Author's Notes:
Hi, I'm Frank. Here's my story. Hope you're enjoying it.
Barriers 1: The Intro
"Good morning and welcome back everyone." My Homeroom teacher Mr. Kelber put down a stack of papers on his desk, I assumed it was our schedules.
"You've been here for three years, you know the deal by now. When your name is called come grab your schedule and locker number. I don't care what you do after that just don't get me into trouble. Jason Andrews."
I got up from the back of the class and walked up.
"You're out of here by noon every day. You must really hate this place Jason." He chuckled.
I shrugged, he wasn't wrong but I didn't really feel like talking with a strong hangover from last night.
"Locker 294-A, that's the top one." Kelber handed me my schedule and a lock.
I nodded.
"The school year just started and you're already a mess. Some things never change huh?"
I shrugged again, not in the mood for conversation. I walked to the back, picked up my backpack and jacket and went to my locker.
I should probably introduce myself. My names Jason Andrews, turning eighteen on Friday, a senior at Woodrow Wilson High in the middle of Pennsylvania. I'm 5'7''. White and 120 pounds, no real muscle anywhere, Black short hair, black eyes, overall I'm a pretty scrawny looking kid. Today I'm wearing a generic red hoodie, tight black shirt and some black jeans.
I threw my bag and coat into my locket slammed it shut and pulled out my pack of cigarettes as I headed for the door. I knew exactly where I could get away with smoking in this school, today was going to be an old dirt path kids used to use to get home in like the 90's. It's no longer used because there's an easier path after they knocked down a bunch of trees to make room for condos a couple years ago. I pushed the door open making sure nobody was trying to follow me and walked towards the path.
"JASON ANDREWS STOP RIGHT THERE!"
I froze, thinking I was already in trouble on day 1. I rolled my eyes and turned around only to find my friend laughing her ass off as she came running towards me.
"Jenna you're such a bitch I hate you so much."
"Same hun." She kissed me on the cheek and squeezed me. "Give me a cigarette I ran out this morning."
I met Jenna Peterson in sophomore year, I was smoking on my way to school and she came up on my side and asked to bum one. I handed her the rest of my pack and told her to leave me alone. This was her cue to tell me her life story apparently, how she had just moved to town from Cali, everyone was boring and she heard about my reputation and wanted to get to know me. Naturally I told her to fuck off again. Jenna wouldn't give up so easily however and bothered me about anything and everything to and from school. Eventually I gave in and started explaining my entire childhood to her, expecting her to run like everyone else did when they find out about me. She didn't budge however and quickly became the person I talked to about everything. I'm glad she didn't run away like everyone else; that someone in the world cared about my stupid ass. She didn't want anything out of my except being me...ok that's not completely true sometimes she would have me bully some bitch who called her out on being weird on occasion, but I gladly obliged as she was really the only person who ever worried about me on a personal level.
"You only come to me for cigs. Where were you last week when I came back?"
"Yeah I need to talk to you about something, now give me a cig and let's go we have like 20 minutes before class."
I immediately stopped. "Tell me right now."
She pouted and did her best impression of being innocent. Jenna honestly was really hot. Seventeen, 5' 4", short natural platinum blonde hair, clear brown eyes, double D's, tight body from going to the gym. She chose to wear tight blue jeans and the school hoodie, zipped up to her chest so her low cut shirt could hang out. If I was into girls I'd be all over that. That just wasn't our relationship.
"Come on Jenna you know how much I hate when you beat around the brush."
"Well..."
"Just spit it out I've only ever been mad at you when you kept secrets from me."
"Fine I'm dating someone on the soccer team."
"Why in the fucking world would I care about that?" I threw my arms up utterly confused why she wasn't just telling me everything at once.
She took a deep breath. "Now don't be mad..."
"I'm mad that I'm standing here waiting for some irrelevant news when I could be smoking."
"Mark Houston."
My eyes opened wide.
"Yeah... see this is what I was afraid of."
I regained my composure and moved forward. "It's fine as long as he doesn't hurt you or come anywhere near me."
