A Twist in my Story

I swallowed nervously as Zeke pulled into the school parking lot, my eyes flickering towards Izzy who sat in the front, passenger seat, bouncing happily as she pointed towards a group of girls that stood not too far away from where we were, waving excitedly towards her as she grinned and waved back. I bit my lip as the car came to a halt, Izzy almost instantly scampering out of the car as she said ‘see you later Zeke,’ and ran over to the girls with her bag hanging loosely off of one of her shoulders.
Both Zeke and Izzy refused to speak to me ever since yesterday afternoon, apparently I wasn’t forgiven for standing up for gays and to them, that was just as bad as being gay. I honestly didn’t see what was so bad about liking the same sex, but maybe it was normal for people to hate other people for something they obviously couldn’t help.
“Get out of the car, I need to lock it,” Zeke hissed, glaring at me from the outside.
A blush rose to my cheeks before I grabbed my black bag and bolted out of the car, looking at Zeke expectantly, but he never spoke again. He just simply locked the car and walked away towards the school building without another word. I let out a defeated sigh as I tugged my bag onto my shoulders and headed towards the large school building, my heart rate picking up as nerves racked throughout my body.
My cheeks continued to redden as I walked past Izzy and her friends, her friends cat-calling towards me, making me pick up my pace to a fast-walk. I continued to stare down at my shoes as I wandered forwards, ignoring all comments that the students made, only picking up my head when I had arrived at the school entrance.
I took a step into the warm, crowded atmosphere of the school corridors as I continued to ignore the murmurs that broke out when people spotted me. Biting my lip, I drew out a school map, timetable and another sheet that held the basic information of this school out of my bag before zipping my bag back up and throwing it back over my shoulders. Looking over my pages, I tried to work out where my first class were until there was a light tap on my shoulder.
“Hello, I’m Rose and I’m a part of the welcoming committee, you must be Caleb, right?” Rose asked, once I had spun around to face the short, strawberry blonde girl.
I nodded with a shy smile as the girl beamed back in reply, showing off her bright white teeth that were covered with purple braces. The girl must have been a head shorter than me and had a face covered in freckles.
“Do you need any help with anything? I could help you find your classes if you would like,” Rose said with a kind smile.
“T-that would be helpful,” I replied, before staring down at my feet.
“Ooh, is that an Australian accent? I love Australians!” Rose exclaimed, punching the air excitedly before grabbing the papers out of my hands. Rose’s face changed almost instantly from the happy, excited smile to a serious, professional look, “Hmm, you have form, Biology and Geography with me, the rest you have all by yourself, but your first class is on the way to my first class so I’ll show you the way and meet you outside of your class and we’ll work the day like that, okay?” Rose asked, glancing sideways at me as I nodded while the school bell let out a loud ring making me jump a bit as Rose giggled at my panicked face.
“Come on,” Rose said before she tugged on my shirt and lead me towards our form room.

