Husbands But Not

2: Jacket #6

Noah

No one likes to feel guilty. It sucks and makes you regret a lot of things you've done, even if they weren't related to what caused the guilt.

Mad guilty was what I was.

If I hadn't stood up for Kent, and partnered with him amidst a homophobic class, he wouldn't have gotten 'Fag' spray-painted on his locker. What the hell was the matter with people?

Fury followed the guilt, but I couldn't do anything about it for now. I couldn't go talk to him either because it'll only make things worse. He probably wanted nothing to do with me after this.

I found Ruby where I always find her: the gym. She spent more time there than I did and I was team captain.

She spoke before I did. "Oh my god! I heard."

"So did everyone, apparently," I fixed my gym bag properly on my shoulder. "Have you seen him anywhere?" I instinctively looked around the gym. Kent wasn't a gym guy. "Didn't manage to find him since I saw the message. He skipped English too."

She shook her head. "Sawyer!" Ruby yelled to her friend, who was behind me. A red headed girl, innocent looking with a red ribbon in her hair.

She approached us, fumbling with that ribbon. "Have you seen Kent?"

"I think so. Light brown hair? Big brown eyes?" Sawyer asked.

"That's the one."

"Where is he?" I added, way more demanding than I had intended to.

"I saw him towards the bleachers," I left them there and immediately strode outside. "But that was last-"

The sun was coated with a thick blanket of clouds. It sent a cold shiver that rustled against the short blades of grass across the football field.

Out of the thin spaces between the white bleachers, I spotted his beige shirt. I walked closer towards him, looking around to see if someone's there. I wasn't paranoid, but I was wary. If his locker was vandalized from day 0, who knew what would they do if they weren't stopped.

If only I got my hands on them.

He didn't seem to notice me. I was on the opposite side, his back leaning against the seats.

The words stopped in their tracks before I managed to let them out. What was I going to say? With all what I caused without trying, I became so much more aware of what simple acts could lead to.

And all I wanted was to help out someone I barely knew.

I turned around to leave. What use was it to stand and open your mouth without any voice?

Right as I turned around, a blast of cold air rushed down my neck. As it died down, I heard the shrilling unmistakable sound of a cracked cry.

It wasn't just the cry that cracked that moment.

I turned around one more time and noticed how hard he had clutched his arms against his fraile body.

Then I ruined things even more, and if there was a spark of a rumor, it was going to be a full on blazing fire.

I slowly pulled my school jacket from the gym bag, ever so softly balled it up, and moved closer to the gym door. Then before I went in, I threw the jacket his way, landing it a few meters away from where he was.

I had a strong throw.

I swifted inside so he wouldn't see me.

When I woke the next day, my dads were cooking. Well grandma was cooking, dads were just making her lose her mind.  Typical Saturday morning.

"Don't you have a company to run? Friends to visit? A kid to look after?" she screamed. She didn't have to because her voice was loud in itself.

"I'm not a kid." I said as I walked in to the kitchen. I miraculously dodged something edible dad threw at dad, making grandma even more annoyed. They acted like children.

I took a seat on the supposedly breakfast table. Right then and there, it felt like I'm the adult looking after three hooligans.

"FOOD." I screamed. The ruckus died down. I knew what was coming. A lecture to draw out what's got me in a bad mood.

Grandma placed a plate of something. What dad had thrown earlier looked more edible. She sat in front of me, while my parents took equivalent seats.

I looked up from my plate at the three faces looking at me. "What..."

"You're smitten." they all said. What the hell?

I reluctantly took a spoon of the glob in my plate. "I'm not smit- what does that even mean?"

They all pretended they didn't hear it. I pretended they were a normal family.

They were now eating with small talks here and there. Nothing I cared to listen to.

I wondered as I ate my food if the rumors at school had died down or fired up as I expected. I hoped I was wrong.

"Okay enough." grandma scolded my dads. "What's wrong sweetie?" she turned to me. Having a psychiatrist family member is the worst. It was like she knew everything, said and kept secret. But I loved her nonetheless.

"Why do you assume something is wrong?" I tried. It didn't work. She gave me a lopsided glance meaning 'either speak or I'll make you'.

I spoke in one, long, breathless sentence. "Well there's this kid in class and everyone bullies him and it was getting reckless and he was getting sad and I married him for class and it didn't help and now he's being bullied more and I wanna hurt everyone at school or anyone who hurts him." I took a large bellowing breath.

"That was... Not what I expected." Grandma said. "But honey you should know your intentions are good"

"I know they are."

"Then why are you upset?" Zac said. He was my dad but I called him Zac most of the time. It wasn't even his name, rather nickname.

"Because everything Kent is going through now is because of me."

"That's very wrong." Grandma interrupted. "You're doing what's right, and it'll yield what's right." she had a way with words that even the simplest things she'd say would put everything in perspective.

When I went to school on Monday, English was our first class. Kent didn't skip it this time. He was sitting in his usual chair, with his usual dishevelled light hair, and with his usual stuff on the desk.

Only one unusual thing about that morning.

I, and everyone else sitting behind him were looking in his direction.

His jacket had the school colours -blue and grey-, number 6, and another thing: Noah Grayson, my name.

A/N: THANKS FOR THE HUGE SUPPORT you gave chapter 1, and I hope you like chapter 2 too, thanks for reading! Vote, or else!