"Love you!" Chad shouted at Heavenly when she got on her bus. They were a steady couple now. It had been three months, so why wouldn't they be?
"Bye!" She shouted back. He forgot to kiss her. Well, there's always tomorrow. Oh wait, I'm going to be at the middle school all day. Me and Sariya.
Chad walked to his bus, his mind active with the thought of his relationship. Heavenly and him were just old news to the people at school. His parents had only recently found out about her. They didn't seem to mind for the moment. But he knew what happened when he had girlfriends. His parents didn't like it. They thought it interfered with his priorities. He sure didn't think so.
Chad was an all A's student. He paid attention in class, almost never got in trouble, and was expected to succeed. He knew that Heavenly wasn't holding him back, but his parents seemed to think that because of his - and their - past, that she would become a serious burden to him. Even though they had never seen her, or heard her story, or knew her heart. He hated their judgement. And he knew they were right.
He went through the rest of the day, with that thought on his mind. His mother and him had spoken just that morning about what he and Heavenly wanted to do together. Nothing inappropriate, just some friends getting together for fun on Saturday. Chad wasn't allowed to go. It was either obey, or get forced to move out. There was no third option. He hadn't had many talks with his father about it. And his grandparents, normally so involved in his life, were totally in the dark on this one.
The next day, Chad got ready. He picked up his binder, just in case, and got on the bus. When it stopped at the middle school, he got off with the rest of the kids that went there. He seemed really out of place. He didn't see any old friends walking in with him, so he kept his sweatshirt hood up, his head down, and his hands in his pockets.
Not much happened that day. Sariya wasn't there for some strange reason. He didn't wonder why. What he was wondering is if Heavenly thought he was getting bored. Heavenly was a beautiful young lady. But so was Sariya. Some teachers, back in 8th grade, thought that the two would make a good couple, Chad and Sariya. They disagreed. She was into men that weren't from Bridgeport, and he wasn't really looking for a girlfriend at the time. But still the jokes came. Many girls were quote, unquote, "shipped" with Chad from 7th grade on.
He thought that since rumors had spread before, that they would become reality, and he didn't want them to. He wasn't bored with Heavenly, and he had no reason to cheat. He loved his girlfriend, and Sariya was just a friend. But Chad was kind of paranoid the whole day, like she was going to pull him into some bathroom when he was just walking along.
Luckily, it never happened. He escaped with no problems. Until he got home.
It was about 4 P.M. His father texted him, saying to call him. Why couldn't you just call me? He called his dad. They started off talking about how Chad's baseball tryouts were going, and some other stuff like that.
Then it got uncomfortable. Chad's dad asked about Heavenly. He never asks about her. Unless... He said that he thought about Chad having a girlfriend. He brought up a few years before, when they had that little meeting, and Chad and some others came up with a list of things that Chad should or could do. He called them his "Priorities". And a girlfriend wasn't on that list. (Having a wife was, but that was added after a while.)
Chad shed a few hot tears. He almost never cried. This was a hard time for him though.
He hung up. Now, he was in a tough spot. He could break up with Heavenly, and get it all over with. But his heart wasn't in with that. He was in love with Heavenly, and because she loved him, he couldn't break her heart to pacify his parents. So he wouldn't. He thought back to something his own father used to do.
He thought of the friend method. Back just a year or so ago, his father became, "friends" with a large amount of women. They drove him around, since he didn't have a license, and he bought them and their kids, after his own, Chad and his sister, nice things. So, Chad thought about it. Like father like son, right? Why can't I do what he did?
Chad wouldn't break up with Heavenly. They would just become the closest friends possible, without being in a serious relationship. It sounded really bad to Chad. He knew that she had a soft heart, and probably wouldn't take the news well. (And yet, he writes it in a story on the Internet. An all A's student my arse.) He also knew her friends and some of his new friends would hate him. He almost cried again, just from thinking of it. He would have to work out the details in his head.
Meanwhile, he would be the best goddamned boyfriend he could possibly be. And he would never try to break Heavenly's or anyone else's heart.
Mori and Honey may just be characters, but Heavenly and I made them real. I couldn't ask for anything better. And I feel like the worst Mori ever.
