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This story contains homoerotic subject matter and episodes of social aggression often called "bullying". The author does not endorse this kind of behavior. Victims of bullying can suffer from long-term emotional and behavioral problems. Bullying can cause loneliness, depression, and anxiety as a bullying victim begins to believe that something is wrong with them. Victims can also have a loss of confidence and be more prone to illness. The author certainly does not advocate that people should be hazed or ridiculed for being different (quite the opposite). While inspired by real world events, remember that this is a work of fiction, and the author insists that you do not attempt to re-reenact or recreate any event or activity described in the text of this or other chapters. The story has been written for entertainment purposes for adults only.
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Thanks to all who contacted me. I have heard from many of you so far. It is great to hear from you, and to hear your suggestions. Comments on the story are appreciated and may be addressed to the author at: dreamcat_dave@yahoo.com
CHAPTER 18: THE LONG WAY HOME
At the end of the school day Pee Wee performed a few stretching exercises and warm-ups before slipping on his old comfortable shorts and a black and gold sleeveless shirt with the Santa Rosa Warriors emblem emblazoned on the front. It was a warm spring afternoon, not particularly hot, but he had already worked up a sweat lifting weights in the gym. When he ran, which had not been recently, Pee Wee jogged around the track on campus, but today he planned to start the more demanding routine of jogging home from school.
It was all part of the plan. His younger brother was right, Pee Wee thought, if he wanted the boys to stop harassing him, he would have to make himself less of a target. Pee Wee slipped on his Reebok's headed out the door. There were a few team members still running laps around the gym as he left. No one bothered with him.
"Five miles is good," Pee Wee said to himself. "Take it slow. It'll be a nice easy routine for me."
He had run the distance between the school and his house before many times, though not recently. Much of his run would take him through the northwest section of Santa Rosa, but his family lived out in a development that was well outside of town. Between the city limits and his house was a lot of open land that was still dedicated farmland, and a few undeveloped acres occupied only by brush, trees, and tall grass. There were also a few small strip malls that had been added recently as the city limits crept westward.
As Pee Wee walked out of the gym and turned the outer corner of the gymnasium towards the school grounds, he was not surprised to see that the high school campus was empty of students. The last run of busses had already departed from the bus stop. As he proceeded to start his run he saw that there were a few cars in the parking lot closest to the gym, but no one else in sight. Pee Wee built up to a light jog as he crossed campus on that warm spring afternoon. He worked to establish a rhythm, and in a few minutes he could feel drops of perspiration run down his chest and between his shoulder blades.
He jogged down the street passing the Junior High Fitness Center that, like the high school campus, looked deserted except for a group of athletes still training on the practice field. He began his run around the building and passed the school's track where several younger boys were also jogging, and just as he was about to corner the building he heard his name being called out.
Several of the boys had split away from the other runners and had proceeded to climb over the fence. Pee Wee knew the gate was on the other side, but he remembered from his own time in Junior High that most kids just climbed over wherever they wanted. He didn't pay much attention to them. He should have.
As Pee Wee passed behind the bleachers and turned the corner near the trees he ran into Jason, the boy he had seen in the boy's room a few days before, the one he rejected, the one who called him a "cocksucker!" He wasn't alone. At least three other boys were with him.
"Surprise!" shouted the boy in a sarcastic voice. "Remember me, cocksucker?"
Pee Wee most certainly did remember him. Jason had walked in on him while he had been sucking Victor's dick at the glory hole in the boy's restroom.
Pee Wee recognized the situation for what it was and spun on his heels, trying to put as much distance between him and the boys as fast as he could. He started back toward the high school, but one of the taller boys tackled him from behind, and they both fell into the patchy Bermuda grass next to the sidewalk. Pee Wee wrestled free, but one of them got him in a headlock and pulled him back against him.
Jason suddenly lunged at Pee Wee, dodging his clumsy blow and gave the Pee Wee a solid punch to his mouth. Pee Wee grunted in pain, grabbing his jaw and falling back against the guy who was holding him, as Jason slammed his knee sharply up into Pee Wee's groin. Pee Wee whimpered and slumped forward. His hands clamped down on his balls protectively as he sank to his knees. Pee Wee just moaned, coughing and gasping as the waves of pain swept up from his balls into his guts. The boy let go of him as he retched and curled up in a ball on the grass.
