'Have you forgotten what happened to him? It's not something he's going to recover from right away, and always getting beaten down by that bully will only make it worse.'

'Alex needs to learn to stand up for himself. 'Honestly, Bill, why am I always the one who has to deal with this problem? Why can't you ever say anything?' Leaning against the door, eyes closed, I take a breath in for two beats, let it out for four, in for two? And then I hear a nearly-whispered conversation start up in the kitchen. Why the fuck hadn't I hit him? Or at least threatened to? No wonder he calls me chicken shit. 'Chicken shit.'Ĭhores complete, he goes out as soon as he can get away, and I have a few moments alone in the bedroom we share to stop shaking. He waits until she sits down again before he leans toward me. 'Knock it off! Now finish the job, and don't you do anything with that towel other than dry the dishes.' She bunches the towel up and shoves it at his chest hard enough to make him take a couple of steps backward. 'What will it take to make you stop terrorizing Alex? Will you tell me that?' He has no answer, of course, because there's almost certainly nothing that would make him stop, but he has more sense than to say that out loud. Dunlap gets out of her chair, comes over, and yanks the towel away from Derek. I can see my hands start to shake, and inside my head I'm shouting, Stop it! Stop it! But it won't come out.įinally Mrs. Pretty soon he figures out how to get it to strike right at my crack. This time, for some reason-he probably doesn't know how much it will bother me or why-he decides to aim at my ass. That's supposed to make him give up, or so I'm told, but in my experience it makes him go to the next level. I do my best to ignore him and don't reply at all. He opens with verbal abuse, so quiet that only I can hear him. Dunlap stay at the kitchen table, deep into some financial discussion, and as soon as I'm up to my wrists in hot, soapy water Derek starts up his usual taunts. Maybe tonight I'll be able to do-I don't know, something, anything, to make him leave me alone. And Derek will be drying, which means he's not only mobile but also he has a weapon in his hands. Because when it's my turn to wash dishes, I'm stuck at the sink.

I do know what the ugly grin means, though. I think faggot is just a term he throws around a lot. But, no he doesn't use that term when the Dunlaps can hear him, and they're right here at the table with us. The message it sends is like, And you know what that means, you skinny twerp.

Giuseppe and Me by Robin Reardon