Coach Assistant

By: Tim
(© 2015-2016 by the author)

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

Chapter 43  

[Still in the bedroom of Francis and Nick]

I hade no idea how long I'd been on the floor but, when I slowly opened my eyes, I knew that something had changed.  There were faces looking at me that I didn’t recognize, at least not at first ... and certainly I didn't know all of them.  But there was Alexei, the coach, and two faces that didn’t ring a bell at all.  One of them was propping my head up and assessing what the damage was to my face.  Wow!!!  Face ... pain .... I thought about what had happened and then almost lost it again.

I was never able to remember anything of what happened ... but, as I was told later, just as my dad was going for me, Alexei, the coach and someone from security reached the door.  It didn’t take them long to overpower him.  But me?  Well, I was out of it for almost five minutes before the doctor arrived and was able to check me over to see if anything was broken.

“Are you OK?” Alexei asked when I was sitting up.

“Yea, I think so.”  Then I started to remember why I'd stood up against my old man and I thought, mom ... where is she?  I turned around to see her sitting on the bed, crying softly.

“Mom, are you OK?”

“I should never have come, Francis ... then none of this would have happened.”

I tried to get up to go to her but I was pushed back by the doctor.  “Stay still for a moment, Francis.”

“No, mom, it's not your fault.”

I saw a look of surprise, at least on Alexei's face.  No one knew what had been happening lately.

“It is OK, Alexei.  It's not my mom's fault.”

I saw him walk towards her and sit beside her.  He whispered something in her ear.  He told me later that he'd had quite a few harsh thoughts when he'd walked in, only because he didn't understand what was going on.

“So, what do you want me to do with him?  Should we call the cops and hand him over to them or ....?”

“It's up to you, Francis.  I think if you and your mom want, you can get rid of him for quite a long time.  There's no way a judge will let him go,” the coach noted.

“Mom, is that what you want?”

“I don’t think what I want is important here, Francis.”

“Oh, yes, it is.  I know this won’t be easy for you but that way, you could get your own life back.”

“Do we need to decide now?”

“Decide on what?” a cop asked as he walked into the room.

 “They are not sure if they want to press charges at the moment.”

“Hmmm, I have no idea what happened.  All I've done is spend a little time downstairs listening to the recording of the phone call.  But with what I heard, I'd say they'd better press charges or he'll be back.”

“They know,” Nick’s dad said before Francis or his mom could intervene.  “But they may not be ready to do so.”

“Well, I think that for now, I'll take him in.  I'll use the phone message as sufficient cause to hold him tonight and then, you'll all have to come in to provide statements tomorrow. We'll then see if you want press charges or not.”

“Sounds like a plan to me, doesn’t it, Francis?” Alexei asked.

“Mom, are you OK with that?” Francis asked.

“Yes, that'll be OK.  We'll need to stay a bit longer down here, I guess, but that'll be fine.”

The cop removed Francis’s dad from the room and suddenly everyone became a bit more relaxed.

“You know, I was just afraid that he'd start to come around again and start ranting, Francis.”

“I'll never let him shout at you again if I can, mom.”

“I know, son, but I have to decide on that myself ... and right now, I'm just too confused and scared to think about doing anything.”

“Well, there's no need to decide anything at the moment.  I guess from your reaction, Francis, that you were able to talk before he entered?”

“Yea, we did.”  I saw a smile on my mom’s face and thought, yea, that's good, she can smile.

Maybe this was all going to be OK.  Maybe it was just something that needed to happen.  But why today?  It'd all started so well.

I looked at the doctor who'd, during this conversation, been busy checking out my face and head.

“So, how I am doing, doc?  We were planning to go out to party, so I hope I still can do that?”

“Hmmmm, I don’t want to be the wrench in your plans, young man, but I think we need to check out the possibility of concussion to your head.  It looks OK but I don’t want to take any chance with it.  Together with the shock, the blow might have caused more trauma than we can see from here.”

“Oh, damn!  Can’t we do that later on ... like tomorrow morning or so?”

“No, if it's something serious, waiting isn’t a good idea, so I'll go down now and call an ambulance.  I'll be back when they arrive.  Just make sure you keep still.”

He left the room.  I saw the concerned looks on everyone's face.  “Stop worrying, I'll be fine.”

Nick’s dad had gone to sit beside my mother now and Alexei took the chair beside me.

