Boys Like You by Jaye Pratt
All six of us are seated in an empty classroom; Mr Turner moved us while we waited for our caregivers.
“I have asked you all here because there was an incident today. Maximus and JD are the only two directly involved, but as you can see the others refuse to leave. I have an injured student, and her parents are demanding action.”
“With all due respect sir, she came at Maximus, calling him a mute. When she attacked his weaknesses, I snapped. She’s a bully and I put her in her place.” I can't help myself, the words just slip out. “She’s not hurt, not physically. Maybe her pride.”
“That may be so, JD, but we have a zero tolerance for violence. You put your hands on a student, and Maximus on a teacher. There has to be repercussions for that.”
“So,” Carson interjects, “you want to punish a girl for standing up to a bully? Are you not taking it seriously because it was a female student picking on a male? Are you insinuating his rights are not as important as hers?”
“Of course not, she will have consequences for her actions.” Mr Turner’s face flushes and he loosens his tie.
“And what would that punishment be?” Carson throws back at him.
“I cannot disclose information about another student without them present.”
Rory stands and walks closer to Mr Turner. “She will get a slap on the wrist because her parents are loaded. I would tread carefully if I were you, I wonder how my letter would read. Dear Mrs Turner, your shrimp dick husband likes to bang…”
“Rory, mind yourself.”
“Sorry, Mumma B.” Rory hangs his head, shuffling back a few steps.
Mr Turner snaps. “Since you all insist on sticking together, you can take the rest of the day to re-evaluate your positions in the school. I will see you all tomorrow.”
“Before you go anywhere, I would like to know why my son’s medical needs were not attended to seriously? I'm supposed to be notified.” Maximus' mum juts her chin out, ready to go to battle.
“You're here, are you not?” he states bluntly.
“I was called here on the assumption my son was in trouble. I only learned of my son’s need when Levi called me. Now if the teacher that was on duty had given the children space rather than close in on them while they were attending to Maximus' needs, half of this situation could have been avoided.” Baldy speaks up. He has been extremely quiet.
“I was trying to remove JD from the situation; she was wrapped around the boy and refusing to leave.”
“You're telling me she was comforting my child and you were so concerned about removing her that you didn't consider just waiting, taking her name and following up with her at a later time? And you thought putting your hands on a student was the best idea?”
Levi’s aunt steps forward. “As an officer of the law, I would like to remind you that the students have rights. Putting your hands on a child could land you in some serious trouble.”
Once Levi’s aunt finishes talking, we’re all able to leave. Rory’s mum managed to call in and he was allowed to leave. I apologised to Beth for having her drive all the way here, but she insisted it was fine.
“It’s important to stand up for family and what’s right, but maybe next time use words rather than force.” She gives me a stern look before smiling and patting my hand. “Don’t forget you have an appointment with your therapist today.”
“I won’t. I might just hang with the guys until then, if that’s okay?”
She nods, climbing into the car. “That’s fine.”
“So, rebel. What do you want to do for the rest of the day?” Mercer asks, throwing his arm over my shoulder, pulling me tight into his side.
“Can we just hang out somewhere?” All the guys nod.
We decide on Mumma B’s seeing as I have an appointment later and I catch a ride with Mercer.
“I'm going to sign up for a fight night soon, would you want to come watch?” He keeps his focus on the road.
“That would be amazing.”
I think I ask him a million questions about the fights and what to expect. Apparently, it’s very laid back; everyone just gets together and shows off what they can do. It still surprises me he fights. He doesn’t come across as violent.
Beth isn’t shocked when we arrive not long after her. In fact, I’m pretty sure she expected it. Rory orders us pizza. The guys go about rearranging my room, setting up blankets and pillows on the floor after they decided we are having an Adam Sandler movie marathon. They pull out a stack of DVDs:
Billy Maddison
Happy Gilmore
Bulletproof
The Wedding Singer
The Waterboy
Big Daddy
They tell me this is the start to the pile and we will now be watching these until we have watched every last one. If we don’t get through them today, we will pick up next time.
Rocky takes Billy Maddison from the pile and gets it started. I take a spot between Maximus and Mercer.
“Why do they get to sit next to you?” Rocky whines, taking a seat beside Mercer.
“Because.” I shrug. “We can rotate after each movie if it makes you happy.”
He thinks about it for a second. “Good plan, but be warned, I like to be little spoon.” He makes me laugh.
“If you’re the little spoon, how will I see over you to watch the movie?” Again he has to think about it, before he just shrugs. I like how our relationship has moved on to spooning and it doesn’t seem weird.
“I get first dibs,” Mercer announces, pulling me to his body; at least he’s happy being the big spoon. I lay my head on his arm, finding a comfy spot. He grabs my hip and stills me.
