The Quiet Boy

Written by Caleb Wilson

Part 1

The Dream

He was fifteen years of age and waiting impatiently for the approach of his sixteenth birthday, which was due in four weeks time, when school would be over and he would be free for six whole weeks for the summer holidays. He could then laze about the house, not having to suffer from having to be up by 7.30am Monday to Friday. He would be able to do as he wished within reason as long as he didn't untidy the house too much while his mother was at work. He would also no longer have to put up with the sympathetic looks he received from various sources at school, even though he'd been attending the school for the past two years.

He looked up at the boy who was about four inches taller than himself and a lot stockier in build, walking beside him and thought, "You're the only friend I ever had, Jake Brodie, and I hope you never leave me", and he quietly continued to walk alongside his friend. They approached the school turned into the gates and into the main building. After storing the necessary items in their lockers, the two boys headed for their class.

Inside the room, they went to their respective desks which were adjacent to each other Jake's further from the window.

The chatter in the class subsided with the entry of Mr Jennings who asked for and got a silence in which he called the morning register, and as each boy, or girl's name was called it was answered with a, "Here sir," till the name William Scott was called. There was no sound Mr Jennings raised his eyes from the register to look at the boy by the window with raised arm and nodded his acknowledgement at the boy's presence and continued with the register.

William Scott lowered his arm looked across at Jake and smiled then focused his attention on Mr Jennings as he began his Math lesson with the reading of the register finished.

At times during the lesson he would glance across at Jake out of the corner of his eye. He never tired of looking at him ever since they had become friends on his first day at school.

William was in the Principal's office awaiting the arrival of the boy the Principal had sent for. The boy, Jake Brodie was to be William's chaperon for the day and to show him around the school.

Outside the Principal's office Jake stopped and in a loud voice asked "Do you mind if I call you Billumm," and his voice was cut short by a hand being placed over his mouth, then the boy clasped his hands over his ears and grimaced indicating to Jake that his voice was too loud.

Jake lowered his voice to a normal tone saying, "Sorry didn't realize that your hearing was okay, is it alright if I call you Billy."

William Scott nodded and gave Jake the thumbs up sign and from then on the boys became firm friends. Jake with a flick of his head said, "Come on Billy I'll show you around we've fifteen minutes before classes start," he took Billy around the various places that he needed to know and in some cases he acted as Billy's voice, explaining that the new boy didn't speak, and this became the norm for Jake, being Billy's voice when needed.

As their friendship blossomed Jake decided to take lessons in understanding sign language, so that he could communicate with Billy a lot easier, and in the space of a few weeks was quite proficient in understanding Billy when he signed his thoughts.

School had finished for the summer break and William Scott now sixteen was in his room getting ready to go out when his mobile vibrated. He took it out of his pocket and smiled at the text, "What's up Billy."

He texted back, "just gng 2 the mall,"

The reply came: "c u in 20."

Billy switched off, made sure the house was secure and then made his way by bus to the town centre. Once inside the mall, after purchasing his book from Smith's bookstore he made his way to the Mega Game store. He waited outside the store which was their usual meeting place, as it was Jake's favourite shop and they invariably ended up inside it when they came to the mall.

He stood outside the shop looking expectantly towards the area from which he knew Jake would be appearing. Suddenly his eyes lit up when he saw the mop of blonde hair approaching; then he frowned, seeing Mary Rawlings hanging onto Jake's arm.

When they reached him outside the shop with the throng of humanity around them he signed his greeting to Jake and Mary. Then indicated to Jake that he was heading home.

"We've only just arrived Billy," Jake said concerned at his friend's imminent departure. "What's the rush? I thought we were going to hang-out together this afternoon."

Billy looked at Jake and shook his head; then turning slightly so that the girl couldn't see he signed, "Two's company three's a crowd." Then waving to the two of them he disappeared into the mass of people in the walkway.

Once he was home, after making himself a cup of tea and consuming it, he went to his room, lay down on his bed and started reading his book.

