Brian and Carey

by Colin Sherman

  The ten-minute ride to Austin’s house was silent.

  ◆◆◆

  Carey went to his locker to get his jacket and backpack when he heard the sirens. He paid little attention to it. His mind was busy going over his audition for the pit orchestra. The director told him he did fine, but he knew he messed up a little on the sight reading.

  By the time he got outside, a large group of students were gathered around paramedics lifting someone on a gurney. His attention elsewhere, he tripped and stumbled over Brian’s abandoned books and backpack. He looked around for Brian in the crowd. He got an empty feeling in the pit of his stomach when he couldn’t find him.

  Carey dropped his things and ran toward the crowd. Someone who knew Brian and Carey were friends, cleared the way for him. He caught a glimpse of Brian as the attendants raised the gurney, preparing to wheel it into the ambulance.

  “Brian! Brian!”

  Somebody touched Carey’s arm. It was Sharon, who’d been auditioning before Carey.

  “He got hit by a car. But I don’t think it’s that bad. He’s awake.”

  “What happened?” Carey asked as the doors to the ambulance closed.

  “I’m not sure. It already happened by the time I got out here. Are you okay?”

  “Did anyone call his parents? I’ve got to tell them,” he said absently.

  “Mr. Roberts came out. He called them,” she answered. “Hey, do you want a ride home?”

  “Huh?”

  “Get your things. I’ll take you home,” she repeated.

  Carey picked up his things, and Brian’s, and followed Sharon to her car. He was so quiet, she turned around a few times to make sure he was still there.

  “He was awake,” she attempted to comfort Carey again. “I really don’t think he was hurt very badly. Mary wasn’t driving that fast from what I heard.”

  When she dropped him off at home, she asked, “Do you need any help?”

  “No. I’m good. Thanks.”

  “I’m sorry. I know he’s your best friend. I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Sharon smiled.

  “Yeah,” he tried to smile. “Thanks for the ride.”

  He got out of the car and walked up the path to his house. It was going to take every ounce of strength not to cry as soon as he got inside. Fortunately, neither his mother, nor his sister were in sight. He ran up to his room, closed the door and cried into his pillow.

  ◆◆◆

  Later, at the hospital, Carey waited with Brian’s parents and sister in the waiting room. Once he’d calmed down, he called the Stricklands to find out that Brian only suffered a broken arm, along with some cuts and bruises. He thought he may have bumped his head, but he wasn’t sure. The nurses went in once in a while to check for symptoms of concussion just in case.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Strickland?” A nurse who appeared with a clip board, smiled sweetly.

  Brian’s parents stood.

  “Brian’s cast is done. You can come with me.”

  Carey and Grace also stood. “What about us?”

  The nurse furrowed her brow. With his sandy blond, straight hair and blue eyes, Carey didn’t look like he belonged in the Strickland family. “Are you family?”

  “Yes,” he said, before anyone else could say anything.

  The nurse was skeptical but smiled when no one else denied it. “All right. Well, you two can go in after your parents then.”

  Grace sat down and Carey followed suit.

  When they were finally allowed to see Brian, they discovered that his ulna was broken clean through. It could take as long as six weeks to heal. True to form, he had chosen a purple cast.

  “Oh my God. You’re such a girl,” Grace said and rolled her eyes.

  “You’re just jealous because I look better in purple than you do.”

  “You’ll do anything for attention, won’t you?” Carey joked. But he was still really shaken up about the whole thing.

  “Yeah, that’s me. Drama queen.” Brian tried to joke back. He didn’t seem in much of a humorous mood, though.

  “I have your stuff,” Carey told him. “Why didn’t you have them with you? What were you doing?”

  “Just . . . fooling around. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

  “The rumor going around is that someone was chasing you down.”

  “What?” Grace exclaimed. “Who? Was David Messner picking on you again?”

  “No,” Brian lied. “I told you. I was goofing off, waiting for you, Carey.”

