Stage Two

by Ariel Tachna

  “He shouldn’t have been allowed to hurt you at all.”

  “Can we go home now?” Kit asked. “I really want to change my shirt. I can’t go back to class like this.”

  “Yes, we’ll go home,” Thane said. “Who do I need to talk to?”

  “I think the nurse can sign me out,” Kit said. “She went to the restroom. She’ll be right back.”

  She’d left Kit alone after he’d been assaulted. Thane wasn’t happy about that either. He’d definitely be taking this up with the principal after he got Kit and Phillip home safely. His anger must have shown in his pacing or his expression, because Kit tugged on his arm.

  “Uncle Thane, Mason is with Mr. B., and the other bullies didn’t back him up this time. I’m safe now. He promised.”

  Blake had promised once before too, but Thane didn’t say that to Kit. He’d had a hard enough day as it was. Thane didn’t want to make it worse. He’d have words with Blake later, though. This situation had to be resolved. What if Phillip and Zach hadn’t been there? What if the other boy had had a knife, or worse, a gun?

  “Mr. Dalton?” Thane looked up at the woman who walked into the office.

  “Yes, that’s me.”

  “I’m sure you’ve talked to Kit, but just to update you officially, he had a bloody nose, but I don’t see any indication that it’s broken. He’ll have a bruise around his eye for a week or two. We applied ice to reduce the swelling on both his nose and eye, but it will just take time to heal. If you’ve brought him a clean shirt, he’s clear to go back to class.”

  “He’s not going anywhere except to the doctor and then home with me,” Thane growled.

  “I assure you, we’ve done everything that should be done.”

  “That may be, but I’m still taking him home. Can you sign him out, or do I need to speak with someone else?”

  “I can sign him out. Let me just check with Mr. Barnes to make sure he doesn’t need Kit for anything else today, and then I’ll fill out the excuse slip.”

  Thane saw red. “I don’t think I made myself clear. Kit and I are leaving now. I don’t care if the President himself wants to see him. It can wait until tomorrow. And while you’re at it, sign Phillip out too.”

  “I can’t do that. He has no medical reason to leave,” the nurse said.

  “Fuck this. Kit, you get in the car. I’m going to find your brother. We’ll be out in a few minutes.”

  “Mr. Dalton, please. This is not how we do things here.”

  “You know what, lady? I don’t give a shit how you do things. I’m going to Mr. Barnes’s office so he can sign Phillip and Kit out for the day. I suggest you stay out of my way.”

  She blanched and stepped aside. Thane tossed the keys to Kit and stalked toward Blake’s office. He didn’t really want to see Blake. He was in a foul mood and that would only make it worse, but he didn’t know who else to talk to.

  He made it as far as Blake’s secretary. “Mr. Dalton, Mr. Barnes said you might be in. He’s in a meeting with the parents of the student involved with your nephews, but is there anything I can help you with?”

  Thane took a deep breath and reminded himself she was trying to help him. “I’m taking Kit and Phillip home. I need whatever paper or slip or whatever that makes it official.”

  “Of course. Give me one minute to find out whose class Phillip is in now and to have him report here. Is Kit still in the nurse’s office?”

  “No, he’s waiting in my truck. I just need the paper for him.”

  He waited mostly patiently while she looked up Phillip’s schedule and called for him to come to the office. While they were waiting, she filled out two excuse slips and handed them to him. “These excuse them from class for the rest of the day. They’ll need to bring them back in with them tomorrow to show their afternoon teachers.”

  “Thank you,” Thane said. “You’re the only reasonable person I’ve talked to today.”

  She smiled. “I’m sorry that’s the case, but I’m glad I could help you.”

  Phillip came in while Thane was trying to think of what to say next. He gave Phillip a critical once-over, but he didn’t seem to be hurt.

  “I’m sorry, Uncle Thane. He got a punch past me before Zach and I could stop him.”

  Thane hugged Phillip tightly. “Thanks to you and Zach, it was just one punch. Kit’s already in the car. Let’s go home.”

