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Lunchtime, and the cafeteria was like a jungle.
Face wouldn't go as far as saying he was king of the jungle, but he was pretty close to the top, and he knew it. Good looks, good grades, good standing on the football team -- and, most importantly, the ability to talk himself in and out of everything. Grinning, he winked at the lunch lady -- thereby securing himself an extra cookie -- and went to his table, sliding in next to Charissa.
"Hey, babe," he greeted.
"Hey yourself," she smiled, looking up briefly from her AP Calculus textbook. "Is that an extra cookie?"
Face broke it in half and handed one piece to his girlfriend.
"Thanks," she said around the cookie. "Need to keep the energy up. Got a test today." She gestured to the book.
Personally, he thought taking four AP classes was crazy, but then again, it was Charissa Sosa, and if anyone was a healthy overachiever, it was her. He let her study.
"Hey, BA," he asked his friend, who was sitting across the table and making his way through what appeared to be four ham sandwiches. "Are you going to Lee's party after the game tonight?"
BA shook his head. "Nah, man. I'll be beat."
"It's Friday night," Face insisted. "Nobody is beat on Friday night. Not even Charissa."
Charissa smacked him with her pencil.
BA shrugged.
"C'mon! There'll be drunk chicks all over the place!"
Charissa smacked him again, this time upside the head.
"Ow! Baby, you know you're the only one for me!"
BA chuckled. "If this is what it gets me, I don't think I want a girlfriend."
"Wise choice," Charissa said, glaring at Face. After a moment, she went back to her studying.
Digging into his pizza, Face took a long look around, surveying the cafeteria. He was sitting at a table with a chunk of the football team. The other half of the football team sat at a different table, crowding around Vance Lynch and Brock Pike, who were brilliant athletes -- and Vance was one of the top students in the school -- but they were sort of douchebags. Most teenage guys were, Face figured. He was, sometimes. He continued looking out over the room. The theater kids and anime geeks at one table. The soccer team at another. The field hockey team, which Charissa played for, although she got along better with the footballers. The lesser jocks, the stoners, the rich kids, the table of kids who didn't fit into any particular social group and therefore banded together, the really smart kids, the really dumb kids, the really religious kids...the list went on. Some groups mixed well with others, some didn't.
And tucked unobtrusively in one corner, two individuals who didn't belong to any group.
Hannibal and Murdock didn't go by their first names. Nobody actually knew what Murdock's first name was -- not even the teachers. Face had once, out of sheer boredom, tried to find out. The furthest he had gotten was learning, via an unlocked file in Principal Morrison's office, Murdock's initials -- H.M. Hannibal Smith's first name was John. Face considered thinking it was stupid that he went by "Hannibal," but then again, he had an unfortunate first name himself. Templeton. He shuddered at the thought.
Murdock was the school weird kid. And not just a-little-stoned weird. Really weird. Face knew that kid had an epic case of ADHD -- not hard to figure out -- but there was definitely something else wrong with him as well. Possibly several somethings. Some teachers thought he was on drugs, but really, Face was pretty sure drugs would actually benefit him. He could be amusing, on occasion -- the time he stood up in history class and recited the entire speech from Braveheart in a perfect Scottish accent was already going down in school legend -- but for the most part, everyone thought he was annoying, or just plain weird. Nobody talked to him -- unless it was to tease or insult him, which happened quite frequently -- for fear of catching the crazy.
Nobody, that is, except Hannibal. And Face was popular, but Hannibal was cool -- James Dean loner-rebel cool, complete with a leather jacket that Face himself envied. He was a year older than all the other seniors, because the credits from his old school hadn't transferred properly when he came to Mont Ridge High the year before. Guys secretly envied him, girls wanted him, and he could have been ruling the school, could have been even more popular than Face, probably, except that he didn't want to. He barely talked to anyone, didn't do sports even though gym class the previous year had proven that he was a great athlete, didn't participate in any extracurriculars... and all out of choice, not because he had been ostracized, like Murdock. Who, for some reason, was Hannibal's best friend. Of course, they didn't have much choice, seeing as they were each other's only friends.
