Randy came to court dressed in jeans and a polo shirt. He swaggered a little on his way to the witness chair. He was sworn in then took his seat. Roger Wheeler approached. "Randy, three of your friends testified before you. My purpose is to have you verify their testimony. Do you understand?"

"Was it your intention, at any time when you first met the defendant, to have sex with him?"

Wheeler frowned. "Just answer the question. Did you have sex with the defendant?"

"Like I said, just answer the question." Wheeler began to pace. "Do you consider yourself gay?"

"Wasn't sure. But I got to tell you, I love looking at hot guys, and now I want to have sex with all of them. Does that make me gay?"

Wheeler went to the prosecution table and stared down at it before spinning around. "Randy, just answer the questions. I'm not the witness here."

Wheeler felt his confidence return. "Did you ever have sex with anyone else before you had sex with the defendant?"

"No, but it was only because I didn't have the opportunity. It's hard when you're only thirteen."

"Either." He points at Dillon. "And now that I've had sex with that guy over there, I plan to find as many opportunities to have sex as possible."

Randy glanced at his parents for a second. His mother had a handkerchief over her mouth and his dad's eyes looked down.

Wheeler turned away from Randy and the jury as a smile crossed his face. He turned back to face Randy. "So, if I understand your testimony correctly, you never had sex with any guy or girl before you had sex with the defendant. Is that correct?"

"Have you had sex with other boys since you've had sex with the defendant?" "Yeah. Lots of sex."

Perrimon stood. "Objection. Please tell the witness to respond only to questions that are asked of him."

Judge Feinberg leaned toward Randy. "Only respond to questions that are asked of you. Do you understand?"

Wheeler moved close to Randy. "You said you've had sex with eight to ten guys. Is that correct?"

"Opportunity, man. Once the news broke about what had gone on with Thomas, Andy, and me, and then later Matt, all kinds of guys came up to me and wanted sex or at least a blowjob."

"Did you ever have any boys ask you to perform fellatio or to have sex with them before the news broke about the defendant having sex with you?"

"If I understand you correctly, you never had boy-on-boy sex prior to the defendant touching your penis and performing fellatio. Is that correct?"

Wheeler began to think maybe he should just give it one more shot before Randy sunk the boat. "Whether you were willing or not is not the question here. The question is, did you have sex with any other boy or girl prior to the defendant touching your penis, giving you fellatio, and having sexual intercourse with you?"

Banta nodded as he rose and approached Randy. "Hello Randy, my name is Joel Banta." He paused for three beats. "If I understand you correctly, you wanted to have sex with the defendant. Is that true?"

"Did the defendant force you to give him fellatio or for you to have sexual intercourse?"

Randy stared over the tops of the spectators in the courtroom. "Nah. I liked the idea."

Banta turned away from Randy as he asked the question. "Well, when he showed you porn and talked about touching your penis or giving you fellatio, did you lead him to believe you wanted him to?"

"I didn't tell him, but I sure didn't discourage him. Thomas was a little unsure, but I knew what I wanted."

"Just answer the question. So if I understand you correctly, you didn't discourage him, and in a way, led him to believe you liked the idea. Is that correct?"

Banta shook his head and rephrased the question. "Did you in any way let the defendant think you were eager for him to give you fellatio?"

"Do you blame the defendant in any way for the fact you've had so many sexual partners at such a young age?"

"So are you saying that you think the defendant has done you a favor by first exposing you to sex and for making it possible for you to have sex with multiple partners?"

"Yeah, if it wasn't for Dillon, I wouldn't be having all the great sex I'm having."

Randy hadn't looked down once or looked away when he was asked a question. He appeared confident throughout his testimony.

"Nah, I'm kinda proud. I bet a lot of guys would like to be having all the sex I'm having."

Banta slowly walked to the defense table and sat down. Keith Leonard stood. "Randy, my name is Keith Leonard. I'm going to continue with the questioning. Have you had sex with more than one person at a time?"

Randy ran his hand through his hair and then folded his hands between his knees.

Randy held up his hand and pressed each finger as he gave the names. "Let's see. Andy Gibson, Thomas Galbraith, and Matt Spence."

"Just answer the question. Yes or no, did the defendant have anything to do with the four of you having sex?"

"You said you'd had sex with more than one other boy at least three times. Who did you have sex with the second time?"

