This is a work of mostly fiction. Some characters and events are real, and some aren't. All rights are protected and the story cannot be reproduced without permission. Come on, you wouldn't want to steal something as crappy as this would you?
Here is Part II of Climbing to the Window. I promise the title will make sense soon.
Enjoy!
I kept looking through the comic book, when something fell out of it. It was a piece of paper with some stuff written on it...
May 12 2010 Homework
English: read chapter 4-7 Mockingbird
World History: Byzantine Empire paper (due Friday)
French: ecrivez une vignette parisiene
Geometry: pg 230 1-15 even
His handwriting was beautiful. Wait, this was his homework from three days ago, which means these were his classes... Which means OMG I know how to find him again! My mind was racing. But I knew I had to calm down. He was cute, yeah, but he was probably straight.
Anyways, lunch ended, the bell rang, and here I am. Reading the comics of a really cute boy, contemplating how best to confront him. It was third period now, so I guess he would be in french, and then geometry next. I knew where that was. I could meet him there right after school. When the bell rang starting fourth period, I could barely wait.
Medieval Studies was torture. 1 hour and 45 minutes of torture, laced with Constantine and Charlemagne. I was usually pretty outgoing, I mean I'm on the debate team, and I'm in plenty of clubs, but boy's always made me nervous. Especially cute ones. I was sure I was going to end up just throwing the book at him and running off... sort of like he did to me. This time by the time I heard the metal arm hit the bell, I was already out the door and halfway up the stairs. The geometry classroom was on the top story on the outside. Trying to go UP the stairs at the end of the day was suicide, but I somehow survived the scoffs of blond girls. I stood there in front of Mr. Apple's door as freshmen poured out of the classroom. I remember when I had Mr. Apple, so I can understand why they would want out so fast. He was brutal. At last, I saw him...
"Hey Batman" I called out. He looked up, I motioned him to come here.
"Listen, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to run into you but please don't hit me, and if you do, please don't break my nose or something, because I don't know how I could explain it to my mom that I got beat up again and I don--" He was shaking, I felt kind of bad for him.
"Whoa! Calm down dude!" I cried. "I'm not gonna hit you, I just wanted to give you this." I held out his book. He quickly grabbed it.
"Oh my god I thought I had lost it forever. Thank you so much-"
"Adam. You can call me Adam. It's no big deal. I know I would have been crushed if I lost a book like that." I handed him his schedule. "Don't forget about that paper due tomorrow" He blushed a little, it was adorable.
"Thanks a lot, Adam. My name is Jake." He looked up into my eyes, and I froze. "I guess I should get going. Bus to catch and all. See ya around?" Wait. He's walking away. Should I do something? Yeah I think I should..
"Wait up!" I ran after him. "The bus? You ride the bus and you're still alive? You're braver than I am." I joked. He giggled a bit.
"Yeah, I found if you just keep to yourself and stay quiet, you're less likely to get beat up. I learned that the hard way." That's when it hit me.
"Hey, what you said earlier, about getting beat up again, did something happen on the bus?"
"Well..."
"How about I give you a ride home?" This was the perfect chance to get to know him better. "Don'T worry, you wont cramp my style too much" I smiled at him. He perked up at that idea.
"Really? That'd be great!" He had a huge grin. "You sure it wont be a problem? Gas and all?"
"Not to worry, I don't toil away at the grocery store bagging groceries for nothing! That plus my parents give me gas money, so its cool" Come on. I led him towards the parking lot, waving and nodding at all the people I knew along the way. This seemed to fascinate Adam.
"You know so many people! The only people I know are my friends from middle school, and I only know a few people."
"Yeah, being here for four years you get to know a lot of people. Here we are, my car." I opened the door for him, and I swear I saw him blushing.
"Nice car." he said. I was quite proud of it. I had a shiny silver Mazda RX-8. My first instinct was to open the door for him, so I reached for it. Wait, that's not something that straight guys do for other guys. Fuck, but my arm is already half way there. It would look weird if I stopped now though... Jake smiled at me, and he might have been blushing a little bit? Should I say something?
"Thanks, it was a birthday gift." I commented, cutting the tension.
"Wow, your parents must be--" I cut him off before he could finish.
"Parent. My mom left before I was old enough to remember. I live with my dad. We don't talk much, but he tries to buy me with stuff. Hes away on business a lot." He looked at me with an almost sorry look. "I don't mind, its kinda nice to be honest."
So, where do you live?" He told me where he lived, a nice neighborhood across town from school, but not too far from me. I turned on the car, and reached in my pocket and pulled out my iPod and tossed it to him.
"Here, find something to listen to." This could be interesting, now I would get to see what kind of music he liked. I hoped to god he could find something he liked on there.
"Oh, sure." He plugged it in the car stereo and started to look through it. As we were driving out of the parking lot, I kept looking over at him, to see his reaction to my music collection.
