Those Nights of My Life - 1. Chapter 1 - I Remember When

Just like how the name suggests, it's been a while. Almost 20 years now since this all started. My name is Xavier Christensen, and this is a story about Kade Wilken and I.

Kade and I knew each other since I was born. He's three years older than me. Our families were great friends. Even with his parents split up and re-married everyone got along rather well. On the surface anyways.

Let's just skip ahead from birth to me being fifteen. At fifteen, I was the smartest kid in my grade. I had glasses and tried my best to stay out of sight of everyone. Typical kid who gets picked on right? Nope!

Kade, a senior at the time and 17, was the best fighter in school. He wasn't to fit, but he knew karate and worked out just enough to keep some muscle. Kade was basically the king of high school at the time. You didn't want to screw around with him or worse me.

Oh, to add to my nerdiness just one look at me and you could tell I was gay. You know those boys who you can tell spent too much time on their clothes and hair in the morning, the ones with a little bit of a feminine facial structure. Yep that was me at fifteen.

The school may have known I was gay, but it would end his reign if they knew Kade was too. Kade and I started experimenting when I turned thirteen and since then it's been a regular thing at sleepovers. Around this time, I believe we considered ourselves closet boyfriends.

Man the shit we did together. We were the textbook definition of best friends. He and I liked the same sports, music, all kinds of things. Sure we liked a lot of the same shit but we also had tons of differences. Mostly in the tv show department. I liked anime; he liked crime shows. Luckily we both enjoy relatively tv still to this very day.

That's enough about us though, why don't I tell you about my huge family. See, I'm the youngest of four children. Margrett and Terrance Christensen were my proud parents. Together they managed to have my oldest brother River (four years older than me, so nineteen), my older sister Elsa (two years, seventeen) and my twin brother Ben.

My parents to put it simply were far into their falling out when I was 15. They would argue all the time, and I would hear all of it. My dad had cheated a few times but when my mom did it once it was world war three in my house, but that comes with the story.

River was that rebel child. He liked wearing loose clothes and bracelets with spikes on them. He's a nice guy, but you wouldn't think so by his appearance alone. River liked to blast his music, one reason no one else heard my parents fight.

My older sister is not from Frozen. She had that name before the movie was a thing. She was the type of girl who showed up just before dinner and disappeared into her bedroom texting all of her girlfriends till the wee hours of the night. Even today I don't have a good relationship with her.

Ben though, Ben is the best. Other than Kade, Ben is the only one who knows all my secrets. We couldn't be more opposite though. He's a jock and I just kind of sit there and watch him. I tried my best to go to every one of his games. He's one of those guys who tells you like it is and don't care how much of an ass he sounds like.

So that's my family, in a nutshell. Kade's family though, that takes a little more pretense. See, Kades parents were together for about five years before they split up. Kade wasn't even five yet, and they had broken up. As a result of that Kade grew up in a broken home. It wasn't until Kade was about 10 when his parents found another partner in their lives.

Kade's dad, Kade Wilkens Sr. found a nice lady Named Tracy. Together they were the parents who demanded the best of Kade. He was expected to get high marks and do well, or he'd lose privileges. It's a dumb system if you ask me.

His mom, Hope, married Kevin Amado. Kevin, as I have always called him, already had a son of his own, Grant. When Kade was with them, they would always be busy with work, and he would be left looking after his half brother. His mom worked at the local Walmart, and Kevin was an Ironworker.

Grant was as good as a nine year old could be. He was hyperactive but once you got him moving, if you could, he would calm down. He was later diagnosed with ADHD, which would explain a lot.

Either way Kade wasn't happy. Kade had to deal with 'you must be the best' or 'he's your kid brother, bye!' I would always hear about one or the other. On any given day, both.

I think that's enough about our families though, you're not here to read about that. You want to know how Kade and I got together. How we came out to our parents and so on and so forth. So I'll get on with that.

Back in the tenth grade life was rough for me. So rough on a regular basis I would be brought home by the cops because I would have run away over to Kade's. I was never far away; I would just refuse to go home. It got so bad; my windows were barred, and there was a camera at the front and back door.

The fights my parent would have would make me physically shake. I would shut down whenever they fought in their room. My dog would come and lay down beside me, but it wouldn't help much. I would always call Kade or find my way over.

Tonight was one of those nights. The night that started it all actually. Mom and dad were arguing in their room, next to mine.

“How is that involved with anything we're talking about Terrance?” Mom yelled at him.

Dad would scream back, “Because you always act like a bitch when we're in an argument! Why do I even bother talking to you!?”

