She nods her head. Yep, I’ll meet you at the car.
Once she closes the door, I look at Joey who immediately reaches up to put his hands in my hair. What’s going on ? Talk to me.
I sigh, rubbing my eyes with my palms. I talked to your parents yesterday about my dad.
Okay and why’s that affecting you so much ?
They made me realize that what my dad did to me, what he said to me years ago, that it shouldn’t have happened and he shouldn’t have put that worry on my shoulders, I tell him, sitting back in my seat as I reach over to hold his hand.
And that’s right, he shouldn’t have made you feel so wrong about who you are for all these years. That’s not something that a father should do to their son, he tells me.
I look out the window to see people walking in and I sigh, taking the keys out of the ignition. Come on, we gotta get to class.
He pulls on my hand, making me look over at him. Hey, no, let’s finish talking about this. What do you need right now to feel better ?
Well, I need my father to own up for his mistakes, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon, so I just need you. I need you to stay with me, but I know that I’ll be a bit of a dick throughout the next few days or whatever so I get why you wouldn’t want to stay by me all the time that you can.
He shakes his head, squeezing my hand. I’m here, I’m not leaving. You can snap at me all you want and I’ll still love you, okay ?
The fact that he used the L-word that we finally used yesterday made my heart sing in excitement and I leaned over, giving him a soft kiss before getting out of the car with my bag as he follows my actions. He grabs my hands as we walk into the school and to class where Cody and Melissa sit already.
Hey, guys, how was your night ? Cody asked.
It was good, we just relaxed pretty much the entire time. What about you ? Joey asks as he sits next to me at the four seated table, not letting go of my hand once. They get into a conversation as I lay my head on his shoulder, just waiting for class to start and get all of this over with.
Once Emilie is done with tutoring and I finish with dance, we wait 20 extra minutes for Joey to be done with football so we could all go home. He gets in the car, reeking of sweat even though he changed his clothes and sprayed his entire body in cologne.
Hello, he said, leaning over to give me a kiss before waving at my sister in the back as I back out of the parking space. As we hit the main road, my phone starts to ring and once I see that it’s my dad, I put it to my ear.
Hello ? I say and I’m immediately shocked by what he says.
I don’t care what time it is or where you are, but under my roof, you do not have sex with your boyfriend or whatever. We told you our rules when I gave you the sex talk so if you wanna fuck at his place, go right ahead and do that, but not at our house, you got it ? He snaps and I’m immediately super confused because Joey and I didn’t have sex because I’m definitely still a virgin.
I can feel Emilie and Joey staring at me as I pull into a gas station parking lot before getting out to have some privacy because the last thing I wanted was to talk about this with my sister in the car. Dad, what’re you talking about ? Joey and I didn’t have sex.
He lets out a harsh laugh that leaves me even more stunned. Don’t play games with me. Your sister told me that when she woke up, she heard you two making noises from the shower and even though she was laughing about it, I’m not fucking laughing.
Dad, we did not have sex. Yes, we showered together, but we didn’t do anything bad. I’m sorry, we’ll be quieter next time, but I promise you that we didn’t do anything.
That’s not allowed either, you do not shower together or anything like that in the house. Your sister is in the room next to you along with your parents, that’s not right, he snaps at me and I have to hold in my groan.
But if I was with a girl, you would be like ‘go ahead’ because that’s normal, right ? I snap, not being able to hold in my comments anymore because everything having to deal with my dad has just piled on top of everything else going on and he just happened to be the one to push it all over.
He was speechless for a few seconds. That’s not true. If you were with a girl, you still wouldn’t be allowed to have sex in the house and-
Yeah, but you wouldn’t be this mad. You wouldn’t have called me while I was in the car with my sister and my boyfriend and completely humiliate me. If it was a girl, you wouldn’t be so disgusted every time you see us together, I snap.
Kade, where is this coming from ? He asks.
Don’t worry about it. I’ll bring Emilie home and just go over to Joey’s, I’ve had a long day and I really don’t want to deal with this right now, I tell him as I hit ‘end call’, even though I know I’ll be in a bit of trouble when he sees me next.
I get back in the car and back out of the parking space as I feel the tension in the car as they try to figure out how to approach the situation. I look in the rearview mirror at my sister who is now staring at me with a soft smile. I have to calm myself down by rubbing my palm down my thigh while keeping the other hand on the wheel.
I’m going to drop you off at home and then Joey and I are going to go to his house, I tell her and I see her eyes widen softly before a sad face appears on her face.
It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have told Dad, but I genuinely was saying it as a joke and he completely did a 180 on me. I’m so sorry, Kade, she tells me and I shake my head.
No, it’s okay, it’s not your fault. Don’t worry about it, I tell her as I pull into the driveway. I say bye to her as Joey and I move into his car before we make our way to the quarter house.
You okay ? He asks me.
I kinda went off on him and then hung up, so I’ll definitely be grounded or something once I go back to the house, I tell him as I put ‘do not disturb’ on my phone just in case he tries to spam me with calls.
You stood up for yourself and that’s all you wanted to do this morning, so I’m proud of you for doing that. If your dad throws a fit about it, then big deal. You can deal with the consequences because you’ll know that you finally put it through his head how much it affects you, right ?
I smile at him, nodding my head. Right.
You’re strong, baby, I know you got this, he tells me, using one of his hands to run it through my hair as the other one drives to the pack house.
I’m sorry, this is a little embarrassing, I tell him.
It’s okay, this just means that we have unlimited space to have a little fun together, he said, sending a wink in my direction and I chuckle, lightly hitting his arm.
Such a horny boy, I whisper, leaning my head back against the headrest as he continues the drive to his house as he starts to whisper dirty, dirty things to me.