KISS: Casablanca High School

Ch 90: Things Go Bad Sometimes (Ace, Gene)

ACE

Peter pulled me closer in the backseat of his car, one hand around my waist and the other on my thigh. Giggling, I pulled him into a kiss. We sat locked in an embrace for a moment before he broke away, giving me a soft smile. "You ready for our date tonight?" he purred.

"Oh, absolutely," I murmured, kissing him again. He moved his lips from my face to my neck, and we fell back on the seats, wrapped around each other. I would've stayed like that forever if my alarm hadn't gone off. I bolted upright, nearly tumbling off the seats. "Damn, I gotta run babe! I'll see you tonight! Seven, right?" 

Peter nodded, giving me a wave. "Seven is right, cutie. You better not be late! It is our special Valentine's date, after all." I smiled, leaning over for one last kiss and giving his hand a squeeze. "I wouldn't miss it for the world." 

My mood had damped a little bit as I looked at my reflection in my rearview mirror one last time, trying desperately to pull my sweatshirt up high enough to cover the hickey on my neck, to no avail. "Aw Peter babe I love you but come on, man! You really had to do this to me?" I muttered, flipping my hair over my shoulders in a last-ditch effort to hide it.

Hoping for the best, I grabbed my backpack and walked into the house. "Hi Mom, I'm home!" I called. She looked up from the vegetables she was chopping on the cutting board and I saw her eyes immediately go straight to my neck. A frown spread across her face. "Who gave you that?" she asked.

Feeling my palms growing cold, I shrugged. "Gave me what?" I replied, praying my voice sounded casual. "The hickey, Paul. Who gave you a hickey?"

I took a deep breath, steeling my nerves, before looking her in the eye. "My...my boyfriend, Mom. I'm gay," I said quietly.

The change in her expression was almost instant. Her face grew white and a dark scowl spread across her face as she pointed at me with a trembling hand. "Get out." "W-what?" "Get out! Get out of my house! No son of mine is going to be a faggot!" she shouted, grabbing a nearby cookbook and hurling it at me. I stood motionless, paralyzed with shock as the book smacked into the wall near my face.

"I said get out! Get out!" she screamed, continuing to hurl things at me. It was only when she threw the knife in her hand at me that I snapped out of it, turning and running out the door. She ran after me, still screaming. "I don't ever want to see you again! Don't ever come back! And don't even think about talking to your brothers again! The last thing I want is for them to grow up to be like you! To be disgusting little fags!"

Shaking, I pulled open the door to my car, throwing my backpack in the passenger seat and staring at her. "I don't want to come back! Why would I want to live with a bitch like you?! Fuck you, Ester!"

She took a step back, face growing red, before storming toward me. I wisely decided to get in my car and get out.

For awhile, I just drove, adrenaline still coursing through me. I didn't even really realize were I was going, but I guess it was fitting that I ended up in Gene's neighborhood. I parked my car in the communal lot, looking around the apartments. I had never really looked at where he lived, at the gray cement buildings that stood next to each other like sad sentinels. Just depressing concrete buildings in a depressing concrete city. 

My heart was hammering against my chest as I sat in my car for a moment, letting out a groan and dropping my head to the steering wheel. I couldn't think of what happened, I didn't want to think about what happened.

 Still shaking, I walked up the eight flights of stairs, drawing to a halt outside the door covered in chipped paint, room number surprisingly polished. I dragged my foot across the dirty concrete, trying to work up the nerve to do something, anything.