Worth The Trouble

Saturday Night - Oct. 25, 1986 - 10:01 PM - The Exit Doors

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THE DJ HAD A FAST SONG going again. Behind him somebody at the stage was still hollering for one more picture of the court. Ty was still staring at the exit doors. The colored lights ran across the floor and up the wall beside them. Then a hand tugged on his sleeve.

 

“Ty? Can I talk to you?”

 

He turned around. Ryan Keller stood there, a freshman with a pale face. He had a paper towel wadded up in one fist. His eyes kept going past Ty. Ty looked back over his shoulder to see where. Roger’s group, over by the punch tables.

 

“What’s up, Ryan?”

 

Ryan stepped in close. They already had to lean together to hear over the music, but Ryan dropped his voice anyway.

 

“I was in the bathroom.” He looked toward the punch tables again. “In the stall. When all that went down.”

 

Ty leaned closer. “What do you mean?”

 

“I mean I saw it, man. The whole thing. Roger and those guys had him boxed in by the sinks. Roger’s all up in his face about Kim and territory and all that.” Ryan was pulling the paper towel apart while he talked. “And this Matt guy? He didn’t care. Roger’s goin’ off and he’s just standin’ there. Then he says something about watchin’ game film. Scoutin’ your opponent or whatever. Football stuff.”

 

“Then what?”

 

“Dude walks right up to Roger. Right in his face.” Ryan shook his head. “Man, Roger looked ready to piss himself.”

 

“Seriously?”

 

“I swear. Thought Roger was gonna get his ass kicked. But Matt just bounced. Bumped Roger’s shoulder goin’ by, too. Diego was on the door and he just stepped out of the way.”

 

“They let him walk? All four of them?”

 

“Yeah. They were scared to touch him. Roger was talkin’ tough, but when Matt got in his face he froze up. They all did.”

 

Four of them, and they were scared of one guy from Edna?

 

“You sure?”

 

“I’m tellin’ you, man. I was right there. Last stall.” Ryan pointed back toward the hallway with the paper towel. “He could’ve beat all four of ’em and he didn’t even want to.”

 

Ty looked toward the punch tables. Roger and the other three were still bunched up at the end by the door. Roger was talking with his hands. Brent and

Diego stood in close. Marcus had his hands in his pockets, a step off to the side.

 

They were the ones who couldn’t let it go. Matt was already gone.

 

“Why you tellin’ me this?”

 

Ryan shrugged. “I saw you come in at the end and leave with ’em. Figured you ought to know what went down.”

 

He looked at Roger again. “Don’t tell him I was in there.”

 

“I won’t.” Ty looked across the gym, then back at Ryan. “I was outside.”

 

“I know. I saw you come in.”

 

“Before that. Roger told me to keep people out.”

 

Ryan didn’t say anything. Ty had been about to tell him Roger never said what they were going to do. But he’d heard enough through the door. He’d sent that kid to another bathroom anyway.

 

“I didn’t know you were in there,” Ty said.

 

“Yeah, well.” Ryan stuck what was left of the paper towel in his pocket. “I wasn’t comin’ out.”

 

“Don’t blame you.”

 

Coach Warner had said something in the locker room before the game last night. Ty hadn’t thought much about it at the time.

 

“Quit tellin’ everybody how tough you are. If you are, they’ll figure it out.”

 

Across the gym Roger was still talking with his hands. Matt was gone.

 

“Thanks for tellin’ me,” Ty said.

 

Ryan nodded. He worked his way between two couples. Then Ty lost him in the crowd.

 

Ty stayed where he was, watching Roger’s group. Roger kept talking. Brent and Diego answered him. Marcus still stood a little apart.

 

A few minutes ago, Ty had wanted to be over there with them. He’d wanted it bad enough to stand outside a bathroom door without asking Roger what was supposed to happen on the other side.

 

Now he didn’t want Roger to look over and call him back.

 

Up on the stage the court was breaking up. Ty looked over. Kim came down the steps one at a time with her flowers in one hand and a fistful of her dress in the other. Her crown sat crooked. She was breathing hard. At the bottom she stopped and looked out over the gym for somebody Ty already knew was gone.

 

Ty had watched Matt leave and still didn’t know what to do with himself. He started back toward the end of the last table, where Jenny had been.

 

She wasn’t there anymore.

 

The folding tables ran along the wall by the gym entrance, with plastic tablecloths, metal bowls of punch, and plates of cookies the booster club had made. Somebody’s mom from the booster club stood behind the punch, ladling it into paper cups as fast as people took them. Down at the end closest to the door, Roger and the other three had a spot to themselves. Brent was laughing about something.

 

Ty moved down the table toward them. He stopped halfway and picked a cookie up off the plate.

 

That was when Kim spotted them. She cut between the dancing couples with her crown still crooked. People moved out of her way.

 

“Where is he?”

 

Ty heard her over the music.

 

Roger looked up from his punch. “Who? Your boyfriend?” He shrugged. “Walked out. Guess he couldn’t handle the spotlight.”

