I sat in my room in complete darkness for a few hours, staring at the ceiling and just thinking. I had finally come down from the high of playing the concert after being attacked, and my face had begun to throb. I stood up from the band immediately after we had concluded our set, and started to make my way out of the auditorium with Dad and Brandon. We made it out to the foyer area of the school when I heard a voice behind me.

“Liam!” I turned around to see Kenneth running towards me urgently. “Are you ok?”

I gave him a quick nod while silently hoping that he wouldn't say too much about the drama that had been happening at R-SALT over the past couple of weeks. I hadn't gotten around to telling Dad about those things, and I wasn't sure if I ever would.

“Yeah, I'm fine,” I said when he wouldn't leave. “I just had a mishap in the restroom. I'm going to be fine, though.”

“Are you sure? It looks pretty bad.”

“We were actually just about to go to the hospital to have him checked up on. You're more than welcome to come with us if it would relax you,” Dad offered. I had told him about Landon and me having a falling out, and apparently he was wasting no time in trying to hook me up again.

“I'd like that,” Kenneth accepted.

The four of us made our way out to the car, and climbed in. Kenneth got to sit in the front, due to his status as the guest. I noticed on the ride over there that, as opposed to Landon, Kenneth didn't interact with Brandon at all. I shook my head quickly. I had to stop comparing Kenneth to Landon. I wasn't interested in Kenneth like that.

I felt awkward walking into the emergency room wearing a tuxedo. Of all the things that hospitals see on a daily basis, I was pretty sure that “band geek in tuxedo” was probably towards the bottom of the list. Dad signed us in and filled out the necessary paperwork before taking Brandon to the restroom, leaving Kenneth and I sitting in the waiting room alone.

“So why did you wanna come along so badly?” I asked looking at him.

“Because I love you, of course.”

“What!?” I asked, my complete shock showing obviously on my face.

“It was a joke,” he laughed. I'm sure I made a face at that comment, because he blushed slightly as he looked at the ground. “I mean...not that you're not able to be loved...it's just...we haven't had the greatest impressions of each other.”

“Yeah, I realize that. I still don't entirely know the truth about you and Tommy, but i'm starting to lean towards your side of things.”

“Why's that?” He asked.

“Who do you think did this to me?” I asked, indicating my face.

“Tommy?”

“Him and one of the guys from Riverton's baseball team,” I told him.

“That asshole,” he grumbled.

My dad and Brandon returned to us shortly before the doctor called us back to check up on me. Dad and I walked with him, leaving Brandon with Kenneth in the waiting room.

Dad told the doctor that I had fallen down a flight of steps as I got ready for my concert. I looked at him confused, but he gave me a “we'll talk about it later” look. The doctor ran all kinds of tests on me, only to tell me that I was completely fine. “Just a little battered and bruised,” he'd told me. I rolled my eyes as Dad and I left the room and he paid for the visit.

“I'm sorry, Dad,” I told him.

“For what?” he asked.

“Making you pay for this unnecessary visit.”

“Liam, don't worry about it. There are more important things than money. You and Brandon are two of them. Look, I know I haven't been the best father since your mom passed away, and I'm really sorry for that. I was completely wrapped up in the financial side of things and didn't stop to think that you two needed a Dad, not just a father. I'm going to make a lot of changes and things are going to get better.”

I practically fell into my dad and wrapped my arms around him. He did the same, rubbing my back slowly. “Dad, I'm sorry about all the crap I’ve caused.”

“It's OK, Liam. We've both made mistakes, and we've both got a lot of changes to make.”

I knew that my Dad and I probably looked pretty strange, standing there in the hospital hallway in a tight embrace, me in a tuxedo and beat to a pulp. I couldn't have cared less, though. If Dad and I were able to stick to our respective words, things in my life were going to be getting a lot better. At least on the home side of things. R-SALT was a completely different story.

Dad drove Kenneth home after we left, but very few words were said in the car. We got to Kenneth's house, and I walked him up to his door. “Hey, there's no school tomorrow,” he said.

“Yeah,” I said, almost sounding like a question. I didn't know where he was going with this.

“Wanna meet me at the burger place from a few weeks ago? This time I can tell you the real story about Tommy and me.”

I thought about it for a few seconds and nodded. “Sure. I'll meet you there at one.”

“It's a date,” he said before disappearing inside his house, leaving me to ponder those words.

I got back into the car, and Dad drove towards our house. “So how do you know him?” Dad asked.

“He's in my biology class.”

“Do you like him?” he asked bluntly. That was the most forward Dad had ever been when talking to me about a boy before.

“I don't think so, Dad,” I responded after recovering from the shock of him asking that. “But we're going to grab a burger at one tomorrow if I can get a ride.”

He sighed softly, a sure sign that he didn't entirely understand what was going on. “Yeah, sure, Liam. Just be careful. Something about Kenneth doesn't seem right.”

I didn't sleep well that night after the concert, looking nervously forward to meeting Kenneth for burgers the next day. Dad drove me to the place at one o'clock, and I think he thought that it was a date. “You sure seem nervous,” he commented multiple times.

“I'm fine, Dad. Just a lot of things going on in my mind.”

“If you say so,” he said. “What time should I pick you up?”

“He's got a car. I'll call you if any big plans come up.” I got out of the car before he had an opportunity to object.

I scanned the parking lot for Kenneth's car, and was a bit disappointed to not find it there. After what seemed to be a few minutes but was likely only a few seconds, his car pulled into the parking lot and he parked in a spot towards the front.