  THANE pushed off the hood of his truck when he saw Blake come trudging out of school, an hour after stage crew normally ended. He was still in his school clothes—not the suit he’d worn on their dates, thank God—so whatever had kept him there that late, it hadn’t been theater related. “You told me they’d be safe,” he growled when Blake drew close to where he stood.

  Blake looked up in surprise, then relief. He stepped into Thane’s space and leaned against him. “I’m sorry. I thought it was over.”

  Thane glared down at the top of Blake’s head.

  “Kit has a black eye, and you’re sorry?”

  That got Blake’s attention. He took a step back and glared up at Thane. “I have spent the past eight hours filling out the paperwork to get the other boy sent to the alternative school. He won’t be able to participate in graduation, and he won’t be playing baseball for the rest of the season, which means he’ll almost certainly lose the scholarship he was hoping to get for the fall. I have been yelled at and threatened by irate parents, and I will probably have to spend the next week or more in disciplinary hearings as those same parents try to fight my decision. I know you’re upset, but don’t think for a minute that you’re the only one.”

  “Can they win their appeal?” Thane asked.

  “Can they? I suppose it’s possible,” Blake said, “but it’s a pretty cut-and-dried case. I have records of the confrontations, I witnessed one, and Kit’s black eye when the other kid didn’t have a mark on him is proof that he didn’t fight back. They’ll try to use the fact that Kit is one of my theater kids to say I’m biased, but Hune messed up this time and went at Kit in view of the security cameras. There’s no audio to hear what he’s shouting, but I have witnesses to corroborate his account, and the video makes it clear that he threw the punch and Kit didn’t retaliate. It will be a bureaucratic nightmare, but I don’t see them winning.”

  “Kit and Phillip aren’t coming here if he’s allowed back in,” Thane declared. “I don’t care what I have to do to make that legal. I won’t have them at risk.”

  “It won’t come to that,” Blake said. “I won’t let it.”

  “You said it wouldn’t come to a fight either,” Thane replied. “You need to stop making promises you can’t keep.”

  “Please, Thane, we’re both tired and upset. I don’t want to fight with you. Just go home and call me when you aren’t angry anymore.”

  Thane turned on his heel and stalked back to his truck. Blake was right. Fighting among themselves didn’t solve anything, but he couldn’t let it go. Kit had gotten hurt, and that wasn’t something he could forget—or forgive—easily.

  THANE still hadn’t calmed down two days later when Kit came home from stage crew and sat down next to him on the couch. “I have to talk to the principal tomorrow about everything that happened with Mason. Mr. Barnes said he’d be there the whole time, but would you come too? I’d feel better if you were there.”

  “Of course I’ll be there,” Thane said. He didn’t want to see Blake. He hadn’t gone back to stage crew the past two days on purpose. He wasn’t ready to deal with that yet. He had to focus on Kit and Phillip, especially on Kit. If helping Kit meant coming face-to-face with Blake, though, he’d do it. Whatever Kit needed.

  “Thank you, Uncle Thane. I love you.”

  “I love you too, Kit.” He hugged Kit tightly, not letting go until Kit pulled away. When he’d wandered into the kitchen, Thane pulled out his cell phone and texted Blake. We need to talk.

  Driving. Call when home.

  He took the phone and went into his bedroom. He
didn’t want Kit and Phillip to overhear the conversation, whatever turn it took. It buzzed at him fifteen minutes later.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Thane. You said we needed to talk.”

  “Kit says he has to talk to the principal tomorrow,” Thane said.

  “He’s not in trouble,” Blake said quickly. “I made sure Mr. Williams understood that none of this is Kit’s fault. It’s just procedure.”

  “Will the bully be there?”

  “I don’t know. Usually no, but his parents are putting a lot of pressure on. They’re saying I’m playing favorites because Kit is on the stage crew. That’s why Mr. Williams wants to talk to Kit directly. If I’m not filtering his words, I can’t be accused of favoritism.”

  “Kit wants me to come with him,” Thane said.

  “You’re his guardian. That’s a perfectly reasonable request. Just try to remember that you’re there to support him, not to get into an argument with the other parents, if they’re there.”

