some woman that would look suspiciously like your mother." That was a mood killer. The head boy pulled away, laughing, and shoved his boyfriend playfully in the chest. Gary's smirk grew as he grabbed Petey's wrists and held them captive. He pulled their bodies closer together again.

Why couldn't a psycho and a femme boy have their love?