L i f e too, p.27
L.I.F.E. Too, page 27
“What?” Myer’s looked confused. “I haven’t told anyone anything about Noah.”
“Really? Then why is everyone talking about him?”
“If someone said something it wasn’t me. I wouldn’t want to hurt someone like Noah.”
Rider was taken aback by the emotion in Myers’s voice. He had kept eye contact all the time. Michael’s eyes were sad, pained themselves. Taking a deep breath, Rider didn’t know who started the rumor about Noah, but he could tell Myers wasn’t involved. Apologizing, he turned and left Myers. Riverbank Memorial was on the other side of town, and without a car of his own, it would take Rider at least an hour to walk across.
Entering the air conditioned hospital a little after 5:30pm, the reception desk quickly directed Rider toward Noah’s room. As he approached, two people sat on a bench outside. From the resemblance, Rider could tell they were Noah’s parents. Mrs. Jenson was a short woman, her blond hair already starting to turn white. Her hands shook as she tried to comfort her husband. Mr. Jenson was a short stocky man, and a bushy blond moustache sat under his large nose. Currently, his head was in his hands, tears flowing for his child in the room. As Rider approached both heads raised, hope lost when they noticed he wasn’t a doctor with good news.
“Mr. and Mrs. Jenson? My name is Rider. I’m a school friend of Noah’s.”
“Rider Williams?” asked Mrs. Jenson, a weak smile sliding across her face when Rider nodded. “Noah told us about you, the bullying and harassment you suffered at school. I’m sorry. Noah also told me you gave him…oh, erm…she. Sorry, we’re still getting used to it. You gave her the courage to come out as transgender, so thank you. We hope she’ll wake up—”
“Noah needs to wake up. I need to tell Noah, I’m sorry for being angry. I’m sorry for not understanding. All I want is Noah to be safe, I love him.” Mr. Jenson said through tears, his wife wrapping an arm around him.
“Noah and her father weren’t on the best times before what happened. Now we just want Noah back.”
Rider was lost for words. All he could do was listen as Mrs. Jenson explained how Noah had come out to them. How she had been shocked but her husband’s reaction had been of anger. She paused the story to tell her husband how he wasn’t the worst father in the world. After doing a lot of research online and attending one of the meetings, she had slowly started accepting Noah’s identity.
“I’m so sorry this has happened to Noah. Is it possible to go in and see her?” Rider asked.
“Sure. MJ is currently in there, but go ahead.” Mrs. Jenson smiled weakly before going back to her husband.
Rider remembered the last time he had talked to Noah properly. She had mentioned how her best friend MJ had accepted her when she had come out to him, how he had even helped Noah find a trans support group. Rider had a smile on his face as he pushed the door open, excited to meet the person who had helped Noah so much. His eyes went wide as he walked into the room, the fire red hair, the green eyes, the pale skin of the person he had only talked to an hour and a half ago. Standing in front of Rider was Michael Myers.
“Myers? What are you doing here?” Rider’s voice came out higher than he would like.
“I’m here to see my best friend.” Myers looked confused that Rider was there.
“What? Best friend? Why should I believe you?”
“It’s true,” croaked a voice from the bed.
Both spun around, looking down at the small teen in the bed. Noah’s eyes were blinking, trying to adjust to the harsh artificial light. Myers smashed the call button on the bed as Rider dashed out the room to find a doctor or nurse. Rider and Myer’s sat outside the room silently as the doctor went through a number of tests with Noah and her parents. An hour and a half later, they were allowed back into the room. Noah was now sitting up at an angle, a number of pillows beneath her head.
“Thank you both for coming,” she said. Rider smiled before his eyes fell on Myers. “Rider, MJ was telling the truth earlier. He is my best friend.”
“But you said your best friend was the one who told you about the support group?” Rider asked, a confused look on his face.
“He did.” Noah smiled at Myers. “MJ isn’t as bad as you might think.”
“Myers was the one who spread my secret around the school.”