They all made a grab for Pee Wee, and dragged him near the old red brick fence under the trees where no one else could see them from the road. Pee Wee struggled, and managed to wrench one of his arms free, flailing at the boy to his left, but he couldn't land a good punch before the boy recaptured his arm, restraining him. He struggled to break free, successfully grabbing a handful of shirt, ripping it off one of his attackers before he lost his grip.
Pee Wee tried again to break free but was forced to twist sideways as Jason tried to punch him again in the face. Jason missed, but struck one of the other boys who lost his hold and Pee Wee broke free and regained his feet remarkably quickly. He backed away from Jason, who pushed him back towards the wall. One of the smaller boys drove in on Pee Wee who met the onrushing boy with a punch in the stomach. A second boy tackled him from the side and they grappled with each other against the wall. Pee Wee could feel the bricks digging into his side and back.
Then one of the taller boys got Pee Wee in a real hold around his neck and managed to pin his arm behind his back. Pee Wee screamed. His arm felt like it was being dislocated as the boy jacked it up behind him. Then Jason slammed his fist into Pee Wee's gut again, knocking the wind out of him. Pee Wee leaned back against the wall, out of breath and holding his stomach as a wave of nausea hit him, but he refused to drop to the ground. Jason followed up with a kick and connected with Pee Wee's sack. Pee Wee yelled out as his testicles were smashed for the second time. This time he dropped to his knees and clutched his balls, hardly able to breathe.
"Take his pants off," said Jason, breathing hard. The boys maneuvered Pee Wee to the ground, where he now laid spread eagled in the grass, with two boys holding his arms and one pinning his legs to the ground. Pee Wee recognized one of them as a kid he had seen with Mark, his younger brother. This tall black haired boy had been over to their house only a few months ago.
Pee Wee screamed louder as they unfastened the button to his comfortable gray shorts and began to unzip them. His shorts pulled off easily and suddenly he was left wearing only the sleeveless shirt with the school mascot emblazoned on the front and his boxer briefs.
Near to tears and fearful of this, his eternal nightmare, of having his small penis exposed, especially to this group of younger boys. He blushed and tears welled in his eyes. His heart was pounding.
Pee Wee also remembered something his brother had said to him just the day before, "If these guys fuck with you again you better do something to stand up for yourself. I mean it!" Of course his brother referred to Randy and his friends, high school kids that had been making his life hell recently. They had not anticipated Pee Wee might get targeted by a group of junior high kids.
While the boy Pee Wee had recognized shifted his weight off Pee Wee's arms, trying to pull his shirt up over his head, Pee Wee saw an opportunity to maneuver free of them, and punted his heels at another boy who was pulling his socks off. He gave the boy a sharp kick that sent him backward, and a second that caught the boy in the jaw, but another boy fell across Pee Wee's thighs pinning him down.
By this time they had pulled Pee Wee's shirt up exposing his chest. Another boy began tickling Pee Wee's armpits, which caused him to jerk uncontrollably. Pee Wee felt his shirt rip as they pulled it free. One of them slammed a punch home to Pee Wee's gut and the he grunted and fell back, still trying to fight but without much success. Pee Wee might have some skills as a swimmer, but he was no fighter. The boy Pee Wee had kicked was cursing, and Pee Wee felt his socks pull free. The kid decided to punch Pee Wee in the stomach again and connected once more. His breath whooshed out of him and he tried to suck in more air to replace it. One of the guys yelled "Oh! That's gotta hurt!" Pee Wee sighed in resignation and relaxed a little, surrendering, at least for the moment. Jason decided they had won the fight and they left Pee Wee to recover for a few minutes.
And then came the moment of truth, when he was down to his sweaty gray boxer-briefs. There was a pause in the action as they all caught their breath. Then Pee Wee struggled again with renewed energy prompted by Mark's warning: "If I hear that you got stripped on the bus, or anything else, there'll be hell to pay." His face burned with humiliation at the memory of his younger brother spanking him as his friends looked on.
Then several hands reached out to the waistband of Pee Wee's underwear, and they were not so much pulled down as torn away. The moment Pee Wee's crotch was revealed the boys crowded around him went wild. Hollering and shouting the boys slapped each other on the back and pointed at Pee Wee's pee-pee that had retracted back inside him during the fight. His underwear lay in shreds on the grass next to him.
