A gift for a Queen

10

1500

Theodore's POV.

I invite Naveeah over to hang out on sunday. I tell her who my crush is after deciding I might as well, its not like anything will come out of my crush. We hang out with Charlie, and we do our homework, like the true nerds we are, and Naveeah, finally tells me her GPA, this girl has a 4.6 GPA which is crazy to me because my GPA is only 3.8.

The story of what happened with Brenda, is on the tip of my tongue, behind my eyes, scratching at my throat, and nipping at my heels, but I still feel like there's something pulling me away from telling her about it.

"So uhm you re-remember how my uh mom, Brenda, came to the s-school?" I ask, stuttering.

"Yeah, we don't have to talk about it if you're not ready, I am not here to remind you," Naveeah reminds me softly, while simultaneously letting me know she's picked up on a lot of my social signs.

"I-I want to, Ch-Charlie lived through it too and I-I need someone o-other than h-her to vent t-to," I clarify.

"Okay, but please don't feel pressured to tell me, that's the last thing I want," She tells me, her hard blue eyes softening.

"R-roughly around Christmas break last year I dated some douche bag who only wanted me for my body, I-I never gave it to him cause we'd only been together for two or three w-weeks and when I h-had reje-ected him for like the sixth time, he broke up wi-with me and tried to blackm-mail me into giving him a blowj-job, and he did this for weeks until he finally got bored and told everyone I was gay. B-Brenda found out the last day of the semester and locked me out of the house the entire break, leav-ving me to call Charlie. Charlie let me stay and was reluctant to bring me back to Brenda, but did it anyway because I'd begged her to.

"When we got to Brenda's house she wouldn't let me in and she called me all kinds of profanities and slurs, until Charlie called CPS, and Brenda panicked before telling Charlie to hang up and that I c-could just stay in my room. At school I was bullied and tormented relentlessly, at home my own mother would take it u-upon herself to pray the g-gay out of me, and when that didn't work, she'd try to b-beat the gay out of me. I was in such a dark place and I felt the need to relieve myself of the pain and I turned to cutting, at one point Charlie called me while I was s-self harm-ming and she'd told me she'd be coming to town to s-see me and see if everything was okay.

"I broke down and told her everything, she told me and I-I quote; That mother fucking bitch! She's so g-going down in court get as much fucking evidence against her as you can, and we're fucking taking her to court! I have never loved my sister more, than in that moment.

"At school I broke down in the hallways multiple times because the same thing was happening to me in public as it was in private. E-eventually during the summer our case got a court date and I was told I could live with Charlie until everything was taken care of. We won the case, obviously, and we hadn't heard a p-peep from Brenda since, we-well up until two weeks ago when she tried talking to me for whatever reason," I explained, feeling lighter and lighter with each word. I noticed Naveeah dabbing at the tears in her eyes.

"I'm so, so, so sorry you had to go through that Theo, you deserve so, so much better than that, and I believe you are well on your way to what you deserve: love and happiness," Naveeah tells me pulling me into a hug, finally letting my tears run down my cheeks.

"Thank you Nav," I whisper wrapping my arms around her.

We hug for a little while longer and when we pull apart we're back to joking with each other and having fun. Eventually Naveeah has to leave and I walk her out to her car to say goodbye. Once I'm back inside the house Charlie and I watch clue before we head to bed ourselves.

-

Monday goes by so fast and so does Tuesday, well up until tutoring time, which seemed to drag on forever and ever.

"Oh I'm so sorry, my mom is calling," Anthony tells me before answering the phone, "Mama, I'm in tutoring right now yes I know the rain is bad, if it gets too bad Teddy lives close to the school and I can probably just crash at his house for the night... Yes I'm sure it would be fine, I'll be okay Mama... Yes I love you too, uh huh, goodnight, mhm yes I love you too," He says in another language, one that I cannot recognize, and decide to move on, trying to ignore the butterflies I felt in my stomach once he started talking.

We pack up once he finishes the little quiz I gave him over everything we covered, and then we did his homework. I check the weather and note that the rain is coming down so hard that we won't be able to see more than seven feet in front of us. Deeming it safer I tell him to just go to my house, and stay there.

"You should let your parents know how bad the rain is and that you won't be home tonight," I suggest, definitely not secretly wanting him to talk in that language again.

"I'll let them know at your house," He responds, making dissapointment settle in my chest.

"That's probably smart," I reply, trying not to show my dissapointment.

The rest of the ride is spent in a focused silence, until we finally arrive. I text Charlie to let her know that Anthony is here and we're probably going to work on homework for Science fiction together in my room. She tells me to just go inside, and that Anthony will have to wait out the storm. I agree and we finally head inside.

"We're going to go to my room, and I'm going to work on what Mrs. Grant assigned today, because I was too distracted to be able to actually focus enough to do it," I inform him, bringing him to my bedroom.

We walk into my freshly suitcase-less bedroom, with a couple pictures of me abd Charlie on the walls. I sit at the desk and tell Anthony that he can sit on my bed, because I don't care.

"So Teddy, what do you like to do in your free time?" he asks, most likely trying to strike a conversation to keep the room less quiet.

"I like to watch horror movies with Charlie," I say shrugging, not really knowing what else to share, "What do you do?" I return the question.

"Assuming I'm not playing baseball, I like to play video games, and shockingly enough I like to read," Anthony responds before asking me; "What's your favorite horror movie?"

"I really like Freaky, its funny and graphic," I explain before asking him what his favorite book was.

Eventually somehow we get onto the topic of love interests, and I'm uncomfortable because the definition of 'my type' or 'my love interest' is sitting literally four and half feet away from me. I blush trying to steer away from the topic right away, but ultimately get curious as to whether or not I actually have a chance with him.

"So do you have an eye on anyone?" he asks, making me turn red at the question.

"U-uhm no?" I respond unconfident.

"Are you sure?" He chuckles.

"Y-yes?" I state trying to sound more confident.

"Well I like someone," he replies, probably trying to make me more comfortable with the topic, "Well I think I like them, I mean he's really making me question my sexuality but I'm not gay," Anthony just casually drops like its not a big deal.

"There are more sexualities than gay or straight, you could be bisexual, and just finding out now because you're more aware of the way you feel," I suggest glad that the conversation has turned from me to him.

"Yeah its just hard to put a different label on myself after thinking I was straight for my entire life basically," Anthony admits, hitting me right where I relate.

"Yeah I really understand that, sometimes it really hard to let that part of ourselves go," I agree subtlely hinting to him that I'm not straight either.

"You mean you're gay?" He asks, I nod, and before I realize any grain of what's happening Anthony is pressing his lips on mine.