Tom the Builder

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"I'm giving you 2 months."

That's my father telling me that after two months he will no longer support me in any way. So I have to pay for my own food and clothing. He said that I can stay in the family home for free till I am sixteen and then I have to leave. I am 14 years old.

I must admit I am completely speechless, I just went to my room and sat on my bed. What would any child do when confronted by this? It seems completely unfair and came out of the blue. Also I know that he was not joking about it and certainly would not change his mind. I have two elder brothers, 16 and 17, but they are not bound by this rule.

For several days I went to school and did not utter a word the whole day. Came home and went to my room. I just couldn't understand it. How can I be expected to handle such a situation at my age? I was beginning to think that my only hope was to be taken into care. Then a plan came to me.

"Mr Duffy I am glad you have agreed to see me."

Mike Duffy was a local builder of about 60. I have seen him around the area many times and often stopped and said hello. He frequently said that because of my huge size I was always welcome to a job with him.

"Tom you are always welcome here."

"I need a job. I can work 3 hours after school and all day Saturday and Sunday."

"Well Tom you tower over my six feet, but have you spoken to your parents about this?"

"Firstly it's because of them that I have to work. Secondly I do not want anything for nothing. I will work free for you for two weeks. If you are happy with me then we can carry on, if not then no hard feelings."

"Okay. Start this weekend."

So Saturday I turned up on the building site not far from my home. I have to say at this point that I am about 6ft 5 and 14 st 5 and I thought quite strong. But on building sites there is a whole new breed of human beings. They seem to be able to work hard all day and not get tired. On this day I was made to do the worst possible jobs, carrying the heaviest loads backwards and forwards. I think my job title would have been a general labouring. Somehow I got through the first day, but when I got home I could not feel any part of my body. But somehow I had to drag my shattered body back to the building site at the crack of dawn to repeat the whole process.

"Well Tom I have given you the shittiest jobs for a fortnight and you've got through it. I thought you may have cracked under the pressure after the first week, but you stuck at it. The job is yours and I'll pay you £7.50/hour to begin with. What I want more than anything is reliability and honesty."

That was it I was now a working person. I would take my work clothes with me in a rucksack to school and go to work straight after.

What I found out was on building sites there are a lot of casual workers, staying around for only a few months before moving on, probably back to their eastern European home. So after a year of working I was the longest serving person there. By my sixteenth birthday, not only was I a good bricklayer and plasterer, I was also managing the sites that I was working on. Mike Duffy had complete trust in me.

But now that I had just turned sixteen, I knew that it would not be long before I had to move out. In fact my father had already hinted at the fact. I had saved quite a bit of money in the time I had been working, but not enough to buy a property. I was once again beginning to wonder how I was to get out of this hole.

"What do you think of those six houses across the street Tom?

"Well they are derelict houses Mike."

"Yes they are. But if they were in mint condition they would be worth around £110,000 each. I have been offered all six for £200,000. I think we can fix them all up for around £100,000."

"That's great Mike. Go for it then and you'll make a fortune out of this."

"But I have already plenty of money and would rather you bought them instead."

"I couldn't raise that kind of money." I replied.

"I could give you the money to start, but I am going to do even better for you. You will go to the bank and borrow the £300,000. Buy the houses, renovate them and then sell them. This will give you experience of dealing with banks and finance."

I looked at him for a few seconds then just started laughing. It seemed absolutely ridiculous that a bank would lend me that kind of money.

"I will give you a letter stating that I will guarantee the loan if anything goes wrong."

The next day I had £300,000 in my bank account. A week later I owned 6 derelict houses. I then put four men to work on the first house. I worked out all my cost's for doing up the houses and I knew I could do it all inside the budget. I said to the four men that if they finish each house within 3 weeks then I would pay them a bonus for each house.

