Chapter 8: Chapter Seven

I had to cut the chapter in two because it was too long. Enjoy. Happy Holidays.  If this chapter confuses you it means you skipped chapter six.

The professor excused us earlier than the scheduled time for dismissal, which means I was sitting in the cafeteria waiting for Seth. I was nervous to the point where I felt nauseated. What would him telling me mean? Would it change the way we are with each other now? What am I talking about? He has a boyfriend. Somehow I keep forgetting that fact.

Seth walked in the lunchroom. The only word I could find to describe him was yummy. I wish I could get over him and I wouldn’t think about him like that every time I see him. No matter how angry he makes me as soon as I cool off I go back to that sad pathetic person that wants him with every fiber of my being.

Finally, his eyes landed on me. He waved but it wasn’t accompanied with his usual smile. “Hey,” he said.

“Hey.” He didn’t take his eyes off of my face and I did the same. After a moment of us staring at each other with partially blank looks he turned a beautiful shade of red. He probably didn’t notice he was staring at me to begin with.

“I’m going to get food.” He blurted out and dashed from the seat in front of me. It’s sad to say that I couldn’t keep my eyes off of his ass as he stood in line. It turned me on so much I had to grind my teeth together and look away. What is wrong with me?

Seth came back with a cup of F’real Chocolate Milkshake in his hands. I frowned, “What happened to food?”

“I can’t eat when I’m nervous.” I nodded my understanding. My eyes went to bruise on his cheek then to his lips wrapped around the red straw. It reminded me the best and worst day of my life.

“For what it’s worth, I never meant to hurt you and leaving you like I did was the hardest thing I ever had to do. Especially after we shared something so special”

“Mhm,” I responded.

“Something happened. I didn’t leave because I’m an asshole or I was using you. In fact, the reason I left had nothing to do with you. While you were sleeping, I got a phone call from my brother. My mom was sick and my baby sister…” he choked up and he started breathing hard, as if he was going to start hyperventilating any minute now. “I’m sorry, I can’t. I want to tell you it’s just so hard to talk about it”

It felt like instinct when I placed my hand over his. The way our hands were situated gave him leverage to grip my thumb tightly. “It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me now. Obviously haven’t dealt with whatever it is yet so whenever you’re ready.”

“I’m sorry, I really want to tell you because I don’t want you to hate me anymore. You’re always angry with me and it hurts, it hurts a lot”

“Seth, it’s okay. I understand a little now so I won’t be angry.” He nodded and I let his hands go.

“I’m sorry, I really am sorry. You weren’t the only one hurting. I wanted to reach out to you but I wasn’t in a good place. There was so much things going on around me and then my brother had to go back to the Navy and everything fell apart again. The fact that I missed you like crazy didn’t help either”

“…Maybe telling me how you feel right now isn’t a good idea,” I muttered.

“Okay. I’m sorry”

“And stop apologizing, gosh.” He giggled. That sound sounded so adorable coming from him. “What are you giggling about?”

“You’re like,” he giggled again. “You’re really moody. You can go from completely normal to infuriated in less than a second.”

“Whatever,” I muttered.

He continued sucking on the straw, milking out the creamy chocolate from the cup. At one point, he gulped down a lot. I rolled my eyes at his stupidity and him trying to give himself a brain freeze. When it happened he grabbed the side of his head and opened his mouth wide. I laughed because he reminded me of a fish. “It hurts so good,” he said, shaking his head a bit. Did he just describe brain freeze like sex? With it hurting good. No, Travis, that’s just you being perverted.

“So how are you and your dad doing? Last time we spoke you said you guys weren’t getting a long so great.” He paused, his hand reaching up to touch the bruise on his cheek. No! Did his dad do that to him?

“We’re fine, I guess.” Jesus Christ, Seth. Are you ever going to stop lying to me?

“That’s good. I’m happy for you.” He nodded, looking at his watch.

“I have to go to work. Um, Travis?”

“Seth?”

“Can we not be mean to each other anymore?”

“’Kay.” He smiled and waved goodbye to me.

That little ass. That’s the last time he’s going to lie to me and I’m going to get to the bottom of this. Obviously his father did that to him and I saw the fear in his eyes at the mention of his father.

Instead of going home like I usually do, I went to Starbucks where he worked and parked a couple parking spaces away from the coffee shop. I waited patiently until he got out of work around 9 P.M. He went to the bus stop across the street. It didn’t take long for the bus to arrive and once he got on I drove to his house, remembering the address from when I dropped him off Friday night. About twenty minutes later Seth was walking down his block. He stood in front of his house, looking at it. He danced from feet to feet, seeming to think about something before jogging up the stairs.

I got out my car and ran on my tippy toes to the side of the house. There were a lot of yelling and through the entire thing I never once heard Seth’s voice, then I heard him, “Fuck you!”

“What did you say boy?” Oh shit! The next thing I heard had my blood running cold. It was Seth’s scream and the sound of glass breaking. I ran back to the front of the house to try to get it. I almost cried when I found it locked.

“Help!”

“Seth!”

The sound of his fear and the thought that he was in danger had so much adrenaline rushing through my veins that it took little effort for me to kick the front door and break the lock.

There was a man with his back turned to me and I saw Seth’s feet kicking and that could only mean one thing.

“Get off of him you fucker!” I sneered at the man, I knew it was Seth’s father. He let go off Seth and turned his glare on me. Before he could blink, I grabbed the floor lamp, swinging it and hitting him right across his face with it the top of it where the shade and finial was. I heard the bulb break and seconds later the guy was flat on his back. I dashed over to Seth, cradling his head in my lap. “Hey! Hey!” I said, smacking his face lightly to wake him up. “Wake up!”

He opened his eyes, his baby blues staring at me, “Travis?”

“Do you think you can walk?” He nodded. “Get up! Where’s your room?”

“Upstairs, why?”

“Go!” I said. I had no time to answer his questions right now. He looked across the room, saw his father knocked out on the floor and that seem to knock some sense into him. I ran behind Seth up the stairs and when he got to his room door it was almost broken in completely. There were cracks all over the door. If that didn’t make me realize that I had to get him the hell out of there, the way his dresser and his bed was blocking off the door told. “Pack your stuff up!” I ordered. “Get everything that’s important to you and pack them up. Where’s your suitcase? Where are your clothes?”

“Travis?”

“And where’s your mom?”

“Travis?”

“And how long have this been going on? Why haven’t you called someone?”

“Travis!”

“What?!”

“What are talking about? What are you doing?”

“I’m getting you the fuck out of here.”