Author’s Notes: Well, hello again! I’m not dead and this story is NOT OVER! I know it’s been like, a year or something… but Freddy and Jason burst into my house and threatened my family, so I was forced to continue.

Heh… sorry I’ve taken so long to update. I wanted to leave the characters in a good, safe environment (e.g cuddling on the sofa) whilst I worked on some of my other ‘fics.

I also wanted to apologise for all the errors and misinformation within this fanfic. I have to confess that I have not seen ALL the ‘Friday the 13th’ and ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street films’ and subsequently have gotten elements, dates and other factors incorrect within this story. When I first started writing it I was 16 and was still quite new to fanfiction writing. (This is even more painfully obvious in my earlier ‘fic ‘Stepping into the Unknown).

Despite this fanfiction being badly-written, incorrect and immature, and poorly updated, I hope you can still enjoy it.

-o-o-o-o-

What If? Chapter 16

‘I don't tell you what to say
I don't tell you what to do
So just let me be myself
That's all I ask of you
I'm young and I love to be young
I'm free and I love to be free
To live my life the way I want
To say and do whatever I please’ – Lesley Gore – You Don’t Own Me

Freddy murmured, fought to stay asleep, lost, growled and rolled over. Promptly fell off the couch and onto the cold, uncaring floor.

“Fuck! Shit-fuck-Ouch!-damn-fucking-queer!!!”

Jason woke at the loud swearing and struggled to lift his head, still clouded by sleep, hair fluffed and sticking out at odd angles. “Uh-whu?”

The smaller boy struggled to a sitting position, roaring as he tried to get out of the blanket cocoon his wriggling body had created during the night. He failed and simply ended up flopped on his side, legs sticking out and kicking at the threadbare carpet.

Jason raised himself slightly, staring at the other boy for several long moments before he giggled.

Freddy yelled more abuse and rolled around, fighting the blanket for freedom, enraged by his friend’s laughter. “Jason! I swear if you don’t get me the fuck out of here I’m going to rip your fucking throat out!!! RARGH!!! JASOOON!!!”

The taller boy finally recognised the deeply annoyed tone and crawled over to Freddy. It took only a few short moments for the blonde to unravel the brunette from his fabric prison and to heft the smaller boy to his bare feet. Small toes flexing over the threadbare carpet, capturing loose threads in the sensitive crevices between each digit. “Heh… err… thanks Jase.” Freddy’s cheeks burned with the humiliation of having to ask for help to escape from a blanket.

Jason blushed slightly at the thanks, nuzzling Freddy’s cheek gently and arms reaching to hook around the other’s lean waist, hugging the smaller close. “I-I love you Fred-dy.” He stuttered out contentedly before hesitating a fraction. Had that been the right thing to say? His mother was always advising him on what was right, what was wrong. On when certain speech was appropriate and when it was not. Were you allowed to say you loved someone who was not in your family?

Freddy froze solid, tension gulping down his contentment hungrily, leaving him utterly terrified. Had the other boy really just said what he thought he had? That he… loved him? But… no, he must have misheard, he must have, hadn’t he? His stomach growled loudly, interrupting his thoughts with an embarrassing clamour of hunger. “Heh… urm… I’ll just… let you go now, right?” He backed away quickly, so quickly in fact that he almost ended up flat on the floor again but Jason caught his arm in time.

“Jason, Freddy, why not come and have breakfast? I’ve grilled toast and made some porridge. You can have honey in it if you like.” Pamela’s voice floated out of the kitchen sweetly, slicing through the awkward moment like a knife through soft bread.

Jason made a joyful sound and ran to the kitchen, subsequently dragging Freddy, who yelped as he was yanked across the floor. Sunlight streamed through the window and the threadbare yellowing curtains, covered in pink and purple freesias. Pamela had her back to them, hovering over a pan of porridge on the stove, and a kettle that was whistling a dreary tune. The little rickety oak dining-table was covered in a white tablecloth and a little pink vase containing a few roses.

