Bob goes part-time to the local community college. He wants to be a chef. He is an only child, and his parents are never home. He says it used to bother him a lot when he was younger, but not so much anymore.
The thing about Bob is that when you first meet him, he’s really interesting because he knows about cigarette rules and pennies and Mary Tyler Moore. But after you’ve known him for a while, he starts to repeat these things. In the last few weeks, he hasn’t said anything that I haven’t heard from him before. That’s what made it such a shock when he told me what happened.
Basically, Brad’s father caught Brad and Patrick together.
I guess that Brad’s father didn’t know about his son because when he caught them, Brad’s father started beating Brad. Not a slap kind of beating. A belt kind. A real kind. Patrick told Sam who told Bob that he had never seen anything like it. I guess it was that bad. He wanted to say “Stop” and “You’re killing him.” He even wanted to hold Brad’s father down. But he just froze. And Brad kept yelling, “Get out!” to Patrick. And finally, Patrick just did.
That was last week. And Brad still hasn’t come to school. Everyone thinks he might have been sent to a military school or something. Nobody knows for sure about anything. Patrick tried calling once, but when Brad’s father answered, he just hung up.
Bob said Patrick was “in bad shape.” I can’t tell you how sad I felt when he told me that because I wanted to call Patrick and be his friend and help him. But I didn’t know if I should call him because of what he had said about waiting until things got clear. The thing was I couldn’t think about anything else.
So, on Friday, I went to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I waited until the movie had already started before I went into the theater. I didn’t want to ruin the show for everybody. I just wanted to see Patrick play Frank ’n Furter just like he always does because I knew that if I saw that, I knew he would be okay. Just like my sister getting mad at me for smoking cigarettes.
I sat in the back row and looked on the stage. It was still a couple of scenes before Frank ’n Furter enters. That’s when I saw Sam playing Janet. And I missed her so much. And I was so sorry about how I messed everything up. Especially when I saw Mary Elizabeth playing Magenta. It was all very hard to watch. But then Patrick finally came on as Frank ’n Furter, and he was great. He was actually better than ever in a lot of ways. It was just so nice to see all my friends. I left before the movie was over.
I drove home listening to some of the songs we listened to those times when we were infinite. And I pretended they were in the car with me. I even talked out loud. I told Patrick how I thought he was great. I asked Sam about Craig. I told Mary Elizabeth that I was sorry and how much I really loved the every. every. cummings book and wanted to ask her questions about it. But then I stopped because it started to make me too sad. I also thought that if anybody saw me talking out loud when I was alone in the car, their looks might convince me that the something that’s wrong with me might be even worse than I thought.
When I got home, my sister was watching a movie with her new boyfriend. There isn’t much to say other than his name is Erik, and he has short hair and is a junior. Erik had rented the movie. After I shook hands with him, I asked them about the movie because I didn’t recognize it except for an actor who used to be on a TV show, and I couldn’t remember his name.
My sister said, “It’s stupid. You wouldn’t like it.”
I said, “What’s it about?”
She said, “Come on, Charlie. It’s almost over.”
I said, “Would it be okay if I watched the end?”
She said, “You can watch it when we’re done.”
I said, “Well, how about I watch the end with you, and then I can rewind it and watch up to the point I started watching with you?”
That’s when she paused the movie.
“Can’t you take a hint?”
“I suppose not.”
“We want to be alone, Charlie.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
To tell you the truth, I knew she wanted to be alone with Erik, but I really wanted to have some company. I knew it wasn’t fair, though, to ruin her time just because I miss everybody, so I just said good night and left.
I went up to my room and started reading the new book Bill gave me. It’s called The Stranger. Bill said that it’s “very easy to read, but very hard to ’read well.’” I have no idea what he means, but I like the book so far.
Love always,
Charlie
May 8, 1992
Dear friend,
It’s strange how things can change back as suddenly as they changed originally. When one thing happens and suddenly, things are back to normal.
On Monday, Brad came back to school.
He looked very different. It wasn’t that he was bruised or anything. His face actually looked fine. But before, Brad was always this guy who walked down the hallway with a bounce. I can’t really describe it any other way. It’s just that some people walk with their heads to the ground for some reason. They don’t like to look other people in the eye. Brad was never like that. But now he is. Especially when it comes to Patrick.
I saw them talking quiet in the hallway. I was too far away to hear what they said, but I could tell that Brad was ignoring Patrick. And when Patrick started to get upset, Brad just closed his locker and walked away. It wasn’t that strange because Brad and Patrick never talked in school since Brad wanted things to be secret. The strange part was that Patrick would walk up to Brad in the first place. So, I guessed that they didn’t meet on the golf courses anymore. Or talk on the phone even.
Later that afternoon, I was having a cigarette outside by myself, and I saw Patrick alone, also having a cigarette. I wasn’t close enough to really see him, but I didn’t want to interfere with his personal time, so I didn’t walk up to him. But Patrick was crying. He was crying pretty hard. After that, whenever I saw him around anywhere, he didn’t look like he was there. He looked like he was someplace else. And I think I knew that because that’s how people used to say I was. Maybe they still do. I’m not sure.
On Thursday, something really terrible happened.
I was sitting alone in the cafeteria, eating salisbury steak, when I saw Patrick walk up to Brad, who was sitting with his football buddies, and I saw Brad ignore him like he did at the locker. And I saw Patrick get really upset, but Brad still ignored him. Then, I saw Patrick say something, and he looked pretty angry as he turned to walk away. Brad sat still for a second, then he turned around. And then I heard it. It was just loud enough for a few tables to hear. The thing that Brad yelled at Patrick.
“Faggot!”
Brad’s football buddies start laughing. A few tables got quiet as Patrick turned around. He was mad as hell. I’m not kidding. He stormed up to Brad’s table and said,
“What did you call me?”
God, he was mad. I’d never seen Patrick like that before.
Brad sat quiet for a second, but his buddies kept egging him on by pushing his shoulders. Brad looked up at Patrick and said softer and meaner than the last time,
“I called you a faggot.”
Brad’s buddies started laughing even harder. That is, until Patrick threw the first punch. It’s kind of eerie when a whole room gets quiet at once, and then the real noise starts.
The fight was hard. A lot harder than the one I had with Sean last year. There was no clean punching or things you see in movies. They just wrestled and hit. And whoever was the most aggressive or the most angry got in the most hits. In this case, it was pretty even until Brad’s buddies got involved, and it became five on one.