Six weeks later two houses were completely finished. Luckily this was around the Christmas school holidays so I could do a lot of the work as well. An estate agent valued the houses at £130,000 each, but said if I put them on the market for £120,000 each they would sell immediately. Three days later they were sold. In fact the next two were also sold on time. All houses were now completely renovated and four were sold. My loan was now paid off and I had two houses paid for and £100,000 in the bank. So I moved into one of the two bedroomed houses and rented out the other one. This was Mike's suggestion. On the day I was moving out of my family home I was expecting at least one or two words of good luck or something. But no one batted an eye lid. I stood there with a small case and waited for a response from them, nothing.

Mike turned out to be a very hard task master. He made me do home work each evening and at weekends also. I do not know how I managed it but I passed all eight of my gcse exams, no fantastic grades just B's and C's. Although my school was not the best good school it did help that I had total silence in all the classes I attended. At 6ft 5 and 17 stone by the time I was sixteen, I was easily the toughest boy in my school. Even the 18 year old kids left me alone. But the down side to all of this was that I think I had matured much fasted than any of the other kids in the school. I just could not associate with them, so I could number the friends I had with one hand. Well actually I could count them with no hands.

Mike and I had a series of massive arguments after my GCSE exams. He wanted me to go back and take my A levels and I just wanted to leave and work and earn money. His argument was that if anything went wrong with the business I would have something to fall back on. In fact he said the business would do better with more education. I knew that I could not devote enough time to my home work to get any sort of decent grade at A level. So I hired two private teachers who would help me. They would do all my home work, write notes on all the subjects being taught at the time and do a lot of examples with explanations. All this was quite straight forward since I was doing two A levels in maths and one physics. The total cost to me is £200 a month.

The next year was great for Mike and me. I was earning more money from him and the houses that I now had. I would also be the one who would go and deal with difficult clients who had problems paying. I never attacked anyone or threatened them. I think when they saw the physical size of me, with a very short haircut, that was threat enough for them.

"Tom can you go and collect some money from this couple. They owe us £45000 and it's two months overdue. Tell them we'll give them two months more and then we'll take legal proceedings against them."

Also now that I was 18 and had passed my driving test, I had a car.

As Mrs Bolton opened the door I just couldn't help but stare. She is absolutely gorgeous. She had this very thin sleeveless dress on, which finished way above the knee. As she led me into her home I couldn't help but notice the outline of her bottom through her dress. I wanted to reach out and stroke it. She sat opposite me and crossed her legs. Her dress rode up her legs barely covering the bear essentials. I wanted to reach out and put my hand down the front of her dress into her bra and feel her luscious breasts.

"Where is your husband? I did give him plenty of notice that I was coming at this time."

"He was called away on import business at the last minute."

"Mrs Bolton you owe us a lot of money. If this is not paid immediately then I have no option but to have this house sold to recoup our money."

"I do appreciate that and we are doing our best to raise the money."

"I presume you had the money when we began the work on your house?"

"Yes we did."

"Well I do not see that I have an option but to take legal proceedings against you. It will probably mean you losing your home."

"Is there anything that I can do that will make you give us a bit more time? Anything at all that I can do to make you happy. I'll do anything."

I knew what she meant. She would allow me to use her body for my satisfaction in return for me to give her more time. My hormones were absolutely raging. I wanted to run over there, rip her clothes off and break my duck as far as women were concerned. But she's only doing this because her husband is forcing her to do this. I can't be with a woman who does not want to be with me. Also I can't do anything behind peoples' backs, it tends to come back and bite hard.

"Please call your husband and tell him to come home right away Mrs Bolton or I will have no option but to do what I said."

She looked at me and her sexual look had been replaced by one of fear.

"Okay I'll go and get him."

She got up and walked out of the sitting room door. I watched as she left, kicking myself at what I had just thrown away.

Within a few minutes two men walked in, one obviously her husband. There were both about 6ft tall dressed in tracksuits. They look very fit and strong, but I knew I had the advantage over them. Any man that would make his wife prostitute herself is a cowardly scumbag and deserves a beating. I immediately stood up and faced them both.

