Chapter 2

The end of the school day couldn’t have come soon enough for Madison Huxley. It wasn’t that the sixteen-year-old didn’t like high school—she did—but something discussed in English class had triggered a thought for the novel she was writing. Wanting to rush home to make the change, she shouted her goodbyes to her friends as she raced through the parking lot that serviced both the high school and adjacent middle school.

It was only a fifteen minute walk home when she cut through the parking lot. Today she was going to do it in record time. She couldn’t wait to put the foreshadowing into her novel. Why hadn’t she thought of that before? That’s why Madison loved school. She loved learning.

Madison slowed down when she saw the commotion in front of the middle school. A group of girls surrounded another girl and were taunting her. Sometimes one of them entered the circle to push the girl into another girl who shoved her back, playing ping pong with her until she fell, which was followed by a roar of laughter. But the trapped girl didn’t put up a fight, even the times she was knocked to the ground. It was odd because the girl being bullied was at least as tall as any of the other girls.

As Madison wandered closer, she realized her mistake. The girl in the middle of the circle was not a girl, but that sissy boy who lived next door to her. Madison had thought he was a girl because of the clothes he wore. His red shorts were too tight and too short for a boy and his tee-shirt was girlish. The short sleeves were way too short for a boy, stopping halfway down his shoulders, and it was white with pink flowers. Why was a boy taking that crap from girls? Madison couldn’t remember his name. His mother and hers didn’t talk, and she felt uncomfortable being around him. Not because he was gay, but because he was a sissy. The way he dressed gave her the creeps.

“Peter pecker-face,” Madison heard one girl taunt when she got closer.

That was his name! Peter.

“Peter the perv,” another girl said.

“Yeah, Peter the perv,” still another shouted.

Soon they were all chanting, “Peter the perv.”

Madison hated bullies, but why should she help the boy who lived next door to her? Someone who she never spoke to. Someone whose mother and her mother didn’t get along. Someone whose name she hadn’t even remembered. Someone who gave her the creeps.

“Peter the perv peeked up Mrs. Wilson’s skirt,” a girl said in a sing-song voice.

That caught Madison’s attention. Why would a gay boy look up a teacher’s skirt? She studied the boy surrounded by a circle of screaming middle school girls. All he did was stand there with his chin on his chest.

Compassion for the underdog took over. Madison sprinted to the circle of bullies, barreling into the back of one so hard the girl stumbled into Peter and fell, ending up sprawled on the ground. That hadn’t been Madison’s intention. She had simply wanted to make an opening in the circle but had forgotten how much bigger she was. She must have had at least ten pounds on the girl she had slammed into. The girls’ shouting stopped all at once, replaced by an eerie silence. Madison took the opportunity to grab Peter’s arm and drag him away from the stunned girls.

“Come with me,” Madison said, pulling Peter as she marched away.

Madison didn’t release Peter’s arm until they were a block from the parking lot. She stopped and faced the boy.

“What was that about?” Madison asked.

With his head bowed, Peter shrugged.

“I just saved your ass!” Madison shouted. “At least you can do is talk to me.”

“It was nothing.”

“Why didn’t you fight back?”

She received another shrug.

“Peter, you shrug again and I’m going to punch you in the face.”

The boy looked up. “I’m sorry.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“You live next door.”

“That’s right. My name is Madison. And yours is Peter. Why were they calling you a perv?”

Peter shrugged. And then his face immediately paled in fright. He dropped to his knees and bent over with his arms crossed over his head. Madison squatted in front of him, on the balls of her feet with her butt resting on her heels and her knees spread wide.

“I’m not going to hit you,” Madison said. “I just said that to get you to stop shrugging.”

Still covering his head with his arms, Peter didn’t say anything, but he was no longer looking at the ground. Madison followed his gaze. The front of her shorts was stretched snugly over her crotch and that’s where his eyes were locked. Right in front of his face! She blushed and jumped to her feet.

“Stand up!” Madison shouted. When Peter did, she said, “You like boys, right?”

With his eyes lowered, Peter shook his head.

“What! You’re not gay?!”

Peter shook his head again.

Madison studied the boy. She had seen him dressed like a girl in his back yard. Well, a sissy boy anyway. Never in a dress or anything like that, but the tops and shorts he wore were something she would wear. At least he didn’t dress like that to school, although his choice of colors and the style of clothes definitely made him look gay. Like what he was wearing today. And he was so scrawny and, well, meek, like a shy girl. So unlike the athletic type Madison was attracted to.

Madison forgot about the changes she wanted to make to her novel. She was intrigued by her next door neighbor. He was a mystery that she was determined to solve.

“Let’s go to my house,” Madison said. “I want to talk to you.”

Madison wasn’t sure what reaction she would get from Peter, but she hadn’t expected no reaction. He didn’t say no. He didn’t ask her why. He didn’t even show excitement about going to a cute, high school girl’s house. He didn’t say anything, simply falling in stride with her in silence with his hands stuffed inside his pockets and his head lowered.

When they got to Madison’s house, she asked, “Peter, when does your mother get home?”

“Mommy gets home from work in around three hours.”

“You call your mother ‘Mommy’?”

Peter nodded without making eye contact.

“My mother gets home right after me. She won’t mind if you come inside. C’mon.”

Madison unlocked the front door and opened it. She turned to Peter and waited. He stood there shifting from foot to foot.

“What’s the matter?” Madison asked.’’

“I don’t think Mommy would like me going in there.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. It’s just how Mommy is.”

“Well, she won’t be home for three hours. She’ll never know.”

Madison grabbed Peter’s forearm and dragged him into her house. When she closed the door behind them, he looked around.

“Want a snack?” Madison asked. “Milk and cookies?”

“If it’s okay.”

“It’s okay. Go sit in the living room. Be right there.”

The Huxley’s living room had a couch facing the television. In front of the couch was a coffee table with a chair on either side of it. Peter sat in one of the chairs. Madison came into the living room carrying a glass of milk in each hand and a cookie jar tucked under her arm. She placed one glass of milk on the end of the table in front of Peter and the other near it, in front of the end of the couch where she sat. The cookie jar was placed between the two glasses.

Madison took a sip of milk and returned the glass to the table. “What was that all about at school?” she asked.