“If it is all OK with you, I'll leave.  I'll ask Reception to make sure you get another room. When you leave for the hospital, we'll make sure your stuff is transferred there, too.”

With that he left the room.

We sat like that in silence for a while.  I knew that Alexei was concerned about me and I had an idea that Nick’s dad felt the same way about my mom, but I didn’t feel like talking ... or at least, not a lot.  There was a knock on the door and I thought, well, the ambulance is here.  I closed my eyes as more and more what had happened started to sink into me. But when, after a few minutes, nobody responded, I opened them and looked around.

A strange women had entered the room and was looking at my mom and Nick’s dad.  She was about to turn around and leave when Alexei walked over to her.

“What are you doing here?”

“I'd better ask you that!”

“These are my friends.”  I'm not sure what I saw on Alexei’s face but he looked a bit confused.

“Oh, well ... I wanted to see how you were all doing.  The security guy said I could walk in now.  I was with Nick’s dad when they called him to say there was trouble in one of the rooms, so I followed him upstairs after I paid the barman.”

“Hi!  We're doing OK,” Nick’s dad answered, having seen her face as he turned around.

“Good!  Is he OK as well?” as she pointed at Francis.

“We'll go to the hospital in a moment to make sure, but the doctor thought he was,” Alexei answered.

It then occurred to me that they all knew her.  I hadn’t recognized her at first but it was James’s mom.

Nick’s dad went over to her and started to whisper in her ear.  Alexei came back to me.  When he sat down beside me. I whispered, “Does she know about you two?”

I saw the color disappear from Alexei’s face.  “Yea, she found us earlier.”

“Oh, so James came out to her?”

“Yes.”

“How did she take it?”

“It began badly ... but I think James was able to show her he loved her and that he loved me like she used to love her husband.”

“Good ... now he'll be coming with us on holiday for sure, then.”

“Oh, damn!!!  We didn’t talk about that yet ... but I'm not quite sure she'll be happy with James spending time with me on a holiday so soon.”

“We'll see.  We can always let Nick ... shit ...  Nick ... where is he?  He should have been back by now.”

“Back ... what do you mean ... back, Francis?”

“Well, he left while my mom and I talked and he was going to tell you and the others that we'd be ready in about an hour to go partying.”

“Oh, well, he never spoke to us or to David ,,, as I was talking to David just before I walked over here ... so I guess he's with Brad and Andy.  I'll go see him while you go off with the ambulance.  Make sure he gets to the hospital OK.”

“Yea, sounds fine ... although I'd love to have him with me in the ambulance ... but it might be better not to do that, I guess, as my mom'll be there.”

“Ah, excellent ... you had a good talk, Francis?”

“Yep, it seems my dad has been behind this for years and that she just didn’t feel she had the power to go against him.  And there are her religious beliefs as well ... but I think she loves me enough not to let those beliefs bother her too much at the moment.”

“Good ... well, you can talk with your mom tomorrow, to see what you'll do about your dad.  There's no need to think too much about that right now, Francis.”

“Alexei ... are you going with us to the hospital?” Nick dad asked.

“Yea, but I'll go and tell the others what's happening and that we won’t be going out.”

“Sounds like a plan!  Francis, your mom can go with you in the ambulance if that's OK with you and I'll come around by car.”

“That's fine, sir.”

“OK ... well ... oh, damn ... I totally forgot about Nick.  Do you have any idea where he is?”

“No, but Alexei said he'll go and look for him.  We think he's with Brad and Andy.”

“OK, then I'll go and see where that ambulance is,” he said ... and, together with James’s mom, he walked out of the room.

“The ambulance will be here soon, so I'll go and see if I can find the others and let them know what's happening.  Then I'll drive Nick to the hospital.  Will you be OK waiting here with your mom?”

“Yea, go ahead and tell Nick not to worry, that I'm doing OK.”

‘Will do ... although I'm not sure he'll believe me.”  With that, Alexei left the room, too.  Francis looked at his mom.  He knew that Nick would be upset, especially if he wasn't informed right away ... but driving to the hospital with his mom would be good as they needed the time together.

[In the elevator descending to the lobby stood Nick’s dad and James's mom]

“So, do you think he'll be OK?”

“Looks like it, but I want to go to the hospital as soon as the ambulance arrives, making sure we get there as they arrive.  I don’t think his mom is up to filling in forms.”

