Norman's POV
A stray strand of light comes through my blinds and wakes me up. I careful detach myself from my boyfriend. He probably needs more sleep so I didn't want to wake him. I head to the bathroom quickly before going back to Alex. "Did I wake you?" I ask when I realize he is sitting up. The light from the sun is illuminating his face and his good arm is folded behind his head. He has a slight smile playing on his lips. He always did enjoy it when I got caught up in looking at him.
"Stop that" I say jokingly while moving closer to him. "I could say the same to you" he replies. I smile at him "I like appreciating my boyfriend's good looks." He grins at me "Have I ever told you how much I like it when you call me 'your boyfriend'?" I shake my head "No I think this is the first." He moves and his good arm comes out to grab me and pull me to him. "Well I love it." I give into his pulling and hug him for a moment. I stand back up "I should probably head back though. My mother must be looking for me… though she is growing used to my constant disappearing."
"Okay… hey my house… well I'm able to go back there now." I let that sink in for a moment before speaking "Oh… I guess you won't be staying at the motel anymore then." He nods "That's not what… I wanted to ask if you'd spend the night at my house. That way there is no way your mom will catch us and you wouldn't have to worry about hiding… you could say you are spending the night with a friend." I chew on my lip for a second "I don't think she'd let me…" "I could make you breakfast" he says with a smirk. I sigh "Okay… alright can you come by at 8 to get me? I can meet you at our tree."
He grins in obvious excitement. I hug him and reluctantly head out. I had to find a way to get mother to agree to let me spend the night at a friend's. The only person who I could think of who she'd let me stay with was Dylan, and even that was a big if. That would mean I had to tell him though. I don't know what his reaction would be though. I had to at least try though. I walk home and call Dylan. I tell him I need his help and he agrees to come right away.
When he gets here I invite him into my office because I know it's the only place I know mother won't hear us. "What do you need Norman?" Dylan asks me. He's looking at my growing collection of taxidermy animals. I take a deep breath "First I need you to promise me you won't react until the end AND you can't tell mother." He turns to look at me and doesn't do anything for a couple of heartbeats. "Dylan please" I plead with him.
He sighs and gives me a slight nod, now looking at me with a serious face. "You can tell me anything. You know that." I nod and suck in some more air before beginning "Mother doesn't know, but I have a boyfriend" I gauge his reaction, but he has his poker face on, so I continue "We have been together for a little over a month. He wants me to spend the night tonight… can you… can you tell mother that I'll be spending the night with you?" My voice is a little wobbly and I can feel my heart threatening to pound its way out of my chest. His eyes narrow "Who is this guy? Do I know him?" I nod "He… uh. You have to promise not to tell anyone. Nobody can know yet." His eyes narrow, but he nods "Okay. I won't spill, but I do have to know who it is before I agree to anything else."
I take in a wobbly breath "Alex Romero" I say. "What?!" he reacts automatically. "Calm down Dylan. Please…" "He's like 50!" he bellows "You aren't even legal. There is no way in hell I'm letting you stay the night with him… have you guys…have…Norman!" He's angry and pacing. "No!" I say quickly trying to calm him down "We haven't done anything! Not even kiss… he wanted to wait until I was legal. Please Dylan…. I need your help." Dylan runs his hand through his hair "You haven't kissed? Nothing?" I nod feeling a slight glimmer of hope.
He plops down onto my bench "I want to know everything. From the beginning." I spend the next hour telling Dylan how it started. I couldn't tell him everything of course. I had to leave out the bits about Ms. Watson. Other than that I tell him about the many nights I had slept over in his room. I answered all of his questions and was as honest as I knew I could be.
"So you haven't done anything except hug for the duration of your relationship?" He wasn't mad anymore, but he didn't sound like he liked what had been going on. "Dylan please…I really care about him." His face softens at my words. He scrubs his hands over his face "Fine. I'll do this, but I will drive you to his house. I want to talk to him." I feel a slight whirl of panic, but I didn't have a choice to say no anymore.
When Mother gets home Dylan tells her I'll be staying at his place for the weekend. He didn't give her the chance to say no. I had already packed my stuff and Dylan was herding me to the door. All I hear is mother calling "Bye" to us. "Thank you" I say to Dylan. He nods with a grim look on his face and continues down the steps.
About 30 minutes later [and another interrogation from Dylan] we arrive at Alex's house. It was bigger than I thought it would be. I guess being the sheriff had its perks. "How did you know where he lived?" I suddenly ask. He grabs my bag "He's the sheriff. Everyone knows where his house is. Didn't you?" I shake my head "This is the first time I've seen it." He shrugs and we walk up to the front door. Dylan knocks and we wait. I feel a pinch of guilt when Alex answers.
Thank you to all my lovely readers.