Friday, October 31, 2008

Because You Suck: Chapter 19: Part 20

Note: Happy Halloween!!

The afternoon sun beat down on his back, drying up the droplets which skimmed over his form and along the curve of his spine, down to his sturdy legs, and slowly dripping from his black swim trunks.
He looked good, Mikey decided. Damn good.
So he leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek, “Want me to drive you home this time? I got my license, so I came here with my new BMW… you just have to see it. It’s like silver, and very shiny. It even has a backseat.”

Zach pulled away, “We don’t need to give them a show. Enough already.”

Mikey sighed past the grin plastered to his face, as Zach moved back to the pool and crouched down to save some poor humming bee from chlorinated doom.
“Didn’t you say that you’re not his bitch?”
“Yeah. I did. But there’s a fine line between freedom of expression and shoving your view in someone’s face.”
“All right… though you were licking your fingers—”
“That’s different. I’m only doing to Syd what he’s doing to me. Do you know how many times he talks about boobs? The other guys are always talking about tits this, boobs that, breasts that; hell, I now know more about breasts than I ever wanted to… I don’t talk to them about cock. And why? Because I’m polite. And I’m tired of being polite, I’m tired of them calling me faggot and acting like I’m less manly and don’t belong on their team. Hell, I’m more manly than any of them, because I can fuck my own kind, I don’t need some delicate girl to make me feel tough—”
“Whatever, Zach. It’s your call…” Mikey’s voice drifted off as he moved behind him, quietly watching Zach lean forward to cup the struggling insect into his hands. As he sqawted to maintain balance, the trunks crawled down his hips, and a bruise came up. It was mild discoloration, but visible enough.
“Hey, where did you get this bruise?” Mikey murmured, at which Zach startled and nearly dropped the insect. He quickly regained his composure as he shakily stood up and tossed the critter out past the fence, into some fresh green blades of grass.
“Oh… I didn’t know I had one.” Zach replied, truthfully enough. He didn’t know it was there, but God did he ever know where it came from.
“It must’ve been an accident.”
Mikey raised his eyebrows and replied coldly,
“Be more careful.”
Then he brightly changed the subject, asking, “Did you get a tux for prom yet? If not, I have a list of what I’m wearing… to make sure we match.”

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Because You Suck: Chapter 19: Part 19

And the moment he was gone, Mikey grinned at Zach and said, “God, he’s like a dictator!”
“He is.”
“But was that really necessary?”
“Yeah, it was.”
Zach put down his finger, but not before giving a saucy look to the angry freshman who was desperately trying to glare him down.
“I’m not going to let some breeder push me around— hell, you know what. People like him make it worth staying on the team. Someone has to have the balls to do the right thing and take a stand against a homophobe. I’m not going to let a bully impose their way of life on me.”
“I didn’t mean Syd, I meant Gentry. Does he think we can’t hear him from over here?”
“Oh.” Zach laughed weakly, “he probably wants us to hear. I don’t even know if he was bullshitting that time, or if he actually meant it.”
“I don’t care what he meant, since he said what he said. You know, homophobia aside, I like Syd better. At least I know where he stands.” Mikey paused to lower his voice, “Gentry changes depending on where he goes. He’ll say or do anything as long as it gives him the upper hand and, actually, I’m a little surprised you didn’t call him out this time.”
Zach shrugged uncomfortably.
“If Syd quits, the team goes to hell. I’m not gonna be the gay who screwed the team. Besides, if this Gay Agenda bullshit keeps that stupid breeder in line, then I won’t say anything.”
“Keeps him in line? Hah, for being such a rebel, you don’t talk like one. That sounded like something a teacher would say—”
Zach frowned.
“If I was a teacher, things would be different. Either way, you’re the head of the GSA. You should have said something, if at all.”
“I didn’t want to say anything, since I know you’re still on his team.”
“Just because I’m on his team doesn’t mean I’m his bitch—” Zach stopped himself, and softly added, “or that you can’t say what you think. I can, if I have to.”
“Right...” Mikey’s voice trailed off, “so. Still rocking that piercing huh?”
“I’m not taking it out.” Zach insisted, rakishly pulling at his swollen lower lip, “It’s a commitment.”
…Well. He needed to commit to something.
“You’re so stubborn. I don’t think you’re supposed to swim with it, either.”
“Yeah, well.”
Zach reached out to unhitch the wire-fence door for Mikey, who slid in.
A few freshmen boys were still slowly but surely clearing out of the pool, casting their best dirty looks towards the two. Freshmen Swim boys were easy enough to incense, but the Seniors just looked the other way (later they would steal things from his locker and pretend he didn’t exist.)
By now, Zach just ignored the lot of them, because he was used to it. He didn’t take it so personally anymore, since he had never needed them or viewed them as friends.
“I’m going to swim with it because I want to.”