“So you make that your work, then, Coach?”

“Oh, well, it's part of the job, I guess.  Specially while we're out of town.”

“Yea, I thought it would.  So you don’t have to go and see your other son then?”

“No, I talked with his girlfriend and they'll be fine.  They need to talk, too. We can have our chat later.”

“Good.  Hmmmmm ...,” as shepunched Nick’s dad on his shoulder.  “You know, that man over there is waving at you.  Do you know him?”

“Shit, a reporter!  We can do without him at the moment.”

“OK, I'll go and talk to him and see what he wants.  I'll go and see James and then we'll probably join you at the hospital.”

“Well, there's no need for all of you to come and join us.  They'll do a few test and then he'll be able to go home with us, I'm sure.”

“To be honest, if Alexei is driving over there with Nick, then I think that James'll want to be with them.  The sooner they all know what happened, the faster we'll all get past this.”

“OK, that's true.  Then I'll see you later, Mrs. .... ummmm.”

“Sandra to you, OK?”

“Wow, what a nice name!”

“Thanks, ummmmm.”

“Oh, I'm Robert.  It seems we didn’t properly introduce ourselves, did we?”  With that, he got a bit closer to her and took her hand.  “Hi, I'm Robert.”  He got even closer and kissed her on her left cheek.

She started to blush but, as he moved towards her mouth, they both heard an ambulance's siren stop in front of the hotel.

“I'd better get back up and make sure they're ready to go.  So, see you later, Sandra.”

“You bet, Robert.”  

While they got Francis loaded into the ambulance, Alexei went to look for Nick and bring every one up to speed.

[In Peter and Andrew's room ... no, they haven't been forgotten!]

“Have you ever thought about coming out at school before, Peter?”

“Well, I've thought about it yet, but more in terms of nightmares.”

“Do you think it'd be that bad?”

“Well, let's say that with everyone talking about us in terms like 'fags' and 'fucking queers,' it makes you wonder about the advanatges of coming out.” 

“Don’t you think there are more like us or Francis and Nick?”

“Must be. I'd say ... but still, it'd be a big chance to take, and I'm not sure I can handle it.”

“Yea, it'd change things a lot ... some for the better,” and with that, he kissed Peter on his lips.

“So you're sure about all this?” Andrew asked.

“Well, 'sure' is a big word, Andrew, but it sounds like the best choice.  I know we'd have the support of Francis and Nick and maybe a few others but then again there might be a lot of people against us as well.”

“Still, it doesn’t feel right, you know.  We could try to stop it, you know.”

“You think ... well, at this point, I don’t see a way out of it.  I thought about telling our parents, but that would still not be enough, you know, and then again I am not sure I want to tell our parents how all this happened, either.”

“No, definitely not.  I'd be so embarrassed.  Coming out at school sounds simpler.”

“Yea, that's what I thought.  Well, we'd better go through with it then.”

“Yea, so how long do we have before we have to be there?”

“Too soon,” and they kissed a bit more.  “I love you, you know that?”

“Hmmmm ... yea, let's go.”

[In the meantime, Alexei reached the door of Brad and Andy's room]

He knocked on the door and waited, trying to be as patient as he could.  When he didn’t hear a thing, he knocked again.

“Yea, yea, we're coming.”  He heard some snickering in the background but, before he could knock again, the door opened.

“Hi, Alexei.”

“Hi, Brad.”

“I told you, Andy, they'd all be waiting for us, but you just didn’t want to listen to me, did you?”

“Oh, I listened ... but there was just too much going on, and I wasn't going to let this chance pass by.”

“Hi, Alexei,” Andy said as we walked out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel.

“OK, it seems I caught you at a bad time, guys.”

“Well, not a bad time ... but you could have stayed away a bit longer,” Andy answered.

“OK, guys.  I don't think we need to go into details, you know.”

“Are you afraid they might shock you?”

“I can see you're in a good mood, guys, but I don’t have time for a lot of chit chat.”

That last sentence sure got their attention as they both looked at him.  “Something the matter, Alexei?”

“Well, you could say that.  Francis is now on his way to the hospital, so we're not going out clubbing tonight.”

‘Wow!  What happened?” they both said at the same time.

“I don’t know if you know the whole story with Francis and his parents?”

“Oh, damn!  Not again!”

