Chapter Thirty

It took spending a night at the trailer of Gary Smith for Gord to finally realize he needed to buck up. Sitting on that ungodly horrid sofa, listening to the head boy and the psycho in the bedroom, all the prep had to do was mentally revisit the school year. How did things get as bad as they did? What did he want? Vendrome knew if he came crawling back on his knees to Derby he would be let back into Harrington House. But all of those so called friends, with the exception of Bif, threw him out onto the streets without a single care. Thinking about that clique made his throat tight, which could not be a good sign.

Where could he go? He certainly would not want to spend more than a single night at that place. Gord's thoughts traveled to little Troy. He and James had shipped the child there many times in the past. Troy said that he enjoyed being with Gary and Pete. There was a simply chilling atmosphere in the closed environment though. Gord couldn't help but feel that not everything was tidied up with Gary. Had Troy felt that way too?

As the sounds from the other room grew more feral, Vendrome couldn't help but to think about James. "How could I have hurt him so much?" he whined to himself, digging his nails into his thighs. It was utterly foolish to try to justify what he did, even just a tad bit. He had been a buffoon to fall for the greasers' trap. Gord would have done anything to take away some of the pain he had caused. He would have even gone back to halt their relationship in order to do so. Gord had once again showed James not to trust people, to keep his heart closed. Would he ever be able to freely love again after these newest wounds healed, or would there be too thick a layer of scar tissue?

Eventually the couple returned, Gary sneering at Gord. The ex-prep felt the psycho's smirk perverse. "Gord, I've gotta get going, but you can stay here for a while."

"Thank you," Gord nodded meekly towards the head boy, before forcing himself to address Gary. "I appreciate your generosity, and I promise to be gone tomorrow."

"What are you going to do?" Kowalski asked.

Gord thought carefully before responding. He would never go back to his clique. He couldn't punish James anymore by asking for forgiveness. He should not depend upon others' thin kindness any longer. He was going to have to face the situation he had feared so much. "I am going to phone Father and ask him to fill out the paperwork for a commoner's dorm."

Smith couldn't believe that he was letting some reject from Bullworth stay on his couch. According to Femme, this boy had succeeded in something that was very near and dear to his own heart: Squashing that rat Jimmy. Pathetic that Smith himself had not done such an adept job at it.

Of course Gary had known about the 'tragic' breakup of Jimmy and Gord. He kept closer tabs on the two than anyone knew about. Being doped up on medication all the time had its advantages. He could easily pull wool over Pete's eyes about his plans. Gary had even been able to convince not only Femme, but also stupid Gord, that he had had no idea about their relationship. Did they think he was that much of a freaking zombie? Troy talked about the pair all the time, and he had even discussed the relationship with his boyfriend before. Had he met Gord also? Hm, the pills did mess with him memory some afterall. Gary snickered while looking down at Vendrome. He could see the appeal of all those peroxide actresses pretending to be complete morons. It made it easy to get away with anything.

Gary considered letting Gord know about Jimmy's indiscretions. Trent bragged about his conquests all the time, and Smith had spied out a few of their rumbles before. He decided against letting the dirty cat out of the bag though. There was a good chance the two would get back together. If his understanding was correct, a certain rich and pompous clique would be trying hard to make this happen. "Ha, let them concoct their lame little scheme." It would work out for his best interest anyways. He wanted to wait to until Jimmy was truly down. Then he would pounce on him!

Kowalski lazily wondered if there would ever be a drama-free day as long as he was at Bullworth. Snow wasn't falling anymore, but the ground was still covered. He reminded himself to walk carefully.

The next day he was going to have to dig up an application for the dorms. Should he do that before or after picking up Gord from Gary's? If he grabbed it before, then they could go right to the fax machine and get it over with. Pete prayed that the former prep wouldn't back out of his decision. It seemed like the only sane one he had made in the past few months.

Even though it was late, he figured he should stop by the beach house to see if Jimmy was in. Kowalski felt a little bad about having spent some of his evening helping the guy who had cheated on his best friend. The lights were all on in the little shack like home, and he could hear music obnoxiously blaring. It had only been a few days since everything had gone down, so the music must have been Jim coping. Pete knocked on the door. Nobody answered or said any kind of greeting. Wary from the last time he barged in, he knocked several more times. "With that noise he must not be able to hear me," he chuckled out loud. A little nervous, Petey twisted the knob and pushed the unlocked door open. He was instantly appalled by what he saw.

The king of Bullworth had not expected anyone to come visiting, so he did not notice his small friend standing in the doorway. He blindly continued on, pulling back Trent's hair as hard as he could and enjoying the sharp sensation of the man biting into his bare shoulder. He did not want to think about Gord anymore. If he thought about the betrayal, then it would get to him. If it got to him, it would affect his ruling. If his ruling went down the shitter, then so did his status. His blonde companion was a good distraction.

He had spent nearly all his time after the break up with Trent. Northwick would pummel him if he cried, so that was a good incentive to keep his emotions hidden. He could still feel the nagging of guilt though. God, that was annoying.

Through the loud music that his alcohol induced friend had blaring, Jimmy thought that he could hear something. He tried to shake off that notion. The noise got louder though, so Jimmy tore his face away from Trent and looked over. "Shit!" he swore and tried to push the boulder of a person off of him.

Trent narrowed his eyes and continued to try to go at it.

Kowalski ripped the boom box's plug out of the socket.

"What the hell?"

"Petey!"

Pete's timid voice wavered through. "Get out Trent."

"Why should I listen to you?"

"I need to talk to Jimmy. Get out." Kowalski's voice sounded a little braver.

"Please, just do it, Trent."

"I should beat both of your asses for talking to me like that!"

"Leave!" Kowalski managed to shout without his voice getting high or strained. Jimmy thought his friend's forcefulness shocked all three of them.

After a few awkward minutes, Trent pulled on his shirt and shoes. Jimmy apologized about thirty times, promising to make it up to him. He thought that the door should have cracked after how hard Trent slammed it behind him. Kowalski stared intensely at Jimmy.

"What are you doing here?" Jimmy spat out.

"How long has this been going on for?"

"What's it matter to you?"

"You've been cheating on Gord."

Jimmy inhaled sharply. "In case you've been living with your head up your ass, I'll fill you in. Gord was screwing around with that greaser!"

"You were doing the same thing to him. How can you stand yourself? Being all righteous, letting him feel like a monster. I think that makes you worse than him!"

"You don't know what you're talking about! Get out of here. Go back to your screw loose boyfriend."

"Where's Troy?"

"He's been staying in my dorm room."

"Wasn't he staying here to get away from the dorms?"

Jimmy sighed and laid back on the bed. He knew he was doing wrong, but having Petey there shoving it in his face made it even worse. His hand fell back behind his head. This was Gord's bed. What was he doing bringing Trent back there? He felt like shit and didn't know what to do. Jimmy's head felt unusually heavy. There was a feeling of pressure in his cheeks and his throat was sore.

Lucky for him, the head boy left soon after he had slapped his hands to his face and began to sob. His body shook, clattering the bed on the floor. He couldn't remember the last time he had cried and felt embarrassed even doing it in privacy.