CHAPTER 11

In the suffocating silence of his room that night, Calem lay restless, unable to escape flashes of Ben’s attacks that replayed relentlessly in his mind. The weight of the events bore down on him, leaving him at moments paralysed with uncertainty. Tossing and turning in his bed, he found no refuge in sleep. Even the shadows on the walls seemed to mirror the disarray of his thoughts, as the turmoil within him grew, threatening to tear him apart.

As the sun crept into his bedroom, turning another night into day, Calem decided that he needed to be somewhere Ben could not find him. Struggling to concentrate and uncertain about what to do, he got out of bed to shower. When he got dressed, it occurred to him to call his school friend Michael and make arrangements to stay with him for a few days. Though surprised by the call, Michael grasped that Calem’s request to stay over was a matter of seriousness.

Michael’s face registered surprise as Calem entered the room timidly. Calem understood that he had a lot of explaining to do. Despite Michael being his closest friend at school, Calem was already bracing himself for the disapproval he anticipated Michael would express upon learning the reason that had compelled him to seek refuge.

“Howsit?” Calem said.

Michael smiled as he lowered his mother's Huisgenoot, sipping on his Rooibos tea.

“Bra, I’m trying to help my bra.”

Calem laughingly closed the door and settled onto one of the twin single beds in Michael’s room.

“I literally have no idea what you just said, Michael.”

Michael’s eyes drifted back to the magazine despite Calem’s worried expression.

“Why are you here? I didn’t hear from you all summer, and now here you are!”

“A lot has been going on.”

“Yeah, even too busy to call a bra?”

“The phone works both ways, you know?”

A small smile spread across Michael’s face as he knew he had been cornered again. Calem, too, joined in the laughter, momentarily forgetting his predicament.

“Touché!” Michael said.

Calem directed a pensive gaze toward the ground, attempting to gather his thoughts. When he finally spoke, his words began hesitantly.

“Something happened... something so crazy, I don’t even know how to explain it.”

“This sounds like a girl problem. Who did you make pregnant?”

“Well, you got some of it right, just that I’m not the father.”

Michael’s face became instantaneously confused.

“Okay, now I’m interested. You’ve got my full attention.”

Michael sat up with genuine curiosity, closing the magazine. Calem leaned against the wall and retold the events of the summer. Michael listened attentively, occasionally struggling to believe what he was hearing.

“Well, fuck me gently with the rough side of a pineapple! This is not what I was expecting.”

“I know, me too. I can barely believe myself when I hear what came out of my mouth.”

“Or came in your mouth, as the case may be?”

“You pig!”

“Anyway, this sounds like a Mills & Boons novel, bra.”

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

“What do you mean, staring at you?”

“Are you judging me?”

“No! But I am staring at you with the detachment of God!”

“Thank you, Nick Carraway!”

Michael, in an attempt to relieve the tension, broke into laughter at his own joke. However, as he noticed the rising panic in Calem’s eyes, he leaned forward and gently patted Calem’s knee, hoping to uplift his spirit.

“So, that’s why I’m here. Is it okay to stay for a day or two? Do you think your parents would mind?”

Michael’s demeanour shifted as his expression turned serious in an instant.

“Wait a second. Do you remember that time you brushed against my bum in P.T.? Was that an accident? Or were you feeling me up? Oh my God! I’m not a virgin anymore! You raped me!”

Calem rolled his eyes as they both burst into laughter.

“Oh, fuck off! You wish!” Calem said.

The smile faded from Michael’s face as he leaned back on to the bed.

“But bra, seriously, what are you going to do?”

“For now? Seriously. I don’t know. Escape. Hide. Sleep. A Gatsby for lunch tomorrow. In that order.”

“Can I ask a question, which you don’t have to answer?”

“Sure.”

Michael leaned forward taking another sip of tea.

“Why aren’t you more upset? I mean if all that happened to me, I would probably be very upset.”

Calem looked away, uncertain of how he should answer the question.

“Honestly, I don’t know. Everything that has happened, feels like I was merely a bystander, as if it didn’t really happen to me.”

