Loves Protection

Chapter 1

What does it mean to actually love someone? Love, according to the textbook definition, has many meanings. There is love for family, love for friends and love love. I know two out of the three types of love. This story is how I learned the third type of love.

***

My morning starts out like any other day. My alarm goes off at 4:45 in the morning. I get up and take a shower. Once I finish, I just stare at myself in the mirror. My vision is slightly blurred so I put my glasses back on. I'm slightly fit, with dark red hair and sky blue eyes. Not to mention my freckles that I get from my grandmother.

My name is Luca Matthews, a normal 17-year-old high school senior. At least, that's what I should be saying. In all honesty, I am a closet gay who doesn't even know how to tell my family. Scratch that, I do know how to tell them. I just can't because of him, my father. He is the type of person who believes that guys should only like girls and vice-versa.

So, here I am trying to hide my gay self. But it is kind of easy since I never had a boyfriend before. Heck, I never even liked an actual guy before. After I put on the school uniform, a white dress shirt with a gray sweater and black dress pants, I head down to the kitchen. Mom is making breakfast like usual and dad is reading the paper.

"Good morning Luca, how did you sleep?" Mom asks.

I give her a kiss on the cheek, "Morning mom, I slept okay. Is Lizzy joining us tonight?"

"Your sister is working a double shift, so she'll be late for game night," Mom says.

Elizabeth moved out of the house when she turned 19, which was almost six years ago. She had just graduated high school and earned a scholarship for a four year art college that's two hours away from here.

Of course, everyone in our family was surprised. Elizabeth was always the type of person who didn't really put in a lot of effort into her school work. She graduated high school but her grades consisted of half B's and C's, her only A grade was in her art class.

Once she finished college, she stayed down there to work. She has this awesome apartment that has three bedrooms, two and a half baths, a kitchen and a cool living room overlooking the city. We go and visit every summer, the beach and boardwalk down there is awesome.

The bell rings and a few knocks emit from the front door. I laugh as I see my father sigh and head to the door.

"You know my dad is going to get tired of your crap one day," I say as I open the door.

"Oh, we know," Riley says.

"Don't you know it's our job to annoy our best friend's dad?" Charlie asks me.

Riley Carter and Charlie Wilson are my two best friends. It wasn't that long ago that I told them about me being gay. I was expecting the worst because not a lot of people like the thought of gay and lesbians but they reassured me.

They promised it would stay between the three of us and we would only talk about it once no one was around, especially my dad. I'm kind of scared to find out what he'll do when I tell them.

"Good morning Mr. and Mrs. Matthews. How is your morning?" Charlie asks as he sits down to the left of me.

"It was peaceful until you arrived, Charles," My dad says.

"Are you and Riley going to join us for game night?" Mom asks.

Riley shakes her head, "My parents are going to be out of town for a few days and I have to take care of the twins."

"But I can make it. Mom always likes me coming over here," Charlie answers.

"I wonder why," I look at the clock, "we should be going now. Bye mom, bye dad."

Mom kisses my head, "Bye Luca, have a good day."

The three of us head out and hop into Charlie's car. Along the way, we talk about how I'm going to tell my parents.

"What about telling your sister first? She has her own place right?" Riley asks.

I nod, "yeah but it's two hours away. I'd rather lay off on telling anyone until after we all graduate, which is in three months."

"If they somehow find out and kick you out, you're free to come and stay with me and my mom," Charlie says.

"I might end up dead if my dad finds out," I say, "I'd rather it just be us three who knows."

When we get to school, Riley heads upstairs as Charlie and I head left. When we get to Mr. Smith's class, it's just us and the teacher since we got here early.

"Morning Luca, Charlie," Mr. Smith greets.

"Morning Mr. Smith," Charlie and I say together.

***

At 2:15, classes finished just as fast as they started. Every year, the time during school just seems to fly faster.

"The games start at 7. I got a text from Lizzy, she will be picking me up after work so I don't need you to come and pick me up," I explain to Charlie.

"Great, see you tonight."

Charlie and I part ways. Charlie lives almost twenty minutes from my house but his house is closer to my work so he would always pick me up in his car. I enter the house, mom is vacuuming and dad is in his office. I head up to my room and get changed.

My dad doesn't have just any normal job. Because of his parents, he went to piloting school. He first started as a pilot who works every other time but he recently got a promotion. Now he is flying airplanes every day of every month throughout the whole year. We barely see him on holidays and birthdays but he sends cards and gifts.

And speaking of birthdays, mine is in four months. I turn 18 just a month after we graduate high school. He'll probably miss it since this is his only week he took off of work. Today until next Thursday, he'll be home and heads back early Friday morning.

"I'll see you at 6 mom," I call out after I come back down stairs.

"See you later baby," She calls out.

Mom doesn't work that much anymore. She was in a car accident three years ago and had to get her leg amputated just below her knee. She has learned how to cope but she doesn't like how she can't help provide for her family. That's why I have a part time job.

I work at the local Animal Adoption Center, or AAC for short. We take in strays, hurt and wild animals. Before they can become ready for adoption, we make sure everything is alright with the animal. We get them checked out by our on staff vet, making sure that they are cured from any illness.

We basically make sure they don't have rabies but if they do, we make sure to fix them up. If we find an animal with a collar, we give it a check up and look for its owner. If there's a reward, we make sure it goes to the center so we can keep taking care of animals.

"Evening Luca, you're early again," My coworker Justin says.

I laugh and rub my neck, "What can I say, I just love working with all these animals."