03

« It’s not a fucking disease, you asshole ! » I scream at him as I feel my throat start to throb and tears start to come to my eyes as I watch his retreating form tense up even more at the sound of his voice.

« Fuck you ! » He screams as he gets in his car before speeding away and out of my sight.

I unlock my car before getting in to set my forehead against the steering wheel to calm down my beating heart that’s still reeling from the panic that that man, that homophobic asshole, caused me. I sit there for a few minutes before I get the courage to start my vehicle and pull out of the parking lot to fake a smile at my family’s dinner and try to understand what the hell just happened.

Kade’s POV

I woke up with a killer headache and my throat raw from what happened yesterday. I manage to roll out of bed and get dressed in some light blue jeans with some rips, a white t-shirt with the cuffs decorated with rainbows, and black Vans. I finish getting ready and make my way downstairs where my grandmother is sitting at the table with a cup of coffee and a book in her hand.

« Good morning, Gigi, » I tell her, kissing the top of her head before going to the medicine cabinet to get some for my headache.

« Good morning, pumpkin. How’d you sleep ? » She asked, setting down her book that seemed to be To Kill A Mockingbird. She and my grandfather are staying in the spare bedroom for a few days until their new house is officially theirs and they can move in.

« Fine, but I woke up with a bad headache, » I said, taking two of the pills as she gets up to probably start on breakfast for the whole house.

« My poor baby, » she said to me.

I picked up my phone and I saw that I have a text from Melissa because sometime yesterday, she had gotten my number and texted me when she got home. We texted a bit last night and I can see that she’s really genuine and just really wants to be friends with me, but I honestly don’t know if I can do that if she’s going to be friends with Joey after what he did to me.

What happened between you and Joey ? She texted me and I sigh, not wanting to get into it with her right now, so I put my phone in my pocket as Emilie was coming down the stairs. She was wearing black jeans, a white t-shirt with a denim jacket, and some Vans with her hair done up in a side braid.

« You look cute, » I tell her as I pour some of the coffee in the pot into a travel mug to help me wake up a bit on the drive to school. My parents come downstairs in their work clothes as Gigi keeps cooking. Once the food’s done, Emilie and I rush to eat before saying bye to everyone and heading out the door for our second day of school.

« Who was that girl’s name that you talked to in first block yesterday ? » I asked my sister as I pull out of our driveway and waving at Dad who was walking out of the house as we were leaving.

« That’s Amanda, she’s new too, so she didn’t have anyone else to talk to, » Emilie says and I can see a faint smile on her face, telling me that she might have made a good friend yesterday.

I keep quizzing her the entire way to school just so I could know how she’s handling all of these crazy changes in such little time. Once we get to the school, we make our way through the parking lot and once we get inside, someone grabs me and pulls me to the side and Emilie gives me a confused look.

I look at Melissa who’s staring at me and holding my arm before I look back at my sister. « Can you make it to class yourself ? »

She looks around before nodding slightly. « I think so. »

Once she starts to walk in the way of her class, I see Amanda making her way over to her and she immediately perks up, making me feel a lot better about letting her go on her own. I look back at Melissa who is now inspecting my neck to look at the slight bruises. « Kade, I’m so sorry. I would’ve never left you alone with him if I knew he would do this. »

« Is there a real reason why he would do this ? »

« What’d he say to you ? » She asks and I’m immediately brought back to the moment that has really messed me up since then.

« He told me to not spread my gayness on him, » I say and she averts my eyes for a second, which tells me that she knows something that I don’t.

« I’m so sorry, Cody already talked to him because I forced Joey to tell me what he was hiding because I knew he did something. I just didn’t think it would be this way, » she says, confusing the hell out of me because ‘this way’ ? What the hell does that mean ?

« Wait, what do you mean ? » I ask and she averts my eyes again before grabbing my schedule that I was holding in my hand to find my first class of the day.

« We both have gym first, so let’s go, » she says, linking arms with me before guiding me to where the gym is since I had absolutely no clue where anything was.

« Are you going to tell me what you meant ? » I ask her.

« Probably not. So the first day of gym, they don’t make you change or anything, they just go over everything and then have a game that’s optional, » she tells me, making me roll my eyes because I want to know what she means because there’s obviously a secret between her, Cody, and Joey that I don’t know about.

« Good because the only game I play is foreplay, » I told her and she immediately burst out laughing in the middle of the hallway.

Once she had calmed herself down, we made our way into the gym where we went and sat down on the red bleachers and I noticed that Joey and Cody also had this class when they walked in and sat with a group of guys that I didn’t know. I was sitting with some of the dance girls and we all started a conversation about the routine that was happening this afternoon.

« Hey, how long have you been dancing ? » Some girl who I think is named Tyler asked me.

Everyone looked over at me, immediately making my cheeks heat up with the attention. « Uh, I started when I was about nine because I didn’t like any sports so my parents put me in dance. I did gymnastics the last three years to focus more on my flexibility to better my dancing. »

« Whoa, so you’re definitely the most experienced out of all of us, » someone else said while everyone else looked a little admirable at my experience. I noticed that Coach Erixon was one of the gym teachers, which made me feel good to have a familiar face thrown into all of these new ones.

« We’re your teachers for your senior year. This is Coach Erixon and I’m Coach Gordon. We are just going to go through safety and using the equipment and sports teams, then we will play an optional game, » The man said.

We listened as the coaches talked until it was time to play the optional game of two-hand touch football and they announced that it was optional for everyone but football players just to get in some extra practice before the game on Friday.