Hope, Charity & Faith Ch. 11

"HENRY!!" Kimberly's mother bellowed pointing in my direction.

A loud pancake slap echoed from the front door as I pulled off the curb turning up my music.

I drove home bobbing my head to some vintage hip hop, T.R.O.Y (They Reminisce Over You) by Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth.

**********************

Weeks later, I was waiting to get into the cafeteria for an early morning breakfast checking my phone when several members of the basketball team pushed by me cutting in front of an exceptionally long line that morning. Half of the students, mostly underclassmen hated those guys because this was a daily occurrence, but I just ignored them. The morning after I'd hooked up with Kimberly, she'd returned to our first class of the day with a gift for me in the form of another slap to the face.

She happily reported to study hall while everyone laughed and applauded. Treena kept her head in her textbook, ignoring the proceedings. Minutes later, another student was sent to study hall for yodeling the Lion King theme. More guys that towered over me brushed against me joining the group which included Byron.

"Man you full of shit; why you lying, fool?!!"

"Was I lying about Charmaine's big ass titties, huh nigga?" My ears perked up at the sound of a familiar name.

"No, but that don't mean you ain't lying; besides, I fucked her too!" Some of the assembled jocks snickered as I inched closer wanting to see where things were going verbally.

"I fucked her too; that thot was publicly traded, man!!" More chortling and peer commentary continued.

"Yeah she was loose as fuck, I kind of miss tapping that." Byron waxed nostalgic.

"But you still lying about tapping the student body president."

"I ain't lying about shit." Byron's baritone voice carried making it easy to follow the conversation.

"Oh yeah, where's the proof; you had pics of Charmaine last time."

"Doesn't mean I'm not lying."

"YEAH RIGHT!!" Two guys chimed in between laughter as the group of entitled jocks collected various food items from the sparse overpriced buffet.

"Well I ain't got no pics or nothing, but Charity got some tig ole' bitties for real!! The rest of her body is fire, too. I fucked the living shit out of her last week in her house and you know something?"

"What Byron?"

"She stuck up as fuck, made me drink some kinda homemade power drink and all, but she can fuck like nobody business!! We went into this room they use as a gym and did it in front of this wall mirror! That shit was insane bruh!!"

"Yeah she did that with me, too." Some guy named Edgar chimed in getting laughter.

"Oh yeah, I saw that shit on porn hub, my nigga!!" Byron didn't look amused as his friends chortled and made fun of him. I saw an inroads into the conversation taking a chance with my health.

"Hey Byron man, did she take a naked pic of you too?"

The group turned in my direction with various expressions reading across their faces. Obviously most thought I was lying but I could see the spark in his eyes which was hard because his oblong punchable face usually looked stoned most of the time. A lot of people nicknamed the power forward "Sleepy" for his troubles and the name stuck. High School was cruel that way, but he'd found an equalizer in his position on our basketball team.

"Yeah right." Some guy commented as they were about to resume their conversation. I waited a few minutes before cutting in again.

"HEY BYRON, THAT ALOE VERA JUICE NASTY, HUH?!!"

There was another pause as the guys looked from me to the center of attention Byron. Despite my recent good fortune sexually speaking, we were still at opposite ends of the spectrum. I followed the line as the guys changed the subject still in disbelief. Byron side eyed me as we pushed ahead. I ended up with a breakfast burrito (prepackaged) a pastry and a bottle of orange juice before mulling things over again noticing him at the register.

"HEY BYRON MAN, DID SHE MAKE YOU STAND ON THAT WHITE RUG IN HER LIVING ROOM, TOO?!!" Some of his peers were visually considering my words, but I didn't make eye contact.

"Bruh why you talking to me; stay in your lane."

"Yeah okay, but I was worried too...UHM, YOU AIN'T WORRIED ABOUT HER POSTING THAT SHIT SOMEWHERE?!! I uh, mean it was kind of weird how she makes you stand in a certain spot like that, you know? I think she want everything to look the same when she post it online somewhere."

"SHUT UP!!"

Uhm, sure man but I wonder if she got a pic of Jay Stello, too?" I was completely making everything up on the spot. The look on his face told me that I'd hit a few mental checkmarks.

"PUNK ASS!!"

I was suddenly hit with a few handfuls of home fries from some unsuspecting freshman's tray. The towering, rail thin athlete reached over the heads of friends grabbing the food from this unsuspecting kid's tray as his boys laughed.

