#1dgetawaytask

“Gem, have you ever liked someone?” He asked his older sister who was reading a book. It took her a second to respond, he guessed to finish reading the sentence or the paragraph.

“Course, I have.” She answered nonchalantly closing the book, “Why? Do you have a crush?”

Harry shook his head, “No! Don’t ask about that!” He crossed his arms upset. Pouty, twelve year old Harry looking to his older sister a little bashful.

“It’s fine if you do, that’s normal.” She spoke moving to pat the chair so Harry could sit, “You know I had my first boyfriend when I was ten. Dad would always scold me about him, telling me I was too good and boys weren’t good enough.” Gemma laughed fondly.

“Yeah?” Harry asked intrigued yet not wanting to know too much,

“Yup!” Gemma popped her ‘p’, “It was a very embarrassing time for me. It was nice though, it was normal to start crushing on others you get along with and just want to be around.” She shook her head.

“Is it normal to like…start crushing on someone who is your best mate?”

“Of course, that’s very normal. You’ll notice that it happens a lot. People become best friends and when the feeling is mutual they’ll make something of it.” Gemma explained, “Why do you have a crush on your best mate?”

Harry bites his lip before letting out a sigh and nods his cheeks becoming even more red.

“Which one?” Gemma pushed, “You can tell me.”

After a long silence and Harry fumbling with his fingers he looked up and then back down biting his lip, “Erm…Will.”

“Oh,” Gemma said surprised,

“I know,” Harry frowned.

“Look it here Harry, don’t cry.” She wrapped her arms around Harry’s neck, “Some people like boys, some like girls. That’s okay, it’s nothing to cry about and there’s definitely nothing wrong with it. If you like Will then great, have him be your first boyfriend just be sure to not let what anyone says about him or about you or about your feelings for him change your feelings for him, alright?”

Harry could only nod his head in clear understanding of what Gemma wanted.

“Are you into guys only or do you like girls too?” She asked once Harry stopped crying.

“No, I just am more attracted to someone by their personality. It doesn’t matter if they’re a boy or girl if I like them, if they’re easy to get along with and makes me happy then I’m interested in being with them…I don’t care whether it’s a boy or girl.”

“Then that makes you bisexual.” Gemma had pointed out to Harry, “You like both boys and girls, it doesn’t matter.” She stated rubbing his back soothingly.

Harry nodded a bit more content with how this conversation has turned out, “Thanks Gem.”

“Anytime baby brother. If you ever want to talk about anything else that is bothering you or if you need help figuring things out just come to me.”

Gemma pressed her lips to Harry’s temple, “Your my baby brother and I am here for you in all ways, don’t ever hesitate, yeah?”

“Now, do you want to go tell mum what you are? Maybe have the same conversation as we just had?”

“Maybe a bit later, you think she’d give me ice cream after seven?” Harry asked grinning mischievously.

“Grandma, grandma, guess who’s picking me up today?” A young Alex came running into his grandmother, his mother’s mother. It had been three months since he last saw his father but he had spoken to him on the phone and promised Alex for months that today was the day.

“Alex it’s eight in the morning, go shower and get dressed then come down for breakfast.” His grams patted his bum pushing him towards the bathroom.

After Alex’s short shower he waited anxiously by the door watching the cars go by,

“Alex, come sit.” His grams called for him to come sit on her lap and after small hesitation the small boy walked over to her.

“What’s wrong, grams?”

“I just got off the phone with your father and he said he can’t make it. He has to work but he promised he’d stop by to surprise you soon.”

Alex whole face drop at his grams words the boy nodding his head holding back his tears. It was when his grandmother pulled him close to her chest was when he let all his tears out.

