Because You Suck: Chapter 16: Part 8

“Well Zach, good to see you made it to class. Will you stay this time?” joked Mr.Handson, and Zach sunk into his seat. The students smiled amongst themselves. Zach cast him a level look, deciding that it would have been more appropriate for Mr.Handson to give that jab in Algebra, where the incident had actually occurred. But who cared, this guy was so incompetent that the material merged and melted together in a heaping pile…
“I’ll stay until I get my diploma, you’re staying until you get your pension.”
“What was that?” Mr.Handson raised an eyebrow.
“I’ll be out of here in two years. You won’t.”
There was an uncomfortable silence, and Mr.Handson turned to the board.
“Take out your books.”
Zach fumbled in his backpack, only to come up with nothing. Oh well.
“Wuthering Heights.” Mr.Handson paused unenthusiastically, “One of the classic British novels of the 19th Century…”
Literature was boring. He knew he would fail and take it over the summer, and in the back of his mind he figured he should drop the Goddam class already…
But that would mean running away, and after the F Incident, that was what They wanted. They wanted to see him run away in fear, publically fail and walk with his gaze perched a little lower. But they wouldn’t get that, not even over his own dead body. So he sat there in all of his stubborn pride, not learning anything nor caring to.
“Now, you might be curious why I have selected this book, of all books…”
“Because you have bad taste.” Zach thought to himself. It was reduncent to say so, it was freaking obvious. He had no curiosity for this Wuthering Heights; hah-pah, he’d read the first twenty pages and they sucked.
Even though he wasn’t entirely sure why, he still did his homework. That fact filled him with a stubborn pride, which had remained even after he calculated that he could at best average a C- by the end of the year. Yet laziness would be admitting failure… and failure was one F word Zach couldn’t accept. There were deters and there were victories, but Zach Tyler did not fail.
Well, his current “reading response” had received a B-.
There, at the bottom of the last page was written “Do not write in red ink. -5 pts… 20/25”
Fuck it.
Handson drawled tediously onwards, “There is a curiosity in the text relating to the personification of buildings.”
The only curiosity that gnawing at Zach’s mind now was what was on that paper…
Probably nothing important.
Probably a belated “hey, let’s fuck in public someplace sometime.” Pah.
No, that probably wasn’t it. Gentry wouldn’t waste paper for that, he would probably sashay around in those tight swimtrunks of his, throw his head back in the shower and slowly peel down the soaking spandex…
Not a good thought to think in Lit.

Guinea pigs.

Gnawing, chomping, black-eyed oversized rodents…
“… it is a book of a torrid romance…”
“Romance is only interesting if you’re living it.” Zach thought to himself, as he reached into his packpack and discreetly pulled out the note. With a mixture of reluctance and unrelenting curiosity, he unfurled what had once been a starchy white, neatly folded paper and glanced at the message. In crisp, tidy letters was written, with painful precision and right angles:

“Library. 4:00 PM.”

Because You Suck: Chapter 16: Part 7

Note: Zach uses the word "deserve" a lot throughout BYS. That's a main difference between him and Gentry. Zach believes in a structured world order where people get what they deserve if they do certain (right or wrong) things. Gentry believes that no one deserves everything, and that people should take whatever they can get (that's why he thinks people don't "deserve", but "want" things.)

The lunch bell blared through the cafeteria, and Zach slid his barely-touched meal into the trash. Then he pulled himself out of his seat and slung his battered black backpack over his shoulder, starting to wind through the crowd. He stopped abruptly by the events board.

A pink Kennedy Knight GSA flyer stared back at him.
Come to the GSA! Make Friends and Stop Social Injustice!
It fluttered loosely on one corner, but stubbornly clung to the wall (apparently, someone had tried to rip it off. But it didn’t work, since he always taped down all the edges.)
Zach looked away. He had stopped attending three days ago. An inkling of vanity hoped they would notice.

