Sunday morning, after a long night of heavy bass and alcoholic teens drinking before the legal age, the basement was left untouched. Not by wanting to, but because there was something more important.
There are two sides to a story, there will always be the bad and the good. While Halloween La Black, for the whole school was seen as the best party of their senior year.
Alex was left crying, with the feelings of his ribcage in pain and the sore parts where bruises now had come. While lips were smashed together in the hallway outside the bathroom stall that prior night, Alex had decided to come a little later to the party, causing him to not show up at all.
Mila woke up Sunday morning, with a weird feeling in her stomach, butterflies from the kiss of the night prior, as well as the thought of something being wrong, as she was woken by Aera saying someone wanted to speak to her on the phone.
Mila put on her rope and walked down to the house phone. Finishing the only two-minute conversation, she was out the door five minutes later, wearing a mess of a hoodie and skinny jeans, her shoes almost not on as she ran quicker than ever before.
The morning air almost burned her lungs, as Mila ran down the streets, her broken down converse hitting the ground harder and harder as she sprinted, the wind blew in her hair, making it messier than before, as baby hair flew everywhere, her breath being heard miles away.
She got to the garage, having run for 20 minutes in her shape, made her sound like someone with asthma, who was dying. The sweat was dripping down her back as she walked into the garage. All the boys were already there, with Alex sitting in the middle.
You see the short two-minute conversation they had over the phone was quick. It was something along the lines of Reggie yelling into the phone:
"ALEX RAN AWAY FROM HOME AFTER HAVING BEEN BEATEN UP BY SOME DUDES WHEN HE WAS WALKING TO THE HALLOWEEN PARTY AND NOW HE IS LIVING IN THE GARAGE WHERE WE PRACTICE AND WE DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO AND HE IS BLEEDING A-"
That was around the time Mila had hung up the phone, she took a deep breath trying to stop herself from dying.
"Who - d-do I -.... ne-ed to ..... kill?" She asked, trying to breathe as she leaned against a wall with her hand. Alex looked surprised at her, she looked like someone on the edge of fainting.
"You ran over here? Jesus Woman, calm down" Alex asked with a confused face, he had a black eye and you could see the bindings on his rib cage.
"Are you gonna be okay?" She asked as she walked closer to him, studying his face, where his lip was ripped with dark dry blood covering it.
"I'm gonna be okay Mila, I will just live here for a couple of months" Alex explained as he leaned back on the couch shrugging. "It's not bad here, so I will manage "
While the other boys seemed okay with this sudden decision was Mila however not that impressed. "You can't live in a garage," Mila said as she put a hand on her hip. Luke looked at her with a gentle smile, as memories of the night prior ran in his mind, making him smile even more.
"Why are you smiling at Mila like that?" Bobby whispered as he lifted an eyebrow, Luke widened his eyes as he began coughing. "Well, Alex can you still play? "
Reggie slapped Luke's arm. "Can you focus on anything else than music right now? Your friend was almost beaten to death and your only question is if he is able to play drums?" Reggie asked as he looked annoyed at his friend.
Luke laughed awkwardly as he looked at Mila almost for approval of his next words. "I meant that we have the biggest gig of our life just in a couple of months, and I want us all to be prepared and not have Alex die before we even go on stage"
"Well, he will die if he keeps sleeping in this shitty garage" Mila answered as she threw a pillow at Luke, who couldn't help but smile at her worriedness for Alex.
"I vote for Alex to move in with one of us"
Mila was overruled, and when Monday morning came. Alex was still living in the garage, luckily for Luke, he was still able to play drums. But because of the sudden change, Mila was now driving to school in the pastel pink car with Aera. She did admit to herself, she missed the smell of coffee and metal as she sat in the car listening to Madonna, which was quite different from the hard rock she had been listening to with Reggie.
"So what you are telling me is that Alex is now living in some garage?" Aera asked with a confused face as she replied with her lipstick in the driver's mirror, Mila nodded slowly taking a deep breath. "Is that even allowed?" Caroline asked, looking to the backseat where Mila was sitting, fiddling with her fingers.
"I just want him to be okay... " Mila whispered as she looked out the window. "Jesus, He is gay not a demon, I can't believe someone would beat him up" Caroline continued as Aera and her began talking about if that ever happened to them.
Mila knew the town she was living in was religious, but she couldn't help but wonder if God loved all his children, why couldn't he love ... well love. Would Alex not go to heaven for his sexuality? Would Aera and Caroline?