"I haven't got time to waste with you two scumbag cowards. Have you got the money that you owe my company or not?" I shouted.

I could see the fear in their eyes. Neither wanted to speak, I could see that they wanted to run away. Eventually one of them plucked up enough courage.

"Not all of it."

I could see the shame and embarrassment written all over the wife's face.

"That new Landrover outside, is that yours?" I asked.

"Yes." He meekly replied.

"Ok here's what we're going to do. You write me a cheque for half of what you owe me. Give me the keys to the Landrover with the log book. If the cheque clears you can have you car back. I expect the rest of the money within thirty days. If you fail to meet these demands the house is mine. If any of you says one single word the deal is off and the house is mine."

When I eventually got the vehicle back to the office and explained what had happened, Mike Duffy was amazed at what I had achieved. I really don't like frightening people, but sometimes there is no other option. It is also quite difficult to do this and then the next moment go to school and do your studies, the adrenalin in your body just keeps pumping.

In December of my final year of school I walked into the school building, wondering what the hell am I doing here. I have absolutely no interest in being here. What ever grades I get will not impact my life at all. Have no interest in going to university. If not for my private tutors I would have failed miserably at the end of the previous year.

I sat in my seat waiting for the Physics teacher, a Miss Louise Hamilton. I know she's about 5ft 9 and this is her first year of teaching and is 22 years old. But I don't think I could pick her out of a crowd, that's how much attention I have paid in this class.

She walked into the class and sat at her desk. I did not even raise my head, I felt like walking out of the building that second. She said something to the class and the class responded.

"Are you with us today Tom?" Miss Hamilton asked.

For a few seconds I didn't realise she was speaking to me. I then noticed that the class were all looking in my direction.

"Physics class calling Tom, anybody there?" she said again.

I looked up and for the first time I noticed her beauty. A ray of light was shining through the window onto her face. She seemed to be glowing. I could only stare, could not answer her. She stood up and I noticed that she had a models figure. She walked to the front of the class and started her lesson. I still was paying no attention to what she was saying, just taking in her beautiful face and slim figure. My imagination was running wild. She set some class work for everyone to do and start walking around the class.

She walked round the back of me and placed her elbows on my shoulders and moved her lips near to my ear. Her aroma was intoxicating.

"You okay Tom? You don't look like you're with us today." She whispered into my ear.

"I'm sorry I seem out of it, but it's because of you." I whispered.

"What do you mean?" she replied.

"I think you are so beautiful I can't take my eyes off of you." I again whispered.

She stood up, her face flushed, grinning from ear to ear. Then her smile went and she walked to the front of the class to continue the lesson.

As she continued the lesson she would occasionally look in my direction as if confused by my remarks. In the next few lessons she almost completely ignored me in the lesson, not even commenting on my homework. If she saw me outside of the class she would not look in my direction or give me a greeting of any kind. How much of this can any person put up with, in my case not very much.

As I was walking along a school corridor I saw Miss Hamilton walking towards me, again not looking at me. As we neared I walked up to her.

"I apologise for my outburst. Please can we be friends again." I asked.

She looked at me and smiled. I could see that she was sorry for her actions.

"I'm sorry too. I completely over reacted. It's just that no one has ever said that to me before."

Then she leant forward and stood on her tip toes and kissed me on my cheek. That was my first ever kiss. Other kids in the hallway saw what had happened and stood and watched.

"Let's forget the last couple of days and carry on. Ok?" she asked.

"Great."

With that the classes got better and better. She would constantly smile in my direction and I would be the only one she would touch in the class, although it was just a slight touch on the arm or a squeeze on the shoulder. She also had the habit of leaning on my shoulders with her elbows and talking to me about my work mostly but sometimes tell me about what she did the previous evening or weekend.

