by Anonymous3
Joey and Tommy were going to be freshmen this year, starting high school in a new town, Joey hoped for a new life. Joey had purposely failed a year of school to be in the same grade as his brother. It was all a part of his plan.
Joey had talked to his younger brother before the family had moved to the small town in North Carolina. Joey had always talked to his younger brother. Tommy was only a year and a half younger, but to most observers, the relationship between the brother's was a strange one. Normal siblings were competitive, argumentative during their adolescent years. Joey and Tommy's was completely different.
They had discussed things that summer, planned the way things would be done. Their father was away every week now it seemed, working. Their mother worked a fulltime job every day, and the boys could see it wearing her down. Neither would really notice a few changes around the house. When they moved into the new home, Joey and Tommy had worked out a plan. The house was a large two story home, with both boys getting seperate rooms upstairs. The only other room upstairs was a shared bathroom. The boys worked extra hard when the moving truck came, making sure that they were the only two people taking anything upstairs. Constantly assuring their mother that they would take care of everything up there. Instead, everything other than a bed and dresser went either into Tommy's room, or the attic closet. This left Joey's room bare, but that was according to the plan. In one of the boxes was a large doorway curtain of beads, this the boys hung over the top of the stairway, blocking all visual access to the upstairs. The curtain of beads also would serve as a warning to either of them if someone was at the top of the stairs. This was how the brother's liked things. This provided them with what they needed. A little freedom.
The planning had started seven years earlier. The boys knew that one day, one, or both of their parents would figure something out. If not, they knew that eventually they would have to tell Joey's secret.
Joey was eight years old, and Tommy was seven the year Joey told his brother the secret. It was Christmas eve when the family was gathered in the living room. The center of the room had been cleared of the coffee table to make room for two large piles of presents. With sheer delight, the youngest boy dove into the packages, ripping the paper and gushing about each item. Joey frowned. He had asked his parents for one gift, he had heard them fighting that night when his father refused. Tommy looked up at his brother.
"Aren't you gonna' open yours?" Tommy's voice slurred with excitement.
"You can help" Joey muttered as he sat down to start opening the gifts.
The piles consisted of a collection of action figures, along with their accessories. GI JOE Military action figures, Joey went through them casually, and looking back to his parents, he smiled weakly. "Thanks Mom, Dad." Joey gave them a hug and then left the room. His eyes were wetting, and he brushed them with the sleeve of his shirt. He had heard his father muttering something about being an ungrateful bastard when he left them.
Joey walked out onto the front porch and sat on the brick steps. A few minutes later his mother came out with a ceramic mug of hot cocoa and sat next to him. "What's wrong?" she asked, breaking the silence, as she offered the cocoa. "Nothing, mom." Joey muttered as he took the cocoa and sipped at it. "Love you" She smiled at him. Joey leaned over to hug her. "I love you too, mom."
Later that night, Joey climbed into the top bunk of the bunkbed that he shared with Tommy. He could hear his younger brother playing quietly with one of his newly acquired toys. "Why didn'cha want to play with your stuff?" Tommy whispered in the darkness. "I dunno, you can have 'em", Joey whispered back. Joey listened as Tommy slid out of the bed and started digging through their closet. "Tommy, what are you doing? we'll get in trouble." "Nuh uh, I gotcha something." Joey turned on his side and looked down off the bed. His little brother stood there with a large gift wrapped box. Tommy climbed partially up the bunkbed's ladder and handed it to him. "Huh?" Joey took the box, and Tommy dropped back down onto his bed. "Momma bought it, but I picked it out for you." Joey smiled a little as he opened the gift. Inside was a pink headed cabbage patch pet. A stuffed doll with the head of a pink cat. Joey clutched it to his chest and started to cry softly. "What's wrong?" he heard Tommy ask. "Nothing, I love it." The room was silent for a few minutes before Joey uttered quietly. "Tommy, I love you, night."
"Night Joey"
More silence.
"Tommy."
"Yeah?"
Joey slid off the bed and down the ladder, clutching the doll tightly to him.
"Tommy, I..."
"What is it Joey?" Tommy's voice was quiet. The tone in the room set for
secrets, the nightly whispers that couldn't be shared with parents.
"Tommy, I think I'm, I dunno.. crazy."
Tommy rolled over to look his older brother in the eyes.
"Whadayamean?"
"I think I'm a girl."
Joey looked down, focusing his gaze on the carpet.
"Oh, ok."
Joey climbed back up to his bed and curled up with his new gift.
"Joey?"
"Yeah?"
"Does that mean you don't want your GI Joes?"
