Uptown Boys

Chapter 15:

“I'm the strongest, soundest stoical, daringest man, who's most heroical”

--Eli´s POV --

“Just explain to me, Madison. How the hell did this happen?” The water was still running at the other side of the bathroom door, as it had been for the last couple of minutes.

“Leave it alone already.” I heard his muffled reply.

“I don’t understand how one second you’re walking behind me and the other…” I let it hang there, not wanting to finish the sentence. I was sitting on my bed, boring holes on the door Madison was hiding behind with my eyes.

I think at that point, if Armstrong would have decided to waltz into the room, I would have killed him. Or punch him at least. Anything, seeing as Madison could only fall on his knees at the sight of him. I didn’t understand. He didn’t want to; he said he didn’t want to. I saw he didn’t want to. Fuck, then why did he? All those years, couldn’t he see it wasn’t…. Why didn’t he want to tell someone?

“How long are you going to stay in there?” I heard the water being turned off and one moment later he was walking into the room, avoiding my eyes. “Tell me what happened.”

“You know what happened.” He muttered as he jerked open one of his desk’s drawers. I gritted my teeth.

“How?”

“He caught up to me when we were walking back to the table.” He lit a cigarette and leaned to face the open window. I waited a few seconds to see if he continued.

“So?” I pushed.

“So that. You know the rest.”

“So that? So he ran into you in the middle of the school yards, surrounded by people and you decided to go and have sex?”

Why did he have to sound so calm about it? He turned his head to look at me, frowning, like that was enough answer.

“Madison, please say something. It sounds like…like you didn’t-”

“Shut up, Eli. You know how it is.”

“No, I don’t! I don’t understand why you want to keep it a secret. Why don’t you want to tell someone? I’m starting to think you actually like it.” Which was a lie. I wouldn’t think that after seeing him earlier. He straightened up and turned completely to glare at me.

“I don’t. You stupid asshole, you know I don’t.”

I got up, my hands clenched in fists. “Then turn him in. What’s stopping you?”

“I….” He looked down, still frowning. “It’s not like he raped me, Eli.”

“Well, then what the hell happened? Because it sounds damn close to it.”

He sighed and sat down on his own bed, the cigarette forgotten on the windowsill. I hesitated but decided against sitting next to him. He glanced up and down again before talking.

“I thought it could be the last time.” He shrugged. “That he’ll leave me alone afterwards.”

“And?”

“And he wants me to come over next week.”

I really thought I was going to scream at this point.

“Oh. Oh, and let me guess, you’ll go then and see if that’s the last time.” I saw him tense up.

“Fuck off, Eli.”

“Don’t tell me to fuck off, Madison. I think it’s pretty obvious how things work for him and-”

“Why do you care so much?” he grunted.

“Why? Would you rather I just sit here and say nothing? My…my roommate is being…. Since when is this even happening?!”

He looked to the side. “I told you to fuck off.”

“Dammit, Madison!”

“Why are you so mad?!” He jumped to his feet.

“I’m not mad at you!”

“I didn’t say you were mad at me.” His voice was reaching a dangerous tone. “Why are you so mad?”

“I-”

“I’m just your roommate, right? Why are you mad if I’m just your roommate?”

This was a nightmare. He couldn’t be bringing that up right now. No matter if I thought his insecurities and Armstrong were actually connected or whatever, we were in the middle of an argument. I was in the middle or restraining myself from punching him in the face.

“We are not discussing that now,” I ground out and I saw his face heat up.

“I didn’t mean that! I’m just saying you should mind your own business.”

We fell into an awkward silence after that and I sat back down slowly.

“Madison, I’m not just going to leave this alone. You don’t want to talk about it? Fine, suit yourself. But I’m going to find a way to get Armstrong the hell away from here.”

He stuck his chin up.

“How?”

“I’m going…I’m going to talk to my parents.” Madison’s face froze in shock before twisting into an ugly scowl. His open palms were now pressing against his legs.

“You’re not,” he spat. “Stay out of this.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “No.”

“You can’t…You think they’re going to listen? I’ve met your mother.”

“I don’t know, but at least I’m doing something.”

“Eli, stop it!” He jumped up and stalked over to stand in front of me. “You can’t talk to them; an hour ago you didn’t even want to sit next to them! Please, just leave it alone.”

That speech would have probably been more convincing if he hadn’t looked murderous at the time. Or if his hands hadn’t been shaking as he gripped the end of his sweater’s sleeves. I sighed and grabbed his arms tightly to pull him closer but he jerked back.

“Madison…I’m doing it.”

His face scrunched up again. “Why?”

“You know why.”

There was a knock on the door. We both jumped and looked at door, expecting it to open.

“Eli? Are you in here?” My mother’s voice floated in from outside. I looked at Madison, who was already staring angrily at me.

“Eli-”

“I’m doing it, Madison.” He pushed me away and walked to the door. I stopped him when he was already turning the knob. “Madison, stay. Please.”

He turned to me, his eyes cold behind his hair. “Fuck you.” And he was out.

My parents shuffled in before the door closed on their faces, my mother looked annoyed.

“I thought he was sick, Eli.” She said and surveyed the room with a disapproving look on her face. “It wouldn’t hurt to tidy up once in a while. Which one is your bed?” She looked between Madison’s mess of sheets and mine, which was also covered in both of our clothes. My uniform was still on the floor along with a few textbooks. My father took a seat on Madison’s desk chair.

I hoped neither spotted the cigarette that was still hanging from the window. Luckily the room didn’t smell.

