What If..?

Chapter Eighteen

|Song: Same Love-Macklemore and Ryan Lewis ft. Mary Lambert|

JADE

I smile at James' mother and promise to bring him back in two hours as I lead him out of the house. He's quiet as we walk, and I know something is wrong. James is always laughing and smiling whenever I see him. I've been visiting him at least once a week ever since a week after Niall told me about James.

"James, what's wrong?" I ask softly as I sit on a small bench.

He sits beside me and looks at his lap. "You're going to leave me soon, aren't you?" He asks meekly.

I look at him confused and gently grab his face to get him to look at me. He flinches when I touch him so I let him go. "James, look at me please?" I wait until he looks at me before continuing, "James, what do you mean? Why would I leave you?"

He sighs, "Because, you're making me happy and Mummy hates when I'm happy... It's always been like that."

"James, I'm sure that's not tr-"

"Yes it is!" He shouts. "Why doesn't anyone ever believe me?!"

Before I can say anything more, he gets up and runs away. I follow him all the way until we get to the park before he manages to slip away from my sight. Sighing, I call Niall and tell him what's happened.

I wait at the park, walking and looking around for James but still find nothing of the younger boy. Finally, when Niall shows up, he ignores my talking and holds a finger to his lips as he climbs up into the bigger of the two trees in the park. I groan and cross my arms. "What good is climbing a tree going to do when we have a missing boy who needs to be found so we can get to the bottom of why he ran off in the first place?" I think but stay quiet.

Nearly ten minutes later, two sets of legs dangle down from the lowest branch before Niall jumps off. He stands up and holds his arms out before James jumps down into Niall's awaiting arms. Niall turns to me, still holding James, with a smirk on his face. "Checked everywhere, did ya?" He teases.

James giggles and squirms out of his grasp before coming to me. "Sorry for running off " he apologizes.

I hug him and sigh in relief. "I'm just glad you're alright... Now, you wanna tell me what you meant earlier?"

He sighs and grabs my hand leading me to the tree he was in. He sits down and looks at me expectantly. I sit beside him, leaning against Niall involuntarily as James begins, "It started with Ni... He didn't hurt me, you know that, right? What my mum said was a lie. Ni saved me, but I assume he already told you the truth?" He looks at us, and I nod. "Well, after Ni was forced to quit seeing me, he wrote me letters. He had hospital staff members sneak them to me. Well, once my mum found out, she had a restraining order put on him... Said it was best for me. I tried to tell her no, that I wanted Ni to be around me more than what she allowed him to be before the incident, and she called me a stupid child. She told me that I didn't know what I should want or need because I was only fourteen.

"Then, when I got out of the hospital, she pulled me out of school and said that I was too stupid to catch up on what I missed and that it was pointless for me to go anyways because I could never amount to anything in life. She told the school though, that she would homeschool me because she didn't want me to see Ni and the others that were apart of what happened. Of course, they agreed with her request. It wasn't because of that though. She couldn't have cared less about whether or not I got hurt again. She just didn't like the fact that I was happy at school. I was happy because I had friends, and even one of them was a Senior who I liked and said liked me..." James trails off, getting choked up as he wipes his tears.

"James, I had no idea..." I whisper softly.

He sniffles and says, "I still really like the person, but I-I doubt Alex even remembers me."

I pull him into a hug and look at Niall for help on what to do. "I'll help you find her." I say quietly, getting confused when Niall looks at me wide-eyed and shakes his head.

James pulls away from me and looks at me with a disgusted face. "Her? No, no, no! Alex is a him!" He pulls another disturbed face. "Jade, that's just disgusting, why would I be into girls? No offense, but that's disgusting."

"I-I" I have no idea what to say to that. I have nothing against homosexuals, but I honestly wasn't expecting that.

My thoughts are disrupted by Niall bursting into laughter. "I-I tried to warn you" he giggles.

NIALL

I hug James and kiss Jade's cheek before the two of them head back to James' house so he can go to bed. I never imaged James to look as disgusted as he did when Jade mentioned Alex being a girl. I cackle again at the thought. James has always told me he found guys attractive when we sat at the park.

Sure, I always just thought it was a phase, but if he likes guys then so be it. I'll always support his decisions, and I hope he knows that.

***

Jade and I have searched over an hour for James' Alex and have still found nothing. We wanted to surprise James by getting Alex to come visit him and spark their romance back to life. Just as we are about to quit, Shaelyn grabs my leg as I lay beside her on my bed. "Ni, what'd you say his last name was?"

"O'Brien" I say, sitting up.

"Well, I think I just found him.." Jade trails off, clicking things on her laptop.

I look over her shoulder, and sure enough, the screen says:
"Alexander O'Brien, medical assistant in training to become a proper doctor. Recieved a scholarship to the University Of Limerick through football. He currently lives in Dublin. O'Brien is openly in a relationship with American actor Steven C. Caldwell (19)."

"Well, you found him, but he's already in a relationship. We can't set these two up if he's with someone" I groan and lay back on the bed.

She nods but continues to click on things. "Look at this!" She says, hitting my leg repeatedly.

Sitting up yet again, I read over her shoulder:
"Steven C. Caldwell (19) and Alexander O'Brien (22) have currently reported to have split after Steven was caught in a heated snog with co-star Kiera Lemm (18)."

"So is Alex taken or single? I'm confused.." I trail off, not understanding at all what she's getting at.

"Ni, Alex is single! That means he and James can be together!" She squeals happily.