by Bryan Mosier
“Um, sure. You know I would never…”
“I mean you have to promise. Please.”
“Okay, I promise. What’s going on?”
“Well, you know how Marcus and I have been seeing each other”
“Really, I hadn’t really noticed” came the smart aleck response without warning and Alex regretted it before he was even finished saying the words.
Hurt by the insincerity of his remark Jeanie just turned away and said“Nevermind.”
Feeling like a douche Alex put his hand on her shoulder and said“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…go on. What did you want to talk about?”
Turning and looking in his eyes and finding genuine compassion Jeanie continued“Well, Marcus and I have been going out for a while now and I like him and all. He’s sweet and nice and we have fun together but lately…
“Lately?” cajoled Alex, suddenly deeply interested in what she was saying.
“Lately, when we…you know…”
“What?” asked Alex, not really wanting to know the answer but knowing that his imagination would immediately take him to the worst possible answer he had to push on.
“You know…kiss. When we make out.”
“Oh” said Alex his head reeling from the mental image that her words had conjured in his mind. The thought of Jeanie and Marcus swapping saliva with tongues here and there, it was enough to turn his stomach.
“When we make out well, lately Marcus has been wanting to do more than just kiss.”
“Oh!” said Alex his mind now barreling down a path that he was hoping to avoid in the first place.“And you…” he started to ask not really wanting to know the answer.
Catching on to his implication Jeanie’s eyes widened as she said“Oh, no, we haven’t…. not…not yet anyway.”
“Yet?” asked Alex. “So you’re considering it?”
“Well, I don’t know. That’s what I’ve been thinking about. I mean I like him. He seems like a really nice guy and I don’t want to mess things up. What should I do?”
“You should dump his worthless ass because he is a psychopathic piece of shit who is just playing some kind of twisted game with you” were the words that immediately ran through Alex’s mind but somewhere between his brain and his mouth the words got mixed up and came out as“You should do what you think is right.”
“Really? You think so?” came her response, the sarcasm born from frustration now evident in her voice. “Could you be any more generic? That’s what I want to know. What is the right thing to do?”
“Well, um...” started Alex, trying to come up with the right words to say but was immediately cut off by the sound of the bell ringing for class to be over.“Oh crap, is that the end of class. We gottaget this stuff cleaned up.” Grabbing his drawing and her watercolor painting Alex rushed to store them away as Jeanie hurriedly rinsed out her paintbrushes and cleaned up her work station. Rushing to get everything in order and to not be late for fourth period Alex gave Jeanie a quick, sympathetic nod and said “See yalater” as they both rushed out the door. Feeling guilty about brushing her off Alex wished he had said what he really felt but was also happy to not have to deal with the awkwardness of their conversation anymore.
The rest of the day went on as usual and Alex was glad to not have to see Jeanie anymore. As much as he liked her seeing her was just too painful and being a Friday that meant he wouldn’t have to deal with the pain anymore until Monday. Nope, all he had to do was put her out of his mind and not to worry about anything except what kind of trickery Bryan and Justin would have in their never ending attempts to derail his most well laid plans for their D&D adventure this weekend.
Friday evening melted into Saturday as Alex, Bryan and Justin, accompanied by the ever precocious Brandon stayed up to the wee hours of the morning running through one role playing encounter after another. From minor skirmishes with a band of wayward Kobolds to an epic battle with a level fifteen necromancer that landed the group a hefty bounty of experience points and gold as well as a nifty ring of concealment that Brandon demanded he should have. Relenting the group regretted their decision as for the rest of the evening Brandon kept referring to it as“My precious”. Taking a break from the action to reload on Doritos and Mountain Dew Justin was the first to notice a message on his phone. “Hey guys did you see this?”
“What is it?” asked Bryan.
“It’s from the school’s Facebook page.”
