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Gym Buddies III: Part Two

The husky looked shocked at my revelation. I was a little surprised to hear myself say something so horrible - no one deserved to die, but God knows I wished death on my father several times.

"One of my earliest memories is after school one day," I explained to Luke, ready to open up the story to him. "I was eight years old. We were sat down for dinner and...

*

"Mum?"

"What is it, sweetheart?" I remember that day she was wearing a worn blue dress - if someone was wearing it in a fifties movie, it wouldn't look out of place.

"Mum, you know my friend Jason?"

"Jason Vann, you mean?" I nodded my head and stabbed a sausage with my fork. My dad slammed his paw on the table, which made my mother and I jump. He slowly twisted his head in my direction, his eyes crimson with rage.

"You know how to speak," he growled heavily, "so speak."

"Sorry, sir," I said, my muzzle hanging low in front of him, "but, yeah, Jason Vann. Well, he came up to me this morning and asked me if we were friends. And I said yes, and he said that he 'likes me'. Well, I was wondering... does that mean boys can like other boys?" Dad threw down his cutlery and stopped to glare at me.

"What?" His lip curled as he sneered at me.

"I said 'does that mean bo-" but he stood up and interrupted me.

"I heard you the first time, you little shit!" He raised his paw and I cowered as my head jumped into my body. "Stop that," he instructed, "you'll take this like a man!" I had no choice but to obey him, so sat up straight in my chair and fought tears. If he saw my cry, it would have been worse. When I was fully sat up, I felt it. The back of his paw struck down on my muzzle hard, making me cling to it and whimper. The tears were jerked from my face uncontrollably, drenching the paws that were doing their best to protect me. He leant his face into mine and his hot breath filled me. "That pathetic whimper means you deserve another one," he said, "so take your paws away and I'll give you something to cry about!"

"Mum, please don't let him hit me," I begged. She made her way up to the coyote and placed her paw on his arm. Before she could speak, he struck her hard, knocking her to the floor.

"You think I've even started with him?" he screamed at her. He turned to me, pulled my arms up with one paw and smacked me hard with the other. The brute lifted my paws into the air, pulling my body up with them. "Now, your little poofter-friend's name? Was it Jason Vann?" I gave no response apart from a soft beg and the few jagged breaths that escaped my maw. He dropped me from his grasp, grabbed my head and slammed it into the table with a clatter of plates. The gravy that the sausages were covered in was splattered into my face. "Either you tell me his name or you explain to your teachers how you managed to break a few ribs falling down the stairs."

"Yeah... it was Jason Vann," I answered quietly. "What are you gonna do?" I asked, terrified that I'd let my best friend get dragged into this. The coyote made his way to the phonebook and looked in the V section before dialling on the phone. After a few rings, I heard Jason's mother pick up and answer.

"Yes, is that Mrs. Vann? Your son's name's Jason, isn't it? Well, my son is one of his friends at school, and you won't believe what he just told me." I was totally shocked at what was happening - he was going to out Jason to his parents before the Alsatian had a chance to tell them - before he even had a chance to fully understand. "Apparently, your son fancies my son... Well that means he's gay, you know?... Well you should care, it's fucking disgusting! No, I'm not having my son grow up with a fucking queer!"

I pushed my face into my shaking paws and tried to drown out what was happening. I couldn't tell exactly what my dad was doing, but I knew he was fiddling with something.

"I said a queer! A fucking tail-lifter! A faggot! Well I'd rather be dead than have my son grow up like that!" I heard a harsh slap on the counter and froze. That was the sound of his belt - I'd recognise it anywhere. Mum whimpered in the corner - she was obviously used to the feel of the leather, too. "Hear that? That's what Al's gonna get for hanging around with your little fairy, all right? He's gonna get seven shades of shit knocked out of him and I suggest you do the same to your mutt!"

"Dad, please stop it!" He slowly turned his head to look at me with disgust.

"Did I give you permission to speak to me?" he demanded. I shook my head, which angered him further. I knew I should have spoke, but finding the courage to ask him to stop was difficult enough. "I have to go, Mrs. Vann," the coyote informed her, his eyes still locked on me, "my son's just begging for this." His paw clenched around the belt and my eyes widened.

He put the phone down as he stepped towards me menacingly. I stood and ran up the stairs, making it half-way up them before I was caught by the ankle. Dad pressed his knee into the small of my back and started to rip my t-shirt open, revealing the brown fur to him. "Dad, please don't hit me!" I screamed when I heard a slap and felt a sharp sting run the length of my spine. He'd struck me, and if it was like any of the other beatings he gave me, the first one wouldn't have been the last.

"Do you think I'm gonna take orders from you?"

"No, sir," I whimpered. I was so terrified he'd kill me that I was clinging onto the spindles, nearly pulling them out to get away from him. I knew that nothing could protect me from him, though. "Please, dad, you're hurting me!"

"Then you'll know in future not to be a poofter, won't you?" Another slap, and another, and another. The welts stayed up for three days on my skin, and the bruises lasted for a couple of months. Once I'd lost count of how many times he'd hit me, he dropped half of the belt. The buckle hit the floor.

"Dad, please! I'm sorry," I rushed, knowing what was coming next, "I'll be good! I'll be so, so good!" The buckle lifted and dug into me, the metal bar clutching into the skin and pulling. I screamed louder than before as I felt my fur matt with hot blood, which trickled down my side and into my torn clothes.

