Opposites Attract

I have to admit - telling my brother and my friends the truth feels pretty good. I don't feel stressed, and Cory has been a lot more affectionate for some reason. Maybe he just feels sorry for me, but surprisingly, I don't mind that. I thought I would hate everyone pitying me and trying to help, but having Cory, Dallan, Zephy, and even Mr. Sinclair by my side has made me feel genuinely loved.

They all refuse to let me go home until we have this dad issue settled, and I don't know what they mean by that, but it can't be good. Mr. Sinclair said I was welcome to stay at his house for as long as I liked, but Cory didn't like that idea. He was actually jealous - for some reason, I never thought of Cory being jealous, I figured that was only me. But a jealous Cory is pretty cute. He tries his best to glare, but it's impossible for him. It's like trying to stand still at a rave - no freaking way is that happening. For those of you who have never been to a rave, I sincerely feel like your life is nonexistent, because you haven't lived until you've felt your heart pumping to the beat of the music. It's just a huge rush of adrenaline.

Anyway, Cory's let me stay at his house. His mom doesn't mind, but I have caught her staring at me with a worried look - I guess he told her about my dad. I wish he hadn't. I didn't want anybody to know, and now I feel like everyone I know has heard the truth.

As you can probably guess, I haven't spoken to my dad since. Dallan has though, and he pretends as if nothing happened and that he doesn't know where I am. I think he's trying to protect me, though I'm not quite sure how that works. It must be his weird logic again. He's been staying at the house, seeing as dad still loves him unconditionally. It's as if I was never born, and things are exactly how they're supposed to be, except my mom isn't coming back. She's gone. And it's all his fault.

Well. I really don't remember who's fault it is.

My dad was driving the car, and my mom was in the passenger seat. I was in the back, looking out the window, not focusing on the car speeding down the road that would soon crash into us. I don't remember where we were headed or why Dallan wasn't with us, all I can remember is the screeching of tires and crunching metal before we plunged into dark and icy waters.

I was scared; I screamed and tugged at my mom's now limp arm. My dad was floating in and out of consciousness, but my mom was completely knocked out. I kept screaming for them to wake up, the water starting to fill up the car. My mom never responded. My dad heard me though. He looked around in a panic, but took no other action. I pulled at my seat-belt but couldn't get it off. He just sat there, staring at my mom's broken body. It wasn't until the car completely filled with water that he even moved. He took off his seat-belt and opened his door. He climbed into the back seat and helped me out of my seat-belt, then held me as he climbed out of the car. I had to watch my mom floating away from me, down to the darkness. I wriggled out of my dad's grip and tried to go back to my mom, but I couldn't swim. I struggled, and I was losing air fast. My dad came back to me and brought us to the surface.

I didn't care that we were alive, or that I was falling into a deep sleep for awhile, I just wanted my mom with me. When I woke up, I was in a hospital. And I was alone. My dad was in another room, being cared for. But I had no one. Not my dad, or Dallan, or my mom. I was alone.

I've been left alone for years.

And I'm still waiting for my mom to come back to get me.

I know she's never coming back, but I still wish she would. Every day, I wake up thinking about her, missing the way she would always come in and open the blinds in my room, yank the covers off the bed, and start tickling me. "Start your day off with a laugh, and you'll be smiling all the way through," she'd say before kissing my forehead. Hmmm... I haven't laughed in a long time. But I have been tickled by Cory in the mornings. He can't replace my mom, but he's a nurturer, and has been there when I really needed someone. Like right now.

I sighed and opened my eyes. I was Cory's bed. He's an early bird, so he had gotten out of bed by now. I sat up ran a hand through my bedhead hair. Looking over at the slightly cracked bathroom door, I called out Cory's name, hoping he was nearby.

He answered back with a "Yeah, Sean?" before coming out of the bathroom... in nothing but a towel. His body was covered in water droplets and his hair clung to his forehead. I bit my lip as my eyes trailed down his torso slowly, then snapped back up to look at his face. He blushed and wrapped the towel tighter around his waist.

