I barely got any sleep that night. The next morning, after lying in bed with puffy eyes for hours, I finally got up at 6:00am. I walked into the kitchen, and of course, there was my mom getting ready for hours of work. I made myself a waffle and sat down.
"Mom..." I started slowly, "could you give me a ride to school soon? I want to get there early for tutoring..." I said. This was a lie. I didn't need tutoring at all. I wanted to get there early to talk to Jakob, and perhaps if I was lucky, find some comfort from being with him.
"Sure sweetie." She said, as though we were a normal, functional family.
When I got there, it was about 6:15am. There weren't many people at all there, so I quickly spotted Jakob, sitting alone at a bench wearing a plain white t-shirt. This would have registered a person as "lazy" usually, if this particular person's muscles weren't what made the shirt look like it was about to rip. I just stood there and goggled at his inhuman beauty, until he called out my name.
"Why are you here so early?" he asked genuinely.
"I wanted to talk to you, actually..." I said. He stared into my eyes, which must've still been red from crying myself to sleep. I felt like he were looking into my soul.
"You've been crying..." he said softly, running one of his strong hands down my cheek. "Who has hurt you?" he asked, with a mix of authority and anger in his voice. I looked into his intensely bright eyes, frightened at how angry he seemed. His muscles tensed up, and he no longer seemed like a gentle giant, but a dangerously strong teenager waiting to unleash his wrath.
I gulped. What would he do if he knew? Would he think me a freak, call me a fag, and abandon me? Would he leave me there to drown in my own tears? I shook myself. I knew him better than that. He pressed his broad chest against me and whispered, "Tell me." into my ear.
I felt like I was going to collapse from nervousness. I decided to tell him, due to how understanding he already was. "My dad." I said, choking back tears, to no avail. A large river of tears began to run down my cheeks, and onto his shirt. I could feel him shaking with fury, until-
"HEY! It's the fag and the fag-hag!" rang throughout the now almost full schoolyard by none other than Sean. Jakob looked at him with such hatred that would have made me run like hell. Apparently, Sean I don't share the same logic. "What's wrong albino boy? Do you have to replace your boyfriend that you left on your little island with THIS-" but we never found out what Sean thought I was, because there was an ear-splitting CRACK, which I was sure was Sean's jaw shattering.
Jakob had hit Sean with such immense force that he went propelling back twenty feet. I assume he would be screaming in pain if his jaw wasn't destroyed. Jakob walked up to Sean and lifted him up and walked behind the school and threw him against the wall.
"Listen asshole, Nathan has troubles in his life that your little brain vill never comprehend. Do you understand me? Your shit is unwanted, so why don't you grow a pair and leave him the hell alone." Jakob said in what was pretty fluent slang for a foreigner. The anger he was feeling would blow any therapist's mind, and it seemed to be having its effect, because the look on Sean's face was one of pure fear. "Do not talk to him ever again." Jakob commanded in a piercing tone.
When Jakob got back to where Nathan had been, he had been joined by Lilja, Anna, and Emma. Nathan was too fear-stricken to speak, and the girls were in total confusion. "We aren't going to homeroom or first hour." Emma proclaimed as he approached them.
"I guess I won't either then." He said, shrugging.
"Won't you tell us what happened?" Lilja asked.
"I'll tell her. I need to speak with her privately anyway." Nathan said, finally speaking up while motioning towards Emma. Nathan dragged Emma away from Jakob and the girls, who were conversing in fluid Icelandic about what just happened.
"Well??" Emma asked curiously.
"My dad hurt my mom again last night. I couldn't sleep at all." He said quickly, feeling the tears come back.
"Oh Nathan!" Emma cried out, embracing her best friend in a hug. "But what about the whole Jakob ordeal?"
"Well, you see, I came out to Jakob and there was no problem... except somehow Sean knows, and us three had a run in inside the boy's bathroom yesterday. Jakob and I both coincidentally met there, and Sean just came storming in, throwing homophobic slurs at me like some kind of mad man. He acted as though I were an alien. Well, Jakob forced Sean to leave, which is when I told Jakob. Anyway, this morning, I was telling Jakob about my dad, and he was already furious about that, then Sean came across the schoolyard, directly insulting Jakob and me, and well... you know how big Jakob is." I said very quickly, barely breathing.
"So then what happened?" Emma asked eagerly.
"Jakob hit Sean so hard in the mouth that his jaw shattered. Then he pulled him behind the school, but I don't know what happened..." I said.
"Wow! He actually hit Sean??? Half of the school saw it! There's no way Sean will be able to cover this up with rumors!"
"But Emma! The whole school knows that I'm GAY!" I said frantically.