  Carey wanted to believe that. But it made more sense that David and his cronies were tormenting Brian again, especially because he had been alone. Though, Carey didn’t recall seeing David and his friends there in the crowd.

  “If I find out he had anything to do with this, I’ll kill him,” Grace clenched her fists.

  “What are you going to do?” Brian asked.

  “I don’t know,” she shrugged. “He makes me so mad. He’s been bullying you since you started high school.”

  “I told you, it wasn’t him.”

  “Okay, okay,” Grace backed off. “I was really scared when I heard about it,” she said quietly. She got up and hugged him.

  "Yeah, I was pretty scared too."

  Carey watched and wished he and Michelle were as close. Grace completely accepted Brian for who he was, and even lent him some of her things. Though she teased him about being girly sometimes, she always vehemently defended him to anyone else. He thought Michelle would probably join in any teasing of himself.

  “I’m just glad you’re okay,” Grace said when she sat back down.

  “How long do you have to have the cast?” Carey asked.

  “Five to six weeks,” Brian answered. “It’ll be off just in time for the musical. But I’ll have most of my rehearsals with it on.”

  “That sucks.”

  “Hey, when do you find out if you’re in the pit?” asked Brian.

  “A couple of days. There are still auditions tomorrow. I don’t think I did very well.”

  “Is music all you guys talk about?” Grace rolled her eyes.

  “Nope. We talk about video games and food too,” Brian grinned. “Speaking of food, do you think one of you could get me something to eat?”

  “Actually, I think they’re letting you go home soon. I overheard a nurse giving Mom instructions.”

  “Sweet.”

  “You’re not going to school tomorrow, are you?” Carey questioned.

  “I don’t know.” Brian looked down at his arm. “There probably isn’t any reason why not,” he answered unenthusiastically.

  “I think you should stay home,” Carey said. “I can get anything from your locker you need. And I can let you know what we have for homework in Trig, Comp, and Government.”

  Brian nodded. “Yeah, maybe I should. I’m pretty wiped out. And I have a headache.”

  The curtain was pulled back and the Stricklands stood, appearing relieved.

  “You can come home,” his mom said. “I have your papers right here.”

  “You haven’t shown any signs of concussion, but we’re still going to keep a close eye on you,” Mr. Strickland said. “I’ll stay home with you tomorrow.”

  Brian sat on the bed and looked at all the concerned faces.

  “I’m fine,” he said. “You don’t all have to look so worried.”

  A nurse came in to escort them all out. The Stricklands dropped Carey off on their way home, then got Brian settled in bed.

  “Mom, you don’t have to fuss over me. I’m fine.”

  “Yes, you said that before. And I’ve told you, it’s my job to look out for you.”

  “I’m not really tired,” he said, then yawned.

  Lori Strickland smirked.

  “Okay, so maybe I’m a little tired. But I am fine.”

  She smoothed out his blanket. “Are you going to tell me what happened?”

  “I did.”

  “Brian–”

  “Mom, I was just fool
ing around and didn’t look where I was going. That’s all.”

  Lori looked her son in the eye, but he didn’t back down. She sighed.

  “All right. But you know you can come to me with anything, anytime.”

  He nodded. “I know.”

  “I love you.” She hugged him.

  “I love you too.”

  Chapter 5

  Walking into school on Monday after his accident, Brian kept a constant lookout for David and his friends. He was nervous about seeing them and had managed to convince his parents to let him stay home from school on Friday, as well as Thursday.

  “You all right?” Carey asked.

  Brian nodded. His eyes darted all around. He spotted Austin down the hall at his locker and stumbled a bit on his feet.

  “What’s wrong? You’re like a cat on water.”

  “Nothing. I just tripped,” Brian said.

  “Well, be careful. You can’t afford break something else,” Carey joked, but he noticed that Brian didn’t even seem to be listening. He looked down the hall where Brian’s attention was focused. “Are you worried about Austin? He’s not going to do anything in the middle of school. Not with Miss Troutman standing right there.”