  “I won’t start anything,” Thane said. “You can’t ask me not to defend Kit if they start it.”

  “You’ll only make it worse. Don’t dignify their comments with a response. You have an example to set for Kit, if nothing else.”

  “What example?” Thane asked bitterly.

  “That sometimes you have to take the high road, no matter how much it costs you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  PROMPTLY at ten o’clock the next day, Thane and Kit were escorted into the principal’s office. Thane had hoped to see Blake before the meeting started to get an idea of what to expect, but Blake wasn’t waiting for them outside. He nodded politely to Mr. Williams and squeezed Kit’s shoulder. They’d get through this and everything would be fine.

  A few moments later, another set of parents came in, followed by a big kid with a cocky swagger. The exact kind of kid Thane would have taken down a notch or two when he was in high school. He took a deep breath and reminded himself of Blake’s advice. He wasn’t a high school punk anymore. He could take the high road.

  “Thank you all for coming,” Mr. Williams said. “I hope we can clear everything up today.”

  “Where’s Mr. Barnes?” Kit asked.

  “He won’t be joining us today,” Williams said. Thane waited for an explanation, an excuse, anything, but Williams went right on, oblivious to the way Kit shrank in on himself.

  “Tell us what happened on Monday,” Williams asked Kit.

  “It didn’t start on Monday,” Thane interrupted. “It’s been going on since January.”

  “I’m aware of the pattern of behavior, Mr. Dalton, but the previous incidents have been dealt with already. We’re here to discuss the fight on Monday.”

  “It wasn’t a fight,” Kit said. “I didn’t touch him. He punched me, and Zach and Phillip pulled him off me.”

  “You didn’t do anything to provoke him? Maybe you said something to him?” Williams asked.

  “No, I’ve never had anything to do with him,” Kit said. “He’s always been the one to come up to me, yelling, shoving me, making threats.”

  “What kind of threats?”

  Kit looked at Thane desperately. Where was Blake? He’d promised to help Kit through this. “It’s okay. I’m here,” Thane said softly.

  “He said… he said they’d teach me what happened to faggots at this school. And then this time he said he’d show me what it felt like to be fucked over the way I’d fucked him over. I didn’t do anything to him. I don’t understand why he hates me so much.”

  “Mr. Barnes said there was security camera footage from Monday,” Thane interjected. “That should prove Kit didn’t do anything to start the fight.”

  “His accusations caused our son to be unable to play baseball during the height of scouting season,” the other boy’s father said. “Because of that, he didn’t receive any of the scholarship offers he was promised. You can be sure that isn’t ‘nothing.’”

  “I saw that incident too, as did Mr. Barnes. Your son and his friends started that one too,” Thane said.

  “Of course you would say that. You’re his father.”

  “I wasn’t the only witness.” But Blake wasn’t here to back him up, and Kit had hunched in on himself. He hadn’t looked like that since the first time Thane had been called into Blake’s office.

  “Mason is a model student. He attends church on Sunday and goes to youth activities on Wednesdays. He’s never had any trouble at school before now,” Mason’s mother said. “Can you say the same?”

  “My religious beliefs and how I practice them are not at issue here,” Thane said, holding on to his temper by the skin of his teeth. “And not that it’s any of your business since your son attacked Kit, not the other way around, but Kit didn’t have any disciplinary problems at his previous schools either.”

  He turned to Williams. “Kit is not at fault here. And I resent you calling that into question.”

  “Something has to explain the change in Mason’s behavior,” the father protested. “He wouldn’t act this way without extreme provocation.” If Mason’s father wasn’t a lawyer, Thane would eat his hat.

  “And what provocation do you suppose a fifteen-year-old boy in a new school where he knows no one but his brother and is grieving because his mother just died offered your son?” Thane said, his voice low and harsh. He hoped they heard the threat in his words because he’d gladly put his fist through the bastard’s smarmy face.

  “Shouldn’t you be asking your son that question?”

  “No, I shouldn’t, because I know Kit didn’t do anything wrong,” Thane retorted. “Ask your son what caused him to act so out of character.”