"Jason I've been dating him for a few weeks now and I didn't know how to tell you." She caught up to me. "He knows what he did to you when you guys were young was wrong and he feels really guilty about it..."
"MY ASS HE DOES. L. O. L. JENNA YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME" We were finally out of sight of the school so I lit my cigarette and tossed her the pack.
"Jason..." she touched my arm with her unoccupied hand trying to comfort me.
"Jenna stop. It's fine that you're dating the guy that outed me when I told him I was gay. I'm being completely serious too don't feel guilty about it. That doesn't change my opinion of him however and I will never forgive him for what he did to me."
She took a drag and sighed. "It's just shitty is all."
"Life's shit then you die."
"Always the positive one."
"Piss off bitch."
"Ok hun, thanks for taking the news better than I thought you would. Meet you here for lunch?"
"Yeah sure, just don't bring any unwanted guests." I glared at her making sure it was perfectly clear I didn't want that meathead anywhere near me.
"Alright no problem." She came over and hugged me again. "Need anything just text me."
She waved goodbye and she ran back to school. It wasn't a secret she was running to catch her boyfriend before class and I made sure when she looked back at me that I wasn't angry. That all changed as soon as she was out of sight and in the building.
"GOD FUCKING DAMNIT." I'm pretty sure kids on the other side of the school could heard me shouting. "ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?" I punched a tree while smoking another cigarette.
You see I knew Houston since pre-school. He was the fearless leader and I was his lackluster sidekick. In third grade this bully started picking on me and as soon as Houston found out about he kicked the bully's ass so bad the kid had a black eye for weeks after. After that people not knew to mess with me because Houston would come right around and make them pay for it. This would have been an awesome relationship only there was one problem. In the summer between Fifth and Sixth grade things would change for the worse. We were at the shore in New Jersey like every summer before and everything was going so well...
"You think we'll be friends forever?" I asked Houston as I sat on the porch of my summer home while his parents put the finishing touches on lunch.
"Yeah man. We'll go to high school and be best buds and rule the school together!" He was balancing a soccer ball on his head as he walked around. Houston always had a passion for soccer. He was the best forward in his little league and he was only getting better. "I'll be the head of the soccer team and you'll be super rich and popular!"
"That sounds great." I looked at how handsome Houston had become over the years. My best friend could have been friends with anyone but he chose to stick by me and defend me through everything. I couldn't help but fall in love with the guy. "Do you ever think..."
"Hm?" He turned around and questioned what was on my mind. "Come on Jason you do this all the time. Be more confident. There's nothing I could hate you for."
"It's nothing." I said shyly getting up from my seat wanting to avoid the conversation that kept playing over in my head.
"No." He grabbed me and tried to shake it out of me as his soccer ball rolled off the porch onto the beach. "You've been doing this for months Jason. Just tell me already. You're smarter than you think you know."
"Mark stop." My face was getting red and I wanted to cry but back then everything made me want to cry so this wasn't out of the ordinary.
"Nope, I'm your best friend and you're telling me whats bothering you right now." He stood so confidently in front of me that for a second I would let my guard down. I felt so safe whenever he brought me up.
"Do you think we could ever be more than friends?" I tilted my head down and hoped for the best.
"Yeah buddy we're best friends!" He proudly proclaimed.
"That's not what I mean. I like you Mark." This would be the last time I would ever call Houston by his first name.
He let go and looked at me with horror. After a few seconds his horror turned to rage. "You're a faggot?" He snarled.
"Yeah I like you. You make me feel safe and protected." I scratched my arm as I stood there feeling his cold gaze upon me. "I've liked you for a long time and didn't know how to tell you."
"GROSS." He shouted backing away from me. "I'M NOT GOING TO BE FRIENDS WITH A FAGGOT." At this point his mom had come outside hearing him shouting obscenities and tried to wrangle him in. He wasn't having it though, he just kept shouting how he couldn't believe he was friends with a faggot and how he had to get away from me.
