Gangs With Greek Names: Episode 2: Hell Night

The Diaries of Billy Esposito, Volume I

By: Steve Potter

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Excerpt:

The gate opened and the guards came strutting towards us. Greg and two other guys walked out behind them. Greg's purple shiner had swollen up into a dark black eye since I saw him last. It was nearly swollen shut completely.

“Hey, shut up! No talkin',” the guard who was holding the bat said. He grabbed me by the necktie and pulled me up the driveway. “You first.”

“This is the kid,” a solidly-built blond-haired guy standing to Greg's right asked. He looked me up and down and smirked.

“Yup, this is my main man, upstate Billy,” Greg said.

“Thanks for jumping in for our boy here,” the lanky brown-haired guy with a chipped front tooth who stood to Greg's left said. He clapped me on the shoulder. “Whether ya get in tonight or not, I got your back any time ya need it, buddy.” He shook my hand. “I'm Hop.”

“That goes for me, too,” the chunky blond kid said. “Chuck.” We shook hands.

Greg grabbed my shoulders and shook me and looked me in the eyes... well, one of my eyes, anyway. I doubt he was able to see anything out of his swollen shut black eye. I guess, though, he was looking at both of my eyes with his one good eye, but I was only looking into one of his... okay I'm over thinking this, aren't I? I do that.

“All right, buddy, take some deep breaths and relax,” Greg said. “If ya get through the questions and answers, then the tough stuff starts.”

He stepped behind me, pressed a palm between my shoulder blades and pushed me through the gate into the backyard as the guard in front tugged me forward by the necktie. About a hundred guys stood in a big circle in the yard with their backs to the fence. All of them wore red and blue shirts, sweaters or jackets with the Alpha Kappa Beta insignia.

Billy Esposito, the son of two college professor poets, has been living a quiet, nerdy life in an upstate New York college town. In the summer of '79, his life is turned upside down when, due to family circumstances, he and his mother move to the south shore of Long Island a few miles east of Queens. When the school year starts in September, Billy is thrust into a new world and must learn to navigate his way in huge, overcrowded Seaview High School. By rushing to the aid of a classmate who is being attacked, he falls into the strange, often violent subculture of high school fraternities or, as many of the teachers, administrators, cops, and other local adults call them, "gangs with Greek names." HIs situation improves when he discovers that Jillian, the gorgeous, smart, rock 'n' roll obsessed girl he is crazy about likes him too... but some things aren't meant to last.