Hey guys I'm sorry my chapters are so short, it's just how I write, if I try writing long chapters, my brain feels overloaded and then the writers block sets in...just think of it this way, shorter chapters mean double the length of the story!
Enjoy
It's been a couple of weeks since the news escalated about me being gay. Everybody in school knows now, and Robbie decided to get a girlfriend. Her name is Savannah. She has dark, tan skin with baby blue eyes, and dark brown hair. The group split up, and now, at my table, it's just Shelly and me. Cindy and Joe sat with Austin, Robbie, and Savannah. Cody sits with his football buddies and ignores the group completely, well, except for me. His hazel green eyes follow my every move when nobody else is watching him.
Now that Robbie and I have officially broken up, I no longer feel threatened by him. If he tells my parents, so what? Dane is currently putting money down on a two bedroom apartment not far from here, and I plan to move in with him. After that, I don't care how my parents find out, as long as I have a safe place to stay. Melinda and I are closer, almost every weekend we sit in her room, eating rocky road ice cream and watching One Girl and Five Gays.
Dad? We haven't seen him in three weeks. No phone call, no nothing, and Mom is getting depressed because of it. She's still on mom duty, but once a certain chore is done, like making dinner, she sits in her room for the rest of the evening. It makes me want to kick Dad's ass and cuddle Mom, but in reality, I couldn't do either because I would end up with a red butt and need to be cuddled with too.
I just had this burning feeling deep inside telling me that it was all my fault. If I hadn't come out to Austin, the group wouldn't have been split up. I think to myself, am I such a disappointment to Dad that he needs to stay as far away from home as possible?' Dad would have been home in a split second if he knew Dane was home, so all the fingers were pointing in my direction in the moment.
I was just walking to the last period of the day, with my head hung low, when I ran into what seemed like a brick wall, but I knew it wasn't, It was a person
"Hey, fag, watch where you're going!" the deep voice of Austin spoke, and laughter followed soon after.
I had landed on the ground, and I looked up with widened eyes as Aaron stood next to my ex-best friend. What the hell was this?! I stood up and dusted off my pants. I no longer felt a sense of loss when it came to Austin. He just turned the feeling into rage. Before I had a chance to say anything, he invited another chance to pick on me.
"Cody, man, you want to help us teach this little cock sucker a lesson?"
I shook my head in disbelief at the length that Austin would go to take his hate out on me. We used to be best friends, since we were toddler
for freaking sakes! To my utter and complete shock, Cody walked right up in Austin's face and punched him right in the nose with the strongest swing I've ever seen.
"You're a piece of shit, and I know I'm no better, but you don't ditch friends," he spat in his face before walking off, not even glancing back in my direction.
My mouth lolled open, but it soon closed again when Aaron turned his attention back to me, saying, "You better watch your back Dayton."
The bell rang, signaling we were late for class, so I hurried and sprinted to my destination, arriving just in time to walk with the other tardy students. I couldn't believe what had just happened. Why did Cody defend me? I didn't understand that situation at all. It's funny, because I really didn't have a problem with the other students.
The guys avoided me like the plague, and the girls didn't seem to have a thing to say, so it was really just Austin and Aaron. I had already figured it was Austin that had spilled the beans about my sexuality. He probably called Aaron, who, in turn called God knows who. Now, apparently, the two boys had hit it off. I think their secretly butt buddies, but maybe it's just my perverted imagination.
Dane picked me up at the end of the day, and as usual the ride home was silent, I think it's because we literally have nothing in common. I love books, he loves football. I fantasize about men, he dates women. The silence is comfortable though, which I appreciate, because who wants to feel uncomfortable with their own brother?
However, when we pulled up in our driveway, Dad's 2007, red Sudan sat in Dane's spot. I don't know why, but my heart started pounding like crazy. Why was he here out of the blue so suddenly? We looked at one another before opening up the doors and walking towards the house. Oh man, poor Dane. At least he's had time to prepare a speech for Dad. As soon as we walked in, I decided that he didn't have anything to worry about, because we could hear yelling coming from the kitchen.
"Where the hell have you been? No phone calls or emails. You can't just disappear when you have a family to take care of!" Mom screamed every word at the top of her lungs.
In all my life, I had never heard her sound so angry and hurt.
"Please calm down. I want all the kids here for this. I have big news that will change everything,"
Dane coughs to get their attention. Mom had tear-streaked cheeks, while Dad looked worn out... until his eyes met his oldest son, completely ignoring me.
"Dane, what are you doing home?"
I looked over at him, standing next to me, and he chuckled lightly, a sinister smile, attached to his lips.
"I could ask you the same question."
I'm guessing with whatever stress Dad carried, he finally blew up, and for the first time ever, at the favored brother.
