Caught in the Act

by Lydia Thorn

  “We go to my guy or no one.”

  “Fuck it.” Xander spits a glob of blood. He has no choice but to let me take him inside the dark sterilized lobby. Chairs line the walls, a shelf full of medically prescribed dog food stock the back shelves.

  A skinny man with curly blond hair and leather jacket locks the door behind us. “Get him in room three, its where we treat the larger dogs.”

  “Thank you for getting up to deal with this.”

  “I’m getting paid so it’s no big deal.”

  I took Xander to the medical table in the room which is on the ground. The doc enters behind me and takes off his jacket and washes his hands. Afterward, he presses a button to raise the table higher and begins assessing the damage.

  “He might live, I just gotta work fast.”

  “Do what you can but it won’t be a big deal if you can’t save him,” I say sitting down.

  “Fuck you.” Xander coughs out blood.

  “I’m going to sedate him.”

  “No, don’t put me to sleep.”

  I smile, a wicked streak taking hold, if I can make him feel half the terror my Raven felt, then I won't miss my chance to do it. “I wonder if the same drugs that put dogs down work on humans.”

  “No—”

  Hearing the sick details of what he had done is enough to make me want to kill him in his sleep. What the hell can I say to Raven to make him feel better? He might just decide to never see me again and I can’t blame him.

  I told him I loved him, at least I got that out before the end. I can’t even describe the surmounting fear I felt when I saw his friend at my door.

  “Where am I?” Xander groans, waking up to his new world. After the doc patched him up, I brought him to this working motel and threw him on the bed. What’s up with all these motels looking like they hadn’t been revamped since the 70s?

  “Not dead. Thanks to Louis, only thanks to him.” I remind him.

  “I swear I’m done; you and he won’t ever hear from me again.” His voice is groggy, skin pale from the blood loss.

  “You think I believe a word that comes out of your mouth?”

  “I know you don’t have a reason to believe me.” He coughs. “It doesn’t matter, it’s over.”

  I pull out the recorder I bought while he was out and playback everything he said to me in his drug-induced high. How he was poisoning his father just enough to make him sick, and he spilled the beans on everything that happened with Louis.

  “What the hell, when did I?”

  “The things people say when high.”

  “Gonna ruin me now?” He laughs scornfully. “I don’t blame you.”

  “No, but I will if you don’t keep your word. If you so much as breathe in his direction, I’ll make sure you spend the rest of your life in prison.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  LOUIS

  A Month Later…

  My finals are done for better or worse and with that ends my school life, or if I fail and then have to do some sort of makeup test or go to summer school, ugh, please none of that. Ever since I returned home, I cracked open the books and focused on studying, just going to school and studying became my life. I told my mother I had gotten mugged and when he realized I had nothing of value, he beat me up.

  She wanted me to report it, but I convinced her to leave it alone.

  Ivan hasn’t answered any of my calls and I’m worried about him, I don’t know what decision he made but I hope he took my words to heart. Even if he decides he no longer wants to see me again, I at least want him to be okay.

  I bite the bullet and knock on the office door hoping Mr. Bowie is inside. If anyone near me would have news on him, it would be him. I open the door and see a line of cubicles and not many teachers filling them. I spot Mr. Bowie at one of them and approach and when he notices me here, he sits there silently. No smiles, none of the light-hearted advice. I feel awkward and wish I hadn’t come.

  “I know why you’re here and the only advice I have for you is to go home and forget about everything. That includes meeting Ivan.” He says shoving some papers into a folder.

  “Is he okay?”

  “He’s fine. You do realize he nearly sacrificed his entire future for you?” His elvish features are hard. There’s no mistaking it, we are not friends. “Take my advice, stop trying to contact him, leave him alone.”

  I leave, talking to him was stupid.

  “Whoever did that is bold as hell, sucking off the teacher like that.” I get whiplash and see a group of girls talking in the hall. What the hell are they talking about?

  Almost everywhere I passed was the story of a mysterious student sucking off a sleeping Mr. Bowie in the lounge. The severity changing from sucking to fucking him depending on the storyteller. What the hell is going on?!

  Toby is talking with a guy when I find him outside the school. “Toby! How could you, after everything—”

  “Trust me when I say it wasn’t me. You think I want everyone to know he fucks his students?”

  “I guess I’ll go.” The guy with the light brown hair and gold eyes put up his hands in surrender.

  “Wait, Louis, this is Jacob, he’s the one who helped me find you that night and took me to Ivan’s.”

  “Oh, hi!” I greet him, feeling embarrassed. “Thank you, I don’t know what I would have done without your help.”

  “We fags gotta stick together.” He winks. “I’ll see you later, Toby.” He says taking his leave.

  “Then who? No one else knew but me and you and…” I say getting back on topic.

  “Xander.”

  “I hadn’t seen him since that night.”

  “The popular kids are still up his ass, maybe he told them offline.” He sighs. “We won’t find out anything fussing at each other.”

  “Right, we have to find out who started this.”

  “Do we? Ivan is gone and so is Xander.” He folds his arms, god why does he have to be so stubborn? “Our finals are done; I say we take our asses home.”

