Life After College

Sorry for taking so long in updating. I\'ve been having problems with a certain someone and I haven\'t been in the mood lately for writing. But now I\'ve put it past me and I\'m ready to keep going. Hope you enjoy!

--Scribbles05

Chapter 28

Andrew’s POV......

I was late getting home one Thursday. There was an emergency with a toddler that I had to deal with. The parents came in with the child ten minutes before I was scheduled to leave.

When I finally made it home, the house was quiet. Dicky was more than likely in the shower, getting out his work clothes. I stopped at a chinese food restaurant and grabbed some shrimp lo mein, bourbon chicken, sesame chicken, rice, and egg roles for dinner.

When I reached the kitchen, I started to hear whispers; namely Damon and Sofia. College students were out of school a week earlier than public school students, so we all had to help bring Sofia’s stuff home for the summer.

I wondered why they were whispering, and when I got my answer, it disturbed me GREATLY.

“I can’t believe what I just heard.” Sofia said. “Are you SURE?”

“I’m positive. His own friends told me.”

Sofia sighed. “What are you gonna do?”

“I don’t know. What do you think I should do?”

“Beats me. Have you told our dads yet?”

“No. I’m too scared to.”

“You’ve gotta tell them, Damon. You can’t handle this by yourself.” She sighed wearily again. “They are gonna freak when they find out.”

That’s when I came out of hiding. “Find out what?” I asked. The kids jumped when they saw me. They both were silent. I walked to the island and placed the bag of food on the counter top. Something was definitely wrong in this house and I was going to find out what. When I didn’t get an answer, I placed my hands flat on the counter and looked at the both of them sternly. “Find. Out. What?” I looked at Sofia. “Sofia?”

Sofia tossed her hands up. “I have nothing to do with it, Daddy.” She walked passed me to the bag. “Oo, lo mein.” She started to fix herself something to eat.

“Damon?” I looked at my son and his head was down, shoulders tense, he even bit his lip nervously. I walked to him and stood there until he looked at me.

“T-today, I g-gotta call from a friend. They s-said Angel was in the hospital.”

“What happened to him?”

“He passed out and was taken off in an ambulance. The doctors said.......... the doctors said he w-was um.......... HIV positive.”

I put my hand over my mouth. “I’m sorry. How long has he had it?”

“A year.”

I was sad that Angel was sick, but I didn’t understand why that would be so hard to tell me and Dicky. Wait a minute. Unless they............. SHIT! My hand slowly dropped from my mouth. “Did you have sex with him, Damon?” His eyes started to fill with tears. He nodded. “Did you use protection?” He shook his head. I thought my head was going to FUCKING EXPLODE!!! I had to blow out air to keep myself from strangling him.

I grabbed his upper arm and shoved him down the hall. “Get in the car.” I told him through gritted teeth.

“Dad, I’m........”

“Get in the car now!!” Damon walked outside. Sofia watched me -frozen from fixing her food- as I snatched the car keys from the counter. “I can not believe this fucking shit.” I murmured as I walked out.

Damon was slouched down in his seat when I got into the car. I completely snapped when we started down the road. “What the fuck were you thinking?! Sixteen years old and you decide you’re man enough to have unprotected sex with a boy you’ve known for a few months! How stupid are you, Damon?!”

“He said he was clean.” He murmured back timidly.

“And you believed him?!”

“Yes.”

“Ever heard of liars, Damon?” I sighed. “I could’ve sworn I told you not to go too fast with this relationship a month ago! I KNOW I said to use fucking protection! Were you not listening?!”

“I DID listen.”

“Bullshit! I work in a hospital! I see the consequences when teenagers your age fall prey to stupid pricks like Angel! They’re taking medication for the rest of their lives! I know! I see it everyday! That’s why I warned you about this! I warned you, Damon!” I pulled into the parking lot of a clinic. We walked inside and I asked the receptionist for something I never thought I’d have to ask for. “My son needs to take an AIDS test please.”

