Larger Font   Reset Font Size   Smaller Font  

Secrets Die With the Young

Tyler Clifford


Secrets Die With The Young

  Brian Tyler 

  Copyright 2013 by Brian Tyler 

  Chapter One: This Love

  Hate. It’s all around us. We can’t escape it. Luckily for us there are some who care more than others. Some who judges a little less and there are even some who judge just because you wore red. I live in a world where being in love with the same sex is normal and where if you love the opposite sex it's frowned upon. Yet even though love is love nobody seems to care. Me myself I find love to be unique. Why can't a person who is mad for another person fall in love with them. If my parents knew that I supported same sex marriage and same sex love I would be disowned. Most of everyone in this world just doesn't understand like I do. Love is love no matter what context you put it in.In my town I only know of one person who is hetero and I would do anything to keep it a secret. Not because it’s fabulous news that someday I can gossip with the town folk, but because I love them like my own family and family doesn’t hurt family no matter what.

  Chapter Two: Before Everything

  As I stood in the mirror seeing who I was, I looked down at the counter there laid a razor blade. I looked back in the mirror again. All I saw was me. Me with wet hair and little beads of water from the warm shower dripping down my face hiding my tears. I saw my phone on the other side of the counter. I picked it up and looked at the last message that Michael had sent on summer break:

   

  Go kill yourself! I fucking hate you! If I see your nasty ass face around this school again Ill just kill you. I never NEVER want to see you again.

   

            This made me cry a little bit more. Killing myself now seemed like a great thing to do, but I knew it wasn’t the answer. Then again nobody is home and I could just do it myself and then I will not have to face anyone.  I rapped the towel around my waist and threw the thought of killing myself out the window I knew that would never be an answer. Plus I don’t want to go out as the boy who killed himself. I want to go out being the boy who always had that smile on his face even though there was a great deal of pain behind it. I want to be that boy who never cared what anyone said. I want to be the boy who goes skydiving and his parachute does not open and so he is plummeting to earth, but to his surprise he lives. I threw myself down onto my bed thinking about my last year of high school and how everything last year was so magnificent and amazing, but now everything is ruined. Maybe everything won’t be as bad as I think it to be. Maybe I will walk in and everything will be the same. All I knew was that school was tomorrow and I knew that Michael would be there. Who knows come tomorrow there could be breaking news on CNN announcing that a kid was killed by the one person that he use to love or maybe I would just get lucky and would not get slaughtered in the halls of J.W. High School.

  Chapter Three: “My Last First Day of School”

   

   First day of school. The day everyone dreads, but luckily it was a Friday and this was my last year.  So I pulled myself together and got all tidied up for school. As I pulled up to the school I decided to myself that I would not see or talk to Michael. I got out and slammed the old car door with a sigh. As I walked to the Senior Schedule Pickup Center in the library to pick up my schedule it was not to my surprise to see the halls filled with friends screaming “OMG I haven’t seen you in forever”. In the back of my mind I though bitch you saw her during this summer I saw those pictures on Instagram.  After battling my way through the halls I finally made it to the library and I walked up to the cheerleader with the letters A thru D.

   “Last Name”, Caroline said with that sweet voice that she always carries with her.

   “Conway.”

  “Oh hey Taylor”

   “Hey Caroline how was your summer?”

   As she flipped through the mile high papers she responded,” Pretty good”, after flipping for a while she said,” here you go. Have a great year.”

   I smiled and said,” Thank you, you too.”

   I looked down at my schedule to see who I had this semester. Mrs. Ranceon for English Four, Mr. Haven for U.S. History, Mrs. Rulau for Financial Math, and Ms. Cooper for Drama. It all seemed pretty easy. I finally looked up from my schedule and looked down the hall. Near the door to the cafeteria was Michael. I ended up looking at him and he ended up looking at me. I bit my lip, tried to hold back the tears, and turned the other way and fought the oncoming crowd to get away from him. I did not even have to look to see that he was fallowing me because I could hear him screaming my name. I went to the end of the hall, turned a left, went halfway down, turned a right into another hallway, and walked into the second door on the left; into the emptiness of the boys bathroom. I threw my backpack onto the sparkling fresh floor and lean against the colorful tiles of the bathroom. Soon I heard the bathroom door open. In front of me stood Michael, a tall handsome man with dirty blond hair and the prettiest blue eyes ever. He was the perfect in every way. “What do you want Michael”, I said trying to fight back the tears. He stepped in front of me grabbed my chin and pulled it to his lips. I soon then felt his soft beautiful lips on mine. I fell back against the tile and he came close to my ear. “You”, Michael whispered in my ear. I thought for a moment to fall into his trap, but I knew I could not. What about the promise I had made to myself in the car? I could not let myself fall for any of Michael’s shenanigans. I pulled away from him grabbed my backpack ran to the door and grabbed the door knob. I paused for a moment with the door cracked and I turned to Michael. “Fuck off”, I was proud of myself for gaining the courage to tell him that. Then I left the bathroom. I felt him standing there dumbfounded while the door slammed shut. Then I heard the bathroom door slammed shut again as Michael stood at the door watching me run off to class with his face saying what the hell just happened or that’s not what I was expecting. My first class of the day seemed to be normal. People trying to catch up on what they did before the teacher interrupted and asked our names, how our summers were, and introduce themselves. I kept feeling my Iphone vibrate so I took it out looked at the lock screen. There on the lock screen it said: 5 new messages from Michael Bennett. I just ignored them and then I kept feeling my phone vibrate and kept seeing that Michael was sending me more and more messages. In return I decided it would be best to turn off my phone.

