Tybalt and Juliet Ch. 10

"Oh? I didn't see Billy," she replied.

"Yeah," I confirmed. "He came after lunch, but he didn't go in the pool. He was here for an hour and a half, maybe two hours."

"And you hadn't seen him since the Prom?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No, I should have met up with him earlier, but, I dunno, I just didn't. But I should have thanked him for what he did, long before now."

Amy nodded. "And I expect you enjoyed catching up as well," she said.

I nodded, a little intrigued.

"You know, I didn't realise you were such good friends," she continued. "You've never really mentioned him at all. If you hadn't been in the play together, I wouldn't have thought you'd have known each other."

I gave her a slightly confused look.

"It's what he said as I was getting in the ambulance. He asked me to look after you and said you were his true friend and that you meant a lot to him. Something like that anyway."

"Oh," I said, trying to hide my bewilderment.

Amy gave me a suspicious look. "Am I missing something Jake?" she asked slowly. "You weren't best friends a long time ago who had a massive falling out?" She paused. "He's not one of your cousins, is he?"

I laughed.

"No, Lauren's my only cousin, I promise. Unless there's a secret in my family I don't know about."

"Go on, Jake" Amy said gently. "Tell me about you and Billy. There is something back in the past, before I joined the school, isn't there? What happened between you?"

I nodded, a little unhappily. Amy could do it too now - she, Mum, Lauren - they all knew when I was trying to avoid saying something. My mind was an open book to the female inquisitor.

"I suppose I should start from the beginning," I said. "You know Ritchie and I never hit it off - we hated each other right from the word go. Even when we were eleven, he was a colossal, arrogant twat. But almost everyone loved him, especially the girls."

Amy nodded.

I sighed. "I suppose I was an easy target, you know, the farmer's son and all that. They used to grunt and make animal noises, hold their noses as if I smelt of cowshit. Then, as we got older, they used to say I fucked the sheep."

"Oh," said Amy, a little surprised. "And what about Lauren?"

"Uh huh," I said wryly. "Incest too."

"That's not what I meant. Didn't they bully her?"

"They tried," I replied, "but I'm not exactly sure what happened. She dragged Ritchie into the bathroom at school one day and flushed his head down the toilet. No one ever dared take her on after that."

"Oh! But how did she manage that?" Amy asked surprised. "Didn't Ritchie fight her off?"

I shook my head.

"No, Lauren's always been very strong," I explained. "She was taller than me until we were almost sixteen. I can beat her at arm wrestling now, but only just."

"But they didn't leave you alone after that?" Amy asked.

I shook my head again. "If I'd have gone running to Lauren any time anyone was a dick to me, it would have made everything ten times worse. 'Jake being protected by a girl!' You know what teenage boys are like! Maybe if I'd have done the same that would have been the end of it - but I didn't fight back like Lauren did."

"And what about Billy?" Amy asked. "How does he fit in?"

"So Ritchie got clever," I explained. "After the Lauren incident, he realised he needed someone to do his dirty work for him - that was Billy. It was sad really, because Billy could see if he didn't do what Ritchie wanted, he'd get it instead of me.

"And if a teacher ever appeared at the wrong moment," I continued, "it meant Ritchie's fingerprints could never be found - in fact he could even make it look like he was breaking things up, like some fucking United Nations Peace Envoy."

Amy stroked my arm gently.

"Anyway, there was some cricket match at school - we were thirteen or fourteen. They'd made Ritchie captain of one of the teams and he'd been going on in the changing room about how good at batting he was and how he was going to get a century - some shit like that. So first ball, first over, James bowls and Ritchie hits it straight into my hands - out for a duck! It put him off cricket for the rest of his life!"

"And what about you?" Amy asked.

"Well, that was the night I went home with my sports kit covered in brown paint," I said. "It was meant to match the colour of the manure at the farm - that was Billy's artistic interpretation. He said I needed camouflage."

Amy looked horrified. "And what did the teachers say?"

"Well it was the usual reaction," I said, a little angrily. "Faults on all sides, a silly schoolboy prank out of control - blah, blah, blah. Billy and I had to wash the school minibuses together as a punishment."

"Hold on," Amy said. "You got punished because Billy covered you in brown paint?"

"Yes, I'd dared him to do it apparently. Ritchie backed him up!"