"Wow, look at that!" said one of them. And indeed they did seem to gaze in awe at the sight. Several of them were nearly doubled over with laughter. "Where's his pecker?" One of the kids grabbed a feather off the grass and reached over to try to tickle the tip of Pee Wee's absent penis.
Pee Wee had taken kidding for years about his small penis, which even when erect barely measured three inches, and when limp, which was until recently the only way his friends and teammates had seen it. It barely peeked out of the folds of his foreskin to make any appearance at all. But the feather was doing it work. Pee Wee could feel his small spike of a shaft emerging, pushing out through his stubbly pubes as it hardened, until the tip of his tiny penis pointed up toward his navel. The boys surrounding him snickered.
It was broad daylight, and two of the boys had managed to throw Pee Wee's shirt and pants up in a tree, way out on some skinny branches where Pee Wee knew he would never be able to reach them. What could be worse than this moment? Humiliated at the hands of younger boys!
His face must have been beet red and he could feel the hot blush moving down his body. Somewhere in his mind was the thought that he wanted to retain some sense of dignity. Pee Wee could rant and rave at them, or he could simply pretend that he was not embarrassed and walk away as if he didn't care about what had happened. But there was no dignity to be found in that moment.
"Dude you must have the smallest dick in Texas!" One of the boys standing in the circle around him said. Pee Wee was painfully aware that he was blushing, and was tempted to put his hands over his crotch, but saw instinctively that would be an admission that they had gotten to him.
He was hearing them all again, all the words other boys had used to put him in his place at the bottom of the pecking order: "pee-pee", "dickless", "pencil dick", "needle dick", "mosquito dick", "baby dick", "pin prick." In recent weeks his small penis had resulted in a new nickname for him. He had stopped being "Peter" and become "Pee Wee". Even his little brother called him "Pee Wee" now! Perhaps of all of the needling he had taken, that nickname was the worst. Now every time he heard it, he was immediately reminded of the shame he felt for having such a small penis.
Then several boys landed on top of him, and rolled him onto his stomach. One of them pulled a strap off his backpack and used it like a belt to tie both of Pee Wee's wrists behind his back. Two of them grabbed his arms and jerked him up. They got around him and one of them said, "You better walk quietly with us towards the bushes over there"
The tall boy with black hair, the one he recognized earlier, replaced another kid who had Pee Wee's arm and they started running him forward. Pee Wee stumbled. He just barely got his balance as they pulled him up again and ran him back toward the practice field. Pee Wee lurched forward as he pulled. His small penis was bobbing up and down like a miniature fishing pole as he ran, and the boys on either side of him doubled over with laughter. Suddenly another boy slapped Pee Wee's penis down hard, causing it to waggle up and down like some bobble head doll.
The boys walked him over to the old red brick fence under the trees that separated the practice field from the street, where a group of bushes might hide their activities from anyone driving by.
"You ready to suck my dick now like you did Victor's?" Jason asked.
Pee Wee shook his head.
"I thought you said this cocksucker would suck our dicks, Jason!" one of the boys said. "You said he was sucking off guys in high school!"
"Come on" another boy complained, "We don't have all day!"
Jason look frustrated. He looked back over at the practice field as if he were trying to come up with an idea. "Climb over," Jason tried to order Pee Wee over the fence.
But Pee Wee hesitated. "Let me go!" he said to them in the most forceful voice he could muster. Somewhere his fractured self-esteem cracked as he spoke. Junior high kids shouldn't be doing this to boy in high school.
"Fine, we'll do this the hard way," Jason said, "hard for you anyway." And they pulled him out from behind the bushes to walk him along the outside of the wall down the street toward the gate to the practice field. Pee Wee was exposed to anyone who might drive by.
The two boys escorting him were shirtless, their t-shirts tucked haphazardly into their pants. Pee Wee could feel their arms and shoulders rub against him as he was force-walked between them up the street. His little boner was bouncing up and down with every step. He thought about yelling, but knew that he would never be able to explain how he got to be naked outside in the middle of the night. The fact that he had been subdued by a group of junior high kids made his situation even more embarrassing.
One of the boys holding his arms behind his back said, "Hold him good, Robert!"
