Take a Mile (Being Revised)

Chapter Twelve

I sat on my bed with Patrick beside me. We were watching the video of Mikhail that he recorded. As soon as he showed it to me I made him send it to me. Alecea is going to freak when she sees this! Sexy guy grinding across the stage here! Now I see why Patrick is gay. That brings me to a question that has been on my mind.  “Hey Patty,” I said pausing the video. “Remember when we were leaving the diner and you said go to my place?” He nodded his head popping a gummy bear into his mouth. “You said my place because your parents might think I am your girlfriend, what’s that about?” He choked on a gummy bear and I patted his back.

“You good?” I asked him handing him his cup of juice. He nodded sipping his drink and looking down at his bare feet. “Gummy bears are dangerously delicious!” He squealed. “Don’t change the subject Patty.” Groaning he flipped over on his stomach. “Okay well, my parents are uh-“He hesitated before going on. “I haven’t told them that I am gay” That didn’t make any sense. He told Tyler that his parents were okay with it. “When I was dating Tyler my parent hadn’t known I was gay. You know that much. Only my aunt and uncle did.” I stopped him confused.

“But you told Tyler that your parents were okay with you being gay, they were open to it and accepted you.” A sad look showed on his face. “I did it because I didn’t want him to be afraid of being himself. I wanted him to know that being gay is not wrong.” I shook my head.

“Patrick you should have told him the truth, you could have came out together and he wouldn’t have felt the way he did.” I didn’t want to blame Patrick but he should have told him the truth. Tyler didn’t needed to be shielded he needed to be taught. He grew us sheltered and kept away he needed to know no matter how harsh. His parents constantly kept him in a bubble. They never let him leave, they controlled him. “I know, I wanted to but I was scared.” He cried. “I didn’t want him to realize that being gay is hard, that not everyone would accept him.”

“That’s not all… is it?” I said rubbing calming circled into his back.

“No.”

“Why else Patrick?”

“I didn’t want him to hate me, to leave me.” He whispered. It made sense. “I just- I just wanted him to- to… oh I don’t know! I just felt like I should have protected him.” I cradled him and rubbed his head. “He was so innocent and oblivious and I wanted him to stay that way.” I almost laughed at the innocent part. I refrained but I knew Tyler was anything but.

“You didn’t want him to hate you if his parents didn’t accept him… or you.” He nodded fighting back tears. “What if my parents hated me for being gay? How would I tell him that they didn’t accept me for being gay? He would have never come out.” That wasn’t true. Well it kind of was true. He might not have if Patrick had kept doing what he was doing. Which was basically manipulating him.

“I didn’t mean to cause anything bad to happen because of it. I thought I was helping him.” A few minutes later when his sniffling and hiccupping died down his breathing slowed. He had fallen asleep. I laid him on the bed gently and covered him up. Looking at the clock the green letters flashed. It was 2:30 in the morning. I totally had to work in six hours. Thursdays were always the worst. Time sure flew quickly when you get a friend, find your dead best friends ex-boyfriend, get stalked by a hot guy, and still manage to keep up with work.

I still don’t know where my scheduled, uneventful life went to. Now I don’t even know what will happen next in the day. I don’t know if Alecea is going to call me up and drag me to another party or to the mall. Definitely don’t know if Patrick and I will stay this close for long. To top that off there seems to be a really sexy white chocolate male that seems to have taken interest in me. I mean come on that’s a little rare! You always see a black dude with a white girl. I rarely see the other way around. It’s so awesome!