Always - 10. We Need a Hero

The first thing I wanted to do when I got home was take a shower. I wanted to wash off the hospital and all the bullshit from Monday. Pop gave me a wrap that would keep my staples dry and asked if I needed any help. I grinned and looked at Billy and Pop just shook his head, “No, not that kind of help, nothing strenuous until the end of the week.”

“Awwwww, man—okay, I’ll be good—and I’ll be fine. I’ll holler if I need anything.”

Wow! I think that was the best shower ever, even with that plastic thing covering my staples. I washed my hair twice, and the minty soap just felt better than ever. I dried off and hit my hair with the dryer. Damn. I felt a million times better now that I was clean.

I walked out to the kitchen, and Billy was helping Pop with lunch. Pop was making tomato soup from scratch. Sorry, I thought you just opened a can! Billy was making grilled cheese sandwiches with ham stuffed between the slices of cheese. Things were smelling good when Noah came in from the pool. The school's text had come in, and they could get their cars anytime in the afternoon.

Billy was excited about getting his car back. Noah? He just shrugged his shoulders and sat down on the stool next to me. Something wasn’t right. “Dude. Are you okay?”

“Yeah—no—I don’t know—maybe?”

“Noah, what’s going on?”

“I got a text from Liam Webster, Hannah’s brother. He’s on the swim team. He wants to come over and talk. I haven’t answered him yet.”

“Is he bat-shit crazy like his dad and sister?”

“Language, Nick.”

“Sorry, Pop.”

“No, Nick. Liam’s actually the only sane one in the bunch. You’ll meet him when you get to swim team. He’s a Junior—a year older than us.”

Pop turned away from the stove and asked, “Maybe he’s trying to reach out to you—maybe let you know that he understands how things happened.”

“I think that’s what he was getting at. He said his family exploded—he and his Mom have moved into a hotel. When I asked what happened, he said he would rather tell me in person.”

I looked my brother in the eyes and asked him what his gut was telling him.

“That Liam is kinda freaking out and needs someone to talk to—someone he can trust.”

“Oh, and you think he can trust you?”

“Yeah. Before Hannah, he and I used to hang out a lot. He kinda faded away after I started dating his sister, even though we still do shows together at KTC.”

Pop placed bowls of soup in front of us and at the other two places at the breakfast bar. “It’s okay with me if he comes over. I’ve missed having him around the house.”

“Yeah, I miss him too, now that you mention it.”

Noah grabbed his phone and started texting again as Billy brought a mountain of sandwiches to the counter. We all grabbed a couple of sandwiches and dug into lunch. Damn! That was the best soup I’ve ever had! No more canned shit for me! Well, hopefully!

“Hey Pop, Liam wants to know if we could pick him up at the hotel when we go get our cars. His mom is out for the afternoon.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. Where is he?”

Noah tapped into his phone, and his eyes widened. “They’re at the Guild. Whoa! Nice digs!”

“It’s a bit out of our way, but it looks like we’re one of his only options. Tell him we’ll pick him up, and he can come over after he gets his car.”

“Thanks, Pop! You’re the best!” Noah leaned in and kissed Pop on the cheek. He texted a bit more and then settled in to his lunch along with the rest of us.”

Billy looked over at me with those gorgeous eyes and mouthed, “I love you,” and just totally melted my heart. Pop asked me how I did with the shower.

“The plastic thing was a little weird, and reaching up with my left arm pulled a bit on the staples, but it was the best shower I’ve had in my life!”

We kept eating lunch, and just as we were finishing, the doorbell rang. Pop got up to answer the door and returned with Mrs. Rodriguez. Looks like our second surprise visit!

“Good afternoon, Nicholas, Noah—and this is—”

“Hi, Ms. Rodriguez. This is Billy McCallister. I told you about him last time.”

“Oh, yes! The boyfriend! It’s so nice to meet you, Billy!”

Billy looked at me, blushing, while I just smiled at him.