“Are you smelling me?” I ask him.
“Yes, you smell like sugar.” I tried a new perfume today. It’s one of the ones Carson gave me.
“Let me smell,” Rocky says, leaning over Mercer. “You do; you smell like fresh fairy floss.”
Levi leans over Maximus and Rory gets up. “What is this, sniff JD day?” They all laugh. “You can smell me too if you want, Maximus.” He moves in closer and smells my neck. When he pulls back, there’s a flush to his cheeks.
A knock at the door and Beth yelling out that pizza is here has all the guys on their feet. It feels like one of those jokes; how many teenage boys does it take to pay for pizza? I pause the movie, even though so far no one has even started watching it.
Amidst the chaos, my phone rings, startling me. No one besides the guys have contacted me on it before. The name ‘Lissa” pops up on the screen.
“Hello?”
“Hi, JD, It’s Lissa, just calling to see if you have remembered anything? I was going to ask at the school but so much was going on.”
“Nothing yet,” It’s not a complete lie. I can never actually remember my nightmares, just the feeling of anxiety and nausea afterwards. The few flashes don’t tell me a lot and would be useless to them at the moment.
The truth is, I don’t want to be found, and the longer I can put them off the better. But I know it’s only a matter of time before someone recognises me, and I can’t help hoping no one ever will. I mean, surely if someone cared, they’d have contacted the police by now, right?
“That’s okay, we’ve been taking this slow but we will need to do more. I will call Beth and get her to bring you down to the station, believe it or not finding out who you are is a good thing.”
“If you say so.” I didn’t mean to say that out loud.
“What do you mean?” she asks.
“Well, the doctor said I’m basically blocking out my whole life, so that pretty much means I had a shitty life, right? Why would I want to remember that when I have so much now?”
“We’re here to help you now, JD. I can’t tell you what to do but there are options if things are bad when you remember.”
“Thanks, Lissa.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll see you when Beth brings you in. Tell my nephew it’s his turn to organise dinner.”
The guys walk back in carrying pizzas. “What’s wrong?” Levi asks.
“Your aunt called.” The mood in the room drops as they all crowd around me.
“Do they know who you are?” Rory asks quietly. I shake my head no.
“I have to go back to the station to talk more. I think they want to do a press release. I don’t know if I’m ready for that.” I pause, my fingers tangling through my hair. “She did say I could have other options if things get bad.” Levi sits up straighter.
“You do. Basically you are supposed to live at home until you’re eighteen, but the police won’t force you to return home if you have somewhere safe and can financially support yourself.”
“How do I get a job when I have no ID?”
“We find someone willing to hire you for when you know who you are, then it shows you have a way to support yourself.” Levi has really thought this through, it warms my heart knowing the guy who was skeptical of me has tried to find a way to keep me around.
“Who would hire me?” It’s easy to say, find a job and ask if they can keep you on standby.
“My dad,” Mercer says matter of factly.
“Looks like you have all put some thought into this.”
“We like to know all our options. It’s who we are. You know we come from shitty backgrounds, having control helps us cope,” Rocky adds. Maximus hands me a book.
“What’s this?”
“It’s our JD book,” Rory says, ducking his head. “It’s stupid really.”
I open the book. On the first page is a hand drawn picture of me curled up on the beach, the sky is dark, one of the shadows is sitting and the other four standing, this must be a recreation of the night they found me.
There are pages with info about my personality, straightforward being at the top of the list, small things they notice, my hair and nails before I removed them being an indication I may have been from a wealthy family. There is a page dedicated to each guy. I flick back to the first guy and go to read it.
The book is snatched from me.
“That’s enough of that,” Rocky says. Some of that stuff is very personal, I get why he doesn’t want me to see, but I wonder what each guy has written about me.
“So the book’s purpose is what?” I ask.
“It’s just things we notice about you. Kind of like a record, of sorts. We each have our own pages to add to. It probably seems weird, but it’s our way of coping with it all.”
“Okay,” I say, opening a box of pizza. “I’m starved.”
“Just okay?” Mercer asks, looking at me strangely.
“Yeah, just okay, I trust you.”
“It’s things like that we put in the book. Every time we ask that you trust us, you’re so easy, you don’t argue. It’s like you know how to read us.” Mercer seems slightly uncomfortable talking about this.
“Because I can, believe it or not, you’re not that hard to read.”
“Believe me, we really are. Take today for instance, Maximus has never ever let anyone other than Levi touch him when he has a moment. We know you know that, yet you were perfect,” Levi adds before grabbing a slice of pizza.
“I can’t explain it, but since we met I’ve been watching how he reacts to me. I let him dictate how or if we touch. Today I just winged it. Honestly, what was the worst that could happen?”
