Too perfect to be true. Part 3

Will woke up wrapped in Jacob’s sheet. He felt the cold air of the room brush against his arm and realized that Jacob was no longer lying there with him. Will took a deep smell of the sheet he was lying in and sat up. He looked around the room for clothing and laughed when he realized that all of his clothes had been taken off downstairs the night before. He went over to the dresser in the room and grabbed a pair of boxers from the top drawer. They were red plaid from the gap. He put them on and smiled at himself in the mirror. He liked wearing Jacob’s boxers.

Will opened the door and started to walk through the hallway.

“Jacob?” He called down the hallway.

There was no reply so Will continued to walk downstairs. He saw that there was no longer a pile of his clothes at the bottom of the steps.

“Dude, Jacob. Where are you man?” Will called out again.

The house was dead quiet. Will could here the whirr of the central air conditioning. He looked at the walls on the stairwell. Pictures of Jacob when he was younger. Pictures of Jacob playing baseball, soccer, football…you name it. He was surprised though, to see that none of Jacob’s artwork was hanging from the walls. He reached the bottom of the steps and took a sharp left into the kitchen.

“Holy shhh…!” Will jumped. His heart skipped a beat. He was so taken back he didn’t know what to say. Jacob’s father sat at the kitchen table glaring at him. This was by no means a friendly glare. This was a look of pure hatred.

“Mr. O’Hare. Oh Jesus, I’m so sor…I can explain…I…”

“You can explain? You can explain what I found this morning. I was coming in to surprise Jacob. To let him know that I had come home early.” Mr. O’Hare started. He was stuttering for his words.

“Right…Mr. O’Hare I…”

“You can imagine my shock and disgust when instead, I found my son in bed with his arms around…y…you…who the fuck are you?” Will tried to answer. “No…no please. I don’t want to know. I don’t give a fuck who the hell you are.” He snapped.

“No…it’s really not like that. It’s…” Will stopped. He saw Jacob on the other side of the kitchen, half naked sitting at the kitchen counter. His head was buried in his strong arms. He was clearly crying.

“Oh my god…Jake…I’m…” Will started.

“Don’t even think about talking to him. How dare you!”

“Mr. O’Hare..I know this is bad but if you’d just take a minute…”

“Go upstairs, take off my son’s fucking underwear, change into your own god damn clothes and get the fuck out of my house.” Mr. O’Hare said.

“No…sir…you don’t understand. Oh god I don’t even know what to say.”

“Good, then just keep your mouth shut.” Mr. O’Hare stood from the table and walked over to Will. He was a big guy. He looked like Jacob although he had so much hatred in his eyes Will could never have seen the likeness. He stuck his finger in Will’s face and lowered his eyes to Will’s. “If you ever lay one faggy finger on my son again, I swear to god I will come after you.”

“Dad!” Jacob raised his face. It was beet red. His eyes were filled. He looked at Will in desperation. “I’m sorry Will…god I’m so sorry.”

“Quiet Jake!” Mr. O’Hare yelled. He turned back to Will. “What are you waiting for? Go fucking change and get the fuck out of here.”

Will stood there with his mouth still wide open. He felt his eyes begin to sting and the tears started to roll in. He turned quickly away from Mr. O’Hare and grabbed his clothes that were sitting on the kitchen counter. He tried to look back at Jacob. He wanted to help him so badly.

“Turn around and I’ll make you wish you hadn’t” Mr. O’Hare said simply.

Will paused and breathed heavy as an overwhelming sadness came over him. What was once perfect had shattered itself into a horrible ugly mess.

“I’m sorry Jacob.” Will said as he started to walk out of the room.

Will walked as far away from Jacob’s house as he could. He was crying…but he hadn’t lost it yet. He was still in shock. He still didn’t have time to think. What had happened in there? Suddenly all of Jacob’s fear became incredibly clear to Will. It was not a social issue…it was a family issue. Jacob didn’t want their relationship to get back to his father.

“How could he be so stupid?” Will whispered to himself. “How could I let him be so stupid?”

It was a cool spring morning and there was a light mist on the ground. Will stared at the sidewalk as he made his way to the end of the road. Some people were still sleeping. He saw couples sitting with their coffee in their kitchen windows. The sprinklers were on in many yards.

He reached the end of the road and pulled out his cell phone. He needed a ride. It was 8:00 am and his car had been left at Kate’s house the night before. He mindlessly punched in Kate’s number and held the cell to his ear.

“h..Hello?” Kate said sleepily on the other line. Will opened his mouth to reply but it was in that moment that the wave of emotion finally hit. He struggled to get his words out. He chest grew heavy and his eyes quickly filled with tears.

“Kate…” he managed to mutter. He lost it. The weight of what had happened came crashing down on him. He began weeping. The humiliation was too much.

“Will? Will what’s wrong? What is it?”

Will struggled to catch his breath. He didn’t have the words.

“Will!?” Kate begged for an answer.

“I’m sorry…….I……need a ride” Will gasped. He wiped his tears with his sleeve. The paperboy rode by on his bike and threw a paper at the base of Will’s feet. Will was embarrassed to cry in public like that.

“Where are you?” Kate demanded.

“Bishops street. The stop sign with the graffiti.” Will started to breathe clearer although he couldn’t say more even if he wanted to. Kate had already hung up the phone.

****

“That Fuck!” Kate yelled referring to Mr. O’hare. Will had explained to her what happened. “That fuck!” She yelled again slamming her hands onto the steering wheel. Will wiped his eyes dry with an old Starbucks napkin he found in her cupholder.

“He looked so upset. So crushed.” Will said.

“Who, Jacob?”

“Yes, Jacob. He looked so broken. That’s what hurts the most. Not my humiliation…his.” Will began to cry again. The car fell silent. “I don’t know what’s going to happen now. I mean god Kate…he saw everything. The bed was a mess…our clothes were lying in the front all. We hadn’t cleaned anything up or left anything to the imagination.”

“Stupid fucking prick can’t handle the fact that his ace athlete of a son likes dick.”

“Stop it Kate.” Will’s head hurt from the whole thing.

“What!? I’m just saying! Ray O’Hare is an idiot Will. Do you know he tried to cut the girls basketball and soccer leagues at our school as well as most of the art department? All so they could have more money for the fall football season. He’s a prick.”

“He was so angry. I was so sad for Jacob.”

For once Kate didn’t have a relpy. She sat there silent as the car pulled closer to her house. It was a bad situation and she knew that it was going to be a very difficult one for Jacob and Will to get through.

“Will. Let’s get out of here this week.” She said. “We have five more days of vacation. Let’s drive…We’ll go to that water park that’s like 4 hours from here…and then we can go to my parents cabin at the lake and just spend the rest of the week there. Smoke weed…just fucking chill.”

“I can’t Kate.” Will said starting to cry again. He was so anxious to help Jacob but he knew he couldn’t do anything.

“You can’t do anything Will. Not now.” She pulled into her driveway and put a hand on Will’s shoulder. Will buried his face back into the Starbucks napkin. “You can’t Will.” Kate said again.