Just an idea I had…hopefully it works out…
Freddie was kind of a wuss. Everyone knew it, and no one really made much of it. Some of them even envied him. He spent every moment with Carly or Sam. Not many g have two smoking, intelligent girls for best friends. But that didn't keep them from thinkin' he was "pussy-whipped".
Everyone considered him the coward of the county.
He never stood one single time to prove the county wrong.
Add to that his over bearing mother and it is just a recipe for a walking joke.
His mama named him Tommy, the folks just called him yellow,
but something always told me they were reading Tommy wrong.
Freddie didn't have a father to speak of. He left when Freddie was just a baby. That played a large part in his mother's neurosis. Mr. Benson was a drunk, and a brawler. After he left, Marissa swore her son would not end up that way.
Now He was only ten years old when his daddy died in prison.
I looked after Tommy cause he was my brothers son.
Spencer, Carly's brother tried to be a positive influence on Freddie. Tried to teach him what he could, without steppin' on Ms. Benson's toes. But, truth be told, she actually appreciated Spencer's attention to her son. She did what she could, but as he grew, she knew he needed a male role model… Or he would just end up like his dad.
I still recall the final words my brother said to Tommy:
Son, my life is over, but yours is just begun.
Promise me, son, not to do the things I've done.
Walk away from trouble if you can.
Now it don't mean you're weak if you turn the other cheek.
I hope you're old enough to understand:
Son, you don't have to fight to be a man.
There wasn't just one person for Freddie. There were two, and their names were Sam and Carly. And, while he sometimes bemoaned Carly not loving him like he loved her for all those years, he grew accustomed to the situation. He wouldn't trade either of them for anything. As much as Sam tortured him, he knew he didn't have to prove anything to either of them.
There's someone for everyone and Tommy's love was Becky.
In her arms he didn't have to prove he was a man.
Most people left Freddie alone. He may have been a momma's boy, and 'whipped', but he was generally a good kid, and got along with most everyone. That was, until the Jones' showed up, his senior year. Who knew why they decided to single out Freddie, but they did. For the first semester of Freddie's 12th grade year, he was shoved in lockers, thrown in trashcans, and received every form of torture imaginable from them.
One day while he was workin the Gatlin boys came callin.
As was expected, Sam finally got tired of it. She knew it would hurt Freddie's 'ego', but she didn't care, anymore. She was tired of seeing her friend tortured like that, at least by someone other than her.
So, one day, while the three of them were distracted coming up with new ways to torture Benson, Sam slashed the tires on their car.
The next day, she came across Freddie getting beat down. They thought he had done it. They went at him, like never before. Something is Sam snapped. She thought she had had enough before, but it was nothing.
She jumped the eldest boy, while his back was turned, Screaming "You lookin' for me?" Pulled a piece of his ear clean off. When the youngest brother thought to grab her, she punched him, hard, where his legs branch. The middle boy was able to get a lucky punch in the back of her head. She hit the floor, and they immediately turned all attention to her, kicking and punching her into unconsciousness.
They took turns at Becky... there were three of them!
After they left, Sam bloody and battered, Freddie pulled himself up. "Why did you do that?"
"They could have killed you. And probably still will." He looked at his friend in the eye.
The look of rage never left her face. "I can take them anytime, the punk just got lucky."
She was wrong. They wanted a different kind of revenge.
Again, they left her bloody and battered, and this time more broken that she would have ever thought possible. It took all of her willpower to get on the bus to the Bushwell. She made her way slowly up the stairs to Carly's apartment. She knew no matter what happened, the sight of her best friend would make everything better.
Before she could get to the knock on the door, the door behind her opened. "Sam, what are you doing here so late?" She heard Freddie's voice, deep, from his recent completion into manhood. All it took was one look to see that she was hurting. He ushered her into the Shay's apartment as the door swung open.
Tommy opened up the door and saw his Becky cryin.
The torn dress, the shattered look was more than he could stand.
Freddie gazed across the hallway, back at his own door, as Sam told her tale. How they waited until her mom had left. How she was asleep when they broke in. The two younger held Sam down, while the oldest brother did what he pleased. If they couldn't beat her, they would humiliate her. Something is Freddie awoke. He ran back across the hall, surprising his two best friends. He never looked Sam in the eye.
He reached above the fireplace and took down his daddy's picture. Promise me, son, not to do the things I've done.
As the tears fell on his daddy's face, I heard these words again:
Walk away from trouble if you can.
Now it don't mean you're weak if you turn the other cheek.
I hope you're old enough to understand:
Son, you don't have to fight to be a man.
Freddie didn't tell Sam or Carly what he was doing, because he knew they would try to stop him. He knew where the Jones' were staying, and he knew what he had to do.
"What are you doing here, Benson? You're girlfriend too much of a man for you?" He taunted Freddie as he walked through the door.
"I'm here to discuss the matter of a young girl, who took a punishment, twice for something I should have done."
The Gatlin boys just laughed at him, when he walked into the barroom.
One of them got up and met him halfway cross the floor.
When Tommy turned around they said, hey look! Ol yellows leavin.
But you coulda heard a pin drop when Tommy stopped and locked the door.
"I've never stood up to anyone, before. I know now, it's because I never had anything important enough to stand up for. But, you 3 took something from that girl, tonight, that can not be forgiven."
Twenty years of crawlin was bottled up inside him.
He wasn't holdin nothin back; he let em have it all.
When Tommy left the barroom not a Gatlin boy was standin.
He said, this ones for Becky, as he watched the last one fall.
And I heard him say, I promised you, dad, not to do the things you've done. Everyone considered him the coward of the county.
I'll walk away from trouble when I can.
Now please don't think I'm weak, I didn't turn the other cheek,
papa, I sure hope you understand:
Sometimes you gotta fight when you're a man.