Behind the Lines

“Hey, Journey! Hold on!” I hear behind me, as well as fast paced footsteps. It is the end of the day, and I am heading home. I turn around to find out who my stalker is, though I already know it’s Blaine, but the sound of his voice. Since our lunch last week, we have gotten closer than ever, though we just met. He is the best friend anyone can ever ask for. A little talkative and random, but definitely the best.

I stop my walking wait for Blaine to catch up with me. One of the perks of him being my new best friend is that we get to walk home together, since he lives right down the street from me.

“Hey Blaine. Long time no see, huh?” I ask sarcastically, though we just saw each other two periods ago. He is in my first and seventh period class, which is biology. After three years of having no lab partner, I finally have one.

“Yeah! We should, like, totally catch up, girl!” he imitates, forcing a high pitched tone that sounds similar to Clarissa and her friends, and animatedly waving his hands in the air. He definitely did good when he signed up for the drama class. This kid can act.

“Like, LOL,” I say back, imitating the tone.

We soon burst out laughing and stop walking while trying to catch our breaths.

“Goodness! We need to have our own comedy show,” he confesses. It is true, we both act like crazy idiots when we are around each other, but with other people, we kind of wither away in the back ground.

The other nice thing of having him as a friend is that Landon finally stopped talking to me again. I knew he was just acting, pretending he wanted to be friends again, when in reality, he wanted to be comfortable with me during the project, then ditch me when we got our grades.

Though all of this seems true, I cannot help but notice the twinge of pain in his eyes he gets when we walk past him. Like me being around Blaine hurt him.

I am brought out of my reverie when I see five guys coming towards us from my peripheral vision. And they are not just any guys, they are my brothers.

I pause in mid-stride, my eyes wide with disbelief, as they all come towards me with painful expressions on their faces. This is new. Whenever they came in front of me, all I would get was hatred. Seeing pain is slightly… weird and unusual. I can only wonder what is going on.

Just as they are about to reach Blaine and I, I grab Blaine’s hand and run for it. Far away from the school, and far away from them. I do not want to know why they want to come near me, but I did not want to take chances. They have made fun of me in front of the whole school, and I would not be shocked if they did it again. Being made fun of by your brothers is truly something. I bet that has never happened to you. Lucky bastards.

We run for a good five minutes, and when I know we have lost them, I stop running and drop Blaine’s hand. While I am panting, Blaine just stands and stares. Of course running—no sprinting—five minutes straight would not affect him. He is, of course, the soccer star of his old school, and now this school. I have never heard the striker being made fun of being gay, but I guess his school did not care that he was the reason they had a name in Princeton Review for the last two years. All that mattered was that he is gay and their goal is to make his life a living hell. Over here, he made it clear if anyone had a problem with him being gay, he would tell the main office. Our school has a zero tolerance rule for everyone…. Except me. The principal could care less if anything happened to me. In fact, I think she would be happy.

When I stop panting, Blaine pulls out a water bottle from his backpack and hands it to me. I down half of it then hand it back to Blaine, who remains silent all this while. Two minutes later, he finally breaks the silence.

“You okay?” he asks worriedly, his eyebrows creased.

“Yeah, I am fine. Just shocked they actually did not look like they wanted to kill me.” I admit.

“Then why did you run,” he asks.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” I answer, shrugging my shoulders, my eyebrows creased as I try to figure out why I exactly ran. I guess it was just out of panic. I have no clue what they all wanted with me.

“Well, I can see you are a bit shaken up… why don’t you come over to mine?” Blaine asks politely.

“Blaine I can’t. I don’t want your mom to worry about an uninvited guest,” I say. We still haven’t been to each other’s houses yet, though Blaine has a good excuse. He just moved and needed to unpack.

“Pish-posh, she loves people. And I know for a fact that she will love you!” Blaine exclaims excitedly like a little boy.

“Blaine…” I whine.

“Journey… I swear if you do not come, I will not talk to you for a week, and I will drag your butt up to your brothers,” he threatened. If there is something you should know about Blaine, is that he sticks to what he says. Lesson learned.

“Ugh… Fine,” I submit, knowing I have no option. I really do not want to talk to my brothers.

“YAY! Let’s get a move on!” he says, like we are going on a long hike.

He grabs my hand, in a friendly way, and leads the way to his house, though I know where it is, since I pass by it every day on the way to school and back.

We walk our way home, replaying inside jokes and laughing the whole way back, forgotten the panic that I had faced minutes before.