Freddy felt a strange little warmth grow inside of him, filling him up. It was just so homely and motherly a scene, it made him ache with want. He had never met his mother as he had been adopted almost immediately after his birth. There had always seemed to be a horrible hole somewhere inside him where a mom should be. He liked hurting things, especially small, furry animals and himself and, he would have denied it, but it was most probably connected to the emptiness inside of him. Excitement to fill it.

He let himself be dragged to the table and stared in amazement as Mrs Voorhees dolled out food for all three of them. It was like a dream, so surreal; he couldn’t believe it was reality. Freddy pinched his skinny arms fiercely. Ouch! Well, at least he wasn’t dreaming. And his stomach yowled again, when was the last time he had eaten?

Jason gave his friend a weird look. That had looked painful. Freddy turned and gave him a smile and Jason smiled back, choosing to ignore the other’s strange behaviour. His mother placed some porridge in front of him and he smiled brightly and stuttered a “T-thank you m-mommy”. He spooned a little honey from the glass jar and dribbled it over the top of his porridge in a spiralling motion, creating a wobbly, glistening circle on the lumpy surface.

Pamela smiled, spreading butter on her toast. They looked so sweet, happy and childishly innocent. Freddy looked like he had not eaten well in weeks, so skinny and forlorn. She swore to herself that he would be eating well from this moment on.

“Sweetheart, Freddy, my dears; I have to go into town soon and, I realise you both still have school, why don’t you go and get dressed?”

Freddy groaned, “Maam, pleeease! Haven’t we suffered enough?!” He tried to give his best puppy-dog eyes, batting his pale lashes and pouting his lips.

Pamela laughed. “Now Freddy, you will get into a lot more trouble if you stop going to school and your education is very important!” She twisted round to study the brown clock face on the wall, “Well… I think you may have missed the bus but there is still enough time for you to walk there if you leave in a few minutes.”

When Freddy looked as though he would continue his argument, Pamela waved him off with a stern look. “Now, I realise this past week has been hard on you too, but that does not mean you can stop going to school and that is FINAL.”

Freddy glared and spooned the last of his porridge into his mouth, munching on it grumpily before standing up and heading towards the sitting room. Jason smiled at his mother before jumping up to follow. He found his smaller friend pulling on his raggedy sweater, from where it had been bundled on the floor from the previous evening.

Freddy scowled and shoved his feet into grubby, worn sneakers. “So… we going?”

Jason frowned in confusion at the boy’s wording, “Hunh?”

“To school spaz, to school!” Freddy resisted the urge to thump the taller teen on the head, seriously though, what an idiot! Instead, he simply grabbed Jason’s arm and pulled him towards the door. If they weren’t friends Freddy knew he would have ditched the kid by now, he wasn’t no damn baby sitter!

Jason’s eyes widened in surprise as he was dragged, in an ironical refection of his usual actions towards his friend, out of the front door, hearing his mother call a cheery “good bye”. Shrugging Freddy off gently, he caught up with him and looped his fingers around the smaller teen’s.

Freddy’s face burned, heat rising in his face and from the contact between them. He forced down his reactions with inward scolding, he’d never been so weak, that was how girls were and he was NOT a girl! If anyone was the girl out of them, it was Jason, Freddy concluded with some satisfaction. After all, he was the one clutching at his hand.

-o-o-o-o-

Freddy groaned and plopped in to the rickety classroom chair. Ignoring the teacher and the other students, he snuck a small knife out of his pocket and began to carve into the side of the desk.

“F-Freddy?”

The gentle inquiry made him jolt up with a start, despite the classroom air jostling with combined voices of the other students as they took their respective seats. He brandished the knife in front of him, feeling so much better with the handle clenched in his hand, digging grooves in his palm. Freddy drew the weapon back however, as he looked up to see a nervous-looking Jason in front of his, clutching a bundle of books to his chest.

