Take Me From This Pain, Kevin's story

Kevin bolted from his seat in art class as soon as the bell rang. He knew Ryan was waiting for him at his locker and he didn’t want to leave his friend waiting for too long. He bustled down the hallway, stopping only when he ran into an immovable object.

“Well, what do I got here?” sneered a familiar and unfriendly voice. “If it isn’t my little sweetheart.”

Kevin’s blood ran cold as locked eyes with Eric Nevins. They hadn’t spoken since the attack and it had been so many months from then that Kevin had begun to believe that the nasty boy had forgotten about him, or at least had decided to let the matter drop. The other four had and seemed to even take pains to avoid him in the hallways at school, not wanting to tempt the principal’s threat of expelling them if they bothered Kevin further. But Eric, though he hadn’t approached Kevin again, still had sent him heated glares from far away, though he’d never actually made contact again. This hallway was peculiarly deserted and Kevin pulled himself away from Eric, trying to dart around him.

“Where are you going?” Eric asked in amusement. “We haven’t talked in so long, and I’m beginning to think you’ve lost interest.”

“I never was interested! Now let me get by!”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” Eric replied thoughtfully as he reached around and grabbed Kevin by the waist, hauling him up against his hips and pressing him into the wall. “You see, I’ve missed you, baby.”

“D-don’t call me that!”

“Why not?” Eric purred. “Sara dumped me after it got around that I went after you. So I’m just confirming everyone’s suspicions about my interest in you.” The back of his fingers lightly brushed down the small blonde boy’s cheek. “I need a new girlfriend, and like I said, you look like a girl anyway, so . . .”

Kevin’s lower lip began to tremble in fear as he shut his eyes and turned his head away from the other boy, his disgust growing palpable and the bile rising in his throat.

“Nevins!” a loud voice pierced the air. “What the fuck did I tell you?”

Mark Simmons and a couple of friends came storming down the hallway and stopped next to them. Mark glared expectantly then physically pulled Eric away from Kevin and shoved him back so the small blonde could move away from the wall.

“We have a truce set until after the season’s over,” Mark enunciated each word with an icy tone that made Kevin step back warily. “He’s NOT to be touched.”

“I’m not part of your crew,” Eric spat back venomously. “You don’t get to dictate to me!”

“Oh no?” Mark raised a malicious-looking eyebrow. He and his two friends stepped closer to Eric threateningly. “I don’t? Are you sure?”

Eric looked around him defiantly but didn’t say anything, knowing he wasn’t in any position to fight the three basketball players. He looked over their shoulders at Kevin and made sure his silent message was clear. ‘This isn’t even close to over.’ Then he sent Mark another fulminating glare and stalked off. Mark and his friends smirked before turning to Kevin.

“Why are you alone in the hallways?” Mark demanded in a churlish tone. After all, this kid wasn’t his friend. And neither was Jason, despite the awesome teammate that he was.

“I was j-just going t-to my locker after class,” Kevin stammered. “I wasn’t going to be alone after that.”

“Well, make sure you take everything you need to your last class next time,” Mark replied scathingly. “We usually don’t take this hallway and neither do any of your friends. I don’t want anything to piss Brennan off until after the season’s done. Got it?”

Kevin nodded.

“Good. Now get your ass to your locker. Where is it anyway?”

“Just around the corner,” Kevin pointed.

“Move it then!”

Kevin gave him one more glance before he walked in the direction of his locker. The hell he would let Mark Simmons send him scurrying! He passed a few hallway stragglers as he finally made it to his locker. Ryan stood nearby quietly watching him with an interest that made Kevin sure his friend knew something was wrong. Kevin sighed as he dialed the combination to his lock and tore the door open. He threw in a few textbooks and pulled out a couple of others, as well as another sketchpad.

“Spill it, blondie,” Ryan finally ordered.

“No.”

“Kev . . .”

“What good would it do?” Kevin turned on him as he slammed the locker closed. “You’ll tell Jason and he’ll do something to either get in trouble or get hurt. NO!”

“What makes you think I’ll tell him?” Ryan pushed himself off the wall and started forward.

“You ALWAYS tell him,” the small blonde called over his shoulder as he led the way to the school gym

“I do not ALWAYS tell him,” Ryan argued. “Just that once and it wasn’t like he wouldn’t have seen it for himself anyway. You were busted up and Joey got to him first if I recall.”

“Still.”

“Kevin,” Ryan stopped the small boy just before he opened the gym door. “You know you’re being irrational.” He turned Kevin to face him. “And I thought you wanted to be friends.”

Kevin noted the hurt look on Ryan’s face and sighed. He knew he should have listened to his first instinct and kept his distance from Ryan. In fact, he and Brian had spoken about the tall boy several times, and Brian warned him that it wouldn’t do him any good to try to keep things from Ryan. It was uncanny how easy it was for the dark-haired boy to read people. And Kevin knew that now was no different. Ryan would get it out of him no matter what he did to avoid the issue.