  Brian turned. “I’m not worried. I’m just thinking. I have a lot of work to make up for those two days I missed. I e-mailed all my teachers but didn’t hear back from some of them.”

  “Okay,” Carey said. “But I can help you with some of it.”

  “Thanks.” Brian smiled. “Dr. Gould said I could copy your notes for Government, English Comp and Trig.”

  “Yeah, I’m going to scan them for you. You’re on your own for Spanish, though. Is someone in there going to help?”

  “Señora Mitchell is going to give them to me herself.” Brian frowned. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do for science. We were in the middle of dissecting a frog.”

  Carey put a hand on Brian’s shoulder. “You only missed two days. I’m sure it’ll be fine. Are you sure that’s all you’re worried about?”

  “Yeah. Bell’s about to ring. See you in Trig.” They parted ways, each going to their language class.

  Most of Brian’s teachers were sympathetic to his situation. But since it was his left arm that was in a cast, and he was right-handed, he was still expected to take notes and do the work. Depending on what they were doing in class, he sat out of gym for most of the month.

  The majority of the day, Brian was kept too busy to think about his experience the previous Wednesday, until the end of the day. Brian was on his way to Biology when he saw David coming the other way down the hall. His heart picked up speed. With only a few other students left in the hallway, there was no way David wasn’t going to notice him. He felt frozen in place, resigned to just stand there and take whatever threats David threw at him. Brian was ready to swear, on his signed Wicked playbill if he had to, that he wasn’t going to say a word about what really happened in the parking lot. For a brief moment, Brian looked down at his cast and thought, if necessary, it might make a good weapon.

  But David walked right past him, giving him the quickest of sideways glances. Brian stood in the hallway gaping, his line of sight following the bully as he went into one of the other science labs.

  The bell rang, breaking Brian’s trance like state. He rushed into class and sat down.

  “You’re late,” Mr. Brown frowned.

  “I, um, I had to go to my locker to get my book.” Brian held up his cast covered arm.

  “Oh, right. Okay. Did you get the notes from last week, Brian?”

  He shook his head. “Not yet.”

  “Cassie, how far did you get with your dissection? Did you finish?”

  “No, but I got pretty far. I can go over it with Brian.”

  Mr. Brown nodded. “All right. Are there any other groups that didn’t finish on Friday?”

  A few other students raised their hands. Mr. Brown allowed them to take out their frogs and finish up, while he gave the rest of the class some busy work. Brian was relieved that his absence didn’t put Cassie behind as well.

  “Sorry I left you to do most of the work,” Brian apologized.

  “That’s okay,” she smiled. She took out her notes and showed him what she had observed so far.

  He offered to do the rest of the dissecting if she wanted to take notes and fill in their worksheet. He used the tiny scissors to slice open the skin of the frog’s leg. Then, used the tweezers to pull back the skin, revealing the muscle. He grimaced the whole time and made noises of disgust.

  Cassie laughed at him. “Do you want me to do it?”

  “Ugh, this is so gross.”

  “How about if you fill in the worksheet and I’ll do this? We only have the muscular and skeletal systems left,” she offered.

  “Don’t offer just to be polite because I am definitely going to take you up on it,” Brian said, still making faces.

  “It doesn’t bother me,” she said, handing him the clipboard with the notes on it.

  After a few minutes of quietly working, Cassie looked up at him. “I’m glad you’re okay. Mary feels really bad.”

  “She didn’t get in trouble because of me, did she?”

  “No, no. The police talked to her, but she didn’t get into any trouble. They said it was your fault.”

  “Yeah,” he said quietly. “My fault.”

  They were quiet again, talking only about the parts they needed to label on the worksheet.

  “We don’t have to count the bones, do we?” Cassie asked.

  “No,” Brian said. “I remember from the book the axial region has forty-seven bones.”

  “Oh, good. Because that would take forever.”

  Surprisingly, even with Brian absent, and Cassie having to do some of the work on her own, they weren’t the last group to finish. Brian handed in their paperwork and got two packets from Mr. Brown’s desk. As he started to walk away, the teacher stopped him.

