~ Chapter 20 | Monday, June 24th ~
GAME POINT!” I shouted as the basketball swished in the net.
Kabelo just watched the ball as he tried to catch his breath. “Man,” he wiped sweat from off his forehead, “you’re good!”
“I know.” I went to go retrieve the ball. “Want to play again?”
Kabelo was limping over to the bench. “I’m good.” He sat down.
“Yeah, we should probably take a break, huh?” I dropped the ball and walked over to sit next to him. “So you excited for today’s date?”
“Uh-” he was staring at the ground. He then turned to me and I gave him a smile which made him smile. “Yeah, I think so.”
He looked back down at his leg that was shaking; he was nervous. I placed my hand on his knee. “There’s nothing to be nervous about. Trust me, this date will go well.”
His leg stopped shaking and that’s when he pushed my hand away. Then, his phone rang.
“Hello?” He answered with a smile. “Y-yeah, I’m okay. How are you guys?” His smile was unwavering until it dropped. He glanced over at me and gave me a closed smile before he turned away. “Yeah. I’m coming.” He gulped as he listened. “Uh, I don’t th-” He sighed. “Okay.”
He hung up and then pocketed his phone. I waited for him to tell me the reason for his frown but he didn’t so I asked.
“What happened?”
“My parents. I haven’t seen them since my Junior year of college and apparently, they want to see me.” He finally looked at me again. “They want me to come visit.”
“I don’t get it. This is supposed to be a good thing right?”
“Straight guys really are slow, huh?” I just chuckled but I was starting to think that he wasn’t joking; he was dead ass. “When I came out to my parents they didn’t quite understand things.”
I was going to ask what he meant by that but then I decided to actually think before I spoke. I didn’t want to give us straight men a reputation of being slow.
Okay, so maybe we were slow because it took me a minute to process it all. Just like a microwave when it finished warming up the food; I made a noise when it finally came to me—I gasped.
“Took you a while.”
I awkwardly laughed and just scratched the back of my head. “Yeah, I am slow.”
He sighed again as he took his stand. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this.”
I grabbed his wrist before he could even think about taking a step away from me. “I want to. I’ll listen. I want to be here for you during the times that matters. I don’t know much about parents hating on my sexuality but I do have a brother who is struggling. If he didn’t want to tell me or my sister, Mai, then I would just hope that he had a friend to talk to.” He looked down at me. “In a sense, you’re Dawson and I’m the friend I wish he has.”
He smirked. “You’re actually pretty sweet, huh?”
“So will you talk to me?”
He nodded and that’s when I released him. He sat back down next to me. “When I came out to my parents, I came out as bisexual. Not because I was confused or anything but because I knew that they wouldn’t even understand the concept of pansexuality and I didn’t have the strength to explain it to them. My momma just said I was gay and my dad said I was just confused and going through a phase. He tried to tell me that I didn’t like boys but that I was being influenced by my peers and the media. He told me that I was still a child and that I didn’t know what made me happy. My momma just agreed. This was all over Christmas break, by the way, so when I went back to school I decided it was better for me not to go back home.”
I didn’t know what to say. I really wanted to say something to make him feel better but instead, I just rubbed his back in small circles.
“After school, I stayed over at my good friend’s house and my parents never called to ask why I wasn’t coming home which led me to think that they just didn’t care about me anymore. My parents were the people that called me at least once a week and texted me every day when I was away to check up on me and whenever we would get back together, we would value each day like it was our last. So you could only imagine how devastated I was to not wake up to a good morning text from my momma or a be safe text from my dad.”
“I get that.”
“I’m actually happy that my momma called me and asked me to come visit but I’m not sure if I can face them alone. I know this is childish but I’m scared, Alvin.” He was looking at me with glassy eyes. I watched a tear slipped down his face. “I don’t know what’s going to happen and I can’t help but to think that something bad is going to happen. I’m afraid that I’ll be broken and there will be no one there for me and I’ll just slip back into that dark part of my brain.”
He turned to wipe his face and then looked away. He took yet another stand and I decided to stand with him. I moved to the front of him and wrapped my arms around him. I held him tightly ignoring the heat of the sun. I wanted him to feel my warmth and I wanted him to know that I was there for him. “I’ll go with you if you want.”
He stepped back and wiped his eyes again. “No, you don’t have to go. I’ll be okay.”
I took a step closer to him and raised my hand up to his face. He flinched and grabbed my hand as I gently used my finger to wipe away a tear. He was staring up at me and I was staring down at him with a smile. “I’m going. When is it and I’ll call off for work? I’ll pack, I’ll get ready for you because that’s what friends are for.”
“We have only known each other for a few days and not even that.”
“Yeah, but doesn’t it feel like we’ve known each other longer?” He looked away but I used my hand to bring his face back to mine. “If you’re afraid of me leaving you or something, I won’t; not like last time. I really want us to be friends and I swear I do not want that from people often. Just give me a chance to show you that I’m here to stay. I want to matter to you because, in the short amount of time we’ve known each other, you matter to me.”
We shared a long stare before he walked passed me to grab his basketball. “I should go get ready for the date now. I’ll talk to you later,” he said. He didn’t turn to look at me, not once. I just watched him as he walked out of sight.
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