These were the questions running through Mila's head as she placed herself in Mr. Abello's class that Monday morning, she took up her notebook, as Mr. Abello walked in, he had a coffee stain on his shirt and his briefcase was filled with papers that he began handing out.
"Okay class! after some events that I have heard happening during this weekend, I would like to read out a paragraph from the bible, now as I read this out loud, I want you to ask yourself what is wrong with this paragraph" Mr. Abello cleared his throat before taking a deep breath opening his bible, the paragraph was highlighted with light pink, making Mila narrow her eyebrows. Mr. Abello always highlighted his sentences in blue.
"God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error." Mr. Abello readout, making the whole class whisper, he looked at Mila who couldn't believe his words.
"Now Miss Garcia, as I know you're religious, what do you say about this?" He asked as he looked at his student in the eye, Mila bit her lip before answering. "God isn't always right, is something bad just because God says it is? " She almost laughed saying this as something inside her broke.
"I mean, God did horrible things to us and love is one of the few things that keeps us going and then he tells us we can't choose who to love, if we are independent he would love for who we are, not for who we choose to love, so if God says it's bad, then how come so much he does is bad? Does that make God bad? Does that make it okay? Just because he is our creator... isn't that... stupid?"
The class went quiet as Mila's snapped out of it, a tear rolled down her cheek. "I'm sorry... I-" Mr. Abello smiled as he stopped her from apologizing. "No Miss Garcia you actually opened for our subject for today" He closed his bible as he wrote on the board.
The day continued, Mila's head kept running around what had happened in religion, her mind was interrupted as her fast pace of walking got stopped as she bumped into a fellow passenger. They both dropped their stuff, being in their own minds they leaned down beginning to pick stuff up, as something out of a movie their hands touched and their eyes met.
Mila's eyes met those brown and she couldn't help but smile. Neither could he. "Garcia" He whispered as he took their notebook standing up, she giggled as he handed her hers. "Young" She answered looking at Oliver.
"Is this the only way I get to see you know? Bumping into you in hallways? " She asked with a small smile on her lips, he chuckled as he sighed. "Is it any different than before?" He looked down at the ground before looking into her eyes again.
"Are you doing better?" She asked carefully, biting her lip as she held her notebook close to her chest. Just a couple of weeks prior. He didn't even look at her, if she tried he would walk away, but here they were smiling and looking at each other, acting like they had been friends.
"I'm... holding up, still quiet shock," He said honestly, she nodded before smiling. "I heard you have a soccer game coming up soon? Nervous? I'm sorry I haven't been to anyone this year "
"It's against Burergandy but I can't let down my team," He said honestly with a small smile. "I heard you're dating Patterson, that must be something" He chuckled as he looked into his eyes. Mila nodded slowly. "We're just friends... but he is differently something"
"I still remember being your first kiss you know," Oliver said with a small smirk on his lips, this caught Mila off guard, causing her to take a step back as she felt her heart skip a beat. Yes indeed Oliver Young was Mila's first kiss in a spin the bottle game, but Mila knew the first kiss from a guy who wanted her heart was outside her home at 11 pm by a brown-haired guitarist.
"I heard you might get a scholarship" Mila changed the subject quickly as she looked at him, he didn't seem to mind as he shrugged leaning against the blue lockers.
" Even with everything going on in my life, the principal said that if I keep up, I might have a chance to get into Washington, they have one of the best soccer programs," He said with a bright smile on his face, even though she could see through it.
"It's not what you wanna do though..." She whispered, this caught Oliver off guard as the bell rang. "I have biology.. but see you soon Garcia" Ignoring her statement he walked to the science building leaving Mila alone in the hallway.
Her mind wandering to the boy who once owned her heart.
———————————————————
A.N
Missed me?
Pfft what do you mean I was gone for 3 weeks? I have no idea what you are talking about!!?
Anyway, I missed you all like crazy and I am so ready to finish this book with you all!
I'm deeply I was gone for so long, but honestly reading all your comments and messages made me want to come back and finish this story.
My concussion is officially gone and I am in much better condition and shape now. I hope you all have stayed healthy and please take care of yourself.
You all mean so much to me and I am happy to be back, thank you for staying and waiting for me.
Also to anyone who might be interested, I did an interview with a beautiful person, so if you wanna read a little more about me, you can do it here:
https://imissyouokay.blogspot.com/2020/11/great-person-and-even-better-writer.html
Anywooo
Love & happy reading!
- crystal mei