We're Working On It (18 page)

Jeremy recovered from the blow to his stomach, and seeing Cory being held by his two friends, started to close on Cory.

Matt saw Jeremy move closer to Cory. He could see that, Jeremy being hit himself, hate had now filled Jeremy, and so he stepped in front of him in an effort to stop him.

But Jeremy was in a rage and didn’t stop.

Matt stumbled backward as Jeremy’s first fist hit him in the cheek, and the second followed in an instant, hitting him in the other side of his face. Matt fell to the ground.

Jeremy continued toward Cory, but Kevin, still lying on the ground, was in his way. As Jeremy stepped around Kevin, he turned and kicked him hard in the ribs.

“Ahhhhhhggggghhhh,” Kevin screamed as he rolled over.

Jeremy approached the imprisoned Cory.

“Good for nothing faggot!” Jeremy yelled. He then hit Cory squarely in the face.

“God damned queer!” Jeremy cried.

Jeremy then hit Cory in the stomach, hard, and then hit him again in the face.

Cory’s blood was reaching his chin.

Jeremy was about to hit Cory again when he was pushed to the side. He looked up and saw Matt slowly moving in between Cory and himself. Jeremy saw Matt’s bloody face before him but something in Matt’s eyes startled him, so he held his glare on Matt, wondering if he should take him on again.

Matt was breathing heavily, charged with determination. In a low voice, he whispered to Jeremy.

“If you make one more move Jeremy, you...are...dead.”

Matt paused for a moment, waiting for Jeremy to back off, but Jeremy stood his ground.

“Believe in me, Jeremy. This is no joke,” Matt continued with resolve. Jeremy saw the determination in Matt’s face and backed off slightly. He snapped his head at his two friends, and they released Cory. Cory dropped to the ground as Jeremy and his friends continued to back off.

Cory looked up at Jeremy with disbelief as he and the other two boys were backing away, but his mind quickly went to Kevin. Still feeling the pain from his own beating, he mustering his strength, and began crawling toward his friend. As he saw Kevin doubled over in a fetal position, he became frightened. He had to help him.

“Kevin!” Cory screamed.

Matt moved over to where Cory and Kevin were lying on the ground, but he kept his eyes on Jeremy. He wasn’t going to give him another chance. As Jeremy and his friends continued to walk away, Matt turned his attention to his friends.

Cory then looked up at Matt with tears in his eyes.

“Matt, we’ve got to get him home,” Cory yelled.

“Oh God, Cory, he looks awful,” Matt answered Cory.

Matt turned his head one more time in Jeremy’s direction and then felt comfortable as he saw them leaving the soccer field.”

“Let’s go Cory. It’s not far from here,” Matt said as he knelt down to help Cory pick up Kevin.

Kevin wasn’t that heavy and he was also able to help himself stand, but couldn’t fully stand erect, holding the side where the kick landed. The three boys walked slowly off the soccer field toward Kevin’s home.

Kevin’s mother opened the door shortly after the first ring of the doorbell. Cory was relieved to see her, but if she hadn’t come to the door, he was going to storm in anyway.

His mother looked at Cory and a smile started to cross her face, but then she saw her son.

“Oh, dear God, what’s happened?” she yelled in horror.

The boys couldn’t speak as they both turned and looked at Kevin, and Kevin’s mother didn’t wait for an answer.

“Help him inside.” She told Cory and Matt as she stepped aside. As they crossed the door threshold, she wrapped her arm around Kevin’s shoulders.

Cory and Matt then released Kevin to his mother’s care.

Sitting at the kitchen table moments later, Cory and Matt waited anxiously for word from Kevin’s mother. She was still upstairs with her son, and the silence was making them both nervous.

“How is he? I need to know.” Cory yelled to no one in particular as he jumped up suddenly. He started pacing the floor.

Just as the suspense was almost more than Cory could bear, he heard Kevin’s mother’s footsteps descending the staircase. He turned and went to the bottom of the stairs, looking up with fear. Matt followed quietly behind Cory and he too looked up with questions.

“How is he? He’ll be alright, won’t he? Cory whimpered.

Kevin’s mother, seeing the anguish in both Cory and Matt, quickly spoke to relieve them before she reached the bottom step.

“He’s fine now. Let’s go into the kitchen.”

Cory practically ran to the kitchen and quickly sat at the table. His eyes silently followed Kevin’s mother as she took a chair out and sat down next to him.