  “Hell no. I need to know who the hell is doing this.”

  He didn’t want to come, but he still comes with me, maybe he’s curious? I believe him when he says he didn’t do it but if it wasn’t me, him, Ivan, or Xander then who the hell else? Were they doing this to destroy Ivan? But no one mentions Ivan’s name. Just a student that everyone was trying to find out the name of. Were they trying to ruin Mr. Bowie? But why paint him as the victim?

  Toby finds me in the hall after our small split. “Mr. Mortensen.”

  “What?”

  “I just finished talking to some folks who said Mr. Mortensen was talking about it in the teacher’s lounge.”

  Of all the people this search would lead to Mr. Mortensen? This has to be a joke. But here he is in the teacher’s lounge, just as those people said he would be. To think that only a few months ago I was standing in this room taking a picture of Ivan and knocking over the water cooler. Despite how everything turned out, I don’t regret asking him to pretend to love me.

  “Mr. Mortensen, are you the one telling everybody about what happened here with Mr. Bowie?” I ask feeling awkward, thank goodness no one else is in here.

  “Why would I need to do that?” The dark-haired Herculean man towers over me. The air in here is already intense as fuck, and I hate how smug he looks at me even now.

  “I don’t know, but people are saying they heard you talking about it, who did you hear it from?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “No as in..?” I ask confused.

  “I know you went to the teacher’s lounge and saw something you shouldn’t have. I sent you there in hopes that you would.” He says overly amused with himself.

  “Why the hell would you do that?” Toby says as dumbfounded as I am.

  “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If
you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” He speaks the word of Sun Tzu and I have no idea what he’s talking about. “I hope you do know by now that Damien was pretending to be asleep that day. I saw the boy standing over him and Damien looked right at me before I closed the door. When I returned to class, I knew I had to send one of my students to catch them in the act.”

  “Why would you do that? Why not just interrupt them yourself?”

  “Why send Louis?” Toby asks the right question.

  “Damien has been in love with that boy for quite some time, I can tell by the way he always behaved around him. But because of those rumors trailing behind him, I knew it would only take something drastic to get him to face it. I also know you’re a loser who despised Ivan, I’ve observed you giving him dirty looks in the halls.”

  “And you thought I would spread it around, forcing Damien and Ivan together?” I say, putting the pieces together. He shrugs as if he doesn’t give a damn, and maybe he doesn’t, but no one sane can just play around with people’s lives like this. “Who knew you would be real competition for Ivan’s love.” He sighs in a light-hearted manner. “Poor Damien, to lose to a child who doesn’t know anything.”

  I begin thinking about everything that happened back then and now I had another important question. “Xander knew I had known something. How? Did you say something?”

  “I alluded to him about you knowing something that could destroy Ivan, so what?” He places his hands on his hips, confident in my inability to challenge him. “You were taking your sweet time and needed a little push.”

  “You fucker!” I yell. “You could have ruined Ivan and Mr. Bowie, and for what? How the hell is that a favor?!”

  “Sometimes you have to fall to see if you can fly. Is one’s life truly ruined if their hardships bring them what they want?”

  “Louis, let’s go, this fucker has issues,” Toby says going to the door.

  “You better do something to make this right!” I say to him before I go. “If Mr. Bowie is your friend, then you’re a shitty friend.”

  “Everyone believes Damien was asleep, and no one knows it was Ivan.”

  “James.” Mr. Bowie stands in the door when Toby opens it. How much has he heard?

  “I don’t regret what I’ve done. I did it for you, so you can be happy. Did you really think you would find it in this child?” He gestures to Toby.

  “Fuck this. Not my man, and not my problem.” Toby walks off.

  “What will happen to Ivan?” I ask Mr. Bowie.

  “You’re asking me?” He spits. “No one knows it was him so I’m sure he will be fine, and I will deny the rumors.”

  I leave, you know Rei was on to something when he talked about this place seeing the back of his ass. Walking away knowing I never have to come here again is exhilarating. When I get home, my mother is pacing the living room, tears welling in her eyes. “What happened?” I ask, fearing the worse.

  “It’s your dad, he’s awake.”

  “Oh my God.” I reach out and hug her. I can’t believe it! This is the best news I got in a long time.

  “I need to be there right now.” She hangs up and starts fixing her hair in the mirror.

  “You still look like a mess.” She says stroking my cheek. “God, getting mugged. I remember when I was mugged, it was terrifying. If you need some time, then I’ll understand. And you know I’ll give him your love.”

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Tell dad, I love him.”

  When she leaves I sit down reeling from the news. I didn’t get everything I wanted this year, but just having this is enough, I can get through the rest.

  “Shit, your mom didn’t get to tell you the other great news.” Kiki props her feet on the coffee table. My mother would have hated that.

  “I doubt you will top my dad waking up.”

  “I talked her into self-publishing her books. She didn’t want to tell ya until she was sure it would pan out. She’s already getting some good sales.”

  “Wow, that is good news.”

  Doorbell rings.

