In Real Life ✓

19. This Ain't It

I used to think Gilbert's parents were kind of weird for buying him a house and putting him in there all by himself, but now I got it. Not that they were any less weird, though. Or good parents, for that matter. In fact, I hated them. Gilbert made it sound like it didn't matter to him when he told me that his mother had once said that she never wanted him. That he wasn't even a happy accident. He was just... an accident. But I was enraged. I was appalled.

After begging her to go to the beach, the woman had sent a nanny to take little Gilbert to the shore instead of taking him herself, and he ended up almost drowning. Because for some reason, the nanny couldn't care less about what happened to a ten-year-old kid and didn't bother to pay attention to him when he went out into the deep water.

He let out a soft, humorless chuckle and told me, "Every good-natured illusion I'd still had of my parents at that point disappeared when we got back home. They got mad at me. At me. I don't even remember what they said, honestly. Probably that I shouldn't have run away from the nanny or something. They didn't give a fuck."

"Jesus," I muttered.

"Yeah. So that's when I stopped giving a fuck, too. I'll admit, I wasn't the perfect kid, but for some reason, they saw me as this... rebellious devil child, so eventually, I figured... it doesn't make a difference if I try to be good or not, does it?" He shrugged, as if it was nothing, and told me with the biggest grin, "Might as well become the bad boy."

"You're kidding."

"No, I'm serious. I started getting myself in trouble at school just so my parents would have to come over to talk to the teachers and shit. It pissed them off so much. It was great. And then some guy in my class said we should smoke weed and I was like hell yeah."

"How old were you then?"

"Like fifteen. When my mom found out about it, she took my weed from me and locked me in the shed for a day, but they gave me a shit ton of money anyway, so what's the point? I could just go buy new drugs. I once even joked to her that I was doing coke."

"You weren't, were you?"

"Oh, no, I don't fuck with that shit," he said quickly.

"Okay, good, because I'm fine with weed, but that...?"

He shook his head. "Definitely not. Besides food, weed's the only thing that I'll allow inside my body."

I chuckled at that and shifted around on the couch before I asked, "But you don't do all that stuff anymore, though, right? I mean, getting in trouble and everything. You haven't really done anything 'bad' recently."

"There's no need. I finally got what I wanted. I'm free now!" He threw his hands up in the air. "Well, sort of. Dad put me in this house because he wanted me to 'grow up' or whatever. I'm sure he feels very accomplished now that he's stopped getting the calls."

"Sir, your son keeps insulting the teachers!"

"Damn, your hair looks like dry, old grass, Mrs Healy!"

I snorted.

"She was actually my favorite teacher."

"Why did you switch schools then?"

"I just, uh... I wanted a change of scenery."

I pulled up an eyebrow when he looked away. I was started to get the feeling that there was another reason why he left, but he'd already told me so much... I couldn't expect him to tell me everything at once.

"Well, since we're sharing secrets again," I said, earning a smile from him. "You wanna know the story behind the leak last year?"

"When people found out what school you go to?"

"Yeah, that."

He nodded.

"Okay, so, there was this guy. His name was Joe and he used to go to our school and he had a crush on me."

"Hm, he had good taste in women."

I chuckled. "Yeah, well, he didn't have good taste in... dating. He was convinced that I would someday return his feelings, no matter what, so when he asked me out for the first time and I rejected him, he did not give up. I'm pretty sure he might have even stalked me at some point, because he somehow found out that I was DukeCockroach. Then again, I suppose it isn't that hard if you're looking for a connection, though, so maybe it was just a lucky guess. Anyway, whatever it was, he found out and he threatened to out me if I didn't go out on a date with him."

"Jesus Christ. Was he mentally challenged?"

"Probably."

"How the hell did you fix that situation?"

"I asked my brother for help and he made me go to the principal with the issue, because the police probably wouldn't have helped. It's not like it's illegal to tell people that I own a public account."

Gilbert squinted and scratched his cheek thoughtfully. "I suppose not, although I'm sure my parents would have somehow found a loophole. There's a reason why they're so filthy rich. I hate them, but they're good lawyers."

"Ah, well, the principal went to his parents and they handled it. He left and never contacted me again."

"That's good," he said with a nod. "What do you reckon he'd have done if he was still here?"

"What do you mean?"

"With us dating and all."

"Oh, well, he'd have killed you for sure," I replied, to which he laughed, but when I spoke again, he fell quiet. "Besides, we're not even like... officially dating."

One of his eyebrows went up before he asked softly, "Do you want to be? Official?"

"I mean... yeah, but... you sure you wanna date an asexual girl?"

He offered me a smile. "I already said I don't—"

"Yeah, I know what you said, but still. Are you sure you know what you're getting into?"

"I'm sure," he said, face completely serious.

I nodded.

"So you wanna be my girlfriend?"

I couldn't stop myself from smiling at him as I replied, "Okay."

He suddenly reached out to hug me, and for a moment, I was so surprised I just blinked at the wall behind us, but I didn't push him off the way I would push anyone else off. No, I returned the hug. Because he was warm and he smelled nice and, well... I didn't mind hugging him.

I really didn't mind hugging my boyfriend.