His reverie was broken by scattered laughter, as Vance and Brock used their spoons to projectile-fling a serving of mashed potatoes at Murdock. One spoonful missed, but one hit him in the head. Fortunately, it landed on his baseball cap and not his shaggy hair. He whirled in his seat and glared, but the footballers had hidden the evidence, and it wouldn't have really mattered, anyway. Face watched as Hannibal said something to Murdock as he wiped off his hat. Murdock laughed and, for whatever reason, started making shadow-puppets on the wall.
Face turned back around. BA was staring over at the table in the corner.
"Weird kid," Face remarked.
BA turned back to his third ham sandwich.
********************************************************************************
The period after lunch was history for Face and AP Calculus for Charissa, but the period after that was shop class, which Face was taking solely to fulfill a credit, because it had been a choice between shop and studio art, and there was no way in hell he was taking an art class. At least in shop he could learn something. He wasn't overly good at it, but he hadn't sliced off any appendages yet, and Charissa was in the class with him, so at least he had something nice to look at. And sometimes he could get BA to help him with whatever-the-hell he was supposed to be making, and BA could build anything, so that was good too.
"Psyched for the game tonight?" Face asked
"We're gonna smack down Black Forest High like the hand of god," BA replied.
"Hell yeah!" Face exclaimed zealously.
"Mr. Peck," the teacher glared at him. Face smiled charmingly.
"Sorry, Mr. Carnahan."
Mr. Carnahan snorted and returned to reading his magazine. Face didn't blame him. Guy was retiring at the end of the year and figured it was probably easier to just let his students run loose.
Which was why Murdock -- in the back, next to Hannibal, as usual -- was building what appeared to be a plywood model of a helicopter. The assignment was a birdhouse.
"-and see, Hannibal? It spins!" Murdock babbled, sounding like he was finishing a rant. Indeed, Face noticed as Murdock demonstrated that the rotors did, in fact, spin.
"That's cool," Charissa said, following his gaze. "I wish I could build stuff like that."
"Well, you can fix cars like nobody else," Face pointed out.
"What can I say, I'm the perfect girl," Charissa shrugged. "Which clearly makes you the luckiest guy in school."
"What do you think, BA?" Face asked his mohawked friend. "Am I the luckiest guy in school?"
BA, who had been watching Murdock zoom the perfectly-painted red helicopter around Hannibal's head while singing a very catchy old 80s tune under his breath, turned back to Face.
"With a girl like Charissa you can parade in front of the whole school?" BA snorted. "You have no idea how lucky you are."
"Hey, I'm the one parading him," Charissa protested. "He's just arm candy for me, really."
"Probably true," Face conceded. It was a fact -- they looked awesome together. Heck, they'd been elected Homecoming King and Queen. He chuckled at the memory. Charissa had been pissed. She had made him wear the tiara the entire night, to "symbolize the irony in the king-and-queen dichotomy, which is inherently oppressive towards women." Or something like that. He'd just been happy she had stopped after that rant -- Face didn't necessarily mind the tiara, but he was pretty sure he couldn't pull off a dress.
"Watch where you're going, retard!" Vance's yelp interrupted the relatively peaceful buzz of the class. Murdock had apparently gotten a little too zealous with flying his wooden helicopter around and, distracted, run into Vance.
Face could practically feel BA tense up next to him -- his buddy was always leaping to the defense of the innocent. So was Charissa, for that matter. Face glanced around for the teacher, but Mr. Carnahan had left the room. Tension sliced through the back of the shop class as Brock came up behind Vance.
"Maybe you should apologize, Murdock." He spat out the name like it was an insult.
Without saying a word, Hannibal came to stand next to Murdock, resting a hand on his shoulder. It took a lot of skill to be that silently intimidating.
"Never mind, Brock," Vance said. "He's got his boyfriend here to protect him."
Face heard a small crack. The piece of plywood BA had been holding onto had snapped. Geez, he knew BA didn't like Brock and Vance, but that was a little extreme. Fortunately, before the tension turned into a bloodbath, Charissa decided to step in.
"Fuck off," she informed the two football players.
The douchebags looked nervous for a moment. They couldn't do anything to Charissa without bringing the wrath of Face down on them, and that wouldn't be a good thing.
"Let's go," Vance muttered, and he and Brock stormed out of the room, leaving a muttered but audible "bitch" in their wake.
"Don't, Face," Charissa said, grabbing him by the elbow before he could run out after them.
