Held Back Theater 3 (Patreon)

Toby awkwardly clutched his book bag closer into him as he sat waiting for his mother to arrive. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.” He groaned and tried again to find some position to sit in that would hide the black shirt he now wore.

“That’s a weird way to say thank you.” Gigi said as she walked barefoot along the bench behind Toby before making a small hop to the half wall behind the bench. “It was either this or stand out here naked.”

“What are you doing?”

“What do you mean? I’m waiting with you.”

“Drama nerds.” Toby muttered under his breath and shook his head.

“You seem stressed.” She said, jumping down beside Toby.

“No!” He said sarcastically, “I can’t imagine why.”

“You know what I do when I’m stressed?”

“Ask rhetorical questions?”

“Besides that. I do yoga.” She smiled, bending over and grabbing her ankles touching her forehead to her shins.

“Yeah, I can’t do that.”

“It takes time to get this limber, but you’ll thank me later.”

“I don’t wanna get that limber.”

Gigi shifted position, letting herself fall slightly forward and catching herself with her hands before crawling forward until she stood on her tiptoes. “C’mon you guys do stretches all the time before a race.”

Toby swallowed the lump in his throat as he awkwardly tried not to stare at Gigi’s ass that was now practically on display in front of him. “Not like that.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw his mother’s car approaching, “Oh thank god.”  He said with a relieved sigh as he stood, covering his crotch with his bag.

“Oh.”  Gigi said, sitting on the ground and criss-crossing her legs.

“Hey, mom.” Toby said, climbing into his mother’s car, quickly covering his shirt with his book bag. “This is Gigi, I said she could get a ride home with us.“

“Okay...” She said slowly.

“You comin’?” he shouted at Gigi as he rolled down his window.

“Sweet!” She cheered, hand-walking herself back up and hurrying to pick up her bag and shoes under the bench.

“What…did you change clothes?” His mother asked slowly, noticing right way he wasn’t wearing the clothes he left the house in that morning.

“I…got paint on my shirt and had to change.” He lied, leaving out the fact it was actually blood.

B“And your pants?” She asked, lifting the bag off of his lap exposing the rhinestone embroidered daisy dukes barely covering his thighs and the sleeveless black polo tucked into the miniscule bejeweled shorts. 

“It was a lot of paint.” He clutched his bag to his chest.

Seeing her son frown and try to cover himself she placed a hand on his arm, “I think you look just precious.”

“Mom!” Toby groaned, burying his face in his bag.

Gigi sat in the backseat behind Toby with a big smile on her face and shoes on her feet, “Thank you so much, Misses Laughlin.”

“It’s Mrs, and it’s no problem...Gigi? Right?"

"It's Grace Gardner actually but everyone calls me Gigi. Get it? Because my initials are G.G. One girl started calling me Gigi when I first started here and then I guess it kinda caught on and I figured why not roll with it and it. As far as nicknames go it's cuter than most. But anyway that's a long way to say yes ma'am, I'm Gigi and thank you again for the ride."

"Gardner? You wouldn’t by chance know Paige Gardner would you?”

Gigi cocked an eyebrow at Toby’s mother, “That’s my mom…”

“Really?!” A wide grin spread across Lauren’s face, “That’s funny. We used to be BFFs in high school.” She chuckled happily at the fond memories.

“You were?”

“Oh yeah. We were both on the cheerleading squad together. It’s a shame we lost touch after high school. You should ask her if she remembers Lauren Davies.”

“Sure.”

“So, did you have detention too?”

“Oh, no ma’am. I’m part of the drama club and when I saw what happened I just had to stay behind and help Toby with his clothing malfunction.”

“You’re very sweet and in case Tobias hasn’t thanked you yet, thank you.” Toby shook his head and muttered to himself when his mom called him Tobias yet again.

“Toby already thanked me.” Gigi said, gently placing a hand on Toby’s shoulder.

Toby rolled his eyes, “Can we go?”

“Yup, yup.” His mom cheered, “Seat belts.” She reminded everyone as she drove away from the school.

As Gigi gave directions to his mom in-between what sounded like three conversations overlapping each other Toby wondered what he would tell his dad. His dad was already always on his case about how he didn’t take care of his clothes. This time wasn’t his fault though. Of course…he had said that before when it was definitely his fault and his dad still didn’t believe him. ‘Wonder, which is gonna piss him off more?’ he thought as he chewed on his nails, ‘That I’m dressed like a girl or my clothes are destroyed?’ Would his dad believe the truth? Toby wasn’t sure he even believed the truth.

A short time later after dropping off Gigi, Leanne finally broke the long silence. “So…do you want to tell me what happened?”

“I told you, it was paint.”

“Mhm.” She hummed disbelievingly , “I hate to pull the mom card, but I do know when you’re lying by now.”

