Lane groaned inwardly as he walked into his house, preparing for bullshit. That’s all he ever dealt with when he was at home. His mother Vicki and step dad Bruce were already going at it, screaming at one another at the top of their lungs. He rolled his eyes as he walked pass them. He wondered what they were fighting about now, but better yet he didn’t give a fuck.
It was probably Bruce flipping out on his mom for supposedly talking to another guy. He was a controlling asshole who Lane constantly told his mom to leave, but she didn’t listen. She thought just because they had a five year old kid together that she had to stay with the prick. Lane knew that if his dad was still alive he wouldn’t have to deal with any of this bullshit.
Lane was about to ignore it all when he saw his half-little sister Christie sitting in the hallway, crying. Just because she was his half sister it didn’t make him love her any less. Regardless she was his sister, full blood or not. He walked over and sat across from her. He knew that with all of the fighting, Christie was the one who dealt with it all while he locked himself away in his room, drowning the voices out she was left listening to their bullshit.
“Aye, Chris, why you crying? Chin up.”
She was sniffing and sobbing uncontrollably. “D-Daddy h-hit Mommy.” She said through her sobs. She was trying to be strong and wipe her tears away.
“He what?” Lane breathed, although he’d heard her perfectly. He took a deep breath. “Hey, why don’t you go in my room real quick and I’ll close the door then I’ll come back and get you when all the fighting’s over? You can watch some of my T.V., yeah?”
She nodded and he picked her up from the ground. Lane let her lay on his bed while he put on some cartoon crap on his television. That got her attention quickly. It was amazing what short attention span kids had. After getting Christie settled, he closed his door and walked out into the living room where the fighting was taking place.
When Bruce saw him he stared at him with disgust. “What the fuck do you want, kid? Get the fuck back into your room! This is between me and your mom you little fuck!”
Lane didn’t say a word. Fed up with all of the prick’s bullshit he simply stood in front of him and punched him in the side of the face. Bruce only stumbled slightly while his mom began to scream at him like a maniac. Bruce’s face was red and he shook with anger.
“Did you really just fucking hit me?”
“Lane!” His mom cried. “Lane, please stop! This is my fault! Stop!”
Lane turned on her, staring at her in disbelief. “You’re fault?” He breathed. “Mom, getting hit by this bitch isn’t your fault! The only thing that’s your fault is staying with the worthless bastard-”
Lane roughly hit the ground. The impact of the punch had happened so fast he’d barely felt it. But as he laid on the floor, holding his eye the pain was shooting through his face. Lane began to get back up but his mom was sobbing and standing in front of him, stopping him.
“Please.” She cried. “Both of you please. Just stop.”
Bruce’s eyes were practically popping out of his head as he stared down at Lane. “Next time you put a hand on me I’ll give you an even bigger ass whooping!” Then he stormed out of the house.
Vicki quickly jumped to her feet and ran out of the house to follow him. “Bruce!” She cried . “Wait!”
Lane laid there for a long moment, staring up at the ceiling as his face throbbed uncontrollably. “Fuck.” He muttered, holding onto his eye. He knew this wasn’t going to be pretty the next morning.
------
Entering Suicide Chat Room…
Trouble101 has entered…
Trouble101: I don’t know how much longer I can take this shit. Maybe we should do it before winter formal. My eye fucking hurts! I want to die NOW.
Xlonelygirlx: What happened?
Trouble101: Oh now you want to have a conversation with me?
Waiting4time: No, we need to wait. There’s still unfinished stuff here for all us.
Trouble101: What? You’re the one who wanted to quicken things up! Now that I’m on your side you change your mind?
Trouble101: Prick.
BeautyQueen: Be nice. The date is winter formal, it’s already official let’s not go changing things around.
Xlonelygirlx: I agree.
Trouble101: You girls always agree. Where’s Thatguy93?
BeautyQueen: I haven’t heard from him since the last time we talked three days ago. You think he’s alright?
Trouble101: Who knows maybe he croaked himself early. That’s not fair, if he did so am I!
Xlonelygirlx: Will you stop? We already have a date douche bag!
BeautyQueen: He isn’t answering the phone. Should we check on him?
Waiting4time: That might be a good idea. Isn’t he always home alone anyways?
BeautyQueen: Yeah. Let’s meet at his house. I’m on my way.
BeautyQueen, Waiting4time has logged out…
Trouble101: Oh look here we are all alone again. You haven’t talked to me in three days.