“I didn’t!” Myers said defiantly.
Rider turned and glared at Myers, but something was off. Myers always took a defensive stance when he was lying, his arms normally folded across his chest but this time he was stood naturally, one arm rubbing the other.
“You still haven’t told him? You promised me after New York you were going to try again,” Noah said making Myers shift uncomfortably.
“Tell me what? What is going on?” Rider looked between them, waiting for a response.
“Okay…fine.” Myers sighed and sat down in the seat by Noah’s bed. “I was not hiding in the closet that night to spy on you, but when I heard you were gay I got a little too excited. You chased me but fell down the stairs. Anyway, on the Monday I came into school early and I was talking to Noah in the library. We were down one of the stacks and I thought we were alone so I told Noah your secret. That’s when Octavius Spencer came around the corner, a huge stupid grin on his face. It was him that spread it through the school, the only person I told was Noah. I didn’t want people to know.”
Rider was shocked. He fell backward into the chair by the wall, a hand covering his mouth. All this time, he was sure it had been Myers that had told everyone, but it had been Spencer. Rider was struggling to accept what he had been told. He found his eyes settling on Noah, looking for reassurance.
“He’s telling the truth, Rider.” She nodded softly, a sympathetic look on her face.
“If you didn’t want people to know, why did you tell Noah?”
Myers’s face dropped; he couldn’t keep his eyes on either of them.
“MJ can be annoying at times and he does sometimes spread stupid rumors that are fake like Aisha being pregnant. He doesn’t always do the smartest things, like hiding in a closet.” Noah glared as Myers. “But telling me was meant to be helpful. At the time he thought I was gay and wanted someone for me to talk to. It’s the reason why he wasn’t shocked when I came out as transgender. He really didn’t want people to know, he only wanted to help me. Once the school knew, he came to me extremely upset. I told him to tell you the truth.”
Rider looked over to where Myers sat, looking so vulnerable, so different from what Rider was used to. Myers gaze slowly raised to meet his, eyes full of sadness. He took a deep breath. This was going to take a while for him to get his head around. Instead, he focused on something else…someone else.
“Noah, if you don’t mind me asking, what happened?” Rider asked.
Any sign of happiness fell from Noah’s face, and she shook slightly under the covers. Rider tried to apologize, but Noah stopped him. She had already explained it to her parents and doctors. Soon, she would need to talk to the police about it, so telling her two friends was okay. Even before she started, Rider could see the pain and fear in her eyes.
“I was leaving the support group last night, I stayed back to help clean up the room and move the chairs and tables back to where they should be. I came out of the building and I heard shouting across the road, there were these two big guys, easily in college or later. They had Gideon, one of the people from the group, surrounded. He looked terrified and I couldn’t just leave him alone. I should have called someone but I was worried that they were going to hurt him. I shouted to get their attention, they came toward me, calling me slurs and threatening to kick the crap out of me. Once I saw Gideon had gotten away, I turned to leave and that’s when I felt a sharp pain in the back on my head.” Noah’s voice cracked, tears starting to begin.
“I put my hand to my head and when I checked it, there was blood on my hand. I then felt another hard hit to the back of my head, I turned to see a brick hit the ground. That’s when I lost strength in my legs, I fell to the ground. My sight started to get blurry when I heard a voice shouting from the distance, feet running away. Next thing I remember is you both in the room.”
Rider’s thumb ran up and down his scar, lost for words. How could someone do that to another person? He and Myers both got up and proceeded to give Noah a soft hug. Noah wasn’t the only one crying; Myers, although trying to be strong, had shed some tears. Myers disappeared into the bathroom in order to get tissue.
“I’m so sorry, Noah. I hope the cops get those assholes,” Rider said, smiling softly at her. His phone vibrated in his pocket. Pulling it out, he noticed multiple texts from Cam, as well as his mom wondering where he was—it was already 8:20 pm. “I better head off. I’m glad you’re awake, I’ll come back to see you.”