“Cory, Matt. He’ll be alright. After I cleaned the dried blood off of him, it didn’t look so bad. I’m taking him to the hospital emergency room to have him looked over though. He was kicked pretty hard I hear.”

“I’m going with you!” Cory shouted, standing up.

“No. You boys stay here, or go home. There’s nothing more that you can do right now. He’s going to be fine. I’m just taking him there as a precautionary measure, just to make sure he’s alright.”

“We’re so sorry that this happened. Kevin didn’t do anything wrong,” Cory said looking directly at Kevin’s mother.

“I know. You boys go on home now,” She said rising from her chair. She turned and looked directly at Cory and Matt. “You boys need to get yourselves cleaned up too. You don’t look so good right now.”

“Kevin will be okay, won’t he?” Cory asked again, his eyes pleading. He had to make sure that all was well.

“We’ll call you as soon as we’re back from the hospital,” She replied.

Kevin’s mother saw that same look in Cory’s eyes that she had seen many times before. This was more than mere friendship for her son. She then smiled at him knowingly.

Cory returned the smile, bowed his head slightly, nodded, and then both boys left the room.

They hadn’t spoken to each other during their walk home, both being in their own world. When they reached Cory’s house, Richard went into a tirade. He wanted to know why they were so bloody. After Matt explained what had happened, Richard calmed down slightly and wanted to know all about Kevin’s injuries.

“This isn’t right. The bullying has got to stop,” Richard exclaimed.

Matt was quiet but Cory wasn’t.

“Richard, I hate it too. Our Principal doesn’t seem to put a lot of pressure on the rest of the school to follow the rules, you know, those anti-bullying rules. But I’ve learned something from you, Richard. I’m not going to back down like you didn’t back down when you found out what had happened to me. Matt was trying to protect me. Kevin was trying to protect me. They cared. They cared about me. It’s just something they do. And I care about them too, a lot.”

Matt remained very silent.

Richard, sitting down and looking exhausted, gave out a sigh.

“Why don’t you two go on upstairs and get cleaned up.”

As the boys went upstairs, Richard looked up at them walking away from him. Richard knew that there was a lot more to Cory than there was just 2 months ago. He saw that ‘will’ again, stronger, growing. He also saw the love for Kevin that Cory had let out a month ago. It hadn’t stopped. No, it was still growing, if that were even possible.

Entering Cory’s room, Matt sat in the chair in front of Cory’s computer, staring at the blank screen. Matt had remained quiet from the moment that he had left Kevin’s house except for explaining to Richard what had happened. Something about the telling again of what had happened, had gotten to Matt.

Cory sat on his bed staring out the window at the approaching evening sky. It was dead silent.

“Something happened out there to me today,” Matt suddenly said to the blank computer monitor.”

Cory looked at Matt, but said nothing.

“What happened to Kevin made me feel that we are, all of us, are so fragile. Shit like this can happen to anyone, anytime.”

Cory still didn’t know where this was going or what to say.

Matt quickly turned around in the chair and looked directly into Cory’s eyes. Cory became a little frightened.

“Cory, if I don’t say this to you, I may not have the chance. It’s something that you need to know about me. I want you to have the chance to really know me before...”

“What is it Matt?”

Matt dropped his eyes from Cory’s for a moment, but returned his gaze.

“This is hard Cory. Don’t say anything right away. You’ve got to know, to know...”

Matt turned and looked out the window.

“You’ve got to know that I’m gay.”

Matt then lowered his head and looked at his shoes.

“So?” Cory stated.

Matt looked up quickly at Cory.

“What do you mean, ’SO?’”

“Just what I said, so what?” Cory exclaimed.

“Huh? You don’t care?” Matt looked down.

“How could I man? You see, Matt, I’m kinda a little gay myself.”

Matt looked at Cory suddenly. He was startled.

“What? You’re, you’re…you’re gay too?”

“Yeah, kinda stupid isn’t it?”

“It’s NOT stupid! Shit Cory, I was so scared to tell you. You, Kelly and Kevin are the only friends that I have. I’ve hidden this for so long and I was becoming afraid that something like what happened to Kevin would happen to me, or even worse. I guess I needed to tell you that so you’d know who I am before it’s too late.”

“That’s not what I meant, Matt. I mean it’s so stupid that we have to hide not only from our friends, but from ourselves too.”

“I guess that’s what I’ve been doing and it really sucks!”