“Shit, yea.  You know them, Brad.  Of course, I forgot about that.”

“What happened, Alexei?  Is he alright?  And where is Nick?”

“Well, you knew that Francis's mom was here.  They went upstairs and talked ... well, Francis and his mom did ... Nick went to tell you we'd be a bit late.  Then it seems Francis's dad found out where his mom was and he went to their room.  Then he forced his way in but luckily Francis was able to call Reception and he left the line open when his father barged in.  But Security and the coach came too late to stop Francis's father from punching him on his face.”

“Oh, shit!  I knew that he'd do that one day.  You should have seen how they responded when they found out about us!”

“Yea, I guess so ... but I hoped his mom would have been more careful about this all.  Well to conclude ... the doctor wanted to make sure that no internal damage was done to his head, so Francis has been taken to the hospital for some tests.”

“Good.  Do you know which hospital so we can join them?”

“No, I'm not sure, but Reception will know.  I'll go first to see where the others are and tell them about the change in plans and then we can all go out.”

“Where is his father now, Alexei?”

“A cop came and took him away, I assume to jail ... but his mom road with Francis to the hospital and the coach is on his way there, too.”

“Well, you'd better go and tell the rest.  We'll meet you downstairs in about 10.”

“Yea, sounds good.  So, do you have any idea where Nick is?”

“Nick isn’t with Francis?”

“No, he doesn't even know what happened yet.  He left to give Francis and his mom some time to talk and he was going to tell you guys that they'd be a bit late.  I had hoped he was with you.”

“No, we haven't seen him.  Did you check if he was with Peter and Andrew?”

“They were next on my list, guys, but I'm not sure which room they have.  Do you know?”.

“Oh, I think they're four doors down this corridor.”

“OK.  Well, I'll see you in about 10 minutes downstairs.”

Alexei left their room and went down the corridor.  He checked to see if it was the 4^th door and knocked on it.  Again he waited, but there was no sound from within.  He knocked again.  When he didn’t hear anything, he decided he'd better go look in on James and David because they might have seen him.

He walked back to his own room which was on the same floor as Brad and Andy's and Peter and Andrew’s.  Then he'd go down one floor again to get David and tell someone from the hotel staff what had happened so they'd know the coach wasn't going to be around tonight to supervise.

He walked into their room and looked to see where James was.  His eyes stopped at the bed as there, lying in his white briefs, was James.  He could hear him snore softly.

Wow!  What a sight, he thought.  Now, if he only could ... no, there was no time.  He'd better wake him up.  He walked slowly towards James and sat on the side of the bed.  He moved a bit forward with one hand going to the bulge that was in James's briefs and the other towards James's face.  He then put his hand on James's bulge and, the moment he did that, James let out a soft moan and a smile appeared on his face.  It was very tempting to tease him further but Alexei knew there was not a lot of time.

He slowly got closer to James and kissed him on the cheek.  When that didn’t have the desired effect, he kissed him on the lips.  This time he felt that, slowly, his kiss was returned.  “Hi,” Alexei said gently as he moved back from James's lips.

“Hi!  Are you going to join me?  We still had some unfinished business from before we got interrupted.”

“Oh, I know, James!  It was tempting, seeing you sleeping like that.  You looked like an angel to me.”

“Ah!  The others are ready to leave?”

“Well, not exactly.  Something has come up, so we're not going to go clubbing after all.”

As it had gotten the attention of Andy and Brad, these words had the same effect on James.

“What happened?  Is everybody OK?”

“Yea, well, sort of.  They're taking Francis to the hospital to make sure he's fine.”

“Damn!  What happened?”

“Well, it seems his father found out he and his mom were here, so he came to butt in.”

“And Nick?  How is he?”

“Lost,” Alexei said with concern, more or less the way he felt about not being able to find Nick so far.

“Yea, I guess I'd feel that way if something happened to you, Alexei.”

“Oh, but Nick doesn’t know what happened.  He left Francis to tell us all that they'd be a bit late but, so far, I have no idea where he is.  He hasn’t been to see Brad or Andy and he hasn’t been here.  Peter and Andrew are not in their room, so I hope he's either with David or hanging around downstairs.”

“Well, I'll get dressed and see you downstairs in a moment, then.”

‘Yea, let's do that.  There's no time to waste.”

“Good.  You'll go see David now?”

