welcome to crvboy - Failure of the Heart by Black Heart

"Hey Matt, you remember when Mr. Wilson lived here?" Val asked as she stared at the heavy wooden mantle passed on their way through the living room. "Remember how he used to keep all those big glass candy jars on the mantle?"

Matt's eyes followed Valerie's gaze and he smiled in the memory of the jars filled with various sweets.

"Yeah, but we were what, 6-years-old when he moved away?" he answered.

"Something like that," she agreed.

"No but thanks for the offer Jacob," she finally answered, her eyes continuing to wander the interior of the house. "Actually Matt and I were coming to kidnap you. You know Matt is going to be driving soon, so we have this plan of using the ransom money for a car."

Jacob and Matt both chuckled.

"Fat chance," Joanne Keats's said as she rounded the corner to the kitchen a, large box in her arms. "He's a pain; why should I have to pay for the privilege of his continued torture? Trust me I could use a vacation from him."

"HA-HA!" Jacob laughed sarcastically at her. "Guys this is my mom, Joanne."

"Just call me mom I hardly answer to Joanne anymore." She said as she nodded her head giving the pair before her a warm, welcoming smile.

"Mom this is Matt and Valerie." He continued as his head motioned to each of them in turn.

Both Matt and Valerie weren't sure yet about calling another woman Mom. Having two of them come running when it was screamed was bad enough, now they could look forward to a third.

"I'd love to stay and chat with you guys, but stacks of boxes have been chanting my name all morning." Joanne said as she made her way past them into the other room. "Hope to see you later." She called over her shoulder.

It wasn't that she was in an all out rush to unpack, she was. She just wanted to give her son room to make new friends without hovering around. Jacobs' best interests always came first. If allowing him to make friends meant that she pulled back out of his life every now and again she was all for it.

"By the way." She said popping her head back in the kitchen. "If you guys need anything, a gag, some rope, anything, don't hesitate to shout. I'm sure I can scrounge up some duct tape and some of Jacob's dirty laundry."

Matt and Valerie laughed as Jacob's face reddened, and he had trouble suppressing his easy laughter.

"Your Mom seems cool," Matt said.

"Wouldn't trade her for anything," Jacob responded. "So where am I being kidnapped to?"

"Just a local pizza place where Matty and I eat." Val answered as Matt to roll his eyes at her pet name.

"Sounds cool," Jacob nodded. "Let me go grab the tape."

"Quit being gay," Matt laughed as Jacob began to walk away.

Jacob stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned around. Matt's heart did a belly flop in his chest as for the first time he fell victim to Jacobs dimple-accented devilish grin. Valerie even had to admit that the sly smile accentuated his already handsome face.

"Geez," He said as if he'd just discovered he wasn't going. "You sure do know how to dash a guys bondage fantasies."

The kitchen erupted in laughter.

"Maybe next time." Matt said, his arm falling naturally onto Jacobs shoulder. "C'mon, let's go."

The giggling and good humor between the trio lasted the entire trip to the pizza shop.

They sat on opposite ends of the booth getting to know one another and enjoying idle banter after the waitress had practically dumped the pizza on the table. Her lips smacking around a piece of well-chewed gum she nodded and moved back behind the counter.

Jacob grabbed a piece, his face scrunched. He set the slice down on his plate and began to remove the yellow chunks of cooked pineapple. Valerie lifted her slice to her mouth ignoring his disgust.

"So what does your dad do?" she asked Jacob.

His head rose and he looked as though he were in pain.

"I dunno," he a carelessly shrugged. "Never met him."

It only took a second for Val to go from cheerful to feeling shitty as the three of them stared at their plates in silence.

"They aren't that great all of the time," Matt dared say. "They have an annoying habit of making you regret breathing sometimes. Don't give you a shred of privacy either."

"I guess," Jacob muttered. "Me and mom do just fine with out him. I couldn't imagine him being around anyway." Jacob pulled the piece of now pineapple-less pizza towards his mouth. "What does your dad do?"

"He's currently a board member on the City Council, before that he worked in the City Planners office, but he's got political aspirations now. Wants to run for congressman in the next election or something," Matt said uninterested.

Jacob's eyes slowly turned towards Val.

"Yours?" he questioned.

"Oh My dad is a good ol boy." She answered easily.

Jacob peered at her questioningly.

"He's a mechanic. His whole family have been mechanics though. Oil runs in the blood." She answered taking another bite.

"That's cool, and it explains that bitchin' mustang you drive."