“This one.” I sat on my bed and rolled my chair away from my desk for my mother. She looked a bit surprised by the gesture but took a seat nonetheless.

I hated asking for things from my parents. But besides that, if they didn’t handle what I was about to tell them well…I didn’t know how it could turn out. The way I saw it, they could react in two different ways. One was to be totally scandalized (my mother, that is) and call the police or whatever instantly. The other was my father making a few phone calls to take care of it quietly. I didn’t expect what actually happened.

“I talked to Richard’s son earlier; he said he didn’t see you. Did you look for him at all, Eli?” My mother started, looking around again.

“I-”

“Have you been doing your school assignments? When are we going to see your grade report?” She was tapping her fingers on her knee.

“Mom.” I stopped her before she could go on. She glanced at me sideways; she knew I wanted to ask for something.

“What is it?”

“I…I need help. It’s-” I looked from her to my father, who was staring, waiting for me to finish. “It’s important.”

I didn’t know how to word it; I didn’t know what was exactly happening, only that it had to stop. True, the times I saw Madison go meet with him he was going on his own accord. Miserable, but no one was forcing him. So, what to say?

“Go on.” My mother crossed her legs and I rested my arms on mine.

“Something happened and I don’t know exactly what to do about it. He didn’t want me to tell but-”

“Who?”

“Madison, he-”

“What have you two done?” my mother hissed. I looked up to see her mouth in a thin line and her eyes wide in anger.

“Nothing!” I snapped defensively. “It’s not something he did. Well, technically, it is but it’s not his fault,” I muttered.

“Eli, what-”

“Madison has been sleeping with Mr. Armstrong.” I rushed through the sentence and the words hung between us until I continued. “I don’t know how long it has been happening, but I think it’s been for a few years now and, and it’s not like he…Armstrong’s forcing him to do it. He said he didn’t want to, Madison said. And Holley knows about it, he’s Armstrong assistant or something. Madison didn’t want to tell but he did it again today and…and I need you to do something because I…I don’t know what to do.” I stopped for air as I stared at my parents. My father was frowning to himself while my mother gaped wide-eyed directly at me. A second passed before she clucked her tongue and waved her hand in the air.

“Eli, seriously…” she laughed.

“What?” I asked, bewildered.

“Why do you believe this boy? Do you realize what you’re saying is impossible? For a fine man like Taylor…. I never trusted that boy, no.” She said, looking to the side and fixing her hair absently. My father was still silent.

“You only met him today,” I growled. “And he didn’t tell me - I saw it.”

“Did you see Mr. Armstrong…touching this boy?” My father asked surprising both my mother and me.

“N-no, but-”

“You can’t go accusing people of something like that based on what a boy like him tells you.” He got up. “This is not something to joke about.”

“I’m not joking. Madison didn’t make this up! I saw him go into his office, I saw-”

“You never witnessed any interaction between them.”

“And why isn’t he here telling us this with you?” My mother got up too and put her hands on her skinny hips.

“He didn’t want me to tell. Listen, if you talk to him then-”

“No, Eli, that is enough.” My father put his hand up and motioned to my mother to walk to the door.

I saw red. They were leaving, actually leaving when I was trying to tell them something.

“What if it’s true?” I asked their backs. My mother turned around as my father opened the door.

“If it were true, I don’t see how it has anything to do with you. We don’t need to be involved in any scandal.”

“Good-bye, son.”

“We’ll see you at Christmas.”

I paced around the room for about half an hour before I was calm enough to go look for Madison. I never got to do it though, as when I was opening the door to leave I bumped into Keith.

“Oh, hey!” He laughed. “I was about to knock…. Were you leaving? We kinda wanted to talk to you.” I looked behind him to see Francis, of course.

“I can’t now,” I mumbled and made to walk past them.

“It’s about Madison.” Francis stopped me. I sighed. What now? What else could possibly be wrong?

“What about Madison?”

“We should talk inside, no?” Keith proposed and held open the door. I narrowed my eyes at him but he just smiled. Once inside he flopped on Madison’s bed like it was his own and my glare intensified. Francis closed the door and stood by it.

“Well, what is it?” I asked.

“He’s the one that wanted to talk.” Keith pointed at his friend. I turn to him and raised my eyebrows in question.

“I think he was having sex with Mr. Armstrong behind the stage today,” he said and Keith sat up.

“Whoa, Fran! You go straight to the point don’t you?” He laughed again. Francis was looking at me.

“What is it to you?” I asked him as calmly as I could seeing as my stomach had just dropped.

“We thought those were just rumors,” Keith said. “Is he really?” I didn’t answer.

“Have you told somebody?” Francis asked. “Those started a while back.”

“What?”

“The rumors. People have been talking for years.” Keith walked to stand next to me.

“Have you told somebody?” I looked between them. They looked serious. Keith’s smile was full of sympathy. I gritted my teeth; I guess Madison didn’t want people to look at him like that.

“I tried today. Didn’t go so well.” Francis sighed.

“We can help, if you can convince Madison to talk to us.”

I scoffed. “What can you do?”

Francis glared at me but Keith spoke up before he could. “Not us, my father.”

Hey, sorry again for being so late. Thanks for all the reviews, favs and for adding to alerts :D

Thanks to Lain for editing!

nonaccount, I promise the Armstrong thing will end soon D:

Chapter title from: “I’m the Bravest Individual” (Sweet Charity)

Check out the new fanart! And Lain´s video thingy!