Pop told Noah to let Liam know that something had come up at home, and we’d be there an hour or so from now. Billy offered Mrs. Rodriguez some lunch. She declined but told me to bring the rest of mine out to the patio so we could talk. I only had half a sandwich left and decided to finish it when I was done talking with her. Pop said he would put it in the warmer.

We sat down at the patio table, and Mrs. Rodriguez started right in with the hero crap. “Well, that was some first day of school, wasn’t it? How are you feeling?”

“I’m a little sore, and the staples bug the heck outta me. But this ‘hero’ thing has gone way too far.”

“But you did save a couple of lives at the minimum—almost thirty lives if you think about it.”

“But all I did was push my friends out of the way. Anyone would do that, wouldn’t they?”

“One would hope so, Nick. But I’ve been thinking a lot about your situation. There have been so many tragic incidents at so many schools around the country, but what happened yesterday is quite different. You are the first positive thing that has come out of all this tragedy. It’s the people who really do need you to be their hero right now. You’ve given a glimmer of hope. I think it might be more about the people who need—or want—a hero than it is about you.”

“Yeah, I can see that, I guess.”

“So, be the hero for those who need you to be. That doesn’t mean you have to strut around like someone all full of themselves. All you have to do is thank the people who say something to you. Acknowledge the praise, and then just move on. And I promise you this will all blow over in a week or so, and you can move on with your life.”

“I never really thought about it that way. I guess I see what you’re saying, and I’ll just deal with it and let it become old news.”

“Now—about your life—how are things going with you and the White’s?”

“It still kind of blows my mind. Every day I feel less like a foster kid and more like a part of a family—a pretty awesome family if you ask me. But yesterday, I completely felt like a full-on family member. Noah and the dads stayed with me pretty much the whole day. I mean, even when we weren’t talking, and they were just sitting in the room with me—we were there together—just like a real family.”

“You called them ‘the dads.’ Is there something I should read into that?”

“You know I never had a dad. Until now, the closest thing I ever had was one who treated me like his live-in slave and one who beat the crap out of me when his son kissed me. Things are so different with David and Andrew. They treat me the same way they treat Noah. They really care about what’s happening with me. A while back, it just slipped out. I called David ‘Pop’ without even thinking about it.”

“How did they take that?”

“They kinda cried a little. It made them really happy.”

“That’s wonderful, Nick. They love you. There are a lot of people who love you. I’m so happy to see how you’ve grown into a special young man—the young man Mrs. Cranston has always said you were.”

“Well, I’ve already said it to all of them, but I love them, too. It’s kind of easy to love people who care about you—and love you back.”

“And Billy—is there anything you want to tell me about him? He seems to be an exceptional young man.”

“I still find it hard to believe that someone like Billy McCallister would even give me a second look, let alone want to be my boyfriend. I mean, he’s a jock on the wrestling team. Incredibly handsome, so smart—pretty much everything I’m not. But then he tells me that what he loves the most about us is the differences. He says it makes the everyday things in our life together so much more interesting.”

“And the things you listed about Billy—my guess is that those are the things you might love about him?”

“Wow. This is kinda embarrassing, but yeah—I guess you’re right. But it’s more than that. It’s like when we’re together, everything is so different. It’s calm. It’s so comfortable. It’s complete—it’s so different from anything I’ve ever felt before.”

“Well, Nick. I don’t think I’ve seen a young man adjust so well, so quickly. It makes me extremely happy that this experimental program seems to be working so well.”

“Are you ready for a tour?”

“Oh, I don’t think that’s necessary today. I do need to have a quick chat with your brother and dad, and then I’ll be out of here. Again, Nick—I’m so pleased and proud of you. Especially after all you went through yesterday. You are a remarkable young man.”

“Thank you, Ms. Rodriguez. Do you want them one at a time?”

“You can send them out together today.”

I went back into the house and told Pop and Noah that Mrs. Rodriguez wanted to see them together. As soon as I sat down, Billy had the rest of my lunch in front of me.

“How’d it go, babe?”

