Jim - Thirteen

Jim

Man, I wish I could have been there to see that fight. Erich taking down four Wankers all by himself, Jesus Christ would I have liked to see that.

Erich didn’t go to class the day after the fight. He said he didn’t sleep, and he didn’t want anyone to be suspicious about his hand. The guy seriously tossed around so much that night, I didn’t sleep either, just listening to him. But Hersch dragged me to class because according to him it would look fishy if two of us were missing from classes. A*****e. 

If anyone should have skipped, it should have been Gabe. F**k did he ever look bad in the morning. His left eye was totally swollen shut and he had a nasty purple bruise on the opposite cheek, not to mention he was still wrapped up like a f*****g mummy. He tried to keep a low profile, staying well away from the Wankers and hiding his bruises. That would have been a good plan if he wasn’t doing that by wearing a scarf in the oddly warm April weather and his uniform hat indoors. No wonder he got cornered so easily. That one isn’t too bright.

So after class, he passed on the opportunity to sprawl out on the lawn and skittered (Well, skittered as well as he could with a bruised rib; if he wanted to try and be inconspicuous about getting beaten up maybe he should have tried to lose the limp) back into the building to cool off and to check on Erich.

Meanwhile, Hersch and I ditched our sweater-vests, loosened our ties, rolled up our sleeves, and staked out a spot under the oak tree. He leaned against the trunk and I flopped down on my back in the grass. I actually liked being alone with Hersch. He was quiet, but he was pleasant and at least somewhat normal �" more normal than either of the other two, anyway.

“Last night was crazy, huh?” I said.

“Yeah,” Hersch agreed, cleaning off his glasses with the hem of his shirt. “I’m glad they’re all right, you know?”

I nodded. Our pride, along with the fear that Erich would shove us in the boiler if we ever tried to say anything sentimental, would keep us from ever saying it to their faces, but Hersch and I would have been devastated if the Wankers had managed to do serious damage to Gabe or Erich. “Yeah, can you imagine it?” I asked. “Erich beat all four of them back. Four of them! I’ll bet that was great!” Always better to describe violence than talk about what would have happened if our friends had died.

Hersch nodded. “I believe it. The guy’s like a brick wall. I just can’t believe he would do that for Gabe.”

“Ha! Maybe Erich’s just waiting to kill him for himself.”

Hersch’s laugh was halfhearted. “Huh. Yeah.” He inspected his glasses thoughtfully. “That was weird, the way he woke us up last night.”

“Erich? Yeah I guess it was,” I had been practically delirious from sleep, and barely actually remembered that.

“I think he was dreaming about Gabe.”

I snorted. “Makes sense. Those two spend every second with each other.” Hersch didn’t respond, and I could tell he was thinking hard about something. He squinted into the lens of his glasses like he was trying to see the f*****g atoms in the glass. “Hey, what’s on your mind there, pal?”

Hersch shook his head. “Jim, what do you think of Erich?”

“I’m f*****g afraid of him most of the time. He could crush my skull between his toes if he wanted to.”

“But you don’t ever think anything else?”

What the hell? Did he think he was f*****g Freud now? Pissed, I snatched the glasses out of his hands. “What the hell are you getting at?”

He looked darkly at me. “Sometimes I think he might be… like Gabe.”

I didn’t get it. “What the f**k does that mean, ‘like Gabe’? Erich’s not anything like Gabe. Gabe’s a f*****g fai…” I stopped short; my mouth zipped up and my lips curled under. For a long time, all I could do was look at Hersch in a lipless, wide-eyed stare. “You think Erich’s a fairy?”

“It’s just a…”

“What the hell! Are you f*****g blind? I mean, have you seen Erich?” This sounded like such and idiotic idea I wondered for a minute if Hersch was retarded, or if he was so bad at English he didn’t understand what a fairy was.

“It’s just an idea.”

I shook my head. “You’re kidding. You’ve got to be kidding.” I grabbed my sweater-vest and plunged my hand into the pocket. “This here is my last quid. If you can prove that Erich Amery likes it up the a*s, this is yours.”

Hersch sneered at me, but extended a hand, “Deal.” I laughed as we shook hands. “But if you tell Amery about this I’ll kill you before he kills me, and he’ll kill me pretty damn fast.”

I gave him a disinterested, “Pfft,” and laughed. Hersch went right back to cleaning his glasses. “What are you doing? Trying to turn them into a magic mirror? Gimme those!” I snatched the glasses out of his hands and put them on. “Jesus Christ, you really are blind!” I could barely tell where Hersch was with that demon contraption on my face. I waved my hands in front of my face dramatically. “How big does Amery look to you?”

“Give me those,” he said exasperatedly, practically gouging out my eyes trying to rip his glasses off my head.

I found myself looking directly at the sun once he tore them off. “For f**k’s sake! Now I’m blind!”

“Oh shut up.” We resumed our languorous positions. “Rebecca wasn’t too happy to hear about the fight,” Hersch said casually after a long time. “She already didn’t think I was all right here by myself.”

I took a deep breath and tried not to think about the image that came into my mind whenever anyone said her name. “You always let your little sister decide where you go?” I’d go anywhere with her, I thought, letting the image of her in that shiny costume infiltrate my mind before I could stop it.

“Piss off. She just worries about me too much.”

I rolled my eyes. “What has she got to worry about? What kind of fighting are you ever going to get mixed up in? You can’t even see!”

“I’ve done more fighting than you, pretty boy.”

“A*s.”

“Dupka.”

“What?”

“Anyway,” Hersch finally interjected. “She really wants to meet the rest of the guys. So once those two calm down and start acting normal again, she’s going to come down and see us.”

My heart jolted so hard I was surprised Hersch couldn’t see the outline of it through my chest. “WHAT?” I sprung up off my back.

Hersch looked at me like I was an idiot. “What the hell is your problem? You already met her, anyway.”

I opened my mouth, but I had nothing to go on. But as usual, that didn’t stop me from talking. “That, uh just doesn’t… sound like a great… idea.”

He squinted at me. “Well I’m not exactly sending her into a den of wolves. Erich would rather shoot himself in the head than do anything with a Jew, Gabe is… Gabe, and you,” he laughed and waved a hand up and down in front of me like whatever he meant was obvious, “what the hell would she want with someone like you?”

Reviews

[Jake Donald Stephens]

I think it's interesting, how Jim and Hersch kind of know Gabe is gay, but they're not threatened by it and it's not really that big a deal to them. This proves that Jim and Hersch are actually secure in their masculinity.
Erich, on the other hand... I remember in his first chapter, where there was something about Gabe that made him uncomfortable... This is exactly how a repressed guy would react to meeting someone for the first time who made them aware of something they didn't want to see about theirself. Brilliant character development here!

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[Arianna]

that was new! meaning that i havent freaking read it yet!!! lol im so happy! :D
i loved this chapter. like more than anything. like seriously.
its awesome!
rediculously awesome!!!! :)
Anywaaaaaaaaay... i need to move on from the review and read the next chapter.

[trish420]

Oh la la getting intersting here girly! Glad to see more :) and Love where this is going..... have I mentioned lately that you are incredibly talented????