His Life

His Life Part 6 By- Kelly Jean

I woke up the morning after the dance club to feel a warm hand on my naked chest. My heart began beating like it never had before. I thought for sure I'd be turning over to see my father or someone ready to murder me. Rather, it was Jake. His body was curled against mine and shaking, yet he was sound asleep. All around his eyes and down his cheeks were tear stains. His clothes were all on, except for his shoes, so I knew he wasn't shaking from being cold.

For nearly an hour I watched him sleep, wondering why he was here and what had happened. I saw my window was open. That was my only guess how he got in since the main doors were locked.

Outside my room I began to hear rustling. I decided to leave my room so neither of my parents would come inside.

I walked out still in my boxers and headed into the kitchen to grab a glass of orange juice; but not for me.

"Why the hell are you up this early?" my father's voice was so loud and distinctive. I was scared it had woken up Jake. "It's nearly 8:00."

"Just a bad dream. Are you going to church?"

My mom spoke. She was next to me washing a few glasses, "Yes. Are you coming, Tony?"

"No. I'm going back to bed."

"What's new? You're going to hell," my father announced. "Pfft, I'm going to hell too. I shouldn't even bother going to church."

"Why do you say that?" my mom asked. She walked over and opened the door.

My dad smiled at me before walking out the door, "Oh. Just things that I've done and things I'll do in the future. Things no one needs to know about."

The moment they were gone I went back into my room. Jake was still asleep. He woke up twenty minutes later. His eyes slowly cracked open. I was sitting next to him on my bed caressing his hair. He gently crawled to my lap and laid his head down. Again he started crying.

"Jake, what happened? What's wrong?"

He climbed up to hold onto me. His soft hair brushed against my face, "I have really, really bad news."

"You can tell me..shh...relax...you're with me now, it's okay."

Jake spoke to me a few minutes later, "When I got home that night my dad and mom talked to me and said that they got the doctor report back from maybe, three weeks ago. I have about a month to live."

"What!? But you seem so healthy! It doesn't even seem like you have AIDS!"

"I'm not dying from AIDS! I have, God, I have cancer, too. They discovered it too late. The damn Docs can't do anything for me. I've known for a few years. I didn't want to tell you."

I held him closer, "Why did you come to my room?"

"Because I love you more then anyone else in this world. I know it's soon to say that, but I feel that way. I don't wanna leave you."

Right then I realized I truly did love Jake back.

It wasn't just his body I loved. It was him. My fear of my feelings toward him was gone. Now a new fear had risen.

"I don't wanna leave you," he repeated. I'd never seen anyone crying so hard in my life. The orange juice was anything but important. "I feel like shit right now. I feel like I'm dying. I felt like this last night, too. I just didn't tell you. I kissed you rather then complained...sex gets my mind off my health...and sex is what also made me get sick enough to die. What am I going to do?"

Suddenly I began crying. I didn't know what to tell him. I couldn't believe this. The first man I ever loved was about to be taken from me. I was praying that God would take me instead. I wanted to be gone, not him. The next three hours was spent in my room holding each other and sobbing.