"But he called you-"
"Face. I am a bitch."
"Yeah, I know, but you're my bitch," he smiled fondly. Then he paled. "Wait, I didn't mean it that way! I meant-"
"I know what you meant," Charissa smiled reassuringly.
Murdock tapped Charissa on the shoulder.
"Thanks," he said.
Charissa shrugged. "Not a problem." And it wasn't for her. She and Hannibal exchanged a kind of wise, all-knowing badass nod, and everyone returned to their birdhouses, or whatever they had been doing. Half the class was texting each other. And Murdock had his helicopter.
"Crazy fool," BA muttered, tinkering with his birdhouse, which was really more of a bird-luxury-mansion.
"He is kinda weird," Face agreed.
BA looked almost startled that Face had spoken.
"...and that's why dolphins and people should never live alongside one another," came Murdock's voice from the back.
************************************************************************************
Face was heading to the parking lot after school to stick his books in his car before he had to get down to the field for the pre-game warmup when he saw a small crowd around the side of the school. Curiosity immediately piqued, he ran as quickly as he could over and shoved his way in, wondering what everyone was staring at. He got his answer when he looked up. Vance and Brock were standing on the edge roof -- the building was only two stories, and there were multiple ways to access it because the snow had to be shoveled off it in winter. He caught a glimpse of something red in Brock's hands, but his view was blocked by the multitude of students, some of whom were taller than he was, including BA, who had just shown up.
"Dude, can you see what they're doing?" Face asked, standing on his tiptoes.
BA wasn't listening to him. BA was looking off to his left. Face's eyes followed, and he saw Murdock and Hannibal coming over to the crowd, not realizing what was wrong but probably wondering why two students were on the roof.
"- and I just went into the shop room, and I can't find it!" Murdock exclaimed, and suddenly Face knew exactly what Vance and Brock were doing on the roof.
"Hey, freak!" Vance called. "Let's see if your helicopter flies for real!"
Murdock's eyes widened. "No! Don't! Please, guys!"
But either it was too late, or Brock and Vance didn't care. Brock dropped the helicopter, which did not fly. It hit the concrete and shattered.
Suddenly, everyone in the crowd was laughing except for Murdock, Hannibal, BA, and Face. The noise would have been enough to cover the broken, choked noise that came out of Murdock's mouth if Face hadn't been looking directly at him. A weird sort of guilty feeling descended over him, even though he hadn't had anything to do with this latest torture and would have, in fact, asked Brock and Vance to stop if he had known.
Hannibal slid an arm around his best friend's shoulders in quiet comfort. Murdock looked like a kicked puppy -- and Face knew what kicked puppies looked like, one of his foster parents had been a real jerkass -- and Hannibal just looked pissed, although he was containing himself remarkably well.
"Face," came BA's voice, low and hard. Face looked over at his friend, who was watching Brock and Vance vanish from the rooftop before authority figures showed up. "Tell Coach I'm going to be a little late for the warmup."
"But, dude, there's a game toni-"
"Tell him I'm going to be a little late," BA repeated, whirling to look at Face. The look on his -- well, face -- scared the bejeezus out of him. He tended to forget -- because BA was his friend and all, and also was really nice to animals and small children -- but BA was scary as hell when he wanted to be, and right now he looked ready, willing, and able to punch a hole in a brick wall.
Face nodded wordlessly, and BA stalked off. The crowd, entertainment over, was already almost gone. Face looked over at Hannibal and Murdock, who had crouched to pick up the splintered remains of his masterpiece.
Hannibal murmured something into Murdock's ear -- Face couldn't catch it, but Murdock shook his head.
"Nope. I gotta do it. I owe her that much," he said, gesturing to the remains of the helicopter. "Lola was a good girl. I'll build her the best funeral pyre there is. You wanna come over tomorrow and help?"
Hannibal nodded, but his eyes were on Face, who was staring at them. Hannibal raised a single eyebrow, hand still on his friend's shoulder. The single stare dared him -- just dared him -- to say something, to do anything else, and the stare also said quite clearly that if he did anything to hurt Murdock, Hannibal would rip his head clean off.
Since he really didn't want to do anything mean, and he really did want to keep his head, Face turned and walked towards the football field.
