Carnival Hearts

The Explanation

        Dante didn't know what to say. Did I seriously just k-kiss him? D-did he like it..? He's smiling.. I think I can see him blushing a bit too.. thought Dante. Nathan suddenly leaned in to him again. He put his head on Dante's shoulder. Then he remembered Dante and the fight.
       "Dante..?" asked Nathan, now sounding a little serious. "Yea?" asked Dante. "Why are you being so nice all of a sudden? I mean, the other day you let me touch your dog. And now you want to help people? And you're being nice to me? Why? People always said you were a jerk and you pushed people around. You pushed my friend Delaney a while back. You didn't help her up.. And then I saw you fighting those kids earlier today.. What's wrong with you?" asked Nathan, now with a bit of tears in his eyes.
        "I-I.. Um.. I'm sorry.." said Dante. "You see, it may not seem like it but, I really don't want to be mean. I don't want to be like that. But, I've always had it hard. My mom died a while ago and I got sad. That also got me angry so I took it out on people a bit when I didn't mean to.. Remember when I pushed Delaney out of the way? Well I was running because I had just gotten the call that my mom was dead.. I wanted to leave and visit her that I didn't really notice what was going on around me, or the people I pushed. It was still not the right thing to do.. I should of helped her up. No, I shouldn't even have pushed her in the first place. And now that my mom's gone, my dad has been drinking and he's depressed. He doesn't think about me or my siblings. When he's drunk and mad, he abuses us. He told us not to tell anyone because if we do, he'll hurt us really bad. Now, we live in fear that he might hurt us.. I still have some scratches and bruises.. I get so mad at him.. I cry every night.. And there was only one way I could distract myself from that. I took my anger out on other people. Of course, that was a while back, but it got me the reputation of being a bad kid.. But now I'm trying my hardest to change. And those kids I was supposedly "beating up", well, I wasn't. Those two were fighting each other. The reason? I have no idea. But as soon as I saw the fight, one kid was about to lose consciousness so I stepped in and tried to break them apart. They wouldn't budge. Finally, I had to punch the stronger one, the one who was still conscious, and he staggered back and fell on his butt. I told some of the kids in the circle to help the weaker one and then I turned in the stronger one to the carnival employee. I don't know what happened to them after that. Then I saw you walking away with your friends, and I had a feeling you had seen a little bit of the fight. I felt guilty that I couldn't tell you the whole story then and there.." said Dante, feeling relieved to tell Nathan what Dante had wanted him to know all along.
     Nathan didn't know what to say. Dante, a popular jock, someone who everyone was afraid of, the person who could never break or be hurt, was now telling all of this to Nathan. Nathan had a feeling that he had not told anyone this, ever. He felt bad for Dante. Dante had it hard. His mom dying wasn't even his fault! So why is his dad taking it out on him?
    "I-I'm s-sorry.. I d-didn't know y-you had it th-that hard.." said Nathan, crying a little bit. He did not know why he was crying. Maybe it was the story, or the guilt he had of always thinking of Dante as a horrible person, not caring to find out the whole story.
      Dante had noticed Nathan was crying. He brought Nathan closer to him and squeezed his shoulder a little bit.
      "B-but that still d-doesn't explain.. why you're so n-nice to m-me.." said Nathan, looking up at Dante. Dante looked down at Nathan. He's so cute.. Even when he's crying.. thought Dante, now smiling and blushing a bit. "Well you see.. I never really knew you, but I had always thought you were cute. But like, I don't know.. Like I had never seen anyone like you and I didn't know what I was feeling. I always watched you a little bit, from afar. I didn't know what I was feeling; I guess that I thought I had just wanted to be your friend. I never thought anything more of it. Then you ran in to me while you were running and I thought that it might be a good chance to get to know you a little better. You were so cute, I remember. I don't know.. I had a weird feeling.. Somewhere in my mind, I had wanted to impress you.. I felt so bad and sad when I saw you walking away from where the fight was. I wanted you to know that I wasn't fighting. I wanted you to know so bad. I didn't want you to think I was a bad person.. You are special to me and I don't know why. I guess I was being nice to you because I wanted to appear likable. I wanted you to like me. I think I now realize why I wanted you to like me.." said Dante, still staring in to Nathan's light brown eyes.
      Nathan was, again, speechless. He didn't know what to think. I always thought he was being nice just to be nice, or pretending to be nice.. I never thought.. he would actually.. like me... "I-I.. I.." Nathan didn't finish. He was being kissed, again, by his crush.
       At first, Nathan didn't realize what was happening. Then he melted into the kiss and closed his eyes. He, again, felt Dante's breath on his face, but this time, his strong arms were around his waist. This kiss lasted longer than before. It was more powerful. And rough. After what seemed like an eternity, they finally broke apart. They were both panting. "Tha-,ha, that was, awesome," said Dante. "Ha, yea," said Nathan, happily.