The Truth

I was laying on my bed when my phone went off, signaling I got a text.

Text messages (Courtney and Jacob):

Courtney: Hey, babe, uhhh… can I… never mind.

Jacob: what’s wrong?

Courtney: Just… nothing.

Jacob: Don’t give me that. What’s wrong? Are you ok?

Courtney: …

Jacob: I’m gonna take that as a no.

Courtney: …yea…I’m not…

Jacob: Why? What happened?

Courtney: Can I just…come over…?

Oh shit. What am I gonna say??? I can’t tell her no, but I also can’t have her over here. What if…they do something ?? No. I can’t risk it.

Jacob: I uhhh I don’t think that’s a good idea.

Courtney: ???

Jacob: I’m sorry. There’s something I haven’t told you. But I don’t want you to find out like that.

Courtney: Jacob, what’s going on?

Jacob: Uhhh, meet me at the park. I’ll tell you there. But you gotta tell me what’s wrong first, alright?

Courtney: …fine. I’m on my way.

Jacob: Alright, me too.

As I start to walk out of my room, I try to take a deep breath and prepare myself for what’s to come.

I avoid my parents as much as I can as Iwalk out of the house, and make my way to the park.

“Hey,” I said as I was walking towards Courtney, who was sitting on a bench.

“So what’s going on?” She asked, with coldness in her voice.

“Alright, alright, none of that. I told you that I would tell you after you told me what’s wrong.”

“Alright. Fine. It’s the anniversary of my dad’s death. Now tell me what’s going on.”

“Wait, what? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I just did. So what’s going on?”

“Ughh, fine. But we aren’t done talking about that…ummmm so, uhhhh my parents, they uhhh… ugh, idk how to say this, alright?”

“Then just flat out say it.”

“Ughh fine. My parents, they uhhh, they aren’t the best.”

“What do you mean?”

“Alright, I’m just gonna tell you everything. So, I don’t know what started it, but once I was around 9, something happened. My parents started drinking more and more. And they also became more aggressive. They started abusing me and my little brother. He uhhh…he died when I was 12… He uhhhh…he ended it himself. Honestly, I think it’s because of how bad my parents were. They didn’t care if he was only 10. They no longer took care of us. I ended up getting a job because they wouldn’t take care of us. They no longer cared about what happened to us. All they cared about was if they were out of alcohol, or out of cigarettes. After my brother died, they blamed it on me. They don’t know that it was suicide. I found his body before they came home from the store. He uhhh he hung himself, as well as overdosed. When they came home, they were furious at me. They thought I did it. For weeks. Until we got the results from the Autopsy. I asked for the results first, because I knew that the truth would completely destroy them. So I kept it to myself. I told the person who gave the results to just tell my parents it was a heart attack. Thankfully they did. But my parents still blame me for his death.”

--Courtney--

The entire time he was explaining, he wouldn’t look at me. His elbows were on his knees, and his head was in his hands, but I could tell he was crying. I leaned over, and laid my head on his shoulder.

“My dad, he uhhh…he died in a house fire. I got off the bus after school, and i started walking home, and saw smoke. When I got there, I heard him screaming for help. The entire house was on fire. I tried going up the stairs, but the fire was too close. I could hear him screaming out in pain. Then the firefighters came and literally dragged me out of the house while I was screaming at them to let me go. After that, I went to the police station with one of the firefighters, and they called my aunt to go pick me up. She told me later that she thought I got in trouble. Apparently they didn’t tell her what the real reason was on the phone. She came and picked me up, but I couldn’t speak. I looked up at her when she got there, and all I could do was cry. Then the police told her what happened, and asked if I could stay a couple of days with her. So I did, but I ended up staying a lot longer than that. I couldn’t even speak for about 2 months. I wouldn’t even go out of my room. I would barely eat. The only reason why I did was because I was forced to. I still cry myself to sleep sometimes, because it hurts so bad. And today, I just…I didn’t wanna be alone. That’s why I texted you.”

At that point, I was also crying. I know for sure that my voice broke a few times, but I just kept going. I didn’t want to keep anything from him anymore. And even if I did, once I started, I couldn’t stop myself.

--Jacob--

We sat in silence for a while, and then I heard her get up, so I looked up to see where she was going, but she standing right in front of me, with tears going down her face. It hurt to see her like that. I gave her a questioning look, and she just said, “move your arms.”

I gave her even more of a questioning look, but I moved my arms, to where they were in the position of me holding out my arms, waiting for her to hug me or something. Next thing I knew, she was crawling up onto my lap, straddling my thighs, and sitting on my lap, and putting her arms around my torso, and laying her head on my chest.

I automatically put my arms around her, and put my head on hers.

We stayed like that for a while until my phone rang.

I pulled out my phone, and saw who it was. My mom. Just great.

“Ughhhh. I gotta answer this. But you can stay there if you want. I’ll put it on speaker so you can hear how she treats me with your own ears.”

On phone:

Jacob: hello?

Mom: Brat! Where the hell are you?

Jacob: I’m at the park, mom.

Mom: Why the hell are you there?

Jacob: I’m meeting up with a friend since I’m falling behind in one of my classes.

Mom: Then you should be working, not messing around with your friends like complete idiots!!!

Jacob: We are, mom. We were working on math just before you called.

Mom: You better. And for goodness sake, we all know you were a mistake, but you should at least try to prove everyone wrong. Oh, and that grade better be up in 2 days. Or you know what happens.

Jacob: Yes mom.

Mom: Now get your ass back to work.

“…Why did you lie to her?”

“Which one?”

“All of them. The one where you said you were behind in a class, the one where you said you and your 'friend' were working on math, and the one where you said I was just your friend.”

I sighed, trying to find the right words to say. “Umm if she finds out I have a girlfriend, she’ll completely freak out. She thinks that it’s a complete waste of time to have a girlfriend. So she freaks out when I tell her. And the other stuff, she most likely called me just because she wanted me to do something for her. If I told her that we were just hanging out, she would have yelled at me to go home. And…I don’t wanna go home.”

“Why not?” She said, lifting her head off my chest.

“Because. When I’m there, all I can think about, is being with you. And now that I am, I don’t wanna leave.” I pulled her body closer to mine, and set my forehead on her shoulder.

She reached up, and put her hand in my hair.

“Wooooooooow. How in the world is your hair so soft?”

I chuckled, and looked up at her, smirking. “Because it doesn’t like people touching it, so it bottles up the softness.”

“Oh.” She started pulling her hand away, so I grabbed it and put it back on my hair.

“It likes you though. But it won’t let anyone else touch it. You must be special.”

“You don’t think I’m special?” She asked, smirking.

“…welllllllll…” I replied back, with a guilty look on my face.

“Ah! Mean!” She said as she lightly punched my shoulder with her free hand.

“I was kidding, love.”

Andddddd she turned into a tomato. I chuckled, then looked up at her, as my face started getting closer to hers, until I felt the warmth and softness of her lips.