"And what about your friends, what did they say?" Amy asked. "James, Danny and Stijn?"

"Well that was the thing," I replied. "It had been brewing for a while, but that was the straw that broke the camel's back: James overheard Ritchie boasting how he'd got Billy to throw the paint over me and the two of them ended up having a big fight in the playground - him and Ritchie."

"Oh no," said Amy sounding a little horrified.

"Well, James always claims it was Ritchie who started it, but Ritchie said it was James. I don't know - I wasn't there - I was washing minibuses with Billy. James went to remonstrate with Ritchie and then it got out of hand.

"Anyway the teachers appeared right at the moment when James had Ritchie on the ground in an armlock. Ritchie's mates all immediately pointed the finger at James as the aggressor, so he got excluded for a week. Ritchie walked away scot free."

"And was that coincidence - the teachers arriving when they did? Or did someone know when to call them?"

I laughed. "So Ritchie claimed to his mates that he'd planned it all along - to lose the fight to get James suspended. But I don't think that was true - the fight wasn't arranged in advance - it was just chance the teachers turned up when they did. James beat him fair and square."

"And what happened when James came back?" Amy asked.

"Our whole year group split down the middle, or not quite the middle," I replied. "You were either friends with Ritchie, Ross and Billy or you were friends with James, Jake and Danny. You couldn't be both. James didn't talk to Ritchie again for almost two years."

"Like the Montagues and the Capulets," Amy said quietly.

"Well it wasn't that bad," I replied. "More like the Cold War, with the odd scuffle in the corridors. We didn't ever need an airlift though!"

"And did it get better?" Amy asked. "The cold war, I mean."

"Slowly, very slowly," I admitted, ignoring the opportunity to make a joke about the Berlin Wall coming down. "James and Ritchie reconciled about two years ago - it was the rugby that bought them back together."

"And you and Ritchie?"

"He hated me before and he hated me afterwards," I replied. "And by the time he'd patched things up with James, we were serious academic rivals."

"And the rest of the school?"

"Having to focus on GCSEs helped," I explained. "But even now you can still see the split - sciences verses humanities - we almost don't mix. They go to the Sixth Form Centre to revise, we go to the town library. That's why you didn't really know who I was, for what - your first two terms?"

Amy nodded again. "I understand now," she said. "I thought it was very odd. I thought it was the usual jocks and nerds thing, but then James and Stijn were the rugby players - they were your friends."

I nodded.

"But why didn't the school realise?" she asked.

"The school never did anything. They had a divide and rule strategy. As long as we weren't killing each other, they didn't care. They'd bent their thought processes so far out of shape, they thought it was healthy competition."

"The official line was always that Jake and James were the aggressors, Billy and Ross were the innocent victims and Ritchie was the peacemaker. I was written off as a farm boy who'd leave school at sixteen to milk cows and tend sheep, James was going to play rugby and, I dunno, Danny was going to open a joke shop. We didn't matter.

"Then our GCSE results came through - the dozen or so from the town library knocked it out the park. We'd just got our heads down and done it - my grades were the best in the school and James and Stijn weren't far behind - in fact the two of them beat Ritchie. We proved to everyone and to ourselves that we weren't the ones causing the trouble."

"So things changed after that?"

I shook my head. "Not really," I said. "Some of the teachers had begun to realise that year - the good ones. That's where the science and humanities split came from. Mr Gregory, our science teacher was the best, he could see what had happened and he encouraged us. And I'd had a bit of maths tuition outside school, so that helped too."

"Yes, you've mentioned your maths tutor before," Amy said.

"Yes, Mr Matthews was great," I replied. "I was so demotivated by everything at school, but he kinda made me believe in myself. He was the one that convinced me that I really was one of the best academically; I'd never have applied to Cambridge otherwise.

"And some of the others started going to him as well. We were paying him, of course, but he undercharged us so much. I think he just enjoyed it - it was either us or fishing. Plus, he'd taught at a girls-only school for most of his career and he just saw us as a group of bright, hard-working lads, who got on well and wanted to support each other."

"And Ritchie?" Amy asked.

"Ritchie was untouchable - our GCSE scores were never going to change that. The fact he'd dropped a few grades was just shrugged off - apparently the exams couldn't recognise his genius, or some bullshit like that. He was always going to be Head Boy."

"But Oxford rejected him," Amy said quietly.