“He could have flipped out and you could have been hurt,” Rocky says, giving me his serious face.
“It was a risk I was willing to take. I would have backed off if I saw a change in his body language. It’s weird, I feel like I’ve known you all forever.”
“Back at ya, now can we eat this food and watch the movies? I really want to be the little spoon.”
“You can’t make her spoon you, Rocky, there is no way she will be able to see the movie.”
“How about you just hush, Levi, we can spoon however we want and you can’t stop us.” Levi throws his pizza crust at Rocky.
We start the movie again while we eat. The guys know most of it word by word. It’s funny listening to them as they recite certain lines. We watch as Billy goes from grade to grade and has fancy parties each time he graduates.
When we switch the movie to Happy Gilmore, Rocky jumps up and squeezes in between Maximus and I, calling dibs on little spoon. He isn’t dropping it. I end up with the side of my face pressed against the side of his, my arm tucked under his armpit, and my leg hitched up on his hip, we must look ridiculous.
Beth walks in, standing in front of the TV.
“What are you making her do, Rocky?” she asks, shaking her head and trying not to laugh.
“I’m little spoon, it isn’t my fault she’s short.” Beth just shakes her head at him again.
“Sorry to interrupt but JD has an appointment. We will be back in about an hour and a half if you all want to wait.
“I have to run an errand,” Rory states, jumping up. “I’ll be back by the time you get back.”
“Okay, see you soon.” He smiles at me, but he seems a little off.
I unwrap myself from Rocky who complains and declares he didn’t get me for long enough. I promise we can resume spoon position when I get back.
The drive to the therapist isn’t too far. Once Beth parks the car, she walks me in and informs the receptionist we have arrived. As soon as they call my name, I go straight in and take a seat on the couch.
“How was your first day at school?”
I laugh, which judging by her expression, isn’t the response she was looking for.
“I was suspended for half a day.” Her eyes widen, and she lowers her notebook to her lap. “Don’t freak out, I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Isn’t that something most kids would say after they’ve been suspended?”
I shrug. “Probably. But I really didn’t do anything wrong. I was protecting Maximus, that’s all.” I lean back in the chair. “I may have pushed someone.”
“Given the circumstances, I think most friends would have reacted the same way.”
“That’s what I thought, but apparently it’s frowned upon. Of course, Maximus grabbing the teacher’s arm might have had something to do with it.” She raises a brow, so I quickly explain. “Mr Doyle went to pull me away and the guys didn’t like it.” I wave my hand in an arc. “Whatever, I got pizza, watched a movie and was made to be big spoon, so it’s fine.”
“Made to be big spoon? Are you comfortable with that?” She knows how being touched sometimes makes me feel uncomfortable.
“I have never had an issue with any of them touching me; we’re all friends, they respect my boundaries.” I chew my lip. “Hormones sometimes become an issue, but we are all dealing with it.” She shifts in her seat at the mention of hormones. “You don’t need to worry; I don’t need a sex talk.”
She gives a nervous giggle. “Good, I’m not here to give you one. I just think you might want to consider the ramifications if you were to be intimate with one of the boys.”
“I already have; what if more than one of them likes me? What if it causes issues between them if I choose one? And then if we broke up, the other guys would pick him and not me. Then there’s the whole “who am I” thing. What if my past catches up with me and I have to move away?”
“You really have thought about it. Is there perhaps one you like more than a friend?”
I consider her question. “No, I like them all the same. I’m not blind, they’re good looking, but I care about them all.”
“We can always talk about it down the track if anything changes. How have the nightmares been since last week?”
My stomach churns just thinking about them. I have started getting little flashes and as I wake up it makes me puke.
“They have changed,” I say slowly. “It’s like they trigger some memory I can’t quite remember but my body does. The fear, the anger, this smell I can’t get out of my nose, and the pain in my head. I can’t explain it. I get this feeling that someone is coming for me and not in a good way.” I don’t mention the flashes just yet. If I do it will all become too real.
“Have you told anyone? The police? These small things could eventually add up to something.” She scrawls notes as she speaks.
“Not yet, even thinking about it makes me sick. I’m not ready to tell anyone yet, but I will if I actually remember anything.” Total lie, I was kinda hoping I wouldn’t have any more, or if my entire memory came back maybe then I would say something.
“It could benefit you to start a journal.” She gives me a look because we have talked about this before but I don’t want to write down my feelings. “Maybe all the bits will start fitting together.” I have told her so many times I have no interest in remembering my past, so why she thinks I would want to piece it together seems stupid. “I know you don’t want to remember but it may be the only way to get rid of the nightmares; deal with the trauma head on.”
“And it might also get me killed this time,” I snap.