The Bones: Chapter Two
A free chapter for all subscribers. Set on investigating the campus defacement, Max runs into suspect number one, Trevor Shults—football captain, mega douchebag, and a seriously prime piece of ass.
Read Chapter One of The Bones here—it’s free for all subscribers.
—
I couldn’t look away—the flag emblazoned with the skull and crossbones, most of it consumed by flames, ashes trailing to the ground before two words scrawled in red spray paint.
BONES FOREVER.
“Out of the way! Out of the way!”
Nolan and I looked up to see the crowd part and Professor Thomas, the English teacher, push his way through, fire extinguisher in hand.
“Back up, everyone,” he called out. “Back UP!!”
He ran around the ring of students, willing them further back before lifting the metal canister into the air and clamping down the trigger. A long cloud of grey dust shot out towards the flag, extinguishing it handily after a few short bursts. What remained of its tatters hung low on the pole, smeared in soot, now totally unrecognizable.
Thomas lowered his hands, brow covered in sweat, out of breath. Man, he’d acted fast.
“C’mon,” he muttered, “everyone back to your classes. Nothing to see here.”
The crowd began thinning out, frightened freshmen mumbling amongst themselves, shock and concern written across their faces
Nolan and I remained, hanging back. This was too good a story to just walk away. Plus, Thomas was my English teacher, one of the good ones, and a gay guy to boot.
“You see something, Max?” Thomas asked. “Anything?”
“I wish,” I replied. “I just got here myself, was about to head to Calc. Not a bad way to get out of class.”
Thomas let out a huff, wiping his brow. “Whoever did this is fucked up. The whole quad could have caught on fire.”
I heard the sound of fire engines off in the distance, already too late but ringing their sirens, regardless.
“Safe to say they left a clue.” I nodded down towards their calling card.
BONES FOREVER. No room for equivocation there.
“As if that will do us any good, those shady fuckers,” Thomas continued, a smattering of other faculty members walking over to see what had transpired. “All right, you boys should head to class too.”
I looked at my watch. 9:13. Fuck. Almost late again.
“Roger that,” I replied, reaching down for my backpack. “See you in fourth period.”
“Indeed, you will,” Thomas replied. He glanced down at my chest. “What’s with your shirt?”
Nolan almost choked, my face again turning beet red.
“Ermmm,” I started. “Nothing. I spilled.”
Thomas looked at it, eyebrows furrowed. “Pretty big spill.”
And with that, I turned on my heels and booked it towards the next period, refusing to look in Nolan’s direction.
“Dude…” he snickered, hustling to keep up.
I shook my head.
“I’ve gotta turn this thing inside out.”
—
“Who do you think did it?” Nolan asked as we snaked our way along the cafeteria line.
“Sloppy Joe?” the lunch lady asked, holding forth a spoon of tomato-tinged grey meat.
“No, thank you,” I replied. I was barely hungry, too amped and anxious to eat. I turned back to Nolan, whispering. “The Bones, you fucking idiot.”
The Bones. The Bones. The one and only secret society on Hanover’s campus. As old as the school itself. As old as time.
He glared. “Duh. But…who are they?”
I bypassed all the cold lunch options and instead grabbed an apple, adding it to my tray along with about six small glasses of water and a granola bar.
Hanover’s main cafeteria building was a monstrosity—4 separate dining halls across two floors, one on each corner, each with its own personality. Lower Right was like Top 40—mainstream, a bit of everything. Upper Right was where the coolest kids hung out, particularly hot at dinner time. Lower Left was faculty, their kids, and nerds like us. And Upper Left was…Siberia. Nobody went there, as far as I knew.
“You’re going to die of malnutrition,” Nolan said as we seated ourselves in the lower left dining hall.
“I’m getting all my protein from Reed,” I replied.
Nolan let out a faux heave.
“I kid, I kid.” I opened up the granola bar, breaking off a small piece and putting it in my mouth. “See?”
Nolan got down to business. “So, what do we know about them, the Bones?”
I dropped my voice. “Storied. Elusive. Almost impossible to track down.”
“So you’ve never known of anyone who was one? One of your dad’s friends?”
“My father? He was the biggest nerd this school had ever seen. And if he’d been one, I’d know. The man couldn’t keep a secret to save his life.” I threw another chunk of granola in my mouth. “The legend is that they’re all seniors. But this is the problem with the Bones. Every year, it’s a different group, so we only have about nine months to figure out who they are. By the time we have any leads, they graduate, and then it’s on to the next. A fresh batch to try and track down.”
Nolan took a bite of sloppy joe, half of it falling out between the bun.
“Well,” he started, “you’ve gotta have some suspicions as to who they could be, right?”
My voice dropped even closer to a whisper. “Of course. There are some through lines.”
Nolan leaned in closer, his lips smeared with red sauce. “Such as?”
“Wipe your face, you fucking hooligan. You look like a vampire.”
Nolan groaned, dabbing either side of his mouth daintily for effect. “Happy?”
“Elated.” I leaned back in. “So they say it’s about eight people, give or take, usually falling into a few buckets—offspring of wealthy people, powerful students on campus, maybe even someone creative. It’s the elite of the elite. The future leaders of America. The people that will shape history.”
Nolan grinned. “So…people like you?”
I looked back, aghast. “What? No! I’m not a senior, and I’m not important. And I’m gay!”
“Last I checked, being gay is legal now. And you’re a Chronicle deputy editor, possibly the next EIC. And you’re loaded. Aaaaand you’re third generation Hanover.”
“Sure, but…” I stared off, annoyed. “It doesn’t matter. There won’t be any Bones left once I have my way with them.”
Nolan furrowed his brow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“This morning,” I replied, leaning in closer. “It’s a provocation.”