“Thanks, Rider. That will mean a lot. I hope you can forgive MJ, he really didn’t mean for anyone to know your secret.”
Rider just nodded, saying goodbye as he headed toward the door. He turned around just to see Myers returning to the seat next to the bed, a small smile on his face as his hand slipped into Noah’s. Maybe Noah was right. Maybe there was more to Michael Myers than Rider had realized.
Chapter 34
Quintin
Quintin gripped the phone tight in his hand, not believing what he was hearing. His hand was shaking so much, he struggled to keep it pressed against his ear, his breathing sporadic as he replayed the conversation in his head. Currently, Mr. Olivers, the scout from University of Kentucky was on the other end of the call.
“Are you still there, Mr. Matthews?”
“Yes, sir.” Quintin hadn’t spoken since receiving the news. “Thank you so much.”
“It’s my pleasure, Mr. Matthews. Kentucky looks forward to seeing you in the fall.”
Quintin thanked Mr. Olivers again before he ended the call. As soon as the phone call ended, he started yelling, jumping up and down on his bed. His heart was pounding. University of Kentucky had just offered him a scholarship and a place on their basketball team. A banging from downstairs made him stop his celebrations. He quickly found himself downstairs, locating his father in the kitchen. Chance Matthews sat at the table reading the paper.
“Dad, you got a minute?” Quintin kept his face as neutral as he could.
“What’s up, son?” His father’s eyes remained on the paper.
“I just got a phone call.”
“Mhmm, that’s nice,” he said, flipping over to the next page.
“From Kentucky.”
His dad dropped the paper, eyes growing wide. Quintin couldn’t hide his excitement any longer, the details burst out of him. He had been offered a fully-paid scholarship for all four years. The only two conditions were that he needed to remain at a 3.0 grade average and remain on the basketball team. First the cup and then this, Quintin couldn’t believe his luck. There was no way he could have done this without Walker.
“Quintin, that’s amazing!” his father said, pulling him into a tight hug. “I’m so proud of you, son, and I know Archer would have been too.”
“I’ve got to head to school now, but when I get home we can go through everything.”
Quintin quickly left the house and climbed into his car before he let out a soft sigh. It was three years since his brother’s passing, but he still missed him so much. Archer had also tried for a basketball scholarship but in the end had stayed in Belmont. Maybe if he had left this small-minded town, he’d still be alive. When Quintin had first read his brother’s note, he had cried himself to sleep, but now he wanted to make the most of his life. Every victory he won was all in the memory of his brother. Wiping away the tears in his eyes, he started his car and headed toward Belmont High.
Pulling into the school lot, all the positive energy he had been feeling since getting off the phone vanished when he saw someone waiting for him. Darwin Brown smiled at Quintin as he walked across the lot toward his old teammate.
“Matthews, good to see you.”
“Brown,” Quintin replied, slipping his hand into his pocket and gripping his phone.
“Congrats on winning the cup. Shame I couldn’t join you guys. Fucking faggot stopped that from happening.”
“Yeah, Red Bay fought hard but the better team won.”
Quintin chose to ignore the slur Brown targeted at Williams, but that didn’t stop Brown from carrying on his rant about how he should still be at Belmont High.
“Why are you here?” Quintin asked, cutting Brown off midsentence.
“What do you think?” Brown pulled a couple of Ziploc bags out of his pocket: the first one was weed, the second a white powder. “Got a text from a couple of customers, so thought I’d drop by.”
Quintin had never liked that his players smoked weed, but he hadn’t been aware that it was Brown who had been their dealer. If he had, Brown would have been removed from the team a lot earlier than before he had attacked Williams.
“Oh, have you heard Williams isn’t the only freak at Belmont now. You heard Noah Jenson is a fucking tranny?”
“What?” He was aware Jenson was currently in the hospital. A rumor had been circulating the school on Friday, but he had refused to listen to any of them.
