Anthony's Story by MELODY DUPREE (first ebook reader .txt) 📕

for us to go to class. I walked over to where the team was sitting and the moment I sat down they got up and went inside the building. I looked at their retreating backs and watched as they abandoned me in front of everyone. Just then my phone went off as all over the quad phones started going off as a mass text alert went out. I picked up my phone from where I had dropped it and got up to go inside when the team captain of the baseball team approached me.

“I thought you were embarrassed by the fact that your teammates are gay, Michael,” he said and I looked at him and shrugged.

 “I am but it doesn’t mean I won’t talk to them,” I said as I walked away.

 He jogged beside me and said, “Check your phone because I think they revealed something that you should see.”

 I nodded and went inside the building as I checked my phone and then froze in mid-step as I realized all my business that only Jason knew was now all over the school. I turned and ran as fast as I could to my car only to have the team step out from behind various cars and block my path to my car. They stood there with their arms crossed and each time I tried to go around them they found a way to block my attempts. I shoved my phone in my jacket pocket and zipped it up before I turned around and made a break for it just as I realized only half of the team was behind me. I skidded to a stop and made a mad dash for the forest on the western edge of the school grounds only to be surrounded by the rest of my teammates. I dashed to my left and got blocked by the girls’ basketball team. I turned to my right and got further before I got blocked by the boys’ basketball team. I backed up and ran right into my own teammates before I got thrown to the ground in the center of the circle. Junior grabbed me by the back of my shirt and yanked me up onto my knees while Jason came forward and wrapped a gag around my mouth. After making sure it was tight Junior slammed me down onto my stomach and held me down as Anthony came forward with an actual tattoo gun and knelt down beside us.

“Get his shirt up so I can do the tattoos,” I heard him say and then it dawned on me what they had planned.

 I started thrashing against Junior’s hold as tears started to stream down my face as the fight or flight hormones kicked in and since I couldn’t take flight it came down to me fighting back. Junior raised his fist and punched me in my face and I immediately went limp against the ground as I blacked out. The moment the needle pierced my skin my eyes flew open with a vengeance and I started to cry harder.

 “Aw it seems Mikey can’t take the pain,” I heard Jason mock as I felt the needle moving through my skin in a way that told me Anthony was writing in cursive with the ink and needle.

I tried to push myself up onto my knees only to have Anthony dig the needle in deeper than it already was. Carefully, I placed myself back down and let him carve the needle through my skin and suddenly it registered what he was writing with the ink and needle on my lower back. The needle was pulled from my skin and suddenly another part of my back was targeted as the needle once again pierced my skin, but this time it was in my left hand shoulder blade. I felt it as he started with the letters ‘I, A and M’ before the letters came together and I could actually be sure of what it said and the needle was permanently pulled from my skin. Junior let me go and by the time I sat up everyone was gone. I retrieved my book bag from where I dropped it and I headed to my car only to find that every other car that had been in the parking lot was gone. I got in my car and turned it on quietly pulling out of the parking lot. I ripped the gag off of my mouth and tossed it in the backseat of my car just as a hand shot out and grabbed me by my left shoulder. I cried out in pain and slammed on the brakes to stop the car from swerving into the left-hand lane so I wouldn’t cause a collision. Carefully, I turned around to see both Anthony and Junior clutching their sides as they tried to hold in the laughter.

“Very funny guys, now if you don’t mind….GET OUT OF MY CAR,” I shouted at them and they looked at me like I owed them money.

 “Junior’s mom was kind enough to drop us off because unlike you she has a heart and didn’t abandon her kids. Unless I am mistaken about that Junior,” Anthony replied and I turned around in my seat and slammed on the gas quickly arriving at the plantation on the edge of town and slamming on the brakes I stopped at the front door for them to get out so they wouldn’t have to walk up the driveway.

“Thanks for the ride man but you still owe us. When you get home get your dad to tell you what the tattoos say,” Junior said and I shook my head and drove off with them laughing on the front stairs of the manor.

This was the last time they would do something like this to me. Never again would I be taken advantage of and drawn on by someone who didn’t know how to properly use a tattoo gun. I went home and started planning my revenge for all the times they forced me to make out with them and what they did to me today. Then a better idea came to mind. I was going to quit the football team and never look back regardless of what the tattoos have to say about me. I came out of my room for dinner shirtless only to see Jason’s dad there looking at me with pity in his eyes that I didn’t want. I walked towards the fridge for the leftover pizza and quietly popped it into the microwave only for my dad to come into the kitchen while I still had my back towards the door.

“What the hell did you do to your goddamn back Michael,” my dad roared and I immediately wished I still had at least one friend that would talk to me.

“Why don’t you ask him? His son is one of the one’s that did this to me and put my business about mom all over the school because he was the only one on the team that knew about mom. And don’t act like you believed that ‘he’s my nephew crap’ because J.J had tried that with me when I first met him and I told him straight up I didn’t believe him,” I snapped and grabbed my pizza out of the microwave and stormed back down the hallway with my dad staring after me like an idiot.

After I ate my pizza I went and took a hot shower to soothe the pain that was all over my back and then I went to bed only to have my dad come in and close the door behind him. He sat down on the edge of my bed and gently placed his hand on my shoulder to pull me down onto my back so he could see my face. I rolled onto my stomach and turned my head so he could see my face and he knelt down beside the bed.

“Now I don’t particularly like what you did to start this whole mess but I definitely do not like what your teammates did to you. I’m going to see what I can do to get those tattoos removed and I will also do a report with the school so they can take some action against this as well. Do you understand me Michael,” he asked me.

I nodded my answer and he got up and left the room. I heard his bedroom door click shut and immediately he was shouting at Jason’s dad and I just prayed to god I would not wake up in the morning to find Jason’s dad dead on my dad’s bedroom floor.

           

Jason's point of view

I sat at the desk in my room praying to god that my dad was alright since he had not come home the night before. I was just getting ready to swear my revenge on Michael if he got my dad killed when the front door slammed open and my dad stormed in. I could tell he had gotten in a fight and lost. I came out of my room and walked up to him making as much noise as possible in order to make him aware that I had not gone to school at all that day.

“Dad have a seat and I’ll get the ice pack okay,” I whispered and he nodded throwing himself down on the couch as he did so.

“Why aren’t you in school Junior,” my dad asked as I went into the kitchen.

“I wasn’t feeling good today so I decided to stay home and wait for you to get home because I never heard you come home last night. So what happened? Wait don’t tell me: Michael snitched on you and told his dad that you aren’t really my uncle causing you and his dad to get in a fight and cause the relationship to turn abusive,” I said and my dad nodded and gratefully took the ice pack which he placed on the bare skin of his face.

“You do know this happens every time you get a boyfriend. You lie and say you’re my uncle, then they find out the truth and you guys get into fights that turn violent. Why don’t you just tell the guy you want to date straight off that you have a kid? Dad sometimes you got to look at things from my point of view. What if one day you get in a fight that turns really nasty and you’re not at home where I can call the cops and attempt to intervene and you get killed? Do you know what is going to happen to me while keeping in mind that you turned gay because mom died giving birth to me? I could end up on the streets unable to defend myself because the news is out that the whole football team at Baltimore High is gay and after I tried to defend Michael he turned around and nearly got you killed last night because I saw the gash on the back of your head and that you got stitches before you came home, and now none of the team wants to talk to me. So please I am begging you tell them about me before you