"Daddy always said he'd get me a pony someday," she laughed. Jacob and Matt visibly relaxed and began to laugh with her.

"It's a nice car, wish I had one."

"Oh trust me, turning 16 was just the excuse for dad to buy one," she giggled. "He'd rather drive that around than his truck, but the car payment is way too expensive to let me drive it."

The group laughed easily, the tension over. Even though they never discussed it both Val and Matt independently decided never to call Jacob a bastard, even in jest.

An hour later, Valerie found it hard to leave. Matt was right, Jacob had an attractive personality. Just being in the space he occupied made her feel whole as his charm filled a hole she never knew existed. It wasn't only the way he made her feel, but he was definitely worth looking at, she thought.

In the following weeks the three of them hung out together whenever they could. Jacob's first day at Grove High revealed that he had at least one or the other of them in every period. They quickly schooled him on who was cool and who wasn't, bringing him up to speed gossip-wise.

Jacob found it all interesting enough if only for the sheer entertainment value of it. The fact remained that he really wasn't looking for any other friends. Even though many of them were looking for him. Other than Matt and Valerie, he kept everyone else at arms length. It was a quirk of his personality that had been born out of the rough south end of the city where he grew up.

"Whatya doin?" Jacob asked as his neck craned over Matt's shoulder.

What Jacob saw amazed him. The pencil stopped its repetitive strokes along the muscular tail of a menacing-looking dragon. Its claw clutched a pair of chains that led to a well-toned figure of a man and an Amazonian looking buxom woman.

"Jesus Christ," Jacob mouthed silently.

"What?" Val asked as she looked at the graphite-laden page in the sketchbook. "Oh that ones great Matty!"

"You guys think so?" he asked, gazing at the rough picture skeptically.

"Hell yes!" Jacob exclaimed shoving Matt's shoulder.

His hand failed to move however, remaining at comfortable rest on the warm shoulder beneath it.

"Damn Sweets, you knew he could draw like this?" Jacob's eyes met hers as a French fry hovered over a widening pool of ketchup.

"Yeah, He gave me an awesome rose for Valentines day," she said as her cheeks reddening.

"Yeah its stem was drawn like barbed wire. He left that in black and white, but colored the petals in vivid red. The contrast is amazing. I told him he should have turned it in for a grade."

Matt's cheeks burned and soft scratches of lead on paper filled his ears drowning out the conversation around him. As he scribbled he was oblivious to the world around him and the stares of a pert blonde dressed in a pink cardigan sweater. Her sparkling eyes poured over him every five minutes in a constant wandering gaze.

In the three months since Jacob had moved in, nature had been kind to her. Her once barren chest was now sprouting nicely outward. A development she was accentuating with tight shirts and sweaters, if only to garner Matt's attention. Other then polite hello's it really hadn't worked.

"He won't though, doesn't turn any of the good stuff in."

Her eyes caressed Matt as he was once again bent over the book, the pencil he held in his hand diligently shading and adding detail to areas of the sketch. Jacob's eyes moved from Valerie to Matt's back and the picture beyond it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Val and he weren't the only ones watching Matt at work. His head turned slightly in Jackie's direction. As soon as it did her face snapped down and she gazed at the table ahead of her.

The corners of his lips curled slightly and he bent down placing the side of his face close to Matt's cheek, pretending to study the image more closely.

"She's watching you again."

Jacobs warm breath washed over Matt's cheek crushing his concentration. Matt's head snapped to his left and spied the mediocre-looking girl as she studied the lunch before her. Matt's lips stayed barely an inch from Jacobs face as he spied his would be admirer from only his right eye.

"So," he managed to squeak as his breath caught in his throat.

It was at that moment that Jay Henderson slid onto the bench-style lunch table where the group was sitting.

"Why don't you just kiss him and grab a room Porter?" Jay chuckled to himself, before turning his attention to Val. "Hey Valerie."

Jay's words tore into Jacob, just as they had every lunch for the past three months. Snide jokes made in passing to outright allegations of homosexuality didn't set well with Jacob. As the days and remarks wore on his anger slowly built till he knew that one-day he would not be able to control it any longer.

"Fuck off," Matt growled, annoyed by the presence of the star linebacker.

Jay ignored him, intent on making play for Valerie. What he couldn't ignore or have a chance to react to was Jacob's body hurdling over the lunch table in a surprise tackle. The air rushed from his lungs and the flirtatious smile melted off his face as the force behind Jacobs weight threw him off the seat and onto the concrete slab below.