“I thought Spencer would have got it around school by now. I saw Jenson coming out of a meeting for trannys. Also, it gets better, the freak is in hospital. Two of my regulars were short on what they owed me, I told them to go cause some problems with the meeting. They went a little OTT and put the freak in the hospital.”
Quintin was horrified by what he had just heard. His stomach twisted up, making him feel like he was going to vomit. He couldn’t believe he had ever called Brown a friend. He wanted to knock the stupid grin off Brown’s face.
“Brown, I think there is something you should know. It wasn’t Williams who got you expelled. I went to Simmons and told him everything. I saw everything that happened, how you swung at Williams.”
“What?” snarled Brown.
“Yeah. Also get the fuck off the school property. If you ever come near the school, Williams, or Jenson ever again then I’ll go to the cops with this.” Quintin pulled his phone out, having recorded the conversation since Brown started talking. “If I hear that anything happens to either of them, this recording goes straight to the cops.”
Brown snarled and stepped toward Quintin till he noticed the phone was still recording. He turned and stormed off, giving Quintin the middle finger as he went. A car horn behind Quintin caused him to turn; Walker and Williams had just pulled into a parking spot.
Cam
Rider was waiting for Cam as he pulled up in front of the Williams house. The car had only just come to a stop when his boyfriend jumped in quickly, leaning in to steal a kiss. Cam never got tired of his good morning kiss from Rider. Before he could press down on the accelerator, his phone started ringing, an out-of-state number appearing on the screen.
“Hello, Cameron Walker speaking.”
“Good morning, Mr. Walker, this is Mr. Olivers from the University of Kentucky. I’m calling you this morning to congratulate yourself. You have been selected as one of the candidates for the Issel Scholarship Award.”
“You’re kidding?” Cam gasped. Rider looked over at him, confused.
“I am not. You’re one of three people that have been selected. What this means is that your tuition fees and housing payments will be covered by the University each year as long as you remain a high grade point average and remain on the basketball team. I’m sure you will need some time to think about your options—”
“No, sir. No time needed, I happily accept.”
“That’s wonderful to hear, Mr. Walker. In that case, I will get your application process started, you will receive a letter confirming all the details. You will also receive an email later today with information about logging into the University network, how to select your classes, and information around housing options.”
“Thank you, Mr. Olivers, very much.”
“My pleasure, Mr. Walker. Kentucky looks forward to seeing you in the fall.”
Cam was still shocked when he ended the phone call. It had been a long shot at being selected for the scholarship, and now that he had it, he couldn’t believe it. He got misty-eyed, having made a promise to his father when he had passed away to study history in his honor, and now he had that chance. He was frozen to the world until a hand nudged him, his head whipped to the side, shocked to see Rider there.
“Everything okay, Cam?”
“Yeah, that was Kentucky. I got the scholarship.”
Rider’s eyes went wide, a huge grin across his face. Cam was soon greeted by a number of congratulatory kisses.
“I’m so happy for you, hun.”
Cam noticed Rider’s smile dropped for just a second. “Rider?”
“I am truly happy for you, Cam. It’s just…” Rider bit his lip as he looked at Cam. “We only just found each other and now we will both be going to different college. I love you so much, I just don’t want to lose you.”
“You won’t.” Cam smiled before he pulled Rider close and slowly pressed him lips to Rider’s. “We may be going to different colleges, in different states but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of us.”
“Do you mean it?” Rider looked deep into Cam’s eyes.
“Of course, you will always be in here,” Cam said, placing Rider’s hand on his chest. “I love you so much Rider Williams. Different universities will not stop that.”
Cam left Rider’s hand where it was and pulled out onto the road. Rider’s hand slipped down his chest, setting on his knee as he drove, only disappearing as they pulled into the school parking lot. They both noticed Matthews standing with someone they never thought they would see again—Darwin Brown. Whatever the duo were speaking about seemed to be heated. Brown had a vicious look on his face before he left Matthews. Cam honked the horn, drawing the attention of the captain.