About a week after our rendezvous in the corridor I was walking along to a class. I went by her room full of 16 year olds. There were 4 or 5 boys in this class who paid no attention in any class and not one teacher could control them, not even the headmaster. Louise was in her first year as a teacher and kept order very well in all her classes except this one. But because these boys were unruly it meant that all the class were misbehaving. I just couldn't walk by and see her struggling, so I thought I would give her a helping hand. I knocked on her door and walked in.

As I walked in the class became quiet when they noticed it was me.

"Miss Hamilton I have the information you requested." I lied.

"Thank you." She replied confused.

"Do you think I could have a quick word with your class?" I asked.

"I guess" She replied still confused.

"I think you all know who I am, but in case you don't my name is Tom. I am in the final year in this school. Also I am the most selfish person I know. When a teacher comes to one of my classes I expect to get the maximum out of that lesson. Miss Hamilton is one of my teachers. I think she is a very good teacher and I get a lot from those lessons. Since I am so selfish I do not want her to spend the whole of this lesson shouting at you lot. This, she may not agree, makes her less effective in my class. So if she comes to my class with any hint of being less effective in my class than she normally is, I will know exactly where to come to put that right." I shouted.

I looked around the class waiting for anyone to say a word. Miss Hamilton looked on with her mouth open, unable to believe what was happening.

"You can't talk to us like that." Said of the unruly boys, who sat in front of me.

I reached out and grabbed his lapels with my giant hand and pulled him out of his seat. I looked directly at him, daring him to say another word. Fear had got the better of him. I put him back in his seat.

"Thank you very much Miss Hamilton for your indulgence." I said looking at her.

I walked out of the class closely following by Miss Hamilton.

"Don't you ever bloody do that again."

She looked at me for a few seconds sternly and then smiled. She then leant forward and kissed me on the cheek again.

"But thank you for what you just did. I was really beginning to lose control completely of that class. Hopefully we will hear no more of what just happened."

She then slowly walked back into her class, turning her head to look at me as she disappeared into her room.

As an 18 year who has absolutely no experience of the opposite sex to be kissed twice by your beautiful teacher, my hormones were raging. I was so attracted to her now, the way she looked over her shoulder as she walked into room. The way she smiles at me when she sees me. I am in a constant state of arousal whenever she is near me or even when I am just thinking about her.

My last class of the day was with her and I was really looking forward to that lesson. The class went as normal. She handed out work and started to walk round to see if anybody needed help. She again leant on my shoulders.

"Tom please don't do that again, you'll get us both into trouble." She whispered into my ear.

"I think you are so sexy and I care, I don't want you to be in distress." I replied in a whisper.

"Shhh. You really will get us into serious trouble." She whispered grinning.

"I want to see you outside of school." I demanded.

"We'll talk about this later." She replied smiling.

But alas my relationship with Miss Hamilton was to come to a grinding halt even before it got started. As the class finished and the other students walked out of the class the head of sports walked into the class. To call him the head of sports was a joke. He was a fat red faced man of about thirty.

"More you wait right there boy." He ordered.

I was just about to get up and put him straight when the headmaster followed by three men walked in. These three men looked like typical convict doormen.

"Where is this shit who beat up my boy?" one of them screamed.

My temper now was at boiling point. Not only had the fat slob of a teacher disrespected me in front of my favourite teacher, now these other men were calling me a shit. I got up knocking over my chair. I ran towards them knocking over anything that was in my way, desks, chairs, bins anything all went over. I firstly looked at the sports teacher Mr Walton.

"You don't call me More or Tom. If you are addressing me you call me Mr More. Got that?" I screamed at Mr Walton.

I could once again see that fear had over taken him. All he could do was nod his head. I then looked at the three men for a few seconds.

"Your sons are scumbag cowardly pieces of shit who ruin it for everyone. Those bloody idiots will probably spend most of their lives in and out of prison. Just like their parents." I screamed at the top of my voice.