  “He kept calling me a fag or other similar things,” Kit said. “Like that was an excuse or something.”

  Thane had known that, had even heard Kit say it earlier, but he’d reached the end of his patience. He rose and took Kit’s arm. “Kit has been through enough. If you have any other questions for him, you can ask him privately. I hope we can settle this at school, but if we can’t, my lawyer will be in touch with assault charges. I will not allow Kit to be bullied this way.”

  Mason’s parents sputtered protests, but Thane was done. He guided Kit out of the office and toward the front door.

  “I need to go back to class.”

  “Not until I know that rat bastard can’t hurt you. We’ll get your assignments so you can do them at home, but I won’t put you at risk.”

  Kit got a mulish look on his face, reminding Thane so much of Lily in that moment that it hurt to look at him. “I’m still going to stage crew, even if I have to walk there. Between Mr. Barnes and the other kids, I’ll be safe.”

  Thane bit back the demand to know where Blake had been on Monday when Mason first punched Kit or where he’d been today after he’d promised to be in the meeting to support them. As angry as he was at Blake, he didn’t want to hurt Kit worse by pointing out Blake’s failings. He’d just have to talk with Phillip and ask him to keep an extra close eye on Kit. Phillip wouldn’t let his brother down.

  THANE waited until Kit and Phillip got home from stage crew with the news that Blake hadn’t been there again today before he reached the end of his rope. He sent the boys to work on their homework, took his phone outside so they wouldn’t hear him shouting, and called Blake.

  The phone rang six times before it went to voice mail.

  “What the hell kind of game are you playing, Blake? You promised Kit you’d be at the meeting, and you weren’t there. You promised me he’d be safe, and he still ended up with a black eye. Hell, you promised the stage crew kids you’d work with them this spring, and you weren’t there today. You better have a damn good explanation, because if this is how you keep your promises, I’m not sure this is going to work between us.”

  He ended the call with a pang in his chest, but he ignored it. He had Kit and Phillip to think of now. If Blake couldn’t keep the simplest of promises, Thane couldn’t let Kit and Phillip
come to rely on him more than they already did. They’d had enough loss in their young lives. They didn’t need to get attached to someone who would let them down.

  Never mind that Thane had done exactly what he didn’t want them to do. He was an adult. He’d get over it.

  Thane’s phone rang a few minutes later, Blake’s name showing up on the screen. “You finally decided to talk to me?” he snapped.

  “You know what? Never mind,” Blake said across the line. “I was going to call and try to explain that I wasn’t at the meeting today because I wasn’t allowed to be there, not because I didn’t want to be there, but it’s not worth it. You’re so determined to think poorly of me when I’ve done everything I can—and more than I should have, in some cases—to show you I’m different. Take your temper and your bad attitude and shove it up your ass. I’m done.”

  “What do you mean ‘not allowed’?” Thane demanded.

  “I was told my involvement with you was a conflict of interest in the case, and that if I was lucky, it would just be the case and not my job that was in danger,” Blake said. “Think what you want about me, but I will always put my students first. Good-bye, Thane.”

  The line went dead before Thane could reply. He almost called back to demand more of an explanation, but Blake had been more than clear. He didn’t consider their relationship worth fighting for, and Thane had his pride. If Blake wouldn’t fight for them, Thane sure as hell wouldn’t waste any more time on it. He had far more important things to do with his time.

  Like figure out how to keep the fallout of this from hurting Kit and Phillip.

  Fuck it all to hell and back.

  He spun on his heel and slammed his fist into the door. He’d had one job after Lily died. One. And that was to give her boys some sense of safety and security. Instead he’d let himself get distracted by a pretty face and prettier ass, and where had that gotten him? Alone again, and with the burden of explaining to Kit and Phillip why Mr. Barnes wasn’t coming over anymore. At least they’d finished building the sets. He wouldn’t have to deal with their hurt looks because he wasn’t coming to stage crew to help. He didn’t know anything about lights or sound, and he’d just be in the way with props and moving sets. He could tell them honestly that he’d done all he could to help rather than admit he didn’t want to see Mr. Barnes anymore. He could tell them things had run their course.