Collision✔️(Wattpad version)

Skipping a dance

Julian

Homecoming came, and I decided not to attend. Enzo and Cade were going, but I wasn't feeling it. My therapy was going okay, but I still wasn't ready to talk. I mean, how do you talk about something like that? It's not as easy as people think.

Plus, I was more confused than ever. I hated Louis. If I never hear his name, it would be too soon. I heard they arrested him, good.

I came downstairs, and Dad stopped me. "Where are you going? Don't tell me to Enzo's or Cade's because they're at the dance." Yeah, things haven't exactly been good between Dad and me. I broke his trust.

I couldn't blame him for being upset because it happens when you lie. They questioned you about everything.

"I will get coffee. You can even use the Find My Friends feature to double-check," I sighed as he looked at me. My dad wasn't a bad guy. I hurt him.

"Okay, but after the coffee shop, you come straight home," he told me. I nodded as I left. I got into my car and drove to the coffee shop. All I wanted to do was be alone. I found myself like that a lot.

I've learned to fake happiness was easy.

I pulled up in front, parked the car, and got out. I made my way inside the coffee shop and sat down in a booth. I stared out the window. My life is a mess.

"Coffee," someone asked me. I knew that voice. I turned to see Elias standing holding a coffee pot.

"Yeah," I said as he turned the cup over and poured me a mug full of coffee. I nodded, then turned back to the window.

A few minutes later, someone slides into the other side of the booth. I turned to see Elias sitting there. I furrowed my brows.

"Want to talk about it?" He asked me.

"Not particularly, no," I replied.

"Okay, then we will sit here and say nothing," he said as he picked up his cup of coffee and took a sip.

"Shouldn't you be working?"

"I'm on break," he shrugged.

I sat there.

"Julian, I don't know what you're going through because it's none of my business, but I know whatever it is, you will get through it," he told me as he set his cup down.

I sat there for a minute, then finally I said, "Someone raped me." It was the first time I had ever utter those words to someone. I hadn't even told Luke.

He looked at me.

"You don't seem surprised," I questioned him.

"Should I?"

"Most people would be," I answered.

"I'm not most people," he said to me. He picked up his cup, and I looked at him.

"Bad things happen to good people. It doesn't make them bad. They just get dealt a bad hand," he explained.

"My dad doesn't trust me," I said, looking at my cup, moving it around in my hands.

"Do you blame him? Julian, most people, would offer sympathy, and that's fine, and all but you lied to him all because you're worried about what he would say. You didn't give him a chance. You just assumed," he reasoned. I couldn't argue with him. I judged my dad instead of being honest with him.

"I will be honest with you. It will not be pretty, and it will be harsh, but you need to hear this. You made a conscious choice, and because of said choice, you suffered a horrible consequence. One that isn't pretty and will change you permanently. The problem is people aren't honest, and because of it, they suffer," he explained.

I looked at him.

"Are you saying I deserved this?"

"No, I'm saying with every action there is a reaction. That sometimes you have to think about things and realize not everyone is good people. Your dad? Your dad is a good person. Yeah, he's angry but because you lied and put yourself in harm's way. You took the one thing he has away from him, and that's protecting you," he told me.

I sat there and realized Elias was right. I didn't give my dad a chance. I assumed he wouldn't accept me for being gay, got involved with someone, believing their lies, and only to the end with the worst part of it all.

It's funny how you can so readily believe someone you barely know over someone that has been there for you your entire life. I think Louis because he had convinced me that I would disappoint my dad, and he would be angry with me. He played me.

"Go home, Julian. Talk to him. He may surprise you with what he has to say," Elias told me.

I nodded and got up, then tossed some money onto the table and left. I drove home and pulled up. I took a deep breath and went inside.

He was sitting on the couch, looking at a paper. I looked at him and decided it was time.

I took a seat, and a deep breath, then said, "Dad, can we talk?"

He looked up from the paper at me.

"I'm sorry. I believed the wrong person when I should have believed the right person. I would disappoint you when you found out I had sex at thirteen and had been seeing someone that I shouldn't have. I lied to you, and because of it, they attacked me. I understand if you're angry," I said sincerely.

"Julian, I'm not disappointed or angry. I'm hurt. But I also understand how hard it is for a teen to admit their sexuality. Morris struggled, but once he told Tony and me, he felt better. You lied, but because someone made you believe a lie," he told me as I sat there.

"I don't ask where you're going because you lied, I do it because I'm worried about you, Julian. I don't want something to happen to you, because no matter what you're my son and I love you more than life itself," he said.

"You don't know how much I needed to hear that now," I said sincerely, as tears fell down my cheeks. What my dad did next didn't surprise me. He hugged me. The one thing my dad always did was show affection.

I wish I would have talked to him as much as I want to go back and change the past. I can't, but I can move forward. That would start with my therapy sessions. If I wanted to move on, it was time to take the first step.

In my next therapy session, I sat there and said, "I want to talk."

"Tell me whatever you want." Luke smiled as I took a deep breath. Then I talked. It was the first step. Maybe now I can finally move on and deal with it.

People will prey on someone when they find their weaknesses. For them, they get off on it. Louis preyed I was discovering my sexuality and hadn't even been sexually active yet. He told me that if I told anyone, they would be angry with me.

Being a naïve thirteen-year-old, I believed him. As time went on, I was separating love and sex. I couldn't even associate the two together because, over time, they told me that you need not have love with sex. It was something I always struggled with, but I believed it.

Maybe now I will have both, but not for some time. First, I needed to heal and fix myself, and today I took that first step. Today I took my life back.