"You say that like it's a bad thing." said Jakob's masculine voice. I jumped at his sudden presence. Emma gave me a sort of look that said, 'I'll leave you two alone.' and walked off.
"Hey, chill out." He said quietly, putting his arm around me.
"Jakob... about Sean... you didn't have to..." I said shyly.
"I know I didn't, but I wasn't going to let him sit there and bully you, especially after what you've been through recently." He said sternly.
"But you totally destroyed his jaw!" I said, astounded.
"I'll blame this on testosterone," he said half-heartedly, but after seeing my unconvinced expression, he added, "and my extreme anger. Look Nathan, I was pissed, and he started running his mouth with the whole school watching. I know I can crush him, and that's why I didn't want to, but I wasn't the only one involved, so I did something about it."
Truth be told, I was extremely flattered. A guy like Jakob would do all of that for me? Then I remembered. "Jakob, what did you do with him behind the school?" I asked.
"I told him never to talk to you ever again. And if he does, I'll break his neck this time." He replied nonchalantly.
"But Jakob, you could get in trouble for threatening him! And what about his friends? They must be pissed!" I said, in fear of Jakob's safety.
"You doubt my abilities to protect myself?" he asked, flexing confidently.
The site of his arms stretching the sleeves to the point of tearing got me hot. "Oh, no, I just have to always be on my toes around people like him, so I'm just paranoid..." I mumbled.
"Paranoid? Why?" he said suspiciously.
"Because they aren't exactly nice anyway... and now that they know about me..." I stammered.
"They von't do anything, unless they want to lose their consciousness." He said matter-of-factly.
"Jakob... you're real scary when you're angry." I said shyly, not wanting to upset him.
"Oh! I hope I didn't scare you!" he said, suddenly worried. Truth be told, he scared the hell out of me, and I never wanted to have to experience it again.
"Oh it's fine. I have experienced worse." I said in what I hoped was an off-hand voice. Apparently it wasn't, because even I had heard my voice crack.
"It's only a matter of time before someone takes him down." Jakob said malevolently.
Our conversation was interrupted by Lilja's celestial voice and Cody's painfully timid one.
"Second period is about to start. We had better go." Lilja said cheerfully, as though the thought of class was all she ever wanted.
"Yeah!" Cody eagerly agreed stupidly.
The week passed on quickly, and my father didn't reappear at all throughout it, for which I was thankful. On Friday in English, Jakob passed a note to me. Ignoring some jocks' limp wrists imitations, I read it.
"Can I spend the night?" he had written. Even his handwriting was gorgeous. I wanted to faint right there. Since the jocks were eagerly staring still for no obvious reason, I decided against it.
"I don't know. Ride home with me, and we'll just ask my mom, but since you'll be there already, there'll be no one she could say no!" I quickly wrote and passed it back. Unfortunately, the note was intercepted by none other than Sean, who still could barely talk thanks to Jakob. He looked like Christmas had come early.
"Sean!" the teacher, Mr. Sturm called out.
"I got a note!" Sean called out, enthralled.
"Give it here." Mr. Sturm told him. Sean approached the teacher, conveniently whispering "faggots" to us as he was passing by. He looked quite smug, until-
SLAM. Sean's upper body was on top of an empty desk with one arm twisted behind his back. Everyone did something different. The girls ooooo'd in ecstasy of the foreign guy taking down the asshole. The jocks stared in horror as their ring leader had been taken down so fast. Everyone else, included me, watched in shock. Everyone had always been too afraid to stand up to the jocks, until the Icelanders had come.
"Give me the note." Jakob said roughly through Sean's whimpering. Sean had no choice, and dropped the folded piece of paper. Jakob snatched it from the desk before slamming Sean's head down again. "Too bad. Your jaw looked like it was almost healed." Jakob said in an obviously fake tone of sympathy.
"Uh... Jakob?" Mr. Sturm started hesitantly. I think he was afraid that Jakob would hurt him if he said anything. Jakob just smiled at him and walked out of the room, saving his teacher the anxiety attack.
Sean had a look of complete horror on his face. He was actually crying from the pain, to which I laughed at.
"You think this is funny?!" he said with great difficulty.
"Woah dude, don't mess with him. That Jakob guy is pretty scary." a brown haired boy stated.
Sean, with great annoyance, turned away from me.
"Er, well then... class dismissed..." Mr. Sturm said.
I ran out at once and met up with Jakob, who was wandering around near the cafeteria. "Jakob! That was killer!" I said in disbelief. "You know he actually cried!?" I exclaimed excitedly.
"Wow, did he? I guess I'm a little stronger than I thought." He said giddily. "Maybe he'll leave you alone now." He suggested.
"Hopefully. Anyway, did you read the note?" I asked.
