Best Friends
By JustJake051
Part One
Chapter One
They were best friends, from childhood on. John James Hemsted, or JJ, as he was called, and Scott Winchell, or Scotty, first met in the second grade and they were best friends ever since. They were the two best athletes, the two most popular, the two best looking guys throughout grade school, high school, and into college. Both were both bright and ambitious and each other's biggest rival. But they were always best friends, brothers.
Then, in the sixth grade, a huge shift in the dynamic happened to the pair. And that shift was the new girl in town. Valerie Upton showed up in their sixth-grade classroom and everything changed. Now, in addition to athletics, Scott and JJ were competing for the attention of the cute brunette. All through high school, they both tried to catch the eye of Valerie, or Val, as everyone called her. Scott was Homecoming King and Val was Homecoming Queen, and they made a beautiful couple. Scott was tall, blonde-haired, and the star athlete and Val was the gorgeous, tall, blue-eyed, brunette cheerleader.
And Scott truly had a gift. It was as if the Gods had reached down and touched his right arm. He was six feet three inches tall and looked like a young movie star. He was the star quarterback in high school and most of the time threw to his star receiver, JJ Hemsted. He was the star baseball pitcher and JJ was the star catcher. They were inseparable pals, even deciding to go to the same state university to play football together. But there was always an edge between them. The edge was that Scotty was just a little better at everything they did. And Scotty almost always won. And JJ always kept trying to beat him, but never really could. JJ was six feet, four inches tall, handsome, and an amazing athlete with great hands as a receiver. But he wasn't Scotty.
Both Scotty and JJ got full football scholarship offers from all the top twenty college football powerhouses across the country. Both selected the same big college program with the most national championships by far, their own state university in the Deep South. And both were instant stars in college, winning games and setting national records. It was a given that both would move on to play professional football, on that all the pundits agreed.
Early in high school, Val Upton had made her decision on colleges and, as fate would have it, all three, Scott, JJ and Val, all went to the same state university. Valerie was the head cheerleader in high school and then switched over to be the captain of the University Dance Squad in college. At five feet, ten inches tall, Val didn't have the gymnastic abilities the University called for, with the tumbling and the air flips that were popular in cheerleading. But she could move and dance like a goddess and became the beautiful centerpiece of the University Dance Squad from the beginning. She looked and moved like a gorgeous Las Vegas showgirl. She felt her only drawback was being rather small breasted, compared to the other girls around her.
Val was tall and slender and quite beautiful, and it was no wonder all the men at college chased after her. Her small, southern town upbring and heavy religious fervor put some of the city guys off, but for JJ Hemsted, she was perfect. As a college freshman and sophomore, she had dated both Scott and JJ, off and on, but eventually fell for JJ. They both started attending church together and became heavily involved with a church group on campus.
So, when JJ and Valerie decided to get married during their junior year in college, things with Scott and JJ began to change. Yes, Scott had always been quite taken by Val and didn't take the news of the marriage to his best friend easily. But on the football field, the junior year was a dream come true. They won the national championship and were projected to win it again the following year as Seniors. But then the unthinkable happened. In the Spring of their Junior year, Scott Winchell was caught in a huge academic cheating and drugs scandal and kicked out of the University. And no other major program would touch him, his credentials as a leader with any integrity were gone. The word was out that he was locker room poison for any team. So, Scott left college and went to work for his father back home.
JJ, on the other hand, graduated and got drafted to play professional football and had two successful years in the pros before a career ending knee injury put an end to that. So, JJ and Val moved back home, became active in the church and started a sporting goods business. His friends and contacts in sports and pro football were a great boost to the store. Soon, the one store became two and soon six, then twelve in the nearby metro area and then throughout the entire South. They moved into an enormous home with a pool and acres of land all around. JJ and Val had become the perfect couple in the southern city, the southern king and queen, so to speak. JJ and Val had a big, beautiful home, a swimming pool, expensive cars and the couple were now worth perhaps ten million from their sporting goods business.