Not soon enough, though, we reach his house, and panic sinks in my veins again. I freeze on the pathway of his house, just looking at the door.

“Come on!” Blaine yells beside me. I do not respond and continue to stare at the house similar to mine.

I stare at it for a few moments, before Blaine finally bursts and throws me over his shoulder. Ugh, men.

“Put me down, you jackass! I swear, you will be dead when I get my hands on you!” I threaten as I thrash around in his body, hitting his butt that was in my face.

“That will be quite the thing to live for, don’t you think?” Blaine ponders, amusement strong in his voice.

“If you live, you dimwit!” I yell again.

“Jeez. No need to get your panties in a twist,” he says, imitating a British accent.

“PUT ME DOWN!” I say, just as we reach the front door.

“Man, what do you eat? You are so heavy,” he jokes, taking a key out his pocket with his free hand that was not locked around the back of my knees to hold me, while I hit his back again and call him a jerk. He laughs and puts the key in the keyhole and pushes the door wide open. A strong aura of homemade cookies pulls me out of my frantic state of mind, as the smell has me wondering about the good times.

Blaine puts me down once we are safely inside his home, and there is no chance of me escaping.

“Blaine? Is that you?” a soothing females voice says from what I think is the kitchen.

“Yes mom, it’s me! And I have a friend over,” Blaine says, taking his shoes off by the door and dumping his bag along with it. I follow suit as a gorgeous, petite woman that strongly resembles Blaine, comes out of the supposed kitchen and wipes her hand on her apron. By her aura, you could tell that she is a very kind woman, and by her face, you can tell that she is a very lively woman, just like Blaine, though getting older by her visible laugh lines.

“Hi sweetie. You must be Journey. Blaine just can’t stop talking about you,” she says in a very sweet, motherly voice that fits her perfectly.

“I hope everything he said was positive,” I say nervously, shaking her hand as she holds it out for me.

“Why, I don’t think Blaine has ever had such a friend as you. And even by looking at you, you seem like such a nice girl,” she admits, smiling wider, if possible.

“Oh, I’m not that special, Mrs. Peirce,” I reply.

“Please, call me Elaine. Mrs. Peirce makes me feel old,” she humorously demands.

“No problem, Elaine,” I say, testing out the new name, noticing it rhymes with Blaine. For some reason, being around Blaine and his mother made me feel more at home than my own home. I can already tell that I am going to be hanging out here more than I do at home. In fact, I would not call my home a home. Just a house where I put my things in and sleep in.

“Alright you kids. I put cookies in the oven which should be done in fifteen minutes. Why don’t you both hang around for a while, while they bake. I’ll call you when they’re done. Oh, and Blaine?” Elaine asks.

“Yeah mom?”

“Your sisters are coming home tonight, so please tidy the house a little. Your father should be coming home from work in a few hours,” Elaine explains, retreating back to the kitchen, where she is probably making more food for Blaine’s sisters. I heard one is in college and coming for break, while the other is married and has two kids. Blaine is lucky to have such an accepting family.

“Sure thing mom,” Blaine replies, taking my hand and leading me to the backyard.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“The trampoline.”

“You have a trampoline? You never told me that!”

“You never asked,” he counters simply and I shrug. True, I never did ask him.

We step out of the house, barefoot and all, walking along the lush grass to his trampoline, which is huge. I have never been on a trampoline, but I can tell that this is going to be fun. My smile amplifies as I climb onto it, following Blaine, who is already jumping on it, smiling like a six year old on meth.

I start bouncing on it casually. I mean, what if our weights combined make it get a hole in it, and then we both crash to the ground. I mean, I’ve seen it happen on television shows.

Blaine seems to notice my hesitation before telling me to have fun, and proving it will not break when he does a flip with a hard landing. Okay… time to have fun.

I start to jump higher and higher, adding tricks here and there, and laughing alongside Blaine, who is doing the same. It seems to be ages before we both stop from exhaustion and lay down on the trampoline, looking at the sky breathing heavily. This may sound stupid, but I do not think I have had this much fun for an incredibly long time.

We rest for a few minutes, until Elaine calls us inside, informing us that the cookies are ready. We jump off the trampoline, no pun intended, and race to the kitchen. It smells even better now, in the kitchen, as we see Elaine putting the cookies on a plate. She even takes out two glasses and pours milk in them for us to drink. While I hesitantly take a cookie, and dip it in the milk, Blaine eats two before I am halfway done with my first.