His parents were actually perfectly fine with my sexuality and said they saw it coming miles away. This wasn't the 90's where being gay was some unspoken taboo. It helped that we came from a fairly progressive and affluent pocket of Pennsylvania. They kept apologizing to my parents when we cut our vacation abruptly due to Houston's temper tantrum. Houston however did everything he could to tell everyone in school that I was gay and in love with him. He distanced himself from me as much as possible and just like that my life went into a complete tailspin. Mark wasn't around to defend me and when you're that young and everyone knows you're not normal the bullies come in like buzzards. The only thing I could do to survive back then was to become hard and cold and not let anyone in. It would just happen again it's not worth getting to know anyone is what I told myself.
I threw away my cig and walked back to my locker to look at my schedule. First period was English with Ms. Cantera, a nice way to start my day. I sprayed some body spray on myself to mask the tobacco and walked to room 205.
"Jason why are you late? It's the first day for crying out loud."
"Problems." I shook my head at my English teacher of 4 years.
She sighed knowing talking about it any further would be a waste of her time. "Row 3 seat 5. Please be quick so I can talk about the upcoming year."
I wandered over to my seat and put my head down. I didn't really care what she had to say about the upcoming school year, I would get the minimum work done for a C and that was that. I didn't care enough about high school, my parents were loaded and I could get into any college I wanted if they threw enough money the college's way. This was all just filler.
"Hey Jason."
I turned my head and there was stupid Houston. "Piss off Jenna told me and I want nothing to do with you."
"Come on man it's pretty serious between us and I need to clear the air with you."
"Fuck off."
"Just give me 5 minutes I swear that's all I want."
"FUCK OFF OK?"
"Jason and Mark is there anything you want to share with the rest of the class?"
Houston turned his head away shutting up.
"Yes Judy, Mark over here wants to apologize to me for outing me in middle school and making my life a living hell! We used to be best friends you know." I loudly proclaimed to the rest of the class.
"Jason you know better to not call me by my first name and you definitely know that isn't the place or time for something like that. Disrespect me again and we can have a nice conversation together after school today."
"Sorry Ms. Cantera..." Houston mumbled
I just smiled at her and moved my hand to signal to continue whatever she was going on about. She narrowed her eyes telling me she wasn't going to deal with my shit on the first day of school. The class went by rather quickly as it was your usual first day nonsense. I wouldn't have even been in class if it was any other teacher but I knew she would have called the vice principal immediately if I didn't show up.
When the bell rang I was the first one up and B-lined for the door only to be grabbed by Houston. Persistent piece of shit, he clearly had a hidden motive as he had well over 7 years to apologize for doing what he did. I assumed it had to do with Jenna.
I turned around. Despite my incredible hatred for him I had to admit that Houston looked good today. Styled short black hair, dark blue eyes and he clearly took time to trim his beard today. He was wearing his soccer shirt because of the after school activities fair today and he was running the booth. I could see he took some serious work over the summer to grow his arms and shoulders out as they looked fantastic. I could see why Jenna started dating him now. I snapped back to reality realizing I was drooling over the guy who made my childhood a living hell.
"Holy fuck what don't you understand about fuck off?"
"Jenna reminded me it was your birthday tommorow and i wanna invite you..."
"Are you fucking serious right now?" Was this absolute piece of shit really trying to throw a birthday party for just because he's dating my best friend?
"Look it's just..."
"JUST FUCKING WHAT YOU THINK AN APOLOGY WILL MAKE EVERYTHING OK?"
"JASON YOU WILL NOT SHOUT AND CURSE IN MY CLASSROOM" Ms. Cantera came up to both of us to drench any chance of a fire happening.
I freed myself from Houston's grip and marched off. The actual nerve that piece of shit had and all because Jenna was dating him. On the way to 2nd period I told Jenna what had just happened and reaffirmed my stance with her. She sent me a frown emoji in response and I rolled my eyes.
Noon came around and I waited for Jenna like I said I would. I decided I wanted a burrito for lunch and wanted to see if she wanted to come. As expected she started walking up the trail with her lighter in her hand signaling me to pull out my pack of smokes.
"Let's go to Chipotle."
"I still have 2 classes Jason not all of us have parents that will pay for their kid to go anywhere."
"Yeah yeah you and your responsibility."
