Drop Dead.

I sigh as Louie and I make our way to fourth period, chemistry. The both of us are terrible in the science field, which is a likely reason for our low grade in our class, but we also both cannot stand the teacher, Mrs. Hemlock. She’s as vile and cruel as they come.

She is the typical horrific teacher, gangly with long gray hair, manicured nails and a screeching voice. Her nose is too long to be considered human and she has an abnormally large mole on her left cheek that I swear is secretly a tumor. It’s huge.

When we’re about to reach the classroom I feel a hand clasp my shoulder and pull me back. Louie doesn’t even both listening to my desperate shouts. Dirty bastard.

“The hell are you doing?” I grumble and rip Laker’s hand from my shoulder after he managed to steer me off course. He is looking far too smug so I punch him rather hard in the chest.

“What was that for?” He whines. “I just wanted your attention.”

“And I want to get to class before Mrs. Hemlock decides to choke me with her giant fucking tumor.”

Laker howls with laughter.

“It isn’t funny!” I holler. “Now, what do you want?”

Laker manages to compose himself and snaps his fingers as if that made him suddenly regain his thoughts. Smiling, he wraps one of his hands around my own and says, “Let’s go out tonight.”

“Out?” I ask with an eyebrow raised. “Like…a date?”

“If you want to call it that,” Laker replies but I can see how nervous he is. His hand is shaking around my own and his eyes aren’t looking at me but rather everything around me. He’s biting at his lip and waiting anxiously for my reply.

It feels strange…this warmth, this spark running through my finger tips and up my arms. I never thought, not once in my life did I ever even think that someone would ever give me that embarrassing feeling in my gut or those butterflies in my chest. I never even thought it’d be a boy either but somehow Laker manages to do it all with such ease. I wonder why that is…

Is it his looks? His personality? What is it that makes me feel the things I do towards him? He must be releasing some type of pheromone. It’s the only logical explanation.

“I guess…that’ll be ok,” I answer and quickly remove my hand from his own. I barely have any time to see Laker’s smile before I start heading to Chemistry. The bell has already rung and I know Mrs. Hemlock is going to lecture me but…it doesn’t really matter, I guess.

“What was that about?” Louie asks from his seat beside me.

“Nothing.”

“Yeah, whatever. Nothing doesn’t explain the blush on your cheeks.” Louie presses a finger roughly against my cheek. I growl as he rubs my cheek with his finger. “You are so evasive.”

“Fuck off.”

I’m not evasive…yes I am. It’s just…Laker and I are both males. I have my pride, he obviously doesn’t. I never once thought of dating a male before so of course when I do learn that maybe…just maybe I have a crush on one, I’m going to panic.

The school day ends quickly and before I know it, Gel and I are home. I’m changing my clothes when the home phone begins to ring. I don’t bother reaching for it because I don’t like answering it but when I hear Mimi calling from downstairs, asking me to answer it for her I sigh and do as I’m told.

I grumble as I walk over towards it and pray it isn’t one of her freaky friends. Every time they call and I answer they continuously ask me stupid questions like, do you have a girlfriend now, are you getting into any fights, would you like to come over for some tea? I don’t know if they’re just creeps or if they actually, somewhat care.

I grab the phone as I’m tugging my shoe on. “Hello?”

I’m not prepared for the voice I hear on the other line.

The voice is gruff and deep, just as I last remembered it and just like it use to do, the sound sent a jolt of fear through my veins. My hands tremble at the sound of his voice, the voice I haven‘t heard in five long years and expected to never hear again. “Jarrod? Jarrod, it’s me…it’s your father.”

The phone slips from my fingers and lands against the floor. The sound may have been soft and almost noiseless to others but to me…it sounded like my world exploding, disappearing right before my eyes.

I freeze at the sound of his voice. He’s continuing to repeat the name, that dreaded name that was given to me on the day of my birth. The one that he used to scream at me with, the one that she also screamed at me with. I thought I had long forgotten those days, those nightmarish days that seemed too cruel to be real but as I heard his voice, it all came back to me.

The air left my lungs when I began to feel his fists, the back of her hand and I can smell the scent of blood, sex, alcohol and drugs. Their arguing and their screams fill my head and things begin to spin faster and faster until I can’t even hold myself up. I fall to my hands and knees.

“Are you listening to me? Are you still there, Jarrod? Answer me,” he says and his voice sounds agitated like it used to. My fingers are trembling and for a moment I forget where I’m at. I forget that I’m safe with Ken and Mimi. I begin to believe that I’m back there…that I’m back with those horrid people, my parents.

I do as I’m told. I grab the phone and with a trembling voice, I reply, “Y-Yes…I’m here.”

Suddenly my room is gone and I’m replaced in a new one. The stained mattress covered with torn blankets and pillows is lying in the corner of the room atop wooden boxes. The windows are cracked and newspapers block the chilly air from making its way in. There’s a dresser, old and scratched from years of abuse and filled with a young boys clothes and then there’s the doorway with no door, no form of protection.

It’s that damn room, my room. I shake my head and try to erase that image, those horrific memories of my past that I managed to bury so deep for so long that I can hardly tell if these are actually memories or just nightmares.

“Jarrod, listen to me…I just got word from the police of where you’re at-”

No.

“I’ve cleaned up my act and I’ve gotten the ok to come see you-”

God…if you’re listening, please no.

“And hopefully, get you back.”