Chapter 6
"Come on Spencer, you can do it. Just let go!" Ashley prodded, trying to be helpful.
No, you sick perverts. We weren't engaging in phone sex again. Ashley had learned her lesson about that one. On the contrary, it was now two weeks after the earthquake incident had occurred. Luckily, I had managed to escape with only a sprained ankle. It was recommended that I hobble around on crutches for a full two weeks before attempting to walk successfully on my own two feet again.
It's surprising how fast you can become accustomed to something. I can't believe I was only on crutches for two weeks, and I that I became so dependent upon them. I had attempted to take my first step without them, but I could feel that my ankle was tender from not having to move. Just to be safe, I'd taken that first step with the help of only one crutch, and it was a good thing that I had, or else I would've fallen flat on my face…or maybe my ass. I knew that Ashley wouldn't have laughed at me, but it still would've been embarrassing.
"I can't do it!" I protested. Despite the fact that my ankle was supposedly healed, it still hurt a great deal. I've never been one to have a high pain tolerance, so this whole ordeal was very frustrating for me.
"You can, Spencer…I'm telling you that you can, and you've got to trust me," Ashley prodded. "Let go of that stupid crutch. I promise you, you won't fall. And even if you start to teeter, I'm right here to catch you."
I stood there for a moment, stubbornly. "Come on," Ashley urged. "You can't spend the rest of your life on those crutches. We've got all weekend to practice your walking before school starts up again on Monday. Maybe we can get you down to a dignified limp or something."
"Ha-ha," I replied irritably. The amount of painkillers that I had been on had been lessened as well, so maybe that also had something to do with it.
"Just once, Spencer, that's all I'm asking. To the wall and back, and that's it."
"Fine," I muttered, throwing the remaining crutch to the ground.
I wobbled unsteadily on my feet. Ashley was trailing right behind me, ready to catch my elbow just in case anything happened. It hurt like hell, but by the time I had limped back to where I'd originally started, I felt somewhat proud of the feat that I had accomplished. I almost fell once, but Ashley didn't even have to reach out for my arm.
"See?" Ashley pointed out, smiling triumphantly. "There's a dignified limp already! I knew that you could do it!"
"Yeah, more like a dignified duck or penguin waddle," I muttered under my breath.
"Okay you, what gives? Stop with the negative attitude already!" she ordered. She paused for a moment, appearing to be deep in thought. "Hey…I know!" she exclaimed happily. "I know what will make you feel better. I'm going to go and pick up some Chinese food and rent a couple of movies from Blockbuster. We'll have a girls' night. It'll be fun."
"Alright," I agreed. "Let's go. I made a slow movement towards the front door so that we could go out to her car.
"No," she said, putting her hand up. "You stay here, and go sit on the couch. We've made progress, so we don't want you to over-work that ankle." I limped over to the sofa as I was told, and she flashed me one of those winning smiles of hers. "I'll be back in a flash," she replied, shutting the door behind her.
I watched her through the window as she drove off. My mother was working a night shift at the hospital that evening, and my father was going over to one of his friends' houses to play some card game…poker, or pinnacle, or something. He was just about to head out the door when I stopped him.
I took a deep breath, considering whether or not I should talk to him about the fact that he had found out that I was gay or not. I swallowed the lump in my throat, and somehow forced myself to speak.
"Dad…I…how did you know that I'm…attracted to Ashley?" I asked, wincing as I said it. With my luck, the wink that he had given me the other night was simply just my imagination. And if that was the case, then I was never going to be able to live this conversation down.
"Spencer, I've known since the first day you brought her home," he told me. "No one had to tell me anything. A good parent just knows. I see the way that you look at her. It's the same way that I used to look at your mother."
I nodded. "And Mom?" I asked worriedly.
"Well, it's up to you when you want to tell her, but I'm not going to. I know what your mother is like, Spencer. She's not very…homosexual-friendly, if you catch my drift. It doesn't bother me though. As long as I can see that you're being treated right, and that you're truly happy with whoever you're dating, then I'm very happy for you," he revealed, giving me his condolences.
"Thanks!" I told him, giving him a giant hug. "That reminds me…is it alright if Ashley comes over for awhile? We're just going to have some Chinese food and watch some movies in my room."