  “Mom, you forget—”

  I open the door and Ivan is there, Red T-shirt and blue jeans, blond hair slightly longer than before, it seems forever since I last saw him but it has only been a month.

  “Well hello to all that.” Kiki purrs like a cat.

  “Goodbye, Kiki.” She better not argue, the only thing I want from her is her leaving.

  “Fine, I gotta make dinner anyway or my mom might kick me back out.” Oh yeah, since she began taking classes to become a stylist her mother took her back in, all she has to do is not quit and see it through.

  I let him inside and close the door and lock it. I won’t make it easy for Kiki to interrupt us, nor will I make it easy for Ivan to walk away. If it ends in an official break up of our short-term testing of our real relationship, then so be it. I say it like it’s easy but it isn’t, far from it.

  “I told myself I wouldn’t see you again, I wasn’t sure if you were done with me or not after what happened.”

  “I was worried about you. I tried calling you, wasn’t that enough to let you know I wanted to see you?” I reply feeling a multitude of emotions, mostly anger and just plain sick.

  “I thought I was doing what was best.”

  “What’s best for me is being with you.” There, might as well say it, what’s the point in hiding it, I want to be with him, if this doesn’t work out at least I can say it’s not due to me.

  “You mean that?” He raises his brow, he seems surprised.

  “Yes. I no longer give a damn about Mr. Bowie, or what you may have had with him if you had anything at all. If you want me, then I want you. If you don’t then you wouldn’t be here.” Speaking of a lot of things that needed to see the back of my ass. Leaving that school means leaving it all. I want to change, to be a new me. The insecurities from that place, Mr. Bowie included, can stay at that building.

  “He called me and told me about the rumors. He thinks Mr. Mortensen for some odd reason wants him to sabotage you, he told me how you confronted him.” He smiles, and this time they reach his crystal eyes.

  “He said that?”

  Ivan nods.

  “I thought he wanted me to stay away from you.”

  “He can be just as protective as my brother.” He shakes his head. “But who I love isn’t his business.”

  “I love you too.”

  “I know.”

  He takes me in his arms, his kiss is wet and warm and I can’t help but deepen it. I run my hands under his shirt, feeling the muscles there and help him remove the shirt and toss it on the couch.

  “My room is down the hall.” I laugh and pull him with me. Then I remember. “Do you?”

  “I brought some.”

  “You did?” I smile. “You knew?”

  “I thought your mom would be here, so I kinda prepared to do it in my car but this is much better.”

  We fall on the bed; his kisses tickle my bare throat. Toby cut the leather collar from my throat that night. I’m already hard and want nothing more than to feel him inside of me. We fumble with our clothes getting them off as fast as possible until we lay naked, our hard cocks pressing against each other, precum coating us making it slick.

  He grabs the lotion and once his finger touches my anus, I think of that big asshole bending me over the picnic table and his spit…

  “Wait…”

  “What’s wrong?” He pants, the way he licks his lips is divine.

  “I can’t stop myself from thinking about that guy and what he almost did to me. Go slow.”

  Ivan nods, regret on his strong features. His hot mouth engulfs me, sucking me in, he devours me as he plays with my hole. He works his finger inside nice and slow, much better and longer than he did even the first time.

  He grips my cock after slipping on his condom and he slowly enters me little by little; he leisurely fucks me making me moan as I clench the sheets.


  A loud blast of some R&B love song thumps the walls:

  Hey girl ain't no mystery

  At least as far as I can see

  I want to keep you here

  Laying next to me

  Sharing our love between the sheets.

  “This should help you out!” Kiki bangs on the wall. I hate that her room is near mine and I hate and love how his rhythm changes with the song as if he’s dancing inside of me.

  Until we both rests in each other’s arms.

  EPILOGUE

  LOUIS

  There isn’t much to say. I’ve been staying with Ivan more and more since my dad returned home from the hospital. I decided to go to the graduation ceremony so my mom can take a shit ton of pictures for my dad who still couldn’t be there.

  Toby got a job though he wouldn’t tell me where. I think he’s just happy to not have to go live on a farm. Rei sometimes sends emails and we chat on Facebook and send out some tweets to each other. He’s living the California lifestyle. Meaning he’s working as a waiter while finding entertainment jobs on the side. But he looks good, he looks happy.

  I told him everything that happened with Xander. He felt guilty for leaving me, there was nothing for him to feel guilty of.

  I hadn’t spoken to Mr. Bowie and I can’t recall Ivan going out with him or talking to him but who knows. If he was in love with Ivan then I can see why he would keep his distance.

  But for some reason, Mr. Bowie pulled through on that bakery job. I don’t think I’ll ever truly get him.

  Lucian, Ivan’s brother’s lover was the co-owner with his twin brother Lucca, my god are they hot. He was still hard on me during the interview, he takes this seriously and that’s what I need.

  After folding a pastry dough, they gave me the job and now…

  “This place looks so cute,” I say gazing at the pink sign with little donuts and cakes artwork above the polished little shop.

  “Their apple turnovers are really good.” Ivan gets out.

  “Are you really going to hang out at my new job all day? You’re not a stage five clinger are you?” I throw his past words back at him.