Monday, October 27, 2008

Because You Suck: Chapter 19: Part 18

Note: Believe it or not, I like Sydney. He's almost like Zach's mirror self...

The door fell shut with a muted thump.
Sydney shuffled uncomfortably. He put his hand on the doorknob, then dropped it down again. The words shifted around his mind, as he turned them over and over again to process each syllable for sincerity. Trying to see if they stuck, and where they fit. But fact was, they didn’t.
They had been nice words, and even had that devout ring to them. And yet, Sydney couldn’t swallow it. He didn’t buy it.
Hells no— he didn’t buy it.

He knew what he’d seen that day.
And he’d seen a faggot.

His gaze fell on Zach, who flipped him the one finger salute, then lewdly licked at the tip. Sydney groaned in disgust, and wondered why anyone would want to get fucked in the ass by that.
Zach raised his eyebrows in a silent dare.
Sydney took a step back.
No… he wouldn’t go for it. That faggot would not get the better of him this time. Gentry was a faggot too, but he was a faggot with a point. So Sydney decided to wait… yes, he’d wait for a better time. This punk would not further his gay agenda without a fight.
So he sneered and opened the locker room, following into the steam.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Because You Suck: Chapter 19: Part 17

Note: Thanks for the comments!! I was super giddy reading them. Better than chocolate!

At times Gentry wondered if Zach enjoyed this. With arms loosely crossed and gaze intently fixed, he reasoned that Mikey couldn’t be all that in bed. As a matter of fact, Gentry recalled having seen him piss once. His dick was average. Respectable, but still average.
But somehow, that wasn’t what bothered him. That wasn’t it.

As he lay perched against the open locker room door, Gentry vaguely registered he was being watched. A quick glance confirmed that, undoubtedly, Sydney was stating at him. Or rather, leering. This reproachful gaze stuck to him like a second skin, beaten heavy with disgust, forged from heated knowledge and its ignorant judgment.
After a few minutes of this, Gentry murmured,

“Do you like watching faggots?”
Sydndey didn’t hesitate to grunt, “You shouldn’t talk.”
“Why?”
“You’re one of them. And If people here had balls, they’d treat you like what you are.”
“And that is?”
“A faggot— don’t deny it.” Sydney grunted under his breath, leaning into his face. Yet he didn’t look him in the eyes as he said it, because a part of him still had a hard time distancing the team leader he respected from this faggot, this horrible faggot. He didn’t know why people didn’t want to accept the truth. Perhaps they couldn’t handle it; maybe they wanted to win Nationals so bad that they’d abandon God and morals and everything they stood for.
But Sydney was not like that, No. He knew damn well that this was a cocksucker, dick-gobbling homosexual, and he wouldn’t hesitate to say so. And it was this conviction which propelled him to raise his head and meet that murky-eyed gaze.
“I’m quitting the team.” He proclaimed, with a bold glare.
Gentry nodded solemnly, then probed heated look in Zach’s direction, “See him over there?”
“I don’t want to look at a fucking queer.”
“You think anyone does?”
Sydney drew into a tense and moody silence, while Gentry continued in a low and steady voice.
“I don’t buy it that a sissy faggot can scare you off, especially from a team you’ve put more than three years of your life into. I know you better than that. I know you’re a hard worker, and that’s what makes this team successful. I won’t ask you any questions if you quit, even though you’re letting us down on Nationals. It’s your call. But then don’t go whining about the fags queering up the team, because that’s what they want. That’s what Zach wants. He’s furthering the gay agenda, and he’s so good at it that he’s giving someone like you cold feet, someone who has worked all this time to be here. You think I want to keep him on? I don’t. But right now, I don’t have a choice.” Gentry paused, and dramatically added, “But you do. If you want to leave this team because of some cock-gobblers, then go. But I’m staying, because I’m not letting some Gay Agenda get in the way of Nationals.”
Sydney cast him a bewildered look.

