“No, I don’t think I’ll need to do that, my face is only going to be like this for a week or so, but you’ve been stuck with that ugly face all your life and you’ve never seen the need to hide it.” Colin shot back. Moe started laughing his ass off while Ricky turned red with rage. Matt found something particularly interesting about his shoes because he kept looking at them.
Once again Seth arrived to school in his car right when Colin and Moe got there. Seth and Sheryl got out of the car. Seth took a little more time getting out of the car favoring his rear end a little, Colin inwardly smiled at that, but Seth had the same arrogant look he always had, and perhaps he was looking even smugger today.
When they approached, Sheryl went over to Colin and slapped him hard in the face, hard enough to make his head turn. “Bastard!” Sheryl said. “I never want to speak to you again!” She then rejoined Seth and he put his arm around her but he also turned his head around so Colin could see the gloating smile on his face. Ricky was in a better mood now and followed Seth inside like a puppy dog, all the time laughing at Colin.
“What the fuck was that?” Moe asked. “Yesterday she was acting like a bitch in heat around you.”
Colin knew that Seth felt threatened by the private conversation he and Sheryl had yesterday and after the scrimmage match, he also felt humiliated. So now it wasn’t enough that Seth had taken Sheryl away from him, he had made her despise him as well. “You should recognize it by now Moe,” Colin answered with a sigh. “That was a direct result of the manipulation machine known as Seth.”
“Fuck me,” Moe said in a quiet voice
* * *
It was another strange morning for Colin, maybe even stranger than yesterday. People were no longer commenting to him on how much happier he looked, most likely because he didn’t look happy, but rather pensive, not to mention he had a huge purple splotch on his face. A few of the members from the basketball team came up and slapped him on the back reiterating how great he played yesterday. Some people not even on the team came up to compliment him on his performance. However, most people just stayed quiet around him but Colin noticed they all had expressions of either anger or fear on their faces. Colin couldn’t be sure, but he also thought he saw some with expressions of hope. He tried to tune out the world around him and concentrate on the thoughts running through his mind.
When he could afford to not pay attention to what was going on in class, and even sometimes when he couldn’t, Colin spent much of his time thinking about what Moe had told him. Did this network of organized crime really exist right under his nose and was Seth really a part of it? Would he go that low? Colin knew the answer to that. The truth was Seth would do anything he felt necessary to achieve his goals.
What about Sheryl? She couldn’t know about Seth’s clandestine affairs and still be going out with him. Colin couldn’t care less at this point if Sheryl hated his guts, but he still felt sorry for her. He knew what she had gone through growing up and now she was with someone like Seth. Should he try to warn her about him? Yesterday he had tried warning Sheryl that Seth wasn’t such a good guy and that was before he knew any of the things Moe told him. She easily dismissed his warnings then, there was no way she would believe him now. Colin decided to worry about Sheryl later, right now he was just trying to wrap his mind around the entire conversation he had with Moe and get the big picture.
By lunch time Colin thought he understood at least some of what was going on but he wanted to talk to Moe again so he could understand it more clearly. When Colin got to the cafeteria he saw that today’s choices were pizza, hot dog, or the mystery dish which looked suspiciously like yesterday’s hamburgers without the buns in some kind of sauce. The cafeteria workers were calling it Salisbury steak. Colin went with the pizza.
With his lunch in hand, Colin made his way to Moe’s table. There was an empty seat directly across from Moe, he asked if anyone minded if he sat there, no one at the table objected. He was even given congratulations by some of the people for “kicking Seth’s ass” in basketball yesterday. Colin couldn’t believe how a little scrimmage match could cause so much commotion.
Colin leaned in close to Moe and spoke quietly. “So,” he said, “Seth rigs the basketball games so the team loses and one or more of the Bosses makes money off of betting on a sure thing?”
“Welcome through the looking glass.” Moe said.
“Huh?” Colin replied.
“God Damn! Don’t you ever go to the movies Col?”
“Oh,Alice in Wonderland, I get it,” Colin said.
“Well…aww fuck it,” Moe said with an air of resignation. “Do you at least get what I’m saying about your cousin now?”
