"Jake honey!" All the breath got knocked out of me as my mom wrapped her arms around me. Her bone crushing hug was making me groan before she finally let go and looked up and down my body. "How are you feeling, are you hungry?"
"No mom, I'm fine."
She grabbed my arm and started pulling me into the kitchen, where I saw my father waiting. He looked me up and down before nodding in my direction. He had never been a very affectionate person especially towards me or my mom. At least my mom liked to hug and be around me.
"Hi dad," I said while leaning against the counter. He simply nodded again before going back to the paper he was reading.
"You sure you don't want anything to eat?"
"No thanks."
With that she started asking about everything that happened, and how I even ended up in that situation in the first place. I didn't want to tell her I was there because I was upset about Owen fucking someone, but I realized I'd have to eventually. The entire drive here I was trying to think of a way to tell my parents about liking a boy. I didn't want to tell Owen because he knew my parents were homophobic and he'd probably say not to. But at the same time, I was their son. Would it be different because I was their own blood or would that make it ten times worse?
"Jake?" When I looked up I realized I must've zoned out.
"Sorry mom, lots on my mind."
She nodded before something seemed to click and her eyes started twinkling. "Understandable honey, but does this have anything to do with a special someone in your life?"
My mouth felt dry as I looked at her excited face. Was I supposed to lie to her for the rest of my life? She obviously knew I liked girls because I dated Elise, but she didn't know I liked one boy. One boy who could make me extremely happy even when I'm not happy with myself. If I told her I was into a girl would that be even worse? My heart started beating faster as I looked between them. I didn't want to live in a lie, and I didn't want to sneak around with Owen. He was too special for that.
"Yeah," I said as my voice cracked. Clearing my throat I shoved my shaking hands into my pockets as my mom started clapping her hands.
"Wonderful! I'm so happy you've moved on from Elise. What's the lucky lady's name?"
Looking between them again, I realized this might be the last time I'd be in this house. Growing up here was fun and this house was amazing, especially when my Grandpa was over. I knew those memories would stay with me, and just hoped they didn't hate me.
"Owen," I quietly said while watching my father instantly put his paper down. His cold eyes were looking over at me as he slowly stood up.
"Care to repeat yourself?" He asked as my mom frowned.
"I have feelings for my best friend, Owen." I loudly swallowed when he came closer to me. "He's a great guy and-"
My body flew back against the counter when he slapped my cheek. The kitchen got super silent as I looked up into his eyes, the ones that were looking at me with disgust. "You're gay?"
"I'm uhm, I... I guess bi."
This time my mom walked closer and slapped me hard on my cheek. I flinched and instantly turned away from her but her fingers pulled me back to face her. She looked super pissed as her fingers dug into my skin more before she twisted my arm in an unnatural position.
"Mom," I cried while trying to get her off of me. "Please, stop."
"You shut up," she said as my dad left the room. "You are not my son if you openly choose to live in such a sinful lifestyle. You will never be accepted anywhere, and you'll never be loved. I hope people teach you that lesson very hard."
Tears were running down my cheeks as she hit me again before slamming my head against the wall. When a loud crash came from outside, she finally let me go as I ran towards the door. I watched my dad throw things into my car windows, breaking all the glass. He smashed my windshield with a random baseball bat I didn't even know he had.
When he saw me he marched over, making me quickly start to back up. Since my mom was behind me she kept me in place before pulling me back into the house. I started crying harder when my dad suddenly hit me with the bat, my side instantly radiating in pain. "You better never show your face here again."
With that I finally got away from them and ran out the door and down the street. When I turned around I watched my dad suddenly walk towards my car with a can of gasoline, making my face pale. He was then pouring the gasoline all inside the car before taking matches and throwing them in. The flames were getting darker before I turned around and continued to run away.
My body eventually gave out from underneath me as I stumbled onto the grass and fell. I immediately took my phone out of my pocket and tried to unlock it. My fingers were shaking so bad that I kept dropping it, before I finally unlocked it. As it was ringing I ran my sleeve over my face but the tears wouldn't stop.
"Hey," Owen's happy voice filled my ear. "How's it going?"
"I need you," I cried into the phone before starting to sob.
I could hear him grabbing something, possibly keys, on the other end of the line. "Tell me where you are and I'll be there."
Wiping my eyes again I finally looked up to see where I ended up. "I... I'm by the dock by my house. Please Owen, they broke my car and set it on fire."
"I'm coming, I promise you Jake. I need you to give me an address. Can you do that babe?"
