A Matter of Betrayal Ch. 04

"At this point I felt relief wash over me. I figured Seth was there to buy some of my stuff. 'If you want something I can give it to you, I'll even give you a discount since you're a friend of my brother's,' I said.

"'Oh, that's right, you're Matt's little brother, aren't you?' Seth said.

"'That's right,' I told him, 'so if you just tell me what you need I can...' before I finished that sentence Seth slammed his fist against my locker making a loud booming and clanging noise causing me to jump.

"Seth said, 'Motor Mouth, I'm not here to buy any of your shit, I'm here to shut you down.'

"I was starting to feel a little pissed at this treatment so I said, 'What are you? A fucking narc?'

"Then Seth said, 'In a way I guess I am, just not one who works for the government.' I just stared at him confused not sure what he was talking about. Seth continued saying, 'You know how some businesses and schools make deals with companies like Coca-Cola to sell their brand and only their brand on the business's property?' I wasn't entirely sure about it but I just nodded my head. Seth said, 'Well when someone tries to start selling Pepsi in a business that has agreed to sell only Coke, someone has to shut that person down. That's my job. See I work for Coca-Cola and you're selling Pepsi. I can't allow that.' Seth was speaking so calmly it was nerve wracking.

"I was starting to get a very bad feeling so I said, 'Seth, man, I didn't know this school had a deal with anybody, I'm just trying to make a few extra bucks for my family. It won't be that much.'

"Seth raised his voice and said, 'It won't be anything!'

"I had managed to summon the rest of my anger and courage to say, 'Seth, if I go down for this you go down too, I swear!'

"Seth just laughed. 'Go down for what?' he asked. He raised his hands up and said, 'I'm the Corporation's liaison officer, I deal with getting rid of anything that isn't corporate brand. I never touch the product myself; there are others that do that.'

"'I can blow your whole operation wide open!' I said more out of fear now than anger; I was just trying to find a way to leave in one piece. 'I can tell everyone what's going on here!'

"Seth leaned in real close to me and almost whispered, 'Who's story will they believe? Clean cut, well mannered Seth Reilly who has never put anything in his body more toxic than Vodka, and only a bit at that, or Massimo Rosini, a long hair, pot leaf tee shirt wearing punk who not only will be found with illegal substances on him, but most likely in him as well. I assume it's been less than a month since your last hit?' It had been less than twenty four hours.

"I started to freak, I didn't know what to do so I did the only thing I could think of; I begged. 'Please Seth, I promise I will never deal again, I swear it! I won't even bring the stuff to school, please Seth just don't turn me in!' I was actually on my knees begging! I looked up at Seth and he had such a smile of satisfaction on his face, but right then I didn't care, I would have licked his shoes to get out of there unscathed. Later that smile would come to haunt me, how I had begged and it made him happy.

"Seth just let me stay there on my knees for a few minutes, all his toadies looking over his shoulder and laughing at me. Finally he said, 'Since your brother is a friend of mine, I'm going to let you off this one time, but I better not ever catch you doing this again.'

"'I won't,' I promised him, 'thank you Seth, thank you!' I picked up by book bag and started to leave.

"'Where do you think you're going?' Seth's voice came from behind me

"I said, 'I thought you were letting me off?'

"'For the dealing, not for being a motor mouth,' Seth said.

"I know I shouldn't have said it but it came out anyway, 'Fuck you!' I said.

"'You really do have diarrhea of the mouth,' Seth said, 'it's time for someone to plug up that hole.' Then Seth held up the roll of duct tape so I could clearly see what he had, and then he tossed it to Ricky Woods. 'Use it all,' he said. Ricky nodded smiling that 'yes master, anything you say master' evil smile that he has.

"I tried to make a break for it but two guys were all ready behind me, I didn't know when they got here. They grabbed me by the shoulder and hurled me into the boys bathroom. They taped me to the door of one of the stalls; they used the whole fucking roll! Just about every inch of my body had tape sticking to it. My mouth was completely covered, the only way I could breathe was through my nostrils, thank goodness they at least left them uncovered.

"I stayed there until the janitor found me a few hours later. By the time he got me down Principal Grant was there asking who did that to me. I knew if I ever blabbed about what Seth did to me the punishment would be way worse than what I had all ready received. I refused to tell her and until this day the only people I've told the whole story to have been Matt and now you. The rest of the school just knew that someone had taped my mouth shut and pretty soon the rumor spread that it was Seth who did it. But no one heard anything about the events that led up to that. Since no one could prove it was Seth who was behind the taping because no one came forward as witnesses, they couldn't even punish him for that."

"Well that's Seth, he hates to let an opportunity for notoriety pass by but he always makes sure he comes out squeaky clean. I'm so sorry man." Colin said.

"So do you believe me now?" Moe asked. "About everything?"

"Yes," Colin answered then looked at Moe for a moment and said, "but why did you decide to tell me all this? You know I'm his cousin, I could get you in deep trouble."

"Well, up until a month ago you were a part of His Royal Fucking Majesty's court," Moe said motioning over to the table where Seth sat surrounded by his friends and the people who wanted to be his friend. "You may not have been in on most of the dirty shit, for two years there you had your nose stuck so far up Sheryl's ass you hardly noticed anything that didn't involve her, then last month you were so down in the dumps the school could have burned down around you and you wouldn't have noticed.