"Hmm...A-Ha, Annabel Chongs, Beat Crusaders, uh...Elliot Smith, The Go-Gos', Iron and Wine. Wow, I swear if someone stole your iPod they would think you were bipolar! You have so much different stuff on here. Wait a second, whats this?". At last, he found something he liked.
Golden rod and the 4-H stone
The things I brought you
When I found out you had cancer of the bone
The song was Casimir Pulaski Day by Sufjan Stevens. He didn't go for the Gaga or Katy Perry, he went for something a little more obscure. It was also good that this particular artists is what I would described as 'just gay enough'
"Nice choice, I love this song." I commented. This could be a totally good sign.
"Yeah, me too! Sufjan is one of my favorite artists. I hate it when people ask me what my favorite genre is. I mean, how can you take something as pretty as this and try to fit it in some pre-existing category." Jack explained.
"I know! That drives me crazy!" We chatted about music while we drove through our town. He kept looking through my iPod, pointing out artists he liked. He seemed to loosen up a bit when he talked about music. He wasn't at all the shaking kid that was begging me not to hit him on the roof earlier. He lived about 10 minutes from the school. As I drove, I would often look over at him and watch as he looked through my music. He really was quite cute. He was wearing a dark blue nautica tee shirt, and a pair of blue jeans. Simple, and I liked it. Call it wishful thinking, but when my eyes were on the road, I swear he looked up at me a few times.
"So listen, Jack. What you said before, about the bus. You really get beat up?" I asked.
"Well, I mean... they try to hit me and all. I guess its because I'm a freshman or something. I've learned to cover my face, so I usually make it off the bus okay." He explained. My heart broke a little when he told me that.
"Can't your parents pick you up? Or your brother or sister or something?"
"Well, My mom usually takes me to school in the morning, but both my parents work until 5. My sister is off at college, so I kinda have to take the bus. It's okay though. Nothing too bad has ever happened." But I had a plan.
"Oh come on, you you didn't mind the bus then you wouldn't have gotten a ride home with me. You don't live too far from me, how about I give you a ride home." His eyes lit up. "You can avoid the daily bus beat down, and who knows, maybe hanging out with a senior will help your rep or something" I honestly felt bad for him. School buses are hot, you have to sit there and watch everyone else get off before you get home, and if you aren't tough, it can be brutal.
"What? Really? You promise you don't mind? I mean, yeah, that would be great!" He seemed really excited about it. Then his smile faded a little. "There's one thing though. My mom, shes kinda weird about that kinda stuff, so she would want to meet you first, is that okay?"
"Sure, no problem!" Most of my friends parents liked me. I get decent grades and I'm in a few clubs, what more could a parent want from a high schooler. "Should I stop by later or something? I could help you with that Byzantine empire paper if you wanted."
"Really? That would be great! I'm not doing too well in that class, I have to do good on this paper. Take a left up here." We were almost at his house.
I pulled into his drive way. It was a pretty nice house. Two stories with a garage, nice front yard with trees and flowers.
"When should I come back?" I asked.
"Uh, well my parents get off at 5, but... well hold on a sec." he pulled out his cell phone and called someone. "Hey mom. Is it okay if I have a friend over? Yeah I know. What? Let me ask..." He looked at me "Hey, my mom wants to know if you want to stay for dinner"
"Uhm, sure?" I replied
"Yeah. Okay. Okay, thanks. I love you too. I will. Bye." He pocketed his phone and looked at me again. "Wanna just hang out here until my mom gets home? We could work on that paper, listen to music, sound good?" Was this really happening? He was inviting me in to hang out?
"Sure thing dude." He reached in the back seat of the car and grabbed his backpack.
"I have to warn you, my mom can be kind of embarrassing some times. Like, every day she asks about my girlfriends. I have never had a girlfriend, but still every day she asks if I have one. My dad is cool though, mostly quiet." I chuckled a bit as he explained.
"No big deal. Everyone thinks their parents are embarrassing." He led me through the front door. The living room was fairly big. There was a long couch along the wall under a window. There were recliners on either side, and a TV in an entertainment center across from it. We went up the stairs a few feet in front of the front door.
"My room is up here." Jake called. He was half way up the stairs as I was looking around his living room. I followed him up. As I walked up the stairs and down the hall to his room, which was at the end of the hall, I noticed pictures on the wall, depicting happy family moments. They were arranged in a way that let me watch him grow up as we walked down the hall. "Here we are" he announced as we reached the end of the hall. He opened the door and led me in to his room.
-To be continued-
Because of a silly typo, I now have numberiv@yahoo.com and numberiv@ymail.com. Feel free to use either.
I'm desperate for comments, suggestions, questions, criticisms, or if you just want to say hi :) email me at numberiv@ymail.com or numberiv@yahoo.com I'll try my best to respond.
Part III is coming soon!
(my old story is called Just a Scratch. It is listed in the high school section)