"Why, you 'fraid he's gonna run away?" Robert, the tall boy with the black hair, grabbed the little flap of skin under Pee Wee's small dick head, and gave a brief, downward pull. His dick bobbed up and down again as the boys laughed.
They continue to force him down the sidewalk toward the entrance to the practice field. Pee Wee's eyes were blurred from welling tears he was trying hard to hold back. The street was not deserted, a few cars were parked along the curb, but there was no traffic. There were a couple of houses, and he wondered if anyone in them could see what was happening. Again he thought about shouting for help, but again decided against it. Part of Pee Wee even hoped some car might come along; then the two guys might let go and he could run for it. 'But run for where?' Pee Wee wondered, 'to the gym where several of Randy's friends were still on the court? Home is a good four miles away, pretty far when I'm buck ass naked!'
Just then a silver Honda Civic turned onto the street from the high school parking lot two blocks ahead of them and sped toward the walking bows. The car came rapidly down the street, and Pee Wee felt his tension rise. The two boys escorting him didn't let go as he had imagined, but rather pulled Pee Wee behind a parked car and let the Honda pass their place of concealment. Pee Wee watched through the windows of the parked car as it roared past them; saw that it was a carload of teenaged boys. He recognized them from the gym. The Honda turned onto Canal Street several blocks down.
They continued to force-walk him toward the gate, but before they got there, a dirty white van turned onto their street from the high school parking lot. Pee Wee tensed again, and this time as the van sped toward them, there was no car to hide behind.
"¡Maricón!" an Hispanic teenager pushed his head and shoulders out of a window and shouted as the van passed by. Pee Wee recognized him as one of Randy's friends, the boy that has confronted him in the locker bay and later kicked him in the balls. One of the junior high kids escorting him flipped the Hispanic teen off in response. When the van's tires screeched to a stop barely fifteen feet beyond them, the boys took off running with Pee Wee toward the parking lot. "¡Chupa mis cojones!" a voice shouted from a van as it honked several times and started forward again, putting some distance between them. Pee Wee heard Robert breath a sigh of relief.
The boys walked him to the junior high parking lot where they left him standing by a car. One of the boys came running back with a camera, and the two taller boys holding his arms stepped far enough away to stay out of the picture he took. Pee Wee realized that yet another picture was being taken of him, this time outside, naked, with a boner in the junior high gym parking lot in broad daylight.
"Let's run him," Jason shouted.
Then the two boys walked Pee Wee to the track and pushed him forward. He knew where they were going, and had been hoping that he would not have to run the track. He was already tired from fighting. Then one of the boys dropped his Reeboks on the track in front of his feet and unbound his arms. Some other boys from the practice field saw the action going on and came to see what was happening.
"Start running," Jason said, "Give me ten laps around this field, and in between laps do twenty push ups, forty squat thrusts, sixty windmills, eighty sit ups, and a hundred jumping jacks. When you're done with those come see me."
"Pretend it's just another day in athletics," Robert joked.
"Except for the whole being butt-naked thing," Jason added.
"What if he runs away?" a younger kid asked.
"Now that would be interesting!" Jason said and they all laughed. "You plannin' on jogging home naked Pee Wee?"
It was so embarrassing to jog naked around the practice field as the boys taunted him. As he ended his first lap Pee Wee heard some of the boys laughing as he approached. By that time he had lost his erection.
"Drop and give me twenty," one of the boys standing next to Jason shouted with a voice emulating a drill sergeant. Pee Wee hit the grass quickly and began doing push ups. The boys pointed at him, jeered, and made fun of his small dick.
As Pee Wee did his push ups, one of the younger boys asked, "I wonder if he sucks dick?"
There was more laughing, then Jason spoke up, "You should have seen him in the restroom!" Then Jason looked at Pee Wee as he ran by them. "I saw him suck off Victor Fuentes. I heard he sucked off a bunch of the other guys, too." The kid continued to gleefully stare at Pee Wee as he finished his pushups and started his second lap around the practice field.
Pee Wee didn't reply. He just kept running.
After another lap, as he began his forty squat thrusts, one boy slapped him on the ass several times as he returned to his starting position. "C'mon, dickless. Get the lead out," the boy said.
Jason pointed over to Pee Wee's flaccid acorn that seemed to be retracting even further inside him as he squatted, "Mark's dick must be at least twice as big as Pee Wee's, maybe more."
