fOoL fOr YoU

[12] - Heart to Heart

[The Next Morning]

Erick's POV

"Can I ask you something?" I asked. "Sure, anything" He said. "Why aren't your parents ever around or any siblings? Nobody's ever here but you" I said.

"My parents don't care if I live or die" He said. "Don't say that, you know that's not true" I said. "No trust me it is" He said. "I don't believe that" I said.

"Since you want to know so badly, I guess I'll tell you" He said.

"I had a sibling, a brother actually who died by drowning" He said. "Joel, I'm so sorry" I said.

"Ever since then, my parents left and never came back. My whole life I always knew that they favored him over me but I never would've thought that once he died they'd leave me" he said. "Did they think you had something to do with it?" I asked. "I'm pretty sure they think I did it..." He said.

"It happened 4 years ago. We were at summer camp and my brother was by the doc with his friends and I was on the other side of the camp so I didn't even know he was over there" he said.

"I don't know if somebody pushed him or if he genuinely just fell but all I know is I heard somebody screaming for help so obviously I ran to go help and then when I realized it was my brother I jumped in to save him but he was so far away from the doc that once I got to him he wasn't breathing..." he said. "My parents were called and you want to know the first thing they said to me?" He said.

" "How could you let this happen? Did you have something to do with this?" " he said. "That's what they said to me. They asked me if I killed my brother" He said.

"I didn't do anything but try to save him but when I told them that they didn't believe a word I said" He said.

"My whole life they looked at me like I was this troublemaker when in reality I did all that stuff to get their attention because all I wanted was for my parents to love me as much as they loved him" He said.

"I don't know where they are exactly but after his funeral I never saw them again and as you can see from this big house, they have a lot of money so they pay somebody to check in on me every once in awhile" He said. "So you've basically live alone since then?" I asked. "Yeah pretty much" He said.

"But you're 17 years old" I said. "Your point?" He said. "So that means you've lived alone since you were 13?" I asked.

"Yeah basically but I never really feel alone because Chris and Rich are always here or you" He said.

"They never really leave me here alone because they know everything that's happened and I guess they feel bad so the only alone time I really get is with you" He said.

"Is that your way of telling me I'm interrupting your alone time right now?" I said. "No. I don't like being alone" He said.

"I can't believe you've seriously had the worst life possible and I'm just now hearing about it" I said. "I don't tell anybody anything really. Richard and Chris only know all that because they were my friends at the time it happened so they saw everything with their own eyes. So you're the first person I've ever told" He said.

"Does that mean I'm special?" I asked. "You were already special" he said. "Really? How so?" I asked. "Because you're you" He said. "You were always special in my eyes" He said. "Stop being all cute, I'm already yours" I said.

"I don't want to leave you yet especially not after you just told me all that. Can I just be here with you a little longer?" I said. "I'm fine but I'd like it if you stayed a little longer" He said.

[Later]

I finally forgave Zabdiel. Mostly because I needed to talk to him about what just happened but also because I kind of missed him and we agreed that if I forgot about him and Joel, then he would accept our relationship.

"Zabdiel focus!" I said shaking him. "This is serious. He told me things Zabdiel. HE TOLD ME THINGS" I said. "Erick, you're losing your mind, breathe" He said.

"Now yes, I did ask BUT I WASN'T EXPECTING HIM TO SAY ANYTHING LIKE THAT" I said. "And now it's worse than I thought. I'm in too deep, I LOVE HIM" I said.

"But isn't he your boyfriend? So you should love him right?" He said. "NO ACTUALLY HE'S NOT. I DON'T KNOW WHAT I AM TO HIM" I said.

"Are you sure you're the one who's 'in too deep'?" He joked. "ZABDIEL WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! ENOUGH WITH THE JOKES" I said. "Okay I'll stop but that one was funny" He laughed.

"What do I do now?" I asked. "Usually I know what to say, but this time you're on your own" He said.

"I don't know what kind of sad story he told you since you won't repeat it, but if the reason you think you're in love with him is because of that, don't let it be" he said. "Don't love him because you feel bad, love him for him not his sob story" He said. "I won't repeat it because he trusted me not to and it wasn't a sob story he just had a terrible life" I said.

"But what was really weird was that he didn't cry or show any emotion for that matter" I said. "Erick, don't push it" he said.

"You may have just met Joel a couple of months ago, but I've known him almost my entire life and he's never been one to show any type of emotion almost as if he doesn't have any" He said. "That's nonsense everybody has emotions" I said.

"Erick, NO. LET IT GO" he said. "It's NOT going to end well and you know it, you're lucky he even told you anything" he said.

"Remember the last time I told you to let something go and you didn't?!" He said. "Okay okay, I'll let it go" I said.

"Or not" I said. "Erick please" He said.

"I should go now, I'm grounded and I need to sneak back into my own house before my mom gets back from work and realizes I'm gone" I said.

"What did you get grounded for?" He asked. "Being with Joel when I should've been at school" I said. "She knows you were with Joel and you're still breathing??" He asked. "No because if she knew, I wouldn't be breathing. She just knows I wasn't in school" I said.

"I just hope she didn't go and check my room last night because I was um... with Joel" I said.

"Okay... I know I said I would accept your relationship with Joel, but you can't tell me you don't see what he's doing to you" He said. "What do you mean?" I asked. "Skipping school and sneaking out? Erick that's not you" He said.

"You know, I don't want to talk about my relationship with Joel anymore, let's talk about your relationship with him" I said. "OKAY NEVERMIND. Forget I said anything" He said. "If you say so" I said.

"Now I really should leave" I said. "Yeah you should before you get mad at me all over again" He said. "Byeee" I said waving as I left.

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I just had to throw a little something in there to spice up the story, you know me ;)