You see when Alex was just two weeks old his dad had split with his mother leaving the woman and son that depended on him alone with no source of income. A month after Alex had been born his mother started to do drugs and he was taken away from her by his grandparents. From one month after his birthday up until his sixteenth birthday Alex had lived with his grandparents who deemed his mother well enough then to take him back and provide the boy with a good home lifestyle. During the sixteen year period he had only seen his mum once every month and his dad twice every year. It broke him to see that his own parents didn’t want him, how whenever parents were talked about in school he just lied and told everyone that they died in a crash because to him, they were dead. *

The next time he saw his dad was two months later, like he promised he randomly popped up. The man was caught off guard not seeing Alex’s face light up at his arrival. Alex listened as his grandmother scolded his dad in the kitchen about promising Alex meetings and made the man promise to bring Alex out a little more often.

After two months of hanging out every now and then as his father promised he figured his father was getting fed up since he didn’t try to talk to Alex anymore just took the boy out somewhere and let him run around with random kids. That day Alex had gotten pushed down by a boy and his father saw and forced Alex back up to defend himself and when Alex refused to his father took him into the washroom and hit him with a belt until the boy decided to go back out and stand up for himself.

He then made it a habit of getting Alex to stand up for himself. Whenever they were alone he’d push Alex to go fight random kids, every time Alex would win it’d be someone bigger, someone stronger than the last and if Alex had lost he’d get hit with whatever his dad can find.

It became worse whenever Alex befriended other males and would hold hands, push them on the swings or hug them. His father would choke him up and tell him how bad that is, let him know that god would only send him to be with the devil. That pushed the man to take Alex to church every Sunday and holiday, force his views on the kid who only wanted to make friends.

It stopped when Alex turned fifteen; the random fights. Alex decided he was tired of it and he was active enough to beat his old man. He was wrong. He ended up with two black eyes, bruises all over his body and limping all the way home. His grandmother ended up calling the police on his dad and instead of pressing charges they asked for an order of protection.

*

“I’m going to marry you,” He whispered one night in bed with Alyssa laying on her chest. They were sweaty and smelt of great sex, “And then once we’re out of school and you’re ready, you’re going to have my babies and I’m going to take care of you, I promise.” He pressed his lips to her chest before looking up at her, “Give you only what your dreams are made of. I would never make our son do what he did to me. Leave me and then abuse me, let others abuse me in plain sight, even if I didn’t have the upper hand.” He continued knowing through everything Alyssa was now the person he leaned on besides his grandparents and she was there for him, through everything.

*

Lilah stared at the pregnancy test that showed her the two pink, vertical lines. The two lines that told her that she was, as she suspected, pregnant. She felt the lump in her throat, and just a little tightness as her eyes welled up with tears. Her hands were shaking and the grip she had on the test was gone and dropped to the floor. Her mind raced through so many questions, that she could barely answer any of them. What do I do? How am I supposed to tell mom & dad? What do I tell the father? How am I supposed to take care of a baby at fucking twenty years old?! 

“This is your fault, so you have to solve it.” Lilah muttered to herself. She had always blamed herself for everything, and she was blaming herself for this, because it was practically her fault. She could’ve prevented having sex, because she had no idea how to prevent a condom from breaking. The redhead washed her hands and walked out of the bathroom, pregnancy test still in hand as she walked into her room and closed the door behind her. Her back hit the door and she slid down to the floor, tears gliding down her cheeks as she let out soft cries, trying to not be heard. “You’re so stupid,” she mummered and wiped her tears away. She knew that she was going to face the consequences of being a mother, at this age. She barely had a good paying job, and she lived in a one bedroom apartment that she didn’t necessarily feel ‘home’ in, but it was all she could afford. 

And for the next few days, Lilah kept the shocking news she learned of, a secret to herself. Of course, she had to deal with every symptom that came with being pregnancy. She hated morning sickness, and she wished that she had the courage to have an abortion. Yet, part of her wanted to keep the baby.  It was hard to hide the news from her friends, and her mother. Five days of knowing, drove her crazy with being the only one aware of what was going on. She told the father, and said it was up to him on whether or not he wanted to be involved. She rarely paid attention if he did, as she was worried about how she was supposed to hide this from her mother. Mother knows best, as always.