"Okay man, we're cool." I replied faux-meekly.

One for the jocks snatched the cheese danish from my tray as the group disappeared to the popular side of the student cafeteria. I replenished my danish and shot their victim two bucks to replace his home fries. The grateful student followed me to a table facing the front of the cafeteria and the offending ruling class on campus. Byron was sitting there with his friends, but I recognized the uneasy look on his face as the cherubic kid beside me stuffed his face following my gaze to Byron as well. The towering basketball player caught me looking, but I just raised a thumb in salute to our mutual connection, Charity Gilbert.

"What's up with Byron, he looks upset?" The kid asked.

"He's just starting to feel it; what's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Walter; Walter Williams."

"Jaleel, nice to meet you kid; so, keep watching so you won't miss it."

"Miss what?"

"The show."

I turned back finding Byron staring hard biting into his lower lip, conflicted. I mimicked taking a pic with a non-existent camera winking at the jock. Walter looked puzzled by my actions without a frame of reference as Byron's brow furrowed fifteen feet away. I recognized the uneasiness and the slow burn starting to fry his synapses.

"Mentally speaking at least gender wise, a lot of guys are actually a bit fragile concerning their body image. I'd say it matches the other side of the line mirroring female statistics. In any case, you'd have to have a high level of trust to allow someone to have a nude photograph. You see, right now he's starting to wonder what she's done with that pic all this time."

I narrated Byron's myriad facial expressions while his friends sat around clueless to my gambit.

"Who?" Walter asked intrigued.

"Charity Gilbert, student body president."

Normally I would've stayed away from identifying someone by name of the elite class on campus, but I wanted to potentially dirty the water. I didn't know this fresh faced kid from Cain, so it was possible that he would spread that information around.

"REALLY, SHE DID THAT?!!"

"Yup." Some other students were also within earshot.

Byron jumped up in the midst of his friends deciding he could wait no longer, gods be damned. Her stepped over some fellow jocks swiping an approaching Treena to the side as he power walked to the double doors at the northern end of the student cafeteria. His herkie jerky movements were fueled by mounting panic making him appear to be on a sudden rampage that attracted more attention than he wanted. The fear was palpable on his face as others took notice following like something out of a Frankenstein movie.

"Alright it's on and cracking, Walter!" I snatched up my danish and juice quickly running towards those double doors with my temporary charge in tow.

After the football team trashed their fundraiser, Charity Gilbert had been allowed to extend the operation now using a book mobile setup in the main lobby replete with the battered cash register. After that legendary siege, a good portion of her peers were reticent about manning the area. This led to her almost single handedly staffing the place, not that she was making any real money. There were still hurt feelings over the lost championship game and subsequent suspension of said football team.

Ironically, Charity Gilbert was sitting in one of those metal folding chairs behind the register tapping away on her phone when she found herself in Byron's skyscraper like shadow. I kept my distance as he reached down snatching her phone with the intent of getting into it to erase his nude. It truly resembled one of those old Universal Studios monster movies.

Several teachers tried to subdue the anxious jock with Charity Gilbert being literally dragged alongside him. She'd quickly grabbed his arm not mindful of her surroundings subsequently dragged right over the countertop. The cash register fell to the floor breaking apart for good as dollars and change littered the floor.

Trusty safety officer Pops had his hands full with Byron and a hysterical Charity Gilbert comically attempting to cuff his free arm only to find himself also swept up in the baller's wake. Some coaches and a male office worker managed to pin Byron to the floor. I was on hand along with a multitude of witnesses as Charity Gilbert devolved in animalistic fashion sinking her teeth into his hand to reclaim her phone before anyone realized what she was doing. This resulted in jostling as Byron screamed wildly bucking and kicking as I captured it on my phone for prosperity.

Charity was dragged away by a school counselor and an emerging Mr. Day clutching her phone like her life depended on it and that's when everyone saw it.

The discolored blotches of skin on Byron's back that partially extended around to his abdomen. His shirt had ridden up in the scuffle. Although his teammates and some of the guys knew about it, no one else was privy to the fact that Byron was afflicted.

He legitimately had segmental Vitiligo disease, commonly associated with Michael Jackson and the Boondocks cartoon Uncle Ruckus.