He flicked the knife back into his pocket, a fierce blush staining his cheeks as he ducked his head in embarrassment. “Eh, sorry Jase’; kind of got carried ‘way there, thought you was someone else.” The scrawny male turned back to his friend with a sheepish grin, the blush remaining as a light flicker of red over his freckled nose.

“Voorhees, sit yourself down! You’re disrupting these students’ geometry education!” The balding, broad teacher bellowed from the front of the room, spittle flitting from between snarling lips, wetting the brown straggly moustache.

Jason startled as he registered his name being called, but had not managed to connect that he should turn towards the speaker.

“Voorhees! I will not tolerate such insolence! Sit down!” The teacher had turned fully from the black board, the hand clutching a piece of white chalk clenching red and hard, fingers trembling.

Freddy grabbed Jason’s sleeve, horribly aware of every student eye focussed upon them, disjointed laughter echoing from one quietly grinning mouth to the next. “Jase’ you gotta go sit down…” he looked around briefly, spotting the only free seat, in the row just beyond the one in front of his “over there see, that empty chair” he pointed and directed Jason’s face to the seat.

Jason nodded, almost looking sheepish, but more likely grateful and he trudged over to the seat.

The teacher nodded approvingly with a low grunt and turned towards the board once more, white dust streaking across black with loud shrieks of protest. The students settled down to normal geometry class mode, codes of behaviour that were subtle enough as for the teacher not to notice them, or at least as to not catch the culprits. Gossip-laced whispers and breathy giggles swept round the desks like soft wind whist roughly folded notes passed from hand to hand.

The teacher had drawn what he called a ‘trapezoid’ on the board, a shaped with a lengthy upper line, two diagonal sides leading to a smaller lower line. “So, as you can see, the area equals to ‘B’ and ‘b’ multiplied by ‘h’ divided over two… can anyone tell me what is the perimeter of this trapezoid?”

Freddy turned the boring drawl out, flicking at his exercise book in a bored manner. Jealousy and hatred darkened his gaze as he glared around the room at the groups of teens. He was never in on the joke and the only notes he ever received were simply written to insult him. His gaze was drawn to the back of Jason’s head, golden hair catching the sunlight in an enticing manner that made him sigh happily.

“That’s right Judy, the perimeter of the shape is indeed ‘MN’ and ‘NP’ and ‘PR’ and ‘RM’, well done….”

It suddenly occurred to Freddy that if he was going to be staying with the Voorhees’s, he would need his things, which were still at his step-father’s house, somewhere in the basement. Perhaps he could drag Jason over there after school; he was just so excited about the prospect of being free! He had hoped to be free of his step-father and had known he could escape once he reached eighteen and now he was getting to leave, three years early!

However, there was a kink in his plan. Jason didn’t like surprises; he would want to go straight home to his mom, unless… unless Freddy could convince him otherwise! Tearing out a page of his book, keeping a keen ear on the teacher’s droning, he began scribbling in pencil, trying his best to make it legible and easy to understand.

‘Jason

I need to go to my father’s (he scribbled this out furiously) stepfather’s house to get my threads will you come with me after school?

Freddy’

He folded the note in half and, leaning forwards, tapped on the back of the black boy in front of him. “Psst, hey.”

The other turned round awkwardly, big brown eyes shining with confusion and a wariness, “Yes?”

“Can you pass this to the kid in front of you, blonde hair, s’really important.”

The boy looked surprised, like he had been expecting Freddy to verbally or physically attack him. Not that it wasn’t a fair assumption, mind you; black and whites were suffering severe segregation, with a lot of hostility towards blacks from their white counterparts. The boy simply smiled and took the note. “Sure, I’ll give it to him.”

Freddy felt tension leave his limbs, feeling relieved. “Thanks man.”

He watched until Jason took the note and then settled back to await the answer, humming the tune to ‘Save the Last Dance for Me’ by The Drifters under his breath.

