Corrupt Me

As Elise and I ran to her car in the pouring rain, I couldn’t help but wish I had stayed out by the bridge with Angel and Drew. Well, maybe without Drew, but definitely with Angel. I think I enjoyed that kiss too much to claim that it was just an excuse to get Angel to come down. I also think that I enjoy being around Angel too much to claim that he drives me crazy with his constant presence anymore. Oh God.

I slumped down in my seat as soon as I got in the car, and let out a huge sigh. Elise got in a few seconds later and started driving straight away. I stared at the wipers working their way non-stop back and forth across the windscreen, just thinking about what had just happened. Elise gave me a few minutes to think to myself before she glanced over at me.

“Well. Well, well…” she said with a smirk.
“Shut up,” I muttered, feeling my cheeks turn red.
“I’m just teasing, but I do have to ask you…do you think you’re gay?”
I sighed. “Good question. I don’t know.”
“Well, you don’t have to know straight away. Take your time to figure it out. It looked like you and Angel had some pretty good chemistry though. I saw you talking and cuddling.”
“You did? You were making out with Drew, though.”
“I’m a woman, I can do two things at once,” my sister replied with a laugh.
“Uh-huh…” I mumbled, and then turned to stare out my window.
Elise and I were silent for the rest of the trip home. That changed when we pulled into our street and noticed that a house had its lights on, whereas when we left, the whole street was dark.
“Shi-ugar,” I whispered under my breath, as I noticed it was our house that was all lit up. That’s it. We’re done for, I thought, and began panicking.

My parents were both standing out on our front porch, wearing bathrobes, slippers and expressions of disappointment and anger.
“What are we going to do?” I asked my sister, who looked as calm as ever.
“Stress less, Mics. We’ll probably get grounded for a bit and then we’ll be off the hook. No big deal.”
“Yeah, for you, maybe. You do this all the time. I don’t.”
“You’ll be fine,” she said as she turned off the car.
Very slowly, I took off my seatbelt, and opened the door to exit the car.
“Where on EARTH have you BEEN?!” my mother shouted, as I stepped out onto the driveway. “You are SOAKED and it is 2 O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING. Get inside the house NOW, the pair of you!”

I almost ran into the house in fear, while Elise sauntered in after me. Dad told us not to sit on the couch cause we’d get all the upholstery wet, so instead we grabbed a chair from the dining room each and sat on those. It must have appeared to be a hostage situation for anyone looking in because there were Elise and I on chairs next to each other and our parents were standing in front of us looking menacing. I was legitimately terrified.

“WELL?!” my mother started, bearing down on Elise and I.
“Micah got a phone call that one of his friends was in danger so we had to go and see if we could help,” my sister replied.
“What friend?”
“A-A friend from school.”
“Have I met them?”
“N-no. I’m doing a science project with him. We work at his house and at the library.”
“Why was he in danger?”
“He was upset about something and uh…” I didn’t really want to tell my parents that Angel was drunk and tried to jump off a bridge. They’d never let me see him again, and I couldn’t have that. I thought for a second about how to finish my sentence.
“He wanted to hurt himself,” Elise jumped in, saving the day. “But we stopped him.”
I nodded and hung my head.

My parents considered this for a minute, before my father spoke up.
“That’s still no excuse for you to sneak out in the middle of the night without telling anyone. You could have been anywhere, with anyone, doing anything. If your friend really needed your help, you should have come and woken me and I would have taken you to him. There was no need to sneak out.”

I nodded again. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. I glanced up then and saw that my mother was sending daggers into my father with her eyes. She had her mouth firmly set in a straight line and I could tell she wasn’t happy with his response. Evidently, she would rather I didn’t leave the house at all tonight.

“Hmph…well, regardless, you still broke the rules. I am grounding you both for two weeks. You will go to school and you will come home. On Sundays, you will go to church and you will come home. You will not watch television, and you may only use your computers for school work. Understood?”

Elise and I nodded simultaneously.
“Good. Now, bed.” We got up and went without another word.
I changed and climbed into my bed, where I fell asleep almost instantly.

***

I woke up the next morning feeling kind of down. I knew that the grounding would come with a lot of questions from my friends and my other sisters. And Isabelle. What would I tell them? The truth? God, no. Nobody but myself, Elise, Angel and Drew can ever know what really happened last night. I’m sure I would get a much worse punishment if my mother knew what I was really doing.
I was just about to move my blankets off of me when I heard a light knock on my door.
“Yeah?”
“Micah?” my dad’s voice said, “Time for breakfast. Get up now, please.”
“Okay, Dad,” I replied, and did as I was told.