Byron had been using some makeup for patches around one of his eyes as instructed by a physician, initially done by his mother. Some of the ambient chatter and odd expressions explained his desperation to erase the nude pic taken by Charity Gilbert. After he'd picked on my best friend in what would become one of the worst days in our collective lives, I was a little less than sympathetic. Charity could be seen sitting in the front office and I after all she'd put me through, it was like blood in the water.

She was likely awaiting an audience with one of the vice principals who presided over the student body. This didn't look good for the smug narcissist in the least, but I knew her well enough to know that she might be able to talk her way out of things. I wasn't done today by a long shot barely containing my mirth as I sidled up to the office door. I leaned into the frame almost straddling it between my thighs in pornographic fashion. Charity sat there staring off into space still clutching her phone in a death grip slowly realizing my presence.

"Hey Charity; are you still playing chess, or are you playing checkers?"

Her already chubby looking cheeks puffed further as her eyes squinted with a weird gregarious looking smile on her face that was nothing of the sort. I'd repeated the stolen mantra she'd related to me on the day she took a nude pic of me as well, but I still wasn't done.

"It's beyond my control."

I shrugged stepping back from the door arms outstretched still mimicking her while Pops finally managed to get his cuffs on Byron. It didn't matter because his secret was out. I started off to my first class catching myself before I started skipping.

"FUCKING MOTHER-FUCKER; I'M GONNA KILL YOU!! FUCKING KILL YOU!!" I was halfway down the main lobby when Charity tackled me from behind raining blows to the back of my head as I fell.

I wisely covered the back of my head with interlocked fingers laughing into the dirty tiled floor. Nobody realized it as she was quickly recaptured and dragged away to her fate. I played up the situation remaining face down on the floor until Mr. Day and one of the jocks helped me to my feet. The physical comedy of my movements were legitimized because a majority of the student body knew I'd been hospitalized in the past.

"What was that about Jaleel?" Mr. Day asked exasperated.

"I ain't no snitch; I'm going to class man, alright?" Inside I was laughing my fucking ass off knowing intangible, porous gossip would hit the teacher's lounge shortly.

I stalked off to class trying to look as emotionally conflicted as humanly possible. Charity Gilbert ended up on a cot in the nurse's office going through a complete mental breakdown after the school counselor confiscated her phone before dialing up her mother. Byron now exposed to the student body, was more forthcoming about his nude pic. Of course Ms. Gilbert refused to unlock her phone when asked prompting her equally distraught mentor, the vice principal to activate embattled school safety office, Pops.

"Jaleel, pack up your belongings and accompany the safety officer to the main office." Mr. Harvey instructed igniting grumbling peer commentary as I packed up.

I almost laughed at the sight of Pops sans tie, uniform shirt open wide at the collar, all sweaty. I'd caused him to go from hell and back before the morning was over. I wasn't sorry one bit wondering if somewhere Charity Gilbert was sipping on an ice cold bottle of lemon water. My clout levels were already skyrocketing through the roof as I was escorted downstairs in front of my peers to the main office. Instead of going through the main entrance, I was escorted through a secondary door finding a few counselors and the same female gym teacher who seemed to be working on a residency as a trauma counselor. She hadn't helped Ricky that time and I had nothing for her but absolute bullshit.

"Hello, you're Jaleel Perry, right?" She already knew my fucking name, but I meekly nodded.

"Yes ma'am." She looked back at the other counselors and Mr. Day for approval before continuing.

"Well Jaleel, I want you to know that you're not in any kind of trouble. We just need to ask a few questions about the disturbance this morning. You know, what I'm talking about, right?"

"I guess."

"Specifically, I'm talking about the altercation between Byron Simpson and Charity Gilbert; do you know anything about that, Jaleel?"

"I don't know ma'am, maybe." I knew it was safer riding the line between fact and fiction especially since I'd engineered the entire fiasco.

"BOY WE SAW YOU ON THE CAMERA TALKING TO CHARITY; DON'T LIE TO US!!"

Mr. Day was fit to be tied before one of the other female counselors quickly ushered him towards the door talking in hushed tones. I saw her speaking heatedly wagging her finger in front of the incompetent teacher's hangdog face.

"Look, I don't want no trouble ma'am; I was just saying I wouldn't tell." The muted dress down of Mr. Day halted as everyone focused on me. I glanced down at the dingy tiled floor. I bit into my lower lip to keep from smiling.