“It was good. She helped put this hero stuff into a place where I think I can deal with it. And we talked about you—and us—quite a bit.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. It turns out the things we both love about each other are the things that are different about us. She thinks that we have the base of a really good relationship going.”

“She’s a smart lady.” Billy leaned in and kissed me.

I finished my lunch and helped Billy clean the kitchen and load the dishwasher. Well, as much as I could with those damned staples. By the time we finished the kitchen, Pop and Noah came back into the house with Ms. Rodriguez. She thanked us for our time, and Pop showed her out the door.

When Pop came back into the kitchen, he told Noah to let Liam know they were leaving the house. I decided I would stay home and take a much-needed nap.

So—what happened over the next couple of hours seems to be pretty important, but I wasn’t there, so I’m going to let Noah take over and let you in on everything.

* * * * *

Hey, y’all. Noah here. Nick decided to take a nap. Damn, he definitely has earned it over the last couple of days! He asked me to tell you about the next hour or so. A lot of shit—mostly good shit—came down that he wanted me to tell you about it. Maybe I’ll have to write my own story someday.

Liam Webster. Where should I start? The beginning? I guess that’s a good place.

I met Liam last year on the swim team. Fate just kinda threw us together. We ended up sitting next to each other on the bleachers that first day of practice—listening to the coach ramble on and on. That first day we learned each other’s names and discovered we were both new to the team and at the bottom of the team totem pole.

We didn’t get as much pool time as the upperclassmen, and it seemed whenever we were sitting on the bench, Liam was always sitting next to me. I guess it was nice since we got to know each other.

A few weeks into swim practice, it hit me that Liam would either be next to me or across from me when we would hit the showers. You know how you can “feel” someone’s eyes when they are looking at you? I began to get that feeling from Liam just about every time. I would turn and catch his eye, but the strange thing was he wouldn’t turn away. He would smile at me. I would smile at him, and we would just continue with our shower business.

A couple of weeks later, we had just finished a pool workout, and we moved to the benches. Liam kinda surprised me when he asked if I was seeing anyone. Unfortunately, I was. I was seeing another dude—an asshole of a dude—but I was trying really hard to make things work.

I told Liam that I was seeing someone, and it broke my heart when I saw the sad look on his face—especially since I knew that Liam would be a MUCH better boyfriend than the one I had. Of course, I told him I really did want to stay friends, and he half-heartedly agreed.

So, not long after that exchange, I got dumped by the so-called boyfriend. Why? Because I wouldn’t fuck him—or let him fuck me.

About six weeks before the end of the school year, our History teacher paired people up for an end-of-the-year project. Enter Hannah Webster.

At first, I thought that this might be a good way to see Liam again and maybe rebuild our friendship. What I didn’t realize until a couple of weeks later was that Liam and Hannah totally hated each other and were never in the same room together—except at meals.

I will have to admit that Hannah was an excellent partner, and we had our PowerPoint presentation pretty much finished way ahead of the others in the class. But one afternoon, we were watching our presentation, and we got to a really cool part. She hugged me, I looked at her, she kissed me—and the saga began—

As you have probably figured out from Nick’s writing, Hannah Webster can be pretty aggressive. Should I have stopped her when things began to get intense? Probably. But keep in mind—I was a horny, hormonal fifteen-year-old with a dick that had a mind of its own.

By the end of the school year, we were doing shit on a pretty regular basis, and she made sure the entire school knew that we were together. The only thing was, I didn’t feel like we were together. My heart wasn’t into it, and soon I was messing around with Hannah just to keep her from bitching.

Well, you know how that all ended, and while I really hated that she had to die, I’ve been having this liberating feeling of relief—until Liam texted me. As we’re driving to his hotel, I’m having these mixed feelings of excitement and confusion.

We pulled up to the front of the hotel, and Liam was out front waiting for us. He hopped into the back seat with me and flashed that familiar smile, and I was pretty sure the direction things were going.

Billy, who was in the front seat with Pop, introduced himself to Liam, and Pop asked him if everything was okay. Duh! Liam and his mom have moved into a hotel. Doesn’t sound like everything is okay to me!