"I don't need any smart mouth, especially from my own damn kid! Now answer the question and don't bull shit, I don't have time for it."
Dane raised his eyebrow and acted as if a kitten had hissed at him, instead of our bulldozing dad.
"Fine, you want an up-front answer? Here it is. I dropped out of college because I failed four classes second semester. I gambled all my savings away and I got kicked out of the dorms. In the end, I decided to move back home. I just got a job working at the IRS, which will pay me seven hundred dollars every two weeks. I'm also moving into an apartment at the end of the month."
You would have been able to hear a pin drop, the house was so quiet. Mom plopped down on the kitchen chair with her eyes covered with one hand and a tissue in the other. Dad looked like a red tomato and I... didn't expect any of this. At the moment, I just wanted to crawl into Melinda's arms, eat our rocky road ice cream and watch a program. Speaking of, she'd just walked through the door, while speaking into her cell phone.
"Um, Stacey, I have to go. It looks like we're having a family meeting," she ended the call and sat her gym bag next to the coat rack.
"What's going on guys?" Dad's eyes traveled to each of us, before sighing and pulling Mom up from the chair and walked her over to the couch.
"I have to tell you where I've been these last couple of weeks and why you couldn't get a hold of me. About a year ago, I met a woman named Bethany who happened to be a family member of one of my co-workers. We started talking and discovered we had a lot in common. We soon got to know each other, and I took a chance on taking her out on a date. Well that night, we had a lot to drink and ended up having sex. Two months later, she meets with me in private, and tells me she's pregnant. Three days ago, she gave birth to my son, who we named Rex. I had a test done to see if he was mine, and he is."
Mom screamed at him, called him every name in the book, and threw one of her high heels at him. Melinda just stared at the floor, while Dane and I looked on with astonished eyes. I don't think everything had sunk in yet, not even the fact that we now have another brother. How could Dad do this to us? He talked about this Bethany as if she were something to treasure, he sounded as if he were in love with the woman, the one who'd broken our family. We all met his unashamed eyes when he called for our attention.
"I have to say, I'm not proud of my actions, but I don't regret meeting Bethany or having sex with her because without that chapter in my life, I wouldn't have Rex. I've had a lot of time to think about this situation, and I've decided to move back with her to Detroit and get divorced. I'm sorry, Cassie, you will always have a special place in my heart, but somebody else has captured my whole heart."
Mom stood up and walked out of the house, but not before we heard something shatter. It appeared she'd thrown a rock into Dad's main window.
"Dad, have you lost your mind? You have a family right here in Alabama and one son you don't even care enough to pay attention to, but now you're going to run off and give your undivided attention to that kid? Fucking grow up, you piece of shit," Dane said with disbelief lingering in his tone as he too left the house.
Melinda pulled out her cell phone and asked that girl Stacey to come pick her up and walked up to her room, leaving me and Dad alone. I figured right in that moment, since everybody has gotten everything off their backs, why shouldn't I?
"Dad, can I tell you something?"
"Depends, are you going to give me a lecture? If you are, save it, because I know I'm going to get hell later."
I shook my head, suddenly feeling confident enough to tell him and brave enough to shout out to the whole world that...
"I Like guys."
He didn't seem too shocked, or disappointed. There wasn't even a trace of disgust, but maybe... compassion? Totally and completely unexpected, Dad walked up and almost squeezed the life out of me.
"Son, when I was growing up, I had a childhood friend named Hector. During our senior year of high school he committed suicide and left everyone close to him, including me saying, 'he's sorry, but he can't help being gay.' I won't tell you how he did it, but just know, I cried for the longest time, thinking if only I could have done something to save him. I felt he needed to tell me something, but I figured I'd let him tell me in his own time. I want to let you know, Wade, that I love you, and I'm sorry if it seems I give Dane special attention. You and I just... I don't know, but I know it's not fair, either way. I'll give you the choice if you want to move with me, or stay here? You have a week to decide though, right now, I have to phone Bethany and let her know how things went," he patted my back and as he went up the stairs, a car pulled into the drive way and Melinda bounded down the stairs, not saying a word.
I couldn't help but think what a life in Detroit would be like? Should I stay here, take shit from Austin and Aaron, while watching Robbie make out with his girlfriend? Could I even think to leave Dane behind? I shook my head. Maybe he would move with me? The move would be bearable then, because I love my brother and sister too much to leave them behind. I don't know what the aftermath with Mom would be, but I do know that she will never be the same woman again. My crazed thoughts came to a sudden halt when my cell phone went off, and not even looking at the caller I.D, I answered.
"Meet me in front of your drive way in five minutes," Cody hung up before I even got a chance to ask why.
What. The. Hell?
Thanks to my editors, Ruben, viv and Albert!