   

  “Mr. Conway do you have any messages you like to share with the class”, Mrs. Ranceon asked with curiosity in her voice.

   “No ma’am. I was just turning it off.”

   “Very good Mr. Conway.”

   Second block flew by and it would because I slept for majority of the class. Mr. Haven threw a pen at me to wake me up.

   “Did not sleep well last night, did we”, Mr. Haven said in his stern deep voice.

   “No sir, it was a long night.”

   

  “Well, try to pay attention ok?”

   

  “Yes sir”

   

  After second block I had lunch and the food at the school did not please my appetite. Maybe it was because I was nervous about Michael. For some odd reason I could not help but think about him.  I mean after all he was my first love so of course I would think about him. My mind was in the gutter and I was at a lost all I knew at the point was that I wanted to go home, lay in bed, and forget everything that happened today. I knew it was not going to be that easy because Michael was all that I could think of. I found my group of two people sitting at a yellow table waving at me. So of course I had to go sit with them. They were the only two I knew that would not say anything to anyone. Lauren and Raye were the only two that I hung out with after school.  We all three go get manicures, pedicures, we get food, and we
stuff ourselves. Lauren and Raye were my best friends and they were the perfect couple for each other.

   

  “Hey boo”, Raye said to me in her shy low voice.

   

  “What up”, Lauren asked.

   

  “Hey guys. So you will never believe what happened this morning”, I said ready to gossip about what Michael had done this morning.

   

  “Spill it”, they both curious of what had happened.

   

  “So Michael chased me to the bathroom and I asked him what he wanted and he kissed me and said you”

   

  “NO FREGGIN WAY”, they both yelled in amazement.

   

  “He did that after what had happen during this summer? What nerves this boy has”, Lauren said in an angry and upsetting voice.

   

  “Well do you still have feelings for him”, Raye asked egger for me to answer the question.

   

  “Well yes I do still have feelings for him, but I don’t want to and I don’t know what to do.”

   

  At that moment I realized Michael had spotted me and so I told the girls that I had to leave and they completely understood. I saw Michaels eyes staring into mine wanting to badly talk to me, but with my promise I made to myself, I would not have it. As I was walking through the double doors to the main building I was stopped by Aaron Fountaine

   

  “Hey Taylor.”

   

  “Hey Aaron. What’s up? You like your classes this year?”

   

  “Yes I do they are great, but that’s not why I stopped you.”

   

  “Ok? why did you then Aaron?”

   

  “Well I was wondering if you would come to my back to school party tonight. I figured since we were seniors and today was our last first day of high school we could end it in a special way.”

   

  “Of course Aaron I would love to come to your party.”

   

  “Awesome! See you tonight at nine?”

   

  “Sounds like a plan.”

   

  As I walked off I could not help but smile about all the parties that Aaron had thrown and he wasn’t even finished with them yet. At one point Aaron and I were a thing, but one thing lead to another and we decided that it would be best to just be friends and so far it seemed to have worked out.

   

            I didn’t realize how fast the day was until I was in drama with Mrs. Cooper. I had Mrs. Cooper since freshman year and it never surprises me that not one of her class is the same. Every year she changes what we do and how we do it. Mrs. Cooper believes that you work to earn your spot in drama and on stage not be lazy and do whatever you want to. Mrs. Cooper had given us an assignment on the first day, which I did not mind in the least bit because we had to write a monologue about anything we wanted as long as it had meaning to us. Before I knew it I had three pages and the bell just rang for us to go home.

   

  “Finally”, I sighed with a little joy knowing that tonight I would be at one of Aarons amazing parties.

   

  “Everyone have a safe weekend and do not do anything I wouldn’t do. You guys are now dismissed”, Mrs. Cooper said with a little ring of happiness like she was going to go to a party herself. I got out of my seat and slowly walked to my car with hope that Michael would not be at the doors waiting for me. So just to make sure I took a back route to my car and I was wrong Michael was at the main double doors waiting for me to come. I turned on my car and pulled out my phone to turn it back on.

   

   45 messages from Michael Bennett

   

  2 messages from Mom

   

  1 Message from Aaron Fountaine

   

  I quickly pulled out of the school parking lot and started on my journey home.

  Chapter Four: "Memories"

   

   As I got home I went into the kitchen. I wasn't surprised when I found a note by my mother saying:

  Hey baby I went to Columbus for the week for your Aunts wedding.