“I deserve better than this.” He thought grudgingly to himself, as the lunch hour stampeded past him in a mad dash for class. No one was particularily eager to return, but during lunch you were not allowed to run or Mrs.Nasty would yell at you.
The edge of the poster flapped, but remained stubbornly glued to the wall.
“Why don’t they want me. I was a good member, even better than Mikey. Better than Casey.”
An array of striped backpacks and fake-fur collars stampeded by.
“I’m the best damn gay in this school, why don’t they want me. That makes no sense.”

He finally narrowed it down to the diving board he hadn’t rigged. That had to be it, because there was an answer for everything. And that had been important; you had to show your colors and carefully choose which bridge to burn. You had to pull one for the team, you needed to sacrifice. But his mind still burned with the reasoning that this was the wrong team and the wrong sacrifice. Well then, where was the right team?
Where?

“I don’t know. I don’t fucking know.”
But if there was one thing he did, it was that he didn’t need them anyway. He had been alone in Estonia, he had been alone in the Swim team, and the GSA was no different. Loneliness was a part of life, and it hurt. But this motherfucker wasn’t going down, hells no. What didn’t kill him made him stronger, and what made him stronger ensured he wouldn’t get killed. The fact remained that with all the ups and downs, he was still here.
A navy of one in a big blue brick ocean, tired of fighting but too stubborn to surrender.
Once the janitor looked away, he would retreat to the bathroom stall to rethink, re-strategize…

Gentry sailed past him, trailing just a little behind his lunch group. He exchanged a fleeting look with Zach, who them abruptly turned away and headed for the door.
But before he could move one step he was yanked back by the waistline of his jeans.
“Fuck off.” He growled under his breath.
Gentry shoved Zach against the edge and wordlessly slipped a note onto the table, pushing it towards Zach. He then pulled away, rejoining the herd and catching up with the lunch group before they noticed he’d been gone.
The note lay on the table, an immaculate white square.
Zach palmed it, crumpled it up, and tossed it in his backpack.

Because You Suck: Chapter 16: Part 6

Ok, get this.” Kylie’s voice rang across the cafeteria, “My grandmother came home for her 91st birthday, and her spine is slowly disintegrating and collapsing in on itself.”
Zach sat in his lonely corner, unwilling to go to the GSA or sit with the Seniors. He picked at his food and listened as Jenny drawled out “ewww” and giggled.
“Oh my God,” said Kylie, “I know! I was like… why are you even here? I didn’t ask, of course, but I almost did. She told us about her disintegrating spine like six times, and over dinner. She’s in really bad shape… I was like, ok, what’s the point of you being here…”
“Yeah, that’s so gay,” murmured Mike, leaning over from the swim class table. Zach hadn’t heard him say those words, he’d just assumed it through Kylie’s overdone reaction. Beware the angered fag-hag.
Her eyes bulged as she promptly slung her feet over the bench, “Homophobia is gay.”
Mike recoiled, taken aback, and asked in his after-lunch stupor, “Wait, wouldn’t that mean gays are homophobes?”
The déjà vu hit him like a fever. Gentry almost slapped his forehead, and Zach groaned inwardly at the way Kylie squeaked back how homophobia was gay, but gays were not homophobic. Lords, some days…
“… ohh. Ok, I get it.”
“He doesn’t.” Gentry murmured with a sigh. It was quiet, a near-whisper, but Zach picked it up over the noise of the cafeteria. When you were really quiet, you could pull sounds apart and recycle them in your mind.
“No, I do.” Stressed Mike, “Kylie, I think it’s cool that you do what you believe in.”
“Awwe thanks you’re so sweet. I just think it’s important to respect people who are different, because we’re really all the same. We’re humans, and we should treat each other with the dignity everyone deserves.”
Gentry played with his food.
“No one deserves anything. They just want things.”
“… huh?” asked Kylie, ripping into one of Mike’s chicken nuggets.
Gentry shrugged nonchalantly, so she just laughed and went on.
“Well either way. Like, almost all my friends are gay. They’re fabulous. In fact, I want to get a gay roommate in college, because I think that might be better. We’d totally hit it off.”

