The hallway was packed with students, I had to make my way through the throng to reach Isabella who was standing in front of her locker with a shocked look on her face. It was a testament to the fact that I only had eyes for her that I still had yet to ascertain what all the commotion was about.
"Isabella?"
She turned the saddest eyes I've ever seen up to me as I clasped her shoulders, before face planting into my chest and bursting into tears.
"I guess it's true then."
I heard a snicker behind me followed by laughter.
What the fuck?
I looked around for some idea as to what the hell was making her act this way and then I saw it, my vision literally blurred and I felt real violence rise up inside me.
Across the front of her locker in huge red letters were the words ‘brother fucker’. Three guesses as to who did the dastardly deed.
I found her in the back of the crowd with her little clique, the things I wanted to do to her right then would land me in prison for a very long time, but right now Isabella came first, she couldn't stay here.
Just then her friend Pamela came forward and offered a hand.
"I've got her Pamela, I'm taking her home."
There were a lot of comments made as we made our way past our peers and out to the parking lot. I waited until we were seated in the safety of my BMW before trying to quiet her tears.
"Baby look at me."
"I can't, it's so embarrassing, now everyone knows and they hate me, I knew she would do something mean but not like this."
"Isabella let's go home okay, we'll talk more there, I have to figure something out about your car."
"No that's okay, I can drive."
"Not on your life, I'm not letting you drive in this condition, I'll have one of the guys bring it after school, as a matter of fact...." I pulled out my phone and called Justin, he answered on the first ring.
"Justin I need a favor."
"Anything bro, we're already taking care of the locker but there isn't much we can do about Maddy's mouth unless you want us to close it for her."
"Later, right now I need you to bring Isabella's car home after classes, you need to come out here and get the keys." I reached out my hand for the keys as she searched her bag for them, poor thing was a sobbing mess.
I ran from the car and met Justin at the door before heading back to her.
Chapter 10
She was too quiet all the way home, I have to admit I had no idea what to do right now. It's as though all my emotions were tied up, my mind was going in fifty different directions at once, there was no way to contain this in a small town like ours, which meant that pretty soon it'll spread from one end to the next, which means I have to tell our parents soon before they heard it somewhere else.
While all this is going through my head, Isabella is curled up in the fetal position doing her rocking back-and-forth thing while making the most pitiful sound I've ever heard.
It reminded me of a kitten I'd found once who'd gotten separated from her mom and siblings, the poor thing had whimpered and cried until they were reunited.
Rachel was the only parent home when we got there, I know Mondays are a little less hectic for dad at the hospital, so I put in a call to him asking him to please come home at his earliest convenience.
Rachel being her usual negligent self didn't seem to find anything wrong with us being back home at this time on a Monday morning.
She stayed busy in her crafts room while I carried a listless Isabella to my room. As I made to lay her on the sofa she suddenly grew extra limbs and clung to me as if for dear life.
"Ssh, ssh, I've got you, I'm not going anywhere." I brushed her hair back gently with my fingers.
"I want to die."
"Isabella no, don't talk like that, this isn't as bad as it seems, in a few weeks this will all blow over, I know you don't believe that now but it's true, we've both faced worse things than this and survived, we'll survive this too I promise."
"What did we survive?" She sniffled and wiped her eyes as I cuddled her close.
"Your dad, my mom, these things are important, Maddy's little campaign doesn't even compare, she's just jealous and hurt because I chose you, you didn't do anything wrong, neither did I, so we don't need to feel any guilt and if we did it should be me not you, I wish I could take away your hurt but you know what... I don't feel bad, I'm glad that they know."
"You don't? You are?" She wiped her cheeks again as she looked at me hopefully.
"No and yes."
"How come?"
"Because we don't have anything to hide, we haven't done anything wrong, granted our first time together might be a little unorthodox, but so what, it's not like we went behind anyone's back and cheated. The fact that I fell even further in love with you is just fate, how could I regret that? I don't and neither should you. I mean put it all in perspective, would you rather we had gone on as before, me with her, you with someone else?"
She covered my mouth with her hand as if to keep the words hidden.
"No, I'd be miserable if we had."
"So you see, all she did was spill the beans a little before we were ready, but that's alright we just have to tell our parents and then we'll be in the clear."
"What if they hate the idea, what if they won't let us be together?" She started stressing again.
"Ssh, ssh, ssh, it's going to be okay, first of all, we're both over the age of consent in this state, second, I have enough money to take care of us for the rest of our lives and last, they don't have any reason to deny us, it's not like we're related by blood or anything like that. We're not planning to run off and get hitched or anything crazy, we're still going to go to school and do all the things we've planned our whole lives, we'll just be doing them as a couple." I squeezed her as she sat in my lap, she seemed to be relaxing somewhat until we heard the door close downstairs; dad was home. She tensed up once more and I had to give her a quick kiss to take her mind off her fear.
"Cut that out babe, nothing's going to go wrong, I won't let it, just remember, no matter what, we stay together, agreed?"
"Agreed." I studied her eyes to make sure she was okay, the next few minutes will decide if we were making this journey as a family with the blessings of our parents, or if we were going it alone, one thing was for certain, we were making it together get and I.