"I can't say. They're still in high school and no one knows they're having gay sex. Kyle's come out of the closet, so that's okay."

Leonard glanced at his notes. "Were Andy Gibson, Matt Spence, or Thomas Galbraith involved?"

"Did the defendant in any way suggest to you that you should have what is known as threesomes and foursomes?"

A smile crossed Leonard's face. "What do you mean organized? Since when is sex an organized sport?"

Randy got excited and started to stand until he saw the judge motion with his hand for him to remain seated. "He told each of us what position to be in and then every few minutes or so he'd tell us to switch. It was fun as hell."

"I'm going to ask a delicate question, so answer it as delicately as you can. What do you mean by position?"

Randy seemed hesitant for the first time. He looked at the judge, who only nodded.

Wheeler stood. "Objection. I don't think it's necessary for the witness to have to go into detail about positions."

"We are just trying to show that these boys had minds of their own and had sex whenever they wanted in as many ways as they wanted. This testimony is necessary to demonstrate that our client had nothing to do with it or with the way they chose to have sex."

"Well, one guy would be rimming one of us, while another put his penis in the rimmer's butt, and the guy being rimmed would be giving fellatio to the fourth guy."

Randy grinned. "Yeah. Andy's that way. He wanted to make sure we all got some action and no one was left out."

Leonard walked to the table, talked to Dillon, and then returned. "Would you mind explaining what rimming is?"

"Let me ask you then. Is rimming when one guy runs his tongue around another guy's anus?"

"So to the best of your knowledge, the defendant wasn't responsible for the sex that Andy Gibson organized that day?"

"Just answer the question. Did the defendant ever organize any of the group activities you participated in?"

Wheeler stood at the prosecution table. "Give me a yes or no answer only. Did you have sex with anyone, either a boy or a girl, before you had sex with the defendant?"

Matt

Randy was on the stand today and all we could do was sit at school and wait for the fallout from his testimony. But there wasn't much sense in worrying about it. I went to class, kept my head down, sat, and didn't look at anyone until I had PE. Alan and Ernie are in my class and when they saw me Ernie said, "Hi Matt. Sounds like you've been having a bit of fun. What's wrong, didn't you think you could trust us?"

That stumped them. Alan shrugged. "I guess I'd have done the same thing. But what the hell Matt, you're the squeaky clean guy and you're having foursomes. What the fuck's the matter with you?"

I shrugged. "Stupid I guess. Anyway, I'm sorry and ashamed. It never occurred to me that any of this was going to come out."

Ernie shook his head. "Does that mean you wouldn't have done any of it if you knew it was going to make the news?"

It didn't take long before other guys started to gather around us. Fortunately, Coach Gilbert was the teacher that period and must have been keeping an eye and ear open. "What's going on here, boys? Whatever it is, I don't like it. Go to your own lockers and get into the gym."

They all peeled off including Alan and Ernie. I wanted to talk more, but I followed Coach's orders. He approached me just as I came out of the locker room. "Come in and see me after class. I'll write you a late pass."

I nodded, looked for Thomas, and headed out on the court where the class was doing warm-ups before breaking up into half-court teams. Then I remembered that Thomas wasn't in class because he was still at court. Coach Gilbert had a schedule we followed. Each day we were on a different team and we played another team made up of guys that were put together the same way. It was kind of random. He wanted us to learn to work together no matter who we were with. Towards the end of the basketball unit, he did his best to create equal teams so we could have a playoff. He gave each of the winning team players a voucher to get a large pizza. It was fun. Unfortunately, all that was still a long way off.

My team that day had one freshman, two sophomores (I was one of them), two juniors, and one senior. The freshman and sophomore looked at me like I had leprosy. Once we started playing the older guys on the opposing team fouled me every chance they got. "Serves your gay ass right," one said just so I could hear him. The bigger of the two juniors and the senior on my team grabbed my ass every chance they got. Coach Gilbert yelled, "Quit playing grab-ass over there!"

No one passed me the ball no matter how many times I was open. "Pass me the ball, assholes."

"Fuck you, cocksucker," the senior said. Then he laughed. "Hell, I think that's the first time I called a guy a cocksucker and he really was one." Everyone on both teams laughed.

These guys were bigger than me and I was getting pissed, but I did my best to keep cool. I'd be suspended if I got in a fight.

