Chapter 4
Thomas had clambered in his bed, taking the Math notes and book with him, doing the homework. When his mother got home from work, he expected to be yelled about ditching school but oddly enough, she didn't say anything so he was free to get up to his room. He had finally managed to be deep in Math homework, when there was a sharp knock on his doors.
- 'Mom, can we talk later, please? I'm doing homework.' Thomas said, not raising his head from book. No one replied except there was another knock. Thomas sighed. 'Who is it?' he said and glanced the doors.
- 'It's Chris.' Voice said. Thomas frowned but went to open doors.
- 'Hey.' Thomas said and stepped out of the way for Chris to come in. Chris did so.
- 'I see you have made it your den.' Chris laughed. Thomas frowned but gave his room one apprehensive look. There were stuff everywhere.
- 'Oh, crap! I really need to tidy up.' He muttered and took few stuff up from floor to put on table.
- 'Hey, you should've seen my room when I was your age.' Chris said. Thomas smiled. Boys will be boys.
- 'Point taken Chris but I really need to tidy it up.' Thomas said.
- 'Hey, it's your room now. When Allison was here she was so tidy.' Chris said, absentmindedly.
- 'Wait… you mean… this was her room?' Thomas gasped. Now he gave the room another look. He could see past his mess and imagine Allison sitting to desk and typing her e-mail to Thomas or doing some reading, whether homework or personal favorite books.
- 'Yeah.' Chris nodded and looked Thomas. He was still staring the desk, deep in thoughts. 'So your mother called me and she wanted me to talk to you.' That brought Thomas back to reality. He sighed but went to sit on bed. It was inescapable so why not now?
- 'Chris, the thing is, I really… I really hate beacon hills.' Thomas stated, not looking directly Chris in eyes.
- 'Uh-huh.' Chris frowned. Thomas looked at him.
- 'I don't know how to explain it.' But he did. Really, he did. He could throw everything he had to say about Scott, about his friends, about Chris himself, about whole supernatural world that seemed to be centre here.
- 'Your father wanted to protect you.' Chris said.
- 'Do not... Just don't mention me my father.' Thomas said in flat voice. Chris recoiled.
- 'Woah there kiddo!' Chris looked at him, confused even more.
- 'Chris, I just… I miss Allison.' Thomas looked at Chris and for umpteenth time Thomas was on verge of crying. Chris' eyes went wide with shock.
- 'You know that inappropriate to have those kind of feelings for your cousin.' Chris said with disgust.
- 'Wait, woah, woah, Chris back off! No, I was not in love with Allison, are you insane?!' Thomas said, wiping away tears and laughing out loud. Chris relaxed.
- 'Oh, good. I was worried for a second there.' Chris exhaled. Thomas rolled his eyes.
- 'I just miss her as my best friend. She was always there for me, you know. Back in San Francisco and even when you moved here to Beacon Hills. We kept and contact and Allison needed someone to talk to and she… she told me everything.' Thomas finished. He carefully assessed Chris' reaction. Chris was sitting on chair, frozen.
- 'Everything? As in-?'
- 'Everything. McCall, his friends, wolves, banshees, and... family business.' Thomas nodded.
- 'Huh. So you know about your family.'
- 'I know about you and hunting supernatural creatures.'
- 'No, I mean whole family.' Chris said. It was Thomas' turn to freeze in shock.
- 'Uhmmm…' Thomas did not know what to say.
- 'Your parents are hunters too.' Chris said. Thomas looked at Chris in confusion, for second time in two weeks waiting for someone to spring a belated 'April fools' joke. But as first time, it never came. Thomas felt anger building up from within.
- 'So you mean all those times my father went to do construction work, he really was hunting something?' Thomas asked.
- 'That's what he told you, huh? Yeah, he is. And in fact, he is so right now.' Chris nodded.
- 'Unbelievable…' Thomas muttered. He didn't know how to react to this. It seemed everything – Allison's death, his moving, Beacon Hills was just recoiling back at Thomas and hitting with new strength with pile of family secrets on top of it all. So both his mother and father were involved and that night Chris probably told his mother the real reason behind Allison's death.
- 'From my experience keeping secrets AND dragging others into them is bad. You deserve to know. You deserve to know you are in danger.' Chris said.
- 'I'm in danger?' disbelief colored his tone. Chris took out a picture of his pocket.
- 'Remember this?' He showed him the picture. Thomas gasped as he saw his old home ceiling and blood-written words.
- 'I had forgotten about this.' Thomas said, silently. Chris nodded.
- 'Whoever was in your room that day, is believed to live in Beacon Hills.' Chris said. And it all clicked. If his father had found out about this, then it meant he wanted to keep a closer look on Thomas and also protect him by being close, in case whoever was out there, hunting for Thomas evaded the trap and went back to San Francisco after him.
- 'Chris, can I ask you something?' Thomas somehow managed to break through his own brain which was overflowing with all the information.
- 'Go ahead.'
- 'Do you know where I can punch a bag?' Thomas asked innocently. Chris laughed.
Moments later, Thomas was following Chris to the basement.
- 'Good thing I didn't get rid of this.' He said, and flipped the light switch on. Huge smile broke across Thomas' face as he saw gym equipment stashed in basement, ready for using. He also noticed back door but he didn't ask about that.
- 'I'll use it a lot and take care of it.' Was all Thomas could say. His fists were already itching to punch the bag. Chris just laughed.
- 'You really are more like Argent.' Chris said. Thomas ignored the comment and was already darting upstairs to change the clothes.
He spent hours that night, punching, lifting weights, stretching, pushing and pulling, but most of it was dedicated to punching. His mp3 blared in his ears as he spared none of his berserk feelings smashing into the punching bag, sweating. He finally felt normal, after two days of utterly being destroyed my secrets, unwanted people in his life and most of it all his own feelings, it felt good to be able punch something, even if his palms were now bleeding. Someone took one of his headphones out of his ear. Thomas turned to look.
- 'Dinner's ready.' His mom announced, looking at Thomas, concerned.
- 'I'll jump in quick shower first.' Thomas said, and took the other out of his ear and switched the music off. Cassandra kept watching Thomas.
- 'Something wrong?' She asked, looking at him. She had never seen him with his guard down because when Thomas was punching the bag, he gave it all at it and didn't spare anything. So there they stood, looking at each other and Thomas could finally tell calmly about how he felt but all that came out was:
- 'Mom, I'm gay.'