“Elaine, these are so good,” I moan, taking another bite of this heavenly goodness.

“Thank you dear,” she simply says.

I finish my first cookie, and my hand reaches for another, before I pull it back. I did not want to impose and steal any more food, especially since I just met Blaine’s mother. Blaine, as well as Elaine, notice my hesitation.

“Did you not like it, sweetie?” Elaine asks, a slight frown on her face.

“No, no. It’s just that I feel like I’m stealing something that’s not mine, plus I don’t want to impose,” I admit, feeling slightly embarrassed as my cheeks redden a little.

“You aren’t imposing. If anything, you make my little boy happy just by being his friend. You are welcome in this house whenever you want. Feel at home,” Elaine explains. Wow, she likes me more than my own mom.

“Thank you,” I say.

“It’s absolutely no problem,” Elaine says smiling.

“Hey mom. Since it’s Friday, can Journey sleep over? That way she can meet everyone else. Plus, she’s kind of avoiding her brothers right now, and as much as she will say no, I know she doesn’t want to go home tonight,” Blaine tells, smiling in my direction.

“Of course she can. It’s no problem. Sweetie, you can borrow some of Blaine’s sister’s clothes. I am pretty sure they will fit you, that way you won’t have to go home. We also have extra toothbrushes collected from dentist visits, so you can help yourself to that,” Elaine says immediately. I love how she does not ask me why I am avoiding my brothers. I can tell she wanted to, but I know she wants some things to remain personal.

“Thank you so much,” I say again, a new twinkle in my eye. No offense mom, but I like Elaine much better.

Elaine simply smiles and exits the kitchen, probably to clean the house. We should probably help her, especially since she is letting me stay in her house.

“Now that that is solved, let’s eat more cookies,” Blaine exclaims, reaching out for some cookies, and handing me some as well.

We eat away, enjoying each other’s company, as usual. Finally, after five cookies and two cups of milk later, we get up and help Elaine clean the house. At first, Elaine was kind of hesitant about me cleaning their house, but in the end I won, saying that I would feel guilty if I did not. And as much as it was a chore, all three of us had fun doing it. We put the radio on, and much to my amazement, Elaine knew every single mainstream song, like Katy Perry and Usher, and sung along with us. Within an hour, they whole house was clean, and we all sat on the couch from working and dancing and singing.

Right on time, the front door opens, revealing a tall man with dirty blonde hair and slight build, come in the house with a briefcase in his hand. He is wearing a suit and tie, and though he looks tired from a long day at work, he still has energy left with the way he smiles like nothing bothers him. I immediately know that that is Blaine’s dad. Like his wife, I can already tell he is a friendly man.

He notices us all sitting on the couch and walks over after dumping his stuff by the door, much like Blaine and I did when we came from school.

Elaine gets up from the couch and walks over to her husband to give him a little peck as a welcome home greeting. You can tell that even in this age, their love is strong and evident. Blaine and his sisters have lovely parents.

He notices me sitting on the couch next to Blaine and decides to introduce himself.

“Hello there. I’m Drake. And who might you be?” he asks politely coming over to sit on the love seat with his wife in tow.

“Hi. My name is Journey,” I say shyly.

“Ah! So you are Journey. I’ve heard lots of great things about you from Blaine. Thank you for befriending him and not judging him,” he says, genuinely happy to meet me, much like his wife.

“Oh, Blaine’s the one that’s amazing. Before him, I’ve haven’t really had any friends,” I admit, looking down on my lap.

“I’m shocked,” he says, “you seem like a great, beautiful girl. Someone like you should be having tons of boyfriends,” he says, in a joking way, but his words are honest.

“No one really likes me in this town. They all think I did something, when I never did it,” I admit.

“Well these people are obviously dimwits if they don’t know the truth and are already judging you. I’m glad Blaine hasn’t befriended them, cause then we never would have met you,” he says smiling.

I do not say anything, but smile back, glad that at least this family understands me. They do not ask any more questions about this topic, since they can tell by my expression I do not like talking about this.

We talk a bit more about other, casual topics like school and this town, having a great time. Drake is as fun as Blaine and Elaine. He really is a joker, like Blaine, but knows when to stop as to not sound stupid. While we continue to talk, Elaine retreats to the kitchen to make dinner for us. I offered to help, but Elaine says cooking in the kitchen is off limits to everyone, except her, then proceeded to tell me that every time someone would come in the kitchen, it would turn into an all out food fight, and she would be the one to clean everything up.