“But…”
“But what?”
“You’re a faggot—”
“Who told you that?”
“I saw you in the bathroom, you—”
“You didn’t see anything.”
“You were—”
“Nothing happened,” Gentry put his hand on the doorknob, firmly looking him in the eyes as he added, “nothing has and nothing will. If you want to make something out of nothing, I won’t stop you. But if you accuse me one more time of being one of them, I’ll give you a real reason to quit the team.”
That said, he tugged open the door and disappeared into the locker room before Sydney could gather up his thoughts for a reply.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Because You Suck: Chapter 19: Part 16

Mikey waited by the gate, watching as Zach swam back… and forth… back, and forth…
He wondered how it was possible to hit the wall so many times.
Everytime he came close to the blue tiles, bam! Then he would recoil to hastily swim the other way, only to eventually hit the other wall. Mikey wondered how he didn’t get brain damage from hitting the wall so many times. Or who knows, maybe he already had--- it would explain a lot.
In the other lane, Gentry slid by the water with the easy swiftness of a frog, flipping into a turn then pushing off the wall. Even then, only the tips of his toes touched the big blue tiles along the pool wall. This notably slowed him down, but he always caught up, keeping time with Zach, who every so often would take a harsh breath to keep from drowning. Gentry moved less like a human and more like a large fish, gliding through the water without resistance, fin-like arms shooting from the crystalline water then sliding back in. The stroke, Mikey recalled, was called The Butterfly. The Butterfly. Mikey turned it over a few times in his head, then leaned against the chain link fence, wringing his fingers around the netted metal.

When practice came to a close, Gentry heaved his sopping wet body onto the poolside wall, and sat quietly panting with his back hunched over and legs dangling in the water. He noticed Mikey from the corner of his eyes, yet showed no sign of caring. He stared at him like headlights at a deer, waiting for him to leap away.

“Hey, Gentry…” Mikey spoke up from behind the fence, “Mind telling Zach to come here?”
No reply came, though Gentry peered away dismissively. In turn, Mikey sighed, pressing his weight against the chain link fence, counting down the minutes until practice ended.

And the very second it did, Gentry leapt to his feet and shrilly blew into the coach’s whistle.

“Practice is Over. Move out!”

He yelled loudly enough to stir up the freshmen, who stopped splashing water at each other and looked up to listen. A few frightened birds whooshed past him. Mikey raised an eyebrow.

The truth was, he didn’t need to shout. He did it because there was nowhere else he could.
As a matter of fact, the right to yell that was a one of the reasons people vied to be swim team captain. When the coach would sit in the shade yelling orders, no one ever went against him. During practice, there was no excuse for yelling or giving orders to anyone unless you were the coach. If you didn’t like that, then, as he put it, you could “pack your bags and run home.” The swim team captain was a notable exception to this rule, because he had the coach’s shiny metal whistle. And only he and the coach had the right to blow into that whistle, thereby overpowering every and any other sound.

Gentry really liked that. So much so that he blew into it again, just for good measure. It was really the next best thing to a gun, the next best thing to whip people into order. The next best thing to make them look and listen.

“You’re such a showoff,” Mikey thought to himself, as the swimmers began to trudge out of the pool.
One by one they crept onto land; heaving, panting and ambling to the locker room as fast their tired legs could carry them. The Seniors sometimes hit the freshmen with towels or tripped them, and the smarter underclassmen tended to wait until the seniors had cleared out and hit the showers first. That way, they could sneak into the warm showers when no one was looking.

