In The Dreaming: Chapter Nineteen "Caught in the Act" (Fantasy Y/A Novel)

-I wrote the following novel nearly two decades ago. In the years between then and now I've honed my craft, and my perception of this world; my thoughts and ideas; have changed dramatically. However, I still enjoy the premise and have decided to do an overhaul of revisions and rewrites, though likely not until sometime next year. (Though I'm sure I'll do a little as I post chapters)

For now I hope you will enjoy a glimpse into my book writing beginnings...

They are the closest of friends though they have never met in waking life.

Prologue-PT1 Prologue-PT2 Chapter 1

Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7

Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10

Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13

Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16

Chapter 17
Chapter 18

Chapter Nineteen

“Stop it Ben,” Collin cut him off with venom “Don’t cover for me.” He turned and looked the teacher square in the eye.

“Look, the only person to blame here is me, I paid a guy to buy us beer, we were sitting around playing poker in our room when Ben showed up, and I conned him into taking us out.” He knew he would never buy the story, this teacher whom he had shared lunches with many times over the past few years. But he wanted to make a point that this was a story he was sticking by and no one could prove otherwise.

Mr. Lambrou shook his head. “All right boys, let’s take a walk across the street to the diner, get some coffee, and figure out what we’re going to do from here.” He looked at the bartender. “Don’t worry, you won’t be hearing any more from us.” Relief filled the old man's eyes and he moved to attend to the injured men who were mostly all standing by this time.

“Could you give me one minute?” Collin asked. Mr. Lambrou raised his eyebrows but inclined his head.

He approached Sophia with a little less confidence than before.

“Sixteen?” She asked simply.

“I go to the Jarien institute. I do actually study entomology, and will be attending Cornell next year.”

She smiled, “A genius, huh? Well I don’t feel as bad then. Tell you what, why don’t I give you my number, and you can give me a call when you get to Cornell.” She jotted it down on a napkin and handed it to Collin grasping his fingers for a moment as he took it. She leaned forward and whispered “Where did you learn to fight like that?”

He laughed shortly and shrugged. “You’ll be hearing from me.”

“I hope so.”

He glanced over at the men who'd been fighting and every one of them were looking back at him with surprised respect. He backed towards the door with a wry smile, then turned and walked outside to join his group.

They walked into the Red Eye Coffee express, and the fighting trio headed to the bathroom to clean up.

“What do you think he’s going to do?” Brent asked.

Collin shrugged, “He’s a cool guy, maybe he’ll give us a break.”

Ben kept looking over at him, then finally spoke, “That was incredible man, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Brent looked confused, “Like what?”

“Didn’t you see him?”

“You mean during the fight?” he shook his head, “I had my hands full with a guy that put me in a headlock, then someone grabbed him and another guy spun me around.”

“Collin grabbed the guy that had you in the headlock and Collin took out most of the others by himself. I can only claim two. And I thought I could fight,” he whistled under his breath.

Collin looked away, uncomfortable. He didn't talk about his life before he'd come to the school and wasn't starting now. “Whatever man, I didn’t think about it I just started swinging.”

“Well, I’m just glad you were on my side!” They dried their hands and headed over to the table where the rest of the group were seated staring down at their hands. Mr. Lambrou’s friend had decided to stay behind, probably to help clean up and let the teacher talk to his students in private.

“Of course I don’t believe that Mr. Capri should take full responsibility here,” He held up his hand as Collin started to speak. “However, I know that he is prepared to do so anyway. What I propose instead is an informal warning, basically you will be under academic probation, but at this point I will be the only one who knows. However, if something further were to happen down the road, I will have to bring this incident out to the light."

"You are all good boys," he continued, "and we've had no trouble with you in the past. I’m a firm believer in allowing for mistakes, as long as those mistakes can be learned from. You will learn from this mistake, eh boys?” The four of them nodded affirmative, while Ben sat looking at the table. Up to this point the teacher hadn’t acknowledged his presence, now he turned to him.

“And you are?”

“He’s my brother,” Brent said with a defensive tone.

“Okay Brent’s brother, how about the next time you come to visit, you not be so easily manipulated by my young friend,” he shot Collin a knowing look “and stick to more healthy activities to entertain you while you are here, hmm?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good.” He ordered coffee for the table and offered to buy them breakfast, but they all declined.

“Well then, I suppose I will be eating a lot of food by myself,” he proceeded to order 6 plates of eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes.

“I think we can put this whole matter behind us, after one more question. What started the fight?” He sat back and smiled.

Jake spoke up finally “Gerald got a little bit excited about a song and decided to sing Karaoke-on the bar.”

