Blondie

Lucas

He just kissed me and called me by his last name. He just did that in the bathroom. With me. I try to hide how red I’ve gotten and head back to class with that asshole. I try to even calm the evil butterflies down. I just ignore him and write ideas down, when he steals my paper and slides me a note. In it is written, “We have to talk about the ideas at some point, you can be mad at me but we need to talk about this project.” I look up at him and he is looking at my ideas, so I steal his paper and go to read through it. OMG, this is not an idea. I flip over the paper and give it back to him, trying not to get red.
    I keep eye contact with the table to hide my red face. “You’re good at drawing, you can make illustrations for the story.” He nods and circles one of the ideas I wrote down off a hunch. “That idea?” He nods as the bell rings and runs off, I pack up and leave too. I haven’t read the paper from yesterday yet, I wonder what it said. I pull the paper out of my bag with my notebook as the teacher starts teaching, so I stuff the paper back into my bag. That class was all notes and the next is a pop quiz that I finish quickly enough, so I start reading the paper. I found a list of names, six in total with the same last name as Adrian. Why was he so shocked when he gave me a list of his siblings' names? I keep reading to find a couple of ideas that are kind of chaotic, except one, the same one he circled on my paper. It’s a superhero story, with the main character being a girl. He really does love his siblings if he wants to do a project that will probably embarrass him. I start working on the story whenever I have free time and give him the paper at the end of the day. “Don’t lose that, but there are the ideas for the stupid project slut.”
    “Whatever fag.” I smirk and roll off to work, knowing that if I work hard enough, I can get away from my shitty dad figures. But I could also give this money to Adrian for his siblings to eat. I take a detour and head to the store to pick up a few things for Adrian, then put them in his locker at work and get straight to work. When he comes in, he looks like he just got out of a shower but is fully ready for work. I just keep working as he starts work. At the end of the shift, he hands me 2 papers back. “Next time you want to hand off the paper, please make it seem like you hate me more and have it in a folder so people think you’re doing my homework.”
    “I almost got detention for that, be thankful ‘fag’.” I laugh a little but he just pushes me away and opens his locker and gets a little quiet.
    “Why is this in my locker? Did you do this?”
    “Yeah, but my little sister wanted-” He shoves it back at me, slams his locker, then storms off. I just follow him and slip it in his bag, then rushes home. I’m immediately yelled at by my stepdad for being late for curfew as I walk in the door. “I told you, I got a job so I’m gonna be home a little later than usual.” I say in my soft yet scared tone that I’ve used so much around him.
    “You better start bringing home rent since you think you can live here for free, how much are you earning an hour?”
    “$10 an hour sir, and I’m only working 4 hours.”  I need to get upstairs to get my homework finished.
    “You’re lying to me. It is 10 at night and you finish school at 3:30, so you better tell me why you aren’t counting those 2 and half hours.” Oh shit, I need a lie and quick.
    “My shift doesn’t start for 2 and a half hours after school this week, so I watch the football team practice and do some homework.” Oh no, he’s gonna start bombarding me with questions again. Where is Lily when you need her? Just at that moment, Lily comes running to me in her pj’s.
    “Mommy is gonna read me a bedtime story, come sit and listen, Lucas. Pretty please!”
    “Let me go change, then I’ll come in, ok?” She nods and runs off, then I follow to go change into my pj’s.
    “We’re not done with this conversation young man.” I’m so fucked, this old man doesn’t let me be free. Maybe with this money, I can get a new set of headphones and get them inscribed like the ones from Kate. I rush off to my room, quickly change, then go to Lily’s room to find mom and her waiting for me.
    “Sorry if I’m late princess Lily and Queen mom.” They giggle and pat the foot of the bed where I normally sat for story time. Mom with her calming voice started reading to us, it was a simple fairytale that we all knew by heart, but she still read it from her old storybook. I soon fell asleep as she was getting to Ariel meeting Prince Eric. I guess Lily fell asleep soon after me because mom left the room as I was slipping into deeper sleep. I sleep for about an hour then quietly slip off to my room since I don’t fit in Lily’s bed with her. I find my stepdad going through my bag.
    “This doesn’t look like you were working on homework, it looks like you were writing and doodling.” Oh, that's all he found? Good.
    “It's my Language Art project, I do it with one of the football players.” He nods and keeps looking through my bag when I grab my notebook and work schedule out, then carefully hide it in the notebook as I sit at my desk and start on my homework. He keeps looking, then ruffles my hair and leaves. I fucking hate my hair getting messed with by him. I continue my homework till about 1 in the morning, then put everything away and hide the schedule. Then get to bed where I dream of Adrian being Prince Eric and me as Ariel, but I didn’t succeed in breaking the curse.
    I wake up to cold water getting poured on my head by my stepdad. “What is this?! Are you some fag!?” I see Adrian’s drawing dangling in my face. He slipped it into my bag!?
    “That isn’t mine, that’s the football player’s that I’m working with. I promise.” I put my hands up in surrender after I sat up. He slaps me pretty hard, then rips up the paper and leaves. I guess I’m wearing a mask today. I quickly get out of bed, do my morning routine plus a shower, then sit downstairs for breakfast since I’m up so early. My mom hands me a plate with eggs and toast, and a single sausage which my stepdad eats.
    “Did you take a quick shower this morning baby?” I just nod and quickly eat. She must know if she’s not asking more. I finish eating, then kiss my mom’s head and Lily’s sleeping head, then head off to school on my skateboard and mask up. I stop by a store on the way and grab some cheap headphones, which I plug into my phone and blast some music the rest of the way to school.

Happy Turkey Day and I hope everyone is having a decent or good day! -J