Author's Note: Truly sorry about taking long again, but still not as much as last time. Real life issues, college, plus the fact that Degrassi has become absolutely terrible and has continually screwed Riley over puts kind of a damper on writing. Just so you know.
After we had cleaned up and dried off we came downstairs. "Jake," Riley said, turning to me. "Would you dance with me? We didn't get to in the gym."
I smiled. "Yeah, I would love that. It's just that you know; I'm really not good at it…" That was very true. I can move like a champion but put me on a dance floor and I may as well have duck feet. Plus right now it would've been even worse because I was walking a bit gingerly, for obvious reasons.
"It's okay," he said, smiling. "Just let me do all the work." I agreed, fully eager now to dance with my favorite person. He put on a slow song for us to dance to. He pulled me closer towards him and put his hand on my waist and my hand in his other one. I put my free hand on his shoulder. We began to slowly move around in a circle.
"So Jake, I guess I can finally meet your parents now?" he asked me with a smile.
"I guess I can't put it off any longer," I replied. "But I didn't wanna come out."
"I agree on that last part, but your parents seem to really care about you Jake. I would love to meet them; I mean they raised you to be the person you are now." He punctuated his sweetness with another gorgeous, big smile.
I couldn't help but smile back a little. "They definitely had a part in that. They really are amazing parents. I'm sure that they'll love you. How can they not?"
"I'm gonna have to thank them for making you as perfect as you are, Jake."
"Well, I wouldn't say perfect," I said modestly, though I felt lit up from how sweet he was being.
"Don't worry about what's in the past Jake," he replied, kissing me softly.
Once the buzz I felt from his lips subsided however, I was struck with something that I wish had never happened.
"Oh god!" I cried. "What I did to you! I'm so, so sorry Riley!" I felt myself begin to tear up a little at my mind being flooded with remorse at the memory of what I had done to my Riley.
"Jake, I already told you: I don't hold it against you!" Riley cried, trying to comfort me. He stopped leading me and pulled me over to the couch. He sat down and sat me down in his lap, sitting me sideways so I could look at his face. "Jake, with everything I have, I forgive you."
"But I hurt you so badly… And I even tried to shrug any responsibility off of me. Are you okay, really? Riley, I'm so sorry I ever cheated on you…" I said. I had trouble looking him in the eyes. I was on the verge of tears for the second time tonight. I felt like my chest was going to cave in right where my heart was. The memory of Riley's stunned and hurt face and voice was echoing through my mind, even though his worried and loving face was staring at me.
"Jake, please don't feel sad or worry about me," he began gently. "Are you forgetting that I cheated on you too?"
"But that doesn't make me any less guilty, and I started it," I countered.
"But Jake, none of that matters to me anymore. I forgave you the moment we got back together that night. And I forgive you even more now because of how bad I've seen you feel over it," he said as kindly as was humanly possible. He gripped my shoulder tightly and began to stroke my hair affectionately.
"You've noticed that I was really feeling this?" I asked in surprise.
"Of course! How couldn't I?"
He was right. I had pushed the responsibility and the pain that came with it away from me without even noticing it, but I guess I couldn't fool him.
"Jake, please don't beat yourself up over this…" he continued. He punctuated this with another one of his gentle and sensual kisses.
A moan managed to escape from my throat from the abrupt surprise. I couldn't help but feel better.
Bast took this opportunity to jump on our lap. She rubbed against me, purring for attention.
"See, even she wants you to be feel happy," Riley said, working this to his advantage.
I laughed, and gave the cat the attention she wanted. I couldn't deny that I felt the guilt and concern over what I had done to Riley melting away. "Well, okay, I'll get over it, if you really don't feel bad about it." I wasn't completely over it, but his love for me and concern over my internal pain was quickly filling the emptiness that had been in my chest since the incident at the dance. He'd made sure to get rid of it, and the cat emphatically agreed with him.
"I really, really am over it! And you know? I ought to apologize again, to you too. I'm sorry Jake, from the bottom of my heart."
"You were forgiven before you even asked Riley," I replied, feeling much better than I had since I first began talking to Riley again.
He didn't have to reply. He simply grinned and kissed me again, this time more passionately. I moaned again and wrapped my arms around his neck. He continued to kiss me, gently but passionately, his tongue leading mine in a slow dance. When he stopped, I leaned my body against him, my head resting against his chest. I smiled up at him. "I love you so much, Riley. You make me feel so wonderful."
"I love you too Jake. I didn't think I could ever really be happy unless I turned straight, let alone in love, but you redefined what it means to be happy," he said, softly stroking my hair as he spoke.
We kissed briefly once more. After it was over, Riley said "I bet you're tired after what happened tonight, aren't you?"
It was true; I was feeling so sleepy that it was hard for me to keep my eyes open. "Yeah," I answered with a weak smile.
