Defying Gravity

The walk from Riley's house to mine took about twenty minutes, so by the time I reached my front yard, not only was it pushing seven, but the sun was just barely clinging to the horizon.

"No good." I whispered, eyeing the maroon Dodge Dakota parked in my driveway.

Cautiously, I opened the door to my house and stepped in, kicking off my shoes and tip-toeing to my attic bedroom.

"Where've you been, Night?" A voice called from behind me, making me jump.

I turned around slowly to be met with the face of my father.

"I was at a friends." I sighed.

"That Everette boy again?"

I nodded.

"I thought I told you to never see him again. I thought I made it clear that I didn't want you anywhere near that faggot." He nearly spat, taking a step closer to me.

"He's my friend, dad, and I don't care if he's gay." I answered honestly. I was never one for lying.

"You do as I say, boy. Do you hear me?" He asked, grabbing a chunk of my platinum hair and tugging it so that we were eye level.

"He's my friend." I repeated, pushing back against his chest, trying to be freed from the disgusting smell of Crown and club soda on his breath.

"No son of mine will hang around a fag! I'll be damned if you go queer on me too!" He growled, shoving me hard against the wall, only to grab me up again, this time by the neck.

I could feel my nails clawing at his grizzly hands, begging for a release, for a breath of air. My vision went fuzzy as I felt the hand constricting my airway let go, leaving my unstable body to crash on to the hard linoleum floor.

"You're.. so.. ignorant." I spat between gasps of breath, but I don't think he heard me. He was already turned around, walking towards the TV I suppose. I could hear football playing in the background.

For a minute, I just sat there, half trying to regain my breath, half waiting to see if he'd come back for more. He never did. As I pulled myself up, a throbbing feeling began in my wrist and continued up my arm to my elbow.

"Must have sprained it when I fell." I thought, climbing the stairs that led to the attic. That's what I would tell Riley when he asked about it. I fell.

* * *

The next morning I woke up to a throbbing headache, only made worse by the screeching of my alarm clock.

"Okay. Okay!" I yelled at the thing, hitting the off button, only to throw my pale blue pillow over my head in an attempt to catch a few more moments of sleep, but it was useless. I would never be able to sleep with the searing pain shooting across my forehead.

Groaning, I sat up and looked around my room, quickly locating what I had been searching for.

With a slight stiffness in my bones, I stood and made my way over to the bottle of Ibuprofen. I popped two dry and grimaced at the foul, store-brand taste.

"Disgusting." I mumbled almost unintelligibly.

The rest of the morning went as usual. I showered, dressed, and then crept down the stairs and out the front door. When I finally made it outside, I let out a sigh of relief. I was lucky this morning. He wasn't awake.

My arm gingerly tucked in to the pocket of my hoodie, I walked down the street to the corner, where I was met by the bus a few minutes after.

* * *

When the bus pulled up to school, I was the first one off. I always was.

I managed to make my way through the rambunctious crowd and to my locker, a feat all it's own, but even bigger than that was the fact that I somehow got my lock open using one hand, on the first try.

My mental victory dance was short lived though due to the sudden pressure wrapped around my body, positioning my wounded arm at an awkward, painful angle.

"Ouch!" I hissed, jumping away from the source of my pain, only to look over and realize that it was Riley. I should have known.

"Are you okay?" He asked, taking a step closer to me and reaching out a comforting hand.

I shrugged him off, smiling down at the small boy.

"I'm fine. Just fell on my wrist yesterday is all."

He seemed to buy it, and continued on until the warning bell rang about how much of a klutz I was and how I should pay more attention to where I'm going. I simply nodded, although the lecture was unneeded. I actually was very good at keeping my footing, but he didn't need to know that. He didn't need to know how I really hurt myself last night, how I always hurt myself. He didn't need to know the truth.

"I'll see you after class?" I asked, although I knew I would. I always did.

"Of course." He smiled up at me, pulling me in for a hug.

I sighed in to his brown locks, selfishly absorbing as much warmth from his body as possible. I kissed the top of his head before letting him go to his first period, and then walking sluggishly to mine. It didn't matter if I was tardy. The teachers never really cared much either way.

* * *

School ended, and I did my best not to sprint to my locker, but all I wanted to do was leave. I was never one for being confined to small spaces for extended periods of time, so i guess you could say that school was my own personal hell.

"Hey!" A voice called from behind me as I finished putting the last of my books in my locker.

I turned around to find Riley, as expected. I would know that voice anywhere.

"Hey, Riles. Ready to go?" I asked, messing up the brunettes hair slightly.

He laughed and shook his head yes, grabbing a hold of my good arm and using me as a shield to fight his way through the crowd of over-excited teenagers.

"Thank god!" He screamed, once we broke free from the doors and out in to the October afternoon.

"Friday!"

I laughed at him and said nothing, focusing all of my concentration on stepping on all of the cracks in the side walk. I always felt like a rebel when I did that. Superstitions didn't scare me.

"So, what are you being for Halloween?" He asked, breaking my focus, but that didn't bother me much. Not if it was him.

"I was thinking about doing Andy Sixx's triangle make up in 'Knives and Pens' and just going like that. What about you?"

"I'm gonna be a kitty!" He smiled, speaking with the tone of a child, but really, he wasn't far from one. His innocence still remained; something you don't find very often in teenagers.

"Well, I think you'll make a very cute kitty." I laughed and patted a finger on his nose playfully. He went to bite at it, bearing his 'fangs' at me.

"Rabies kitty." I mumbled, and he giggled as we made it to his front door.

"Honey, I'm home!" He yelled in to the darkness of his empty house.

He sighed as his voice was returned back to him, an eerie silence following after. I watched the younger boy as he untied his shoes and set them off to the side, just like every other day, only this time, he didn't get up.

Spreading his legs apart and leaning back on his hands, he looked up at me with a questioning face. I quirked an eyebrow at him, before sitting down in front of him and crossing my own legs.

"What are your parents like?" He asked, not really looking at me anymore, but rather at the wall behind me.

Where did that come from?

"Their... parents? I don't know." I answered with a short chuckle.

He was looking at me now. I could tell, although my eyes were not on him. I could feel his brown orbs boring holes into my blue ones, searching them for whatever it was he was looking for. I felt like he was reading my soul, and it gave me chills.

"Like, are they nice?"

"Ya, their okay."

This was the only time that I found lying necessary. No one knew about my parents, and that's including Riley. It would kill him if he knew what they were really like; that they hurt me. I couldn't ever tell him.

"I want to meet them." He sighed absentmindedly, but my mind was going a mile a minute.

Meet them? He couldn't. He could never come anywhere near my parents. But what do I say to him?

"They.. they go out of town a lot, and when their home, their busy. Sorry." Lie number two, Night. You're on a role.

"So, you're home alone?" He asked, and I nodded slowly.

"Well, then why don't you just stay here? My parents wouldn't care. You know they love you, and I'd feel better knowing that you're here rather than all alone at your house."

"I'm a big boy. I can handle myself, Riles." I smiled at the boy in front of me, ruffling his hair, but inside I was freaking out.

I can't stay here. My father would be furious with me. The things he would do...

"Aw, come on, Night. It'll be fun. Pwease." He pouted, sticking out his bottom lip and crawling towards me on his hands and knees, until he was right in front of me, big brown eyes watering with faux tears.

How could I deny that?

"Fine. Fine, I'll stay, but just for tonight."

He cheered at his victory, flashing me a dimpled smile, and I couldn't help but smile back at him. What can I say? His smiles are contagious.