“Hey,” I said as he got out of the car. I raised my hand to wave, but didn't want to look like an idiot, so I used it to scratch the back of my head. He grinned at me.

“Hi,” he said calmly. We walked inside together and both ordered and took our seats at the same table as last time before either of us said another word.

“So, you said you wanted to tell me the rest of the story?” I asked after a few minutes of awkward burger eating.

“How much do you know again?” he asked, looking across the table at me blankly. His ability to do everything so calmly made me slightly uneasy.

“I know that you and Tommy had a thing before. I also know that he claims you cheated on him but you say that you were broken up before you got with the other guy. Honestly, that's about it.”

“Well then I've got a hell of a lot to tell you,” he said bluntly. “Tommy and I had a relationship, if you wanna call it that, for about 3 months. Basically, we got together to mess around and then went on our merry ways. That's all he wanted, I guess, but I thought he was actually interested in me. Mistake number one. So after a while I told him that if he didn't start caring about me that he wasn't going to keep getting some. Well, after that we quit talking for a while. About a week later he called me up and told me that he was sorry and I, being the idiot I was, believed him. I went over to his house to make up with him, but he hadn't changed. Almost as soon as I got in the door he started putting the moves on me. I tried to get away but,” he took a long pause at this part, “he raped me.”

I sat there in stunned silence for a few minutes before I was able to choke out an “I'm sorry.”

He waved his hand in the air to dismiss it. “It's something I'm dealing with. That's why I hate him so much. Well, part of it. After he raped me, he started “dating” my sister. I wasn't going to let the same thing happen to her that happened to me, so I started some rumors going around about Tommy, including that he was a pedophile and liked little boys.”

“That's pretty shitty of you,” I told him honestly. Our food had been all but forgotten as he told me his past.

“Yeah, well, that's how things happened. I'd be lying if I said I regretted it. He did some bad things to me, and that was far from the worst thing I thought of doing to him.”

I picked up a fry and deposited it in my mouth. “So that's really the truth, huh?” I asked.

“You don't believe me?”

“I do, sadly. I heard him and the baseball player talking in the bathroom as I was being attacked, and I think that he's doing something similar to Jake.”

“It wouldn't surprise me,” he said.

“He said that he's just using him and talked about hating us.”

“Who? Me and you?”

“Gay people in general, I suppose,” I told him with a shrug.

“Again, that hardly surprises me. I wish we had some evidence on him to put him in jail.”

“You should have reported him after he raped you,” I said.

“Don't blame me,” he snapped.

“I wasn't….”

“Don't try to talk to me like an idiot,” he interrupted me. “Do you have any clue how hard it is to be raped by the closest thing you've had to a boyfriend?”

“Kenneth, calm down,” I said as calmly as I could. “I'm not blaming you for anything. I just think that we coulda solved a lot of this if you would have reported him. I'm not blaming you, though. I know how hard it must have been.”

“So...do you have somewhere you need to be?” He asked, after yet another awkward pause.

“There's a few things I need to do,” I told him. “But could I get a ride by Landon's house?”

“Why do you want to go there?” He asked, an almost possessive tone in his voice.

“I just need to clear a few things up,” I told him.

“Sure. Let's go.”

I followed him out to his car and climbed into the passenger side. “I'm really sorry about what I said,” I apologized. I wasn't entirely sure why I was apologizing, but he seemed like he was mad at me over it still.

“It's OK,” he replied as he started his car.

We sat in silence except for my directions to Landon's house. Kenneth pulled up in front, and I sat with him for a minute before putting my hand on the door handle. “So I guess I'll see you at school on Monday?” I asked.

He nodded, and I got out of the car. I walked up to the front door and rang the bell. It was quickly opened by a smiling Mrs. Isert. “Hi, Liam,” she greeted me cheerfully. “What brings you here today?”

“I was just coming by to see Landon for a little bit. I had some free time and wanted to see him.”

“Sure, he's right up the stairs in his room. I'd knock before entering though. He's got his own computer,” she told me suggestively. I blushed furiously before following her directions up to the door.

I knocked and heard “come on in,” after a minute. I opened the door slowly, and saw Landon lying on his stomach reading a book.

“Hey,” I said and he looked up from his book to me quickly.

“Liam!” By the time the word had stopped rebounding around his room, he had stood up and embraced me tightly.

“Hey,” I said, slightly surprised at the affection. “What's up?”

“Nothin' really. Just been doing a lot of reading. Come on and sit down,” he rambled. I had to smile at that.

I sat on the foot of his bed and took a look around the room. It was pretty neat for a teenaged boy's room, other than a few discarded clothing items and books scattered here and there. The walls were covered in posters of artists that he either liked or thought were hot, and he had two large bookshelves full of literature.

“So what'd you come by for?” he asked.

“I'm not allowed to come see a friend?” I asked teasingly.

“Well, you are, but I thought maybe after what I did we wouldn't exactly be friends anymore.”

“It's no big deal, Landon,” I said. “We weren't ever officially together, so it's not like I can call it cheating.”

“I know, but….”

“I said it's no big deal,” I cut him off. “But if you wanna make it up to me, I have a favor that you can help me with.”

“What's that?” he asked.

I told Landon the story of what happened to me in the bathroom the night of the band concert, and how I had found out about Tommy just using Jake.

“As bad as that is,” he started slowly. I could tell he was feeling awkward about what he was about to say next.

“What is it?”

“Well, it's not really that big of a deal. Jake's not gonna be living with Tommy for much longer.”

“What happened between them?” I asked.

“Nothing. Jake doesn't know anything about this. But they're closing R-SALT.”

 

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