"I promise tomorrow we'll get lunch when my break is longer but I just can't today ok?" She came over and squeezed me like she always does.
"You aren't lying to me so you can spend lunch with your boyfriend right?"
"I would just tell you that, know me far better than that."
I tossed my cigarettes to her and waved her off.
"Jason..."
"Look we went over this earlier today, I don't care. Do what you want with him. Marry him for all I care just know I will never forgive him."
And with that I walked away to my house to get my car.
I didn't live far from the High School, a 5 minute walk at the very most. It would take me longer to get out of the parking lot if I drove so I just walked every day. It was a crisp day, trees were shedding their leaves and there was a gentle breeze helping them along, it was nice.
As I turned the corner to my house I noticed an all too familiar car parked out front of it. There was Jonathan Han waiting for me with his signature stupid fucking grin on his face.
"Hey babe."
"I'm not your babe asshole. What are you doing here?" I walked up to him in confusion.
I met Jon in my junior year. I had gotten detention for mouthing off to my gym teacher. Jon was there for god knows what and sat down next to me. He was wearing his varsity basketball jacket and some grey sweatpants. Jon was your typical Jock. He wasn't built like Houston was but he was definitely toned and took care of himself. This would be the first time his dark green eyes would get my attention.
"Whats up?" That was the first time I saw his grin.
"The hell do you want?" I pretended to do homework and not give him any attention
"What I can't say hi?" He took the notebook I was writing in and read it. "Ahh history, I can't stand this shit I don't know how you can read it."
"Give me back my fucking notebook Jon."
"What this?" He threw it out the window right next to him. "You don't need this right now." He smirked again.
"What the actual fuck do you think you're doing?" I was clearly ready to raise hell.
"Look Jason I'm not afraid of you like everyone else is. I just happen to find you cute. Give me like a minute of your time then I'll reach outside and let you get back to the Native Americans or whatever bullshit you were reading about."
"I..." Did he just say he thought I was cute?
"There we go, ok here's the deal I wanna take you out for a meal after this. Meet me out front and I'll drive and take care of everything. You don't need to dress up or anything I just wanna get to know you. You're a lot more interesting than most of the people around here that's for sure."
I sat there and crossed my arms and tried to figure out his motives. Why the hell was this guy asking me out on a date in detention of all places with everyone listening in? I didn't even know Jon was bi before this moment. Why is he using all these stupid lines as if I'm some girl? Why are they working?
"Alright, I guess I have nothing better to do."
"Sounds great. Lemme get your notebook." Jon hopped up on the ledge and stuck his upper body out the window to grab my notebook off the grass. I could see his well-defined six pack stick out over his black boxer briefs as he wiggled his way out of the window. "Here ya go. Remember just meet me out front in 40 minutes when this shits over. Enjoy your homework I guess." He got up and walked away to go talk to his friends.
Less than an hour later I sat at the front of school with a cigarette in my hand waiting on Jon. He pulled up in his BMW and rolled down his window.
"You can smoke in my car I don't care get it."
I obliged and hopped right in.
"So where are you taking me?"
"My family's restaurant, I figure we can sit at a booth undisturbed while I get to know you a bit." He turned to me and chuckled.
"Ok are you gay or bi? Why the sudden interest in me when you could fuck any cheerleader you want?" I barraged him trying to get a grasp of what I was possibly walking into.
"Woah there." Jon looked left to see if he could merge onto the road. "First off I swing both ways. Second, I think you're cute and just asked you on a date. It isn't that big of a deal after all you did say yes."
I loosened up and looked back forward. I wasn't used to being pursued, I just thought everyone saw me as the problem kid. "Sorry...I guess you just threw me for a loop."
"I get it. Just know I find you cute enough and smart enough to not pull out my usual tricks. I don't normally take people here." He pointed to the red building we were about to enter.
Jon's family's place was an above average Chinese restaurant. One of those places you would go Brunch on a Sunday. It looked nice and definitely felt like they had more food than General Tso's Chicken and Beef and Broccoli.
When we walked in, Jon yelled something in Chinese at his mom and she came over.
"Hi! I'm Ming." His mom had an adorable accent to it. "Are you his new girlfriend?"