I dressed quickly, and headed downstairs to the kitchen. The rest of my family, besides Elise, were already seated. I took my usual place next to Georgia and opposite Sara, while avoiding my mother’s eyes. I could tell even without looking at her that she was still mad.
“Why didn’t Elise have to get up?” Sara asked.
“She has a cold,” my mother answered. “You can ask your brother how she might have picked it up.”

I went bright red, and shook my head. Dad put a plate piled high with toast in the middle of the table and I grabbed a slice and shoved it in my mouth so I wouldn’t have to talk. I could feel my sisters’ eyes on me but I kept my head down.

“Georgia, Sara, eat your breakfast. Leave Micah alone, okay?” Dad said quietly. He put a hand on my shoulder for a second, and then went to sit down.

I finished off my toast quickly, and went back upstairs to continue getting myself ready for the day. It didn’t take me too long, so I had to wait a little while for my sisters so we could all walk to the bus stop together. It was still drizzling but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it was last night. We could get away with using umbrellas if we avoided puddles.

When Georgia and Sara were ready, we left. As soon as we stepped outside of the house, they both began questioning me on our mother’s comment at breakfast. I told them that I got grounded for sneaking out, and left it at that. I said that I didn’t want to go into details, and they understood that the subject was closed.

On the bus, we split up. Georgia sat near the front with her friends and Sara raced up the back to sit with hers. I just tried to find any available seat, as none of my friends caught our bus.

The trip was uneventful, to say the least.

But then I arrived at school.

And the first person I saw was Angel. I’m not sure if he was waiting for me or if he had just arrived himself, but either way, as soon as he saw me, he came racing over to me.

Thankfully, most of the other people on the bus had moved away by the time he reached me, because the first thing he did was look me up and down and say, “Hey baby, nice pants. Can I test the zipper?”
“Angel!” I whispered, looking around to make sure nobody heard. When I saw no-one, I breathed a sigh of relief.

He laughed, though. “You worry too much. Who gives a fuck what they think?”
“Uh, me. My family would kill me if they found out.”
“Elise didn’t. By the way, Drew wants her number. But anyway, what makes you think they would?”

“My mother is the most religious person on the planet. She hates anything that’s against the Bible. She hates gays.”

“What, even more religious than your girlfriend?” He sneered with that last word. I know he did. I chose to ignore it while he continued. “I know she hates the fact that I fuck dudes, too.”

“Yes, more than Isabelle. I think Isabelle only doesn’t like you because she thinks you like me. It doesn’t have anything to do with you being gay.”
“I do like you…”
“Y- Oh.”

I looked down at the ground as my cheeks started to heat up.
“Do you like me?”
“I-I,” I stuttered.
“Do you?”
“I- yes, but this…this…you and me…it can’t happen. I’ll lose everything. My friends, my family. Everyone will hate me… I can’t handle that, I just can’t. I’m sorry, Angel.”
“You do like me though, right?”

I nodded. I felt miserable.
“That’s good enough for now,” he said, and lifted my chin with his fingers so I could look him in the eyes. “Hey, it’s okay, Micah. I can wait. I’m patient.”

I sighed, “It’s not that simple.”
“What isn’t?” a new voice joined in abruptly. I whirled around. Angel whispered “fuck” under his breath.
“Isabelle! How long have you been standing there?” I almost shouted.
“I just got here. What isn’t that simple?”
I breathed easier, but struggled to come up with an answer. Luckily, Angel saved me.
“Our biology assessment. Figuring out how…uh…erections happen isn’t that simple.”
“Yeah. That,” I confirmed, shooting Angel a grateful look and smiling at Isabelle.

She frowned slightly, but shrugged. “Alright… so anyway, what are you doing on the weekend? There’s awesome event on at youth group this week.”
“Yawn, count me out. I need a smoke. Later, bitches,” Angel said, then slapped my butt and walked off smirking. I blushed again.
“He’s kind of a creep, Micah. I don’t know how you put up with doing an assessment with him,” Isabelle said as she took my hand and began to lead me into the school.
“He isn’t that bad,” I mumbled.
“So what do you think? Want to come? To youth group?”

I was silent for a moment, before I decided to tell her the truth. Or at least part of it.

“I can’t, I’m grounded for two weeks.”
“What?! Why?”
“I snuck out of the house with Elise last night and my parents found out.”
“Oh, my goodness. Why would you do something like that?” It was obvious she disapproved.
“I don’t know… I just felt like it.” That was a massive lie but there was no way she was going to know I went out to make out with Angel.
“Hmph,” she huffed, and let go of my hand.
“I’m sorry, Izzy.”
“Are you?” she said, and marched off.

What’s that supposed to mean? Oh, my gosh. Does she know that I'm lying? How long was she standing there for before? Crap.