Worth The Trouble

Saturday Night - Oct. 25, 1986 - 9:42 PM - The Hallway

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TY PRESSED HIS BACK against the cold lockers and checked his watch for the third time in five minutes. The hallway at St. Joe was empty in both directions, just the way Roger wanted it. Ty kept glancing toward the main corridor, trying to hear footsteps over the music.

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“Keep watch,” Roger had said, pointing down the corridor. “Make sure nobody comes down here.”

 

“Yeah, man. I got it.”

 

He’d said it before Roger finished pointing. Roger went inside. Ty checked both ends of the hallway.

 

Last night at Whataburger, Brent had kept turning around in the booth to talk to him. Roger had argued with him about the interception like Ty had been sitting with them all season. He’d still been grinning when he got home.

 

Tonight he’d spotted them near the gym doors and put a hand up. Brent had waved him over, but Jenny had hold of his other hand.

 

“In a minute,” Ty had called.

 

Then Roger had come to find him.

 

“Hang on a minute,” he’d told her.

 

“I was gonna ask you if you wanted to dance.”

 

Roger was already walking. Ty took a couple of steps after him before he turned back.

 

“Yeah. When I get back.”

 

“How long?”

 

“Just a minute.”

 

He hadn’t asked Roger what he needed. He’d caught up with him before they reached the gym doors. Last week, Roger had walked right past him in the hallway without even looking at him. This weekend, Roger had come looking for him. Now Ty was standing outside a bathroom making sure nobody interrupted him.

 

He hooked a finger behind the tie his mother had made him wear and pulled it away from his throat. It had felt too tight from the minute he put it on, but the seniors had theirs on, so he’d kept it.

 

The opening of "Don’t You Forget About Me" came through the gym wall. A cheer went up inside.

 

"Aw, man. They’re playing Simple Minds."

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Ty glanced toward the gym doors. Jenny loved this song. Roger had asked him to do one thing. He could catch the next one.

 

The bass rattled the lockers against his back. The homecoming dance was going full blast fifty feet away, but nobody came down this hallway unless they needed the bathroom.

 

Roger’s voice came through the door. Ty couldn’t make out all of it, only pieces about respect and territory. Matt Garrett had come into their school and started stealing their girls. Roger was back there straightening him out.

 

Ty was part of it.

 

Footsteps came from the main corridor. He pushed away from the lockers.

 

Some junior he didn’t recognize rounded the corner with a cup of punch in his hand and looked like he really needed to go.

 

“Hey,” Ty said. “You need to find another bathroom. This one’s broken.”

 

The kid glanced at the door, then at Ty, but he turned around without arguing.

 

Ty grinned until he remembered he was supposed to keep watch.

 

The voices inside got louder. Roger’s rose above the others, then Ty heard Garrett answer him. His voice stayed low enough that Ty couldn’t make out the words.

 

Garrett wasn’t backing down the way he was supposed to.

 

That was stupid. There were four seniors in there with him. He still thought he could talk his way out of it.

 

Then nobody said anything.

 

Ty held his breath.

 

The door creaked open.

 

Matt Garrett stepped out.

 

He stood about five inches taller than Ty and was broad through the shoulders. His tie was off, but his shirt was still tucked in. His hair was still in place.

Matt checked the gym end of the hallway, then the other direction. When he saw Ty against the lockers, he stopped.

 

Ty shifted his weight and moved half a step away from the bathroom door.

 

Their eyes met for maybe two seconds.

 

Matt shook his head once and rolled his eyes.

 

He reached up, straightened his collar, and walked past Ty without a word. He turned the corner at the end of the hallway and was gone.

 

Ty stayed against the lockers. He was still keeping watch.

 

Four seniors had taken Matt into a bathroom where nobody could see them. Matt had walked out with his shirt still tucked in. He hadn’t hurried. He hadn’t even looked back.

 

We had him trapped. We had him completely trapped.

 

Ty needed to know what happened in there.

 

He counted to thirty, then slipped into the bathroom.

 

The room wasn’t built for five people. Roger paced the strip of tile between the three stalls and the row of sinks, his face red from his collar to his hairline. Brent stood over the middle sink splashing water on his face. Marcus stepped aside just far enough for Ty to close the door.

 

“He didn’t do nothing,” Roger said. “He just stood there. I thought he was gonna hit me, but he didn’t.”