"It's alright with me," he replied, patting me on the shoulder. "Is there anything else that you needed to tell me?"
"Yeah," I told him with a smile. "Go and have fun at your card game." He kissed the top of my forehead and nodded, saying goodbye and walking out the front door.
A half an hour later, Ashley arrived at the door, with Chinese food, a couple of movies, and popcorn in hand.
"Well, you look happier," she noted as she set the food and movies down in front of me. "Wait…did you take more of those painkillers?" she asked skeptically.
"No!" I exclaimed. "Jeeze! No, I was just talking to my father before he left to go and play cards with his buddies. He fully supports our relationship!" I told her happily. "I feel so much better after talking with him."
"Well that's great, hun," Ashley said encouragingly. "But…our relationship? You mean, as in, there is one?"
"I'd definitely like there to be one in the near future," I told her honestly, my smile only getting wider.
"Wait…so does your mother know too, or?..." she asked me.
"No…my mom doesn't know yet. My mom can never know, Ashley. I'd get kicked out of the house."
"You mean your father wouldn't back you up on this one?" she inquired.
"I don't think so. My mother tends to wear the pants in our family," I replied. "Which is really funny, considering the fact that she's never around, and yet she still has this great deal of power over all of us."
The two of us sat down on the couch in my bedroom and Ashley popped in the first movie, which was a romantic comedy, I knew that she'd chosen this movie for me, because she hates cheesy films like this. Needless to say, I was more than happy to snuggle up next to Ashley under a blanket, consume Chinese food, and watch a chick flick with her.
Once the first movie was over, Ashley went downstairs to pop some of the popcorn. When she came back up, she found me looking through the other movie choices.
"See anything that you like?" she asked.
"Any of them…you pick," I suggested, secretly hoping that she wouldn't choose the horror and gore flick. She knew that I personally couldn't stand those types of movies.
To my surprise, she put another romantic comedy into the DVD player. "You should've picked a movie that you like, Ash," I pointed out.
"I like any type of movie that I get to watch with you," she revealed, playfully tossing a piece of popcorn in my direction. It hit me square in the nose.
"Hey, what was that for?!" I protested, feigning anger. "That wasn't nice!"
She shrugged, a grin coming across her face. "I don't know…I just felt like do it," she responded.
"You…are…the most…" I started to say, before my voice trailed off into the distance. Ashley was looking at me with a considerable amount of intensity, and our lips were only inches apart.
For a moment, I hesitated. I knew that I wanted Ashley, and I was well aware of the fact that she liked me just as much back. So then what on earth was my problem? I chewed on my lower lip with uncertainty. Was I really ready to get involved in a relationship right now? Had I been through enough therapy sessions so that my head was on at least somewhat correctly? I took a deep breath. This was my chance. I had to suck it up and take it. With that, I leaned closer and planted a soft kiss on those beautiful lips of her. A kiss, which to my surprise, she returned.
"The most what, Spencer?" she questioned breathlessly after the two of us had pulled away from one another.
"The most amazing person I have ever met in my entire life," I told her honestly, looking her directly in the eye. I paused for a moment, trying to gather all of the thoughts that were floating around in my head. "Ashley Davies, will you please do me the honor of being my girlfriend?" I finally asked her.
"Yes!" she exclaimed, on the verge of squealing like a little girl, but then quickly redeeming herself. She looked down at me seriously, interlocking her fingers of one hand with the fingers of one of mine.
"Spencer?" she questioned quietly.
"Mhm?" I asked. Now I felt different. I felt…completely happy. Not to mention proud of myself for having the balls to ask her such an important question.
"Are you sure that you're ready for this?" she asked softly. "You're not going to go back on your word now, are you?"
"Ash, I'm ready for this," I told her. "I wouldn't have asked otherwise. I want you, and only you, to be my sweetheart."
The two of us leaned in, gently kissing on the lips again once more. All of the sudden, we were interrupted by my bedroom door swinging open and slamming harshly against the wall, the doorknob making a hole in my wall.
"What the heller' you doing?!" My father asked with drunken interest.
"We're just watching movies, Daddy," I replied, hoping that a normal conversation would keep his actions under control.
