The Tide Began to Rise - Repost - 8. Chapter 8

I woke up the next morning not knowing where I was. I was in a strange dark room. I was laying on a very comfortable bed. Now I know I’m not at home. I heard breathing next to me. I tried to think who it could be. “Maybe James. No that can’t be it. I was supposed to hang out with Brad. That’s who this must be beside me.” I thought. Then I remembered that Brad had invited other people to hang out with us, and that I left. “So where am I, and who is beside me?”

I looked over to see if I could see the mystery person’s face. All I saw was the back of the persons head. How am I going to figure this out, without disturbing him? I figured out it was a guy when I heard him snore. I looked at his head one more time. Blonde hair, who do I know that has blonde hair. The only one that I can think of is Brent. “Oh my god, that’s who this is, Brent. I’m in Brent’s bed.” I started to breathe really heavy. Almost gasping for air.

At that moment Brent opened his eyes and rolled over to look at me. He smiled and said “Good morning, how did you sleep?”

“I slept pretty well. When I first woke up I didn’t remember where I was. Then I looked over and saw you. Then it all came back to me.”

“Good” Brent said with a smile. “How about we get up and go downstairs for some breakfast.”

I nodded and slid out of the bed. I pulled on my pants and my shirt. Brent gave me a look that I knew said “Your really need to tell someone.” Brent threw on a wife beater and a pair of gym shorts. We headed down stairs. Brent’s mom was in the kitchen. She was cooking bacon, egg, and pancakes.
“Good morning boys. Hope you guys are hungry.”

“I know I am mom.” Brent said as he sat down at the table.

His mom brought the food to the table and sat down. Both Brent and his mom put food on their plate and started eating and talking with each other. There were both smiling. This brought a tear to my eye. That used to be me and my mom.

“Tyler……………..Tyler wake up. I made breakfast.”

I slowly opened my eyes to see my mom standing over me. She has a smile on her face. I gave her a smile back. She bent down and gave me a kiss on the forehead. Then she walked out of the room. When she left the room, I throw the covers off me and climbed out of the bed. I threw on some clothes and headed down stairs. The moment my feet hit the last step, I was over whelmed with the smell bacon. I rounded the corner and went into the kitchen.

I found my mom at the stove. At that moment she was cooking hash browns. I looked at the counter and saw that my mom had already made waffles, eggs, and bacon. I walked over to the cabinet and grabbed two plates and two glasses. I set them on the table. I walked over to the fridge and got the gallon of orange juice. I poured some into each of the glasses, and then returned the gallon back to the fridge.

My mom put the last of the cooking bacon and hash browns on the plate with the rest. She put that plate on the table and then moved the rest of the food to the table as well
.
We both sat down and started eating. We didn’t need to say a word. All we needed to do was enjoy each other’s company. We ate the entire meal in silence. We occasionally gave each other a smile. When we finished, we cleared the table and sat back down.

“I love you mom.”

“I love you to honey.”

“Promise that we will always do this. At least until it is time for me to move out.”

“Nothing will get me to stop doing this with you. This is time that you and I share. I do something else with Peter. So don’t ever worry that I won’t make time for you. I love you honey.”

I got up from the chair, walked over to my mom and gave her a big hug.

“Tyler…………….Tyler…………………you ok man?”

I came back to reality to the sound of Brent’s voice. I looked at him then at his mom.

“You ok dude? You’ve been starring for like 5 minutes.”

“Yeah I’m fine.”

“Ok then, sit down and eat. There’s a lot of food, and you will hurt my mom’s feeling if you don’t eat.”

I sat down and put some food on my plate. Seeing the amount of food before me was a little over whelming. I don’t really ever see this much food in front of me. I normally see maybe a bite of whatever everyone else ate. Then I would sneak other food up to my room to eat.

I scarffed down the food that I had on my plate. Then I grabbed more. That was gone in minutes. Both Brent and his mom were now starring at me. When I finally noticed it I stopped shoveling food in my mouth.

“I’m sorry, It’s just that I don’t normally get………..um……….such good food at home.”

“Well I’m glad you like it. I’m sure you mom is a great cook.”

“Yeah, her take on KFC’s recipe is great.” We all started laughing.

We continued to talk with each other for a while. Both Brent and his mom were asking me questions. I was careful not to give certain information away. At the same time, Brent seemed to understand that there were things that I didn’t wasn’t to discuss. Every time his mom came close to talking about my dad or mom, he would change the subject. I was very grateful for that. I was worried that there might be one time that Brent didn’t catch it and didn’t change the subject. Maybe she would ask her question and I would pause. If that happened, I thought the worst would happen. That she would see that pause as the question is too broad, and ask more specific questions about that subject. Then I would be kind of forced to answer the questions. Then what would happen after that?

Thankfully that didn’t happen. For that I was very thankful. Brent cleaned off the table, gave his mom a hug and a kiss then both me and him went into the family room and sat on the couch. Brent turned on the TV and found something to watch. Soon Brent’s mom came into the room to tell us that she was going to be leaving to go shopping. When she left, Brent turned to me.

