Unintended Love

I walked away from Zack and back to Carly who was staring a hole in my skin. I took her by the arm and we walked into the cafeteria. I immediately spotted Gabe in the crowd.
“Hey, I’m going to talk to Eric.” said Carly.
I looked to the left and spotted Eric with his secondary friends. Carly walked over to them and I kept walking towards Gabe, who was waiting in the corner for me. I went to join him. We stood inches away from each other, and he had his hand on my waist. We stood for a while, looking at each other before we said anything.
“Hey,” I finally said.
“Hey,” he said back. “Sorry I couldn’t call. It was sort of hectic. Will got hurt at his soccer game.”
“Oh man. Is he okay?”
“Yeah, but he broke his arm.”
“Well I’m glad he’s okay.”
“It’s cool. But I just wanted to tell you that’s why I didn’t call.”
“No, it’s okay. I’m not gonna get mad just cause you didn’t call.”
Gabe smiled leaned in to kiss me. Then, he rested his back against the wall. I was still in front of him and he still had his hand on my waist.
“Wanna get breakfast?” he asked.
“Kay,” I smiled and started to kiss at his neck. “I could just eat you…”
Gabe laughed as I kissed at his neck. “I love you,” he said to me.

* * *

As I walked out of my class for lunch, I spotted Zack and Amy. They were walking towards the cafeteria. They held hands and Amy had her head on Zack’s shoulder. I knew I had no reason to be, but I was a little jealous. Not that I wanted to be with Zack, just jealous that he chose her before he chose me.
Was I not good enough to choose? He did say that he loved me. Was that all a lie? No, it couldn’t be a lie. I’ve seen how much he loves me. He’s practically always in tears whenever he tells me. I sped up and walked passed them. I couldn’t watch them any longer.
“Hey, Rain!”
He called me, but I could barely hear it in the roar of the crowd. I turned around. He’d broken hands with Amy.
“Hey Zack.”
“Zack, are we gonna eat lunch?” she asked. “I’m starving.”
“Can’t I talk a minute?” asked Zack.
“With this guy? What for?” asked Amy. “He’s a weirdo.”
“Hey, lay off of that. He’s a cool guy.”
She looked at him with her brows turned in.
“Look, I’ve gotta go,” I said.
“Wait, wanna eat lunch with us?” Zack asked.
“What’s up with you, Zack? First you invite them to your party. Now you’re asking this guy to eat lunch. He doesn’t belong at our table, Zack.”
Zack put his head down.
“I don’t need to eat lunch with you, Zack. Contrary to what you might think, you’re not my only friend.”