"Really, because it looks more like the two of you were busy playing tonsil hockey here on the couch," he remarked, noticeably slurring his words.
"I uhm…Ash, you should go…" I sputtered with embarrassment. This is all I needed right now, my new girlfriend seeing my real family in action.
"Nuh-uh," she replied, with her feet firmly planted on the ground below her. "I'm not going anywhere, Spencer."
"Maybe you should listen to what the little girl says," my father suggested to her. "Maybe you should just go. She wants to spend time with her daddy."
"Maybe you should stop being such a drunk bastard!" she replied. She was standing behind me at the time that she said it, and my father reached out to take a swing at her. He would've hit me first…if Ashley hadn't gotten there first.
"Spencer, look out!" she exclaimed, putting herself in front of me, nearly knocking me to the floor because of the lack of balance that I had standing on my injured ankle.
"Spencer, don't you want to play with daddy?" my drunken father crooned. Ashley turned around to face me, wondering why on earth he was talking to me as though I were a small child.
"N…no…I don't w…want to," I stammered. "I never wanted to!"
It was then that I could've kicked myself in my own ass. No one had known about that secret, not even Ashley. She didn't miss a beat. She glanced into my eyes.
"He's…you've…he's forced you to…?" she asked, unable to construct a full question.
"He's done this to you Spence, hasn't he? Fucked you up in the head, I mean?" she asked softly. I stood there, not exactly knowing what to do or say.
At that moment, I felt completely naked. I'd just exposed my full self to someone, and instead of feeling as though a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders, I felt scared and frightened. I was afraid of what Ashley would think of me, now that she knew the whole story. Would she still want to be with me, or would she decline now, because someone else had gotten there first?
"You disgusting, sick, fucking bastard!" she screamed at my father. "You are the most nasty and vile person that I have ever met in my entire life! You stay away from her, do you understand me? If you do so much as to hurt one single hair on her body, I swear to God, you will never sea the light of day again!" she proclaimed.
My father, although drunk, seemed taken aback by the harshness of her voice, and started to slowly back out of my bedroom door. Once he'd gone into another area of the house, Ashley immediately slammed my bedroom door shut and locked it.
"Come on, Spence!" she urged, rummaging around for bags and my luggage set. "We're gonna get you out of here!" she tossed a duffel bag in my direction, which I robotically started to fill.
By the time that my room was all packed up and we were ready to go, my father had passed out on the living room couch. Ashley and I loaded the things up into her Mustang, and sped off in the direction of her house.
She cut the engine once we arrived at her house. Then she turned to face me. "Do you want to talk about it? We have to talk about it," she told me, letting me know that I wasn't off the hook yet.
"Not tonight," I requested softly. I had too much excitement for one day.
"Okay," she reconsidered. "We'll have a discussion tomorrow instead. Come on, let's get you situated."
She came around the car and opened the door for me to get out. The two of us started hauling in bags and boxes and luggage sets worth of my entire life thus far. Her younger sister Kyla noticed us on one of our trips into the house.
"Spencer is moving in with us," I heard Ashley telling her.
"Does Mom know about this?" Kyla asked.
"Not yet. What the hell does it matter anyways, she's never around," Ashley pointed out.
"Doesn't she have some sort of home to go to?" her sister asked, probably not meaning to be snotty.
"Not a good one," I heard Ashley reply softly. "She's much safer over here. Come on, Ky, help us with the rest of her stuff," she requested.
And Kyla obliged. The three of us spent the better portion of the night unloading things from the Mustang and bringing them into Ashley's huge mansion of a house.
During my last trip outside to bring a handful of stuff in, I stopped briefly to look up at the stars. Everything was just fine and dandy…for now. What was going to happen when my father recovered from his hangover and came looking for me tomorrow? I shivered, just thinking about it.
"You coming in?" asked Ashley, interrupting my thoughts.
"Yeah," I replied, taking one more glance up at
the stars before entering my safe haven. "It's been a long day." Author's Note:
I may not be able to update as frequently for awhile, because I have a project to do for one of my college summer courses, where I read and respond to 35 different children's books about various historical figures. The class is over on July 23rd, but I hope to be done long before then.