The boy standing next to him shook his head, "Can you imagine if your little brother had a bigger dick? I think you'd just have to go off and shoot yourself!"
"My little brother is eight," Jason said.
"That's what I mean," the boy winked at Jason and laughed, "Need a gun?"
Jason rolled his eyes and punched him, half seriously, half joking, and worked him into a loose headlock. The boy laughed nervously trying to get out of the headlock. "You're so funny," Jason laughed at his friend as his face turned red.
Pee Wee started another lap around the track again, after finishing the set of squat thrusts, and glanced at the boys watching him as he rounded the far end and disappeared behind the bleachers again. Pee Wee was sweating like crazy and breathing hard.
His penis retracted back inside him again as he ran, leaving only a gathering of foreskin as evidence that he had ever possessed a penis at all. Pee Wee was acutely aware that these younger boys had been staring at it. Among the attributes that determined where you stood in the pecking order of boys and men was size. In the minds of these younger boys, Pee Wee now fell far below them or this wouldn't be happening.
He did the jumping jacks as fast as he could manage, his heart pounding in his chest and the sweat pouring off of him, stinging his eyes. He noticed that the entire group of junior high boys who had been running at the track were watching the show. By the time he had finished that set of one-hundred jumping jacks, he though he must have heard every little dick joke those junior high kids had ever heard, and maybe a few new ones.
He continued to run, too embarrassed to keep track of time or distance, so Pee Wee had no idea of exactly how many laps he had run or how long he had been out there running and doing pushups, or squat thrusts, or jumping jacks. Running was nothing new to Pee Wee; he wasn't a jock by anyone standards, but he had run track and been a member of one swim team or another since pre-school. But running combined with the high repetition of other exercises at the same time were something he wasn't accustomed to. When he finished, Jason called him over to where most of the boys were gathered into a group.
"Ok, now that you're warmed up, you ready to suck us off?" Jason asked, "Or, you wanna run another ten laps, your choice!"
Pee Wee leaned forward, bent over at the waist, bracing his arms against his upper thighs, and sucking air into his lungs. He swayed slightly, still sweating from head to toe. He wasn't particularly self-conscious of being naked by that time. What he wanted now was badly needed oxygen.
He glanced around at their faces. He recognized some of these boys. He stood up straight and faced them all, turning slowly round as if to fix the memory of every face in the crowd of boys gathered there, there must have been about ten of them! Most of them were in his brother's class, which meant Mark was sure to hear about this, and that thought made him sick to his stomach. Pee Wee ran his hand over his sweaty face and through his sweat saturated hair, then slowly shook his head.
Mark and Scott had been right. The glory hole had been a real mistake. He realized that none of this would be happening now if he had only stood up to Randy at the very beginning. But the situation had escalated, and how he was too tired to fight off all these boys.
But he could try to keep whatever dignity he could salvage. And Pee Wee could see that refusing to suck off Jason had diminished the kid's status with his peers. The crowd parted to let his through as he walked defiantly away from them, back toward the track, head held high.
One of the boys there jogged off toward the main gate, when a car pulled up. Pee Wee looked at the boys ruefully, then turned and started to run another lap. He set off on his run at a brisk pace as Jason turned back to say something to one of his friends. Jason smiled contritely, as Robert laughed and punched him in the back saying, "Dude, I don't think he wants to suck your dick!"
Pee Wee was in good condition as a swimmer, but he was not used to sustained running combined with all the exercises he had done, especially just after finishing a workout. After another three laps he found himself getting winded. But he refused to stop. He glanced over at Jason, the boy who had caught him giving Victor a blowjob, and saw the boy watching him as he ran.
Pee Wee continued his naked run around to track to a place where the bleachers offered him a place of concealment as it had during all his previous thirteen laps. But this time he left the track as he passed behind the bleachers and with a burst of speed he jumped fence and started sprinting towards the woods. He turned to see if the boys had noticed, or if they were following him. They would figure it out soon enough when he didn't reappear out from behind the far side of the bleachers. He renewed his dash towards the trees again. He ran top speed again until they finally made it to a place of concealment. It was only a fifty-yard run. But he was already close to exhaustion.