“I’d really rather not talk about it.”

“Okay…I just want to make sure you’re not being bullied again. I remember how mean kids can be to one another.” Lauren frowned at the memories of her sweet little boy crying after being picked on, or worse being beaten up, all for being shorter than the other boys his age.

“I’m not being bullied.” He sighed, “It’s just…it’s a long story.”

“We got time.” She said gently. Toby watched silently as the trees passed by his window before finally deciding to tell her the truth, or most of it at least. Her reaction would be a good way to gauge how his dad would react when he no doubt had to tell the story all over again.

After he and Gigi agreed to bury the hatchet he asked how he could clean the blood off of his nails. "Paint isn't the same as blood." Gigi smirked, "You're gonna need a lot of soap and alcohol."

"Great.” He sniffed, examining his fingers. Slowly his brows furrowed as he sniffed his fingers.

“Ew.” Gigi said with a grimace, “What are you a vampire?!”

“What? No. Do…do you smell something funky?”

“I wasn't going to say anything. We are in a boy’s locker room after all."

Ignoring her Toby sniffed at his shirt and immediately gagged, “Ugh!” He coughed, throwing his hand over his nose to protect it from the smell. “Fu-!!”He spat the taste out of his mouth as he sprung to his feet, tearing his shirt off of his head. Instead of protecting himself from the smell it had transferred from his shirt to his hand and then to his mouth and nose.

“What?!” Gigi asked as Toby threw his shirt away.

“It smells like death!” He shouted, fighting the urge to cover his mouth or run his hands through his hair resulting in him waving his hands between the two.

“No offense but…it is sweaty boy clothes in a stinky boy’s locker.”

“Hey!” Toby slapped his chest, “I don’t stink! Okay?!” Sniffing his armpit, he grimaced again, “I have to get another shower.” he groaned.

“Don’t most boys like sweating?” Gigi covered her mouth and nose with her hand, protecting herself from the smell that was now for sure radiating off of Toby. Thankfully it also hid the smile on her face as she tried not to laugh at his silly gestures.

“That’s not sweat!” He snapped as he wrapped the towel around his waist again, “That is…if a rotten corpse had a baby with vomit!”

“Charming.”

“I thought so.” He smirked slightly, “Now, if you’ll excuse me I have to take another shower.” He said with fake cheer before walking away.

Gigi rolled her eyes as the odd little duckling walked away grumbling to himself about it being his fourth shower of the day before noticing the shirt and carefully picking it up between her thumb and finger. Carefully she gave it a sniff and reflexively threw it away from her. “That’s not sweat.” She gagged. Unfortunately she recognized the smell from the one and only fishing trip she had ever let her dad take her on. It was the smell of rotten fish.

Covering her mouth with her hand and using her top as a filter she  opened Toby's locker, the smell was enough that she could still smell it through was enough to let her know whatever caused the stink was inside of the locker still. 'He must be nose blind to not smell it right off.' She thought as she picked up the gym bag with one hand and placed it on the bench. As she was about to close the locker something caught her eye. Underneath Toby’s track shoes was a laminated photo.

Gigi glanced toward the shower to make sure he was not about to jump out and catch her in the act before picking it up and finding a picture of a fish with the line,  ‘So long, and thanks for all the fish.’ written on it and nothing else. “Bit over the top don’t you think, guys?” She said, rolling her eyes. Inside the right shoe Gigi noticed the shine of a colorful fishtail. “Ew.” She gagged before holding her breath and checking the left, finding the head of a trout. “And morbid.” She pulled the shoes out and sat them beside the gym bag on the bench. Turning back to the gym bag the same rotten smell that permeated the locker now radiated off of the gym bag. “You’re kidding.”  Lifting the half zipped flap she found two trout laying inside the empty bag.

Grabbing another towel from one of the racks outside of the shower entrance she paused, “Hey, uh…Toby?” She waited. Hearing no response she tried again, shouting over the running water, “Toooooby!”

“Whaaaaat?” he yelled back over the running water.

“Do you want me to get you clothes from the theater department?”

“I’d rather not dress like a pirate.”

“That’s just a lie. Everyone wants to be a pirate.” She laughed, “Besides, we have normal clothes Mr. S bought from the flea market.” She shouted, quietly adding, “Most of which you ruined but we won’t go into that again.”

“If you have normal clothes then yes, anything! My mom’s probably already here, last thing I need is her barging in on me like this.”

“Okay, good. I’ll be back soon.” Taking the towel in hand she picked up the discarded gym shorts and carried them back to the gym bag of rancid horrors before doing the same with the rest of his clothes.