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Two weeks before school started, Joey and Tommy's mother took them shopping. It was a tradition to buy new school clothes every year. The store was crowded, but their mother kept them close together and headed for the boy's department. Knowing that their mother was always money conscience, Joey knew that this stage of the plan would be fairly simple. Especially since their mother wasn't very well versed with clothing or fashion, having proved that fact in the last fifteen years of his life. Joey shuddered remembering the dark maroon courdoroy coveralls he had to wear for one of their family pictures. This would be the first year they would be allowed to "dress themselves" so to speak. If they kept it within budget.
Waiting until Tommy and his mother started arguing over the price of a shirt that Tommy wanted, Joey ducked out of the boy's department, and headed to the junior miss section. The argument would last for awhile. Joey knew Tommy's taste in clothes, and nothing less than a thirty dollar shirt would please him. Tommy hated shopping, but he knew what he wanted.
Joey scanned the rack of blue jeans until he found some that looked like they might fit him. It was a size 2, but Joey shrugged, they looked about right when he held them up to his body. The most important factor though, was that they were on sale, two pairs for twenty dollars. Joey grabbed two pairs, and moved on. He stopped occasionally to glance at a few blouses, but knew that they would be to obvious and wouldn't stand up to any scrutiny from his mother. Instead, he was able to find a couple of t-shirts, and a sweater he liked. He hurried back to his brother and mother. Seeing her standing their with her hand on her hip, and what could almost be considered a snarl on her lips, Joey quickly dumped the contents of his arms into the shopping cart. They had just about finished their argument, having gotten to the staredown from mom stage. Joey piped in.
"Tommy can have the rest of my budget momma." Joey smiled at his mom.
"Really? and what are you going to wear?" At one time, this wouldn't have been a problem, but in the last two years, Tommy had grown, whereas Joey hadn't. Tommy was now a half foot taller, and much broader in the shoulders.
"I found some jeans and a couple of shirts, Mom. And all of it is only like forty dollars. That leaves sixty right?" Their mother seemed to be contemplating something, or doing math in her head.
"OK. Tommy, you can spend an extra fifty. Now.." she began to dig through the cart. "Let's see what you're brother got."
Tommy started digging back through the expensive brand name clothes, only stopping briefly to whisper something into Joey's ear.
"Thanks sis"
Joey nodded, and watched his mother carefully.
"Joey," His mother held up a pair of jeans "These are girl's jeans"
Joey shrugged. "So what. No one will notice, jeans are jeans mom, and these were on sale." The logic apparently worked, because their mom went back to arguing with Tommy.
The shopping done, Joey had talked their mother into dropping them off at the mall. He had a little over sixty dollars saved up from his allowance from the last year, and needed to get a few things.
He gave Tommy five dollars and dropped him off at the arcade. Then Joey went to do some serious shopping. He found a few shirts, a pair of black rayon slacks, and a couple of skirts. A pair of tennis shoes, and a pair of black heeled boots to match the slacks. Then Joey walked into the accessory shop, and after a few minutes was arguing with the clerk.
"We can't pierce you're ears without a parent's permission unless you're sixteen young man." Joey was still dressed in the docker's and collared shirt his mother had forced him to wear for the earlier shopping trip.
Luckily, Tommy walked in at the right moment. "Hey Sis" he called out to Joey as he entered. Joey spun and exclaimed. "They won't pierce them unless Mom's here. School starts in two weeks." Tommy walked over to the clerk. "What's wrong?" he asked. "um, we can't pierce your little brother, I mean sister's ears until we have a parent's permission." The clerk responded.
Joey had now been called a young man, and a little brother, he wasn't sure this could get any worse.
Tommy leaned in closer to the clerk. "Sure you can, look, we start school in two weeks, and our mom doesn't have the time to come down here herself, so she asked me to bring my little sister down here for her."
"We need a parent's signature."
"No problem," Tommy pulled a pen from a cup next to the register. The clerk shrugged.
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The night before school started Joey insisted on them both to dress in their clothes for the next day to make sure everything was ok. The difference between the two was startling. Tommy was almost six feet tall with short dark hair, somber brown eyes and a dark tan from playing sports with his friends.
Joey was only 5'6" and small by any means. His skin was pale in comparison to Tommy's, his eyes however were more ethereal. He had let his hair grow out as much as possible without drawing the attention of his parents, and it formed a nice shapely bob that just about touched his shoulders. In the presence of his parents, he would use gel to hold it all back on his head. Tonight, he let it hang freely.
"A little love please?" Joey muttered as he walked into the bathroom, Tommy followed wearing his khaki pants and a new Hilfiger shirt. Joey pulled a small pill bottle from behind the back of the pipes under their sink, and popped several into his hand. One pink, and two white ones. He popped them into his mouth and washed them down with a handful of water. Tommy watched and waited.
