Different Sides To The Same Story

Chapter seven Lilith Pearson

   I meet Jason's eyes in the halls as I'm still fuming. Of course I failed. I don't know why I thought I could fucking pass an algebra test when I don't even understand half of it.

He looks at me as he walks through the sea of people, flowing from one class to the next. I make a right turn, stepping into the janitor's closet, as I let the tears I've been holding back run down my cheeks.

I walk up to the brick wall, putting my fists against it as I let my head fall, ignoring the slight amount of pain I felt as it made contact.

"Lily?" Jason's voice says, light from the bright hallway spilling into the dark room.

I turn around, "Uh, hey." I greet him, wiping the tears from my face.

"What's wrong?" He asks loudly, panic lacing his voice.

I shake my head, "I failed my math test." I mutter, the sentence reminding me what I was so mad about.

His smile breaks through his worried expression, "While I'm sure one test won't matter, you shouldn't worry so much." He tells me, walking a few strides towards me.

I put up my hand stepping back a step to stop him, "It matters when you've got a D+ average, and are on academic probation." I tell him.

His smile beams at me as he tries to cheer me up, "I'm just saying don't worry about it till it's an

issue."

"I'm gonna get kicked off the team." I say, wiping the smile off his face, "I've worked so hard at volleyball only to realize I didn't work hard enough on school."

"Lil..." He trails off, not knowing what to say.

I can tell by his face he's uncomfortable, but I'm too mad to care. "It's shit! It's just shit!" I say loudly, "You know I actually had the audacity to believe that I'd be worth a scholarship, that I could play through college, maybe even go pro." I reveal. That being the only time I've ever said it out loud. "I just want to fucking scream." I tell him, putting my hands on my head angeryly.

"You wanna fucking scream?" He clarifies, smiling.

I nod, "Yeah. I wanna fucking scream." I tell him, calmly.

His smirk grows as he holds out his hand, "Then let's fucking scream." He says. I look at his hand for a moment before taking it. He flings open the door, pulling me out with him. He speeds up, practically running down the halls.

I don't struggle to keep up, I've been in sports my whole life. We run through the halls and I slowly feel the weight and the anger being lifted from my shoulders. We finally reach the parking lot, both of us breathing heavily.

He smiles at me with one of his famous smirks, "C'mon get in." He tells me, climbing into his truck. I catch my breath before complying, and entering it as well.

"Where are we going?" I ask, curiously.

"You said you wanted to scream right?" I nod, earning a shrug from him, "Then we're going to do just that." he tells me.

I squint at him as he pulls out of the parking lot. The drive is silent, but it isn't uncomfortable. I feel fine being in utter silence with him.

Within a few minutes we reach what looks like a junkyard. There's crap laying everywhere surrounding a few abandoned trains. The trains are covered in graffiti, most of it looking fucking awsome.

"What is this place?" I question as we exit the car.

"It's the place I come when I want to scream." He answers simply, as he leads me, weaving through a few trains before he finds the place he's looking for.

We're right in between two trains, art on both the carts. There's an abandoned couch, looking well gone. Jason walks to one of the carts pulling out a few milk carts and stacking them, placing a glass on top. Finally he retrieves a baseball bat, handing it to me, as he gestures to the glass.

"You're kidding right?" I question, to which he tries to hide his smile-failing incredibly- before shrugging. Taking a fifty-fifty shot, I swing the baseball bat, smashing it into the glass as it shatters into millions of pieces. A rush of adrenaline takes over as Jason grabs more glasses placing them in front of me as I swing the bat over and over again.

I find myself smiling as I'm out of breath, "You haven't even seen the best part." He tells me, checking his watch and smiling at it. "C'mon." he tells me, as he walks to one of the trains, climbing into the open cart. I stare at him, "Get in it's gonna leave soon." He rushes, hurrying me as I climb in too.

The train slowly speeds up as he adjusts his position, he sits with his knees up, parallel to the open door so that none of him is out of the train. I find myself subconsciously mirroring him, grabbing my handle, as he intertwines our feet so that it goes, my left foot, his right foot, my right foot, his left foot. Making a nice pattern.

The train picks it's speed as the loudness of the air stops me from hearing Jason, "Now!" He yells, making me barely able to hear him as he screams for no apparent reason. I couldn't hear his voice as he screams and my loose hair flies into my face.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" I yell at the top of my lungs, my voice flying into the air and dissipating. I grin at him as he yells again.

---

I lean my back against my door as I arrive home. I feel amazing after my afternoon with Jason, I can't even worry about the test. But my heart skips a beat as I look down, towers of brown boxes meeting my eyes.

I run up the stairs calling for my mom several times as the boxes continue. I finally reach my room, finding it almost bare, my mom admits the boxes. "Mom, what's going on?" I question as she sits down on my bed, tapping the spot next to her.

"Sweetie come sit down." She tells me, I comply almost instantly. The bed dips as I sit, my mother looking at the ground, "Me and your father are separating." She tells me, softly.

"What?" I breathe, "Is this because of the dinner with Jason because half of that wasn't even true." I tell her, rushing out the words as my heartbeat rises.

"What?" she counters, "No Lilith. There are other factors." she tells me, putting her hand over mine.

"What other factors Mom?" I push, earning a soft look from her.

"There are things your wouldn't understand-"

She starts saying before I cut her off, "Mom I'm almost an adult just tell me what happened." I push again.

Her mouth opens to speak but a small voice from my doorway beats her to it, "I'm gay." I glance up seeing my little brother's figure in the door.

Without missing a beat after seeing the tears down his red face I know what happened. I stand, walking a few steps and pulling Dillion into a hug. "I'm so sorry." He cries into my shoulder.

I pull out, holding his shoulders, that are almost as tall as mine, and stare into his eyes, "Dill you have nothing to be sorry for." I tell him slowly.

He nods a bit, pulling me back into the embrace as my mom comes up behind us, joining in on the hug. "We're gonna get through this guys. I promise." She tells us as I feel tears flowing down my cheeks.