"Jaleel, I think you should explain yourself."

"Look ma'am, I don't want nobody to get in trouble." I folded my arms across my chest, lightly rocking back and forth on the chair they sat me in creating the false impression that I was disturbed about something.

"Would you like us to call your parent Jaleel?" I shook my head profusely still looking down at the floor. Pops to his boob like credit, placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"Come on, I know you're a good student boy; tell Ms. Thompson what she wants to know." He was trying to be reassuring but was similarly admonished in mimed finger wagging.

"Well, okay but I ain't no snitch."

"Alright, go on young man." I scratched my head leaning over in the chair resting my elbows on my knees, before looking Ms. Thompson dead in the eyes.

"I was just letting her know that I wasn't gonna say nothing about the pic she took of me. I mean, everybody was saying that Byron was mad about something like that and I saw her in the office ma'am."

I was gambling with the timeline, but the assembled adults already played their hand by admitting to watching CCTV. This told me that Charity Gilbert was still considered nigh-untouchable. They were working overtime on getting her in the clear from my estimate and that wasn't gonna fly if I had anything to do with it.

"Picture?" Ms. Thompson bullshitted again.

"Well, I thought if I let her take it, she'd be my girlfriend. The next day she ghosted me and uhm, was like "it's beyond my control" Ms. Thompson. Hey uhm- I DON'T WANT NO TROUBLE WITH JAY STELLO!!" Besides the obvious lie about the verbiage used, I wrapped everything in a neat bow with trickle truths.

"Jaleel, are you okay?"

"Uhm yeah; uh ma'am, I mean Ms. Thompson?"

"Yes?"

"Uh, please don't call my mom; I don't want her to know about the naked pic, okay?"

The fortysomething looked green around the gills along with one other teacher. They knew on some level that I was telling the truth after presumably talking to Byron. Pops continued rubbing my shoulder as I looked down at my feet feigning shame. I was left alone as the adults went into a huddle talking things over while Mr. Day shot me covert looks of disapproval. I suppose he knew I wasn't actually a shrinking violet in any regards as Ms. Thompson returned.

"I'm sorry about this, but we're gonna have to involve your parent Jaleel."

I buried my face in my hands leaving them to think I was distraught, but I was hiding a veritable Glasgow smile that would've made Treena proud. I composed myself looking up at her from my hands.

"Are you gonna ask her to erase it, ma'am?"

Charity Gilbert's parents were indeed called, but her attorney mother was working a case downtown at the courthouse leaving only her blue collar father to appear on campus. Mr. Gilbert was made aware of the situation and the fact that faculty confiscated his daughter's phone for legal reasons. Not being all that legal savvy, Mr. Gilbert ordered his daughter to unlock her phone getting a iron clad refusal until she tangentially overheard authorities might be alerted. Being deprived of her phone left the distraught honor student without a helpline to her obviously like minded mother.

The Vice principal showed up too late to stop Charity from unlocking her phone, but Mr. Gilbert ended up in custody of the item as her legal guardian. He was looking through her phone as the principal, Charity's mentor explained that it was actually illegal to confiscate and turn over student property to the cops.

Unfortunately, the damage had been done as Mr. Gilbert was made instantly aware of his daughter's true nature while the principal wrung her hands, upset. She'd already written a number of recommendation letters for her prize student for off campus programs designed to place the girl on a paved road of academic success.

The opened phone put Charity Gilbert's on campus status on the autopsy table along with the churning rumor mill organically vandalizing her social life.

Along with the single nude pic of me and Byron; there were a host of others up in double digits. Charity had documented her sexual encounters with a plethora of dick pics and a few videos of her happily screwing the stuffing out of Jay Stello and one unidentified guy who appeared to be in his late twenties, early thirties. It was a disturbing face fucking video with a sloppy facial finish that nearly made the man collapse. Mr. Gilbert barely registered the innumerable pics of Jay Stello from every angle, only noting one video clip depicting his beloved daughter milking the squealing star athlete replete with three fingers shoved up his rectum.

I'd been allowed to return to class but noticed him sitting in the lobby completely demoralized. It wasn't what I wanted, but it was a punishment well deserved. In the end, Mr. Gilbert drove back to his solitary home alone while Charity was ferried to the luxury abode shared with her mother by the vice principal.