Wrestling Against Myself (30 page)

“I hope I can adapt,” Courtney said to herself.

“You'll do fine. So we became friends because you remind me of me.”

A strange look came over Courtney's face that Antonio didn't know if she was insulted or worried about something.

“I mean, in the way that we were both teased.”

“But they stopped teasing you,” Courtney said.

“That's because I stopped saying Dawg and Watah. It might take a little while, I know it did in my case, but sooner or later people get tired of making fun of you and you make friends and things get better.”

“I at least have one friend,” Courtney said as she gazed out her window.

“Don't forget about Penelope in Atlanta.”

“I meant at school.”

“I think you may have more than you realize. You got the guys at the table. Carl and Tracy and Stephanie, the list grows.”

“Maybe,” Courtney said with a smirk.

“Trust me.” Tony pulled into the girl's driveway. “You're going to be fine.”

Courtney opened the door and got out of the car. “Thanks, Tiny. At least the one friend at school is a good one.”

“Aw, shucks.” Tony let out a raucous laugh. “See, if I said that in New York I would've gotten mugged. We all adapt.”

Tony watched as the small girl retreated from his car and disappeared into her home.

“Lord,” Tony bowed his head before backing out of the driveway. “Be with the girl, let her pass through her current valley quickly and give her the strength to endure. Amen.”

It was but a small prayer, but Tony thought it was important for him not to wait to utter the few words on his friend’s behalf. He backed out of the driveway and made his way home. He wanted to grab a shower and had more homework to do than he would've liked. Outside of that, he had two tests to study for; like that, the school year was in full swing.

Since there was no prayer meeting or need to get to school early, Tony took his time leaving home. He had a little trouble falling asleep the night before, worried that Carl could be right and the freshman girl might have a crush on him.

“Nonsense,” he said to his reflection in the bathroom mirror. “She's given no evidence of a crush.”

It wasn't that he wouldn't be flattered, but try as he might he still had to get over his two year romance with Jennifer Jewel. She moved away, but Tony had no desire to start up another relationship. Besides, he figured, any relationship he started was bound to be short lived. He was going to graduate and then attend college in another state, it would be wrong to expect someone to tag along with him. His plan was that as soon as summer courses
began at whatever college he was going to attend he would be there to get a head start. He had four years and figured if he worked hard, he could walk away with a master’s degree if everything went according to plan. The fact that his education would be paid for and leave him with no debt was too enticing to pass up.

Antonio tried to chase the thought of Courtney being infatuated with him out of his mind. He doubted she had those feelings for him anyway. They'd established they were friends and seemed content with that.

“She's more like a little sister anyway,” Tony said to himself as he sat behind the wheel of his car. “I'm certain that she looks up to me as a big brother. Anyway, there are enough freshman boys to keep her occupied for years to come.”

He knew he was ruminating on the problem and wished his brain would give him a rest. He turned up his car stereo and sang along with the worship music from the contemporary Christian music station. As was the case in the morning, the station was more talk than music, but the banter was distracting.

Tony got to school. He was still early, but not the only student at the school. Throughout the student parking lot cars were scattered about. Early on in the morning it appeared that everyone left more than enough room between their cars and anyone else. To his surprise, Peter's large F150 was parked in the spot two away from where his spot was. Antonio didn't think much about where Peter was parked, but was taken by the fact his fellow student was early.

“About time you showed up,” Peter said roughly.

“Excuse me?” Tony said as he got out of his car.

“I thought you got here like at 6:30 to do your little God routine with the other Bible Thumpers?”

“That's on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You're more than welcome to come join us though?”

“Yeah, right.” Peter made sure the sarcasm was evident.

“Your loss. So you've been waiting on me then?”

Peter let out a frustrated sigh. “Yeah. I wanted to talk.”

“Here we are.” Tony looked at his watch. “We got plenty of time. What do you want to talk about?”

“That freak you hang out with.”

It was too early to get annoyed, Tony thought to himself. “What freak is that?”

“You know, 'Dude looks like a lady,'” Peter said in song.

“Where back on that kick are we? I heard about your little plan to use Bon Jovi against her.”

“It's Aerosmith.” Peter seemed annoyed, figuring Antonio knew who sang the song.

“Whoever. Still uncool of you.”

“I heard from a few sources that you don't believe what I told you about the it.”

“You didn't need to hear from sources.” Tony tried not to grow impatient. “I told you that myself.”

“Why don't you believe me?”

“Let me see. Because you have a history of making things up to mess with people and this story makes less sense than any of your other stories.”

