Chapter 9

 

        Jake was still upset with Adam the next day. The brown-haired boy tried asking the other if he wanted to go the movies with him one more time, but Jake still declined. Neither Adam or Jake left the room though. Both of them did their homework and afterwards they sat on their bed, not saying a single word to each other.

        About ten minutes later, there was someone knocking at their door. This time Jake was the one to go see who it is. When he opened the door, he saw Brad standing there. The taller boy didn't bother with any formalities but instead just pushed Jake to the side and walked into the room.

        “Hey Adam, let's go play a game of basketball,” Brad said. “All the others are down their waiting for us.”

        Adam didn't respond right away. He almost didn't really feel like playing basketball today. However, he knew Brad would be upset if he refused and so he gave a nod of his head before rising to his feet. Brad looked over at Jake who was walking back over to his bed.

        “Queer,” Brad said.

        Jake looked at the taller boy. “So? At least I'm being who I truly am instead of someone else just to make everyone happy. Unlike some people.”

        Jake looked over at Adam after he said that. A somewhat confused look came on Brad's face now as he looked in between the two. Adam saw this and it scared him a little.

        “What are you talking about?” Adam asked, trying to act as though he had no idea what Jake was talking about.

        “Whoa, wait,” Brad said as he now just looked at Jake in a somewhat cold way. “Are you calling Adam a queer?”

        “What if I am?” Jake said.

        “That's a bad mistake,” Brad said.

        The taller boy walked over to Jake and ended up punching him in the stomach. The blond-haired boy easily succumbed to the pain and fell to the ground. Brad was a lot stronger than he expected and he couldn't say that he was ready for that punch.

        “You stupid f*g,” Brad said. “Don't even think Adam is the same as you!”

        Brad now looked behind him and at Adam, who was just standing there and looking at the scene before him.

        “C'mon dude, are you going to take that from him?” Brad asked.

        Adam hesitated a little. However, he felt as though he had no choice. It was to either go along with it or have Brad discover who he really was. Not wanting that to happen, he walked over to the fallen boy and delivered a kick to his stomach.

        “Stupid f*g,” Adam said.

        “Good, now let's go,” Brad said.

        Brad headed for the door. Adam stood there and looked down at Jake, who was clutching his stomach with his eyes closed. He then followed Brad out the door and to the courts. As soon as they got there, they quickly started a basketball game with their friends.

        However, Adam wasn't able to even really concentrate on the game. He was too busy feeling really guilty about what he did moments ago. The whole time Adam followed the group of boys around the court, but he didn't bother trying to participate. Soon one of his teammates tried passing the ball to him but Adam just ended up getting hit by it instead.

        “Something wrong dude?” Brad asked Adam.

        “Yeah, I'm just starting to feel a little sick, that's all,” he lied. “I think I'm going to go to the infirmary.”

        Adam turned around and started to walk off in the direction of the boys' dormitories. He didn't worry about whether or not they would know he was heading there, because right now he didn't care. The only thing he was mainly concerned about was apologizing for what he had done minutes ago. When he was a good few yards away from the others, he broke into a run to get to his and Jake's room faster.

        When he got there, Adam didn't walk inside right away. As he stood in front of the door, he could faintly hear someone crying and two different voices in the room. Adam slowly opened the door and walked inside.

        Once he was in, he looked to see Jake and a girl sitting on Jake's bed. Jake's eyes were red and tears were rolling down his face while the other girl was trying to comfort him. Jake didn't bother looking at Adam, but the girl did. She glared at him, but it was only for a second and she went back to trying to cheer the blond-haired boy up. Adam felt even worse than what he did earlier now that he realized he and Brad made Jake this upset. He took a few steps into the room, but still kept a ways away from the other two.

        “Jake, can I talk to you privately for a second?” Adam asked.

        The other male didn't say anything right away. A couple seconds later though, he slowly got to his feet.

        “Let's get out of here,” Jake said.

        The girl nodded and she stood up and began to follow Jake towards the door. Adam stood in front of them trying to stop Jake from leaving.

        “Come on Jake, please,” Adam begged.

        “He doesn't want to talk to you!” the girl snapped. “Just leave him alone!”

        “Jen, it's okay,” Jake said. “I'll let him say what he wants to say. Go ahead and wait outside. I'll be there in a little bit.”

        The girl looked at Jake. She gave him a faint smile and said, “Okay.” Her attention then went back to Adam. “But if you do anything to hurt him, I'll make sure you regret it,” she warned. After that, she made her way out of the room.

        Jake's eyes followed the girl out of the door before he looked at Adam. His eyes showed sadness and anger at the same time. “So what do you want?”

        “I just wanted to apologize for what I did,” Adam said.

        “Oh, I wonder how many times I've heard something like that from you before,” Jake said angrily.

        “I know I'm always saying sorry, but it's true,” said Adam. “I know it was wrong and that I shouldn't have done it.”

        “But guess what? I think it's a little too late to say you're sorry now. I mean, how can I keep forgiving you if you're just going to keep hurting me like this? You apologize all the time but every time I turn around you end up doing something to hurt my feelings again.”

        “I know, I've made a lot of mistakes, but I truly am sorry,” Adam said before a sigh escaped his mouth. “And you were right. I'm not being true to myself because the truth is, I'm--” Adam didn't complete the sentence right away. He had a bit of a difficult time bringing himself around to saying it. “Because I'm gay,” he finally got himself to say a couple seconds later.

        “Yeah, and I already figured that out before,” Jake said. “I would be happy for you, but right now I can't even feel that towards you because of what you did.”

        Jake walked past Adam, who turned around and watched the boy step out of the room. He stood there for a few seconds before a heavy sigh escaped his mouth. Adam walked over and plopped down onto his bed. He couldn't help but to wonder if he was ever going to get Jake to forgive him again.