Xlonelygirlx: We never talk. I’ll see you at Hunter’s. Bye.
Xlonelygirlx has logged out
…
Trouble101: Fuck my life, it’s freezing balls outside!
Trouble101 has logged out…
-----
Hunter was downstairs making two glasses of hot coffee, using his parents five hundred dollar coffee machine that they were never home to use themselves. The two of them had a business meeting in Florida so Hunter once again had the house to himself for the week. He was use to being home alone. In fact, it felt strange when his parents were home, like they were invading his own privacy or something.
He grabbed the two cups and walked upstairs into his parents office where his friend Ricky Woodward was at. Ricky was the head of the school board and since Hunter was trying to become more involved with the school’s activities he was spending more time with Ricky to plan such things as the Cancer Run and Winter Formal. Hunter was surprised at how much he enjoyed planning all of the things he hated participating in.
Ricky was thin with light brown hair, light blue eyes and freckles that ran along his nose and cheekbones. He was the type of guy who was himself. He didn’t care what others thought of him, he was the type of person that Hunter longed to be like. Ricky did what simply made him happy and if others didn’t accept him, then that was there problem. Hunter respected the guy.
Ricky was sitting at the table in the office with the large poster they were designing for the Cancer Run. It was an event that raised money for cancer patients. Everyone had to pay five dollars to participate, which is where the money came in, although Hunter thought it was a little ridiculous for someone to pay to run, but it seemed to work every year. And this year Hunter was hoping that their school made more money then the last time they did the event.
“Thanks.” Ricky said as Hunter handed him the coffee.
It was seven o’clock at night and they were both becoming tired from all the work they’d been doing. But Hunter wasn’t bored. He was actually having a good time hanging out with Ricky and talking to him about things he really couldn’t talk to anybody else about.
“Your laptop won’t stop beeping and your phone hasn’t stopped ringing. I think someone’s trying to get a hold of you.” Ricky said with a playful grin as he sipped on the cup of coffee. “Maybe a worried girlfriend?”
Hunter snorted. “Yeah, right.”
Then he walked over to open his laptop. He groaned inwardly. The pact was trying to get a hold of him. What for? They kept IM-ing him and when he checked his cell phone he had five missed calls from Rachelle. Hunter wasn’t even going to bother entering the chat room or calling her back. He was having a good time and he wasn’t going to let them ruin it.
“Just an annoying friend.” Hunter said as he walked back over to the couch to sit beside Ricky. “Nothing important. So, how much longer until we’re finished with this thing?”
Ricky shrugged, staring down at it. “I’m not sure. It’s look pretty nice right now. We can finish up another day if you’re too tired to continue.”
“Well I’m tired of doing this damn poster.”
Ricky laughed. “Alright, then we’ll plan to finish it another day.” He turned around and began packing up his things into his backpack.
Hunter quickly stopped him. “W-What are you doing later?” He asked, even though he knew he shouldn’t have.
“Uh, nothing. Just go home and watch reruns, I guess. Why?”
Hunter shrugged nonchalantly. “I’m just going to be bored…Did you want to go grab something to eat? It’s the least I can do after you helped me with over half of this billboard.”
Ricky smiled, revealing rows of nice white teeth. Hunter truly hated himself at that moment. But they’re just friends, he told himself quickly. Just friends who are working on a project together and catching a bite to eat. It was perfectly normal for two guy friends to hang out the way they were
What wasn’t normal was Hunter constantly realizing how attractive Ricky was. Everything about him made Hunter like him more and he never hated himself so much in his entire life. It just wasn’t right.
Ricky nodded. “Sure, sounds great.”
Hunter opened his mouth to reply until there was a loud bang on his front door. Then another one. It sounded like someone was trying to break in. He could ruckus coming from the front of his house, people screaming while the banging on his front door continued.
“What the hell is that?” Ricky whispered, a look of concern crossing his eyes.
“Stay right here.” Hunter said as he picked up a bat from underneath his dad’s desk. “I’ll go check.”
Ricky didn’t listen and instead followed close behind Hunter down the stairs. They made their way to the front door where the sound of someone’s foot kicking it echoed throughout the house. Someone was trying to kick his fucking door down! Hunter gripped the baseball bat tighter, ready to hit whoever was on the other side.
Ricky grabbed his shoulder, trying to stop him. “We should just call the cops!” He whispered fiercely.