Valerie screamed in surprise as Jacob's jumped, leaving Matt to scramble with his picture book in the wake. The two in turn quickly followed the action, at first, with their eyes then physically as they moved further away.

The football jock didn't even have a chance to groan before Jacob's set of balled fists let open on his face. Jay lay there, mostly in shock as he was assaulted. No one had ever even dreamt of attacking him, and here was this semi-new kid walloping him.

Jay's own fist curled and struck Jacob in the side, stopping him long enough for Jay to push him off. As his hands mashed Jacob's chest, Jacob's swinging fist connected perfectly with Jay's nose. A startling crack led to sharp pain that dulled to a throbbing ache that reverberated through his skull.

Pissed, Jay grabbed Jacob by the collar of his shirt and hurdled him towards the gathering crowd of jeering classmates. The collective voyeurs parted like the Red Sea under Moses' direction, as Jacob was flung in their direction.

With out the mass of chanting onlookers to stop him, Jacob fell down the small flight of concrete steps that led into the arcade. Jay wasn't done yet, the front of his white shirt quickly turning red. He jumped down the flight of steps, an odd nasal wheezing sound came from his chest as he plucked Jacob up off the ground and his hand cocked back menacingly.

A loud whistle screamed through the excitement-filled air. Before Jay could throw his punch both of their shirt collars were snatched by the strong grip of Coach Jacovy. The older man demonstrated his dominance in tearing the two of them apart, shaking them like rag dolls.

""What the fuck is going on here?" His stern voice demanded without tact. "Henderson?" his eyes sought out Jay's as Jay quickly became meek and accommodating.

"Keats?" His eyes spilled over Jacob not satisfied with Jay's answer.

"This fucking ass-!" Jacob started as he lunged toward Jay only to be forcefully pulled back by Jacovy.

"SAVE IT!" the man's voice boomed as his grip tightened on Jacob's shirt collar, causing him to wince.

"Coach!" Val screamed up at him. "It wasn't Jacob's fault he was just-"

"Did anyone ask you King?" he cut her off.

"It's the truth!" Matt said backing up Val. "Jays been asking for an ass-whooping for years and finally someone came along with the balls to do it."

"Keep running your mouth Porter and you'll be in the same boat as these two," Jacovy snapped becoming furious.

He roughly tugged at the shirts of the boys in his grip and dragged them to the discipline office.

"Fucking ass!" Valerie sighed.

"That was great!" Jackie exclaimed as she strolled up to Matt her books held across her chest. "I mean it was great that you stuck up for your friend like that, I think you're a great guy and-" she began rambling on nervously.

Her timing for expressions of the heart was, at best, ill timed. Matt was pissed at the way Jacovy snapped at him for trying to defend his friend and he had just found a victim to vent on. He slowly turned and gave her a look that said a million blasphemous things at once.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

"I was just saying you're a great guy and-" she recoiled.

"Well save it and get the fuck away!"

"But I-I was just-" she stammered try to salvage any hope of getting to stand with him.

"Listen, don't think I don't know your always watching me. Well stop, and just leave me the fuck alone!" Matt turned on his heal and stormed off towards the campus parking lot.

"Matt! I- I'm sorry I didn't mean to," Jackie tried mumbling an apology as her eyes stung with tears.

The welling of tears in her eyes paled to the weight in her chest as the one boy she had been pining over for years only answered her apology with his back.

Valerie stood there wide-eyed, her mouth agape. Had she not been totally dumbfounded by the events of the past several minutes she would have felt sympathy for the girl before her. She had known Matt his entire life, and never, never had she ever seen him blow up in anger, whether it was at someone he truly hated or a simple victim of chance like Jackie had been.

Jackie turned her tear-stained toward Valerie as if asking for support. Valerie had none to offer, she was too thunderstruck to even understand what had happened. Quickly gathering not only her books but Matt's, she ran off.

"Fucking faggots," Jackie's voice hissed unnaturally as she tried to regain her composure.

In her mind that was the only reason for what had happened, it had to be why Matt had shunned her. He and Jacob were gay for each other, which had to be why Jacob attacked Jay. Her eyes narrowed and she slowly padded her way across the quad.

Val caught up with Matt who had planted himself in her car.

"What was all that about?" she asked as she climbed in.

"Not now," he answered his voice still edgy with anger.

Val found listened to his warning and asked no more questions. Not feeling like going back to class she pulled out her books and began doing her math homework for third period. Matt opted for the abandoned sketchbook she had returned to him.

