Worthington Manor - 19. Chapter 19

“What are you going to do about Jessica?” asked Justin

“I don’t know.”

“You realize that you have to tell your parents now.”

“Why?”

“This is a small town. It will get back to them before you know it. You need to tell them before they hear it from someone else.” said Justin

“You’re right. I should go tell them right now.” said Luke

“But we’re having such a wonderful Saturday morning.” said Justin

“I know, but hopefully, if it goes well I’ll come back, okay.”

“Even if it doesn’t, I want you to call me. I can comfort you or something.” said Justin

“Thanks, I’ll do that, but I don’t think it’ll come to that.” said Luke. “My cousin is gay and they’re letting him stay at our house.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll be okay with you being gay. Parents can be okay with other gay people and even have gay friends, but a lot of them would never accept their kids being gay.” said Justin.

“Well, we’re just going to have to see what happens.” said Luke

They said their goodbyes and Luke left. Justin went down to the kitchen to find his mother cooking breakfast. One of her few joys in life was to cook for her family. He went straight to the coffee pot and poured himself some coffee.

“That stuff is going to stunt your growth.” said Julia in an almost monotone voice.

“You drink it.” said Justin

“I’ve already stopped growing.” said Julia in the same tone.

“Mom, can you even look at me?” asked Justin

Julia slowly turned around.

“I just cannot get passed what you did to Hunter. That’s one of the lowest things that anyone could ever do.” said Julia

“You can’t help who you fall in love with mother.” said Justin

“Do you want sausage or bacon?” asked Julia

“Mom, I want things to go back to the way things were between you and I. For God’s sake, not even Kevin is talking to me anymore.” said Julia

“Well, you can’t expect everyone to be your best friend when you do something like that Justin, especially in this family. You’re only sixteen and already displaying such shameful behavior, I can’t even imagine how you’re going to act when you get older.” said Julia.

“I’m sorry mom. That’s all I have to say.” said Justin

“And know you bring that boy to our house and have sex with him.” said Julia

“What?”

“Don’t act stupid. I know that he was here last night and didn’t leave until this morning. He came back too.” said Julia

“If you dislike him why did you let him back in?” asked Justin

“Because no matter how much I dislike what you did, I don’t want you to be one of the casualties in this mess.” said Julia.

“Well mom, I’m glad that you think that all Luke and I do is have sex because he did stay here last night, but we didn’t have sex.” said Justin

“Then what was he doing in your shower?”

Justin looked at her in confusion.

“Ashley told me.” said Julia

“Okay, that time, it was about sex. But I swear on grandmother’s grave that we didn’t have sex last night.”

Justin was very close with his grandmother. Julia knew this. He would not swear on her grave about something unless it was true. Somehow, this changed her opinion about him. If Luke and her son could stay in the same bed all night without having sex, then they must have real serious feelings about each other. Justin could see by the look on her face that her opinion of his actions had changed.

“Justin, I apologize for treating you and your boyfriend the way that I did. I had just figured that your relationship was all about sex. I didn’t think that it was that serious.”

“What do you mean? What changed your mind?” asked Justin

“Well when you swore on your grandmother’s grave that you didn’t have sex with him last night, I believe you because you wouldn’t have done that if it weren’t true and any relationship where the couple can stay in the same bed without having sex is a pretty serious one, not only about sex. I really didn’t expect that from an infidelity relationship.”

“Thanks mom, I really appreciate that.”

“Now; sausage or bacon?” asked Julia

“Bacon” answered Justin with a smile.

Luke walked into his house. He looked around to find his parents. They were in the kitchen along with Trey, having breakfast.

“Great timing Luke; you want some breakfast?” asked his mother Patty.

“Not right now. I really need to talk to you guys though.”

Trey knew what was going on.

“Are you sure you want to do this Luke?” asked Trey

“Yes Trey, it’s time.”

“What’s going on here, boys?” asked Jerry, his father.

“I’m gay” said Luke

“Are you sure?” asked Patty

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“And Trey, you knew” said Jerry

“Yeah, I found out when he had another boy over the house when you guys were out.”

“And you didn’t say anything?” asked Patty

“It wasn’t my business to tell Aunt Patty.” said Trey

“Well, there’s nothing that we can do about this except for accept you. You’re our son, Luke, and we’ll always love you.” said Jerry

“Exactly” said Patty

Luke smiled with so much joy that it hurt. Trey was smiling also.

“So who’s this boy? Have we met him?” asked Patty

“No, but I think I might have mention him to you. His name’s Justin.” said Luke

“Oh yes, you have, but wait. What about Jessica?” asked Patty

“Well that’s the reason that I told you. She found out yesterday and I wanted to tell you myself before you could hear it from someone else.”

“What do you mean she found out?” asked Jerry

“She walked in on Justin and me kissing.” said Luke

“You mean you were going out with Jessica and Justin at the same time.” asked Patty

“Yeah” said Luke in a guilty voice.

“Luke, that’s cheating. This is not a good thing that you’ve done.” said Patty

“I know, but I didn’t know what to do. I had such strong feelings for Justin, something that I had never felt for Jessica, but I also wasn’t ready to come out. So, to avoid it being obvious, I kept things going with Jessica.”

“Luke, that wasn’t fair to Jessica or Justin. You’ve really made a mess of things.” said Jerry.

“I know, but now I can be true to myself and be with the one that I really love.” said Luke

“So you think its love do you?” asked Patty

Luke got a glowing look on his face and a smile as wide as Texas.

