Hell Week, Chapter 9 Rated: NC 17 It was Thursday of Hell Week. Brian and Justin sat in their lawn chairs watching as the kids did their stretching exercises. After the conversation in the car this morning, Brian and Gus had emerged from the bedroom with big smiles on their faces and a sense of accomplishment for a job well done. Brian handed Justin the cucumbers he had taken into the room for the ‘demo’ and said, “Here, you can retire these guys. They’re beat.” Gus laughed when he heard that and said, “You guys are crazy-I can’t even imagine what you were like as teenagers.” Brian looked at his son, all innocent and said, “I was a perfect child. Now ‘Daddy J’ over here was nothing but trouble. He drove Grandma Jennifer nuts, isn’t that right, Sunshine?” Justin gave Brian his mega-watt smile. “Any trouble I’ve ever gotten into involved one Brian Kinney, and you know that, mister.” The atmosphere between the three of them was easy going and relaxed. None of the usual tension between fathers and sons was evident anywhere. They were all comfortable with each other and who they were. It was such a huge difference from anything Brian had ever known as a young boy growing up. The tension in his house was always palpable, varying in degrees in direct proportion to Jack Kinney’s state of inebriation. A conversation about sex and condoms would never have happened at any time, and never did. Whatever Brian learned had come from self-exploration or from Debbie Novotny. He didn’t want that for Gus. He didn’t want him to ever have to wonder what the right thing to do was, or ever doubt that he could come to either him or Justin with a question or a problem. Once he had acknowledged that Gus was straight, he decided that he would teach him as much as he could, with every bit of information that he had, and hoped that he would grow up to be the best person he could ever be. So far, Gus had never questioned him on anything, taking him at his word and trusting him implicitly. Brian hoped that would never change. The coach’s whistle brought Brian back to the present and he sat up and listened. “Okay boys. Today we’re going to do a seven-on-seven. It’s a practice drill where seven members of the offense will play against seven members of the defense. Only helmets will be worn, no pads. This means no hitting allowed and the quarterback is not to be tackled or brought down in any way. He’ll be wearing a red practice jersey so you can distinguish him from the rest of the group. Instead of tackling, you will touch him on the shoulder, this goes for any other player. Once a player has been tagged everything stops and we’ll line up again for the next play. It that clear?” The boys all nodded in agreement. “Okay,” Coach Barton said. On offense I’m going to need a quarterback, a runningback, three wide receivers, a tight end and a center. So, let’s have Peterson, Gentry, Lehigh, Johnson, the Ryback twins and Savio.” “On defense, I’ll need two defensive backs, two safeties and three linebackers. I want, Weyer and Andrews, Barton, Novack, O’Riley, Cook and Slater.” Brian continued to watch and listen as the boys got into formation for the practice drill. Gus seemed relaxed and was throwing the ball with an accuracy that surprised Brian. Several passes had been completed and the boys seemed to be getting more comfortable with each other and enjoying themselves out there. Justin was sketching, as usual, glancing up occasionally to watch what was going on, not really knowing what should or shouldn’t be happening. Just interested because his son was out there. Suddenly a whistle was blown, a flag was on the field and Gus was on the ground. Brian stood up immediately and moved forward. He saw what had happened; he just couldn’t believe what he saw. The two coaches were huddled around Gus. “O’Riley! You weren’t supposed to touch him; didn’t we tell you that from the beginning?” Coach Barton said looking at Kevin. “Sorry, Coach, I forgot. He’s going to be okay, isn’t he?” Kevin O’Riley asked innocently. “Gus,” Coach asked. “You alright?” Gus lay on the ground, trying to catch his breath. He thought he was okay, physically. Nothing felt broken; he was just winded from being knocked down by Kevin. What he didn’t understand was what Kevin said to him under his breath, just before the hit. He’d called him a ‘fucking pussy’. What was that all about? Sitting up, Gus looked Kevin in the eye and said, “I’m fine, Coach.” “Okay, boys, line up again. The next one who hits the quarterback or anyone else for that matter, is benched! You can’t be knocking out your own teammates before the actual games have even started, for Christ’s sake! Got that?” “Yes, sir,” they all yelled out in unison. Brian slowly sat back down in his chair, disturbed by what he saw. He hoped that this had been a random thing, but somehow, he doubted it. Justin looked over at Brian and knew instantly that something wasn’t right. “What’s wrong, Brian?” Brian continued to watch silently, saying nothing. “Brian?” “Its okay, Justin. I’m just worried about Gus. He seems fine; I just hope that hit didn’t hurt him in any way.” Justin was oblivious to what had actually happened out there. All he saw were kids running around and Gus looked fine from where he sat. “I’m sure he’s okay, Brian, they wouldn’t let him stay in there if he weren’t.” “Right.” The team had lined up again, getting ready for the next play. It was easy to spot Gus because he was the only one with the red