"Uh... you-you c-c-called me, Sean?" He looked down at the ground, the blush still on his cheeks.
"Yeah... I can't remember why, though."
He blinked. "You can't remember?"
I shook my head, but I found myself staring back at his body. "It was something about... something."
He groaned. "Sean, I never thought I'd have to say this to you, but my eyes are up here." He pointed at his face.
I blinked and smiled. "Yeah, I know."

I climbed out of bed and walked over to him. He rolled his eyes at me. I cupped his chin and brought him in for a kiss. I captured his soft lips with mine, nibbling on his lower lip. His hands went up to my head and pulled me in to deepen the kiss. I bit his lip one more time before sliding my tongue into his mouth. I tasted his minty teeth, and briefly felt self-conscious about my own morning breath, but it didn't seem to bother him. His tongue rubbed against mine, starting a wrestling match, but his soon abandoned the battle when I pressed against him and gripped his waist. I guess he remembered that he was only wearing a towel and I was clad in just boxers. He pushed me away lightly, biting his lip.

"Sean, where did that come from?"
"What do you mean? I just felt like doing it."
"Well, okay, I can understand that, but ever since we started dating, you have never kissed me like that. What's gotten into you?"
I frowned. "I don't know. Is it bad that I'm kissing you differently."
"Not at all." I smirked, making him blush. "I was just curious."

I shrugged. I was eager to continue what we were doing, but he moved away from me to put on some clothes. I huffed, making him laugh at my frustration, before I hopped in the shower myself. In here, I was alone with my thoughts again. And for awhile, that was okay because I had only been thinking of Cory and how sexy he looks when he's... well, himself. But now I was remembering my haunting thoughts from this morning. I tried to push them aside, but as the water rained down on me, it just made me feel suffocated. The lake came flashing back, and soon I just couldn't take it anymore. I jumped out of the shower, wrapped a towel around me, and sat on the floor before calling out for Cory again. He came to the door, looked around the bathroom, then walked in once he saw I was decent.

"What's the matter, Seanie?" He cooed as he sat down next to me.
"I miss her." I didn't have to clarify who it was, he just brought me into a hug and rubbed my back. I rested my head on his shoulder and tried to focus on the indistinct sounds throughout the house: Cory's soft breathing, his gentle heartbeat, pot banging coming from the kitchen, and well I tried to tune out the water still coming from the shower head, but I couldn't - it was just too loud. I frowned and sat up, glaring at the tub. Cory quickly realized the problem and went to turn off the water, then walked back over to me.

I looked up at him; now he had on a black shirt that said "I <3 Zombies" in green, patchy letters and black skinny jeans. I never understood why Cory wore skinny jeans, even though I wasn't complaining about how great they made his ass look. I just wondered why he wore them since he wasn't into the trends, and skinny jeans were definitely popular. In fact, I don't think he even started wearing them until this year.

"Cory, why do wear skinny jeans?"
He raised an eyebrow at me; I always seemed to ask random questions, even though in my mind I had worked out the reasons and logic behind them minutes before asking the question. "I don't know - I like them?"
"Why? You hate wearing the school's gym shorts because you think they're too tight on you when they're a size bigger than what you wear. Why would wear skinny jeans?"
He started blushing. "Because... I just wanted to, okay? Now get off the floor and put some clothes on, my mom's making breakfast."

I blinked at him confused but got up anyway. I wasn't nervous about having him see me practically naked, since he's seen me in my boxers lots of times. However, putting on boxers without removing your towel so that he won't see me completely naked is not easy at all. I looked over at him, hoping he would get the hint and leave, but now he was staring at me. I smirked, deciding to be a little evil. I turned my back to him and opened my towel and prepared to drop it, then closed it back and bent over slowly to grab my boxers, and then stood back up quickly. Honestly, I felt like an idiot doing that. Cory and I used to do that all the time after we saw Legally Blonde - we'd purposely act all girly and do the "bend and snap" when we were acting stupid. We mimicked a lot of things from movies. I just wanted to know if this actually worked in real life.