The rest of the day passed quickly and it wasn’t long until I was sitting on a bench outside with Rose. Rose continued to babble away, a smile always on her face as she talked about a family trip she had gone on when she was about six years old.
Rose was a girl that had grown on me throughout the day. Her face was always filled with a happy, bubbly expression while she always seemed to babble on about something that was completely different to the last subject. I no longer stuttered around her and she was just generally a person that I could easily get along with without worrying about her taking advantage of me, in fact, she was quite the opposite.
Already today, Rose had shared her lunch with me, helped me find my classes, throw herself in front of the school bully, Damien and his two friends Josh and Liam so they wouldn’t hurt me and she has also promised to introduce me to her best friend and sister, Lily and yet, she has never once asked for something back in return.
“Caleb? Hey, Caleb?” I heard Rose ask, making my head snap in her direction, away from the abandoned football oval.
“Yeah?”
“Oh, well, I was wondering if you had any siblings,” Rose repeated with a warm smile.
“Oh, no, but I do have two cousins that I’m living with if they count as anything,” I replied, returning the smile.
“Oh really, do they go here? Who are they?” Rose asked as she began to bounce in her seat with excitement.
“Zeke and Izzy Smith,” I answered, watching as Rose deflated, her face revealing a look of disgust.
“Them? You’re related to those horrible people? Oh, uh, I mean, nice people,” Rose replied as she bit her lip worried.
“What makes them horrible?”
“They’re self-absorbed, they would back stab anyone, they’re complete arseholes, they’re homophobic and the list goes on, they are just mean people Caleb,” Rose replied, shaking her head with disgust.
“So, hating gays isn’t a bad thing? I mean, I didn’t think it was, but as I told you, I’m not good with all of this social stuff.”
“Oh of course not! In fact, my brother’s gay and my sister’s a Lesbian,” Rose said, shrugging her shoulders as she packed her lunch box back up. “You should meet them, they’d like you, especially Alex.”
“Alex?”
“My brother, silly,” she replied, ruffling my short hair.
“I miss my long hair,” I muttered, running my hands through my hair.
“Why’d you cut it then?” Rose asked as she placed her lunch box in her bag to look over at me with a curious expression.
“I—”
My father gripped onto my ruffled, messy, black hair and used it to tug me off of the ground, leaving me to grope onto his hands for support so I wouldn’t go crashing to the ground with pain running through my weak legs and bald head.
“Let go you fucking fag,” I heard him say as he swung me towards the wall, my grip loosening as he yanked half a head-full of hair out of my head before throwing it to the ground.
“I had no choice,” I murmured, trying to hold back the tears while Rose just stared at me with wide eyes.
“Uh, I didn’t mean to upset you! I’m sorry for whatever I did, please, just, forgive me!” Rose exclaimed, biting the inside of her cheek nervously.
“It wasn’t you,” I mumbled as a loud chime was heard from the bell attached to the wall above us.
“Oh! Art and Drama for Mister Caleb Lyon,” Rose said in a sing-song voice as we rose to our feet, trying to raise the saddened atmosphere.
I gave her a small smile as we picked up our bags and made our way to my Art class.

The rest of the day went slowly, and I was truthfully glad the day was over when both Rose and I were skipping happily towards the car park, ignoring the odd stares that everyone was throwing at us. I chuckled happily before I pulled us to a halt once we had reached the gravelled car park, none of them holding any cars that I recognised. I bit my lip as I glanced around once again before sighing defeated and placing my head in my hands.
I felt Rose rub my back sympathetically, most likely understanding exactly what had just happened. Izzy and Zeke left me, they left! I can’t believe they went home without me. Letting out a frustrated sigh, I pulled my face out of my hands and turned to Rose, her instantly pulling me into a hug.
“I have no ride home and I can’t walk, I don’t know the way,” I mumbled sadly into Rose’s ear.
“Come home with me, I mean, surely your Aunt and Uncle will understand the circumstances, and if you are really worried, I’ll call Billy, he’s our lawyer," Rose said, pulling back from the hug to look me straight in the eyes, he hands placed on my shoulders.
“Are you sure?” I asked uncertain, “How would your parent’s take having a person you’ve only known for several hours entering their house?”
“Oh, they aren’t home and my siblings will be home—”
A loud honk of a car interrupted Rose as a blue four-wheeled drive stopped in front of us, Xander sitting in the front seat with a smirk.
“Rosie and Caleb sitting in the tree, k-i-s-s—”
“Finish that song and you won’t be able to pee for a week,” Rose growled as she climbed into the front.
“Jeez, that’s not very kind,” Xander muttered before he glanced over to me, once again, his eyes travelling over my body. “So, Caleb, how are the cousins treating you?”
“A-alright,” I stuttered with a blush.
“You know each other?” Rosie asked apprehensively.
“Yeah, we met at the Ice Cream Parlour, and let me tell you, Caleb was looking sexy that day too.”
“Well, you’ll be able to stare more at his sexy ass tonight. He’s staying over, his cousins left without him.”
“God I hate them, how can you stand living with those two horrible people? I mean their parents are the nicest, sweetest people but them, themselves are just plain rotten. But anyways, please, just climb in the back.”
“T-thank you,” I stuttered back, my cheeks reddening ever further as I pulled the back door open and climbed in before closing it softly behind me.