“Name me one time you know of me making up a story that wasn't true,” Peter challenged.

“How about last year when you told the school that I was arrested and sitting in jail for getting into a bar fight and killing someone?”

“That was a misunderstanding.”

“How so?”

“I thought I saw you on the news and when you didn't show up to school the next day, I put two and two together.”

“And came up with fourteen,” Tony countered. “I was wrestling at state that week.”

“My bad. It didn't hurt your reputation any, made you seem like more of a bad ass.”

“It's beside the point. Why are you so bent on spreading this rumor? Leave the girl alone.”

“It's not a rumor, it's the truth. Doesn't your Bible say to spread the truth?”

“You're twisting things.”

“I know you don't believe me, and that's why you haven't done anything you're supposed to.”

“What am I supposed to do?” Tony asked.

“You're supposed to help me get that freak out of school. If we let something like that go, the queers are going to take over. It's bad enough we have those patsies wearing skirts and blowing their little horns.”

“You mean our Scottish Highland school band?”
 

“Yeah, completely weird. Dude
s wearing skirts, creepy.”

“I hate to break it to you, but men wear kilts, not skirts, in Scotland.”

“I don't care if they wear evening gowns,” Peter let his frustration grow. “This is America, where men are men and queers get the pounding they deserve.”

“This is too much. I'm going to go.”

“Okay,” Peter put his hands up in surrender. “Wait. This isn't how I wanted this to go. I don't want to get into a fight with you Tiny.”

“You're not doing a good job of it.”

“Sorry. I know the reason you haven't done nothing is because you don't believe me. Okay, I got that. You wanted to know how I knew, right?”

“Actually, I want you to drop the whole thing, but, yeah, it might be interesting to know why you have something against a girl you've never met before.”

“Fair enough. Henry, get your butt over here.”

Tony could hear the far door of the truck open and close. A moment later, the freshman boy he had a talking to joined them.

“This is my brother Henry. You already met but hadn't been introduced properly.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “I should have known he was related to you.”

“Henry,” Peter let the slight go and stayed the course. “Tell Tiny what you told me.”

“That person you hang around and think is a chick is a dude.”

“Isn't this the same story you've been trying to tell me?” Tony asked the older boy.

“Yeah, but Henry knows for certain. Tell Tiny how you know.”

“He went to school with me last year at Palm Harbor Academy.”

“So you went to school with Courtney last year, that doesn't prove anything. Are you upset she wouldn't play spin the bottle with you or something?”

Peter raised his fist and cocked it back. “Watch that, this is my brother you're talking to.”

Antonio was amused. He knew that not in a million years would Peter throw a punch at him, it wasn't his style to fight someone who would fight back. But he acquiesced. “No offense intended. So what do you have against Courtney? What did she do to you?”

“Aren't you listening,” Peter raised his voice. “Stop calling that thing a she, it's a he and it's sickening. Go on Henry; tell Tiny how you know that freak is a boy.”

“His name isn't Courtney.”

Tony wanted to correct Henry's use of pronouns but feared if he did he would never see the end of the conversation. “So what is Courtney's name? Let me guess, Penelope?”

Henry gave Tony a dirty look. “No. His name is Corey. He didn't start using that Courtney thing until he got to high school.”

Tony shook his head. “Are you sure? Maybe it’s not the same person.”

“No, I'm sure. We hung out at middle school all the time. He was quiet and not as annoying as the other kids in class.”

“The kids that didn't like you?”

“Yeah. No.”

“That's what I thought,” Tony said knowingly. “So Courtney looks like your friend you had in middle school and they have similar names.”

“No.” Henry showed that he had as short of a fuse as his brother. “It's the same person. Two days before school started I saw it shopping at the mall. I knew who it was right away and he was wearing a dress. At first I thought I was wrong, but I went 'hey Corey!” and he turned and looked right at me. I knew I was right because it looked like he was going to wet himself and if his mom wasn't there I would've beat the shit out of him for being a queer.”

“Your story still sounds farfetched. But let’s say I believe you.”

“You should believe us,” Peter said. “It's the truth and now you know it's the truth.”

“What do you expect me to do about it?”

“Nothing,” Peter said.

“Then why tell me about it?”

“Okay. I didn't mean nothing as in nothing. I meant that you will let us take care of things. We know it's not your style to play the heavy, we're cool with that. But stay out of our way and let us deal with this, the right way.”

“The right way? You mean teasing and bullying and trying to get her to leave the school.”