During lunch, I asked Eric if he wanted to hang out at my house after school. He followed me in his car to my house. We got off and made ourselves comfortable. My house was empty as usual.
“So, you want something to drink?” I asked
He looked so nervous, like he could blow at any minute.
“What’s this about Rain?” asked Eric.
“What do you mean?”
“Why do you all of a sudden wanna hang out?”
His forehead was sweating and his hands were noticeably shaking. I felt really horrible for what I was about to do. But it was the right thing. Right? I sighed before I opened my mouth to say anything.
“Okay, so…lately I’ve been noticing a lot about you.”
“L-Like wha-what?” Eric’s stuttering was actually kind of cute.
“I’ve noticed the way you look at me.” I said. “I know you have a crush on me, Eric.”
“Psh. I don’t have a crush on you.”
He was lying so badly that even he knew it. He sighed and put his head down in shame.
“Am I really that obvious?” he asked.
“No,” I smiled. “It’s just something I felt.”
“So, now are you gonna tell me that you don’t feel the same about me? Well, you don’t have to. I already know that you love Gabe.”
“Look, I just don’t want you to get hurt.” I said.
He seemed surprised. “Really?”
“Yeah…you’re one of my best friends. I just want you to be happy.”
“Well, don’t worry. I’m totally over it now. What good is a secret crush if it isn’t secret?”
I smiled. “You’ve got a point. So…you still wanna hang out. My parents shouldn’t be home for hours. We could waste our brain cells playing video games or something.”
“Rain, let me tell you the number one rule of getting over a crush.”
I nodded.
“Don’t spend time with him.” he said, getting off of the couch.
“Right,” I said. “You’ve got a point there too.”
I walked Eric out and watched as he drove away. I walked back into my house. It was super quiet and super empty. I decided to call Gabe. He was on his way as soon as I told him that the house was empty.
Waiting for him to arrive was agonizing. I wanted to be alone with him again so badly that it hurt. I don’t know if the feeling was genuine or I just wanted to make up for being with Zack. Obviously I wasn’t trying to make it up to Gabe since he didn’t know about it. It was more like I had to prove to myself that I still loved Gabe. And I knew. I knew once I opened the door and saw his smile. I knew that I still loved him.
“It’s so good to see you,” I said.
I couldn’t stop staring at his beauty; his soft, pink skin and his plump, moist lips. I loved the way his nose rounds at the tip instead of pointing a little like everyone else’s.
“Are you gonna invite me in or what?” he asked.
“Oh…Right.”
As he walked in beside me, we sneaked in a kiss. I closed the front door and we walked inside, holding hands. We sat down together. I sat towards him with my legs folded under me. I took his hand and I kissed the top.
“I love you, Gabe. You know that right?”
“You tell me every day. How could I not?” He smiled. “And I love you, too.”
He leaned in and kissed me with those soft, moist lips and tingles traveled through my body. I leaned on him, resting my head in his chest. He wrapped his arms around me. What I feel when I’m around him is indescribable. I get this feeling in my stomach that I’ve never had before. I guess it’s like butterflies. I could probably stay snuggled up to him for hours.
“What do you think about me getting a haircut?” I asked him.
“What? I love your hair. How short are you talking?”
“Pretty short,” I said. “I’ve had it like this for a while. I’m kind of getting tired of it.”
“Well, I guess it’s your hair. You can do what you want with it.”
“Good, because I think I’m gonna cut it today.” I said. “You wanna come with?”
“I don’t know if I can watch that.” Gabe held me tighter. “Your hair is too beautiful to cut.”
“I thought you didn’t mind.”
“I don’t.” said Gabe. “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t think your hair is beautiful. Anyways, why are we talking about your hair? How’re things with your dad?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since Saturday morning.” I said. “I guess you could say that they’ve gotten worse.”
“I’m sorry, kid.”
I sat up quickly. “What did you just call me?”
“Kid…why?” he asked.
“Don’t call me that.” I said.
“Um…okay…I’m sorry…”
“No, don’t be sorry,” I said, putting my hand on his chest. “Zack calls me that.”
“Oh…you know…sometimes I just wanna kill him for what he did to you, but on the other hand…if he didn’t…I wouldn’t have you.”
“That’s right,” I said, kissing his neck.
“So…we’re alone right?” he asked.
“Yeah…” I said with a smirk on my face.
“So what do you wanna do?” he asked.
“I have a few ideas.” I smiled again.
I stood up, took him by the hand and led him upstairs to my bedroom. I closed the door and sat him on my bed, where I then straddled him.
“Ooh, I like this idea.”
He grabbed my waist and I bent down to kiss him. We kissed and I had my hands on his face. His soft skin felt so good in my hands. My hands moved down to his neck and I could feel his racing pulse in my fingers. I had just started to get turned on, when suddenly we weren’t alone anymore.
“Oh, oh shit!”
I looked back and saw Jenna covering her eyes.
“Jen! Go away!” I got off of Gabe and stood in front of him.
“Sorry,” she said with her eyes still covered and leaving the room.
Gabe stood next to me and we walked out of the room to find her waiting in the hallway. The three of us walked downstairs.
“Don’t you know how to knock, Jenna?” I asked.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you had Gabe over.” said Jenna.
We congregated in the kitchen. Gabe and Jenna sat on the stools at the counter and I got stood on the other end, after I got a cold bottle of water from the fridge.
“Why are you here anyway?” I asked.
“Mom called me and said she wouldn’t be home until late and dad…well, he’s staying at a hotel right now.”
“He can’t even be around me.” I shook my head.
“Look, dad’ll come around. He’s just going through a tough time.”
“Well, I don’t need a babysitter.” I said. “You can leave.”
“I’m just here to take you out to dinner. You need to eat.” said Jenna. “Gabe, you come if you want.”
“We have food here, Jenna. You don’t need to take us out.”
“Yeah, I gotta get home.” said Gabe. “I had fun.”
He got up and kissed me on the cheek. I walked him to the door. I walked back into the kitchen and Jenna had a giant smile on her face.
“What?” I asked innocently.
“That was some pretty intense stuff upstairs.” She still had the smile on her face.
“What, you don’t do that kind of stuff with Mark or whatever his name is?”
“Are you having sex with Gabe?”
“Ha, like that’s any of your business.”
“Oh my gosh, you are!”
I rolled my eyes. “So, what’s the big deal?”
She calmed down. “Look, in all seriousness, I just want you to be careful. Okay?”
“I am. I love, Gabe.”
“Now what about Zack?”
“Please don’t. I just want to forget about my thing with him. We’re friends now and that’s all we’re going to be.”
“Who are you trying to convince, here, Rain?”
“Jenna, you can leave. I’ll be okay alone. I’ll just make sandwich for dinner.”
“Are you sure?” asked Jenna.
“Jenna, you ruined my time with Gabe. The last thing I wanna do is go out to dinner.”
Jenna sighed and finally agreed to leave. I showed her out. This time, I didn’t watch her leave. I just closed the door. I walked over to the living room and sat on the couch, then grabbed the television remote to watch some TV. I turned it to some random crime mystery drama and made myself comfortable. I wished that Gabe was still there.
As I sat watching television, there was a frantic knock at the front door. I was a little scared, but I walked to the door. I looked through the peephole. It was my dad. My first thought was: where is his key? My second thought was: How did he get here if he’s obviously drunk? I opened the door. The first thing he did was push me inside.
“Dad, what the hell!”
“You little faggot! Be a man!”
He pushed me again. I tried to get him to stop, but he kept going on about he was gonna beat it out of me if I had to. He would scream ‘Be a Man!’ over and over again. The next thing I knew, he was punching me.
I fell to the floor of the foyer and he was on top of me. He started to punch me in my ribs. The pain was so high that I couldn’t even scream. The last two punches were to my face and that’s all I remember.
The next thing I remember is my mom. She was waking me up, screaming, asking me who did this to me. I started to roll over. It was so painful that I just fell again. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small pool of blood beside me. The overhead light of the foyer was shining in my eye. I heard my mom on the phone with 911. I tried to call out to stop her, but I couldn’t. It hurt my ribs to talk.
My mom got off the phone with 911 and then came and sat next to me. She was stroking my hair slowly, telling me that it was going to be okay.
Pretty soon, the paramedics and the police were knocking at the door. The sirens blared loudly outside and I could see the red lights coming in through the windows. My mom got up quickly to answer the door.
The paramedics began taking my pulse and my blood pressure. They were asking me questions as well as my mom. But I couldn’t answer, and my mom didn’t know what happened. When they couldn’t get anything from me, they just put a neck brace on me and then put me on a stretcher and took me into the ambulance.
At the hospital, they taped up my ribs and I needed stitches on my cheekbone. When the doctor was finished, the police came in. My mom was with me the entire time.
“Rain, I’m officer Peters and this is detective Harrison. So, what can you tell us about what happened to you?” asked the female officer.
I cleared my throat. It took all of what I had to answer. My ribs were immensely sore.
“It was my father.” I answered.
I didn’t want to tell the truth. I didn’t want to get my father in trouble, but I knew that the police would see through me if I lied and said it was just a random attack.
“What? Rain, are you sure?” asked my mother.
“Yeah…he was drunk.”
“Do you have any idea why your father would want to hurt you?” asked detective Harrison.
“I told my parents that I’m gay a few days ago. He hasn’t been taking it too well.” I answered. “When I let him in the house, he kept saying how he was going to beat it out of me. He was calling me a faggot. He was telling me to be a man.”
“Ma’am, do you have any idea where the boy’s father might be?” asked officer Peters.
“N-No, he hasn’t been staying at home since Rain told us about…himself…um…I don’t know where he’d be.”
“Well, ma’am if you could give us a description or a picture, his full name and maybe a cell number, that would be very helpful in finding him.” said officer Peters.
“Absolutely, I’ll do anything I can.”
My mom was about to leave the room with the police, but I wanted to ask her one last thing.
“Mom, c-can you call Gabe?” I asked. “His number is in my cell phone.”
She smiled. “I’ll do that.”

