The Tide Began to Rise - 2. Chapter 2

I held my eyes shut. I never thought that this is how my life would end. Would my dad even care that I was gone? He might care that that there is now nobody to clean his house. I know Tristan wouldn’t care. He would probably spit on my grave.

The impact never happened. Instead I heard screeching tires. I opened one eye to see the truck swerve to miss us and come to a stop. The driver got out of the truck and rushed over to us.
“Are you guys ok?” he asked.

“Yeah were fine. My brother got a flat tire out here and called me to help.” Peter said

“Yeah, the car didn’t have a spare in it, so I had to call him.” I added.

“Ok, I wanted to make sure. You guys shouldn’t be talking in the middle of the road though. You could get killed.”

We both looked down to see where we were standing. Sure enough, we were in the middle of the road. We both looked up to the truck driver. “Oh, sorry, we didn’t notice where we were.”

He checked one more time to see if we were ok, and then headed back to his truck. The next thing I knew, I was looking at the tail lights of the truck, fading into the distance. I turned to Peter. He shrugged his shoulders. I went back to mom’s car and got James’s gift. Once I had that in hand, I went to Pete’s car. I told him how to get to James’s house. We drove there in silence.

It was 15 minutes later, when we were pulling up to the house. I told Peter thanks and got out. I walked up to the front door and rang the door bell. A minute or two later, the familiar face of James filled my vision. He is an oriental boy. But you can see a lot of American in him. I’m not sure where his family in from though. He’s about 5’8” with black hair and grey eyes.

“Tyler you made it.” James said as he stepped outside and gave me a great big hug. I hugged back as best I could, but I was still holding the stereo that I bought. We broke the hug, and just stood there.

“Are you going to let me in? Or are you going to make me stay out here all night?”

From inside the house I heard “Make him stay out there.”

The voice was unmistakable. I would be able to pick it out of a crowd of 100,000 people. Then she came into view. Brianna Daniels, my best friend in the entire world. Brie, as her friends called here is 5’7”, about 115 lbs with brown hair and hazel eyes. She has been my best friend since we were 5 years old. She was my next door neighbor. Her parents and mine would have BBQ’s all the time. We would play and hang out with each other all the time. We were practically inseparable. Then we got to junior high school. I had started noticing that I liked looking at other guys. I didn’t know what it meant. Brie knew though. She asked me one day if I was gay. I asked her what it meant to be gay. She told me and I told her I was. “Your secret is safe with me, for as long as you want to keep it.” She explained how society views gay people. Then I felt bad for being this way, but happy that I had a friend like Brie. From that moment on we became closer. People thought we were dating. That is how I like things, because nobody suspects I’m gay.

“Make him stay outside; we don’t want his kind here.” Brie said with a huge smile on her face.

“Awwwwwww, I love you to Brie. But it’s not your party. It’s James’s, so he’s the one that can send me home or not.” I stuck my tongue out at her, and then smiled.

James stepped out of the way and I walked into the house. I gave brie a hug. I turned back to James. “Oh, happy birthday dude.” I handed him his gifts. “Thanks man.” He said as he walked to the table that had all his presents on it.

“Well, come on in, join the party. Mingle with people, eat the food.” James said.

I looked around. There was a lot of people from school there. James is a pretty popular kid in school. But when your family has money and you live in a small town, you are pretty much guaranteed to be popular. Most of the people that are at this party don’t even know that I’m alive. (Let’s put it this way, If I died, the only reason that more than 6 people would show up to the funeral is because it would get them out of school.) Some I know and talk to. There were only 4 people there that I hang out with; Brie, James, Brad Cullen, and James’s girlfriend Jennifer Hones.

I noticed that Brad was sitting on the couch, so I went over and sat with him.

“Hey Brad……..How’s it going dude?”

“Oh, hey Tyler. I’m great. When did you get here?”

“Oh umm….i just walked in the door maybe 10 minutes ago. I was on my way over and I got a flat tire. I had to call home. Good thing Peter picked up. My dad would have bea…….”

“What?”

“Umm, nothing, never mind……….So are you excited for school starting tomorrow?”

“Ummmm………..Yeah I guess so.”

Brie came over and sat on my lap.

“Oh………………………my………………………….god……………………….. I ……………………can’t…………………………breathe………………………..to………………………………..heavey.”

Brie jumped off me. I looked at her and smiled. She smiled back, and then punched me in the arm.

~Brads POV~

Tyler and brie make a very cute couple. Even though they pick on each other, you can just look at them and tell that they love each other. Watching them gave me this hurt, jealous feeling in the pit of my stomach. I’ve had a crush on Tyler since middle school. Nobody knows I’m gay. If I came out, my life would be ruined. I’m sure that everyone thinks that. I’ve heard stories about what happens to kids who come out. There was someone here in Iowa that was beat within an inch of his life, then tied to a fence and left to die.

So I will just keep my feelings to myself. I will take the images that I will get when I see him in the locker room, and put them to good use.

For now, I will just have to watch Brianna and Tyler hang all over each other. Hopefully someday soon I can express how I feel, and that he will feel the same way. I hope that if and when I tell him, he won’t get mad at me.

~Back To Tyler’s POV~

Brad, Brie and I were all sitting on the couch joking with each. The rest of the party went on without us. There were a few people that said hi to Brad, and more than a few that said hi or had a small conversation with Brie. She is a very pretty girl. She is very popular with the guys. She wears nothing but the latest and sexy trends.

“Ok I have to go pee.” Brad said as he stood up and then headed off to the bathroom.

My eyes followed brad as he walked away. He passed a group of guys. As he passed them, my gaze locked on one guy, a 6’3” Adonis with curly blonde hair and blue eyes. The captain of the schools state champs soccer team. Brent Macomb. He is an angel. He could walk into a room, and light it with the glow from his skin.

I love staring at him. He is the man of my dreams I loved to imagine him marrying me and us spending the rest of our lives together.

Brad had returned from the bathroom. When he got there he could see that I was starting at something. He followed my gaze. It ended on Brent. I snapped out of it and saw Brad there. Shit” I thought. Brad looked at me with a strange look on his face.

“Umm………..It’s late…………..I got to get home.” I rushed out the door. I called my brother. He came and picked me up.

When got home. Peter went in fist, while I sat in the car for a bit. “SHIT,” I said, “Brad saw me starring at Brent. What am I going to do?”

I decided to go inside and go to sleep. I have school in the morning. I walked in the door. My dad was standing there. He had that look on his face. “Damn it” was all I could say in my head.