Take Me From This Pain, Kevin's story

Days passed slowly into weeks and Jason still avoided Kevin whenever the small blonde wanted to bring up the Topic. That was what Jason began to call it because it seemed to loom in front of them. He knew Kevin was hurting more from the loss of contact than the actual act that had transpired, but damned if Jason knew what to do about it.

He wasn\'t an idiot. He knew Kevin was seriously hurting. He knew the small blonde waited until he thought Jason was asleep before quietly crying himself to sleep at night. Jason hated not knowing what to do to make everything better.

At school they acted as normal as possible. Marly had latched herself onto Kevin more and more, and now Jason had to fight a dual battle with himself, trying to hide his feelings for his supposed brother and the jealousy that was blooming inside him. Every time she made an excuse to touch Kevin, Jason wanted to scream. But Kevin, as always, seemed oblivious to everything but his own misery. Jason knew they couldn\'t go on like this. It hurt him to know he was hurting someone he loved so much. He resolved to talk to Kevin after school that day. He had to, before he went completely insane.

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\"Kevin, wait up!\"

The small blonde turned in time to see Marly skid to a stop behind him. He smiled at her in question.

\"Are you going to the dance on Friday?\"

Inwardly, Kevin frowned. He\'d always hated school dances. He\'d never gone because he could never bring himself to ask anyone and didn\'t have anything good enough to wear anyway. It seemed his classmates in California didn\'t mind his absence, though, as he was mostly invisible to them anyway. Now, this girl seemed like she was going to ask him and he wasn\'t sure how he felt about that. What did she see in him? He suddenly realized exactly why she always hung around him and it made him uncomfortable. He was sure he wasn\'t attracted to her, though she was very pretty. In fact, as the days passed, he more and more certain he was attracted to only one person in the world, and he was currently playing the part of his stepbrother.

\"Um, I hadn\'t thought about it.\"

\"Great!\" Marly clapped. \"Cindy\'s asking your brother now and I was hoping we would all go together.\"

\"Um.\"

\"Don\'t say no, Kevin,\" she pouted. \"Please?\"

Kevin sighed. This was going to be torture. Not only would he have to watch Jason dancing with someone else, he would apparently be leading Marly on in the process. Damned cover story! Kevin tried to keep his frustrations inside not wanting to hurt her feelings.

\"If Jay goes, then sure,\" he smiled.

Marly\'s face lit up and she laughed. \"Thanks, Kevin! I\'ll tell Cindy!\" And with that, she took off back down the hallway, leaving a morose Kevin to stare after her.

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\"So, you want to go?\" Cindy stood less than a foot away from Jason twisting a lock of her reddish brown hair nervously.

Where the hell had that come from? Jason thought the girl knew they could only be friends. True he hadn\'t told anyone he was gay, but he\'d been careful not to give others the idea he was even remotely interested in them. Well, other than Kevin, of course. He ran his hand through his long dark hair in frustration. He knew anything other than a \'yes\' would hurt Cindy right now, and she was in a vulnerable state. Jason knew that before he and Kevin arrived, Marly and Steve had been her only friends at school. When they\'d joined the small group, they brought a few others with them to add to Cindy\'s circle. Now she hung out with Jennifer and Danielle, as well as Tommy and John. But a rejection now would blow Cindy\'s confidence.

\"Cind!\" Marly called as she raced toward them, saving Jason from answering, at least for the time being. \"Are we all going then?\"

\"I don\'t know yet,\" Cindy bit her lip as she replied. \"I just asked him.\"

Jason looked from one to the other in obvious confusion. Finally Marly put two and two together and explained.

\"I asked Kevin to the dance, too, so we could all go together,\" she gasped, still out of breath from running.

\"And he agreed?\" Jason asked calmly, seething inside.

\"Well, he looked a little surprised,\" the redhead replied. \"But he said he would go if you go.\"

Jason\'s heart almost stopped. Kevin agreed to go with her? Well, that clenched it didn\'t it? Kevin must like the girl, too. And now Jason was going to have to watch her touching and holding the boy he loved while he attempted to put up a believable façade for Cindy. This night was going to be one of his worst. He could feel it.

