SECRETS - A CALEB MCLAUGHLIN AU STORY

CHAPTER 3 - CAMERON

CHAPTER 3

CAMERON

NOTICE: This is a long chapter, and Caleb will not appear. A controversial decision, I know, but this chapter is being used to advance Jacob as a character. There is ONE other chapter that'll happen towards the end that Caleb won't be in, but Caleb will be in every other chapter, I promise. 🙂

Until then, this chapter is meant to advance and delve deeper into Jacob and who he is as a person, his past, and his family. Hope you enjoy it... and Caleb will be back in Chapter 4, and there's one more chapter, one of the last ones towards the end that he won't be in, but he'll appear in every other piece of this story.

Also TRIGGER WARNING

This chapter will introduce you to Jacob's brother, Cameron, a character who is, for all intents and purposes... the antagonist of this story. He's going to say and do some things that may be a trigger for some people. This chapter will also depict a scene of a suicide attempt.

Beyond that, hope you enjoy Chapter 3, and Caleb will be back full force in Chapter 4 :)

...

The knocking on the door rings in the air. Jacob takes a deep, long breath.

Here we go...

Jacob heads to his apartment door and opens it.

His parents stand on the other end.

"JACOB!" Jacob's mom puts on a big smile and leans forward and embraces her son.

If there's any person Jacob has consistently loved and felt loved by, it was his mother. Everytime Jacob felt darkest, at his lowest, the most like he wanted to end his own life... he remembered his mother.

His mother was the only person he felt understood him, was truly kind to him, and approved of whatever he wanted to do, and accepted Jacob, her son, for the person he was.

His father was a different story.

Jacob was always a very soft, sensitive person. He was very subdued, quiet, shy, quirky, nerdy, all of those things.

Not Jacob's father.

Jacob's father was, what Jacob always called, "A man's man."

He loved football. Cars. Beer. Women in revealing outfits. Rock and roll music.

None of those things were Jacob's scene. Musically wise, Jacob was more into electronic music. He didn't dislike heavier rock, he liked a handful of songs you'd consider 'rock' or 'metal', but it wasn't really his thing. Jacob couldn't stand the taste of beer. He liked nice cars. He didn't care for football, or any sport for that matter.

And then there's women.

Jacob never really felt anything in terms of attraction towards anyone of any gender. He didn't look at raunchy, revealing photos of anyone ever. He always felt that personality was what's important. He never felt attracted to anyone, or anything, ever.

That is...

Until he met Caleb.

Which is also why he was dreading seeing his father.

Jacob doesn't dislike his father. Overall, his father has been mostly nice to him, buying him whatever he wanted, taking him to whatever new movie he wanted to see, whatever new video game for his consoles or new vinyl for his record player in his room... If Jacob wanted it, his father would buy it. Jacob's father would always say,

"Whatever makes you happy, son! You want it, your dad will buy it. Within reason, of course!"

Always ending that sentence with his big, booming laugh.