=========================================
Getting what you really want, part Seven.
=========================================
        Written by Nicolus Tails
=========================================

        I opened my door that Sunday Morning and stared out at the sky.  I
always knew it was a Sunday because I got a fat paper and no mail.  But what
wasn't a joke was the headline.

        "Chicago Murder leaves 1 dead, 24 injured"

        It blared at me every time I looked over.  That "1" was Aron.  He had
been out of town on a business trip to Chicago, walked into a fast food
restraunt to eat, and some nut walked in and started shooting up the place.
Aron was the closest to him, sitting right by the door, and he was shot
severely.

        I shut the door and walked back into my bedroom.  Tim was still
asleep, and I was careful to be quiet as I got dressed, and walked in the
kitchen.

        "John Whyter has been taken into custody for the brutal shooting in a
local Burger King in Downtown Chicago late last night.  24 people were
injured, and a Denver man were killed in the incident.  Most of the 24 were
treated for minor injuries and released, a few are in critical condition."

        "What's that?" Tim asked.  I looked up, and he was standing in the
hallway by the kitchen.  I didn't say anything.  I got up for more coffee,
and let him look at the paper.  He sounded as shocked as I was.
        "Oh shit..." he trailed off.

        I just sat down and thought about him.  We hadn't gotten along with
him in the past couple of weeks, none of our "gang" had.  I thought about the
first time though.  I remembered:

        Aron walked into the classroom.  I was still talking with my friend,
the professor when he came in.  At a good 5ft 9in, short compared to most of
the people in the class, but he was well built.  Blond, short hair, looking
good.
        "Who is that?" I asked Jon.  Jon was the professer.
        "Aron.  Why?"
        "What do you know about him?"
        "Good student.  That's as far as I take things in here.  Had a
girlfriend for a while, I think.  Some lady from another school.  They broke
up shortly after school started."
        "Why?"
        "Don't know," he said.

        I was helping Jon in all my spare time, he had enough to do on his
own.  He was married for a second time, and his first wife had a kid from
him, and was pregnant with another, and wanted alimony payments from Jon for
it, even though it wasn't his kid.  But she never remarried, and her
boyfriend, who she started with while her and Jon were married, ran out on
her, and she needed the money badly.
        Add all that on top of a class of 39, and that with the fact he
wasn't there a lot (trips to his lawyer), really made things difficult.  I
often subbed for his class when he wasn't there, and that's how I really got
to know some of the kids in his class.  That's how I got to know Aron.
Sometime in August I was in for Jon, and I called Aron up.

        "Yeah?" he said, letting me know he didn't enjoy my company.
        "I need papers from you, where are they?"
        "I didn't get to them, ok?"
        I was stuck.
        "Well, what do you want me to do?" I asked him.
        "Don't do anything."  He turned around, and went back to his seat. It
was at that moment I first realized that I couldn't make a move on him.
Although I wouldn't admit it till later on, I was physically attracted to
him.  He hung around cheerleaders a lot, so I didn't suspect that he was Gay
like I was.
        Things didn't change much, untill I made the poor choice of letting
my personal feelings rule my actions.  That's when I kidnapped him, and went
to my house.  Don't ask me why that changed his feelings towards me, I was
surprised.  The next morning things were different.  That's when Will came
over to me.

        "Aron told me what went on last night," he said, or something like
that.  We went through the conversation that I'm sure you've heard before,
and a little later on, I caught Aron out on the campus.

        "ARON!" I called over.  He came over.
        "What?"
        "Now I don't get this.  You invited me to a party instead of calling
the police.  What is going on?"  I asked him.
        "Nothing."
        "Don't give me that shit, Aron."
        "Nothing is going on."
        He walked away, and I was sure that he was planning something.  I
didn't know what.  But the party happened that night, and I just decided that
Aron was a man of few words.  At that time, anyhow.

        Someone knocked on my door.  It took me a second to come back to
reality.  Tim was reading the article for the fifth time know, my coffee was
cold, as was the house, and everything was silent.  I answered the door.
Justin was standing there.
        "Have you heard about Aron?" he asked.  I indicated the paper Tim was
reading, and Justin came in.  He sat down depressed.
        "When is the funeral?" Tim asked.  I just shrugged.  It suddenly
occured to me that I hadn't said anything since I got up.
        Justin was just about to cry.
        "This really hit you, didn't it?" I asked him.
        "Aron and I have...had known each other since the second grade.  We
didn't exactly LIKE each other that long, but we knew each other.  It wasn't
until High School that we got to know each other."  He was beginning to sound
a little better.  Sometimes talking about people do that.  We went into the
living room and he continued.

        "We went running around with each other all through school.  I
remember this one time, we ended up driving out of state just to see how far
we could get in an hour, and ended up running out of gas.  (He smiled.) Since
it was dark, and at least an hour's walk to the next town, and my parents
knew I was staying at his house, and his parents were on vacation, we just
decided to stay the night in the car.
        "I kept watching him, and just the light coming from outside was
beautiful.  He was just lying there, watching me, exactly the same thing that
I was doing to him.  All of a sudden, he leaned over and kissed me.  At first
I was in shock, but I started realizing we were both Gay.
        "I had considered that fact all the way from 7th grade, but when
you're that young, you just think "That's disgusting" or something, exactly
what all your friends think.  But I just felt like that was how I was.  I
didn't bother arguing it, I didn't think it would just "go away" or
something, but I never really did anything about it.  I guess Aron knew how
he was, maybe that's why he was around me so much, maybe he knew how I was
before I did.
        "We spent that whole night just being relaxed with each other.  We
didn't exactly do anything, we kissed a little, but for the most part, just
held each other.  I don't think we ever went to sleep."

        Justin was beginning to break apart again.  I never knew about him
and Aron, and I had never given it any thought.  I never really knew what
happened.  I remembered in the classroom, before my first adventure with
Aron:

        "Don't try to talk to him.  He's impossible to deal with," he told
me.
        "Why?"
        Justin paused.  "He thinks he's perfect.  I heard him telling someone
else that he's the most popular person in the entire class."

        Justin was still sitting on my couch.  I asked him, "Justin, how come
you broke up with Aron."
        "Well, we never really broke up, he just started hanging around with
the wrong people, and got hard to deal with.  He never really recovered from
that."

        But whatever he had to "recover" from, he did a pretty good job.
Every one of us, Tim, Justin, Shawn, Steve, and myself, and even Jon were at
his funeral.  I introduced Shawn and Jon to Aron's parents, they were the
only ones that they didn't know.  I had met them one time in the classroom.
His parents didn't know about myself and Aron, or "Justin and Aron", or
anything like that, but they didn't have to.  Justin did.  I did.  Aron did.
That was enough.
        As I was walking to the car, Justin stopped and looked at the
ground where Aron was put.
        "I still love you, Aron," he whispered.  I put my hand on 
Justin's shoulder, and we walked back to the car.  I knew that whatever Aron
had done, hadn't really destroyed anything.

=============================================================================
Watch for Getting8.txt, coming soon to a BBS near you.

>>>Nick Tails