"It was the shock of his life," I continued. "The school should have told him that his GCSEs weren't really strong enough, but he thought he could win it all at the interview. He was the expert manipulator - he could charm anyone. But the professors saw through him - they realised he was a bullshitter with nothing to back it up. And after that, everyone else started to talk - they realised he wasn't invincible too. Of course, me getting into Cambridge made it so much worse - that definitely wasn't in the script!"

"I'm sorry Jake," she said, "I had no idea. I mean Frankie said that you and Ritchie were mortal enemies, but I hadn't realised it had divided the school so badly."

"Well Frankie was one of the ones who tried to bridge the divide," I explained. "She was good friends with Lauren for a long time. Then she started going out with Ross and, well, he made her pick sides."

"Ross was horrible to her," Amy said, a note of melancholy in her voice.

"He treated her like dirt," I agreed.

"What an awful mess!" Amy despaired, shaking her head. "How could I have been so blind to all of this?"

"I should have told you a lot earlier," I said. "As soon as the Police were done with us, I should have explained. I'm sorry. I didn't."

We sat silently for a long time, watching as a blazing sunset lit up the evening sky. Amy knew everything now, everything. There was nothing I hadn't told her. We were such a fucked-up bunch of kids.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I swiped across the screen, holding it up behind her. There was a message from an unknown number.

'Hi Jake,' it read. 'This is Billy. Thx 4 what u said earlier. U taught me more about myself in 1 afternoon than I evr learnt wi Ritchie. Am at peace 4 1st time all sumr. I no I don't deserve u as a m8, but I wd lk 2 mt up wi u again. Maybe when we r back frm uni @ Xmas? All the best 4 Cambridge - u rly deserve it. Thank u.'

I smiled.

"Who's that?" Amy asked.

"A friend," I said.

She scowled at me.

"I probably shouldn't show you," I said, "but, go on, read it." I handed the screen to her.

Amy scanned through the message.

"Well I don't know what you said to him," she said. "But whatever it was, it must have been profound."

"I guess we forgave each other for a long feud," I replied, a little glibly.

"Will you meet up with him at Christmas?"

I nodded. "Yes, I think I'd like to. He'll be a new man then. He's a new man now."

Amy kissed me on the cheek.

"You're an amazing guy, Jake," she said quietly. "To have gone through all that and to have achieved what you have - you're so strong. Anyone else really would have gone off to milk the cows and tend the sheep!"

"I'm not amazing," I said, "I'm just lucky. I've got a group of a dozen close friends - Danny and James in particular - and we were willing to stick together through everything. Then, beyond our parents, the people that mattered believed in us, believed in me - Roger the vet, Mr Matthews, Mr Gregory - they inspired me - it didn't matter about the school after that - we could almost go it alone."

"You are amazing, Jake," Amy insisted.

"You're amazing too," I said, kissing her gently on the forehead.

She blushed and shook her head.

"I remember when I first met you," I said sincerely. "I think it was your eyes - they were so bright. On the outside, you were this quiet, shy girl - the angel with the beautiful singing voice. But inside, there was this strong, passionate woman burning within you - I could see it, I could tell.

"Everyone says you've changed so much," I continued, smiling, "asks me what I've done to you! But I haven't done anything - it's just that they can see now, what I could see a long time ago. You're a sweet, red rose that's burst into flower; a radiant sun to light up the sky. You're beautiful and amazing and I love you so much."

I kissed her again and held her tightly against me. I was in danger of getting hard.

"Come on," I said. "Let's go inside and have something to eat!"

"Will there be anything left for us now?" Amy asked.

"Probably not," I replied. "But it's OK, I hid a pizza for us earlier."

"Oh! Where did you put it?" she asked, flashing me a bright smile.

"In the fridge," I replied. "They'll never look in there!"

-

Amy and I slipped out of the back door of James' house a little earlier than we'd originally planned. It was just before eleven and the sky was fully dark. Amy's curfew was midnight and, although we'd promised her mum that we'd take a taxi to her home, walking would give her time to sober up a little.

I hadn't really been conscious of Amy drinking that much during the course of the evening, certainly no more than anyone else, but she was clearly more than a little 'merry' as we turned out of James' driveway and began walking down the gentle hill towards her house. She always became rather giggly after drinking alcohol, partly a consequence of her relative lack of familiarity, but I also suspected that she liked pretending that she was more drunk than she actually was.