After a few minutes of waiting, we were shown to a room, where a doctor took some of Damon’s blood. Back in the waiting room, we sat together and waited for the results. Damon sat there, wringing his hands together, and I didn’t say a word; too afraid that if I did, I’d start to yell again.

Finally, after waiting forever, the doctor came to us with a big brown envelope. “I believe you two have been waiting for this.” He gave it to Damon and I could see the boy’s breathing get heavier.

He opened it and read it. His expression was blank, so I couldn’t tell if it was good news or bad news. He handed it to me and I read it: HIV/AIDS examination ------- negative. I breathed a sigh of relief, grabbed my son, and held him close to me. “Thank God.” I whispered.

************

I parked the car in the driveway when we got back home, but we didn’t get out. “I’m sorry, Dad.”

“You know, ever since the time you were kidnaped, I never thought that I would come that close to having another heart attack again.” I looked over at Damon. “You scared the shit out of me today.”

“I know. I only went through with it because Angel said he’d dump me if I didn’t. I didn’t want to lose him.”

“If he threatened to dump you if you didn’t have sex with him, then you get rid of his ass. And don’t think you will never have another boyfriend after him, because you will. That was never a relationship to begin with if he forced you to do things you didn’t want to do.”

“So what do I do now?”

“Where is Angel now?”

“L J said they were going to discharge him today, so he should be at home.”

“You call him up and you tell him it’s over. I guess I wouldn’t have been upset if you two had been dating while he was sick, just as long as it didn’t endanger you, but the little shit crossed the line when we he threatened you to do things you didn’t want to do. You call him and if you don’t get an answer, you talk to him in person at school tomorrow. This can’t go on anymore.”

He nodded. “You’re not gonna tell dad about this, are you? He’ll kill me if he found out.”

I thought about it for a minute. “If Sofia hasn’t already spilled the beans while we were gone..........No, I won’t tell him.”

“Thanks dad.”

I hugged him. “You teenagers of the world worry your poor parents to death.”

************

We walked inside the house and found Dicky in the den watching Dr. Phil with a plate of chinese food in his hands. “Hey.” He said with a smile as we walked in. “Where have you two been?”

I took a quick glance at Sofia, who was sitting in an armchair, to see if she told him anything and she shook her head. “Shopping. Damon saw some shoes he wanted and coaxed me into going back into town.”

“Really? Well, where are they?”

“I–He neglected to tell me they were $200 shoes, so we drove back home.” I looked at Damon and he gave an innocent shrug. “Go eat.” Damon walked off to the kitchen to eat followed by Sofia and I finally got the chance to remove my jacket and relax.

“You’re not gonna eat anything?” Dicky asked as I scooted next to him and wrapped his arm around me.

I stifled a yawn. “No. I lost my appetite when I saw the price tag of those shoes.” More like I lost it when I started yelling at Damon. “Besides, you probably ate most of it. How many helpings have you had?” A few days after the wedding, I came home from Bernie’s house and found him eating the top piece of our wedding cake. Mark Graves decided on making our cake out of two different flavors; regular white and red velvet. The icing was creamish color with edible yellow flowers tipped in gold. It was a three-story cake, with each story a different flavor. But the smallest was a blend of the two. One half was red velvet, and the other was traditional white.

I playfully kicked him in his ass, and he just told me, “What? I saved YOUR half.”

He smirked. “Just two helpings.” He put his plate down on the coffee table.

“Just two?”

“Okay. Two and a half.”

************

I double parked my car in the parking lot and ran inside the school. The main office was right next to the front door, so I walked in.

I had gotten a call while I was at work from Damon’s school’s secretary, saying that he was involved in a fight and that I needed to come to the school. Today was the day Damon was going to tell Angel they were finished, since he couldn’t get in touch with him on the phone. So, I pretty much knew who the culprit was, but the possible damage he may have done to my son had me worried.

When I walked in the office, a young office assistant came to the front. “Are you Damon’s dad?”

“Yes. Where is he?”

“In the principal’s office. Go past this counter, down the hall and it’s the third door on the left.”

“Thank you.” I started to leave, but the girl stopped me again.

