When Opposites Attract (18+)

Chapter Fourteen - An Unexpected Visit

Mike

Since that day in court, Dylan has been living with us. Once out of the courtroom, Dad drove us to his house so he could pack the last of his things.

Dylan's mom and brother arrived just as Dylan loaded his stuff into the trunk. His mom refused to even look, or acknowledge her son and didn't pay any attention to what we were doing, as if we were invisible. It was clear that she no longer wanted anything to do with him, and once we drove around that corner from his house, we wouldn't be returning again.

Since then, it's been great having him living with us. Though, admittedly, the first few nights were hard. Despite how much Dylan wanted his dad in jail, part of him blamed himself. On the first night, he woke up in the very early hours of the morning, crying about how it was his fault and that he pushed his dad to attack him. I stayed up with him, holding him in my arms as he sobbed, but told him many times that nothing justified what his dad had been doing for months, and reminded him of the prisoners his dad would often beat for the sake of it. Dylan may have been difficult, but there's no way that justified burning cigarettes onto his skin, whipping him, punching him or strangling him. It was his dad who needed serious help for thinking this was an acceptable way to behave.

Eventually, these episodes died down, and he was able to live normally again. It's been about a month now, and I've never seen him happier. Since Jason Hawker and his goons were no longer friends with me or Nate, we've been hanging around with Dylan and his friends during lunch and after school. We'd laugh, joke and play around like regular high school friends, and my heart would melt whenever I'd see Dylan laugh or grin, because I knew this time it wasn't a fake smile, it was genuine happiness. Jason hardly bothers us anymore either, he'll only give us the odd comment about how we're "disgusting fags", but his words mean nothing to us.

Another good thing to add is that Dylan's been able to improve his grades, and he's hoping he can just about get into college if he's able to bump his grades up in time. If not, the back up plan is for a GED in community college or to repeat senior year completely.

I can't really blame him for not being interested in school work. With his family putting him down constantly, it's no wonder he didn't try. That, and if I had a dad who was beating on me like his, school work would be the last thing on my mind. But regardless, he's really doing what he can to get into stage engineering, and I'm happy for him.

It had been a great couple of weeks, despite the pressures of upcoming finals and high school coming to an end. Not that I really care about high school anymore. In fact, I can't wait to start college. The only worry was where Dylan would go once I moved up to South Carolina for college, but that would have to wait until after graduation. What was important now was taking finals and getting the hell out of there, so I could finally move on with my life. That, and I had to focus on the now - Dylan was here with me, happy and free from his family, and it's more than I could ever wish for him.

It was during a Sunday afternoon when we heard a knock at the door. Dylan and I had spent the last hour studying, before we decided to take a break on my Xbox One. I heard my dad go to answer and shrugged it off, until he came back upstairs and knocked on the door.

"Mike?" Dad asked as he knocked.

"Yeah?"

"Dylan's aunt and uncle are here. They want to speak with him"

Dylan and I looked at each other, both of us with the same expression of concern and confusion. I had only seen his aunt and uncle in court and didn't even speak to them. What could they possibly want?

We got up from the floor, left my room and walked down the stairs to where they were waiting in the hallway.

"Hi Aunt Marie, hi Uncle Trevor..." Dylan mumbled nervously