“I think so…but it doesn’t make sense, Seth has too big of an ego to actually lose a game on purpose just to make some money,” Colin said. “Seth always has to win!”
“You still don’t get it!” Moe said in exasperation. “Seth isn’t doing this just to make a little extra dough. He’s doing it for the connections!”
“Connections?”
“Yes, connections!” Moe said. He then looked around to make sure he hadn’t spoken too loud. “Look,” he said as his voice went down an octave, “the Bosses have at least some influence with the police, the courts, even the local politicians. Seth does favors for the Bosses, they do favors for him and he gets special treatment…from everybody.” That explained what Moe was talking about this morning when he brought up traffic tickets and Seth never receiving any. “More than that,” Moe continued, “he’s in a position to grant favors to people because of his connections which he loves to do because then he can collect on the return favors.”
“Now that does sound like Seth,” Colin said, “but still I can’t imagine him willingly let someone beat him at anything.”
“Maybe he doesn’t see those games as a team beating him; they were just teams he didn’t care to win against. At the time, Seth was strutting around like he owned the place. You had always been his greatest adversary and in one swoop he took away your girlfriend, made you quit the team, and sent you spiraling into depression. He had enough goodies from that to keep his ego well fed.”
“That’s true,” Colin agreed. “But Moe, are you sure you’re just not imagining all this?” Colin still wasn’t completely convinced, and the fact that all this was coming from Moe…not exactly a reliable source. Colin knew Seth was an evil manipulator, but to actively participate in criminal schemes? Also it was so difficult to believe that Matt would be in on something like this as well. Colin just didn’t know.
Moe sighed then said, “This isn’t the delusion of some hallucinating pothead. I know I speak out of my ass most of the time, but this time I am being dead serious.”
“But how can you be so absolutely sure about these connections Seth is supposed to have?” Colin asked.
Moe looked like he was debating with himself whether to say something, finally in a voice so low Colin had to strain his ears to hear, he said, “Hardly anyone knows exactly what happened that day he…” Moe paused for a moment then quickly spat out the next few words, “taped my mouth shut.”
“I always thought Seth did it because he was being Seth and you were…well you,” Colin said.
Moe grimaced. “No there was more to it than that,” he said. “I told you my family has been hard up for cash lately, so last year I thought I could make a few extra bucks dealing.”
“Oh no, not you too Moe!” Colin said.
“I was only selling some of the weed that I grew myself. I never once tried to sell any of the harder stuff.” Moe said in his defense.
“And that’s somehow supposed to make what you did less offensive?” Colin asked.
“In some peoples’ eyes…yes,” Moe said bitterly.
“I realize that you believe the laws against smoking weed are unjust,” Colin said. “If what you are doing isn’t hurting anyone else, then the law shouldn’t interfere. Believe me I’m on the same page with you on that one, but pushing that stuff on others is wrong.”
“I don’t want to get into an argument with you over this so I’ll admit it was a bad idea trying to sell the stuff, but you will never get me to admit that weed is just as harmful as heroin or crystal meth or any of that other junk.” Moe said.
“Fair enough,” Colin replied.
“Can I finish my story now?” Moe asked. Colin nodded his head. “I hadn’t been dealing more than two days when Seth showed up at my locker along with his pack of followers. I looked around and noticed there was no one else in the hall; it was like it had actually been arranged for me to be there on my own at that moment. Until this day I had never talked to Seth, never really seen him up close, I had only seen him from afar hanging out with you and my brother; we weren’t in the same circles.
“Seth had this expression on his face, I don’t know how he does it but it feels like he’s zapped you with a freeze ray when he looks at you, I couldn’t move. Then he broke out in this smile that would have put me at ease if his eyes hadn’t stayed so cold. ‘You’re Motor Mouth Moe, aren’t you?’ he said.
“‘I guess some people call me that, I prefer just Moe if it’s all the same to you.’ I said.
“‘Well it really isn’t all the same to me, because you are a motor mouth,’ Seth said. I just stared at him and then he went on, ‘I hear you’ve started up your own little business, I guess you are depending to get customers by word of mouth, motor mouth that is.’ Some of Seth’s lackeys laughed at that.
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