Jacob's p.o.v
With my head burried between my knees, I wait for Art to text me that he's here. I'm sitting on the bathroom floor and he's calling non stop, but I just can't get myself to talk. Mom keeps knocking on the door too and I can't open it.
The realization that you don't mean anything to someone you've wanted to love you for so long will do that to you I assume.
I think I would be better off pretending that she treated me the way she did because of her fear for my father, not because she despises me.
When my phone chimes, I slowly pick it up and look at it with squinted eyes.
Art's here and before I could open his text, he starts calling again and I slowly get up. I wipe my face with some tissue and take a deep breath before unlocking the door and rushing out of the house without facing anyone.
Swiftly, I go down the stairs and out of the apartment. When I see Art pacing by the car, the tears come flowing again and I quickly make my way to him.
"Why you ain't picking up when I'm calling you. I had to call Alyssa to get the address. You know how worried I a-..."
And I hug him around his middle immediately crying into his shirt.
"S-she doesn't want me. She h-hates me. I thought she didn't know how to take care of kids, but she d-does. She just didn't want to take care of me" I tell him while crying my eyes out and I feel him lift me up.
He's talking, but I can't hear him through my cries.
"She hates me."
I'm having difficulty breathing and my heart is pounding uncontrollably.
"She hates me."
I don't know when Art puts me down and makes me sit down right on the side of the road and he sits down too wiping my forehead and tears. I'm sweating and shaking tremendously.
"She hates me."
"Baby" he calls me and puts his forehead on mine, "Jake, breathe. Breathe...come on" he says softly holding my hands tightly while his forehead doesn't leave mine once.
We stay like that for quite some time hearing cars drive by.
His even breathing, his scent and his grip on my hands is what I concentrate on with my eyes closed until my chest stops heaving so quickly.
I squeeze his hand and take a much needed breath before opening my eyes slowly to see us sitting on the pavement. Art's eyes are still clothes and he seems so focused while he holds my hand.
Someone walking by looks at us weirdly and goes, "you boys are okay?"
Art only puts a thumbs up and the guy walks away. I guess he thinks I'm still panicking and doesn't want to talk so I call him.
"Art" I say softly trying to pull my hand away.
"Yeah, you gotta breathe. Keep your eyes closed" he says seriously and I can't help but smile.
"Art, I'm okay now" I tell him.
"You sure?"
"Uhu, I feel better. Thank you" I say to him and he finally pulls back and opens his eyes to look at me.
"You really fine?" he asks again caressing my cheek and I nod.
"I feel so much better now that you're here" I answer to him, "it happened because I saw m-" and he covers my mouth.
"You don't have to talk about it, it's cool. I'm just glad you feel better now" he tells me causing my heart to beat extremely fast.
It's been doing that a lot lately whever I'm with Art so I look at him with a small smile. He's the best.
"I couldn't talk. That's why I wasn't picking up. I think you'd be more worried" I pout, "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. You calling me is enough cause I didn't know you were going through something over here. I was on the couch bored as fuck trying to find something to watch thinking you went back to cleaning up with Alyssa" he says and he throws his head back looking up at the sky.
"Babe" I call him and he looks at me, "do you know that we're sitting on the side of the street?" I giggle, "people are looking at us weird."
"What. They ain't see two gay niggas sitting on the side of the street before?" he goes and that gets a laugh out of me.
"I guess they haven't" I giggle taking a much-needed breath and we look each other in the eyes. I instantly blush and cover my face feeling so shy that he suddenly looked at me like that.
"Baby, I've seen you naked" he takes a hold of my chin and I bite my lip looking away.
"Still" I pout feeling butterflies in my stomach.
"You're cute" he teases me, "on some serious note though, we really gotta get up from here."
"We definitely should" I agree.
"Get up and pull me" he says and I get up slowly. When I'm up, I wipe the back of my pants before pulling Art up.
"The gym fucked me up. I'm still tired" he groans holding his back.
"Me too. I feel so sleepy" I sigh walking to the car and he pulls back.
"Wait up" he makes me stop, "come here. Come stand here. I got something for you."
"The surprise?" I ask and he nods.
"Wait here. It's in the car" he tells me before hurrying to the car.
Patiently, I swing back and forth waiting for the surprise. Not as excited as I was before everything happened, but still excited nonetheless.
Curious I try to see what's behind him when he makes his way back to me.
"I actually planned on taking you out on a date before showing you this to make it a little more romantic so you could say yes" he laughs showing me the envelope, "but fuck it, I don't like seeing you like this. Open it up."
"What is it" I ask struggling to open the envelope and look inside it when I finally get the top part open. "It's paper?"
"Take it out and see, baby" he says rubbing my sides and I take it out.
Curiously, I take the papers out and gasp when I see what it actually is. These look like tickets. At least that's what it looks like on television.