"Yeah, sounds like a plan." He said. We chatted idly until the bell rang, which was when we were approached by Jake Eden; aka Emma's boyfriend.
"Hey asshole!" he said angrily to Jakob. "What do you think you're doing, hurting my best friend Sean like that?" he shouted. Everyone got quiet.
"How cute of you to come to his rescue." Jakob said coolly.
"Funny that you say that since the whole fight happened because of your little fag-friend!" he shouted with triumph.
"Do you have a fucking problem? Because you're pissing me off." Jakob yelled.
"Yeah, actually I do." Jake said tensely, though with sweat running down his face.
"Then do something about it! You and your little friends started this shit, and now you're getting in my face like you're above me. Do something or get the hell out of my face!" Jakob said, shocking everyone. Lilja, Anna, and Emma had arrived at the scene, shocked at what was happening. Upon Jakob's last statement, Lilja started shouting at him in Icelandic. He turned around and answered her extremely quickly, but Jake had already made his move.
He hit Jakob in the back of the head, which instead of knocking him out like Jake had hoped, only angered him to the point where he wasn't feeling merciful. He started wailing on Jake with immense force which probably could have busted concrete. Blood was pouring from Jake's nose and lips all over the floor.
"Stop!" Emma and Lilja shrieked. I unfortunately had to witness what I had been hoping I would never have to see again. Thankfully, three teachers, including Mr. Sturm, ran up to the two. They parted the crowd that was watching and, with immense effort, managed to pull Jakob off.
"You fucking psycho!" Jake yelled through the blood. Lilja and Anna began to scream at Jakob in their beautiful language, to which Jakob responded, in English, with, "He fucking started it! If he wouldn't talk so much shit and try to provoke me, then maybe none of this would ever happen!"
In the meantime, Emma looked horrified. "You foul person!" she yelled at Jakob.
"Emma! You know damn well that it's not his fault! What, do you support Jake's homophobia towards me over Jakob standing up for me?!" I said loudly, annoyed.
"Well he doesn't have to beat the shit out of my boyfriend!"
"Jake hit him first!"
"You know what, Nathan? Fine! Take his side! I couldn't care less!" she shrieked, and stormed out of the school even though we still had a few classes to do.
Cody approached us as if on cue.
"Where have you been?" I asked grumpily.
"The bathroom. What happened?"
I sighed as I began to explain everything. Lilja and Anna calmed down and were okay with Jakob at the end of the day, Emma and I were still angry with each other, and Cody was indifferent. On the bus, Jakob and I sat at a seat, and Emma sat with some girl that I didn't know.
"This is so dumb. I can't believe she is going to choose her jackass of a boyfriend over us." I had been ranting about it throughout the rest of the day.
"She'll come around." Jakob said wearily for the hundredth time today.
We finally reached my house, and I introduced Jakob to my mom, and asked if she could spend the night. Surprisingly, she asked no questions. She probably thought that he was my boyfriend, and I wasn't going to argue against that notion. Too bad it was just a fantasy.
Jakob and I messed around for a while. We watched "The Exorcism" which resulted in me hugging him tightly in fear throughout the whole movie, but he didn't seem to mind it at all. We proceeded to listen to music, with me jumping at the slightest creek or shadow throughout. At 3:00am we heard a loud crash downstairs.
I looked into Jakob's eyes, all of the color flushed from my face. Our deafening silence was broken by screams coming from my mother. We both knew what was happening. Jakob started towards the door, but I stepped in front of him. Despite our incredible size difference, I was determined to stop him.
"You can't go down there! What if you get hurt?" I pleaded.
"I'll be fine." He said casually, stepping around me.
"No way! I'd never forgive myself if anything happened." I said in a serious tone.
"Nathan..." he started. After seeing that I wasn't going to give up, he grabbed both of my arms and put them behind my back like a cop would handcuff someone.
"Jakob!" I said, completely shocked. I struggled against him, but the one arm that he was holding my hands together with overpowered both of my arms. I was so hysterical that I was almost crying. He opened my closet and said, "You'll be safe here." before locking me inside. I heard him sneak out of my room with silent movement. Even from inside my closet, I could hear my dad's drunken stammer. He was completely wasted.
Half an hour later, I heard my door open quietly. "It's me." Jakob said. It sounded like he was out of breath. He let me out of the closet, and I surprisingly wasn't mad at him for locking me in. "Please don't be mad at me for forcing you to stay here. I don't usually do things like that..." he said sheepishly.
"It's no problem. I completely understand. Anyway, tell me what happened down there!" I said anxiously. Of course, I wasn't going to tell him that it had totally turned me on when he had completely overpowered me. That would make things too awkward.