"Uhh what?" I rarely look like a deer in headlights but this was one of the few times.
"Mom can you not embarrass me immediately?" He groaned in child-like fashion.
They went back and forth in their native tounge for a bit then Jon told me to go sit at a booth while he takes care of ordering.
I sat down and pulled out my phone. Jenna had texted me about 30 times since I told her that I was going out on a date.
"Are you ok?"
"If he pulls anything stupid call me immediately."
"Seriously be careful."
"You there?"
I laughed as I saw the level of panic that she was currently in. I quickly texted her back that I was fine and she was on emergency dial if anything went wrong.
As soon as I finished the text Jon slid into the other side of the booth.
"I ordered noodles and chicken. I wasn't sure about your diet so I didn't get anything weird don't worry." I had a feeling I would see more of this dumb grin he had on his face.
"I can eat anything." I said as I responded to Jenna getting five more texts in return.
"How's your best friend?"
"She thinks you're up to no good." I looked at another 5 messages from her.
"She's not your mom. You can make your own decisions for yourself. Now put your phone away I wanna get to know you not her."
I threw my phone in my hoodie pocket and started talking to Jon about me and my life so far. We talked about music and our hobbies. He was into Electronic Music as much as I was which was a very nice surprise. I told him about all the concerts I couldn't wait to attend. We finished up dinner and sat there talking about plans for the future as Jon had turned Seventeen last month. I groaned about how I was going to spend my summer at my uncle's house in Northern Scotland because my parents didn't want me home alone all summer. He found it hilarious that I hated traveling as anyone in my position would kill to travel but I did it every year.
Jon told me about his dream of playing ball for OSU, the college his father attended. His father left him and his mom a very successful business that Jon would have to take over in a few years and this meant Jon had to get all the fun out of his system and grow up real quick. Was a stark contrast to me who was doing fuck all and had plenty of time to figure it all out.
"I think it's about time to get going as much fun as this was." I looked at the clock and realized three hours had passed.
"Oh so you had fun?" There was that dumb smirk again.
"A lot more than I thought I would have with you honestly."
"Wanna go back to your place and keep the night going?"
"Look I'm not trying to fuck to the first guy to take me on a date."
"Oh I'm your first? I had no idea." He said very sarcastically.
"You're really helping your case here Jon."
"I'm not trying to get into your pants unless you want me to Jason, I'm just saying I have nothing else to do tonight and we can go back to your place and watch Netflix if you wanted. Hell, you're leaving for Scotland for the summer when school lets out anyways. I'm just looking for a friend and certainly won't say no if you wanna take things further." Jon got up to clean up the plates and give me a minute to myself.
This really was a strange feeling, someone making friends with me out of the blue. The last person who did this was Jenna after all. I was still pretty skeptical but I figure it can't hurt with Jenna looking out for me.
"So is my night with you ending here or are we off to your place?" He picked up his hoodie and threw it on
"I think this is where you drop me off at home and we call it a night."
"Aww that's a shame. At least you honestly enjoyed yourself. Right?"
"Yes Jon I promise I had a great time." I said rolling my eyes following him out.
Jon shouted something at his mom and grabbed his keys and motioned me back to his car.
Since that date I've seen Jon a couple of times. I expected him to stop giving a shit after the first few times we hung out as friends but surprisingly he actually pursued me harder. I contemplated telling him that I was leaving for Scotland the day school let out but I decided against it to keep him on his toes.
Jenna would tell me that he banged Veronica Lopez the day I flew out. It bothered me more than it should have honestly. It's not like we were together but knowing he would just fuck the second I flew out for the summer was pretty shitty. She said she heard he hooked up with half the town over the summer but I think she was just being dramatic after getting my reaction about Veronica. Jon and Jenna never got along for some reason and I couldn't ever figure out why.
"Well you never told me when you were coming back from Scotland so I had no idea where you were." Jon moved from his car closer to me. "I missed you a lot."
"Why on earth did you miss me of all people?"
"Because I can't do this to just anyone." And with that he grabbed me, pressed my back against his car and kissed me.