"Too right you'll be good!" A second hit me in the shoulder, where more skin was ripped away and more blood pooled. A third, fourth and fifth hit me before I tried to think about something else. Anything else.

I heard him double the belt back over and he slapped me across the fresh cuts. He wanted them to scar - he wanted me to always have a reminder of who was boss. Once the wounds had bruised sufficiently, he let up from my back. The cream carpet had stained purple-brown, causing the room to look like a set from a horror movie. I lay on the stairs, trembling with fear and pain, curling slowly into a ball. "Clean him up," I heard my dad instruct my mother, "and then I'll deal with you!"

She scampered quickly in and gently pulled me up the stairs and into the bathroom. I remember how she gently peeled away the stained cloth as carefully as she could. I whimpered into her as the warm water ran through my fur and turned the bottom of the bath a light red. She wet a flannel and started to wash the cuts gently. It hurt, but the tenderness she used made me happy - she was nothing like my father.

"Mum," I started, my tears indefinable from the running water, "why does he hit me? Why does dad hit me?" She shook her head and held back cries to look strong in front of me. "Am I... Am I a bad son?"

"No," she insisted, "you're not a bad son. I don't want to hear you say that ever again! You're the best son I could wish for!" I nodded and breathed heavily.

"Mum, I want to tell you something. But if dad found out-"

"He won't, Al. You can tell me anything you want." I looked out of the bathroom door and listened. I could hear that dad was watching TV downstairs and laughing raucously. He didn't care that I was bleeding or how much he'd hurt me - and I started to wonder if he was looking forward to attacking my mother. I looked up at her with bloodshot eyes.

"You know that Jason said he liked me?" She nodded.

"Well, I think I like him, too."

*

"So what happened to Jason?" I'd almost forgotten Luke was there. Even though I was telling him the story, I got lost in the horrors of my own memories. I sighed when I thought about the German Shepherd.

"He didn't speak to me for a few weeks," I explained. "His mother started off with 'I just had Al Mason on the phone, is there something you want to tell us?' Jason thought I'd outed him to his parents. They were fine with the fact that he was gay, but he wanted to tell them himself. You know, when he was ready."

"How did you explain it to him, then?"

*

The bell rang as we were getting changed out of our gym clothes and ready for a period of math. The McGill brothers, a trio of brutish panthers, had left the changing room. I was alone with Jason, who was still giving me the cold shoulder. I hadn't been able to look in his eyes for too long. I never told him, but I loved them, two pools of swirling chocolate. Now, though, they were stiff and icy.

"Mr. Clay said I did well today," he said, "I was gonna tell my parents. Wanna do it for me?" The first words he'd said to me in weeks, and they were among the cruellest I could have imagined. My eyes welled with tears and I sat down to cry. "Don't start blubbering, you'll get your head kicked in by the McGills," he warned with little sympathy.

"I'm not scared of the McGills seeing me cry," I whimpered, "but... but... if he knew..."

"Who?" I pretended not to hear him, refusing to let up the information. Jason knew there was something wrong. He looked at me with genuine concern, but tried to hide it. He still seemed like he was angry at me, and I didn't blame him at all. "Aren't you getting changed?" he asked. I shook my head and clung to the sweaty t-shirt.

"No, I only get undressed alone."

"Why?" he asked, a hint of scepticism in his voice.

"Because I don't want anyone to see. I don't want anyone to know." The Alsatian made his way over to me and sat down.

"Know what?" the German Shepherd pressed. He'd dropped the hurt and upset attitude - he was my concerned friend again. Even if it was only for a minute, I treasured his friendship. I turned around and pulled up my top. Jason gasped, as I thought he would, when he saw the shiny white skin. He brushed my fur out of the way to see the purple bruises. His fingers touched to them, causing me to wince a little. "Oh, my God, Al, what happened?"

I turned to him and wept into his chest. "My dad," I cried, "he did this when he found out about you! I was so scared, Jason! I thought he was gonna kill me!"

"Al, why didn't you say anything?" I looked into his eyes.

"Because you wouldn't talk to me. Because you hate me, and I thought you'd laugh at me." He pulled my head into his chest and hugged me.

"I'd never laugh at you, you silly 'yote! And I don't hate you." His last sentence was broken with tears. Jason's paws were now running down my back and comforting me. No words were spoken and no pacts were made, but somehow I knew that he was my boyfriend.

*

"What happened to you two?" Luke asked. I shrugged in response as I wiped a tear away from my eye. Jason's hug was still a powerful memory for me.

"His parents moved away," I explained, sniffling and wiping my nose. That was the easier version. He moved away. "We just lost contact. God, I missed him so much! Seeing him again today was... wonderful."

Luke's phone started singing some old song, which he rushed to find. "It's Dan," he said apologetically. "I should really be going, you know?" The husky got up from the chair and headed for the front door. I followed him and agreed that he should be with Dan. I wouldn't split the two of them up, even though it was nice opening up to Luke.

"Luke, thanks. For being there," I added. The husky smiled at me and gave me a quick hug before opening the door and answering the phone. I watched him leave the driveway and closed the door behind him.

I started to think about the German Shepherd and wondered what he'd been up to all these years. After a moment of reminiscing, I rifled through my pockets and pulled out a card. I took out my phone and quickly dialled the number on it.

"Hi, Jason."

I smiled when he recognised my voice.