Michael nodded his head in agreement as a thought occurred to him.

“Oh. And also, can you give some details about the … you know… how did you manage… the… you know?”

Calem tilted his head, pretending not to know what information Michael was asking.

“What do you mean?”

When considering the information he was asking for, Michael reacted by shrugging his shoulders and grimaced, as if he had just tasted something incredibly sour.

“Actually, no I don’t want to know. Forget it.”

“Well, if you really want to know. You have to slowly open…”

Calem playfully began to disclose the information Michael sought, but in response, Michael quickly covered his ears and made noises to drown out Calem’s words.

They continued their conversation deep into the early hours of the morning, dipping into assorted topics, yet always circling back to the issue that Calem most wanted to avoid.

The next morning Michael’s mother woke Calem up for a phone call. It was his brother Jeremy who asked him to see him urgently that morning.

After a quick breakfast, Calem left Michael’s house for the twenty-minute walk to Jeremy’s house up Thornton and Kromboom Roads. When Calem arrived, Jeremy was furious.

“What the fuck is going on?” Jeremy said.

“What are you talking about?”

“Did you not hear what happened at rugby yesterday?”

Calem immediately suspected that this had something to do with Ben but pretended not to know anything.

“How could I? I was at Michael’s! What happened?”

“Ben got sent off the field!”

“Is that it?”

“No. That’s not it. It’s like he’s a completely different person.”

“Oh.”

“He was behaving like a fucking lunatic.”

“What do you mean?”

“Is he on drugs?”

“What? No! Not that I know of. Why?”

“Why was he so mental then?"

“I don’t know!”

“By the way, why did you spend the night at Michael’s?”

Jeremy’s gaze bore into Calem, who hesitated before responding.

“We just lost track of time. So, I stayed over. Jeremy, why did you ask me to come here so urgently?”

Disbelief clouded Jeremy’s eyes as he locked his gaze onto Calem.

“Hmm… Well, I thought you would know why Ben was so fucked up at yesterday’s match.”

“Why would I? I really don’t know anything about this. What was so different about him yesterday?”

“Already in warm-up, he appeared out of sorts. He barely acknowledged me, shooting a few dirty looks my way and carelessly knocking into players without apologising. Before the match began, he picked a fight with one of Good Hope’s players, and the whistle had hardly blown when that player tackled him quite brutally.”

“Is he okay?”

Jeremy paused briefly, noticing Calem’s tone wavering and his eyes widening with concern.

“Yeah, he’s okay. They had to take him off the field, and when Sarah went to check on him, he lost his temper, screaming at her to leave him alone. The poor girl left in tears.”

“Oh, I see.”

“No, you don’t! That’s not the worst of it! After the medic cleared him, he intentionally tackled that player, got a red card, and left angrily. Luckily, David was there to take his place, or else we would have lost.”

“Do you know where he is now?”

“I don’t, but Mommy said that he stopped by the house after the game, looking for you. She said he seemed drunk. He was swearing and cursing a lot, specifically directed at you.”

Calem avoided direct eye contact with Jeremy, revealing discomfort.

“What did he say?”

“Calem, he said a lot... he called you a bitch and a cunt a few times, and something even worse... Mommy wants to speak to you...”

Brief flashes of anxiety passed across Calem’s face, noticed by Jeremy, who observed the subtle shifts indicating turmoil within Calem’s body.

“Oh.”

“Why would he say that? You guys seemed like friends the last time I saw you together.”

Calem struggled to maintain composure to conceal the truth.

“Yeah, we had a small disagreement.”

He responded with a forced casualness, attempting to downplay the severity of the situation.

“Small disagreement? That did not look like a fucking small disagreement to me!”

“Well, nothing major happened.”

“Did you fuck Sarah?”

“What? No!”

Jeremy’s brow furrowed as he sensed Calem withholding information.

“What then?”

“I’m pleading the 5th.”

Frustration sketched across Jeremy’s face, manifesting in a tightening jaw and a sharper tone in response to Calem’s increasingly vague answers.

“We are not in America, and you are not getting away that easily.”