“A provocation? For what?” he asked.
“To take them down. For real.”
“You wanna singlehandedly destroy the Bones?”
“Not singlehandedly,” I replied, leaning back, placing my hands behind my head. “With you.”
Nolan shook his head. “Hard pass.”
I dove forward. “What? Why not!?”
“Some of us aren’t here by default,” he started, giving me a pointed stare. “Some of us are here by the skin of our teeth and grateful for the privilege.” He lifted his sandwich, about to take another big bite of sloppy joe. “And some of us don’t want to fuck with the powers that be and bite the hand that feeds us.”
I sat back, deflated. “These aren’t the powers that be. It’s not the school—it’s some rogue organization of douchebags.”
Nolan shook his head.
“Do you really think,” he replied, “I mean really think that the school isn’t somehow condoning this when it’s gone on for so long?” I stared back at him. “That if they really cared about it and didn’t benefit from it in some way, they’d have put a stop to it for good?”
I drummed my hand against the table. “I mean…maybe.”
Nolan put his napkin down. “Not maybe. Definitely.”
“Well, maybe I’m ready to find out.”
“Then godspeed, my friend, godspeed,” Nolan said, reaching for the uneaten apple on my tray and taking a bite of it. “But you’re going to be doing it all on your own.”
I groaned back at him. “Seriously? You aren’t going to help me?”
“Nope. Not a chance.”
“All right. If you insist. But if you take none of the risk, you get none of the reward.”
Nolan sniffed. “That’s a chance I’m willing to take.”
“None of the guts and none of the glory,” I practically sang.
He shook his head, dead certain.
I raised my hands in defeat. “Fine.”
I’d just have to do it without him. He’d be dead weight anyway—too many scruples. Might as well use my leg up for good, right? After all, what was the point of being privileged if not to speak truth to power?
I stood up from the table. “I gotta take a piss.”
“Don’t let me stop you,” he replied, picking up an eclair he’d nabbed for dessert.
How that kid put it away like that without gaining a pound was beyond me.
I made my way out of the dining hall and down to the men’s room. It was fully empty, as ancient-looking as the rest of the building—all marble and dark wood, the same wainscotting as in the dining rooms continuing throughout.
I assembled myself in front of the urinal, pulling out my dick and unleashing a torrent of piss.
How many dudes across history had taken a leak in this very spot, I wondered?
Suddenly, I heard a toilet flush behind me, glancing through the mirror to see a stall door open behind me, and a face appearing in its frame
Not just any face. No, staring back before was Trevor Shults.
Trevor fucking Shults.
Senior. Captain of the football team. Blonde. Ripped. A prick. Maybe the hottest guy in the entire school, with the attitude to prove it. He was a phony if there ever was one, the kind of guy who’d be a prince to your face and then talk all the shit in the world behind your back.
But, most importantly, he was a prime candidate for a Bones member. Let’s call him patient zero. Presumed guilty. Suspect number one.
So just the man I wanted to see.
A grin came over his face.
“Well, well…” he started.
“Trevor,” I said curtly, the stream thickening as my dick pulsed involuntarily at his presence, inspired by the thought of unleashing over his pretty, unwitting face.
It was maddening how attractive he was, a fact made all the more irritating by the fact that he knew it. Yes, he wielded it all for his benefit, the rest of the world falling into alignment as if it were god’s will.
What would that even be like? I asked myself. To move through life like that, with such ease?
Then I reminded myself that was exactly how Nolan viewed me.
“How’s my favorite cub reporter?” Trevor asked as he exited the stall, sarcasm duly noted, fastening his belt before lathering his hands under the faucet.
“Thriving. Conniving.” I replied, finishing up at the urinal and placing my dick back in my pants. “I’m on a hot new story. Did you see the fire today?”
His face turned in mock concern. “Fire!? No…”
I placed my hands into the same sink—his sink—lathering them up with soap under the hot water.
“Know anything about it?” I asked, calling his bluff.
He looked back at me with an air of innocence, his face just mere inches away. “Now, why would I know about a thing like that?”
I stood in awe of his gall, his gumption—so cocky in all of his straightness that he could laugh off the accusation of doing something so vile.
I stared into his eyes, searching for truth and finding none, my voice growing quiet. “Just a wild guess, I suppose.”
“You’re barking up the wrong tree,” he replied, lips forming into a tight smile before pulling away and reaching for a paper towel. “Putting your nose in where it doesn’t belong.”
I summoned every fibre of my being to restrain myself from shoving him against the stall, leaving him there for dead or, more likely, mildly concussed.
“I’m not so certain,” I replied, refusing to back down.
He wiped his hands thoughtfully before resting his gaze back on me.
“You know,” he started, “I’ve always wanted to tell you something.”
And then he walked over to me, his face drawing nearer, nearer, until he was so close I could feel his breath up against my skin.
“Yeah?” I replied, daring him to finish the thought. “What’s that?”
He looked down at my lips—parted, wet. If I didn’t know any better, if my blood wasn’t boiling in absolute anger and disdain, I would think he was flirting with me.
And then he spoke.
“You really are a pretty little faggot.”
I stared back—stunned, silent—as Trevor had pulled away, discarding the used paper towel in the garbage bin before turning and exiting, the door slamming tight behind him as he left, all as if it were nothing.
But it wasn’t nothing. No, I was enraged, my fists tightening, and most surprisingly, my dick swelling.
I shook my head, yet another rush of crimson to my face.
Trevor Shults had called me a faggot, and I liked it.
—
Continue the story and read Chapter Three here…
Great buildup and inttoducing Trevor Schultz at the fag end of the chapter is masterstroke for a cliffhanger!! Really looking forward to tom for chapter 3! 🤞😍