“Mom, I don’t think; I know that this is love. There’s no question about it.” said Luke

“Well, your father and I would like to meet this love of yours.” said Patty.

“Yes, definitely.” said Jerry

“Well, maybe today. Is today okay?” asked Luke

“Yes, that’s fine. How about for lunch?” asked Patty

“Okay, I’ll go over there now.” said Luke

“I’ll give you a ride.” said Trey.

“Thanks cousin.” said Luke

Julia opened the front door after Luke rang the bell.

“Oh, Luke; I’m glad you’re here.” said Julia

“You are?” asked Luke, puzzled.

“Yeah, I just would like to apologize for the way I have been acting lately. I just have a very big trigger when it comes to these types of situations. I hope you can forgive me for the way that I treated you.” said Julia
“Of course; apology accepted.”

“That’s great, so I guess you’re here to see Justin.” said Julia

“Yeah, is he here?” asked Luke

“Yeah, he’s up in his room. Go right ahead.”

Amazed, Luke made his way to Justin’s room. He walked in and Justin was so glad to see him, he screamed Luke’s name, jumped up, wrapped his arms around his neck and immediately French kissed him.

“How did it go?” asked Justin with his arms still around his neck.

“It went very well. They’re absolutely okay with it. They even want to meet you. I told them that you would come over today for lunch. I hope that’s okay.” said Luke

“Yeah, totally; I would love to meet them.”

“Great, but listen, I would really love to get back to them. It’s just that I’ve never felt more close to my parents then I do right now and I don’t want to let this feeling pass without spending time with them.”

“Oh no, please, go with your parents.” said Justin

Just as Luke left, Kevin came running into Justin’s room, looking scared, and shut the door behind him. He had cut and bruises all over his face and arms.
Kevin went upstairs after having breakfast and thought he’d catch up on some assigned reading for his English class. He got out the book, hopped onto his bed and opened the up the book. He didn’t get far before he felt a chill come upon himself. He got up and put a sweater on and then got back onto the bed.

His entire bed began to shake violently. He held on, scared, for dear life. He closed his eyes, and then a few seconds later, the shaking stopped. He opened his eyes to find a woman standing beside his bed. She had the angriest look that Kevin had ever seen on anyone.

She was really tall. She wasn’t too old, about late thirties or early forties. She had long, dark, almost jet black hair. Her dark eyes pierced through his skin like fire. She walked towards him, but she didn’t have any legs. She more floated towards him. She had on an old Victorian style light pink skirt with a white corset. It was old and torn lie she had been wearing it for a while.

He started to shake as she came closer and closer. Her angry look put a fear in him like he had never had before. It gave him the feeling that she was going to hurt him. His feelings were confirmed when she lifted her hand and she had some type of crow bar looking thing in her hand. She lifted her hand towards him. He didn’t expect to feel anything, because he assumed she was a ghost and nothing would happen. He was only half wrong.

She was a ghost, but what she was about to do to him would hurt. She beat him continuously with the bar. In the process she was screaming something, but it was very unclear. The pain was like no other pain that he had ever felt. For a second she stopped, Kevin looked up and the look on her face turned from anger to a sort of sick pleasure look. She lifted her arm one more time, Kevin flinched, but she disappeared.

Kevin looked around the room to try and confirm that she was gone. His breathing was heavy and his heartbeat, rapid. As soon as he knew for sure that it was safe he made his way to Justin’s room. He barged in and shut the door behind him.

“What in the hell happened to your face!” yelled Justin.

“I don’t know what in the hell just happened to me. I think I was just attacked by a ghost.”

“Oh”

“You don’t seem surprised.”

“That’s because I’ve had an encounter with her also.”

“Did she beat the shit out of you too?” asked Kevin

“What? No, all she did was cry and ask for my help. It was a little girl, right?” asked Justin

“No, it was a grown woman.” said Kevin

“Oh my God, this explains a lot.”

“What”

“I think that my ghost might be asking for help from your ghost. I think that they’re trapped in this house together.” said Justin.

“That’s crazy”

“Here, sit down. Let me take a look at you.” said Justin

“I’m fine.”

“Just sit down.”

Kevin knew that Justin wasn’t going to take no for an answer so he obeyed. Justin went and got a warm, damp wash towel from his bathroom and began to wipe Kevin’s wounds.

“So when were you going to tell me about this ghost?” asked Kevin as Justin was gently cleaning him up.

“Well, the only one that I ever told was Hunter and I never told anyone else because I didn’t think that it was a big deal. She never hurt me or anything so, I didn’t tell anyone. But this, this is something that we have to deal with. This is something that we have to take serious.” said Kevin

“No, mom cannot find out about this.” said Kevin

“Kev, you have bruises all over your face.” said Justin.
“How are we not supposed to explain what happened?”

“Maybe you can convince her to let me and you go away for a few days. Christmas is coming up. Maybe we can convince her to let us go skiing or something for a few days. If you want, you can invite Luke. There’s enough room for all of us.” said Kevin

“But she’s still going to want to say goodbye.” said
Justin.

“We can avoid it, please Justin.” said Kevin

“Okay, I’ll try.” said Justin.

Kevin hugged Justin and then went back to his room. Christmas vacation was coming up and they had three weeks off of school. It was Justin’s task to convince his mother and Mark to let them go skiing together for a few days before Christmas. Their family owned a cabin in the Rockies that they used occasionally for family vacations. It was their plan to stay there.