Jeremy’s anger and impatience heightened as he sensed Calem purposefully evading his questions, leaving Jeremy frustratingly in the dark.

“Look, I know as much as you. As far as I am concerned, nothing is wrong. And no, I didn’t fuck Sarah. I can promise on a stack of Bibles. If that’s all, I’m outta here.”

Calem rose to leave. Sensing that Calem’s evasion could not be thwarted, Jeremy reluctantly conceded.

“Okay, wait. I’ll drop you off. I’m going to Mommy’s anyway to pick up my laundry.”

On the way back home, Calem devised a plan to ensure Ben would leave him alone. When they arrived, he heard his mother call out his name angrily, but he immediately went into the living room to make a phone call.

“Larry, what are you up to today?”

“Nothing. You?”

“I’ll come over to hang?”

“You don’t have to ask twice. I’ll come to pick you up.”

“No, don’t worry. I’ll get Jeremy to drop me off, but will you give me a lift back, okay?”

“Sure thing!”

Larry opened the front door when he heard Calem ringing the doorbell.

“What do I get for all my effort today?”

“Well, what would you like?”

Calem purposefully brushed against Larry closely, giving him a knowing smile while pretending not to understand Larry’s meaning.

“Let’s see when we get into my bedroom.”

Larry flicked on a few lights as he led the way to his bedroom. Calem hesitated briefly. He entered his bedroom without turning the lights on.

“Aren’t you coming in?”

“Very presumptuous of you to assume.”

“Not presumptuous. Just worried about time - not sure when my folks will be back from shopping.”

Larry smiled as he stood fully erect in the dark room. Larry, standing at the same height as Calem, boasted the physique of a lean and toned runner. However, Calem found him unattractive; his face was defined by sharp features, shifty eyes, and very thin lips.

When Calem was fully undressed Larry was lying on his bed, with his feet on the ground. Larry, nowhere nearly endowed as Ben, proudly stroked himself as Calem walked closer.

Calem paused briefly, recognising that this moment marked the irreversible turning point in his relationship with Ben. Calem wrestled with conflicting emotions as he contemplated the pivotal decision to have sex with Larry. Beneath the surface of his apprehension, there remained a desire to provide Ben with a compelling reason to forget him, urging him to take this step. Knowing that Ben, whom he both fiercely feared and loved in equal measure, would never voluntarily distance himself unless Calem betrayed him, Calem saw this act as a desperate measure to shatter their connection. He convinced himself that only through this dire strategy Ben would set him free.

“Come sit on this.”

Without responding Calem kneeled and lowered his head as he started to slowly work his way up and down the shaft of Larry’s cock. Larry started to moan as the speed increased. Having become quite skilled, Calem slowed down to delay Larry from climax a few times. Minutes later Larry moaned as he ejaculated. Calem sat back on the floor as he swallowed the impressive load.

Larry replayed the sensation from just moments ago when Calem’s mouth had enveloped him in pleasure, as the currents of ecstasy coursing through him subsided.

“Holy fucking shit! Where the fuck did you learn to do that?” Larry said.

A few seconds later, Larry reached for the baby oil on his desk. He moved behind Calem and quickly entered him, filling the room with their low moans. After Larry ejaculated, he lay on the bed.

“Lie on this pillow,” Larry said.

As Larry slid into him, Calem purposefully moved rhythmically in synchronisation with Larry’s hips until Larry achieved another orgasm. Larry had hardly finished ejaculating when they heard a car pulling into the garage.

“Shit! They are back. Get dressed!”

In a panic, both of them dressed hastily. Larry cleaned the room to remove any compromising evidence before hearing his mother enter the kitchen.

“Larry, where are you?”

“In the living room.”

The reality of his actions began to dawn on Calem as they sat in the living room pretending as if nothing had just occurred.

“I want to go home. Can you take me back please?” Calem said.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Larry, too, was eager to get out of the house. As Larry’s mother entered the living room and tried to make small talk with Calem, Larry swiftly made excuses and pulled Calem away. A few minutes later they were on their way toward Calem’s house.

“No one will know about this, okay?” Larry said.

“Of course!”