  “Brian.”

  “Yes?” he turned around.

  “You’re not left-handed, are you?”

  “No, I can still write. I took the notes for today.”

  “Okay, just checking. I wouldn’t want you to get behind. Are you . . . feeling okay?”

  Brian nodded. He wondered what the teachers had been told, or what they thought happened to him. Carey admitted that the students all thought that he was being chased, though no one could say definitively.

  “Uh huh.” He held up his arm a little. “It’ll only be on for five or six weeks.”

  He sat back down and handed Cassie her packet. It amazed him that none of his teachers asked him for any details or seemed more than a little concerned. Except for Mr. Roberts. He was there after school with the chorus kids and had been the one to call Brian’s parents. He was one of those teachers that treated his students more like adults than kids. Sometimes, in more casual circumstances, the kids even called him by his first name, Brad. Though he didn’t ever come right out and tell the kids he was gay, most of them knew he lived with a man named Joseph, who was a band director in a different school district. Brian thought that if he couldn’t make a career performing like he wanted, he might like to teach, too. Except he’d teach theater arts or dance.

  After school, Brian and Carey had their respective music rehearsals, but Brian also had play practice. As much as he was looking forward to it, he was nervous about walking home alone and asked his mother to pick him up. One good thing, neither David nor his friends ever had anything to do with the music or theater department.

  The first several rehearsals were just read-throughs. They would start blocking once they got a feel for the characters. For this musical, it was hardly necessary, as nearly every student was familiar with the story of the girl that was held captive by a beast in a castle. Learning the music was a cinch, too. At least for the singers. The pit had its work cut out for it.

  Brian was thrilled to learn that Carey made the pit and that they’d be in later reh
earsals together. Rehearsals after band and chorus were arduous, but they were also fun. The musical was really coming together by mid-March.

  Brian performed well during rehearsals. He felt there might even be scenes he would steal from the leading man. However, once practice was over, and it was time to go home, Brian seemed nervous and anxious.

  “I won’t tell anyone, you know,” Carey said as they walked home after practice one day.

  “Won’t tell what?” Brian asked.

  “It was David that was chasing you, wasn’t it? I’m not going to tell a soul, I swear. But I need to know.”

  Brian sighed. “I don’t know why I tried to hide it. Everyone probably guessed that anyway.”

  “Then why didn’t you tell?”

  “So, what if I did? And what if Dr. Gould decided it was just horsing around and David didn’t end up in any real trouble? David would be looking for revenge. It wouldn’t be just bumping into to one of us anymore or knocking our books out of our hands. They’d beat the shit out of me. Or us. I already feel bad that they pick on you when you’re with me. I couldn’t risk them beating you up.”

  “It would have been worth the risk,” Carey said.

  “No. You’ve stuck by me through everything. You’ve always stood up for me. It wasn’t worth the risk.”

  Carey frowned. “I never did enough. I should have at least tried to fight back.”

  “Two against three? And I barely even count as one,” Brian joked. “They’re graduating this year. Hopefully.” He laughed. “And then it’ll be over. I just have to make it through a few more months.”

  “You shouldn’t have to live that way,” Carey grumbled. “And I’m not sure what you mean by making it through. You got your arm broken.”

  “At least it wasn’t my leg,” Brian said optimistically. “Then, I’d be screwed. And besides, none of them have done or said anything to me since . . .” He looked down at his arm. “They hardly even look at me.”

  “How long do you think that will last?” Carey questioned.

  Brian shrugged. “Don’t know. But I’m going to enjoy it while it does.”

  Fortunately for Brian, it did last. David gave Brian quick glances every so often. Brian figured mainly David was wondering why Brian hadn’t ratted him out. Austin and James were a little bolder, sometimes giving him dirty looks. But none of them made a move on him. There had even been a few times that Brian and Carey walked right past them on the school sidewalk free and clear.