"Good, now let's go talk to them."
We found them in the kitchen with Rachel in the middle of asking dad what he was doing back so soon, while dad was in the process of asking where we were.
"Kids, oh thank heaven, I thought one of you were hurt or something, okay son, what's so important that I had to come home and why aren't you two in school?"
"Dad, Rachel, we have something to tell you."
I took Isabella's hand in mine; the look that passed between them said that they hadn't missed the implications of that.
"Okay kids let's go into the den."
We all followed dad into the den where he sat in his usual recliner while Rachel took her position next to him on the arm rest. Isabella and I sat on the love seat across from them.
"Okay let's have it."
"Well, uh.... ahem... Isabella and I have become a couple."
There was no sound for a solid two minutes, no one moved or said anything.
"That's the big news, that's why I had to rush home like a bat out of hell with visions of one of my kids bleeding to death?"
I looked from one to the other in complete confusion, granted I didn't want or expect them to go all psycho on us, but I expected some resistance or at the very least some questions.
"I don't understand, aren't you going to yell at us and accuse us of fooling around behind your backs and all that other stuff?"
"Son, you've known Isabella for nine years, in that time you're about the only person who could ever get her to open up and she's the only one you've ever opened your heart to besides me since your mom left us. You two were always d
estined to be together, both Rachel and I saw it a long time ago, we discussed it and realized we were fine with it but we decided to let it take it's course without putting in our two cents. You're both smart, well-rounded young adults who've always proven yourselves to be responsible and we're both very proud of you, what I don't understand is why the sudden urgency, why was it so important that we learn this now?"
Leaving out the more salacious points of the story, I told him about what had happened that morning. Isabella started crying again and Rachel, for the first time since I've known her found her motherly crown and slipped it on, offering comfort to her only daughter while dad fumed.
"Well that's a tad vicious, lucky for you you've seen her carriage and demeanor before it's too late, I understand the growing pains of high school and peer pressure, if you want my honest opinion, ignore it, it may seem hard now but if you ignore pettiness it eventually will go away. I could also suggest going away for the next few weeks, head to Europe or something before you start college, but then again why should you run away? You did nothing wrong, just fell in love, you shouldn't be penalized for that."
Well, to say I'm surprised is not saying anything, I'm not quite sure what I'd expected but this total and complete support wasn't it. It was greatly appreciated though, a load off my chest, and it made facing school that much easier.
After they'd given us their blessing they pretty much left us alone for the rest of the day. I spent the afternoon building Isabella's confidence back up, dad had lit a fire under me somehow and I was ready to take on the world. It helps having their support and knowing that they'd always recognized that something special between us and had hoped that it would grow into something more.
That afternoon when Justin came to drop off her car with his girl Janet driving behind him in her car they were full of questions.
Taking dad's advice I just told them that we'd decided that we were in love with each other and planned to be a couple from now on. It was easier than I expected to say it out loud, not surprisingly Justin and Jan suggested a double date this coming weekend, which I readily accepted.
That night it was fucking amazing to sleep together in my room without fear of being discovered, of course we weren't in your face, we still showed them due respect and our love making that night was full of quiet laughter and lots of shushing sounds, until we both got so lost in each other that all we could do was concentrate on each other and the electrifying feelings we shared with one another.
School the next day was completely different to the day before, the team had already scrubbed the locker clean, and there was no trace of the vile words that had been painted there just one day earlier. There were lots of raised eyebrows and whispers behind hands as we walked down the hall before class, my arm securely around her shoulders. We whispered to each other in between sneaking little pecks here and there, no one approached us but everyone watched.
When we passed Maddy and her friends I knew that would be particularly hard on my Isabella so I just whispered how much I loved her and how much I was looking forward to spending our lives together. Like magic the tension left her body and she smiled wide. All was right with my world.
"Fucking whore."
Maddy's voice carried throughout the whole hallway, people stopped to see the drama unfold but there was none to be had because I just kept moving. I had what I wanted, there was no need to fight anyone about anything, besides I owed Maddy for bringing Isabella and I together, we might've eventually gotten around to admitting our feelings for each other but who knows how long that would've taken, because of her we now had many years of love and joy ahead of us.
That was six years ago, since then we've been to college where I studied veterinary medicine while Isabella studied business, there was a reason behind our majors, somewhere along the way we'd decided that we wanted the ranch in Wyoming to be home.
Gramps was all for it and even retired this past year leaving us in the house instead of having to build one. He was on an around the world trip for a year and then he said he wanted to spend some time jet setting in Palm Springs of all places. We're expecting our first child, the first of many I hope. We're happy and content and our lives are full, we couldn't possibly ask for anything more.
THE END
Contact the Author @
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If you enjoyed this you may also enjoy these other works by Jordan Silver Available on amazon.com
PASSION
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E8HL9WY2
NIGHT VISITS
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E0V9ENO
LYON’S CREW
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BP6Q8M2
THE MOUTH
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DQLWDDW
The Author would like to thank you for reading her work.
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