*********************************************************************************************
Brock and Vance did not participate in the game that night. Not because Coach had any knowledge of their little rooftop stunt, or because they were jerks in general, but because Vance showed up with a broken nose, and Brock came in with a black eye and potentially-cracked ribs. Both had to be examined for concussions, and neither of them would say how they got into the state.
Instead, they were replaced by two sophomores who, although they tried their best, just weren't all that experienced. But Mont Ridge High still managed to plow ahead in the points bracket, mostly because BA -- a skilled player to say the least -- had suddenly turned into a raging, tackling, throwing footballing machine. He was practically on a rampage.
During halftime, Face gulped down a plastic cup of Gatorade and stared up at the stand, filled with fans for both Mont Ridge and Black Forest. Ignoring the slutty cheerleaders prancing around on the field, he looked for Charissa. He saw her in the front row -- of course -- and he waved to her. She grinned and flashed him a rock-on sign.
Not too far away from her -- but still separate from everyone else -- sat Hannibal and Murdock. Face vaguely wondered why they were at the game, seeing as they apparently had no school spirit whatsoever, but he was pulled back from thinking when Coach grabbed him and pulled him into the huddle.
Right before halftime ended, a paper airplane came zooming down from the stands. It hit BA square in the head.
"Dude, is it the Black Forest kids again?" Face asked. They had already gotten in trouble for throwing popcorn onto the field.
BA unfolded the paper plane, looked at it, and chuckled.
"Nope," he said, tucking it into his sports bag.
He continued his rampage throughout the second half of the game, Face -- and Mont Ridge High -- riding the wave of testosterone and adrenaline to victory.
*********************************************************************************************
Half an hour after the game ended, Face finally managed to get to the locker room. He had been held up by congratulatory fans, a wildly enthusiastic Charissa -- who, although an outstanding field hockey player, loved football and probably would have joined the team had the school's regulations allowed it -- and a long talk from Coach, which began with "great game, Peck" and ended with "and that's why you should never try to sprint through a rice paddy." Coach was a little odd sometimes, but the talk had left Face oddly inspired, although he didn't know with what.
So here he was, heading into the locker room, intending to shower before heading over to Lee's party. He was going to meet Charissa there, and he was looking forward to a fun-filled Friday night, which would undoubtedly be relaxing after such a long week. Heading for the showers, he rounded a corner, and stopped dead at the sight in front of him. His brain took several very long seconds to process it.
There was BA.
There was Murdock.
BA had Murdock pushed up against a row of lockers.
And they were kissing.
Like, full-on tongue action kissing. And BA's hands were tangled in Murdock's hair, and Murdock's hands may have been somewhere up BA's shirt.
And they didn't seem intent on stopping anytime soon.
Somehow, some sort of noise that was probably a squeak came out of Face's thoat as he stood there, jaw gaping. BA and Murdock sprang apart faster than the speed of adrenaline, and the three boys stood there, staring at each other. Murdock, eyes comically wide, looked ready to bolt, while BA already had his hands curled into fists, muscles bulging in a way that also might have been comical, if it wasn't so threatening.
In the back of his mind, Face observed that this was the perfect depiction of the fight-or-flight-or-freeze response his psychology teacher had been talking about last week. Murdock looked prepared for flight. BA appeared to be ready for a fight. And Face was frozen.
Not for long, though. Suddenly, Face snapped back into himself.
He ran.
*********************************************************************************************
Through the locker room, across the field, and out to the parking lot.
"Face! Wait!" he could head Murdock yelling behind him. Thank god the school was deserted, he thought to himself. He turned his head -- damn, Murdock was fast. Face reached his car, but before he could get in and drive away, the other boy was right there, slamming a hand against the door and preventing him from opening it.
"Please don't tell anyone about Bosco," Murdock said in a tiny voice. Face had never noticed it before, but he had a slight southern twang. And he had used BA's first name. Nobody did that.
Murdock shuffled his Converse against the ground and looked down, then up at Face, eyes wide and a little too bright. "Please don't. I mean, you can say what you want about me, it's not like it'll be anything I haven't heard before but -- please, don't tell anyone about him. If anyone else finds out, it-" His voice cracked. "It will ruin him."
Face ran a hand through his hair. God, he needed a haircut. He took a few shaky breaths and forced his brain to work.
