Growing Up (A Joey Gracceffa Fanfic) *Jawyer

Chapter 26: Fall in Love Again

Sawyer's POV

I slammed the door shut furiously. I couldn't believe it, the nerve Joey had to leave. I thew my suitcase onto the floor. i was overcome by rage. I held within my hands Joey's suitcase. I opened it and looked threw it all out.

I heard something hard hit the ground.  

"Breaking Free"  it read.

He finished it, and I was clueless about it. Everything that I read must have been the chapter's the editor has told him to fix. He was close to publishing his book. 

I didn't know whether I felt proud of him, or if I felt betrayed.  

Sometimes you have to look back into the past so you can focus into the present. 

And so I read: 

"I felt pain, great pain. I now understood what everyone meant when they spoke about heartbreak. I was used to crying myself to sleep, but this time was different. Someone who I truly cared about had left me. No warning, just like my dad. 

 School was different. I was a nobody and outed for being gay. 

 Sawyer's teammates constantly beat me. All except one. 

 Morgan made everything different. He was somebody I needed, something that was long-deserved. 

 As I laid on the cement floor with a black eye and bloody lip, he was willing to commit social suicide to help me. "Why?" I constantly asked. His answer was always the same, because "the world is always harsh to us." 

 No one knew about us. I was mad about it though. He got me, and I knew why. He'd get beat up, and he'll be the one getting kicked in the gut instead of me. Slowly, the beatings stopped. 

 Nothing else changed. I was still the nobody no one knew of. I preferred it that way. 

 I was getting into YouTube it was my escape. Brittany understood me, she was a lesbian (true, she made  video about it). No one herd of Morgan though. He didn't want people to know. If he ever broke my heart, he'd be seen as the monster.

 Morgan was humble. He believed in me when no one else did. He resembled someone I once knew, without the short temper and ego. 

I was the class of 2009, and graduation was the best day of my life. I was able to escape my life and go on to collage with Morgan. 

 We ran from our families and spent the day together. 

 "I'm sure if I had to that I'd fall in love with you all over again in this life or the next." Morgan said. 

 He cupped my cheek softly as gave me a soft kiss. 

 "I hope we don't need to, I want to spend as much time as we can together" I said. 

 I held his hand, it fit perfectly with mine. 

 "You're cold Joey." Morgan said concerned, he placed his coat on top of me and cuddled in next to me. 

 He was moving a lot. I could tell Morgan was nervous of something. 

 " What is it?"  I finally gained enough courage to ask. All this talk about college and moving on with life had me nervous. 

 "It's about us." Words I wished never existed. 

 He took my hand and slid something on it. 

 I looked into his eyes and he looked into mine. 

 "I wasn't lying when I said I'd fall in love with you again if I need to. It's a promise ring. As long as you where it. We'd be together, happy and hopefully grow old together." 

 I cried into his arm. I was overwhelmed with joy. I really though th..." 

 I shut the book hurt to hear more. Why did we end up together? I did what I now regret, I burned the book. 

 Joey's POV

 "How? I asked. 

 "I thought that you were gone. I thought you had forgotten" I said. 

 "I told you that I'd fall in love with you all over again in this life or the next and I meant what I said. This is not just a reunion. This is for you. I did this for you, because I love you." Morgan said.  

 I followed him into his hotel room. 

 "Is wine fine?" he asked. I shrugged and he laughed. 

 "I forgotten that you're not the drinker type"  Morgan chuckled. 

 " I changed a lot. I am more a tequila kind of guy" 

 "Sometimes change is a good thing. The haircut is new" he said. That was that optimistic side of his. 

 I never thought that I'd see him again. 

 It was 2010, spring. Love was in the air, especially with me and Morgan. We shared a few night of "passion." Morgan and I came back from one of our dates. Something that shouldn't have happened did happen. I hear a gunshot and blood on my face. 

 It wasn't mine though. Morgan was shot. A bullet laid his head. I fell down just as the next gunshot was fired. The ambulance lights shined the night and the police sirens screamed that day. I was sure that he was dead. 

 I stayed with him all night in the hospital that day, and the next, and the day after. I never left his side, and I refused to sleep until he woke up. 

 I spent those days with the detectives. The two gunshots that went off that day were meant for Morgan and I. It was an act of some anti-gay activist. 

 It was the reason why I remained closeted on YouTube. 

 After Morgan's second surgery, he laid in a coma. His family blamed me for it, and I was hated once again. 

 A month after the accident, everyone rushed the hospital to see if the rumors we true, to see if Morgan really did make up. When he did he didn't remember me or his family. I've quit school and stayed by is side until these two words spoken to me by him forced me to go on with life: "Move on." After constantly trying to force him to remember me, he didn't make any progress and to prevent me from hurting, he let me go. 

 The problem was that I would't let go. 

 I packed my things for LA. Before I left, I inscribed in the ring he gave me "I'd fall in love with you in this life or the next" and I placed it on my finger. 

 I was ready to begin a new life. No drama. But here I am again.  

 "I remembered the boy with the blond hair in the hospital but not as my boyfriend. I remembered about a month ago with mental therapy sessions." Morgan shared. 

 "I'm with someone else" I said.

 "Seeing you two fight like that, it didn't seem like so. The way you stormed off says otherwise." 

 "It's Sawyer" I blurted out. He looked down as I spoke those familar words.