A few minutes later, Gigi opened the janitor’s closet and took two trash bags out of a box off of a shelf before taking the towel and picking out the fish and placing it into the first trash bag. Afterwards she put the gym bag and its contents into the second trash bag and carried it with her to the theater department.

Gigi searched the entire closet that was once filled to the brim with clothes and costumes of various sizes and eras but now had little to nothing remaining. What little she found that would fit Toby were a few outlandish costumes from past plays. What was less garish or masculine was simply too small to fit him.

“Hey kid, that you?” Laramy called as he approached the costume closet. “You gonna pull another late night?”

“Not tonight, I’m helping a friend who needs a change of clothes.”

“See, you’re a good kid.” He groaned as he bent down and picked up the garbage bags, “Not like those other weasels who trashed this place.” He held his breath as he tossed the foul smelling bags into his larger trash bag in his cart, “Least we’ll be rid of that fish smell soon.”

“Jealousy makes people do weird things.” She said, only half listening as she picked a shirt off of the rack. “Hey, Laramy? You wouldn’t happen to have any of the ruined costumes still would you?”

“Sorry, kid. They’re probably in the dump by now.”

“Dang.” She sighed.

“I gotta finish my rounds, don’t forget to turn off the lights behind you.”

“Okay. Have fun.”

“Oh yeah. Tons.” He said sarcastically with a chuckle as he walked away.

Several minutes later in the boy’s locker room Toby waited, not so patiently, on the bench when finally Gigi knocked on the door. “Just come in!” He shouted.

Gigi walked in with a sheepish smile, “Heeeey.”

“Finally! Is that the clothes?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” She said as she handed him the folded up clothes and white sneakers.

“These look like the shoes the cheerleaders wear…”

“Yeah, technically they are.” She smiled awkwardly, “So, um, your shoes reeked too so I thought I’d see if we had any in the costume closet and…hey good news we did!”

Toby frowned at the shoes, “You know what? It’s fine.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. It’s just until I get home.”

“Exactly! It’s not a big deal!” She smiled.

“I guess.” He sat the shoes down and looked at the rest of the clothes.

“So, like…something happened–”

“What the hell?!” Toby shouted holding up the shorts and white panties, smearing at the tiny bow over the crotch. “Is this supposed to be a joke?!”

“What? No! All your clothes smelled like death so I put them in a trash bag for you and tried to find clothes for you in the costume closet that would fit but the only guys’ clothes you didn’t ruin were too small and the rest were thrown away and like you said it’s just until you get home right? So it’s not a big deal, remember?”

“I’ll deal with the shoes…and the rest I guess…but I’m not wearing these.” He said, holding the panties between his fingers at arms length towards Gigi.

“Do you want to keep those clothes?”

“Hell no!”

“Then you’re gonna have to give them back and I don’t want your boy bits tainting them. I might have to wear them next.” She explained.

“But you’re okay with wearing underwear I have?”

“Oh those you can keep. Consider it a donation to the cause.” She giggled, throwing the panties at Toby who dodged the plain white panties, “Come on, they’re not diseased.”

“I’m not wearing those. Forget it, just give me my clothes.”

“Um, I can’t.” She frowned.

“You’ve had your fun, I’m not gonna dress like a girl. My dad would tear my head off!” Toby clenched the knot of the towel wrapped around his waist as he imagined his dad’s reaction, “So, no. Just gimme my clothes back. I’ll wear the bloody ones.”

“I put them all in the same bag.”

“Fine, even if they stink, I don’t care.”

“I lost the bag.”

“What?! How do you lose a bag you were carrying?!”

“I don’t know. It was there one second and gone the next while I was in the closet.”

Toby sat on the bench in just his towel, shaking his head. “This is insane.” He groaned.

“I’m so sorry I lost your clothes.” She said as she sat next to him, “I swear I’ll pay you back…later.”

“You’ll pay me back, huh?” he looked her over, his teenage mind immediately picturing the various ways in which she could pay him back.

“Later.” She added, “Some day. Money’s a little tight right now.” She said with a half smirk, bumping his shoulder with her own.

By the time he finished recounting the story as much as he could to his mother, leaving out the bloody clothes, the rotten fish smell in his locker, the weird accompanying note, and worst of all the embarrassing ultimatum he was given, they were pulling into their driveway and parking next to his dad’s car.  “I’m sorry, baby. It sounds like you had a really hard day.” Toby shrugged, eyeing the door nervously from the car. “Tell you what, I’ll make you your fave dessert tonight. How’s that sound? Think that would help you feel better?” She smiled at her sweet son.

“Sure, mom.” he lied, faking a smile for her sake. It wasn’t that she was a bad cook, the total opposite in fact. Her gooey chocolate and macadamia cookies were the absolute best, but as much as he loved them he doubted an entire truck full of her gooey chocolate and macadamia cookies would improve his mood once his dad found out what happened.

