The Player's List

Chapter 8: Kayden Payne

The rest of the afternoon I spent doing my homework and cooking dinner. Mom called and told me she had to stay late at to work, so Jakey called one of his friends to sleep over at their house so I can go to the game.

It was about 6 o'clock when I was getting ready after just dropping Jakey off. I was in my closet when I heard tapping.

Tap, Tap, Tap

Curiosity got the best of me and I walked into my room to hear it again.

Tap, Tap, Tap

I looked around my room and saw where it was going from.

"Oh no." I said running to my window and opening it. I helped him through it. Even though my room's on the second floor, there is a big tree next to my window that you can climb up or down on.

Kay climbed through and fell on the floor. I helped him up and brought him into my bathroom. There was only one reason why he comes through my window.

"Oh Kayden, what happened? It's been a whole three months since this last happened." I said looking at his black eye and busted lip. I took out a wash cloth and wet it before dabbing his lip.

"It was just the two of us home and he was drunk. Mom went on a business trip this morning and won't be back for a week." He said wincing as I dabbed his lip.

"I really wish you lived here with me. I'm always worried this would happen. You know my parents think of you as another child. Please just move in with me." I begged him.

"You know I can't pinky. I'd be too worried about my mom. I know he only does it to me, but I couldn't live with myself if he hit her cause I wasn't there to take it." He tried to smile, only to end up hissing in pain.

"How bad was it this time?" I asked nervous for his answer. He responded by lifting up his shirt to show me all the black and blues all over his ribs and stomach.

"Oh Kayden." I sighed as I start to see him put his shirt down and began to cry. I pulled him to my bed and lied down next to him. He curled up next to me and began to sob.

"Why doesn't he love me? Just because I'm gay doesn't give him the right pinky. He's my own father. He shouldn't hate me." He cried into me.

"He's just an ignorant man Kay. He doesn't deserve a son like you. Who you love shouldn't dictate if he loves you or not. And he has absolute NO right to hit you ever. I wish you tell someone." I tried to comfort him, patting his hair.

"I can't. I just can't. Pinky, can we please not go to the game? I just can't go." He sobbed into me again.

"Of course Kayden." I said to him.

He continued to cry for about two hours before passing out exhausted. I just held him through the whole thing, thinking about the broken boy that was curled next to me.

Kayden didn't have the easiest life. His mother works for a big corporation, so she tends to travel a lot. She was a great mom though. His father runs a local business in Hellington, but he is a complete asshole. His father has always hated Kay because he was gay. He is their only child. When Kay was 14, his father got really drunk one night when his mom was on a business trip, and beat him. That's when it all started.

That night Kay climbed up my tree and knocked on my window, like he did tonight, and cried to me. After that night he went home and his father apologized for what he did. Both of us thought that it was a onetime thing, but a few months later I got a knock on my window to see a bruised up Kayden. After that whenever Kay's father beat him, he would climb up to my window and cry to me. It was kind of a signal saying what had happened. I was the only one who knows about this. His mother doesn't even know because his father only does it when she's away on business. It hurts me to see Kayden broken.