Dearly Beloved

vii. The Detention

This wasn’t a normal detention. But, hey, what was normal at all? Let’s just say this detention differed a lot from the so-called usual detentions. As soon as they had arrived they were told to sit down and Josh said what he expected them to do.

“You will write an essay. About the Spanish Inquisition. If you have paid attention today this essay will almost seem too easy for you. If not, well, that’s why I’ve told you to borrow some books. Look up what you need. You have two hours to finish it. Starting...now.”

Billy immediately began writing, only sometimes looking something up; he was ready before the time limit was over and was allowed to leave. He gestured Dom that he would wait for him outside.
Dom sighed sadly as Billy passed him, who was secretly smiling at him encouragingly. Billy surely had written ten pages at least. In contrary to himself, who hadn’t paid attention at all during history lesson and was forced to work with the books. Slowly and word after word, sentence after sentence he managed to write down two pages. Dom figured he had given the best he could, considering the situation and with Josh being around all the time. Walking from one to the other, checking on Billy and Dom if they were doing their work correctly. Now that he was alone with him, he came more often over to Dom to see how he was doing. Dom had the great idea to write a special message for Josh, something like “Greasy Bastard!” or “Southern Slime Dung Whatever!”, but then decided against that. So instead he tried to build a conclusive sentence, something to sum it all up. Josh sucks. Hehe.

“Dominic, ten minutes left. You think you will mange it in that time?”, Josh said eventually.

Dominic nodded in response, whispering an almost inaudible “Yes.” and went on writing his last sentence.

“All in all, the Spanish Inquisition wasn’t one of the Western Civilization’s greatest moments.”

Yesss. Finished.

Dominic jumped up from his chair, relieved and happy, went over to Josh and passed him the two pages.

“Not much, huh?”, noticed Josh, but took the papers and put them in his suitcase. “Still I hope you have learned something.”

“No gang-bang at school?”, Dom guessed, a slight hint of mock in his voice.

“Ah, so detention wasn’t worthless after all, was it?.”

Josh laughed. He laughed. Teachers weren’t supposed to laugh about jokes Dom made. Oh, he was really smart, that Josh. Trying to be friends with Dom. He was clever. He was mean. He had dimples when he laughed. What the fuck? He was thinking right now about ‘Mr. Holloway’s’ dimples? Dominic decided to leave this room at once before things would start getting worse.

“But, Dom, I really need to talk to you.” He sounded serious. “I went through your school file and I noticed that you’ve been having detentions nearly every day since…since…”

“Since my Dad died, yeah, that’s right. You wanna know why, don’t you? Easy to explain. I found out I was gay shortly after it happened and I started dating a lot of guys. Not from school at first. Then I met Billy, and he became my boyfriend, we’ve been going together now for nearly 2 months, in case you’re curious. And, let me tell you something, ‘Sir’, being gay in this school isn’t a lot of fun.”

Dominic had tried to say it very fast, keeping his voice monotone. But when he had finished the last sentence he was nearly tears. He couldn’t tell why.

“So, you get into fights. How often would you say? Once a week? Or more?” Now Josh sounded worried.

“Nearly every day.” Dom watched him, wanted to know his reaction, he wanted to shock Josh, terrify him. That’s what he was best at. Scarring people. And now he had found a new victim.

“So, you get provoked. You hit them, they hit back. I know, maybe you heard this already, but did you try ignoring them?”

“Ignoring someone can hurt. And yes, I’ve heard that advice before. But, you know what? I don’t care anymore. Detention is the best that could have happened to me. When I go home no one is waiting for me outside school, waiting to beat the crap out of me. When I get detentions, I’m safe.”

Josh didn’t reply nor did he say anything else. He just stood there, looking into Dom’s eyes, seeing him shaking with fury and fighting his tears.

“I guess your mother doesn’t know about that.”, Josh finally said and slowly started walking to the door.

Dominic shook his head.

“I see. I won’t tell her either. But she must know about this detention, Dom. Because you owe your mother some parts of the truth.”

“Don’t you dare telling me that I made a mistake in not telling my mother!”, Dom suddenly shouted, outraged, and stormed over to Josh. “I am protecting her. When I tell her everything, the beat-ups, the detentions, she will break down. Again. I know it. And I don’t want her crying at night. Again.”

He jostled against his History teacher on purpose, pulled the door open with all his strength and slammed it shut. He ran outside, taking the shortest way to the entrance door, where Billy was waiting for him.

“Dominic, there ye…” He saw his boyfriend’s angry face. “…are. What happened?”

But Dom didn’t want to talk right now; instead he seized Billy’s hand and dragged him after him, leading him to his house.