“Finally,” Mark Simmons sneered as he and his friends passed them to get to the doorway to the locker room. “The bodyguard arrives.” He turned to Ryan before he opened the door. “Make sure you keep an eye on him this time. I don’t want it to get around that I’m defending fags.”

He and his friends laughingly disappeared into the locker room leaving in their wake a stunned Kevin and an expectant Ryan.

“You going to tell me now?”

“Fine,” Kevin sighed as he pulled open the gym door and walked briskly into it, trotting over to their regular seats near the top of the bleachers. “Settle in and I’ll tell you.”

Ryan slowly climbed the stairs after him and settled himself into his seat then waited for Kevin to finally settle in with his sketchpad open to a clean page. “Well?”

“Well,” the small blonde began, “let’s just say that Eric’s not giving up on bugging me after all,” he sighed. “He caught me in the hallway on my way to my locker and made it clear that I was still on his list.”

“Made it clear how?” Ryan asked tightly, his features suddenly taking on a thunderous expression.

Kevin cocked his head to the side as he studied the taller boy. He suddenly knew that Brian was right in their last conversation. While Kevin was unsure if Ryan really did want to be friends with him, his brother informed him that they already were, and that Kevin held the same importance to Ryan that Brian did. ‘Wow,’ Kevin thought. ‘Who’d have thunk it?’

“H-he just said that Sara dumped him and that it was my fault.”

Ryan stared at Kevin thoughtfully. Oh no, that’s not all Eric had said at all, and Ryan knew it. Kevin was attempting to downplay the situation as usual, but if that’s all Eric had told him, Mark Simmons, of all people, would never have decided to step into the fray.

“Kevin.”

“Really.”

“Kevin,” Ryan tried again. “I know that’s not all. Mark’s not a friend of yours.”

“He just wants to make sure Jason finishes the season,” Kevin shrugged and went back to the new sketch he was working on.

“Kevin,” Ryan tried again. “Tell me. I know he said degrading things before, and I’m sure he said more this time.”

“Just a few,” Kevin sighed, refusing to look up. “But he can’t get to me. I have lots of help, don’t I?”

“Yeah, you do,” Ryan replied. “And I’ll be meeting you at the classroom door from now on.”

“But . . .”

“Kevin!”

“All right,” he grunted finally looking up to meet Ryan’s gaze.

“Good,” Ryan smiled.

“Are you this overprotective of Lee?”

“More.”

“I doubt that.”

“You can ask him yourself.”

“I think I will. Where is he anyway? I thought he was meeting us here.”

“He will,” Ryan shrugged. “He’s just getting a book out of the library.”

“At school?” Kevin asked. “He has a car then?”

“No, the public one down the road,” Ryan smiled as he thought of his boyfriend. “The one at school was checked out already.”

“Okay, then,” the small blonde smiled back. “How are things going with him anyway?”

“Um, good,” Ryan blushed.

“Are you blushing?” Kevin teased. “That is so cute!”

“Zip it!”

“Seriously though,” Kevin giggled. “I won’t tell anyone. I just want to know that you’re happy.”

“He makes me happy,” Ryan admitted. “Id’ be happier if we could progress in the bedroom, but I’m happy.”

“You haven’t done the deed yet?” Kevin asked in surprise. Ryan shook his head. “But you live together!”

“I know.”

“Have you talked to him about it yet?”

“Some.”

“Ryan, what’s going on?”

“Nothing,” the tall boy sighed and looked down. “At least I hope. He did mention he wasn’t sure if I could really love him if I was still attracted to girls.”

“Didn’t you tell him that you’re monogamous?”

“Just like you and I discussed,” Ryan nodded vigorously. “And that’s when he decided to move in. But since then, all we do is . . . well, everything but. He says he still needs time.”

“Well, then give him time,” Kevin suggested sagely. “It’s not like he doesn’t love you.”

“I know,” Ryan smiled softly. “He blurted that out that night, too.”

“And you assured him you loved him, too, right?”

Ryan looked at him quizzically.

“You didn’t?!” Kevin cried. “No wonder he’s confused. Ryan, how can you be so good with other people’s problems and so clueless with your own?”

“Huh?”

“You need to reassure him that you love him,” Kevin sighed in frustration. “He’s doubting your feelings, and I’m sure it’s compounded by the fact that his first boyfriend left him for a woman. NOT reassuring him leaves him in limbo. You do love him, don’t you?”

“YES!”

“Then TELL him!”

Ryan looked down in shame. He didn’t realize that he was hurting Lee by avoiding the subject. But he’d only wanted to wait until Lee broached it himself. But now that he and Kevin were talking about it, he realized that Lee never would.

“You’re too smart for a kid,” he suddenly told the blonde.

“So I’ve been told.”