Like most schools trying to keep up the current trends the high school had made its own Facebook page in hopes that they could communicate with students and parents more readily when there was important information to be conveyed. “It says they shared a link. Looks like some kind of video. That is weird. The subject line just says He shoots! He Scores! No. 21 does it again.” Swiping his fingers over the screen Justin’s eyes widened as the video started playing on the tiny screen of his smartphone.“Oh shit! You guys…you needsee this?”
“C’mon dude, what is it?” asked Bryan, his anticipation now growing with Justin’s reaction to what he was seeing.
“Handing the phone over to Bryan, his reaction was just as immediate as Justin’s. “Dude, what the hell? This is on the school’s Facebook page? No fucking way! That is awesome!”
“What is it?” asked Alex, his curiosity now peaked by his friend’s obvious excitement.
“Dude, you gottasee this” said Bryan as he reached the phone over to Alex.
Taking the phone Alex looked at the screen and immediately his heart dropped. There on the screen was a dark, semi-grainy video playing of what was clearly two people engaged in a very intimate moment. Bodies intertwined with the sounds of their passionate moment together being broadcast for the world to see. Alex was frozen. His heart sank as he watched the video and recognized the unmistakable dark hair, freckled cheeks and thick rimmed glasses. Mouth agape, he didn’t know what to say.
“Dude, I know. Freaking awesome right?” said Bryan as he grabbed the phone back from Alex who gave no resistance. Enraptured by the video Bryan looked a little closer and said“Hey, don’t you know that girl Al? Don’t she go to our school?” Looking closer Justin agreed that she did look familiar.
“Um…uh…yeah. Her name is…her name is Jean…” started Alex but the pain was too much for him to bear. Feeling the tears well up in his eyes he jumped up from his seat and said“I uh…I gottatake a leak… I’ll be back” and with that hebolted up the basement stairs. Slamming the bathroom door closed behind him the tears began to stream down his cheeks. “Why didn’t I just say something” he thought to himself. “Why…” Sitting there in the bathroom alone, all Alex could do was cry and run through his mind all the things he should have said.
By the time Monday morning rolled around the video had been removed from the school’s Facebook page but the damage had already been done. The video had been downloaded, uploaded, emailed and linked to every type of social media that you could imagine. Someone had even put it up on YouTube but it was immediately taken down because of the content. Whoever was responsible for the video in the first place had done a good job of concealing their identity. The guy in the video never showed his face and stayed in the shadows for the most part. Jeanie on the other hand was clearly identifiable and by the time the first period bell rang everyone was talking about her and the sex tape scandal. As expected reactions were mixed. Most of the guys thought it was the greatest thing ever and most of the girls just went on about how big of a slut“that bitch” must be.
Alex hadn’t seen Jeanie all day but that wasn’t unusual as of late. She had been spending so much time with Marcusthat he usually didn’t see her until they had class together third period. When the bell rang for class to start, Jeanie still wasn’t in class. Having struggled for most of an hour trying to get his mind focused on his work, Alex was startled back into reality when the bell rang for class to end. Waiting for the rest of the students to file out of the classroom, Alex approached his art teacher Mr. Carroll.
“Um, hey, Mr. C? Um, can I ask you a question? Was Jeanie…um was she absent today or something?”
With an embarrassed look of awareness of the whole video incident, Mr. Carroll, in his soft, genial voice, just gave a slight nod and said,“Well, yeah, she was marked as absent in the computer.” Walking over to his cluttered desk, he checked his computer and with a few clicks he said“Yeah, looks like she hasn’t been to any of her classes today.”
“Oh, okaythen. Um…thanks Mr. C. I’ll see you later”
Walking out of the classroom Alex felt like he was wandering aimlessly. All he could do was think about Jeanie. The images of the video kept racing in his mind and, try as he might, he couldn’t get it out of his head. Walking on autopilot, Alex was surprised when he found himself at the doors of the cafeteria. “Oh shit, its lunch time isn’t it.” Walking into the cafeteria the room was its usual bustling self. Students were meandering through picking up their trays at one end of each of the two serving lines and coming out the other with said trays loaded with whatever slop some bureaucratic big wig in some far off office at the state board of education had decided was an adequately balanced and nutritional meal. Looking around he saw Justin and Bryan had already made it through the line and were set up at their usual table. Not feeling very hungry he just made his way through the crowd and sat down in the empty space at the table.