"The way things stand at the school right now there are two types of people; those who love Seth and those who hate Seth. No matter what kind of person you are, you also fear Seth. Yesterday I noticed there was something different about you, that you were happier was obvious, but there was something more, like you had some new inner strength inside you. You had no fear of Seth. I wasn't positive about this, but when I heard how you galvanized that group of second and third stringers into a team that beat Seth's, I knew you were...the one."

"The one?"

"Okay, we've all ready established you're not a movie buff so I'm not going to take the time to explain that reference." Moe said. "I will just explain it to you flat out. The ones of us here that hate Seth...we've been holding out hope that one day there would be one of us strong enough and fearless enough to take on Seth. We we're hoping it would be you because you are the only one to have ever beaten him at anything, but until yesterday you seemed content to let Seth rule. Now things have changed, all you need to do is say the word and you've got an army behind you." Moe motioned to the rest of the people at the table and Colin saw they were all looking at him nodding their heads. Colin hadn't noticed when they had begun to pay attention to the conversation and their eyes on him made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Moe, we're not in some computer generated environment fighting evil programs. This is real life, and you're talking about dealing with real people!" Colin said forcefully.

"First of all," Moe said holding up one finger, "the jury is still out on whether we're in a computer generated environment. Second of all," Moe held up a second finger and grinned from ear to ear, "you thought you were being slick making me think you were dumber than Keanu not knowing the movies I was talking about."

"My ex-girlfriend works at a video store, of course I know movies. I just don't devote my life to them so it takes me a little while to catch on to your subtle references."

"They weren't so subtle," Moe said.

"They were subtle enough. In any case, what is it you think I can do?" Colin said.

"Take Seth down." The way Moe said it made it sound so simple, but Colin knew it wouldn't be that way. Seth always seemed to be at least one move ahead of him. Then it all clicked for Colin. Chess! One game he could never beat Seth at was chess and Seth loved to play it. Seth was a master at being able to see ten to fifteen moves ahead in the game, Colin could never manage to see that far ahead and Seth always won. Seth never joined any clubs or even mentioned the game at school because he didn't want to take a chance of being branded a "chess geek". Image was very important to him. But Colin now realized that Seth had found a way to play chess without harming his image. He was playing it with real life.

That's why losing those basketball games didn't mean much to Seth. They were pawns he had sacrificed so he could move into a better position in a much bigger game. A game he was playing on more than one level and this was the game he wanted to win.

Ricky and Seth's other friends were his knights (or more pawns depending how Seth needed to use them), the connections he made were more moves, and Sheryl...Sheryl had been Colin's queen and Seth had captured her. In effect Seth had checkmated Colin in the personal game they were playing, a game that Colin hadn't even been aware of. But Colin had found a new queen, a queen that made him feel he could do anything. It was a new game between them now and this time Colin knew they were playing.

"I'll do it." Colin said in a low but certain tone.

"Yes!" Moe exclaimed.

"Hold on Morpheus," Colin said. "I didn't say how I would do it. I won't stoop to Seth's level of arm twisting and dirty tricks. I'm going to make sure that whatever shit Seth has done, he pays for it...but I'm gonna go by the law."

"The law?!!" Moe said pulling his hands through his greasy hair. "Haven't you heard what I said, the Bosses run the law and Seth works for the Bosses! Hell, for all we know Seth could have one of the Bosses working for him by now."

"I'm sorry, but I can't believe every facet of our community is corrupt. There's help out there and I'm going to find it." Colin said.

"It's your funeral," Moe mumbled.

"Hey," said Colin, "you told me that all I needed to do was say the word and I'd have an army behind me, right?"

"Yes," said Moe.

"The word is said. Now my first order is for all of you to have faith in me. You're my army, I'm gonna find us some ammunition," Colin said.

"Fuckin' eh!" Moe said brightening up. "Gondor is yours to command my king."

* * *

Jack Reynolds sat at the same table as Colin and Moe; he was considered one of the stoner group. What most of the group didn't know and only a few assumed was that Jack had gone onto harder drugs. He was able to hear some of the conversation between Moe and Colin, especially the part about Colin agreeing to help bring Seth down.

Seth had been good to Jack. When Jack was in desperate need for a fix it had been Seth who sent him to the right person. All he had to do was say "I'm a friend of Seth's" and he was supplied with the heroin he so fiercely needed. Seth had done this for him without demanding anything from Jack except that he return the favor some day.

Jack thought about it and figured that informing Seth about the people plotting against him was a good way to return the favor. Besides, Jack knew there may come a time when he might need another favor from Seth, it was getting harder and harder to get the money he needed for his fixes. It would be wise for him to facilitate his relationship with Seth that he could count on him to return favors.

Jack knew that the people he sat with at lunch with every day were supposed to be his friends and it would be betraying their friendship to rat out Moe and Colin, but when Jack had been in his hour of need it was Seth who had been there for him. He knew who he owed his allegiance to.

NEXT CHAPTER: IL CANTO DI MALAVITA PIÙ
(More songs of the bad life)