It did.

He still hasn't stopped staring at me.

"Cory, unless you want to see me naked, you should leave the room. And if you do want to see me naked, well then too bad, because you wouldn't let me see you naked."

He blushed bright red before running out of the room. I chuckled and started to dress.

***

Cory has forced me to go back to school. He says if I leave him to fend for himself, I won't be able to find him the next day. That's not really true because the jocks aren't totally cruel, but Cory uses dramatics to make me feel guilty. It isn't necessary, I'd feel guilty for not smiling at him at least once a day.

His mom drove us to school, something she hadn't done that often in the past, but was probably doing now everyday because she felt sorry for me. Her pity did bother me a little, but I wasn't going to be rude to her when she was only trying to help. When we got to school, I noticed that everyone was staring at me. I hadn't been gone that long, had I? Like I said, I've disappeared before, so why do they all looked shocked to see me?

I followed Cory to his locker, still getting surprised looks from kids in the hallway. After he opened his locker, I whispered to him.

"Why the hell is everyone staring at me?"
"Well, they're kind of staring at us."
"Okay, why are they staring at us?"
He bit his lip before grabbing a book from the top shelf of his locker. "Um... w-w-well, some stuff happened while you were gone."
I eyed him suspiciously. "What stuff?"
"Uh... well, remember how I said you shouldn't leave me alone to fight off the jocks? Well... when I was trying to insult them, I said some things."
My eyes popped out of my head. "What things?!"
He winced and put the book back on the shelf. "That they need to stop messing with me, or..."
"Or what?!" I whisper-yelled.
"O-O-O-Or I'll get Sean to kick their asses. And then they started making fun of you, and I kind of lost it."
I tried my hardest to control my breathing. "Cory. What. Did. You. Do."
He bit his lip, then turned to me with the most apologetic look I've ever seen on him. "I blurted out 'leave my boyfriend alone.'"
My heart stopped.
"I tried to cover it up! I tried to make them forget what I said, but they caught it, and even though I think they are a bunch of dumb neanderthals, they realized that it actually made sense and well... they figured out that we were dating."
I just stared at him.
"Sean, please talk to me. Say something! I don't care if your mad! If you want to yell at me, go ahead! Scream, punch me, whatever! Just react - do something!"
"...They know?"
He nodded sadly. "They know. They've been calling you gay for days now, and I think they're planning on doing something. I don't know what, but it can't be good."
"Why did you let me come back to school." I stated, not really caring about an answer.
"I didn't want you to hide from your problems."
"Well, thanks to you, I'm going to die!" I shouted. He winced and stared at me.
"Sean-"
"How could you have possibly destroyed my reputation in a week?! Not only am I gonna be made fun of for the rest of my high school life, but I'll be lucky to survive that long once the guys find me! They're gonna beat the shit out of me!!!!" I started panicking.
"Sean, calm down. It's not that bad! They don't know you're here yet!"
"The whole school knows I'm here! They stared me down the minute I walked in the building! They know what's gonna happen, why didn't you tell me!?!?"
"I just couldn't. After we found you, all we talked about was trying to help your dad situation. I had completely forgotten about school. And then this morning, you actually seemed happy, and I didn't want to ruin it for you-" I grabbed onto his shirt.
"I'M GOING. TO FUCKING. DIE." I shook him after each stop.
"I'm so sorry."

Suddenly, the normally sunny hallway enveloped us in shade. I didn't want to look behind Cory. I didn't have to. The letteman jacket said it all. I let go of Cory's shirt.

