Isaiah's Love

Chapter 9: Aftermath

            Caleb was laying in bed having just opened his eyes. He had woken up earlier to a door shutting telling him that his parents had already left for work. He had fallen back to sleep, but Caesar was up and about probably doing his morning routine, he had heard something bang a few minutes ago jolting him awake. Caleb looked over at his clock having forgotten to set the alarm the night before he thought it was probably a good thing that Caesar had awaken him. The face of the clock read seven forty-five. Part of him wanted to get up and leave right away so he could get to see Isaiah sooner but the other part wanted to lay there and die. He had had probably too much time to himself the night before just to think of what happened. He couldn't get it out of his head that it was his fault for not showing up, that they could have avoided the entire ordeal. Caesar knocked at the door.

"If you do not get up now, young one, you may be late for school," Caesar called through the door.

"Why can't I just stay home today?" asked Caleb sitting up slowly and rubbing his heavy eyes with the back of his hand.

"Well, you could if you wanted your parents to be upset," said Caesar giving him his options, "I meant to ask you when the game was on Friday as well." Caleb got up and sat on the edge of his bed looking for his clothing.

"Yeah," he said reaching for a nearby pair of blue jeans, "that's cancelled."

"Cancelled? What on earth for? Are they expecting rain?" said Caesar not fully aware of what had happened.

"No. Isaiah was attacked in the locker room the other day and think that someone on the team did it so I told the principal we should cancel the game," said Caleb pulling up the jeans, "It's not like my parents were going to be there anyway." Caleb grabbed a black t-shirt off the bed post and stood up in a stretch.

"Caleb, you know your parents want to be." Caleb knew that what Caesar was saying was true but only partly. They may have wanted to be there, but they didn't want to enough or they would have the time to be.

"And yet still they never are." Caleb was sure that Caesar could hear the frustration in his voice he also knew that it wasn't just his parents that were bothering him.

"Is Isaiah, okay," he said out of nowhere.

"Well," Caleb paused, "he's alive." Caleb stepped out of the bedroom, Caesar stood there waiting for him. Not wanting Caesar to see the tears starting to form in his eyes, head walked downstairs toward the kitchen. Caesar followed him. "You wouldn't believe what they did to him. It's brutal." The two of them walked into the kitchen, Caesar motioned for Caleb to sit down at the table and walked over to the counter.

"Your breakfast is already on the table, my boy." Caleb sat down at the table Caesar had made him some home-made waffles and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. "What did they do him?" Caesar looked at Caleb intently ready to take in what he was about to say, it was clear that it was bothering him.

"Well," Caleb took a forkful of his waffle and ate before continuing, "they beat him down pretty badly, but that's not the worst part of it." Caleb paused not fully sure that Caesar would understand what he was about to tell him next, being aware of the way people like him and Isaiah were treated in Caesars generation. "Caesar, they carved FAG into his chest in big capital letters." Caleb blurt out quickly and sat staring at him plate waiting for some kind of reaction.

"How was no one around to stop this?"

"Because I didn't go in on time. My alarm didn't go off." Caleb still stared at his plate not wanting to look up, fully aware that there was tears in his eyes that he couldn't control.