The taunts kept coming. Only one of the juniors on my team got in my face. The other junior was usually quiet and did his best to make sure no one noticed him. The aggressive junior got in close to me. "Hey, want to suck my cock?"

Then the senior dribbled in next to me. "I'll give you a hundred dollars if the four of you guys put on a show for me and my friends. I'll even pass you the ball. How 'bout it?"

I'd gotten so used to no one passing me the ball that I wasn't prepared when the senior passed me the ball and hit me square in the face. My head jerked back and my nose started to bleed. I ran after him as soon as I saw the blood and tackled him to the ground. I searched for the right words, but there weren't any. How was I going to defend myself except to try to beat the crap out of him? I sat on his stomach and was trying to hit him in the face, but he was stronger than me. He threw me off and jumped on me. I started to get up, but then just went limp and started to cry as I heard taunts from all the older guys. "Look at the big baby. Likes to take in the ass, but can't fight for shit."

Thank God for Coach Gilbert. He ran from across the gym and pushed the guys back. "Get away from him. You guys are all a bunch of animals."

I wanted to lie there, but I pushed myself up and stood with tears running down my cheeks. I started to walk off when Coach Gilbert put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me back. "Wait, Matt."

Gilbert flashed him an angry look as he kept his hand on my shoulder. It felt good.

The guys dragged themselves slowly to the stands while Coach Gilbert and I stood together. I wiped the tears from my eyes as I tried to stop crying, but then they'd start right up again. Someone from the stands yelled. "He used to always act like he was hot shit. Look at him now."

All I can say is, I wish there were more men like Coach Gilbert. He hadn't prepared anything, but what he said astounded me.

"See this young man? Doesn't he look like the same Matt Spence you knew a week ago, a month ago, a year ago? You know he does. Is he any less kind than he was? Does he still try to get good grades and come to school every day? Does he love his mom and dad and do they love him? The answer is yes to all of these. I'm the first to admit that actions have consequences and what we see here today is an example of that. But how would all of you like to be judged for things you've done that no one knows about, things you thought would remain secret. How many of you would want someone to know how you look at other guys' dicks and compared yours to theirs? Would you want others to know how often you looked at the well-built guys with nice bodies because you wished you looked like them, or for any of a number of other reasons you wouldn't like to discuss. How would you like it if someone took a tally every time you glanced at some guy's ass and thought it was hot or tallied the number of times you masturbated in a day? How about if someone posted it in the school paper. How would you feel? We all do things we're ashamed of. For that reason we need to be tolerant of each other.

"Matt is hurting right now. He needs you to show some tolerance and understanding. Instead, you treat him like a leper even though you yourself may have thought you were gay and to cover it up, you treat guys you think might be gay like shit. Pardon my French. Why else would one boy treat a nice guy like Matt Spence like he was a pedophile or a murderer? He's neither. He's Matt Spence, your classmate, a member of your football team and basketball team, and a student at this school just like you. That goes for Andy Gibson, Thomas Galbraith, and Randy Barnson too. Dillon Burke, a hero at this school and the starting varsity quarterback, is being tried for statutory rape because of what he allegedly did to these boys. Of course everyone is innocent until proven guilty, so I will not pass judgment on him. But it's because of what Dillon Burke is accused of that we know so much about the private lives of these boys. Count your blessings that your private lives aren't exposed in court, on the front page of the newspaper, and on TV. I've heard enough rumors about many of you, that I think you should be counting your blessings."

I couldn't get over how quiet it had gotten. I finally got the courage to glance up and look at the guys in the stands. It was hard to read their faces, but the disgust and anger I saw earlier seemed to have dissipated from most of their faces.

Coach Gilbert warned everyone. "If I see any hazing or harassing of any of these boys, I will write you up and see that not only are you suspended for three days, but that you serve a week's detention after you return. Do you understand? Raise your hand if you understand."

Hands rose slowly until all hands were raised. Then just like that, Coach Gilbert said, "Let's play ball."

I thought I was going to be suspended along with the senior, but he punished neither of us. The game started off slowly at first as each of the guys tried to adjust their attitudes toward me, but eventually, we began to play as a team and it was hard to believe that one man's courage could make so much difference.

Chapter Quotes

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Knots, Book 3

by Elias Scott

Chapter 10

Randy's Testimony

Matt

Chapter Quotes