"Well, I went downstairs and your dad was... hitting your mom. She was trying to shield herself with her arms. Your dad was completely drunk, Nathan. I snuck up behind him and stabbed him in his left leg with one of your kitchen knives, then put him in the sleeper hold until he passed out. After that, I called the police and helped your mom get on her feet and clean her wounds that your dad had given her. She's downstairs talking to the police right now." He explained.
Tears swelled up in my eyes. My mom and I had never had the courage to stand up to my father, which included not being able to call the police on him. He had saved my mom, knocked out my dad, and put him to justice. I kind of stood there just staring at him in awe, until he yawned.
"I'm pretty worn out; that's two fights today. Wanna sleep now?" he asked, stretching. I just nodded in agreement. "Good." He said happily. He tore off his shirt, revealing his ripped torso. I stared in amazement at his abs and pecs until he brought me back to earth. "Nathan?"
"Oh, sorry. Yeah, one second." I changed out of my jeans into some silky gym shorts, and took off my shirt. I came back into my room. Since we only had one bed, we both got into mine. My body was miniscule compared to his, but I didn't care; and nor did he. The darkness had set in a few minutes after we had gotten into my bed. "Jakob?" I asked.
"Hm?" he responded.
"Do you think Emma and I will ever be the same?"
"Yeah... just give her time."
"But why is she even acting like this in the first place?" I said, somewhat irritated.
"Because," he wrapped his strong legs around me and pulled me towards him, so that our naked torsos were touching, "people will do anything for the person they love." He whispered. I felt his strong hands on my cheeks, and soon after I felt him climb on top of me. I couldn't have gotten away if I had wanted to. His weight would have flattened me normally, and I correctly assumed that he was holding himself up, since I could sense both of his knees on either side of me. Sweat was coming off of his chest, which was now pressed up against mine again. Excitement was running through my head, but also a burning question.
'Should we be doing this?' I was thinking.
As if he had read my mind, he whispered, "Sometimes it's better not to think first." with that sexy voice that would never leave my head. He wrapped his thick, well muscled legs around my skinny ones and squeezed softly. I gasped out, half in pain and half in pleasure. "Whatever unfortunate person touches you ever again will feel a hundred times that. Do you understand me?" he said in the same sexy voice. I couldn't seem to speak, so I just nodded. He must have felt my movement, and recognized it as a sign of acknowledgement, because he said, "Good."
Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. He made sure I couldn't move by wrapping his legs around my own once again, and moving my hands onto his abs. They literally felt like rocks. He couldn't see them, but my eyes considerably widened. I didn't think that a teen our age could possess such immense power. He surprised me even more by leaning down so that our noses were touching. "You can't have been wanting this more than I have." He said enchantingly. I felt his lips touch mine, and I closed my eyes instinctively. His strong tongue caressed mine gently as his hands explored my soft body. We must have made out for a few hours, and I still wasn't ready to stop when he lifted himself off of me. He got up and turned on the light.
"You taste amazing." He said, astonished.
"You too." I replied timidly.
"Want another sample?" He said devilishly. He looked pretty sexy standing there with a body to die for, wearing only a pair of cargo shorts. His blond leg hair reflected the bright light brilliantly, along with the same colored light underarm hair, which would have disgusted me had it been any other guy.
"I think we should talk about this." I said, while not being able to help but notice his studly yet cute attitude.
"That's fine." He replied, smiling. He sat back down on the bed as I sat in a crisscross sitting position. "Come on, sit closer." He said jokingly; only he wasn't joking. Before I had a chance to start asking questions, he wrapped his legs around me again and pulled me to him with ease, and didn't move them. It was pretty hot to feel his calves of steel around me, as if to ensure that nothing could take me away.
"Why didn't you tell me you were gay?" I asked him sincerely.
"I didn't want our friends to think that we were dating, because I didn't think you would want that." He said.
"Jakob, I've fantasized over you ever since I first saw you." I said in disbelief.
"Oh." He said, abashed.
"So why did you make the move?" I proceeded to inquire.
"Well, I had just kicked a grown man's ass... forced you to stay in your room... needless to say, the amount of testosterone in my body was overwhelming." He said with confidence.
"Okay then, that's that." I said. I would have moved, but his immense legs had immobilized me.
"Mind allowing me to move?" I said jokingly.
"Oh! I forgot that I had my legs around you..." he said sheepishly as he unflexed his legs and let go of me. I was in mild shock. It was like he never got tired!
"But there's one thing I should ask you..." he trailed off.
"What?" I asked, surprised.
He got up and lifted me into the air. I instinctively put my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck so I was looking into his eyes, which were glistening as the light reflected off of them as if they were snow. He held me up without any signs of strain, and asked, "Will you go out with me?" As the words slipped out of his mouth, I could smell his breath which resembled the smell of honeysuckle.