Because You Suck: Chapter 16: Part 5

At the other end of the caftereia, amidst the crowd yet detached from everyone and everything, Zach sat in a corner with his cheek on one fist. Thinking, deliberating, detached from everything.

A pig.

Zach scoffed to himself at the pink monstrosity he had stuffed in his locker. It didn’t feel right to take it home, so it stayed there like grotesque Lord of the Flies reference… fucking pig.

Yet, in all fairness, he quietly questioned himself why he was so annoyed at this. First off, it wasn’t a cheap stuffed animal--- according to an online search, it cost $35 plus tax. That was a good price, but still cheap enough to buy something back so that the relationship cash balance would remain even. Good.
Besides, Mikey had no way of knowing that the only thing he hated more than guinea pigs were stuffed animals. That fact had never been established or so much as hinted at.
And theoretically, it was the thought that counted, and the thought was good enough.
Besides. Mikey hadn’t rigged the elections meeting, either…
Sure; he hadn’t spoken up against Casey’s bullshit, but he hadn’t rigged anything.

So, in summation, all signs said that the pig was an appropriate present and that his own reaction was inappropriate. Then, if propriety was good, impropriety was bad, so hating the pig was not only unfair, but bad.

Well. Try applying logic to feelings.
Logically, he should take the pig home and love it the way he ought to love a thoughtfully selected present from his “boyfriend.” Yet he could hardly stand to look at it, much less have it touching his stuff…

“This is crazy. Maybe I’m trying to justify myself.” Zach reasoned, weighing it along with other options.
“Well… I’m not limited to marrying my high school sweetheart. Nothing that’s established here will last forever--- In fact, it will end when I go to college. At least I won’t miss him when I graduate. Mikey is ok.”
But Mikey wasn’t Gentry.
Perhaps it was some pathetic idea of a Divine joke to have a rival that was a firecracker in bed, had a tongue that could cut glass, and possessed a mind like a time bomb--- yet was also one of the most thoroughly despicable people Zach had ever had the displeasure of meeting.
At least he wasn’t boring, maybe he could keep him on the side.
No. That was wrong.

Because You Suck: Chapter 16: Part 4

“You heard me,” contened Sydney, leveling the disbelief with a sneer, “Gentry had his tongue down that faggot’s throat.”
“Fuck---”
“Yeah, fuck--- oh, hey Gentry.”
“…Yeah… Hey.” Ethan sputtered as Gentry slid into his seat, followed by the rest of the team.
“Sup.” Replied Gentry, putting a straw in his strawberry milk, which now seemed particularily gay to Sydney’s unflinching glare.
Gentry unwrapped his straw and took a few half-hearted sips, before raising his eyes and tersely speaking up,
“Say something or stop staring.”
“Since when do you drink strawberry milk?”
“Every Friday since freshman year.”
Ethan laughed nervously, “Man… it’s pink.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Maybe he should be drinking the chocolate milk,” Sydney goaded, “that’s the kind he really likes.”
Gentry pulled his mouth off the straw, coolly glanced up and said, “I don’t tell you what to drink, so either shut up about it or fuck off.”
The other teammates exchanged uncomfortably unsure glances, until Kylie drifted by the table, slammed down her tray and slid next to Gentry, followed by Jenny and some other girl.
“Hey guys. Mind if we sit here?”
Mike’s features lit up, “Hey Kylie…”
“Hi Mike.”
“Kylie,” smirked Ethan, “you can sit next to Mike whenever you like.”
Mike laughed, “Don’t listen to Ethan. But… yeah, you can sit to me... if you ever need to. Uhh, so… you look nice today. What’s up?”
“Oh, not much, just some dumb Asian cut in line for me, so I couldn’t get the last strawberry milk.”
“Haha you’re so racist.”
Kylie blinked, “Um no, I’m really not.”
“Oh, uh, it’s ok, I think it’s sexy---”
“Oh my God Gentry, no, you got strawberry milk?”
Gentry took a big sip, “Yeah.”
“Can I have a taste?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Gentry took a hearty gulp and slammed the milk on the table, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, “I’m all out.”