In reply, he lay down on his side, and moved into position so that my back rested against his chest, and his arms wrapped snuggly around me, with both our heads resting on pillows. Similarly, the cat now rested against me, and was already fast asleep, purring in content.
"Riley, I promise you I'll always be there for you. I'll never betray you ever again, and I'll always do my best to make you as happy as possible," I said to him.
"I promise I'll never leave you again either Jake. I'll always love you." He kissed the top of my head in goodnight. I relaxed completely, and with his soft breathing behind me, and the cat purring in front of me, I quickly fell off to sleep.
I was having the strangest dream, nightmare really. I had a dream that I was eating breakfast with Riley, but suddenly my food started talking to me like it was a kids' commercial. I shouted and jumped up and when I called for Riley, I looked at him, and his face had changed into a plate, and his eyes were sunny-side-up eggs and his mouth was a strip of bacon. "What is it Jake?" he said, the piece of bacon splitting horizontally as he spoke, causing me to scream. It was very random because I hadn't had a nightmare about anthropomorphic food since I was a little kid.
But then the dream suddenly shifted as dreams often do. Now, I was dressed in tights. I had the intuition of dreams that told me I was host for the Phoenix Force from the X-Men. I was a godlike, all-powerful being who ruled over the world in a "benign" dictatorship. The godlike being I had become was horrifying to me. To make matters even worse, I looked sort of like a zombie; my hair was an unnatural shade of red, dark veins were showing on my skin, and my eyes were completely black. This was a true nightmare. But then, it shifted again into a good dream this time. Something that looked like a humanoid angel, one that you could find in Renaissance art, moved next to me. It was Riley, dressed in a red robe and surrounded by a golden halo. When he wrapped his wings and big arms around me, the Phoenix left me, and I collapsed, drained of energy with him holding me up.
That's when I woke up to a smell of something burning. Riley was no longer on the couch with me, and the cat had moved as well, and my hair was its usual disheveled morning mess. I got up and walked into the kitchen towards the smell. As I had suspected, Riley was standing over the stove, with a plate of chocolate chip pancakes next to him. The source of the burnt smell was the ones he was trying to make at that moment. The one he had just flipped over was blackened on one side. He noticed me.
"Uh, hey, good morning Jake!" He said brightly to me. "I'm making your favorite breakfast."
I walked over to him and grabbed the knob on the stove, turning the heat down to its lowest setting. "Awww, you're so sweet, Riley," I said to him, smiling.
"Yeah, sorry about burning them. I forgot that you gotta turn the heat down eventually," he said with a slightly sheepish grin.
"Aww it doesn't matter; anything you do is perfect, Riley." I said and wrapped an arm around his waist, leaning into him so that he could give me a good morning kiss. "I'll take care of the rest; you just sit down, baby."
"Ha, thanks Jake." He leaned down to give me one more kiss before sitting down at the table in the chair next to him, which was occupied by the sleeping cat.
I turned my attention to the stove to finish off what was left of the mix. Now that the scent of burning food and a mildly distressed Riley trying to cook was dealt with, I noticed that even though I had just woke up I was still feeling drowsy, and I had a headache. It didn't surprise me; I had used my powers to quite a greater extent than I ever had before last night. It was nothing that I hadn't dealt with before.
Riley instinctively reached for the remote, and flipped on the small TV that was in the kitchen. It was the news, and though I only caught a glimpse, it showed two images of the part of Toronto that Degrassi was in. The anchorwoman said something about a minor earthquake before Riley immediately flipped it to another channel.
"What was that?" I asked. "An earthquake?"
"Yeah, just a minor one on the Richter; most barely even felt it and it was only in a certain part of the city." He had said all that in hurried voice.
Before he could change the subject, I interjected. "In the area around our school? I guess that was from last night huh…?" I started to feel like my insides were slowly sinking.
"Possibly, but it was no big deal baby. No one got hurt and hardly anything was damaged. Don't worry about this right now, Jake; it's too early for that," he said in the comforting tone of voice that could always make me feel better.
"Okay you're right, Riley," I said, pushing thoughts of last night out of my mind. However it still bothered me that I wasn't feeling exhausted from using my powers to such an extent that people thought it was an earthquake. I finished with what little cooking there was left, and brought the plate of pancakes and two others over to the table. When I sat down, Riley smiled and rubbed my arm. As we prepared to eat, I asked, "So what else is on?"
In reply he flipped through the channels slowly enough to read the titles of the program on TV. When it got to the SciFi channel, my heart leapt in excitement. "Ooooh! This is Godzilla vs Hedorah!" I yelled. "It just came on!"
Riley left it on the kickass Japanese movie and scrunched his face slightly in thought. "Didn't you say that you hated the ones from the 70's?" he asked.
"Naww, that's my friend Blake," I replied. "But who cares what he says!"
"Cool! So what's this one about?" Riley replied.