He looked behind him to see that the other boys were headed his way on the track, then picked up the pace, forcing himself to run faster as he streaked across a highway. They wouldn't expect him to run that way, he thought. As his running shoes carried him across the asphalt a passing car crested the overpass. Pee Wee jumped the ditch and was in the tall grass before the car came even with his position. He was pretty sure he had been too far away for anyone to identify who he was at least. He ran through a field of young Milo beyond the access road. It stood only about waist high to him, and he could feel the sharp leaves slapping against his legs as he ran. A few minutes passed, and finally, he arrived at a canal bank, one of many that carried irrigation water to the many fields and pastures in south Texas. He collapsed on the grass panting heavily. He rested for a few minutes and could feel his heartbeat slowing.
As he sat there cooling down in the tall grass next to the canal bank, he considered the situation. He was naked, about three miles away from home, and what was worse was the fact that there were still a couple of hours of daylight left, at least.
He thought about his situation. There were fewer cars, but a lot more homes if he traveled west down San Benito Avenue, but a lot more cars though a lot of fields and wooded areas with fewer homes if he ran west down Highway 107 toward West Cantu Road. He thought it would be smarter to try to stick to fields and back roads. But what he was going to do when he had to cross the highway, or sneak through a neighbor's yard, and how me might manage to get to some clothes in his room when he finally got home, he had no idea.
Then totally naked, except for his running shoes, he started walking toward his home. He thought about turning around and going back to the school, maybe searching inside the gym, hoping he might find some clothes there. Pee Wee then pretended that he didn't care about his clothes. When that failed, he told himself that he might find something to cover himself with on the way home.
He walked in the direction of one of the country roads that led westward out through town from the field next to the canal. For a while Pee Wee ran along the road next to a canal. He had to wait a while until a few straggling workers moved their equipment out in the field, and then was able to pick up the pace a bit. His adrenaline was pumping and that gave him extra energy in the face of everything he had already been through.
And so, he spent the next two hours running down alleys, across fields, back lots, and through trees, but spent most of his time creeping through suburban neighborhoods he could not avoid. And hiding. He spent far more time hiding than running, or dodging behind buildings and parked cars, or climbing fences. He imagined it was like being a soldier trapped behind enemy lines. Rivulets of sweat poured down his chest and back.
As the afternoon progressed toward evening the air cooled, but the sun warmed him as he made his way through the clearings in the trees, or ran through fields. His progress was slow, fraught with many false starts and near misses, especially making his way through neighborhoods where he found himself endlessly ducking between hedges, crawling under bushes, or hiding behind garages.
One while pressed back behind some trees against a hurricane fence he was jump-started when he felt the cold nose of a dog touch his balls which he had pressed too close against the wire. He hooted and jumped and the dog barked as he ran down the alley. At that point he wasn't even thinking about the guy he had been hiding from.
He found himself trapped trying to make his way down one street. The houses there formed a gauntlet, overcrowded with windows that seemed to scrutinize him from both sides of the street. The well-manicured lawns offered him no place to hide as he sprinted passed them, relying on speed since stealth was not an option. He knew that several of the more well-off kids from school lived in some of these houses, and Pee Wee couldn't help but feel that they were looking out from the shadows of those dark windows, recognizing him, and laughing at him. And every car that turned onto the street forced him to change directions, backtrack, or head down another street, sometimes in a direction opposite the one he wanted to go. Nervous sweat was rolling off him by then. He felt like a naked hunted animal.
He had numerous close calls. One woman even called the police to report a naked intruder in her yard, but luckily Pee Wee had moved on beyond the neighborhood before a police car was dispatched in response to her call.
Another time Pee Wee found himself hiding naked next to the hedge as a car passed by. He was getting ready to cross the street to get beyond the housing development and toward a section of Highway 107 where there were fewer houses, when he saw someone coming up the sidewalk. The warm spring air on his naked body was exciting, and despite the situation he found himself in he found himself again erect.
Pee Wee squatted down and worked his way back a bit further into the scratchy hedge and waited. Then before he realized it he began to feel a few tiny piss-ants crawling on his skin. The hedge was infested with them, as were the leaves he was squatting in. These weren't the aggressive, larger stinging fire ants that plagued South Texas, but he still didn't welcome them climbing up his ankles, and especially not on his scrotum and penis. The old man made his way toward him ever so slowly. He was too close to avoid seeing Pee Wee, if he burst out of the hedge now, but moving too slowly. Pee Wee wasn't sure he could stand it.