"Okay," I whispered while putting him on speaker and sending him a text.
"Perfect, thank you. I'm on my way okay? Just keep breathing."
Tears were still running down my cheeks as I crawled over to a tree and curled up by the trunk. "You're too far," I cried into the phone, realizing it was going to take him around five hours to get to Charlotte from Savannah.
"I'm actually in Atlanta seeing my parents, that should knock about an hour off. Do you have somewhere safe you can get to, or take an Uber to? It'll take me around four hours."
Before I could respond I heard a beep before realizing my phone died. "Shit," I muttered before resting my head against the tree next to me. I simply held my phone against my chest while trying to calm down my breathing.
I wasn't sure how long I stared off into space before getting up and walking over to the water. I sadly stared down into the blue water and saw my sad expression staring back at me. It was probably stupid to have told my parents, but I just didn't want to lie to them. Because if I lied to them I'd end up lying to myself, but that probably would have been better.
I stared out at the water for who knows how long, my entire body feeling sore. When I was brave enough to look down I saw bruises on my arms and knew my face probably looked worse. The pain in my side was getting worse, that baseball bat really did a number on me. My arm was still hurting as well, from when my mom had twisted it.
"Jake?"
The voice that was suddenly filling the quietness around me made me stop and frown. I'd know that voice anywhere. It made me not want to look up at the person I loved for so long. When I finally did look up, I wish I hadn't when I saw not only Elise but Brandon with her. She was standing with a hand on her stomach, which was starting to form a small bump. I simply looked back out towards the water, really wanting to just jump in.
I could hear Elise moving until she was sitting down and facing me, her hand suddenly on my arm. "What happened?"
"Don't act like you care," I said while scratching my neck and realizing there was dried blood on my skin.
"Of course I care."
When I looked over at her I shoved her hand off before slowly standing up, wincing from the pain in my side. I couldn't help but dry laugh before looking between them. "Oh really?" I made sure to look down at her stomach before saying, "Yeah you guys care so much."
Elise nervously started to bite her lip as she stood up, Brandon helping her. "Jake, I'm sorry. I didn't treat you right and didn't end things between us right at all." She was then elbowing Brandon in the side when he just stood there frowning.
"Seriously Jake, we didn't do this to make you mad. Our love just happened and we're sorry you got in the middle of it."
Elise rolled her eyes at Brandon before looking up at me. "I shouldn't have done what I did. You will always have a special place in my heart."
"This is honestly the last thing I want to hear right now," I said while wrapping my arms around myself.
Elise frowned as she took a hesitant step forward and placed a hand on my elbow. "Look Jake, I know I should've handled things differently. And I'll always be sorry for that."
I couldn't help but roll my eyes while shaking her hand off. "You know, you were the first and only person I had ever loved. You were my entire world Elise, you meant everything to me. And you told me high school relationships don't work out. You told me you wanted to be single going into college, to get a new start. And then you go and hook up with someone I considered a brother. And then get knocked up?" Her eyes got watery as the breeze started blowing her black hair around. "You say you're sorry, but you'll never understand the pain you put me through."
She quickly wiped her eyes as Brandon looked down at his shoes. "I know I put you through that, and I know karma will come and bite me in the ass for it. We were together for so long and so comfortable together, it made me wonder if I was missing out. Jake, we were together since we were young and I did want a fresh start. And I thought I wanted to go to college single, but Brandon started talking to me more. And when we met up, the condom broke and-"
"Please stop," I cried while tears were slowly starting to fall down my cheeks. "I don't want to hear this. Because I always thought I was going to marry you Elise, and have children with you. And you took that away from me." My gaze looked over at Brandon to see him looking like he might throw up. "And just so you know, that's not how you treat a best friend."
We all got quiet as I wiped my face with my sleeve before taking a shaky breath. "JAKE!" My head instantly popped up to see Owen running towards me. Had I seriously been zoning out for four hours already? When he finally got towards me he wrapped me in his arms. More tears started flowing as I gripped onto him tighter. "I got you," he said while gripping onto me tighter. "Who did this to you?" He then looked up and looked at Elise and Brandon before asking, "Did you do this?"
Brandon put his hands up as Elise instantly started shaking her head no. "No. I'm Elise and this is Brandon."
Owen's jaw ticked as he looked between them. "So you're the assholes."
"Owen," I whispered as he looked down at me. "Don't fight. I'm sick of fighting."
When I started crying harder he pulled me closer to him. "Shh, I have you." He kissed my forehead as my eyes tightly shut. "You're safe." He was then picking me up bridal style in his arms before placing me into his car a minute later.