Liam explained that this morning, his dad and two older brothers were going off about all this was the fault of the “country club fags.” He said they just wouldn’t stop, and the discussion then turned to what they would do to ANY fag that crossed their path.

Liam said he reached a boiling point and blurted out that they could start with him. He then stood up and announced that he was packing his bags, that he could no longer be a part of this family. One of his brothers got up and started to follow Liam upstairs, and his mother let out a sound he had never heard before.

At least the brother had enough respect for his mother to stop. She then went into her bedroom as his dad and brothers finished their breakfast. Liam couldn’t hear what was being said since the yelling had stopped.

About twenty minutes later, he took the front stairs down to the front door and found his mother there. She had been crying and told him to put his bags into her car. She said her bags were already there.

She followed him out the door, and they made their way downtown to the hotel. His mom didn’t even tell anyone that she was also leaving. She decided to let them figure it out on their own.

Pop asked if they were going to be okay on their own. Liam told him that money was not an issue since most of their money came from a family trust, and she was the only one who had access to the share left to her by her grandmother.

By the time Liam had finished his story, we had arrived at the high school. We directed Pop to the Underclassmen parking lot, which was WAY behind the main building. Liam and I were parked pretty close to each other, so Pop dropped us off first.

Before we split off to our cars, Liam asked, “Hey, can we talk for a minute?”

“Sure. My car or yours?”

“How ‘bout yours? My AC isn’t very reliable lately.”

We got into my car and had it cooled down in just a few minutes. Liam twisted his body around so he was facing me directly.

“I think the first thing I need to do is seriously apologize to you.”

“What are you talking about, Liam? You don’t have anything to apologize for.”

“Yeah, I do. I should never have pulled away after you told me you were seeing someone. And then, when you started dating Hannah, that was the hardest thing for me to see, and I pulled completely away. And speaking of Hannah, I want you to know that—from the bottom of my heart—I’m so sorry for all the trouble she caused you and your family. You won’t hear that from anyone else except maybe my mother.”

“Like I said, you have absolutely nothing to apologize for, Liam—but I totally appreciate your honesty.”

“Thanks, Noah—but I want us to start up our friendship again, so I need to be 100% honest with you. When I asked you if you were seeing someone, it was because I was hoping you weren’t and that I was hoping you were gay. I had no idea you were straight, or I would have ever gone there.”

“Um, Liam—I was with Julian Decker back then. I’m not straight.”

“But—Hannah. What—?”

“I’m sure it doesn’t surprise you to know that Hannah was in control of that relationship—and most of the time, I would do stuff with her to shut her up. I didn’t love either Julian or Hannah. They were both bad decisions on my part.”

“So—could that mean—you know—maybe—do I have a chance with you?”

I leaned over to Liam and kissed him lightly on the lips. I pulled away after a few seconds and told him, “Yeah—definitely—for sure.”

I started to move back to my seat, but Liam pulled me back and kissed me—and there was nothing light or chaste about it. In fact, it was one of the hottest kisses I’ve ever had. Looking back, I think it was because I didn’t feel any pressure to give more than I was ready to give. It was a kiss where Liam just shared himself with me. Oh, and while we were kissing, he made these cute-as-fuck whimper noises.

We finished the kiss, and Liam thanked me for making his day more perfect than he could have wished for. He promised not to push me into something I wasn’t ready for, and then he went to his car and pulled out of the parking lot. When he drove by me, he had the cutest grin on his face.

So yeah, it looks like Liam and I are going to do some exploring and see where things take us. And for the first time, I’m not nervous or apprehensive at all. Already off to a good start!

* * * * *

I had started to wake up from my nap when Noah literally came bouncing into the room.

“Dude! You awake?”

“I am now! What’s got you so keyed up?”

“I need to ask you a question. Just between you and me, k?”

“Sure, what’s up?”

“Do you remember the first kiss you and Billy had?”

“Of course I do. You can’t forget something like that!”