As we devoured the food, I began to explain the premise of Hedorah, and that the titular monster was essentially the personification of pollution, which gave him immunity to the Big G's atomic breath.
After we'd finished, it was on the commercials. "Riley," I began. "I'm gonna go to the psychic clinic. I've put it off for too long, and last night proved that I really need to start taking this more seriously; I can't just avoid using my telekinesis forever."
He smiled. "I'm proud of you Jake. I'm sure they'll be able to help. Do you think you'll meet many other psychics?"
He had asked a good question. I had wondered that myself. "I'm sure that I can't be the only one on the planet with psionic powers," I answered.
"That's a good thing. I want you to have other people you can talk to about this."
I hadn't asked Riley how he was feeling about all this. I had put it off because it would not be fun talking about it and I'm sure Riley would want it out of his mind, but I worried. I took his hands in mine. "So, how are you feeling about this Riley?"
He made a pained expression. "Can we talk about this later Jake?"
"Yeah, of course, but it's gotta be talked about eventually."
Just then, the doorbell rang.
"Who's that?" I wondered aloud.
"Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you; Mia and Peter are coming by."
We walked to the front door. Peter and Mia were there.
"Hey everyone!" I said, greeting them. "What brings you here?"
"Well, we assumed that you'd need someone to talk to about last night…" Peter answered.
Me and Riley led them into the living room, and they sat down on the couch. I sat down next to them, but Riley lifted me up, sat down on the on couch, and set me on his lap. I grinned.
"So how are you feeling?" Mia asked. "Last night sucked."
I opened my mouth to speak, but Riley beat me to the punch. "Scared," he said simply. He had his arms wrapped over me at the moment, and I could feel his breathing increase ever so slightly, so I placed mine over his and squeezed them affectionately.
"I'm doing okay I guess," I said. I knew that it was bothering Riley a lot more than it was me. "Would now be a good time to discuss it?" I asked him telepathically.
"I guess so," he replied.
"Riley," Peter said gently. "How are you doing?"
"Scared… Really scared," he replied. "I really, really didn't want to come out in high school." I hugged his arms closer to me in response.
"Well, this doesn't change how cool you are," Peter said.
"I didn't want to have deal with this bullshit," Riley said.
"You still have all of us, Riley," Peter continued. "I already talked to Sav and Danny, and they don't care, I know Anya won't."
"Well it's not just that, but there's also my parents, and guilt for lying, and beating up Sid…" Riley said, letting his words trail off in shame. His grip on me had got even tighter now and he had tensed up.
"Well I know Sid's fine!" Peter said brightly. "Nothing broken! He may not be able to kick either of your asses, but he can definitely take a beating."
"Oh thank god!" Riley said in relief and sighed. "I hated letting myself go like that."
"Well it's not like he didn't deserve it," I said to Riley, looking up at him and smiling. "I don't think many people are going to be stupid enough to try and mess with us!"
"Yeah I guess you're all right," Riley said.
"What the hell was up with that freaky earthquake?" Mia said.
"I don't fucking know," I said quickly and easily. Though I didn't like it, I'd gotten used to lying by now. "Have you two seen the area that it was in?"
"No we haven't," Peter answered.
"Anyways, we gotta get going," Mia said. "Izzy has a doctor's appointment today and my mom's sitting for us right now." She was referring to her daughter, Isabelle.
"Oh really?" Riley asked. "I hope she's okay!" Riley adored Izzy, as well as kids in general. It was really adorable to see him turn into a pile of mush around children.
"Yeah, it's just a checkup," Mia replied. "Actually she asked about you," she continued on smiling. Izzy adored Riley as much as he did her. She basically viewed him as a giant teddy bear. "She hasn't seen you in a while. Maybe we could go to the park later today or tomorrow?"
"Okay yeah! That would be great!" Riley said excitedly. "I mean, right Jake?"
"Yeah that would be cool if we're not too busy," I replied.
"Okay, good. That'll make her happy," Peter replied, smiling slightly. "See you guys." He and Mia got up to leave, and we told them bye as they left.
After they were gone, Riley laid down on his side, with his head resting on one of the pillows on the couch. He of course lay me down beside of him, with me facing towards him.
"Do you feel any better?" I asked. "Now that you've heard from our friends?"
"Yeah, I kinda do. Jake," he said softly. "I'm worried for you to meet my parents, especially my dad. They're kinda homophobic…"
"Don't worry Riley," I said gently. "I can handle it. I've been through worse." It was true; I was just worried about how Riley would feel about it.
"They've been calling me a lot, but I've been ignoring them. The longer I put this off, the worse it will be…" he trailed off nervously.
"We can go meet them today. I don't care what they think of me."
"Well, I mean, who couldn't love you?" he asked teasingly. He grinned and said, "You're impossible not to like."
I smiled. "You're probably right," I replied.
Riley kissed me softly before we got up to get ready to go to his house.