The last thing I remembered before my eyes shut was him buckling my seatbelt before placing a blanket on my lap. I didn't realize how tired I was, but getting beaten up and seeing Elise really took everything out of me. It was easy to fall asleep around Owen because I knew I was safe with him.
When my eyes suddenly opened I realized the car was parked and I was alone. There was a really pretty brick house in front of me, a pretty front porch with tons of flowers around it. The house looked like it was sitting on a lot of land and instantly felt so warm and cozy. I then saw Owen walking out of the front door before coming back over to the car. He must've noticed I was awake because he opened my door and smiled down at me. He carefully unbuckled me before placing a hand gently onto my cheek.
"You feeling okay? Want to go to the hospital?"
I instantly shook my head while gripping onto his arm. "No. Nothing feels broken, my arm just feels sore." I frowned before looking down at my lap. "How bad does my face look?"
"Not bad at all," he softly said before kissing my forehead. "I brought you home, and I was hoping you'd stay for the weekend. At least to rest up before we go back to school. I also hope you don't mind that I had to tell my parents what happened and I'm sorry if I crossed a line. I'm assuming your parents did this?"
My head slowly nodded before looking back up at his face. I didn't trust my voice to try and say anything until I knew I wouldn't cry. "Yeah. Yeah they did. And I'm not mad you told your parents. But are you sure they're okay with me being here?"
"Of course they are, as long as you are?" When I nodded he smiled before grabbing my hand and helping me out of the car. He kept the blanket around my body before walking me towards the house, up to the front porch.
Once we entered the front door I was immediately welcomed with the scent of what smelled like apple pie. There was a very pretty staircase going up to the second floor, where a chandelier was hanging. I noticed family pictures hanging on the walls and also noticing a fluffy rug under my feet. Owen was gently steering me towards the kitchen where I saw a girl sitting at the kitchen table. She immediately looked up, her eyes so similar to Owen's. He told me he had a sister and I was assuming this was her.
She got up and walked over to us, giving me a soft smile. She was actually around my height, not seeming to have the height of her brother. Her brown eyes looked like chocolate and she had pretty dark brown hair that almost looked black. It was currently in a braid over her green sweatshirt covered shoulder.
"Hi Jake, I'm Olivia." As Owen's arm wrapped around me I smiled a very small smile at her. "If there's anything you need just let me know."
"Thank you," I whispered before Owen started leading me towards the family room.
There were two people sitting on a comfy looking couch, who instantly looked up when we walked in. They immediately stood up as the woman walked over first. I couldn't help but to flinch when the man also came over and they were both standing in front of me. Owen's hold tightened on me as I buried my face into his shoulder. After taking a few shaky breaths I looked back over at their nice looking faces.
"Hello Jake," the woman said as she smiled at me. She had really pretty blue eyes with the same colored hair as her children. "I'm Owen's mom, but you can call me Patty."
"Hi Jake," the man standing behind her said. "I'm Owen's father, but please call me David. If you're hungry we heated up some leftovers from earlier. We had baked chicken with rice and green beans. We prepared a plate for you but don't feel pressured to eat it."
Patty nodded before she said, "I put extra fluffy blankets on Owen's bed and put a few more up there in case you get cold. We do have a cat, Panda, are you allergic?" I shook my head as she continued, "Then he might try and snuggle with you. But he can be a little much so don't feel bad about shooing him away. And our bedroom is down here in case you guys need anything."
I simply looked between their faces and felt just so much better. I wasn't sure why they were being so nice to me but also didn't want to jinx anything. "Thank you," I quietly said before Owen led me up the pretty staircase before ending up in a room.
There was a queen sized bed, fluffy carpet and three large windows. The room at my house never even felt this comfy and I lived there my whole life. My face fell when I realized I'd never be able to go into that room again.
"Okay so I have some extra pajamas I kept from when I was younger. They should fit you; it was before the last time I grew." He was nodding towards the bed where the pajamas were. "And I brought up the leftovers my parents were talking about in case you get hungry. I also brought up a slice of pie if you want one. Or if you just want to lay down under a blanket, that's perfect too. I can stay here with you or if you want me to leave I'll go."
"Your parents don't care if you stay here?"
"Not at all."
I nodded while looking up at him and feeling the tears start to build up. "I want you to stay."
"I'm here," he said as he wrapped his arms around me. I gripped onto him tighter as sobs started to take over my body. "I promise."