Because You Suck: Chapter 16: Part 3

Note: Chapter 16 takes place over the course of one day. It will have 10 short and sweet parts!

On the far right side of the cafeteria, by the large bay windows, the Seniors table was abuzz with conversation.
“How’d Gentry get that bruise on his face?”
“He told me he was bored.”
“I can’t believe that.”
Sydney remained silent, picking at his food.
“… Hey, you know what I don’t believe? That Zach came back to class after that. Mr.Handson was all---”
“SHIT.” Sydney finally spat.
Ethan and Mike exchanged stupified looks.
“Shit what?” probed Ethan, with a half-laugh to bridge over any lingering bewilderment.
“Just shit.” Spewed Sydney, falling back into a grumbly silence as he picked at his food.
“Kylie wants to ask Gentry to the prom.” Ethan chirped up, to dissolve the overcast mood that was rapidly forming and spreading over the table.
“What?” Mike spat.
“Yeah.”
“Oh.”
“Hey… Did you see the tits on that freshman over there?” Ethan grinned, pointing to a girl in the crowd.
“Yeah, but woah man she’s a butterface.” Said Mike.
“Then pass me a butter knife so I can spread some of that on my dick.” Sydney guffawed, only to have the others stare at him with bemused smiles.
“What?”
“Man, do you even know what a butterface is?”
“No. What the hell is it?”
“Ask your mirror.”
“Ask your mom.”
“Fuck you.”
“She wasn’t that great,” interjected Mike, hesitantly but brashly enough to cover the hurt from learning that Kylie asked some freckle monster to the most important dance of his high school existence instead of him. “Cute tits but no ass.”
“I’d like a piece of that no ass!” Ethan exclaimed, slapping the table with his palm, “My dick got rigormortis just looking at her. I want to poke my boner into that until---”
Sydney groaned, falling back in his seat, “Shit!”
“What?”
“Just shit! Shit shit shit.”
“Stop shitting us, what the fuck did you see in the bathroom.”

“Shit man, nothing, but I hate him so much. He gets me so fucking mad that sometimes I wanna fuck him hard in the ass.”

At sudden realization of what he’d said, Sydney turned bright red in the face and exclaimed, “He’s the faggot! Not me! I’d hit that chick, too, hit her until my dick falls off.”
Mike chortled, and Sydney demanded, “What’s so funny?”
“Syd, chill, we know you’re not gay. And everyone knows Zach is.”
“Of course Zach is. What else is new?”
“Yeah Syd, what did he do? Either say something or shut up.”
“Yeah, tell us already.”
“Did he hit on you?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“He’s a faggot, that’s what. And so is Gentry.”

Because You Suck: Chapter 16: Part 2

The cafeteria buzzed with noise. An article was posted on the cafeteria’s Events board about how the Save the Congo club had raised $1,200 and learned that helping others was necessary to be a World Leader and get into a good college. Above the article was a photo of the grinning alliance, standing next to the principal with a shiny sticker on an expensive paper they had won in the World Leaders: Save the Congo Club fundraising competition. Later the principal would tell the local press that his school won a World Leaders competition, and people should move into the district if they, too, wanted to have children who would grow up to be world leaders. Next to the articles was an empty Save the Congo donation box. It would have had more money, but some some kid was a dollar short to afford a pint of Strawberry milk.
People ambled past the article, which had the headline of “Kennedy Club Helps Those Who Need It Most,” giving it jealous lookovers or wondering if it was not too late to get a leadership position.