"I knew it would." She smiled as she got out of the car.

Letting his mother go first Toby followed her inside, keeping her body between him and his dad as much as possible while his dad sat in his usual chair watching ESPN. “You’re back.” His dad cheered without looking from the television, “Great, I’m starving!”

“Don’t worry, I’m putting dinner on here in a bit.” His mother said as she sat her purse on the kitchen counter, leaving Toby without his shield.

“Great.” He said before returning his full attention to the TV.

Toby slowly crept past his father’s chair into the hallway made even more narrow by the stairs that led up to his room, the cheerleader shoes making it more difficult due to only having a soul on the ball and heel of his foot. He carefully climbed the stairs two at a time, pausing at any noise he heard from below. It was a slow process but after a minute of climbing he finally reached the top and hurried into his room and closed his door behind him. He paused briefly, resting against the door, and let go of the breath he had been holding since he started his slow climb when he noticed the blinds to his room were still up allowing anyone outside to see him.

After closing his blinds he caught his reflection on his television. He hadn’t really looked at himself in the bathroom mirror of the locker room once he got dressed beyond making sure none of his business was hanging out of the tiny shorts. He twisted left and right, watching in the dingy silhouetted reflection of the tv as the figure did the same. The small faux rhinestone embroidery glinting in the light. ‘I can’t believe I let this happen.’ He frowned, touching one of the twin fluer-de-lis, ‘How do girls even sit in these without them digging into their butt?’ He wondered, forgetting that he hadn’t felt them the entire ride home before shaking his head and kicking off his borrowed shoes and undoing the shorts. The short shorts and tight top were bad enough but the worst offender of all was the plain white panties he had to wear just so he could return the stupid clothes he didn’t even want in the first place.

“Boy!” Toby’s dad shouted as his door suddenly flung open.

“Fu-dad!” Toby swore as he yanked up the shorts back up his legs and hoping his dad didn’t notice his underwear change. “What?!”

“You think I didn’t see you creeping up the stairs?” He asked as he walked into the room, “I was wondering what the hell was going on but then I saw you dressed like some fruit.”

“You did?!” Toby’s eyes bulged in shock. “I-I can explain–”

“You don’t have to hide anything from me.” He said, closing the door behind him, “You’re being hazed, boy.” Before Toby could answer, Rory continued, “Look, you can tell me. I was the victim of hazing when I first joined the football team. You’re lucky they gave you shorts. I had to walk home in our center’s sister’s prom dress.” He laughed loudly as he sat on Toby’s bed, “Thank God she was a hefty gal or I would’ve had to walk home naked.” Toby shuddered at the image of his six foot tall, bearded and hairy dad walking home and stretching out a prom dress with his beer gut. “All I’m saying is this kind of thing builds character. If you can laugh it off, or better yet get back at em’–” he said with a wink–“ they’ll respect you all the more.”

“Y-yeah.” Toby smiled nervously while clutching as high as he could for fear of exposing the girly underwear.

Rory nodded with a big grin of his own, “The drama queers didn’t give you too much shit did they?”

“Huh…oh…no. I was uh…mostly by myself.”

“Good.” He chuckled, “You know Odis’...son is in that group?” He said, adding air quotes around the word son.

“Who?”

“The fat flamer...Nick…something.”

“I don’t know who Odis is.” Toby explained.

“Sure you do, he works at the plant with me.” He said as if that were meant to explain anything. Once he realized there was no look of recognition on his son’s face he waved it off. “Anyway, you know who I’m talking about.”

“Nico?”

“That’s him. He didn’t try to put the moves on you did he?”

“No. No one put any moves on me.”

“Good. Anyone messes with my boy…well I know a pig farmer who owes me a favor.” He tapped his nose with a wink. “I shouldn’t say that.” He shook his head, “Odis is a good man. I don’t know how he can stand having…that for a kid.” Rory grimaced at the thought.

“I don’t know.” Toby shrugged, “We don’t really hang out.”

“Good. The last thing we need is for someone to think you’re one of them. Speaking of,” Rory slapped his legs as he stood, “I’ll let you get changed out of that sissy get-up.”  He paused with his hand on the door, “Make sure you get your real clothes back.”

“Yes, sir.” Toby nodded.

“I work too hard for those clothes for your friends to be stealing them.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good boy.” He nodded before finally leaving and closing the door behind him.

Toby sighed, releasing the tension in his body as he sat on his bed. He had to lie to his dad but he at least avoided more yelling and whatever punishment he would come up with…or worse. The look of disgust on his father’s face as he talked about Nico almost made him feel sorry for the guy, almost, if he wasn’t also certain Nico was the one who fished his locker and left that stupid note. Toby shook his head and locked his door, finally changing out of the borrowed clothes.