I would lie in bed trying to hide from them fighting. My blankets would always lose that battle though. I had heard them fighting for hours by this point. Don't ask me why, but I decided it was a good idea to sneak out.

We kept our shoes in our rooms, so I grabbed them, my jacket and made my way over to Kade's. It was only a five minute walk to his mom's and a ten to his dad's house. Luckily that night he was at his mom's place.

I got there and knocked on his window. He opened it a few moments later, “Xavier, what are you doing here? It's eleven o'clock at night.”

“Mom and dad are fighting again...” Kade sighed and closed the window. I saw him again at the front door. “Thanks.”

“You can't just sneak out Save, you know that right?” Save was my nickname. Everyone called me it. “What are you going to do when your parents find out your not at home?”

I didn't know, “I just needed to get out of there. I didn't really think this through, did I?”

“And you're locked out aren't you?” He was right. We kept all the keys in a dish by the front door so we would know who was out and who was in. It works, for the most part. ”There is no way of going home without them finding out.”

“Then can I stay here for the night? We can call right now and leave a message...”

“Mom is already on that. You're lucky Grant is a sound sleeper.” I followed Kade to his room. He's only ever had one bed, and we've always shared it at sleepovers. Nobody questioned it.

He turned on the radio and just let it play as we lay there. “How come you turned on the radio?” I asked him.

His response was priceless, “I know music calms you down, it's the best I can do right now.”

I snuggled right up to him giving him the biggest hug I could muster, “I love you, Kade Wilken.”

“I love you too, Save.” He quickly fell asleep after that. I stayed up and listened to the radio for a while. It was then that, what we consider to this very day, our song came on the radio.

There was no speech before the song came on. It just went from one track to the next, and I instantly fell in love with it.

I remember when

We used to laugh

About nothing at all.

It was better than going mad

From trying to solve all the problems we're going through.

Forget 'em all.

Cause on those nights, we would stand and never fall!

Together, we faced it all.

Remember when we'd...

Stay up late, and we'd talk all night

In a dark room lit by the T. V. Light.

Through all the hard times in my life,

Those nights kept me alive.

We'd listen to the radio play all night;

Didn't want to go home to another fight.

Through all the hard times in my life,

Those nights kept me alive.

I remember when

We used to drive

Anywhere but here,

As long as we'd forget our lives.

We were so young and confused that we didn't know

To laugh or cry!

Those nights were ours,

They will live and never die.

Together, we'd stand forever.

Remember when we'd...

Stay up late, and we'd talk all night

In a dark room lit by the T. V. Light.

Through all the hard times in my life,

Those nights kept me alive.

We'd listen to the radio play all night;

Didn't want to go home to another fight.

Through all the hard times in my life,

Those nights kept me alive.

Those nights belong to us.

There's nothing wrong with us!

Those nights belong to us...

I remember when

We used to laugh...

And now I wish those nights would last.

Stay up late, and we'd talk all night

In a dark room lit by the T. V. Light.

Through all the hard times in my life,

Those nights kept me alive.

We'd listen to the radio play all night;

Didn't want to go home to another fight.

Through all the hard times in my life,

Those nights kept me alive.

Stay up late, and we'd talk all night

In a dark room lit by the T. V. Light.

Through all the hard times in my life,

Those nights kept me alive.

We'd listen to the radio play all night;

Didn't want to go home to another fight.

Through all the hard times in my life,

Those nights kept me alive!

Those nights belong to us!

There's nothing wrong...

As it finished, I could feel my eyes grow heavy, but I was calm and everything felt right.

You know, until the next morning where I got grounded for sneaking out of the house. The entire time they were talking to me I stared at the ground. I felt bad but felt like I did nothing wrong. Still doesn't help a guilty conscious I guess.

That day at school, I tried to find out what song, and or band that were singing on the radio. I talked to Kade about it. “It was a song about being with someone on hard nights. I can't remember the lyrics to it at all though!”

He just rolled his eyes, “Are you sure you weren't dreaming Save?”

“I wasn't dreaming! I know it was a song on the radio!” I was damn persistent on that fact. I may not have remembered the lyrics, but it was a real song, gosh darn it!

Kade smiled, “I believe you dude. We'll find out what the song is called, I promise.”

“Awesome! We should get to class though. Wouldn't want to be late.”

Kade ruffled my hair; I hated that, and he knew it, “No we wouldn't. I'll see you at lunch.” He headed down the hall towards his class.” I watched him leave.

Man looking back I had such a hard-on for Kade. I didn't really understand what it was at the time, but I was in love with my best friend. Kade, at the time, says he knew he had feelings for me but was unsure of my intentions.

Chapter end.