“Could you tell him that a lot of us here think that what happened to him was wrong?”

“Yeah.” I said. “I’ll tell him.” I followed the directions the girl said and knocked on the door. A woman somewhere in her sixties opened the door.

“Hello. You must be the other father.”

“Yes. Is he in here?”

“Yes. Please, come in.”

I walked inside and saw Dicky sitting in one chair with his hand placed over his mouth, looking at no one in particular. I knew he was pissed. Damon sat in another chair bent over with his head down. I immediately sat in the empty chair next to him, grabbed his chin, and made him look at me. I sighed at what I saw. His right eye was swollen and red, promising to get blacker as the days went on, his lip and the region right below his brow was cut, he had a gash on the bridge of his nose, his nostrils were red from where his nose was bleeding no doubt, and a bruise was forming on his cheek.

I was completely in shock. And the look was apparent on my face. I looked into my son’s beautiful blue eyes, the ones that were always so full of life and glow, and watched as they filled with tears.

Damon turned away from me before the tears could fall and bent his head back down. “What the hell happened here?” I asked.

“Damon,” The principle said softly from behind her desk. “Tell them what happened.”

Damon sat back in his chair -head still down- and started to talk. “I came to school and found Angel. I got him alone, like you told me, and I told him it was over between us. I said that he was controlling me and that was the reason, not him being sick. First he thought I was joking, but when I said I was serious, he got mad. He said I was weak and I was supposed to be told what to do because I couldn’t take care of myself. He said I was lucky to even be wanted by someone as liked and popular as he was, and should’ve been practically kissing the ground he walked on. I didn’t say anything. I just let him talk. I thought it was over when we left each other, but as the day went on, I got word that Angel was telling everyone I was gay. Leaving himself out of the equation of course. He said he saw me at a party drunk and that I begged on my knees to suck him off. He even told them that you two were gay, saying I got my girly persona from you.” He looked towards me. “I confronted him about it, during one of the class changes and that’s when he started to beat me up in front of everyone. I heard some of his friends laughing, saying, ‘beat that fag’ and ‘turn ‘em into fairy pie, Angel’.”

“How long did this go on before somebody stopped it?” Dicky asked.

“One of our students, Thomas Fowler, came and broke it up. Along with others.” The principle said.

“A student helped him?” I asked. “You telling me there wasn’t a single teacher that couldn’t get out of their class and help him? This wasn’t some tiny altercation. That boy beat up my son. Look at his face!”

“There WERE a number of teachers in the halls that were going to help, Mr. Payne. But they couldn’t get through the crowd of students.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s bull. If it was a straight boy that was getting beat up, they wouldn’t have had a problem ‘getting through the crowd’.” I stood up. “Lets go.”

We were all outside in the parking lot. I had Damon in my car and was going to take him to the hospital I work at to get him cleaned up. We’d leave his car here and pick it up later. “You going back to work?” I asked Dicky.

He nodded. “Why didn’t you tell me about Angel?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You knew he had HIV and you knew they had unprotected sex and you didn’t tell me.”

“Well, when I found out we immediately drove to the clinic to get him tested. I was planning on telling you regardless, but when the results came back negative, Damon pleaded for me not to tell you.”

“I deserve to know these things, Drew.”

I nodded. “I know. And I’m sorry....See you after work?”

“Yeah.” He gave me a kiss on the cheek, then knocked on the car window. Damon looked and waved goodbye.

I got in the car and started it up. “Lets get you cleaned up.”

“You can’t do it at home?”

I shrugged. “I could, but I don’t have all the right medicines to use at home and I’m also not specialized in this type of treatment. You may have more injuries than we know about.”

TBC....

Boy. That Angel is something, huh? I hope you liked this chapter and decide to review. I haven\'t been getting as many reviews as I had and I hate to think that I lost some of the reviewers I had before.

NEXT CHAPTER: You guys will be so shocked. I can\'t tell you what it\'s about or whether it\'s a good thing or a bad thing, BUT this story is reaching its final stretch and in order to move the story on, it has to happen. So....