Both boys grinned at each other for a moment, but Matt’s eyes changed to a questioning hue.

“What do you mean by a ‘little’ gay? How can you be a ‘little’ gay?” Matt asked.

“Good one! I’m not a little gay. I’m really all gay. I guess I said it that way to try to break it to you gently,” Cory giggled.

Both boys burst into laughter at that one.

Matt soon stopped laughing and looked at Cory.

“Do you have a boyfriend or someone who you’d like to be with?” Matt asked.

“Yeah, I do. I mean I don’t have a boyfriend, but there is someone who I’ve got this huge crush on.”

“Who is it man? Come on Cory! I want details, all of them.” Matt grinned.

“Well, you’re going to laugh, so I’m not telling.”

“You bastard! Come on Cory. Tell me who’s stolen your heart.”

“No! You’ll laugh at me. But, yeah, he’s stolen my heart, my brain, my eyes, all of me. Thing is, he doesn’t even know it yet.”

“Well, tell me who he is. Maybe we can make him see you.”

“No!”

“Come on man, you can tell me”

“No!”

“Who is it?”

“I’m NOT telling you, period. You’re gonna laugh at me.”

“Tell me!”

“No.”

“Cory”

“No.”

“CORY”

“Kevin.”

Silence

“You’re kidding me, right?” Matt asked.

“No. I wish I were.”

“Holy fuck! My two best friends are stuck on each other. This is going to be good!”

“No it’s not. I’m sick over him, and he’s not gay, but I have to stay this way. I’ll die if he ever walks out on me when this comes out. Look man. I just want his friendship. I want him close to me so bad that I’m willing to let it be and not tell him.”

“Oh Cory, get off it man. You know he’ll stick with you. Kevin is NOT an asshole.”

Just then Matt remembered something about Kevin. He had seen it before, but had not let it register. Now he knew. Matt waited for a second before continued while he grinned.

“But there’s something that you might not have noticed.”

“What are you talking about dipshit? I’m feeling like shit right now and you want to play 20 questions?”

“I don’t think you’ve ever seen the way Kevin looks at you.” “Huh?” “Look at his eyes, man, the next time he looks at you. I think you’ll find something that you’ll like in there.” Matt continued with his grin.

“And he doesn’t look at you just a little. He looks at you a LOT.”

Cory blushed, then, grinned.

Matt turned away from Cory suddenly. His brows furrowed as he stared at the computer monitor again. Cory saw the reaction and knew that something different than his talking about Kevin had just entered Matt’s mind. Something that Matt said, or Cory said, but something was bringing Matt to his past.

“Ah, you okay, Matt?”

Silence

“It’s okay. I’m alright.”

Silence

“You sure?”

Silence

“No.”

“What’s wrong, Matt?”

“It’s nothing really. It’s just, just seeing what you and Kevin have, brought back some memories, that’s all.”

Cory wasn’t sure if he wanted to press Matt. The mood had so quickly changed and Cory wasn’t sure what had happened. But Matt was his friend, and Cory wanted to help him if he could.

“You wanna tell me about it?” Cory finally asked.

“No, it was a long time ago.”

The mood in the room became black. Cory knew that whatever it was, this may be what Kevin had seen, something that Matt was terrified of. He knew that now was the time to be a true friend, to love him, to be there. Matt was deeply troubled and Cory had to help his friend.

“Matt, please tell me what it is. If you can talk about it, I know the pain won’t go away, but you will be able to come to terms with it.”

Matt started to cry. Cory had never seen Matt cry before. This wasn’t good.

Matt looked up at Cory.

“Cory, it wasn’t my fault,” he said with mountains caught in his throat.

“What happened, Matt?” Cory almost yelled.

Matt couldn’t speak. The mood from before, gone. Silence was everywhere except for the sound of the wind slightly pressing itself through the open window.

“I was raped.”

Matt lost it.

Cory’s mind screamed, exploding with grief. He ran to his friend and sucked him into his arms as Matt buried himself into him. They clung to each other, Cory praying he could make it all go away, to strip Matt’s pain from him, to suck it into himself.

Matt was clinging to life itself. He had just exposed what he could never say, that having said what he just said, knew that his life was exposed for all to see, to see the shame. He had just told Cory of the worst moment in his life. He knew that his life had been changed forever. Cory now knew. He wanted his life back, but also knew that with having told Cory, his life was changed.