“So do you want to go to the mall, or go somewhere and hang out?”

“Yeah, let’s go to the mall. I haven’t been there in a while.”

“Ok. Let me go upstairs and change my clothes really fast.”

Brent hurried out of the room and up to his room. I stayed down stairs and waited for him to return. The notion creped into my head of what my dad is going to do. He had tried calling me all night long and I kept ignoring him. Every time I did, I know that I made it 3 times worse for myself.

Brent came down stairs and we went out to his car. We drove into Council Bluffs, then to the mall. It wasn’t a big place but it was still good. It has my favorite two stores; Hot Topic, and Fareast Treasures. Hot topic is a gothic store; chains spikes, dark. I love it. The other store is and oriental store; Chinese decorations and things everywhere. What I loved the most about this store is that incense. They have so many different scents. My favorite is the dragons breathe.

After a while, we both started to get a little hungry. We went to the food court. We looked at what there was to eat. We decided to get Chinese food. We both ordered sweet and sour chicken and some fried rice. I also ordered 2 Crab Rangoon’s. We found a table and sat down to eat.

“Tyler!” I heard my name being called out.

I looked around and saw James and Jennifer. They were walking towards us.

“Hey Tyler, hey Brent. What are you guys doing here?”

“Just hanging out, how about you two?”

“Jen wants a new dress. I got drug along.”

“Shut up James. You were the one that wanted to come to the mall. I just wanted to stay at home and relax.” Jennifer said.

“Yeah sure, it was some mind trick.”

We all started laughing. James and Jennifer sat down and we started talking. I got up to go to the bathroom. I was doing my business when James came in as well.

“Tyler, why are you hanging out with Brent? When did that start?”

“Well, yesterday during math class. I offered to help him with math so he wouldn’t have to stay after school and miss practices.”

“Ah ok, it’s just that I always thought you hated all those preppy guys.”

“Well I normally do. Brent doesn’t act like that. He is down to earth.”

I finished up and then washed my hands. We both went back to the table to find Jennifer and Brent talking and laughing with each other.

“Brent don’t you be trying to steal my girlfriend now. You go find your own.”

“Yes sir, will do.” Brent said standing up and saluting him. Then he gave a quick glance over at me.

We all walked around the mall for a while longer. When it got to be around 4 o’clock I told Brent that I should be getting home. We told James and Jennifer good bye then headed out to the car. We talked on the drive to my house. He asked a few question and I answered them to the best of my ability. We pulled up to my house.

“Thanks Brent.”

“For What? Setting this up, I have always wanted to get to know you. Now I have.”

“You make is sound like it’s the last time. I hope it’s not.”

“Me either.”

“See you later.” I got out of the car. I walked to the front door with thoughts of what happened. My dream came true. Well, hmmm, did it? Was my dream to meet him, or to date him. What we did was not a date. Brent never asked me out on a date. He asked to hang out. I guess it was better then nothing.

I opened the front door and walked inside. I tried to rush up to my room. As I passed the opening to the living room, Tristan called out.

“Dad, Tyler’s home.”

Dad jumped out of this chair. His face was red with rage.

“Where the hell where you, you worthless piece of shit.”

“I called and left a message. I was at Brad’s”

“You a fucking liar. I called his house and you weren’t there.” He slapped me across the face. “Now tell me the truth, where were you?”

“Ok, me and Brad had a small fight and I went over to Brent Macomb’s house. I’m going to be tutoring him in math. The new teacher asked me to.”

Dad hit me again. “Don’t lie to me boy.”

“That’s the truth.” I yelled back

He grabbed my hair and started punching me in the stomach. He used my hair to hold me up so I wouldn’t fall to the floor. He finally let my hair go when I started hitting his arms. As I hit the floor he grabbed my arm that I used to hit him with. He stomped on it. I felt it break. Before I had time to scream, he used the same foot to kick me in the chest. I felt two ribs break. There I screamed out. Dad knelt down and punched me in the face. He told me to shut up, but the punch broke my nose. That made me scream even louder. I tried kicking him away, so that I might be free to run. That only made him even more mad. He grabbed my upper and lower leg and did something that shattered my knee. I screamed blood murder. He wrapped his hands around my throat and began to squeeze. I couldn’t breathe. My world began to spin. “This is how it ends. I finally meet the man of my dreams and now it ends.” My eyes closed. I heard a females voice yelling, I assumed it was my mom trying to get my dad to stop. the grip my dad had on my throat loosened on one side. I heard a bang, the yelling stopped. I heard nothing. Everything went silent. I felt my life slipping away. My body went numb. There was a light that started to grow in my vision. In the light I saw my life playing over and over. I saw all the joy and happiness that I used to have. Then I saw the sorrow and agony that I now feel. When the play back was done, everything went dark. The last hint of life slipping way. With that last drop of life, I managed to say “I love you Brent…………….”