"Do you care about him?" he asked, finally.
Murdock nodded.
"And you -- you're keeping -- ah -- you're keeping this a secret...for him?"
Murdock nodded again.
Face reached out and patted Murdock on the shoulder. "As long as you treat him well, man. I mean, he's my friend. And if you're his -- um -- well, then you're my friend too, I guess."
Murdock relaxed slightly and smiled a wavery smile. "Thanks, Face."
Face slid into the driver's seat of his car, still in a sort of shock, but functional enough to drive.
"Murdock?" he called out as the other boy walked away. Murdock turned. "I'm sorry about your helicopter."
Murdock shrugged. "It's okay. He'll help me make a new one."
Face drove.
*********************************************************************************************
By the time he got to Lee's house, the party was already jumping and the place was packed. Normally, Face would be buzzing all over the place, but this time he kept his head lowered, not even looking for Charissa as he made a beeline for the backyard, which was dark and quiet, because Lee was instituting a "no people in the back yard" rule after last time, when a fire had been lit and nearly burned the whole place down. The police had been called. It had been awkward. Face had talked them out of making an arrest.
He sat himself down on the low stone bench in a corner of Lee's mom's garden, sipping his beer and staring up at the stars, which were really quite pretty. He didn't know how long he was there, but it couldn't have been that long before he heard footsteps.
BA sat down on the bench next to him, not making eye contact.
"Thought you weren't coming," Face said, picking at the label on his bottle of beer.
"I wasn't," BA replied, staring at his hands. "But I figured I should probably talk to you."
"What were you going to do tonight?" Face asked, although he knew the answer.
"I was going over to Murdock's house," BA said.
Face took a sip of his drink. "So. You're gay?"
BA nodded.
"And you're...dating Murdock?"
BA nodded again.
"How long? I mean, how did you guys even start talking? Because you don't. Talk, I mean. In school." Word vomit already, and he wasn't even half a beer in.
"Remember when I had detention for a week because I punched that idiot Tucker in the face? He had detention too. And we got to talking, you know, because it was just the two of us in that classroom after school, and...well, one thing led to another." He shrugged.
"Dude. That was in September."
"Yeah."
"So this has been going on for awhile."
"Yeah."
"Do you...like him?"
BA nodded. "Yeah. I do. A lot. I mean, he's crazy -- like, batshit insane -- but it's a good kind of crazy, most of the time, you know? He's not like anyone I've ever met. And I can be honest with him. I don't have to be big, macho BA around him. I don't need the badass attitude. He sees right through that shit. He's like a psychic, man." BA shook his head, a small smile quirking at his lips. "So yeah. I do like him. A lot."
Face got it. "And he makes you happy?"
"More than anything."
"But you haven't told anyone?"
BA snorted. "How well do you think people would take it at school? I can handle myself, man, you know that, but Murdock...they would just eat him alive, Face."
Face took another long swig of his beer, looking out into the night. Silence stretched between them for long moments.
"Do you...do you have a problem with it? I mean...with me being gay?" BA finally asked.
Face took a deep breath. "Remember last winter, when I stayed at your house for two weeks? I told you the heater at my house had broken down?"
BA nodded. He did remember. Face had set his toaster on fire.
"The heater at my house didn't break down. Fact is, I didn't have a house. I had to...leave...the home I was staying at. I -- I didn't have anywhere else to go. And I didn't want to stay on the street again. Not in winter." Face shook his head, snapping himself out of the memories. He finally looked at his friend. "You were there for me when I needed you, dude. I don't give a shit if you're gay. You're my friend. And I'm going to be there for you if you need me." He took a drink.
BA finally smiled, a real, wide one, full of relief.
"So we're cool?" he asked.
"We're cool," Face replied. "Now, go have a fun Friday night with your boyfriend."
BA grinned and chuckled. "Have one with your girlfriend."
They fist-bumped.
*********************************************************************************************
A few minutes after BA left, Face went back into the party. He got another drink -- water this time, because Charissa was glaring at the beer bottle in his hand -- and socialized for awhile. Charissa could tell that there was something up with him, but she let it go for the moment. She'd get it out of him later.
About an hour and a half after BA left, Hannibal walked in. The crowd literally parted for him. Clearly, Face had to get himself a leather jacket or something. He pointed to Face, and gestured.