jersey. Everything went off without a hitch, he threw a pass which was caught by Austin who ran it for the touchdown. The group was getting ready for their final play. Just before they got ready to start, a whistle was blown. This time Austin was the culprit. Brian tried to see what the penalty was for but was too far away to be able to tell. Whatever the reason was, Coach Barton was reaming the kid a new asshole. He had the boys break up and the next set of kids got ready for their seven-on-seven. Gus and Austin were on the side lines, talking and watching the new group run through their practice. Brian couldn’t wait to hear what had just happened. Finally after what seemed like hours, the practice was over and the boys were allowed to go. Gus walked towards Brian and Justin. He and Austin were deep in conversation, and some of the other boys, Cook and the Ryder twins, joined up and they all stood around, several feet away from Brian, discussing what had just happened. All the while they were talking, Kevin O’Riley was on the opposite side of the field, by himself, watching them. “Hey Guys,” Brian said to them, walking up to Gus and handing him his Gatorade. “Hi Mr. Kinney,” the boys said in unison. “So what just happened out there? How come you got penalized, Austin? I didn’t really see what happened?” “It was nothing, sir.” “Well, it couldn’t have been nothing if the Coach got pissed.” “Kevin said something and Austin shoved him,” one of the Ryback twins said. Gus and Austin glared at him for even opening his mouth. “What’d he say?” “Nothing Dad, it’s not important. It’s over. Did you see the pass I threw, the one that Austin caught?” “Yeah, it was really nice. Hopefully you’ll be able to do it over and over tomorrow during the scrimmage.” “That would be awesome,” Austin said. “Come on, let’s go,” Brian said. Austin was riding home with them tonight because both his parents had to work and so it was decided earlier in the day that he would have dinner with Gus and his parents would pick him up around nine- thirty when they got off. Brian was silent all the way home. He kept thinking about what had happened at practice and couldn’t believe that Lisa O’Riley would say anything to her son, Kevin, about their little ‘incident’. The whole scene would have put her in a bad light, so why the fuck would she even mention it to him? Unless of course Kevin overheard a phone conversation between her and one of the other fucking Lisa’s. When they got home, Austin and Gus went to the family room to watch TV and Brian and Justin headed for the kitchen to try and scrounge up some dinner. “Brian, you were awfully quiet in the car, is anything wrong?” Justin asked. “No, I’m just concerned about what happened today.” “Gus is fine, Brian, he wasn’t hurt at all,” Justin said. Brian explained to Justin what had just happened out on the field. Justin was surprised when he heard what Brian had to say. “But he’s fine Brian. Nothing happened to him.” “This time Gus is fine but I don’t want there to be a next time. I can’t believe that Kevin knows what happened the other night. Fuck! I should have just walked out of that bathroom without saying a word. At least she would have had some of her pride left. Instead I fucking ran over her with my forked tongue and devastated her, good job Kinney!” “Come on, Brian, stop beating yourself up over this. It’s not your fault that you’re the hottest fucking Dad out there and everyone wants your body,” Justin teased, trying to lighten the mood. Brian looked at Justin sadly. “It’s not funny Sunshine. I really hope this will all blow over by tomorrow, I would hate like hell for Gus’ first experience at football to be ruined by something I did, or in this case, didn’t do.” “I’m sure, everything will work itself out. Kevin probably overheard snippets of a conversation and decided to have his own personal vendetta. Now that it’s out of his system, it’s over. You’ll see, tomorrow will be better,” Justin said, handing Brian a beer and getting back to making their salad. “Is that all we’re having for dinner? The boys need more than that, they’re probably starving.” “I called for a Pizza delivery, just before we left the field. It should be here any minute. This is just our side dish.” “Good, I’m kinda hungry myself. I think I’ll stuff my face with some greasy pepperoni and then at least the heartburn will take my mind off all this bullshit.” He took a swig of his beer and headed back towards the family room to join Gus and Austin. Just outside the entrance of the room he heard Gus say, “You shouldn’t have pushed him, Austin. You could have gotten into a lot of trouble for that.” Brian stopped moving, listening to every word of the conversation. “Fuck that.” Austin said. “He can’t go around saying shit like that about your Dad; that was bullshit.” “Look,” Gus said, “All he said was that I wouldn’t know the first thing about standing in a straight line.” “Yeah! And you know what that implied!” “Austin, I’m not sure what Kevin’s problem is, but I need to handle this by myself okay?” “Fine,” Austin said begrudgingly. “He just pushed the wrong button.” Gus reached over and tapped Austin’s arm. “Hey, its okay, I can handle it, but thanks for the help.” “We’re best friends Gus, no one talks shit about you around me.” Brian turned around and headed back towards the kitchen. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” “Justin, forget the pizza. I need a Scotch, straight up, in a very large glass.” Tbc