“Hey dude. What’s up? You not gonna eat?” asked Bryan.
“Nah, not really hungry.”
“Dude, its chicken nugget day!”
“So?”
“Chicken nuggets? You know what that means?”
Not really following Bryan’s train of thought Alex just shrugged his shoulders.
“Chicken nuggets means mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes means gravy. Chicken gravy. Thick, delicious, and way to bright a shade of yellow to be natural or healthy, chicken gravy.” Smacking his lips loud enough to get some nasty looks from the girls at the next table over, Bryan continued to mime an expression of near orgasmic pleasure at the thought of the delicious salty flavor that awaited his taste buds.
Alex started to say something but suddenly the room exploded into a raucous cacophony mixed with applause, cheers and laughter. Looking up Alex could see the object of the commotion. Coming through the entrance of the cafeteria was a trio of would be basketball stars clad in their distinctive maroon and white varsity jackets. Leading the pack and walking with his usual egotistical swagger, Marcus Middleton just smiled and casually dispatched an imaginary piece of lint from his jacket that was, in no subtle way, meant to focus everyone’s attention at the distinctive number twenty-one emblazoned on his chest.
“Oh shit!” came the response from Bryan. “Number twenty-onedoes it again? I get it now. You guys don’t think it was…”
“Of course it was him” came the abrupt, anger filled response from Alex.“He and Jean…” Saying her name was even more difficult now with his eyes fixated on Marcus. “They had been seeing each other for a while” is all Alex could get out, his face now red, his blood boiling with emotion, a mixture of anger and regret.
If asked, Alex wouldn’t have been able to tell you if he could remember exactly when he got out of his seat or what he intended to do, but without realizing it he suddenly found himself standing in front of Marcus. The roar of the room had given way to complete silence. Standing there, looking up into the soulless eyes of this evil, despicable person, Alex couldn’t put into words the hatred that he was feeling. Images of Marcus, bloodied and beaten, lying at his feet, begging for mercy rushed through Alex’s mind. Countless ways of inflicting pain and humiliation on this sorry excuse for a human being were flowing through Alex’s brain. All he could think about was making Marcus hurt. He wanted Marcus to feel the same pain that he imagined Jeanie was feeling. No not the same pain. Her pain was emotional born from being lied to, manipulated and publicly humiliated. He wanted Marcus’ pain to be physical. Looking down at Alex, Marcus was acutely aware of the torrent of emotion that was devouring Alex from the inside and it seemed to give him an even greater sense of pleasure. Looking Alex in the eyes, Marcus, with asadistic grin on his face just looked down at Alex and with a slight chuckle said“Hey Al. How’re you doing? You have a good weekend? Mine was awesome.” And with that he patted Alex on the shoulder and walked off with his entourage in tow. Shocked at the overt audacity of the comment, Alex found himself frozen in place. What could he say or do? What should he do? Lost in the confusion of his emotions all he could find the strength to do was to simply walk away. He walked out of the cafeteria and kept walking until he found himself by the office at the entrance of the school. Looking through the large glass windows he could see into the office and something was definitely wrong. Vicky was there along with the guidance counselor and the school principal and they all had very serious expressions on their faces. Vicky’s eyes were red and watery as if she had been crying. Without thinking Alex walked into the office and, looking into Vicky’s tear soaked eyes asked“What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
“Alex? Oh, nothing.” came Vicky’s failed attempt at deception but the tremor in her voice said otherwise. “You just get back to class, okay?”
“Is it Jeanie?”
At the sound of her name, all three adult faces melted with the same expression. An expression of sadness and despair that something very terrible had occurred.