  My aunt had been married twice before and now she was remarrying. I was happy for her only if she was happy herself. I grabbed my backpack and went to my bedroom. I threw the door open and threw my backpack in the big orange chair I had. I started getting ready for Aaron's party he was having, but soon found myself dozing off. I decided to take a little nap. As I was falling asleep I kept remembering last year. I remembered how everything was perfect and how everything dramatically changed in the past year.

      I walked into my first class for the day. I remember having Mrs. Washington for English three. In my class was Aaron, Michael, Caroline, Raye, and Lauren. There were a lot more people but I didn't care about them and at that point I didn't care for Michael, Caroline, and Aaron. Mrs. Washington assigned us seats, which everyone always hate assigned seats. In front of me of course had to be Michael, beside me was Lauren, beside Michael was Aaron. I hated that Raye was all the way across the room where we couldn't chat. Mrs. Washington handed papers to the first people on the row so they could hand it back. Michael turned to hand me papers. I was so interested in his amazing eyes I accidentally dropped to papers.

  "Oh no I'm sorry! I thought you had Grasp on them", Michael said as he smiled his quirky smile showing only a little bit I his pearl white teeth. He handed me the papers. "Taylor? Right?" I kept thinking OMG he knows my name okay don't act weird do not act weird.

  “Yes I'm Taylor, and you would be."

  "Michael, I'm new here."

  "Oh really now?"

  "Ha-ha. yeah."

  "Well nice to meet you Michael."

  "Nice to meet you Taylor. Hey do..."

  Michael got interrupted by Mrs. Washington trying to tell us about everything that we should need to know about this semester. Michael handed me a crisp white piece of folded paper.

   

  Do you want to hangout tonight? It said written so beautifully on the paper.

   

  Well let me see what's on my agenda for tonight. I replied back with my sloppy handwriting.

   

  Let me check your agenda for you. Hmmm seems very clear to me pick you up about nine thirty?

   

  What are we going to do?

   

  Anything you want to. Just text me where I can find your dwelling.

   

  He grabbed my phone off my desk and started typing. I soon realized that he was typing his number and his name into my phone. He even left a photo so there was no silhouette when he called or texted me.

  I couldn't grasp why he was being so nice besides that he was new and he didn't know anyone.

    Michael kept texting me after first block.

   

  This class is so boring. So any idea where we are going? He asked me.

   

  No sir no idea yet.

   

  well you do realize you have to choose.

   

  Shouldn't this be an equal thing?

   

  hmmm no it isn't well since I'm driving and paying you get to choose.

   

  Wait paying? Paying for what?!

   

  I guess you'll see......

   

  I was so excited about hanging out with Michael that the rest of second block, third block, and fourth block went by in a flash of an eye. I flew out of my desk when the final bell rang and ran to my car. I rushed home to figure out what I was going wear and to take a quick shower. Soon before I knew it he was in my drive way in his 2013 silver Ford pickup truck. I opened the passenger side door and got in.

   

  “Hey there you are looking handsome as ever”, he looked at me with his quirky smile of his.

   

  “Speak for yo
urself you are looking as beautiful as can be”, I replied back to him staring at his whole entire outfit. He wore a white button up shirt with a blue vest and tie. The blue made his eyes pop with cheerful color than they already were.

   

  “Where are we going”, he asked and then he grabbed my hand and clasp his around mine.

   

  “Go to sonic and order two number 1 sonic cheese burgers.”

  “Okay captain! May I ask what we are going to be doing?”

  “No sir. You said you would drive and pay and I would choose where we go.”

  “Okay Mr. Bossy pants.”

   

  He started driving like I asked him to do, well more like commanded, while we were driving there we did little small chat like what our favorite colors were, what type of music, and so on. We finally got to sonic and he ordered the two number 1 cheese burgers. While we waited he stared at me and smirked some more.

  “Why do you always smirk at me”, I asked with a great deal of curiosity.

  “Well I’m here with you and since we are alone I have an important question.”

  “Okay well what is it?”

  “Well I was wondering if you would date me.”

  “Hmmm let me see.”

   

  At that time the carhop came to the window. He handed Michael our food and Michael handed him the correct amount of money and even added an extra five dollars for the carhops tip. Michael was getting ready to pull out our burgers when I slapped his hand.

   

  “No don’t eat just yet we have to eat it somewhere else”, I told him with a stern voice.

  “Okay well where are we going?”

   

  I told him instruction to get to our next destination and he was surprised when I brought him to a light up baseball field.

   

  “We… We’re at a baseball field”, he said in a surprised voice.

  “Yes we are.”

  “Why?”

  “You like baseball right?”

  “Yes why?”

  “Cause we are going to play baseball.”

   

  Before he could reply I had already got out of the car and went to the dugout. I pulled out a bat, a mitt, two helmets and a baseball. He was behind me and was shocked that we were about to play baseball. We played baseball for what seemed like years but in reality was about two hours. I then went back to the truck and grabbed out food. We sat out in the middle field and ate. While we were eating he tried feeding me and I tried feeding him and it didn’t work out so well as we both had condiments all over our faces.