The final bell rang a little more than two hours later. Both Matt and Val looked up, hoping to see Jacob walking toward the car. He was unexpectedly absent as they scanned the crowds that scurried out to the student parking lot.

"I'm tired of her always staring at me," Matt said as he gave up looking for Jacob.

"Alright," Valerie said non-threateningly. "But don't you think you treated her rather harshly?"

"She came up at the wrong time. I wasn't in the mood," he said as he slid his books back into his bag.

"You wanna head out, I don't think Jacob is gonna be out any time soon," Matt sighed as he climbed into the front seat.

Val looked at her watch and realized that school had been dismissed more than 45 minutes ago.

"I guess." She gave in, her head scanning the empty quad one more time.

The On Campus Supervised Study room was a dismal, stark, dingy white shell of a former classroom. Five rows of withered desks all faced the dirt wall that had once held a blackboard. A larger desk occupied by a campus supervisor guarded the only door into the room. The man, best described as rotund and unshaven, sat quietly shuffling paperwork.

Jacob sat in the middle of the otherwise empty room. Jay had left about 20 minutes after Coach Jacovy pulled them into the discipline office. His mother having drug him off to the hospital to have his face looked at. Not before Jacob had the satisfaction of seeing the beginning of the multiple bruises the single blow had caused.

His ass was dying from the uncomfortably hard plastic seat. They were basically the same that the regular classrooms had, but the extended seating time was hard on his ass. His book bag had been collected by a separate supervisor and been deposited on the rotund man's desk where it remained.

"Can I go to the restroom?" he asked, discomfort apparent in his voice.

The guard for lack of a better word simply stared at him and shook his head.

"Well ain't that a fine fucking way to treat a person." Jacob growled. "I guess Ill just piss right in the chair."

"Do what you want you little punk, you'll just receive the joy of cleaning it up," The bored man droned.

Jacob blew a huff of air and turned around facing forward again, wondering when this hellish nightmare will be over. He ignored the sound of footprints as they entered the campus prison thinking they belonged to a person he could care less about.

The sort woman stood there for a moment eyeing the boy who was slumped over the desktop in front him.

"Jacob," his mothers voice echoed through the room.

His body bolted upright in an instant and hurried to her side as she signed the document releasing him. The man double-checked her ID against the signature on the form.

"I'm supposed to remind you your son isn't welcome back tomorrow nor the entire next week." He grinned at Jacob as he said it.

"Thank you," Joanne snarled. "I am very well aware of that, the Councilor of Discipline was just as happy to dispense that news to me not less then 15 minutes ago." Having said her peace to the man she turned and eyed Jacob.

They walked quietly to her car parked outside the administration building. The silence continued as the pair climbed inside the SUV.

"Do you want to tell me what this is all about? Because I had to agree to work Saturday to get out and pick you up Jacob," she watched him for an answer. "You know, I thought things were better here, it's a quiet town and here you go and break a kids nose. What's the problem?"

Jacob sat in silence for a moment unwilling and unable to look the only parent he had in the face.

"He's always making comments about Matt being gay. He looks down on Matt cause of his bond with Valerie. He did it again today. Told him to just kiss me and get a room. I had just had enough of him doing that to Matt, there's no reason for it." Tears of shame were welling in Jacob's eyes.

"Kiddo," Joanne tugged on her sons shoulder, pulling him into an awkward hug. "You know there are people out there that don't understand things very well. They make derogatory remarks to inflate their own egos."

Jacob nodded his head into her shoulder

"I know I had to prove to him that he shouldn't," he sobbed.

"Damn," Joanne sighed, breaking the hug. "Now I can't ground you."

Jacob nodded his head in understanding as he wiped his nose and eyes with the back of his hand.

"So I guess you have the next 10 days vacation, I want the house immaculate by the time I get home. And see If Matt and Valerie can collect your homework so you don't fall behind."

He nodded his head again.

"Mom is it alright if Matt comes swimming tonight?"

"Sure but remember he has school tomorrow," she reminded.

"Can I borrow your phone?"

Joanne dug the phone out of her blazer pocket and handed it to Jacob. He quickly dialed the number to the Porter home.

"Hello?" Matt answered into the phone.

"Hey Matt, do you think you could go swimming today?" Jacob asked.

"Yeah that would be great. Dad's in a council meeting and mom is working late tonight." Matt quickly answered, dying to ask Jacob what the hell went down.