“Yea.”  He kissed James and started to walk towards the door.  Just before he reached it, he turned around.

“Oh, and you're definitely up for more later, James.  You've left me with an image in my mind that will last a long time.”

He closed the door and walked to the elevator.  The more he though about it, the more he got a feeling that something wasn't right.  Why had Nick not shown up anywhere?

He knocked on David's door, which after some delay, opened a little.  David peered through the narrow gap.  He clearly wasn't happy about being interrupted.

“Oops, wrong timing again, I guess?”

“Hi, Alexei.  Well, a bit, yea.”

“So that means that Kathy came back to you?”

“Yes, but you can come in if you want.  I think she'll be decent by now.”

“OK ... but does that mean that Nick isn't with you?”

“He'd better not be,” David said, grinning.  “The idea of him hiding in here somewhere, spying on us, is just a bit too much, Alexei.”

“Damn!  Where is he then?”

“What is going on, Alexei?  I think you'd better come in.”

He saw that Kathy wasn't around, so she must have gone into the bathroom while we talked at the door.

“You'd better sit down, David.  Francis's father found them.”

“What!  Where are they?  Are they OK?  That bastard!!!  How?”

“Wow!  Take it easy David.”  I wanted to continue but at that point Kathy came out of the bathroom.  "What is going on, guys?" she asked.

“Francis's dad was here, Kathy.”

“Damn!  How are the guys coping with that?”

“Well, I don’t think that Nick knows and Francis ... well, he found out the hard way.”

“What?”

“Yea, he broke into their room while Francis was talking with his mom and Nick was out to tell everyone we'd be going out later.”

“Oh, shit!  So what happened?”

Alexei told them what had happened so far.

“And Nick doesn’t know yet?”

“No, David.  I've seen everyone now and I haven’t found him yet.  Peter and Andrew were not on their room, so they might be somewhere downstairs.”

“Shit!  Well, we'd better go and find him and then get to the hospital.”  He'd turned around and started to get his clothes to get dressed.  After he dropped his towel and got his briefs on, he turned around and said, “You know, Alexei, I'd hoped that this would be over for them, that today was the start of a good year.  They deserve it, the both of them, you know?”

“Yea, you're right.  Well maybe Francis will be OK and Nick could just be downstairs.”

When David was dressed, he and Kathy made their way out of the door with Alexei to the elevator.

While they stood in the elevator, Alexei said, “The others should be there by now.  I told them to meet me downstairs at Reception.”

They came into the lobby.  Alexei noticed that James was talking with his mom and that Andy and Brad were on the other side.  It wasn't clear why they didn’t want to be seen with the others, so David walked toward them and Alexei went to talk to James and his mom.

“Hey, guys!  Why aren't you with James and his mom?” David asked.

“Well, there was a reporter down there a moment ago and we didn’t want to be too obvious.”

“Well, he seems to be gone now or is he still around?”

“Yea, he left after James’s mom talked with him.”

“Oh, so you know about James’s mom then?”

“Yes, when James came downstairs, it was way too obvious who it was.”

“Well, let’s go over to them and see if we can find Nick.”

“Alexei didn’t find him?” Brad asked.

“No, not yet.”

They walked towards Alexei, James and his mom.

“So all he wanted to know was who'd been arrested and if it had anything to do with the ambulance that was at the door.”

“Yea.  He came back when he found out they were waiting for one of the gymnasts ... but he wasn't able to see who as, by then, they'd moved the ambulance into the garage.”

“Good!  So now we're all here ... well, almost.  Has any of you seen Nick?”

Silence.  “And Andrew or Peter?”

No response again.  "Well, we'd better check the stores, the restaurant and bar to see if he's there."  You could hear the disappointment and worry in his voice.

“We'll stay here and see if he turns up.  We'll also check at Reception,” David said.

We all spread out, checking the ground floor. Alexei got back from the restaurant pretty quickly as he'd already known there wouldn't be a lot of people around anymore.

He walked towards David who just left Reception.

“Let's sit here," he said as they moved over to the lounge area.

“Where is he, Alexei?  And where are Peter and Andrew?”

“Well, they might have run into each other ... or Peter and Andrew might have gone out.  But still the fact that Nick is not here is starting to worry me, David.”

“You don’t think that Francis's dad got to him before he went upto the room, do you?”

To be continued...

Posted: 04/29/16