Our Rebel Love Song

My cell phone rang. I fell off my bed trying to reach for my phone on the nightstand, but I still answered in time. It was Ash.
“Hey, Ash. What’s up?” I said happily.
“Um. I need to talk to you.” That tone of voice gave me butterflies. I thought that I should just stay home, pretend that I’m sick. I shouldn’t have answered his call so happily and I would’ve been able to tell him that I couldn’t make it.
“Why?” I asked.
“I-I just need to talk to you about something.”
“Is it something serious?” He sighed.
“It’s just-I’ll tell you when you get here.”
“Okay, when do you want me to come out?”
“Right now.”
“Okay.” I told him. “I’ll see you then.” I tried to say in a way to cheer him up.
“Bye.” It obviously didn’t work. I hung up the phone and got off the floor. I guess I should get ready, I thought to myself.
I just got my sweatshirt and put it on to leave. I was looking at it as I walked out of my room. It wasn’t a black sweatshirt, it was navy blue. This entire time I thought that I had bought a black sweatshirt when it has always been navy blue.
“Andy?” Mom asked from the kitchen. I looked up to see her sleeves rolled up and hands in the sink, washing dishes.
“Yeah?”
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I’m going to talk to Ash.” she nodded.
“Okay, but you need to be back by midnight.” I rolled my eyes.
“I’m not going to be out that long, mom.”
I walked out with the door closing behind me. I picked up the pace so that I could get there faster. I just wanted to know what a wrong and it was really starting to worry me. Especially since I have a mind that likes to trail off to crazy impossible thoughts.
I was about to walk up to the door when Ash snapped to get my attention. I looked over and saw him. He signaled to come over to him. So I walked over to him and asked him why he was so upset.
“So....I finally told my mom and John, my step dad, that I was gay, okay?” We walked together onto the path in the woods. “But they weren’t too happy about it. John told me that he wouldn’t accept a son who was gay. So my mom, being the woman she is, agreed with him.” He sat on the ground when we were far enough in for no one to see us. “She’s....I just hate that woman!” he yelled. “She can’t stand up for herself and only agrees with what my step dad says. I can’t stand her.” I sat in his lap.
“Maybe you should talk to her in private then.” He shook his head.
“But I don’t want to have a relationship with her if she’s going to be like that, Andy.”
“Then why would you care what she thinks about you?”
“Because I know that she’d accept me if she just left him. Then she would be honest with me. She’d be honest with Tora. She’d do what she wants to do, but she can’t do that with this stupid asshole living with us.” I didn’t know that he had such family problems.
“Wow, Ash. I didn’t know that it would be that tough on you. I didn’t know you were having a tough time with your family.” He yelled.
“I know I shouldn’t have told them. This is all my fault. I’m the reason why they hate me. I should’ve known that I wasn’t going to be accepted by them. How could I be so stupid to think that they’d make an exception for me. I’m just another fag that they’d never love if they had to.” I hugged him.
“Hey, don’t call yourself that. You’re not and it’s not your fault, Ash. It’s not your fault that you have an ignorant step dad and a mom who’s afraid to disagree with him. It’s awful how your own mother would choose your step dad over her own son. You’re just caught in the middle, but it’s not your loss, it’s theirs because they’re going to lose an amazing son and a wonderful boy.” I watched a tear roll down his cheek.
“Do you really think that I’m amazing and wonderful, Andy?” I nodded.
“Of course.” It was so nice to see him show some emotion to me, to show his soft side which I really haven’t seen much.
“But I’m not worth it.” I sighed.
“Well you’re worth me. And you deserve to have parents that love you, but you can’t do much more if they don’t.”
“But I don’t deserve you, Andy. I’m so worthless. I deserve to have parents that hate me, I deserve what I’m getting because my whole life has just been a lie. I’ve had to hide my true self to everyone because I know that they’d just forget about me or hate me for it. That’s why I don’t deserve you. I’m living in a lie and you have to be part of it and you don’t deserve that.” I hugged him.
“Ash. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have told anyone my secret. I’d still be freaking out every time someone got suspicious and I would’ve lost Dylan along the way. I probably would’ve had problems with my parents and I’d hate myself. You remind me not to hate myself.” He shook his head again and gave me a smile.
“I love you so much, Andy. You never fail to make me feel better.” I kissed him and held his hands. Then hours of just sitting there in the woods, talking about anything and everything started. Then we heard yelling which really bummed me out.
“Ashley fucking Purdy! Get in this fucking house you worthless boy!” we heard.
“Oh shit.” he muttered to himself. I stood up.
“Who was that?” I already knew who it was, but I just felt like I should ask.
“John. He must’ve started talking about me with mom again.” Now I was just confused.
“What?” I asked.
“They must’ve started talking about me and he’s just had enough of me. We need to leave or something.” He said. I watched him as he stood there and thought about what he was going to do.
“Ashley! Get over here you faggot! You’re leaving! Come and pack all of your shit!” We could hear the yells getting louder. He took my hand and we started walking deeper into the woods.
“Okay. So we just need to hide or something.”
“What do you mean?” I yelled. He covered my mouth with his other hand.
“Shhhhhhh! We don’t want him to hear you! I know that this is a lot right now, Andy. You weren’t supposed to know about all of this.”
“What’s happening?” I whispered. “Why do we need to hide?”
“Because we’re gonna get the shit beaten out of us if he finds us. He does some crazy stuff when he’s angry.” My stomach was in knots and now I was convinced that John was going to find us.
“Get over here now! I’m gonna find you!” John yelled. Oh my god! He’s so close to us! He’s gonna find us and beat us to death. I didn’t want to die this way! We started running.
“If we run far enough into the woods he’ll just give up! He’s a lazy ass man.” I couldn’t help but laugh. He was right. After only a few minutes we heard him yell,
“I’ll be waiting for you when you come home! You can’t stay in these stupid woods forever! You stupid child!” So we stopped to catch our breath.
“Oh my god, Ash. What are we going to do?” He looked at me.
“We’re gonna walk back. By the time we’re back he’ll be fine. But I’m getting Tora and we’re going to sleep in a motel room or something tonight.” We started walking back but he never let go of my hand. I stopped him.
“Wait.” I smiled at him. “You two can just sleep at my house tonight.” He seemed to like the idea.
“You’d really do that for me?” I nodded.
“Of course! You’re my boyfriend! Of course I’d let you do that!” He wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed me, Then he rested his forehead on mine.
“Thank you so much, Andy. What would I do without you?” I smiled and kissed him again.
We were almost at his house. He scoped out the place to make sure that John was outside waiting for us or something.
“We’re good.” He whispered. “What time is it?” I took out my phone.
“9:00pm.”
“Okay. Good. You don’t have to worry about him. He’s usually asleep by now.” I nodded and we walked home, but not before getting Tora, of course. I just hid outside while Ash went to get Tora. When they walked out I could see that she’d been crying. Her makeup was all runny and her eyes were puffy and red. I patted her on the back as Ash took their bags and threw them in the back of his car.
“It’s okay, Tora.” I told her. She hugged me.
“Thanks, Andy.” She gave me a smile and we got into the car together. Ash got in his car and looked pissed. I was guessing that it was because John made her cry. But it was just a guess. Looks like they were going to be staying at my house tonight.