Hunter shook his head. Then without another word, he gripped the door knob and yanked the front door open. Hunter raised his bat ready to swing it down on the person in front of him. But startled, Hunter took a step back and stared at Lane and Rachelle who had a surprised look on their faces as well. Hunter glanced back to see Tabitha and Simon standing behind them.
Hunter angrily threw the baseball bat and glared at them. “What the fuck’s wrong with you guys?”
Lane was holding onto his foot in agony. “It was Rachelle’s idea!” He said quickly. “Ouch! My fucking foot!” He walked in, moving pass Hunter. “You got any ice?” Lane stopped when he saw Ricky and nodded at him. “Hey Rick, what you doing here?”
“I can ask you the same thing.” Ricky replied a weary look on his face.
“Excuse these idiots, Ricky, they were just leaving.”
“No.” Ricky said quickly, as he tightened his backpack wrapped around his shoulders. “I better get going. We’ll finish the board another day. See you around, Hunter.”
With that he moved pass the others and left, walking through the snow and into his small Honda. Hunter watched him leave in anger as the rest of the came inside his house without an invite. Leave it to them to ruin the one good night he was having in such a long time.
“Your house is insane!” Lane exclaimed as he took a seat on the couch and picked up the remote. “High definition, flat screen?” He snorted. “Why do you want to kill yourself again?”
Hunter ignored him and turned to stare at Rachelle who seemed to be the main culprit in all of this. She had a guilty look on her face as she stared up at Hunter with sorry eyes.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered. “I-I just got worried when you weren’t answering and I thought that-”
“That I killed myself?” Hunter finished, annoyance in his tone. “You guys are ridiculous. I was doing a school project with Ricky, okay?” Hunter collapsed down into the nearest couch behind him. “I was actually having a good time, too. Before you four came.”
Tabitha sat down beside Lane and tried to snatch the remote from him. While the two of them fought, Simon sat down and stared up at the flat screen with wide eyes. Hunter could only sit there, disappointed that the night hadn’t gone the way he’d planned for it to. But in another sense he knew he should’ve been thanking all of them for stopping him from making one of the biggest mistakes in his life. His crush on Ricky had been going too far. If he would’ve went out to eat with him who knows what would’ve happened and who would’ve seen. Ricky was the only openly gay guy in school. How would that make Hunter look?
Rachelle sat down beside him. “Again, I’m so sorry, Hunter.”
He forced a weak smile for her. “It’s okay, I guess. You were only worried about me.”
She smiled weakly back and spoke quietly so the rest couldn’t hear her. “So, Ricky?”
Hunter looked up. “What about him? We were just doing a project together.”
“Oh, yeah.” She quickly nodded a menacing smile forming on her lips. “Of course. He’s a nice guy, isn’t he?”
Hunter had the sense that Rachelle knew exactly what had been going on and why Hunter had been so upset. If anyone knew, he was sort of glad it was Rachelle. He wasn’t sure, but he trusted her.
“Don’t say anything, yeah?” He whispered, plea in his eyes.
“I would never.” She replied as she reached over to grab his hand.
“Enough of that lovey dovey shit!” Lane called from the other couch. “I say we have a fucking party! Do you know how awesome a party would be in this house? And your parents are never home? What I want to know is why the fuck you haven’t thrown a party here before?”
Hunter shook his head. “No, definitely not. My parents would have a heart attack if they found out I was throwing parties.”
“They won’t find out.” Tabitha chimed in a mischief look in her eyes. “Come on, Hunter. Live a little. You know that it’ll be fun.”
Hunter thought about it for a moment. A party didn’t sound like a bad idea and it would be another excuse to see Ricky again. But it was Wednesday night and if he threw a party that would only give him two days for planning. Hunter was a guy who liked to plan.
“We would only have two days to plan it.” He objected.
Lane scoffed. “That’s just enough time! All of us will help. Right, Simon?”
Simon meekly nodded, still staring at the TV dreamily. “Yeah.” He murmured, seemingly off in his own world.
He knew that there was no reason to not have a party. He was going to be dying in three more weeks anyways. The rest of them were right. It was time he lived a little. In a weird way it would be his going away party, possibly one of the last night’s he had some real fun with people. All of his stupid worries and inhabitations were going out the window for this one.
He sighed. “What the fuck, why not?”
A/N: If you liked this chapter please vote :) I'm not sure if I should finish this story or not? Let me know what you think.