Learn How to Love (Boy x Boy)

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐢𝐱

I had lost my key to her house ages ago, but she always kept a spare one beneath the bush inside a small rabbit skull. It was pretty morbid, but no one would want to touch a rotting skull so it worked pretty well. I unlocked her house quickly and hurried inside before anyone saw me. Most of grandma's neighbors were old ladies like her. Maybe that was an overstatement. No one was really like my grandma, at least not that I knew of. 

I shut the door behind me, slamming it so quickly that the musty curtains fluttered wildly. I took a few steps back, looking around at the bare room. Mom had already sold most of the furniture, or Dad had taken it to the dump. They'd probably gotten around five or six thousand dollars from the sofa and chairs alone, and I bet half of it was already headed towards booze and drugs. They could take the money earned here and put it in the bank for my college fund, but instead they were pocketing it for their own pleasure. I could probably find the stash of it and take some for myself. I wanted to get out of this awful town anyways. Now that grandma was gone, there was no one but Sadie left for me here. And Luke, until I figured out what the hell was going on.

The boxes with her stuff were in the tiny garage. I poked my head out of the door, a rush of cold air greeting me. When I was a kid I watched a horror movie about the sun killing everybody, turning their bodies to mush, so I was terrified of playing out in the yard. Grandma would pull up the garage door and fill up a kiddie pool right in the middle of her garage and I'd play in there instead of outside. Eventually I grew out of it, but it was still one of my favorite memories. Grandma would read in her lawn chair. She sat in here, too, so that I didn't feel left out.

The boxes were in towers, unlabeled and unorganized. I sifted through the ones closest to the door and found mason jars filled with preserves. Grandma and I loved pickling vegetables and fruits. I hated the taste of them after they sat in the brine, but Grandma used to do it with her parents so I did it to make her happy. As she got older, she began to forget where she put them or how much she had, so even though we kept making more they often never got eaten. I'd given dozens, maybe hundreds, to canned food drives just to keep them from overflowing her cabinets.

Frustrated, I did a loop around the small garage. Screw my messy parents. They couldn't even bother to sort the boxes into groups. They probably threw random shit where ever they could anyways. This was fucking annoying. Any moment Luke might wake up, freak out again, and leave the treehouse. What if someone in the neighborhood saw him? Or worse, my dad. There wasn't a single mind more closed off than my father's. Furries, homosexuals, trans people, people of color, none of them were welcome by my father. He'd mistake Luke for one, and Luke's albinism wouldn't help. A small worm of anxiety began growing in my stomach. I didn't want to feel worried about him, he didn't deserve it, but I dind't want to be responsible for him getting the shit beat out of him. I didn't want my dad going to jail either. 

"Books! Where are you?" I cried, cupping my hands around my mouth to magnify my voice. Of course, nothing happened. Why would it? Then again, considering that my enemy just showed up at my house at seven in the morning with cat ears and a fucking tail, it didn't seem all that crazy anymore. I was still sort of numb about the whole thing, like the shock hadn't fully set in yet. Maybe I was somehow used to this? Growing up with a "witch" for a grandma. It was so insane... I spent my younger years obsessed with everything magic. I was so thrilled that I had a witch for a grandma, but once I got older something happened that made me realize it was a lie. And now I find out I've been double-crossed? By who? My grandma? My parents? It was all so confusing. Who else knew about my grandma's abilities? As far as I knew, only Luke and I were aware now. But... it wasn't Grandma that cast the spell. It couldn't be. She could never curse anyone, not the woman that I knew. 

Something was poking out of the corner. I perked up. It was the edge of a book. I quickly scurried over, and pulled out a dusty book from behind a mess of boxes. The cover was engraved with a devil that had an exceptionally long face with sharp teeth and small horns. I recognized the book. It had a wooden cover the color of blood. The devil used to give me nightmares, but now it looked more like an old cartoon. I set the book to the side, and dug through the nearest box. 

"Fuck yeah," I hissed triumphantly, dragging the box towards me. It was full of books, probably a dozen or so. I had six or seven back in my bedroom, which meant that these had to be the majority of ones that I had missed. I checked the next boxes, just in case, and found a handful of notebooks. I frowned and pulled one out. It was small, with a sage green cover and "Marge" scrawled over the front in gold cursive. That was my grandma's name. Were these her journals? I lifted up the green one, and found six more beneath it, all with the same signature over the front. They were all different colors, and the green one looked the oldest. I opened the front page.

Day 1. 

My mijo took his first steps today. Those putas that claim to be his parents are ridiculous, yet my mijo is pure and loves them more than life itself. I pray that never changes- I slammed the book shut, ignoring the hot tears pricking my eyes. I dumped the journals into the box with the books, making sure to shift them to the bottom. I didn't want to leave them behind, but I couldn't read them. It felt like I was looking into a personal part of my grandma, that I didn't want to. I don't think I can handle looking through them, at least not yet.

I grabbed the box and hoisted it up. It probably weighed around forty or fifty pounds- thank god I'd started lifting back in fifth grade. I used to be so scrawny. I wasn't anywhere near as muscular as Justin or Luke are, but I was strong enough to carry this box back to my treehouse. Shit. I hoped Luke wasn't getting into any trouble. I'd already been gone for over thirty minutes. I crossed my fingers as I akwardly carted the box out of the house. If my treehouse was a mess when I got back I was going to rip those stupid ears out of his head.