Zach trailed a little behind the others, sorely rubbing his head with a towel. He seemed to be in his own world before Gentry sauntered over and whispered something into his ear.
“He is?” Zach said loudly, “Where?”
Gentry leaned in to whisper something else, and the statement was returned by a shove, and a shove back.
“Hey Mikey.” Zach called out, dragging his feet towards the gate. He looked worn out, but that didn’t dim the odd energy radiating from him, as he leaned against the metal fencepole and grinned boyishly. There was definitely something different about him, Mikey figured. A certain something in his step he hadn’t seen recently.
“Hey, Zach. Hm, you looked great out there.”

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Because You Suck: Chapter 19: Part 15

Note: Thank you so much for the comments!

Zach rose to his feet, started to pull on his clothes and delicately murmured,

“I only wanted to make you feel good.”

No reply.
There were many things Zach could have said. Countless replies were running through his mind, the many ways he could give him a piece of what he was thinking. They were tempting. Like water to his burning anger, all of them! And he had the balls to say them, fuck yes he did.

But when he glanced over at Gentry, he couldn’t bring himself to. It wasn’t pity, it was something else. Something which made him sore inside, and stopped up up his throat.

There he was, leaning against the table with his fists on the surface and head hanging low. It was hard to look at him. Even harder was knowing what made him get that haunted look on his face, and that getting rid of ghosts wasn’t as easy as using a gun.
But no, he didn’t pity him. Hurt or not, Zach had seen enough of his favorite rival to know what he was capable of, to know that he was far from being anyone’s prey.

Zach dressed quietly, and in a matter of minutes he was prepared to go. Gentry was a tough guy, he’d get over it. Zach put his hand on the doorknob, but then dropped it down again.
“You stopped being a victim a long time ago.” He wanted to tell him, but didn’t.
Instead, he dropped to his knees and slowly crept over to Gentry, gently nudging the side of his leg with his his cheek. He bit his teeth past the burning shame, knowing that, at worst, there would be a good laugh at his expense.

“What the hell are you doing.” Gentry grumbled, not even bothering to look at him.
“Whatever you want.”
“Fuck off.”
“I'm not scared of you."
"You aren't scared of anything."
"I still like you.”At this, Gentry looked down.
Zach grinned back up at him.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Because You Suck: Chapter 19: Part 14

After an uneasy moment, Zach slowly slung his legs over the tableside, and propped himself up on his elbows. Gentry moved back, when Zach suddenly lurched forward and pulled him close. He started kiss him… Once, twice, holding him in place until resistance melted to foggy tolerance, when his breathing settled into slow and heavy panting, and the aching glare of suspiscion in his eyes softened to affection. Zach slid a hand one hand into that silky red hair and then down the nape of his neck, feeling each inch of skin tense, then relax. Down sculpted shoulders, under the hooks of his shoulder blades, over mouthfuls and handfuls of skin. Slowly, carefully, his fingertips trickled down his spine and shoulders, feeling him tense, relax, tense…
And finally, those shineless eyes closed.

Bathed in warmth; there was no other thought in his mind but the affection which poured onto him. His jaw rested on Zach’s shoulder, listening to the steady rhythm of his heart, lips parted for words he would not--- could not--- speak.
It felt good.
His breathing evened out to soft little sighs with the occasional hitch whenever Zach hit a fresh bruise or scar.
It felt so good.
He felt so good.
Heating up inside him, boiling to a fever pitch…
until a caress up his thigh jerked him back.

Without a word he shoved Zach aside, and morosely pulled away. Zach stumbled backwards, but kept his balance— It took more than that to knock him down.
“What the hell!”
“Do that again,” Gentry breathed, breathlessly moving off of the table, “and I’ll beat you ‘til you don’t want it anymore.”
Zach turned away to hide the hurt look on his face, but did not glorify the threat with a response. It didn’t scare him, either way.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Because You Suck: Chapter 19: Part 13

Note: Thanks for the comments! ^_^!