Joey turned to Tommy, and pulled off the collared shirt. Beneath the shirt, like a boa constrictor, was wrapped several bandages. When they had first begun, the boys had remarked how it was like making a mummy. Now, however, the bandages were commonplace, being replaced every morning, and taken off every night. Tommy slowly unwrapped the bandages, rolling them back up as he went. Finishing, Joey stretched his back, and then relaxed.
"Well?" Joey looked towards Tommy, and then picked up the dark purple satin blouse he had bought at the mall.
Tommy shrugged. "They look fine, you should wear a bra with that though."
Joey looked down, and could see his nipples vaguely through the material.
"You worry too much." Joey ushered Tommy out of the bathroom. "Now let me finish and I'll come show you when I'm done changing."
Joey had been taking the pills for a year now. It had taken Tommy and Joey's best efforts to forge the prescriptions, let alone the months in the library reading through what seemed like a coded language. The pills were doing their work though, already Joey was a decent B cup in his chest area. Joey knew that taking them at his age might have consequences, so he reminded himself that as soon as he was eighteen, he would see a doctor about it.
Joey pulled on the black rayon slacks, and the boots. He pulled a towel around his shoulders and brought out a small black carry case from the linen closet. Inside was an assortment of different cosmetics that he had carefully over the years whisked off of his mother's vanity. After a brief session in front of the mirror, Joey laid in the final touch of some dark lipstick to match the blouse. Joey had to admit, what he was looking at in the mirror wasn't bad. Not bad at all. He walked into Tommy's room where Tommy was sprawled on the bed with headphones over his ears, his shirt tossed over the foot of the bed.
Tommy pulled the headphones off briefly when Joey entered.
"Well?" Joey asked tepidly.
"You look fine." Tommy replied nonchalantly, before putting the headphones back to his ears.
"Fuck you too." Joey smirked and climbed onto the bed. He kissed Tommy on the cheek, and then rested his head on Tommy's chest. Joey fell asleep listening to his brother's heartbeat.
"Boy's wake up, I'm leaving" The boy's heard their mother shout from downstairs. Waking them up, Joey scurried to the bathroom. They both yelled down almost simultaneously.
"Yeah Mom, OK."
After a quick shower and a touch of makeup, Joey headed downstairs. Their mother had left for work, their father away for the week, helped Joey's stress levels immensely. He threw on one of his mother's aprons and started cooking breakfast. The shower running upstairs was turned off just as Joey finished cooking a couple of omelets. He poured two glasses of juice before yelling. "Tommy, breakfast" just as Tommy appeared in the doorway. They were both dressed in the outfits they tried on the night before. Devouring their breakfast, both kids bolted for the door when they saw through the kitchen window, a school bus rounding the corner. Luckily, several students caught the bus at the same place, Joey and Tommy made it to the line just as it was their turn to get on the bus. They found a seat near the back of the bus and Joey leaned against the window, napping. Tommy engrossed himself in conversation with some of the other kids.
"Hey, I'm Tommy."
"Her? That's Joey, my sister."
"Nyah, basketball though, I'm not much into baseball"
"Really? I have him also"
Blah-blah-blah
Tommy nudged Joey when the bus reached the school. They filed out of the bus. Tommy saying goodbye to his newly made friends.
"I thought you'd never stop talking." Joey nudged Tommy with an elbow.
"Hey, don't fret it, besides they thought you were cute." Joey paused as Tommy kept walking. Then jogged up to catch up with him.
"Say what?"
"Don't let it get to your head sis, Later." Tommy ducked down the hallway to his first class.
Joey had no problem making it to his homeroom class. Both Joey and Tommy had walked every hall trying to remember the lay out of the school when they first came in to register. Nothing was worse than being lost on your first day.
Almost nothing.
It happened after lunch. Joey was walking to class when a large boy pushed by him, knocking him to the ground. Things went quickly at that moment. Joey saw Tommy running through the hall, saw him push into the boy's back. Tommy had the boy in a headlock and was hitting his head into the lockers. Joey recovered and ran over to them.
"Tommy, stop, stop. It's ok, I'm fine. Stop IT" Joey smacked Tommy on the arm with a textbook.
Tommy dropped the boy who was twice Tommy's own size and glared at Joey.
"Get out of here Tommy, before any teacher's get here.. go.. now" Joey could see a couple of teachers coming down the hallway. "I'll take care of this"
The boy on the ground was groggily standing up when the teacher's arrived.
"What's the problem here?"
Joey tried to look as demurely as possible.
"Nothing sir, this um.. he was helping me with my locker.. it was stuck, and then it just popped open, are you ok?" Joey looked down at the thug. He grunted.