"Tickets" I murmur looking up at him, "Plane tickets?" I ask to be sure and he nods.
"Yeah" he says scratching the back of his head, "I gotta go back one of these days...so....Aight look..I....uhh...." he starts again when I don't say anything and this might be the first time I've seen him genuinely struggling with what to say.
"So I uhh...fuck...."he mumbles turning around for a second as I stand there dumbfoundedly not really sure what to do until he takes a deep breath and turns back around, "aight, I got this" he assures himself before making eye contact again. I don't know why my heart suddenly starts to beat a little faster making me extremely nervous.
"B-babe..."
"I want you to come with me" he cuts me off causing my jaw to drop, "I got a call from pops and he needs me so I gotta go back.....and I want you to come with me this time cause I don't wanna leave you here again. I don't like what happened the last time I did and I didn't properly apologize for that. I shouldn't have left out of the blue cause we were both in it but I didn't have a choice and I wanna say I'm sorry. I should've been here for you. I'm sorry I wasn't here to take care of you when they.....fuck....." he says closing his eyes and I immediately pull him down to hug him.
"It's okay."
"It's not. You don't deserve that" he whispers in the crook of my neck while I caress his head.
"It's not your fault, you d-don't have to be sorry" I whisper back to him and squeeze him a little for reassurance. This was bound to happen. My parents would throw me out eventually. I wasn't prepared, but somehow deep down I knew that they would someday cut ties with me. I just didn't expect it to be so soon.
"I'll kill him" he threatens and I shake my head 'no'. He's not worth it, "I should've beat his ass some more" he says and I gasp when I remember the last time I saw my parents at the hospital and how ruffled up they seemed. Come to think of it, my father had bruises.
"You beat him up?" I ask feeling so astonished that it even happened.
"Right in his office. And told him to stay the fuck away from you unless he got something nice to say" he shrugs as if it's the most casual thing to beat up someone let alone my father.
He always scared me, even when he didn't utter a single word. Just his presence was enough to make me cry. No wonder he didn't spew hateful words at me when he saw me. He just walked away.
What would I do without Art.
Just the thought of him beating my father up and threatening him in the same office he lectured and belittled me in sends a strange but yet so familiar feeling down my spine. And looking at his geeky expression saying it...ugh I lo-
"I love you" slips out of my mouth before I can even stop it.
'That wasn't supposed to come out. It was only for my head to hear' I mentally shriek feeling so awkward by the silence. Not sure what to do after or say, I turn around to walk out of this predicament.
"Where you going" Art pulls me by my hand back to him and he makes me turn around, "what are you suddenly shy about" he chuckles lifting my chin up so we can look at each other.
"What's up" he smiles lifting his eyebrows at me and I roll my eyes blushing, "you're shy cause of what you just said?"
I don't say anything. I just nod and look away, but he cups my cheeks turning my head back to him.
"I wasn't supposed to hear it?" he asks lowly this time looking down at my lips then back to my eyes and I shake my head 'no'.
He just looks at me for a while, pecks my lip and pulls back, "say it again."
"W-what?" I stammer at his request.
"What I wasn't supposed to hear. I wanna hear you say it again" he tells me without removing his hands on my cheeks. I can't even escape this.
I look him in the eyes and he gives me a small nod without taking his eyes off me and I take a shaky breath.
"I'm listening."
"I love you" I say it again a little louder this time and I close my eyes feeling so overwhelmed and nervous.
He makes me so nervous that I don't even know where to put myself sometimes. Also, sometimes I feel as though my heart might explode when he stares at me a little too long. Like right now.
With his hands still on my cheek, I gulp feeling so many emotions at once and my mind's racing a mile a minute that I don't even realize when he puts his forehead on mine. Usually his cologne is enough to ease my mind, but it's just not enough this time. I can't think. I also can't stop myself from bursting into tears either at what comes next.
"I love you too" he whispers causing me to feel goosebumps in every part of my body. I just can't help but cry like a baby.
"Did I say something wrong?" he suddenly asks with concern laid over his voice and I immediately shake my head moving a little closer so I can cry in his chest. I make sure not to drop the precious envelope, "then why you crying."
"Are you hurt?" he asks desperately trying to find out if something happened to me but I shake my head again hugging him around his middle.
So warm and comfy...
"I-I'm h-happy" I stutter out while he caresses my back.
I never thought of this happening in a million years.
All my life I thought that my nanny would be the only one to ever love me for who I am. I thought I'd die alone because no girl ever seemed to like me no matter how much I tried or how many donuts I bought and the only place I was allowed to go to was a warzone. At school, I was reminded everyday why nobody would ever like me. Let alone love me. It was the same exact thing at home whenever my parents came around.
I guess they were wrong.
Because I did find someone who loves me for who I am.
He literally walked his way into my life at the darkest times and held my hand.