\"Far be it from me to be the killjoy,\" he feigned a lighthearted smile. \"We\'ll pick you up at seven at Cindy\'s. Okay?\"

\"Yes!\" Marly cried gleefully, earning a few looks from other people around them.

Cindy smiled, too and gave Jason a kiss on the cheek before hauling her exuberant friend away. Jason turned and walked away sadly.

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Kevin was just putting his gym clothes away after class and getting ready to leave the locker room when he felt a hand grab his arm and pull him into the changing area. The locker room was deserted and no one would hear him. He panicked and kicked at his assailant before being turned roughly around and staring into the star quarterback\'s face.

\"Well, what do we got here, boys?\"

Kevin gulped and looked over the behemoth\'s shoulder and saw two other team players grinning behind them.

\"Looks like we got the new kid, Trent,\" one of the geniuses answered.

\"Yeah, and he looks scared,\" the other added.

\"No reason to be scared, kid,\" Trent grinned evilly down at him. \"We just want to be friends with you.\"

\"Please let me go,\" Kevin whispered.

Back home, he would have welcomed a fight with Trent. A one on one fight, that is. He knew he didn\'t stand a chance against all of them and he didn\'t want to start any trouble for Gina to have to deal with.

\"Why would you want to leave so soon?\" Trent asked. \"School\'s out and you don\'t have to be home right away, do you?\"

\"Yeah, Mommy won\'t worry, will she?\"

\"He lives with his sister,\" Genius #2 growled and smacked Genius #1 on the head. \"Don\'t give him shit for it, either. My parents are dead, too.\"

Trent frowned and loosened his grip as Kevin cocked his head curiously, wondering how he had managed to make an ally out of one of them.

\"Look, Kid,\" Trent sighed.

\"Kevin,\" he supplied helpfully.

\"Kevin,\" Trent repeated. \"Look, Kevin. I didn\'t want to lean on you. But Tanya\'s my sister and she asked me to.\"

\"Tanya?\" Kevin asked shaking his head.

\"She\'s a cheerleader in your grade,\" Trent explained. \"And these two are my friends Randy and Joey.\" He nodded to Genius #1 and Genius #2 respectively.

Kevin nodded and Randy and gave Joey a small, grateful smile before returning his attention to Trent.

\"Look, a friend of yours, Cindy Carlyle, told Tanya off in gym a couple of weeks ago and Tanya\'s upset that she can\'t her back \'in place\' as she puts it. She said that Carlyle has been acting too full of herself since you guys came to town and she wanted to give her a warning.\"

\"Full of herself?\" Kevin asked in disbelief. \"You mean more confident maybe?\"

Trent shrugged.

\"Look, we didn\'t do anything but become friends with her,\" the small blonde sighed. \"She seemed so lonely when we met her. Marly and Steve, too. I know what that feels like and Jason hates it, too. That\'s all we did. With all due respect to your sister, she isn\'t very nice to Cindy.\"

Trent\'s cheeks colored a little and he looked down. He may be a jock, but he never condoned his sister\'s elitist attitude.

\"I don\'t want to cause trouble,\" Kevin went on. \"But I\'m not going to stop being friends with anyone because your sister wants me to. You can beat the shit out of me like she asked you to, but it won\'t change anything.\"

\"No?\" Trent asked softly.

\"No,\" Kevin grunted and stood up straighter. \"Ask half the football team from my old school. They\'ll tell you I have a high threshold for pain tolerance.\"

Trent\'s eyes widened with something resembling respect.

\"Hey, you ain\'t touching this kid,\" Joey growled at his friend warningly.

\"I wasn\'t going to,\" the quarterback shrugged. \"I only told her I would try to scare him. He\'s not easily scared.\"

\"Damn right,\" Kevin grinned. \"Just tell your sister that if she leaves Cindy alone, Cindy won\'t bother her again.\"

\"Okay,\" Trent nodded. \"Nice talking to you, Kevin.\"

\"You, too.\"

Kevin smiled again as he picked up his books and headed out to meet up with his \"brother\".