Jason stared at the folded paper in puzzlement for several moments before he opened it. He could read, badly, he skipped the words he didn’t know and focussed on the ones he did. Freddy wanted to go to his house after school to get things. He didn’t know what ‘threads’ meant and he wasn’t sure what ‘stepfather’ meant either. He wrote underneath Freddy’s writing and then passed it to the boy behind him who was hovering patiently.

Freddy opened the note, with another quick thank you to his black neighbour.

‘Yes’

-o-o-o-o-

“-That was great you know, when you stood up and threw that book at the teacher, good it didn’t hit her, but ha! Bitch had it coming! And don’t worry, I’ll tell your mom why you threw it so she don’t get angry about the detention, okay?” Freddy laughed and, with difficulty, threw an arm round Jason’s shoulder.

The incident he was speaking of had been in third period, where a teacher had shouted at Jason because he had not been paying attention and the large boy, obviously feeling threatened, threw his exercise book across the room. The poor blonde now had a 2 day detention.

Jason looked sheepish “S-she was r-really mad…” Worry clung to his stomach like ice.

Freddy noticed the tone. “Oh, don’t worry about it, I’ve done way much worse an’ I’m still here!” Lowering his voice, he stopped and turned the taller boy’s head towards him, “it’ll be okay, I’m here for you.”

Jason blushed; the icicles melting, and drew Freddy in, gracing the other with a soft kiss. Fingers moved to the fluff of hair and entangled in the strands.

Freddy sure hoped no one could see them swapping spit like this, in the middle of the street. They’d probably wig out, he chuckled into the kiss. He should probably ask Jason to go steady with him, they practically were and he needed to stake his claim!

They broke away from each other, both blushing furiously. Freddy smiled shyly and groped for Jason’s free hand, the other still stroking his hair. “Uh… Jason… would you - would you go steady with me?”

Jason just looked confused, what was Freddy talking about? “Um… w-what?”

Freddy smacked a hand to his forehead, “GO STEADY SPAZ! Dating; boyfriend, girlfriend, you and me!” He punctuated his words by pointing between them.

Jason furrowed his brow before some kind of understanding dawned. Freddy wanted to be his boyfriend? With a happy cry he grabbed the other boy into a tight embrace, beaming.

“O-okay, that’s enough!” Freddy patted the other boy’s back awkwardly, he was sure it wasn’t ever supposed to be this loony when going steady with someone.

When Jason finally let his boyfriend go, they carried on down to Freddy’s step-father’s house resided. At once Jason found he loathed it. It was dark, foreboding, scraggly weeds tearing through the front yard and a smashed window, boarded up. He felt Freddy tense up next to him and swiftly cuddled him closer. What a nasty place to live.

Freddy gulped and approached the door, knocking on the door swiftly before drawing back. He had to stop himself from turning tail and running the hell away. There was no answer. He reached above his head and grabbed the key from above the door ledge. The house was silent, except for the quiet ticking of a clock. Good, his step-father was out, he didn’t want to expose his boyfriend to that evil bastard. Ever.

“Over here, I… uh, I live in the basement, my stuff is down there.” He jerked the other towards a rickety wooden door in the hallway wall. “Be careful,” he told Jason as he opened the door, “the stairs are a little steep, okay?” One hand braced on the wall, the other groped for the light-cord.

They managed, somehow, to get down the stairs without any serious injury, though Jason almost slipped twice. The tall boy looked around at his friend’s ‘bedroom’ with an anguished expression. There was a mattress on the floor with a dirty, blood-stained coverlet, a few school books and a lot of cobwebs. That was about it, this was all Freddy owned, including the few things in his school satchel. Jason felt a giant wave of sympathy.

Freddy felt embarrassed by his lack of, well, anything and flushed angrily as his boyfriend surveyed his room. “Well, yeah I’ll just get my stuff and-”

The front door upstairs had opened, the jangling of the latch a dead giveaway.

“FREDDY! I knew you’d come back boy, you snivelling coward!”

Freddy felt like vomiting, they had left the basement door open.

There was the sound of footsteps on the basement stairs and Freddy and Jason both backed away towards the wall.

They were trapped.