* * *

Gabe came rushing into my hospital room and sat beside me.
“I came over here as soon as your mom called me. Are you okay?”
He kissed my forehead because my lips were pretty badly bruised.
“Yeah, now that you’re here.” I answered.
“I shouldn’t have left you.”
“Don’t blame yourself. No one could’ve stopped this.” I answered.
“My whole family is here,” he smiled. “They were worried too.”
I smiled. “Even Will.”
Gabe laughed a little. “Yeah, even him. Are you sure you’re okay. Who did this to you?”
“My dad”
“Your dad!”
“Yeah,” I said. “Hey, do you know if my mom called Jenna.”
“I think she was on the phone with her when I got here.”
Gabe held my hand and then kissed the top.
“I’m so glad you’re okay.” said Gabe. “Do, ah…do you mind some visitors?”
“No, I’d like some visitors.” I answered.
Gabe left the room and then came back in with his family. Cindy, Steve, Will, Devon, and little Spencer were all there.
“Oh, Rain, look at you are you okay?” asked Cindy.
“Yeah, I’m a little sore, but other than that. I’m okay. They just have to keep me here overnight for observation.”
“Who hurt you?” asked Devon.
“Devon, maybe it’s best not to ask that question.” said Steve.
“Sorry,” said Devon.
“It’s okay,” I said.
“Your mother must be out of her mind. Is there anything I can do?” asked Cindy.
“I don’t know. You guys are here, that’s enough for me. As for my mother, you should ask her. I’m sure she’d love to meet you.” I said.
Cindy smiled. They all decided to let me rest and left the room. They all wished me better before leaving. Gabe stayed of course.
“Are you sure I can’t do anything?” Gabe asked again.
“Kiss me.” I said. “On the cheek, ‘cause my lip is looking pretty bad right now.”
“Gladly,” he said, leaning in and kissing me on the cheek that wasn’t cut. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” I said with a smile.