"Sean, I am so, so sorry!"
"You should be, Tinkerbell. You just got your boyfriend Peter in a load of trouble."
I sighed and looked up at my tormentor, Mike. His sneer matched those of his surrounding friends - the entire football team and other athletes scattered throughout the mass of them.
"We knew you were friends with a fag, McLean. But we never knew gay was contagious." He cracked his knuckles. I sighed and shoved Cory away from me. He didn't need to suffer as well.
"Sean, quit being so damn independent and let me stand with you!" He yelled at me.
"Cory, if I get beat up, then I just got beat up. If you get beat up, then you'll die. Let me fight my own battles."
"HAVE YOU NOT BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO ANYTHING I'VE SAID IN THE PAST TWO DAYS?! STOP TRYING TO FIGHT YOUR FUCKING BATTLES ALONE!!!!" He screeched. I winced but didn't say anything to him. Mike looked amused at Cory's anger and panic. I showed no emotion - I refused to give him the satisfaction.
"God, I hope you're a bleeder." He smirked before winding up for a punch. I shut my eyes, but the hit never came.
"Mike Goldman, do you honestly think you're going to get away with beating up a kid this early in the school day? Why even come to school if you planned on getting suspended?"
I looked up at my savior, Mr. Sinclair. Even though he was trying his best to be serious and intimidating, I could hear the amusement in his voice - he was enjoying this all too well.
Mike glared at me and Cory before looking at Mr. Sinclair with a face of 'innocence.'
"We were just-"
"Don't even try me, Goldman. Come with me to the principal's office. I'm sure he's reserved a seat for you."

Do I even have to say how much I love Mr. Sinclair right now?

He winked at me as he escorted a pissed-off Mike down to the office, his friends forced to follow.

Cory punched me in the arm, and even though he has the strength of a three year old girl, I still said ow and rubbed my arm.

"What was that for?"
"For not letting me help you, you dumb-ass! You're just lucky I worked this out ahead of time."
"What are you- wait, did you tell Mr. Sinclair about this?"
He rolled his eyes and smiled before closing his locker and dragging us off to homeroom. Before the first bell rang, I stopped him just a few feet away from the door. Before he could question me, I crashed my lips onto his, trying my best to show him how much I loved him. I know that's a lot of pressure to put into one kiss, but I honestly could not find the words that could even begin to describe how grateful I was to have him in my life. He didn't hesitate to kiss back, not as forcefully as I did, but in an equally passionate way. I pulled away just as the first bell rang. He said a breathless 'wow', causing me to grin widely. I heard a group of Aww's coming from behind us, and didn't even have to turn around to know that it was Zephy's group of girls. I sighed and took a step away from Cory so that he could be swept into the classroom by Zephy, who was probably dying to gush over how cute that was, even though I was involved in it. Actually, she would probably say exactly that. X)

I watched them walk into homeroom while her friends were left to bother me about the whole thing since they didn't have our homeroom. I rolled my eyes and told them to get lost, but clearly I had lost my bad boy rep, because they just scoffed and smirked and then left me standing there. I finally noticed that the entire hallway had just seen me kiss a boy.

Somehow, it just doesn't seem like the end of the world for me anymore. :)

***

Dallan wanted to spend more time with me, since he feels somewhat responsible for dad abusing me. I really don't see how he got that. I mean sure, when I was mad, I would get mad at him for being the perfect son and for leaving me behind to face dad's wrath, but I never truly blamed him for it. He still feels guilty though, so he's decided to make part one of his "Spend time with his brother" plan to pick me up after school. He would drop me off at school too, but he's not a morning person. At all. I don't think he even knows what a sunrise is.

Cory, Zephy, and I were in the parking lot waiting for him to show up. When I noticed Mr. Sinclair walking over to his car, I dragged Cory over there to him. Mr. Sinclair turned around and smiled at us. I gave him a hug. Now, you have to really think about this - I don't hug anybody except for Cory, and even then it's not spontaneous - it's usually to comfort him or something. So for me to hug a man that I barely know and started out completely hating, I'd say something was just different about today. Something was different about me. He looked at surprised at first, but then softly smiled and hugged me back. When we broke the hug, Cory stepped him and gave him a hug too. He laughed and ruffled Cory's hair before turning to me.

"If you ever need me, I'm here for you."
"And so am I." Cory took my hand.
Just then, Dallan's car pulled up, and over the roar of the engine, I heard Zephy's trademark shriek before hearing her laugh at a normal volume, oddly enough. I smiled. I really don't have to stand alone anymore.