But JJ always stayed close friends with Scott, no matter what Scott was into. They played golf together and were always socializing together. And they were always still competing with each other, at golf, or cards, or pool, or cornhole, or anything they could. They just had to compete against each other. One had to beat the other, it's what held them together. Some said JJ was trying to help Scott change his ways. But most people knew that was impossible.
Scott, on the other hand, despite being kicked out of college for cheating and drugs, had struck it rich. After his father died, Scott inherited the family business and renamed it Scotty's Paving Inc. Soon, Scott had almost every state or federal government paving contract in the state. There wasn't two feet of asphalt or concrete in the state that got put down that Scott Winchell didn't have his say in. If another company got the bid, it was because Scott allowed them to and then got the kickback. His friends in government made sure that everything happened just as Scott wanted it. He was the Tzar of paving and highways in the state and was now wealthy and powerful beyond imagination. It was a gold mine, and Scotty now owned the mine.
Using his wealth and power, Scott bought a large hunting lodge and soon added to it, tripling its size, calling it his home and headquarters. "The Lodge" as it was known by the locals, was spectacular and its guest rooms could rival any five-star hotel. It had business offices, bedrooms, bars and lounges, meeting rooms, recreation rooms and even two large chemical labs. The Lodge was in many respects like Las Vegas. What happened there, stayed there and no one really spoke a word about anything that happened there or about anyone who visited there.
But it was the labs that Scott Winchell was most interested in. Scott out recruited the big pharmaceutical companies for the best chemistry and drug talent in the world. Soon, his labs turned out large volumes of illegal drugs, experimental drugs, recreational drugs, or whatever anyone wanted. His labs made everything from hallucinogens to male potency drugs, meth to cocaine, opioids to ecstasy. His experimental psychedelics ranged from sexual aphrodisiacs to serious mind-altering drugs. It was wild "mind screwin' stuff," Scott bragged. "I can wipe your brain clean in two days," he once told JJ. And with Scott's power with state politicians, it all happened with a blind eye, and no fear of law enforcement.
And Scott always trusted and had a true friend in JJ. Anything he said to JJ would not go any further. They were teammates, true brothers, friends for life. And for all of his work with the church and civic groups, JJ had one weakness, and that was his friendship with Scott. He would often go up to The Lodge and have a few drinks and play cards, or pool, or darts with Scott regularly. They did anything that they could compete against each other, that bond was always there. One had to be beating the other, and it was usually Scotty that came out on top. And Scott was JJ's blind spot. He couldn't see things clearly when it came to Scott.
Now at 28 years old, Scotty, JJ and Val had known each other most of their lives. And they were all good friends. But it was JJ with a secret flaw that the other two didn't really know about. The flaw was his envy of Scott. Not so much envy of his wealth, but envy of Scott's winning gift with people, his charm. Everyone loved Scotty and he could charm a snake, as JJ often said. Additionally, JJ had always envied Scott's biggest toy, his huge houseboat on the lake. JJ felt it was that boat that gave Scott his social power. It was a massive houseboat, the largest on the lake, but more importantly, it was the center of life for the nearby cities and towns on the lake every summer and fall.
The houseboat was huge with three floors, water slides, a dance floor, party rooms, everything one could imagine. Scott's boat had it all. Everyone wanted to be invited to spend a day on Scotty's boat on the lake. Politicians and businessmen flocked there on weekends from the state capitol. Yes, the boat was a beauty, the envy of everyone on the lake, the party boat and the party spot. Scott named it Hedonism I. And JJ wanted that boat as much as he secretly wanted to be the center of popularity of lake life, just like Scott.
It was one late, drunken summer night, and JJ and Scott were playing pool at The Lodge, as usual. What made this night so rare was that Scotty was very drunk and clearly off his game that night. He couldn't make a shot. And JJ was partially sober but couldn't miss a shot. It was his night. It was the night JJ had dreamed about since the second grade. He just wanted to be the best that night and beat Scotty. So, he made his move.