And he doesn't mind my flaws.
He also listens to the weirdest stuff I have to say
He likes my waist
My body, that I once despised
The way tighter clothes expose every part of my body
He doesn't mind it when I am myself
And he tells me I'm cute....a lot.
"I love you" I mumble into his shirt not loud enough for him to hear feeling so giddy. I like the sound of that very much. Art better be prepared to hear it every hour of the day.
"You aight now?" he asks when I look at him with the brightest smile as if I wasn't crying just now and I nod.
" I am" I cheese, "sorry about your shirt" I pout looking at the now soaked shirt. He also takes a look at it and he shakes his head smiling before leaning down to kiss.
"You're lucky I love you" he says before connecting our lips and that riles me up so quickly that I go on my tippy toe to deepen the kiss. Him saying that sounds ten times better than anything I've heard or read before.
The envelope slips from my fingers when he puts his arms around my waist lifting me up and my legs go around his waist while I restrain myself from moaning.
"Aah" a small moan slips out when he turns us around and my back presses against the car window. I put my arm around his neck trying to keep up with his tongue as much as I can.
'What if they see us' I think to myself not really caring at all. The thought of my mother seeing me getting manhandled by my boyfriend just feels so good. It will make her so mad and I want her to be mad.
My days of pleasing her are over.
"O-oh my God" I whimper feeling the pressure on my lower body when Art starts kissing my neck and I throw my head back grinding my semi-hard manhood against him but it's just not enough with the pants.
"W-we should go home" I tell him breathlessly not really trying to stop when he slips his hand into the back of my pants gripping my buttcheek.
"A-Art" I try to tell him that the door of the apartment just opened but I stutter miserably when his finger brushes over hole making my eyes roll back.
When I come by a little, I pull back and start pecking his lips to calm both him and I down. "We should go home" I say feeling so shy by the way he's staring at my lips. When we became friends I always thought he'd eat me when he gave me those looks and when we became boyfriends I realized that he actually does want to eat me.
"Fuck" he sighs laying his head on my shoulder and I giggle when he nuzzles his nose in the crook of my neck, "let's go quickly. I've been holding this for the past two days. You know how hard it is not to keep you in bed the whole day?"
When he says that, I blush violently looking away just to see my mother standing at the front door staring at us with a disgusted look on her face. When Art follows my gaze and turns around to see her, his expression immediately changes and he tries to go to her but I stop him.
"It's aight. I'mma just talk to her" he says.
"It's okay" I tell him. Still staring at my mother, I pick the envelope off the floor and look at Art, "I'll go."
He frowns, "I won't let you go there. Fuck her."
"No, I mean I'll go with you" I say again, "to New York" I flash the envelope in his face causing his eyebrows to go up and his eyes to widen.
"You forreal?" he asks with excitement laced in his voice and I nod violently.
"I am, I want to" I tell him.
"You're serious? Say you forreal" he asks again coming closer and I nod again.
"I really am. I am serious. I'll go anywhere with you" I tell him truthfully and he immediately hugs me so tightly turning us around a few times while my mother watches in rage. When he puts me down, I kiss him passionately and he hugs me again.
"Let's go home" I snuggle into his chest, "you can keep me in bed for the whole week."
When he hears that, he cheeses so hard making me giggle too at his playfulness when he tries his hardest to find his keys. He's in such a hurry all of a sudden.
"Babe, the doors are unlocked" I laugh when I try to open the passenger door and it actually opens.
"Yeah...I knew that" he plays it off before practically running to the other side to get in the car while I crack up looking at him. I love this side of him so much and I'm glad I get to see it all the time.
"Baby, come on, get in" he says starting the car.
I look at my mother for a last time and before I get in the car, I flip her off until I step in and close the door.
"Did you just..?" Art asks surprised and I nod putting my hands over my warm cheeks in disbelief.
I just flipped my own mother off and it feels....it feels great, but bad?
"Maybe I shouldn't hav-..." I try to say but Art cuts me off.
"That shit was sexy" he says intertwining our fingers.
"Do you really think so?"
"Come here" he puts his finger under my chin bringing me closer, "I'm proud of you."
"Thank you" I smile thanking him for always making me feel better and reassuring me.
"My pleasure" he winks starting the car.
"I love you."
"I love you too. You ready to go?"
"Uhu" I hum wearing my seatbelt.
When we drive off, I look at my mother for a last time before taking a deep breath.
She used to be my home even if I don't have the best memories about it. Those years were painful, but at some point in live, the pain was all I had.
I feel a small squeeze on my hand and I look over at Art giving me quick glances while focusing on the road ahead and I instantly feel better.
"You good?"
"I am" I say softly without taking my eyes off him, "I'm very good."
I don't think I mind about leaving anymore, because I found a better home.
I have Art now.
And wherever he goes, I'll go
Because my home is with him.
(The end)