As more ants left the scratchy stems and crawled onto Pee Wee's naked flesh. He tried to brush them off, but that only aggravated the situation. The constant tickling of the ants crawling on his ankles, crotch and butt, made him crazy. He needed to run, scream, dance, anything but sit there letting those ants crawl on him while the old bastard hobbled past. He wasn't sure he could refrain from exploding out of the hedge before the old man managed to shamble past him. He looked down his cock now speckled with ants, and counted at least forty ants there along with probably a hundred or more swarming over the rest of him. He tried brushing more of them off, which only served to provoke them. That's when they started to bite. He looked down to see more than a few still gathered at the tip of his erect penis.
Finally the old man passed Pee Wee, perhaps only three feet away, never knowing that he walked right past a naked teenager hiding in the bushes. When he finally reached a safe distance Pee Wee exploded out the hedge and rolled on the grass, oblivious to anyone watching, trying to swat and brush away any ants still crawling on legs. He splashed water out of a small birdbath onto his crotch and tried washing off any remaining ants that he had failed to dislodge from his skin while rolling on the lawn. Then he ran around the house and climbed the privacy fence bordering the backyard. He hit the ground running.
It felt odd jogging down the twilight county road, and the occasional auto that passed him clearly thought that a boy running off road to squat or hide in a field was a bit out of the ordinary. Once he had to press himself down in the dirt between two rows of furrow planted okra leaf cotton to avoid being seen. In a number of fields the spring crops were still young and barely knee high. There were a couple of aloe vera fields that still fell between him and home, and he knew that those prickly fields would offer him no place to hide. Still, he decided to stick to fields or back roads as best he could, but there would be a couple of highways he would have to navigate as well.
Even though it had gotten darker, the moon had come out, and everything seemed to be lit up. Perhaps his eyes were just adjusting to the dark.
Then he realized that he had run some distance beyond the point where he should have turned off. He punched himself in the side of his head a couple of times in anger and frustration. He had lived in Santa Rosa for a couple of years, but he was well off any path home he had ever used before. Making his way home this way, he realized that every time he got off the path, got lost, or just failed to recognize shortcut, he was making his problem even worse. He wondered just how far he had run, given all the backtracking and back roads he had been forced to take. He figured that he had at least doubled the distance he had planned to jog.
As it got darker he felt safer on the road, or at least sticking near the shoulder of the highway than trudging through the shadowy trees and fields. He reasoned that as it got darker he could hear a car and see the headlights coming from a distance and have plenty of time to run and hide before it reached him.
He worried about stray dogs in the area and perhaps other wildlife like rattlesnakes, or coyotes, or maybe even a skunk or possum, but he never saw any. A startled rabbit scared the living daylights out of him, sending him tumbling down on the hard plowed dirt between two rows of itchy okra in a backyard garden.
One car surprised him when instead of passing on down the street it turned unexpectedly into a driveway where he was trying to conceal himself. There was no place for him to go. The light from the headlights flashed across his naked white body as he streaked across the yard, hoping that at least they might not recognize who he was. Pee Wee groaned as he saw their faces peering out of the windows, as they strained to get another look at the hairless youth streaking across their lawn.
Pee Wee approached a small strip mall along the highway. He recognized it immediately, and knew that he was now only about a mile or so from home. Construction had only recently been completed and there were no open stores accept a Chinese restaurant. Eventually it would have a drug store, an auto-parts store, and a laundromat. The windows and signs are all dark, except for the neon panda over the China Palace. There are a number of cars in front of the restaurant, but none parked elsewhere.
Pee Wee jogged quickly around behind the building, hoping to avoid being seen by diners scarfing down egg rolls at the China Palace. He scanned the parking lot carefully for a moment, then ducked between two of the dumpsters lined up against the back wall. There was nothing he might use to cover himself in the dumpster behind the restaurant. The other dumpsters were unused, so they were not as smelly. They were also empty.
Suddenly two young men came out the back door leading into the restaurant. One of them lit up a cigarette and the two stood there talking, taking a break. Pee Wee pushed himself back in between two of the dumpsters and waited for them to finish their break and head back inside. About the time the first two started to go back in, another young man came out shouldering two large trash bags which he deposited in the dumpster. By then it was dark and he never noticed Pee Wee scrunched back against the building in the shadows.