“Thanks a lot big mouth,” Gerald still had a bit of a slur, but he was sobering at a rapid rate.

“Really? And this caused a fight?”

“Well, he also kicked over some big guys drink in the process,” Brent volunteered.

“I see,” the teacher tittered. “You know when I was about your age I was the cause of a rather large bar fight myself. That’s right,” he said to the raised eyebrows, “only it was over a young lady.”

He told them the story, and they all relaxed, laughing at the idea of Mr. Lambrou being a handsome, strapping, hormonal young man who enjoyed a good “fist throwing gambit” now and again.

They ate their late night breakfast with relish, and Mr. Lambrou insisted they sit and drink coffee for awhile longer, then he gave Ben his own, creative field sobriety test, which he passed with ease.

“Well, I am going across the street to see if my friend has run off with a pretty young thing in my absence, I trust you boys will be headed straight back to campus?” He nodded, satisfied at their enthusiastic response, paid the check and headed out.

“I told you it was a bad idea. Bad, I said, and look I went and started a huge fight, almost got us into big trouble.”

“Relax Gerald, almost is the keyword here. Besides, it makes for a great story to tell over and over and…

“No! Don’t you dare, it’s bad enough you told the professor, now he thinks I’m a lush.”

“Oh he does not, he thinks you’re a young man who-

“Dances around singing about raining men, now what that was all about is what I want to know,” Ben cut in.

“You guys are all jerks.”

“No seriously.” Ben stood from the table and did a mock performance, swinging his arms around in an exaggeratedly feminine manner. He batted his eyelashes, and that was enough for Gerald.

He stood up and pounded his fists on the table, “If you are insinuating that I am a homosexual, I will have you know that I dated a girl quite seriously at my old school.”

“Quite seriously? How old were you 12? You’re hilarious dude.”

“I was smitten with her!”

“Look, I’m just bustin’ your balls, if you swing the other way, that’s totally up to you Geraldine, I have no problem with fags.”

Gerald’s face had gone from a fiery red to a dangerous looking purple, and Collin who had been sitting back chuckling at the scene decided he better step in before he burst some blood vessels. “Okay guys, Ben-this is all very funny, but let’s not start another fight in the diner across the street, huh? Tell Gerald you’re joking around, and let’s get out of here.”

Ben looked at Collin and grinned. “All right, all right, I’m just giving you a hard time, I don’t really think you’re a Mary.” Gerald stared hard at him, waiting for more, and Ben never one to disappoint coughed “Geraldine” into his hand.

“That’s it, let’s take this outside!”

Brent and Jake stepped in and grabbed Gerald’s shoulder “Can’t you see he just likes to get a reaction and you’re giving it to him?” Jake reasoned.

“Yeah seriously Gerald, he doesn’t think you’re gay, that’s just the way he is, it’s usually my balls he’s busting but I’m not as much fun because I’ve learned not to react.”Brent turned and gave a stern look to his brother who chuckled in response.

They pushed Gerald towards the door, urging him to calm down, but the anger on his face didn’t disappear. Ben was laughing the whole way, got in the car still laughing, while Gerald stared daggers into his back.

They drove back to the institute talking animatedly about the night. Gerald continued to sit in sullen silence, and then they were pulling into the long brick driveway.

Once back inside their room, Ben asked Collin about Sophia.

He pulled the napkin out of his pocket.

“You got her number? She’s a cradle robber!”

“Nah, she told me to give her a call when I get to Cornell.”

“Nice! She wasn’t even pissed?”

“Guess not,” Collin acted nonchalant, but secretly he was very pleased.

“She must be hot for guys who can hold more than their own in a fight.”

Gerald had gone straight to his room and slammed the door.

“Jeez, that guy needs to chill.” Ben walked over and knocked on the door to his room.

“Leave me alone!” he shouted from inside.

“Listen man, I apologize, all right? I wasn’t serious, I don’t think you’re gay. You’re just so much fun to get going.”

He was greeted by stony silence.

“I tried,” he said and walked back to the living room.

A couple seconds later Gerald came out, he had changed his clothes, which he said was to get the stink of cigarettes and booze out of his nose. Ben held his hand out for a sign of truce, and Gerald took it warily, waiting for his next comment, but Ben was finished for the night.

“You know I have never seen someone get that drunk that quick, and sober up just as quickly,” Brent grinned at Gerald.

“Well, seeing one’s teacher in a place where you aren’t supposed to be, doing something you’re not supposed to do has a distinctly sobering affect.”

“I hear you on that one.”

They all slumped on the couch, exhaustion from the night’s events finally catching up to them.

They turned on the T.V. and Collin felt his eyes closing minutes later.

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