He read the first few paragraphs then put the book down. He couldn't concentrate on it. His mind kept on bringing the image of Mary Rawlings into focus, hanging onto Jake's arm and the way she was smiling and looking at him.

He felt devastated. He knew the way he was thinking was not realistic - only a reflection of his personal desires, but he had difficulty in trying to separate the realities of their friendship from the daily fantasies he had about Jake.

He knew he had become very fond of Jake from almost the moment they had met. He had hidden his emotions as best he could and not given Jake any indications of his true feelings, in the hope that one day Jake would feel the same way as him. But seeing the way Mary Rawlings had clung to Jake's arm and the way they had laughed and talked together had blown all his dreams out of the window.

Now, lying on the bed, he felt that his world was crashing down around him again. He thought back to when he'd been ten years of age and he began to tremble.

He'd been standing in the local Building Society premises with his father chatting away as they waited to draw their money for their coming holiday. There was one other customer who was being served by the only cashier at the time and they were the next to be attended to. Suddenly the door burst open and a man with a hood covering his face ran in, and pushing the elderly woman to one side pointed a gun at the cashier.

The moment he did the cashier pressed a button and steel shutters came down and the doors shut isolating them, and the gunman from the rest of the premises.

The gunman panicked and grabbed the elderly woman and yelled at the top of his voice, "Open the doors or he'd blow the woman's fucking head off."

There was no response from the staff and as his father saw the man exerting pressure on the trigger he acted and lunged at him.

The moment he did the gunman moved his gun and fired point blank at his fathers face.

The shot boomed out in the room. His father flew backwards with blood and bone splattering outwards. His body shuddered, as he remembered feeling the warm droplets of blood splattering against his face; then his father, who he didn't recognize, was lying at his feet. He silently stared down at the corpse as the gunman fired the gun, emptying it into the glass door which shattered and then made his escape out into the street.

When the police arrived he hadn't moved: he had remained where he was, staring down at his father's body, not uttering a sound. The police tried speaking to him but got no reaction. They then got details of what had happened from the elderly lady before trying once again to speak to him without any success.

The staff at the Building Society couldn't put a name to the body so the police went through the pockets of the dead man to get identification.

Within a minute they had the man's name, home address, and telephone number and at once dispatched a car to see if anyone was at home to break the news of Mr Graham Scott's death and also to help them with the boy.

Half an hour later Mrs Scott in the company of a policewoman entered the scene of the crime and went straight to her son who had by now been moved to a chair, away from the body. She knelt down in front of him and wrapped her arms around him and hugged him to her bosom. William Scott neither spoke nor cried; he just buried his head in his mothers shoulder and felt safe once more.

* * * * *

After a month of examinations by doctors and specialists they were no wiser as to why William had stopped speaking or for that matter uttering any sound at all.

At first, knowing that he'd been traumatized by the experience of witnessing his fathers horrendous death, they thought that he would eventually get over the events with counselling and begin to speak again. But after three months, when he still remained silent, the doctors advised his mother to take him to a special school to learn sign language so that the boy could communicate and continue with his everyday life.

That had been six years ago. He'd been a loner since then, and it was only when he'd come to the new school two years ago that he found real friendship in Jake.

He knew of Jake's popularity with the other kids of both sexes, and it was unrealistic to think Jake would see him in the same light that he saw Jake, but he lived in perpetual hope that one day he would. They met on a regular basis after school, at weekends and during holidays, but this was the first time when they had planned to meet that he'd brought a girl along, it had always been just him and Jake.

"Shit", he thought, "Jake is entitled to go out with anyone he chooses", and he broke off his chain of thought, picked up his book and started to read.

He read for another hour until his eyelids drooped.

His mother's voice came from the kitchen asking him if he wanted to have his lunch.

He made his way to the kitchen, indicated that he would eat now and sat at the table while his mother served his food. He was on the verge of starting his meal when the door chimes rang; he looked at his mother, who said, "Carry on with your food I'll get it."