“What happened?” asked Alex again, this time with more determination that his status as a student talking to the adults should allow.
“You’re a friend of hers?” asked the principal.
“Yeah, we…we’re pretty close. What’s going on?”
“You better come in and sit down.”
Leading him into the counselor’s office they asked him all sorts of questions about what was going on with Jeanie and who she had been seeing and what she had talked about with Alex. Not wanting to betray her trust, Alex tried to evade the questions but the sincerity of the situation made him feel like he should be as forthcoming as possible. He told them about the conversation he had with Jeanie and the pressures she was feeling regarding her relationship with Marcus. Hearing Marcus’ name for the first time caused an immediate reaction with the principal. “Can you please tell me what’s going on?” begged Alex.
“Okay. It’s going to be all over the school soon enough anyway. Jeanie, the young lady in that horrible video…your friend…she…well…she tried to take her own life this morning.”
At that moment, Alex was sure that he was dying. His heart had stopped beating. He couldn’t breathe. His life was over. Unable to catch his breath he just stuttered“Wha..How…Whe…”
“First let me say, she is okay. Her stepmother found her in time and got her to the hospital.”
Still reeling from the news Alex finally lost control. All of the emotions that he was holding inside came rushing out in a torrent of tears. Sobbing uncontrollably the three adults patted him on the shoulder and offered solace and consoling advice but could do nothing to assuage his sadness. After several minutes of emotional release, Alex quietly asked if he might just go ahead and call home and Vicky, finally having something that she could help with, jumped up and started making the appropriate phone calls.
Staring at the mottled, rotten face of Marcus Middleton, all arrogance and ego havingfaded away with the life he once had, Alex felt the same surge of emotion that he had that day standing in the cafeteria. Face to face again, now he wanted to make sure he said what he had wanted to say before. “You despicable piece of shit. Did you ever have a single ounce of regret for what you did to her? She almost died because of you. You destroyed her life. She had to fucking leave school. They put her in a fucking mental hospital. And what did you get. Nothing. Not a god damn thing you fucking piece of shit. Big fucking basketball star. Nobody’s gonna say a god damn thing to you!”
Hearing the commotion and a raised voice coming from the back of the gym, both Bryan and Justin take notice. Looking through the crowd of
zombies they can see Alex but, confusingly,it looks like he’s talking to someone. “Hey, Al. What’s going on dude?” Bryan and Justin aren’t the only ones to take notice. Alex’s anger and raised voice has also drawn the attention of the other walking corpses stumbling about the gym. As he sees the stumbling forms of the dead athletes start to turn towards Alex, Bryan yells“Dude, you need to look around. Start taking some heads off dude. Al?”
With a rage building in his chest, Alex continues to berate the animated corpse of Marcus Middleton. “You worthless fuck. You deserve this. This is what you always were anyway. A worthless, useless sack of rotting flesh that only brought pain and misery to the people around you. I should just leave you like this. Hopefully, somewhere deep inside that rotting brain of yours you can still feel. Maybe you can feel yourself rotting day by day. Feel the maggots crawling under your rotten skin. Feel the pain as yourbones dry up and start to crumble.” For a moment, Alex considers walking away but standing there, looking into those white, milky undead eyes Alex finds himself lost in his emotions once more.
Gripping the handle of his nail studded bat, the perspiration in has palms causing the leather grip to slip just a little. Looking down at the bat, the sharp metal spikes protruding from it, thinking about the pain and suffering caused by this sad excuse for a human being, Alex gives a slight chuckle. Looking through the oncoming mass of undead bodies approaching him, Alex locks eyes with Bryan. Holding the bat up a little as if making a presentation of it toBryan, Alex mutters one single word. “Jeanie” he says in a barely audible voice. With a cold determination he grabs the bat with both hands and raises it over his head. With all the force his trembling arms can muster he brings the bat down hard, planting the long, galvanized spikes firmly into the forehead of Marcus Middleton.