 

Brent and Diego laughed.

 

“What did you do?”

 

“We didn’t do anything,” Roger said. He smiled when he said it. “Just had a little conversation with him. Man to man.”

 

Roger glanced toward his crew before looking at Kim again. “Told him the truth. That he’s in the wrong place with the wrong girl.”

 

“So this is about me. This whole thing. You cornered him in a bathroom because you’re pissed that I chose him over you.”

 

Roger quit smiling. “Look, if you’d made the right choice to begin with, none of this would’ve happened. We were together for two years, Kim.”

 

“I threw it away because you’re an ass, Roger. Because you think you own everything and everyone.”

 

Kim stepped closer. “You think because your dad’s got money and you’re captain of the football team, everybody is supposed to fall in line. They’re not. Matt sure as hell isn’t.”

 

She pointed the flowers at the three of them. “My boyfriend doesn’t need three friends behind him to have a conversation. He doesn’t have to spend all night proving how tough he is.”

 

Roger’s face went red again. “So what, you think farm boy’s better than me?”

 

“I think he’s real. Which is more than I can say for you.”

 

The music kept going. Nobody around the punch table said anything. The booster club lady kept ladling punch.

 

Kim turned to leave. She made it two steps before she stopped and looked back.

 

“And just so you know? He could’ve handled all four of you. Easy. He probably just didn’t think you were worth the trouble.”

 

She got a handful of her dress and went back through the crowd.

 

Roger opened his mouth, but nothing came out. None of the other three looked at him.

 

Ty looked down. He still had the cookie in his hand. He hadn’t taken a bite.

 

She’d said three friends. Ty had been the one outside the door. He’d sent a kid down the other hallway so nobody would walk in on it.

 

Ty drifted away with some of the other guys after Kim left. Roger stayed near the refreshment table with the ones who had been in the bathroom. Ty ate the cookie. It was dry.

 

After a few minutes, Ty walked back toward them. Diego was there, and Brent too, though Brent checked over his shoulder twice while they talked. Marcus stood at the edge of the group. The other guys who had crowded around before were gone.

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Marcus glanced at him when he came up.

 

“What?” Ty asked.

 

“Nothing.”

 

Ty stood beside him. Brent was saying something to Roger, too low for Ty to hear. Ty leaned closer, then caught Marcus watching him again.

 

“I’m just listening.”

 

Marcus shrugged and turned back toward the dance floor.

 

Roger and the others moved to a corner near the edge of the dance floor. A teacher came down the wall with her arms crossed and they all quit talking until she was past. They kept their voices down, but Ty caught pieces whenever one song ended and the next one started. A couple of other guys came over. Ty hadn’t seen either of them near the bathroom, but they leaned in when Brent started telling the story.

 

“Dude was asking for it,” Brent said. “Roll up to our dance, start acting like he owns the place.”

 

He didn’t check over his shoulder now.

 

“Small-town boys think they’re tough until they meet city kids,” one of the new guys said.

 

Marcus shook his head. “This is stupid. He’s gone. It’s over.”

 

Nobody answered him. Another guy came over. Roger moved toward the middle of the group.

 

“No, it’s not over,” Roger said. “He made us look weak. Made me look weak in front of Kim.” His voice rose over the music. “That doesn’t just go away.”

 

“So what’s the plan?” Diego asked.

 

“We cruise to Edna and find him. Can’t be that hard in country hick land. Probably lives on some farm with a tractor parked out front.”

 

A few guys laughed.

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“Dude thinks he can just walk into St. Joe’s and disrespect us?” Roger said. “Nah. We show him what’s up.”

 

“Heck yeah,” someone said.

 

Ty counted them without meaning to. Seven, with Marcus.

 

Ty stood just outside the group. All he had to do was move closer. Nod when everybody else nodded. Laugh when they laughed. Roger might pull him in and make him part of whatever came next.

 

Marcus tried again. “Come on, man. Let it go. He’s gone, and Kim’s pissed at you anyway. Just move on.”

 

Roger turned on him. “Move on? You think I’m just gonna let some hick embarrass me in my own school?”

 

“He didn’t embarrass you, Rog. You embarrassed yourself.”

 

Nobody in the circle spoke.

 

“What?” Roger said.

 

“You heard me. We had four guys in that bathroom, and he walked out. How’s that his fault?”

 

Roger stepped closer to Marcus. “Oh, now you think you got a spine?”

 

“Dude, this whole thing is stupid. You’re talking about driving to some small town to jump a guy because you can’t handle that your ex-girlfriend moved on.”

 

“Shut the hell up, Gaines.”

 

“You’re not gonna do any of it anyway.”

 

Nobody laughed this time. The song ended. Nobody moved.

 

Roger held his ground. “You know what, Gaines? You’re out. You don’t want to be part of this, fine.”

 

Marcus looked around the group, shook his head, and walked off toward the doors.

 

The circle didn’t close behind him. There was still a place where he had been.

 

Roger looked across it at Ty.

 

“What about you, Hensley? You in?”