"Go on," Charissa whispered, pushing him forward.
He followed Hannibal outside, to the bench where he and BA had talked earlier in the evening. He sat.
"So, now you know," Hannibal began.
Face nodded. "And I guess you knew all along?"
"Of course I did," Hannibal said. "Been practically playing Dr. Phil for them. Glad I can at least share the load now."
"Dr. Phil?" Face grinned. "They're that fucked up?"
"They're that fucked up," Hannibal confirmed. "But it's a good kind of fucked up. Mostly." He took a drink of Face's water, which he had apparently swiped. "Since they've been dating, Murdock's been having fewer..." He paused. "Problems."
"BA's been calmer too," Face commented. "I mean, it started in September, so I figured he just found Jesus over the summer or something. I guess he found Murdock."
Hannibal nodded. "I'm glad he did."
Face took a breath. "Me too."
They sat in slightly awkward silence, although Face suspected the awkwardness was on his end.
"So..." Face ventured. "Are you gay?"
Hannibal shrugged. "Occasionally."
Another silence.
"So..." Face began again. "You talk."
"Only when I have something important to say." Hannibal stood. "Well, I've gotta get going." He started to walk away, but before vanishing into the night like a badass, he turned to say one last thing.
"If you do anything to hurt Murdock, I will find you, and I will kill you."
Face didn't doubt it.
*********************************************************************************************
Charissa was the best girlfriend ever.
Not only had she brought him home and let him use her shower, she had also listen to him rattle on for over an hour about everything that had happened that evening, and helped him figure out exactly how he felt about it, and exactly what they were going to do. She told him he was "fanboying" over Hannibal -- and the dude did have an awesome jacket, even Charissa agreed on that point -- and said he was a good friend with a good heart. They made a plan for Monday, and then they had wild sex.
Yep, Face decided, rolling over and snuggling into Charissa's hair, which smelled like Axe -- not because he used it and it rubbed off on her, but because she used Axe shampoo. Best girlfriend ever.
**********************************************************************************************
Lunchtime, and the jungle was about to get all shook up.
At Face's nod, he and Charissa, lunches in hand, swooped down on BA, who was proceeding to his usual table where he would eat his feelings and share longing looks across the cafeteria with his secret boyfriend -- Face finally figured that was why BA had been zoning out during lunch all year. They each subtly grabbed an arm and steered him past the table of footballers and straight to the table in the corner, ignoring the stares from almost everyone in the cafeteria.
The table was occupied by two individuals.
Murdock looked up, confusion and hope crossing his features. "What're you guys doing over at Outcast Island?"
Charissa plunked herself down. "Mind if we eat here?"
Murdock shook his head, a wide grin stretching across his face. BA slid into the set next to him, and Face sat next to Charissa. Hannibal, of course, was at the head of the table.
"I made coconut curry tapenade," Murdock said, holding up a forkful. "Want some?"
"Hell yeah," BA replied, grinning like a fool. Face didn't even say anything when Murdock actually fed the curry to him. He just nudged Charissa with his hip, and she nudged back, and he was really, really happy.
"So, Hannibal," Charissa began, daring to address him directly. "What're you doing after graduating?"
"Joining the army," Hannibal replied.
"Me too!" Charissa exclaimed. "And Face."
Hannibal looked for confirmation, and Face nodded. He was thinking of becoming a Ranger, maybe. He had to do something after high school, and he didn't exactly have a college fund waiting. Besides, it sounded cool.
"Me too," BA said. "My dad was a soldier."
"I want to fly," Murdock said. "Helicopters. Planes. Anything that goes up. And that shoots stuff, preferably."
"Nobody in their right mind is gonna give you a weapon," BA informed him good-naturedly.
"Well, I'll have to talk to the people in their wrong minds, then!" Murdock fed him another fork of coconut curry tapenade. "Hey, did I ever tell you my theory that dolphins are just gay sharks?"
BA shook his head, and Murdock launched into a long and confusing explanation. Face just grinned and sat back surrounded by his friends, who were happily chatting away. BA and Murdock were doing their thing, and damn if they weren't cute, and Hannibal and Charissa were debating random points of military history, so Face just smiled and ate his lunch.
Like a boss.