Who Knew?

James was completely startled. Why the hell would someone wanna go out with him? Especially someone as nice as Riley.

'I bet he could have anyone he wanted...so why ask me? I'm a nobody, an ugly loser. He probably just feels sorry for me. How'd he even know I was gay anyway? Am I that obvious? Plus what would happen if mother found out I was gay? And dad? Everything would-'

“James stop thinking so hard! Riley said concerned. You're starting to turn pale. Look, if just thinking about going out with me is that bad then I already know your answer.” Riley said sounding upset.

“No, no it's not you it's-”

“You don't have to give me the 'It's not you it's me' speech James.” Riley said cutting James off once again sounding sad. “I completely understand. I dunno why I even thought that you would want to date me. I just hope that I can still hang out with you during lunch-”

“RILEY CARTER! Stop. Talking.” James said finally looking at Riley slightly confused. He didn't know why Riley looked so crestfallen. 'He must actually really like me. I guess giving him a chance won't be so bad. What are the chances of mother finding out anyway? None.'

When James was sure that Riley wasn't going to interrupt anything he was going to say, he walked over to him and hugged him. “Riley I would love to go out with you.” Riley hugged him back tightly.

James winced. Riley was hugging him too tight and he could feel one of his recent wounds on his chest re-open slightly. He could feel blood start to go down his stomach. 'I need to act fast! What to do? What to say?! Bathroom!'

“Hey, can you let go for just a sec? I suddenly really need to use the bathroom.” James said hoping that Riley wouldn't notice anything off about him.

“Yea sure.” Riley said reluctantly pulling away from James. James raced to the closet bathroom, not realizing that while he was running his shirt was flying up and down somewhat. 'What the hell is that? That can't be blood.' thought Riley scared. Riley ran after James wanting to find out what was up. He had a right to know after all, he was now James's boyfriend.

Riley walked into the bathroom that inhabited James and he was met with a horrible site. James had his shirt halfway up and from what Riley could see there were what looked like a million scars everywhere on the little area that he could see on his boyfriends back.

“James...” Riley whispered astonished. James didn't hear him, too caught up in trying to fix up his re-opened wound.

“Ja-James...” Riley whispered again only slightly louder. James slowly turned around, hearing him now that his wound was cleaned up. “James...wha...what was that?”

“What was what?” James not knowing that Riley had saw a piece of his life that he was always trying to hide from everyone. Riley didn't say anything. He walked up to James and wrapped his arms around him, though not as tight this time. “James...I saw. Who did this James?” Riley said sounding half concerned and half murderous.

James was beyond terrified. All he heard Riley say was “I saw.” He probably knew his secret now and he's seen how truly ugly he was and he'd break up with him. 'No...I can't let that happen. He wormed his way into my life now I don't know what I'd do without him.' Upon thinking this James had started to cry. Silent tears were now running down his cheeks.

“Riley please don't leave me! Or at least talk to me at lunch, you don't even have to talk to me, I just need you to-”

Riley cut James off with a kiss. It was fierce and full of different emotions. Neither one of them were fighting for dominance. It was to let James know that Riley wasn't going to leave him and that everything was going to be alright.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


James was currently sitting inside Riley's car. They had decided to skip the rest of the school day and had been driving around town randomly for about 25 minutes now. Finally Riley stopped and parked in Butterfly Park's parking lot. He had the gist of what was going on in James's life but needed to hear it from him, plus it seemed as if James needed to lift something off his chest.

“James I want to help you. Who is did this to you? Talk to me.” James was silent he really didn't feel like revealing anything his life right now.

“James please, please tell me what's going on.” Riley begged. “James look at me." James looked away from the suddenly interesting dash board of Riley's car and was met with with beautiful worried light green eyes.

“Riley do we really have to talk about this right now?”

“Yes James we do.” Riley said grabbing James's hand soothingly rubbing circles on it. “You're my boyfriend, my best friend, and I care about you okay?” Riley pulled James's thin body out from his seat and put him in his so that James was sitting on his lap. James put his head on Riley's shoulder and decided to spill secret.

“Three years ago my dad divorced my mom because she constantly saying that the reason why he was staying out all night wasn't because he was working, it was because he was cheating on her with his 'girlfriend'. My dad loved my mom to death, I know he'd never do that to her. He actually was out so late because of work trying to put more money on the table since my mom was using most of the money for her drinking habit and for buying new clothes to party in.”

James stopped at this and took a deep breath. Riley gently rubbed his arm letting him know that he was still there for him.

“My dad tried to get custody over me, but somehow my mother won. At first I thought maybe she loves me and would miss me too much since my dad lives in New England but that wasn't the case at all.” James buried his head into Riley's shoulder and whispered. “Ever since then she's been verbally and...physically abusing me. An-and using the money my dad gives her for child support for alcohol.” Tears were now pouring down James's cheeks. “I keep thinking she's going to ch-change but she doesn't an-and I don't...I just don-”

“Hush...hush everything will be alright. I promise you that James. I never break my promises. Never.” Riley said hugging James closer to him. “She won't hurt you again.”





I have no idea if Butterfly Park is a real park or not. I've only been to Philly maybe once or twice.

Thank You everyone who reviewed! I love hearing from you guys.
If you have any ideas for this story tell me, I might use them. :-)