We talk for a good hour before the bell rings and Elaine rushes out of the kitchen to open the door. She opens the door to reveal two women, almost identical to Elaine and Blaine, with traces of Drake, and a young man with a baby car seat in the other, and a small child behind his leg. You can tell Blaine and Drake are both excited, smiling up at their family.

Elaine is jumping up and down in happiness as she greets both her kids, her son-in-law, and her grandkids. They all enter inside and take their shoes off by the front door. The two ladies come rushing in once they see Drake and Blaine in the living room, and hug them both tight, as the men return the hugs. Blaine proceeds to greet his brother-in-law, doing the weird hug thing boys do, and then greets his niece and nephew, Drake in tow. The little girl that was hiding behind her dad’s legs, is now in full view, jumping up and down in front of Blaine, as he laughs and finally picks her up and spins her around. He then passes her on to her grandpa, who does the same, while Blaine says hi to his nephew.

After a long meet and greet, the family calms down and sits in the living room. I did not feel like intervening in their reunion, so I simply sit still and watch. But now, all eyes are on me, and all is silent.

The younger sister finally breaks the silence.

“Hi! I’m Claire! Blaine’s sister! Who are you?” She introduces and asks politely.

“I’m Journey. Nice to meet you,” I say shyly. I guess it takes a while for me to warm up to people. But this family is genuinely nice, so it does not take too long.

“Don’t be shy! We don’t bite. I’m Marissa, by the way, and this is my husband, Gale, and my daughter, Grace, and my son, Michael,” Marissa introduces, obviously noticing my shyness.

“I hope you don’t bite. Wouldn’t want to get an infection,” I joke, making everyone in the room laugh.

“I like you! Even though we just met! I officially call you my new best friend!” Claire says, jumping up and down in her seat. Jeez, is everyone in this house hyperactive?

“HEY! She’s my best friend!” Blaine counters, arguing with his sister already, as they get into a mini spat about who will be my best friend.

“Wow, you’re popular already,” Gale says, speaking for the first time, as the two siblings fight it out.

“I can only hope they will be alright,” I say, as they yells get louder between them.

“Don’t worry. They are real competitive with each other. Always looking to get in the last word,” Marissa explains, rolling her eyes at her younger sibling’s childishness.

As they continue to fight, Grace hops on over to me, her gorgeous brown, wavy hair bouncing along with her.

“Hi. My name is Grace! Who are you,” she asks innocently in the cutest three year old voice I have ever heard.

“Hi Grace! I’m Journey,” I say, shaking her little hand when she hands it to me. I think this the most polite three year old I’ve ever met.

“Will you be my new best friend?” she asks innocently, smiling and showing off her little teeth, two of which were missing in the top.

“I would love to be your best friend,” I say, pulling her onto my lap and smiling wide. I have always loved kids, and I’m really good with them.

“Hey guys. No point fighting whoever gets to claim her. Grace got to her,” Gale says, laughing at the expressions of the dumbstruck terrible twos, who glance at Grace and me continuously, before letting out a defeated sigh and falling back into their seats, mumbling how they cannot believe they lost to a three year old.

“Come on kids, dinner is ready,” Elaine says, guiding us to the dining room.

Here, we find a variety of food. There is salad, bread rolls, lasagna, mashed potatoes, chicken, and even chocolate cake for later. We all claim a chair and dig in. Conversation strikes like a match, and no there is no silence for even a second. They all include me in their conversations, asking for opinions, telling stories, and asking questions. For once, I truly felt like I belonged somewhere.

After dinner, all us girls help clean up the table, while the men go to the living room to chat for a while. After that, Elaine and Drake head off to bed, but not before showing everyone their rooms.

Claire, Blaine, and I decide to have a sleepover in the living room, and Elaine gives us sleeping bags and pillows, while Claire hands me over some night clothes and finds a toothbrush. We do our nightly routine before heading back to the living room, only to see Blaine picking up some movies for us to watch. Unfortunately, they are all scary movies, much to Claire’s and mine’s demise.

We spend most the night watching movies like Nightmare on Elm’s Street and Prom Night and Paranormal Activity. We joke around, throwing candy and popcorn at each other, though we had already brushed, but it did not matter. We did not sleep until four in the morning, when all of us were too pooped out to play and watch anymore.

And while we all slept, I thought about how things were finally looking up in my favor.