But Pee Wee noticed him. It looked like Billy. Pee Wee scanned the parking lot and recognized the rusty old black Camaro, one of the four cars parked in the back lot, as belonging to Billy. Billy's older brother used to drive it when he hung out with Troy.
"Billy?" Pee Wee whispered loud enough to catch his attention. He hated the thought of anyone catching him in this predicament, but he was beyond exhausted, and he knew that Billy would help him out of this situation.
Billy came around to the side of the dumpster and looked into the shadows as Pee Wee stood up and took a hesitant step toward him. "Pee Wee, what are you doing here?" He said, "More important, where are your clothes? What happened to you?" He stood staring at Pee Wee, mouth open.
"I'll tell you later." Pee Wee began, "But um, first, do you thing you could find me some clothes?"
"I already dumped my gym bag off at home before I came to work." Billy frowned, thinking, "But lemme see what I can find." He turned to go, then halted, "Hey, why don't you at least get in my car while I look. I have a blanket in the trunk at least that you can wrap up in."
Pee Wee stood, and Billy hustled him over to his car after checking to make sure there was no one around who might see them. Billy worked his car keys out of his front pocket before they reached the car, and opened the passenger door for Pee Wee. Pee Wee looked around as he got in the car, still half expecting that someone would see him.
"Are you okay?" Billy asked again as Pee Wee rolled the window down. "Did the guys do something to you?" Billy touched Pee Wee's mouth, and he realized that his lower lip was swollen, and remembered that Jason had punched him in the mouth.
Pee Wee shook his head, "There was a fight at school. They took my clothes," he said, "I think they wanted to do more, but I managed to get away from them."
Billy raised his arms and slapped the side of his head with one hand. "You made it all the way here from school like that?" He laughed out loud. "How did you avoid getting arrested?" It wasn't mean spirited, but the kind of laugh that indicated extreme surprise.
"You have no idea," Pee Wee said glumly.
"No wonder, you look like shit warmed over." Billy smiled and laughed, slapping the roof of his Camaro with one hand.
The trees at the back edge of the parking lot, where he had parked his Camaro, left the car in shadows. Otherwise the parking lot was well lit. Billy opened the trunk and tossed a blanket into the seat next to him. "I'll be back as quick as I can," Billy said, and hurried back toward the rear door of the restaurant.
After a while, Billy brought another bag out to the dumpster and ran over to his car. He grimaced and handed Pee Wee one of the white aprons cooks wore in the kitchen. "It's the best I could do," Billy said and shrugged. "Look I've already had my break, and I don't get off work for another three hours."
"I sure could use a ride home."
"Why don't I call your house and tell them that you're with me. Is you mom at home?"
"No, she's working."
"Good. Then I'll square it with Mark. You can sleep over with me tonight. I'm sure I can find something you can wear at home."
"Okay." Pee Wee nodded in agreement.
"Anything I can get you, Peter?" Billy asked.
"Maybe something to eat?"
"I'll see what I can do."
A few minutes later Billy brought out an order of Kung Pao chicken and some spring rolls, but Pee Wee was already fast asleep in the front seat of his car. He set the Styrofoam containers down in the seat next to him in case he woke up hungry, and then went back inside the restaurant.
"Let's get out of here!"
Pee Wee roused to the sound of keys in the lock, and opened his eyes in time to see Billy crawl in and shut the door on the driver's side. Billy looked down to see the tray of food still on the seat between them untouched. Pee Wee straightened himself up in the seat and pulled the blanket back around him where it had fallen away as he slept.
"You okay?" Billy asked.
"You keep asking me that." Pee Wee said, still half asleep. To him it seemed like Billy had just left him in the car. "Where are we going?" Pee Wee was starting to wake up, but didn't really want to. He readjusted the blanket around himself.
"My place, remember?" Billy smiled, and turned the key in the ignition, "Looks like you needed some sleep." Billy started the engine and they drove down the road heading east toward the street where Billy lived.
When they finally reached Billy's house, Billy was able to sneak into the garage through a side door, grab a dirty sweatshirt and pants from a laundry hamper, and run them out to Pee Wee. Pee Wee got dressed in the Camaro, then walked into the house, dreary eyed, and looking rode hard and put away wet. Absorbed in some video rental, Billy's dad never noticed anything out of the ordinary as the two boys headed down the hall to Billy's room.