Hiya! It's been like all summer and I'm really sorry...but this is pretty good. Thought I'd write you guys a happier and less intense chapter, considering that the last few have been pretty heavy. Please comment and as always, ENJOY!
-8tickles
(Thomas's POV)
Jack and I locked gazes, and his smirk slowly disappeared. All of the mischievous light in his eyes melted away as he plopped down on the bench in front of me with a heavy puff of air through his teeth. He took a second to compose himself. When he finally looked back up, all of the monster in him was gone. Now all that sat before me was a scrawny boy with deep circles around his eyes, fear and uncertainty written on his face clear as day.
"Isabel is in a coma…I have some explaining to do, and some apologies to make to you." I lowered myself slowly down on to the bench next to him.
"Then start 'splainin." I told him.
He rubbed his hands across his face and huffed again.
"Isabel, your real girlfriend, is in a shock-induced coma from finding out that you didn't remember her at all, and better yet, that you'd found someone else. Just a word of warning; the second part of this is going to be even harder to swallow than the first. For starters, I'm gay, and I'm the reason that Jase ended up with those photos because he found me kissing another guy in a street alley one day and blackmailed me into taking the pictures, otherwise he would have ousted my secret. I'm really sorry about doing that, it was a stupid move to save my own face, and I did it without a care on how it would effect you. Please don't hate me."
I blinked.
"Wow. That was a mouthful. Uhh… I still don't really get what happened here…recap."
I made a motion for him to explain himself more clearly. As an afterthought, I impatiently added, "Please."
He rubbed his hands together and tugged on his right ear, a habit he used to have as a child when he was contemplating on how to explain something. He took a deep breath and began again.
"First off, after you told Isabel that you didn't remember her, she came back into the lobby, mumbling about Jase being stupid and how she was going to beat him senseless when she found him. I don't even think she knew that she was saying anything. I was trying to bring her focus back to me when her eyes got all hazy and she dropped to the floor, going into a shock-induced coma. I tried to catch her as she fell, bro, I really did, but she hit the floor before I had time to react."
He was quiet for a minute as he let that information sink in. "Did she hit her head?" I asked softly.
He reached over and tapped my left temple. "Right there." And just like that, something in my brain snapped. Images came rushing back, everything from the first day of meeting Isabel on the bus, to the social media incident, to finally seeing an irate Jase flying at me full speed, metal pole in hand. I leaned over and hung my head between my knees as the world started to spin, colors, faces and memories rushing back to me with alarming force.
I felt like I might hurl. How could I have ever forgotten Isabel, especially with everything we've been through together?
"Oh god. Oh god, oh god, oh god." I muttered, just before I leaned over and threw up pretty much everything I'd eaten in the past 48 hours.
"BLEH!" My brother made a sound and jumped up with a start. I bent over and threw up once more before I sat up and wiped my mouth on my t-shirt. I took in several calming deep breaths in an attempt to settle my now very unsettled stomach.
"You done, dude, cuz that was ratchet!"
I rubbed my temples with two fingers. "Too much to take in all at once, everything came back to me in a whirl, mental carsickness, basically." I mumbled.
"Ya uhh…more news to pour on top of that…I'm gay."
"But…but…but…you were like the biggest man hoe in school, you hooked up with so many girls that even I lost count!" I teased him with a smile.
He looked down and muttered almost incoherently, "It was just a cover. I had a boyfriend the whole time."
I blinked.
"Wait, seriously? I thought you were just joking! Do…do you still have a boyfriend?"
"Yeah, but we got into an argument, so I don't know if he still loves me, anymore."
"So…who is it?" I pried like a curious teenage girl hearing some juicy new gossip.
"You're gonna judge me if I tell you. Promise you wont judge. Please." He begged.
I sighed, then put my right hand on my heart as I said, "I solemnly swear I will not judge you, for the love of one brother to the other."
He slumped in relief. "Okay. Here goes nothing…my boyfriend is…Julian Garcia. He helped you without a fee because you're my brother, he did it for me."
"OH. Oh. oh." Realization dawned on me.
"Wait. Wait. Wait. So you're telling me that the guy you're dating/ dated has a New Jouisey accent?" I snickered.
"You are so judging right now!" He shrieked.
"So what if I am?" I chuckled.
"I told you not tooooooo!" He fake whined.
"Yeah, but I did, so what you gonna do about it?" I fake whined back.
He socked me in the arm. "So much for the love of one brother to the other…"
I socked him back after rubbing my own sore arm. "Oh it's still there, but now you know what it feels like to be teased." I retorted.
We looked at each other solemnly for a moment before one of us chuckled. I'm not sure who snickered first, Jack or I, but in the long run, it didn't matter. That tiny snicker turned into a muffled cough-laugh, which transformed into an actual laugh, finally ending with both of us laughing harder than we had in a long time. I laughed so hard that I fell off the bench, causing Jack to laugh even harder, hard enough that tears began streaming down his face. Then at seeing his face, red with snot and tears dripping down and intermingling, I laughed even harder, considering that cackling harder was even physically possible.
After several minutes of cracking up, it ended when Jack began choking on his own spit and the laugh turned into a cough. He thumped on his chest several times, trying to draw in a full breath. When we were both finally calm, we just looked at each other.
"I've missed you so much." I said quietly. With that statement, tough Jack returned.
"Don't get sappy, and don't go telling anyone else about this now."
He coughed once more and looked away. I was trying to figure out what to say next to draw Jack back out of his toughened outer layer when for the first time, I noticed my phone vibrating on the ground.
"Crud!" I dove for it and began furiously checking messages. 16 from Serena.
Babe where are you?
Babe?
Thomas?
THOMAS ANDERSON I AM GETTING WORRIED ABOUT YOU!
THOMAS!
THOMAS.
SHAWN.
ANDERSON.
I'M CALLING YOU NOW. I EXPECT YOU TO PICK UP.
I'VE CALLED YOU 3X NOW.
AND YOU HAVEN'T PICKED UP.
NOT EVEN ONCE.
I'M CALLING THE NURSES NOW JUST SO YOU KNOW.
OMG THEY JUST FOUND YOUR HOSPITAL WRISTBAND IN THE HALLWAY!
DID SOMEONE KIDNAP YOU, BABY?
OH MY POOR BOY!
Just as suddenly as the texts had started, they stopped. My phone was eerily silent. I turned to Jack.
"Yeah, about her. Do you happen to know why she was pretending to be my girlfriend?"
"Yup."
"Why, then? Why go to all that fuss for me, regardless of how awesome I am?" I tried to turn it into a joke. It didn't work.
"To get back at Isabel, of course. Why else?"
WHAAAAAAA?! MORE DRAMAAAAAA...TEE-HEE! SEE Y'ALL NEXT CHAPTER XD