A few moments later she was back with Jake following her, "William, Jake's here, I'm going out to your grandmother's to help her with her shopping. Make sure to lock up the house if you decide to leave after I've gone. She gave her son a peck on the cheek and, saying goodbye to Jake, she left.

As soon as Jake heard the front door close he rounded on the boy eating his food, "Why the hell did you fuck off so quickly Billy, when we planned to meet up at the shops?"

"I told you outside the store: two's company three's a crowd," Billy signed, "I thought that you wouldn't want me around if you had something planned with Mary."

"Yeah well I didn't have anything planned with her; she latched onto me when I met her on the way to meet up with you."

Billy dropped his cutlery, signing: "Well how did you expect me to know that? I saw the two of you looking really good together so I decided to leave you alone."

"What?" Jake yelled, making Billy clamp his hands over his ears, "Oops sorry Billy I forget sometimes about your hearing being so sensitive. Anyway I don't fancy Mary Rawlings."

Jake saw Billy frown, "If you don't fancy her then who do you fancy," he signed.

"Umm uh, no one in particular; mind you Janet Stevens is really cute. Wouldn't mind getting to know her better."

"Yeah and who else, Mr bloody heart throb?" Billy signed before continuing with his meal.

"Well there is someone else but he's a bit pissed off at the moment," Jake smiled and looked at his silent friend who'd stopped eating and sat with eyes wide looking at him.

Billy rose from the table, his food forgotten, and walked quietly over to Jake; he stood in front of the boy who he'd become emotionally attached to after the first week of knowing him.

He couldn't convey his emotions to Jake verbally, but standing in front of him he let his eyes do the talking as he stared into the face that was continually on his mind.

Jake saw the intensity of emotion in Billy's gaze as he stood silently looking at him. The brown eyes seemed to have a film of water over them were looking into his very soul. Lowering his head and taking Billy's face between his hands he leaned forward and kissed the smaller boy first on one eye then on the other. "It's always been you Billy from the time I walked into the Principal's office, you've been the only one I've really cared about."

Billy just sighed and leaned into Jakes body wrapping his arms around him and leaning his head on his shoulder.

"You okay with what I said Billy?"

He just nodded his head and squeezed Jake harder, then lifting his head his eyes searched for Jake's. He looked into them and blinked squeezing the tears of happiness that had collected in his eyes to cascade down his cheeks.

Jake again taking Billy's face in his hands gently brushed the tears from his cheeks with his thumbs then lowered his head and brought their lips together to seal their love.

As the kiss continued, Jake moved his hands. His left arm encircled the smaller boy the right hand moved to the top of Billy's track-suit bottoms then under it and also under the waistband of his boxers. Billy shuddered in Jake's grasp as he awaited the inevitable then it happened. He felt the hand caress his balls sending feelings of exquisite pleasure coursing through his body making him cling to Jake even harder. The hand now moved upwards and stroked his painfully hard erection that was already dribbling from the tip. The fingers encircled his cock and gently squeezed, stroking it at the same time, and Billy lost it.

He broke the kiss and buried his head in Jake's shoulder, his hips started to pump uncontrollably, as the spunk blasted out of his cock into his underwear and then over Jakes hand.

His eyes flew open, his thoughts erupted, "Fucking Hell, Oh shit! Not another wet fucking dream," he moved the book that was on his chest and gingerly got up from the bed, and stood beside it. Reaching out he acquired some tissues from the box on the bedside locker then lowered his clothing carefully to clean up the mess that he'd made in his groin area and then to change his boxers.

The task completed he looked at the clock: 5.10pm. His mother would be home in half an hour after work. "Better go and tidy up in the kitchen," he thought. "Don't want her getting all uptight, especially as tomorrow is Saturday and if Jake calls for us to go out, I don't want her to have an excuse to keep me in.

He washed and dried all the plates and cutlery he'd used during the course of the day, tidied up in the lounge then sat and awaited his mother's arrival.