 

“Maybe that’s the point,” Marcus said. “You said he’d back down, Rog. That’s what you told us.”

 

Roger turned on him. “Shut up, man. You weren’t exactly stepping up in there.”

 

“Neither were you.”

 

Brent shut off the faucet and wiped his chin with the back of his hand. “This is crap. There were four of us, and he just walks out?”

 

“Where the heck were you, Alaniz?” Roger said. “You were supposed to block the door better.”

 

Diego pushed off the wall beside the paper towel dispenser. “Block the door? I was where you told me to be, man. He walked right through us like we weren’t even there.”

 

Behind Brent, the faucet kept dripping.

 

“Look, maybe we should just let this go,” Marcus said. “He’s gone. No harm, no foul, right?”

 

Roger turned toward him. “Let it go? Are you kidding me? He made us look stupid.”

 

“We made ourselves look stupid.”

 

Roger took a step toward Marcus. “You got something you want to say to me?”

 

“Yeah. Maybe you read this whole situation wrong from the start.”

 

“Watch your mouth.”

 

“Or what? You gonna get three more guys to help you shut me up too?”

 

Roger stared at him but didn’t take another step.

 

He shoved the bathroom door open and left. Brent went after him. Diego followed, then Marcus.

 

Ty let all four of them get ahead before he stepped into the hallway.

 

These guys couldn’t handle one dude.

 

Roger and the others headed toward the gym together. Ty followed, but he didn’t try to catch them.

 

By the time the music got loud again, he was half a hallway behind.

 

Back inside the gym Berlin was on. Their slow one. That was one of Jenny’s favorite songs. All the couples had moved to the dance floor. They swayed under the lights strung over the rafters. Ty went along the wall under the homecoming banner and past the punch tables.

 

Roger and them were already back in. They stood along the wall by the doors.

 

Talking.

 

Watching.

 

The Edna guy stood at the punch bowl. He now held a cup in each hand. He gazed over towards Ty. Ty turned the other way at the blue curtain pulled across the stage.

 

A senior girl came by with a mum that hung past her knees. The ribbons caught on somebody’s sleeve. The two of them stood there talking as they worked it loose.

 

Jenny was at the end of the last table with two girls from English class. She had her back to Ty.

 

He walked towards her.

 

He got about four steps.

 

Kim came through the crowd and got to Matt first. She had both hands up on his collar where the tie should have been. She was straightening it and talking fast. Matt said something back. It was short.

 

Ty stopped where he was.

 

A couple came between them. When they cleared, Kim had gone quiet with her hands still up at his collar. She looked past his shoulder at the wall by the doors.

 

She took her hands down.

 

She knows.

 

The music quit in the middle of the song. Feedback came off the microphone and the floor stopped all at once. Principal Watson had the podium.

 

“Ladies and gentlemen, this year’s St. Joseph’s Homecoming Queen is Kimberly Thiel.”

 

The gym went off. Girls went past Ty three and four at a time. One of them stepped on his shoe and kept going. The court came out of the crowd in their dresses. Somebody’s mum caught a folding chair and dragged it a foot before the ribbon let go.

 

They put the crown on her. Somebody pushed flowers into her hands. The cameras started.

 

Matt stayed where she left him. He didn’t go up. He didn’t clap.

 

Every face in that gym was pointed at the stage.

 

Ty was watching Matt.

 

The king got announced. More pictures. Kim held the flowers and turned her face where they told her to. In between she was looking out into the gym.

 

Looking for Matt.

 

He was already moving. He went for the doors. He didn’t push anybody out of the way to do it. At the doors he stopped and turned around.

 

Kim was up in the middle of the court. The crown caught the lights every time she turned her head. Matt watched her a while. Then he shook his head.

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The same one he gave Ty in the hallway.

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The door came back and shut. Nobody else in the gym looked up. Ty stood there looking at it.

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Matt Garrett walked away from the homecoming queen. Miss Junior freaking Victoria. His date. Out of the bathroom and now out of the gym. Nobody stopped him either time.

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What the heck just happened?

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The cheering came back up when the king stepped out for his pictures. Ty kept looking at the doors. He thought about Roger’s face in the bathroom. Matt stopping in front of him in the hallway. That head shake.

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Like they were pathetic.

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Maybe they were.

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Across the gym Jenny was still at the end of the last table. She had turned around by now.

Ty stayed.