“I don’t want a boyfriend,”
Gentry kissed him, one hand pressing down Zach’s chest as the other unzipped his jeans.
“I want to know why you come here.”
When he pulled away, Zach felt his heart throb wildly, as tiny hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He held his breath as Gentry’s his hands fumbled between thighs, and shoved inside him forcefully enough to make him buck up in pain.
“Fuck---” he groaned, “That hurt!”
“It should. Take it off.” was the ground out order, words hissed just under his breath.
“What’s with you—”
Take it off.
Zach cursed under his breath and undid his friendship bracelet, tossing it to the ground and promptly falling back against the table.
“Happy?”
Gentry looked at him and Zach looked back.
He didn’t say a word, just pressed his lips to his skin and breathed in deeply, inhaling the salty-sharp smell that he could never mistake for anyone else’s. His tongue darted out over the expanse of his neck, taking in the familiarly spunky taste of the heated skin. Definitely Zach, all of it.
“Yeah.” He murmured softly. “I’m happy.”
He pulled his fingers out gently, and Zach skeptically glanced up at him. He let a hand ghost his hand over one cheek, lightly cupping it into his palm.
“What happened here?” he asked, and Gentry promptly fired back,
“Don’t ask questions you won’t like the answer to.”
Zach dropped the matter, because it wasn’t like this was the time or place to have a heart to heart. Gentry didn’t go for that kind of shit, anyway.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Because You Suck: Chapter 19: Part 12

Note: The second part of the Wednesday entry (see previous post if this makes no sense.) Thanks for the comments! They always make my week.


Zach lay pressed against the table, baffled to say the least. He didn’t know what to think, so he stayed very calm and gathered more data to reach a given result. In the background, the clock had stopped ticking. And it almost seemed that time was floating rather than flying, especially when those dark eyes stared down at him like the twin barrels of a shotgun. There was a dead silence in the room, save for the constant burring of the air conditioner and the drumbeat of his own heart.

Zach squirmed uncomfortably, yet he couldn’t bring himself to look away.

Finally, Gentry pulled away his hand and said, “Are you still going to come here?”
“I don’t know…” Zach exhaled, and weakly quipped, “if we keep beating each other up like this, we may not live to graduate.”

“That’s your answer?”

The dim smile faded from Zach’s lips. He knew this wasn’t a question. Somehow the uneasy realization dawned on him that whatever he said past this point didn’t matter, and this wasn’t funny at all. There was no getting through when the brooding in his eyes was replaced by dark space, when the shark on land would emerge from its murky depths.
“I don’t know what you expect me to say.” Zach replied guardedly, “I don’t even know what you’re getting at. Don’t tell me that now you suddenly want a boyfriend. Is that it?”
He knew the words probably wouldn’t register, since today there was something unnervingly disconnected about him. A dreary tension; something which made him seem far away even when he was close, something which drew him in and drowned everything else out.

Because You Suck: Chapter 19: Part 11

Note: This is actually Wednesday's update. The original entry didn't mesh well as one piece, so I split it. Yet the two parts still need to be read together, if that makes any sense (probably doesn't.) I'm posting them both today!

Gentry caught himself before he stumbled, and cast Zach a vicious look before pummeling him to the desk. Zach flinched, and instinctively raised a hand as a buffer between them. Gentry quickly pinned it against the table.
“Faggot.” he breathed, pulling in close and slapping him again. “What are you trying to pull?”
“I’m not pulling anything.” Zach protested roughly. “But I will if you don’t let me go—”
Gentry pinned down his wrists and replied with a firm, “No.”
In response, Zach kneed him up into the stomach. And in return, Gentry slammed him against the desk hard enough to make his head spin.
“I saw your file today.” Gentry said abruptly, inbetween Zach’s pitched breathing, “You have a C+ in lit.”
“Yeah, I know— they gave back progress reports last wee—”
Gentry cupped his mouth.
“You’ll pass.” He softly ground out, “Congratulations.”