It was somewhat chilly. The wind was picking up and the possibility of light rain had crossed my mind when we'd elected to walk. I was keen to pick up our pace, but Amy wanted to dawdle, chattering away and analysing, overanalysing the other couples at the party. For the first few minutes, her speculation, rumour and gossip were fairly charming, but as our walk lengthened, I began to get a little irritated. I was well aware of which of my schoolmates had slept with each other, and who still carried a torch for whom, but I'd never particularly cared about any of that stuff. I felt distinctly queasy about discussing such matters, but Amy didn't seem to notice any irony, if that's what it was. She'd integrated relatively poorly and most of this old news was brand new to her.

Inevitably, when we were still at least five minutes from her home, the clouds burst and the rain started to fall. I looked around for shelter; there was a small children's playground on the other side of the road and, although it was dark, I could see a big beech tree in the far corner.

Amy was almost oblivious to the fact that she was getting wet, and she made a play of resisting me as I lead her across the road and under the tree.

"Oh Jake!" she giggled, "Are you trying to seduce me?"

"No," I muttered through clenched teeth, "I'm trying to stop you getting drenched."

"Oh Jake!" she giggled again, clinging tightly to me under the tree. She started to unzip my rain jacket, slipping her hand inside.

"Oh get off," I hissed testily, pulling her hand out and zipping the jacket back up.

Amy wanted to play. Having been denied access to my chest, she slipped her arm lower grasping my cock through my chinos.

"Mmmm," she purred, "what have we here?"

I felt myself begin to stiffen, unable to control the flow of blood.

Amy felt it too, "I think he likes me," she said, beginning to stroke me through the fabric.

I was fighting myself now, not just her. I felt the urge to push Amy to her knees, to whip out my cock and to thrust it down her throat.

"I like him too," she teased.

I regained control, and gently took her hand in mine, removing it from my crotch.

"Look Amy," I said calmly, "I love you so much, but we can't do this here. We're in a children's playground in full view of the road, anyone could walk by and see us, we could get arrested!"

The seductress had other ideas. She held my hand between hers, bring it up towards her face. She opened her mouth wide and began to suck on my middle finger.

"Fuck Amy," I gasped, my cock standing fully at attention.

I pulled my finger out of her mouth, but she held on and moved my hand down her body. She lifted up her flimsy short skirt, guiding my fingers underneath and inside her panties.

She was wet - very, very wet - and not from the rain.

Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Can you feel how much I want you Jake? Can you feel how wet I am for you?" She grasped me again through my shorts. "I want you so bad, I want your cock so much. I want you now." Her voice was getting louder now as she was becoming even more excited. "I want you Jake," she insisted. "I want you your big hard cock. I want to suck you. Please Jake, I need you, my big stallion!"

My brain and balls fought. The rational side won out.

"Look Amy," I said, pulling my hand away again. "You're drunk, we're in public and, assuming we don't get caught, we'll wake up tomorrow morning with heads full of regrets."

"But I want you, I need you, I'm ready for you," she persisted, reaching down again and pulling my hand back to her crotch, extracting my middle finger from my fist and slipping it under her panties again.

"Can you feel me?" she whispered. "I'm wet for you Jake. That's how horny you make me!"

Her eyes danced excitedly.

She pushed my hand a little lower and I felt my fingertip brushing across the opening to her vagina.

"Can you feel that Jake?" she asked, a slutty smile spreading across her face. "Can you feel how open I am for you? Go on, it's OK. Push inside me. Let me feel you!"

I was shocked. Now Amy was begging me to finger her for the first time a fucking children's playground!

"No Amy. I'm not going to," I scolded. "I'm not doing anything to you under this tree or anywhere else in this playground. Where's your self-respect gone? I love you. You're my girlfriend, not some cheap whore."

"Oh Jake," she complained in disappointment, "you're such a prude!"

The rain was easing up now.

"Come on," I said, "let's get you home and get you to bed."

"Ooh!" she giggled excitedly.

"No Amy," I insisted, "your own bed without me in it. I have to sleep downstairs, remember?"

And with that I grabbed her hand and pulled her back to the road.

-

Five minutes later, Amy unlocked the front door as quietly as she could and we crept inside. The house was in darkness; fortunately no one was waiting up for us. We kicked off our shoes and hung up our coats.