“Can you tell me what it was like? Why you’ll never forget it?”

“Did you and Liam—”

“No. No. No. I really need to know, Nick!”

“Okay. I guess the main thing I remember was that it was an amazing kiss. Like none I’ve ever experienced. It was like I could feel Billy filling up my entire soul, and I could feel Billy letting me in. Oh—and as amazing as that kiss was, I didn’t feel any pressure or expectations—we were just in this amazing moment.”

“Yeah—that’s exactly what it felt like! Oh man, this is so cool!”

“Liam?”

“Yeah.” Noah actually blushed as he threw himself down on his bed.

“You know, I’ve never seen you like this. It’s kinda cool—weird, but cool! But then, I totally get it.”

“You know, I’ve really only kissed two other people in my life. Those kisses were nothing like this. It was like it was just about the act of kissing—the physical stuff. And with Hanna, Hell—that was more for my own survival.”

Noah laughed a bit and then looked at me with a serious face.

“How do I know it’s real, Nick?”

“Not that I have that much experience with this kinda shit, but I remember that pretty all I could think about was Billy until I got to see him again. I think we texted each other a hundred times that night.”

Right on cue, Noah’s phone buzzed, and he got that goofy grin that I remembered pretty well. I decided to head out to the kitchen for some iced tea and text Billy—giving Noah some privacy.

I didn’t have to text Billy. While I was pouring my tea, my phone vibrated on the breakfast bar. When I sat down, I saw a text had come in from Billy.

BILLYMAC: hi baby. how ya feelin ❤️

NICKOJACO: good nap. just having some iced tea <3<3

BILLYMAC: did noah come home

NICKOJACO: yeah. he got his car but came home alone

BILLYMAC: how was he

NICKOJACO: why would u ask that

BILLYMAC: cuz when I drove by noah’s car i saw him and liam kissing—really kissing

NICKOJACO: yup. he told me and asked what our first kiss was like

BILLYMAC: what did u tell him

NICKOJACO: that it was ok

BILLYMAC: WTF?!?!

NICKOJACO: haha! told him it was the most amazing thing ever. told him it was like I could feel your soul inside me

BILLYMAC: nice. i felt the same thing u know

NICKOJACO: sweet

BILLYMAC: mom wanted me to ask if you could go out to dinner with us tonite. maybe do a sleepover. she’ll take u home in the morning after we go to school

NICKOJACO: 2 things—gotta ask pop first and—we can’t have sex

BILLYMAC: I know that. but being with u is what I need

NICKOJACO: lemme ask pop brb

I walked out to the patio where Pop was reading his book and asked him. He was concerned about the sleepover part since it was a school night.

“Pop. It’s not like we can do anything that will keep us up late. We just want some time together.”

“Have Billy’s mom give me a call, and then I’ll let you know.”

I texted Billy the message from Pop, and I swear, in less than fifteen seconds, his phone was ringing. My boy works fast!

I think I love Billy’s mom! She had convinced Pop in just minutes, and in no time, Billy came by and took me over to his house.

We had dinner at P.F. Chang’s downtown. Okay—another first. You see, the only Chinese food I’ve ever had was that fast-food place, Panda Express. I liked that well enough, but wow! Can I just say lettuce wraps might just be my new favorite food? I’ll have to ask Pop if he knows how to make those!

I ordered the Beef and Broccoli and then had a chopstick lesson from our cute waiter. Billy kept giggling as the waiter had his hands all over my fingers. It was too cute. But, believe it or not, this zero-experienced foster kid got the hang of it pretty quick, and I was chowing down with the whole family.

That night, Billy tried to strip down to nothing, but I knew that wouldn’t be a good idea for either of us. We both wore sleep pants, and with me on my back, Billy snuggled up on my right side. I guess we were both more tired than we thought. We were asleep in just minutes and had the most wonderful sleep—straight through the night.

I guess just being with the boy you love more than life itself is all you need to feel safe, calm, and entirely at ease. Damn! I sure do love this new life! I think I always will—Always.