"Get to your classes then."
"Yes sir." Joey sighed as he headed for art class. Leaving the thug looking around confused at the whole turn of events.
Most of the next class was spent just trying to evade questions.
"Did you hear about the fight?"
"What fight?"
"Isn't he dreamy"
Then the questions were turned on Joey.
"He sure was pissed. So, is he like your boyfriend?"
"He's my brother."
"Oh,.. he's cute."
"Whatever"
"I'm Tina."
"Joey"
The bus ride home was almost exactly like the ride to school. Joey learned the names of the two boys who were destined to be his brother's best friends. David, who, minus the scruff around the chin looked very much like Tommy, and Chris.. whom, Joey couldn't really comment on. He was tall, handsome, and had a conceited attitude to match. Joey was disgusted. Especially when they disembarked from the bus.
"Can I walk you home?" Chris offered.
"I'm two houses down" Joey replied.
"C'mon, how about we have a soda or something."
"Um.. how about.. um.. no"
Tommy to the rescue.
"Hey Chris, Me and Dave are going to go hoop, you coming?"
That was enough to drag the drooling leach away.
"Yeah man, on my way." Chris leaned over and pecked Joey on the cheek.
Joey frantically rubber his cheek and cursed. "Asshole" before walking onto his porch.
Tossing his backpack on the porch, Joey started digging through it. Finding his algebra book, he sat on the porch and started doing his homework. Occasionally glancing to where Tommy, Dave, and Chris were playing basketball in Chris' driveway across the street.
It was 4:30. The alarm on Joey's watch went off. Standing, he shouted across the street. "Mom should be home any minute Tommy." Then he grabbed up his things and headed inside. Up the stairs, Joey changed into a cotton knit shirt that was baggy enough, and heavy enough to provide enough camoflauge from a casual glance. He kicked off the boots, slid on some jeans and tennis shoes. Then went into Tommy's room and sliding onto the bed belly first, snatched up the headphones to listen to some music.
Joey woke up to Tommy shaking him by the shoulder.
"Hey, Joey, dinner time."
Joey lifted his head enough to murmur through the comforter on the bed.
"Just tell her I'm tired, y'know. First day at school and all."
"Allright,.. hey, did everything go ok?"
"Yeah, except everyone thinks my brother is a psycho."
"Hey, yeah, sorry about that, I just kinda lost it."
"Dude, you got issues."
"Looks who's talking." After a short chuckle, Tommy left to have dinner. Joey went to his room and climbed into bed.
"So how did school go?" Tommy's mom questioned as she set down a plate of salisbury stead in front of him.
"It went ok, I guess." Tommy started plucking at his food with a fork.
"Make any new friends?"
"Yeah, sure I guess."
"How about your brother?"
"I guess so, we don't really hang out that much at school, so I wouldn't know."
"I'm just worried about him you know, I know how boys will pick on kids smaller than them."
"Oh, don't worry about that mom, it shouldn't be a problem, really. I think most of the other guys wouldn't mind having Joey around." Tommy smiled to himself as he finished off a side of broccolli.
"Ok, oh, I was at the grocery store today and I ran into one of the neighbors."
"Yeah, so." Tommy raised a wary eye.
"So.. she has a son y'alls age. I heard you were playing basketball with him today."
"Oh"
"Chris I think.. I'm glad you're making friends."
"Thanks mom."
"You should have Joey join you guys sometime, I don't want him all couped up in the house"
"It's ok, not really Joey's thing, y'know.. basketball.."
"Well, anyway, Ms. Oberick, Chris' mother is having a little welcoming luncheon for us this weekend."
Tommy almost choked on a bite of the steak.
"Um.. uh.."
"So, don't make any plans, and let Joey know in the morning ok. Saturday around one o'clock."
"Um, ok.." Tommy wolfed down a few more bites and dashed out of the kitchen.
"Later Mom, I have to finish up some homework or something."
"Ok, dear."
Tommy had been pacing for at least ten minutes in Joey's room when Joey woke up. Tommy had picked up a chanting of the phrase "Oh Shit, oh shit.. oh..oh shit.. "
Sitting up, Joey asked Tommy what was going on.
"It's Mom, we're having lunch at Chris' this weekend." Tommy exclaimed.
"No we're not." Joey's once sleepy eyes were shocked awake.
"Dude, yes."
"You go, I'll.. I dunno, I'll be sick or something."
"Right? and then what? What do I say when she starts talking about my brother Joey? You don't think Chris is going to catch on? or say something? and we can't tell him, he'd like freak, he thinks your cute and shit."
This followed with the two brothers chanting in unison.
"Oh, shit.. what are we.. oh shit.."
(continued in Chapter 2)
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