Chasing Dylan

Chapter Eight

Disclaimer: This chapter mentions suicide/self harm

Continuation..

"Why don't you ask him why he was kicked out of his last school?" Justin said, as I stared at Callum.

This was the most Justin had ever spoken to me in public. Usually he'd act like I didn't exist, especially in front of his friends. Maybe it was because he was drunk, I wasn't sure, but something felt off about this entire situation. Justin never cared for my wellbeing in the past, so why did he care now?

The look that Callum was giving me told me not believe a word Justin said. If Justin thought I would turn on my only friend because of something he told me, he was wrong.

I took a step away from him, and walked towards Callum.

"C'mon." I said, grabbing Callum's hand. Sober Dylan would not have grabbed Callum's hand in front of a room full of people, so lets just say I was a little tipsy from the jungle juice.

"Dylan! What the hell are you doing! Come back here!" Justin yelled, as Callum and I walked towards of the back door together.

Everyone was staring at us, but I didn't care.

All of the people that crowded the kitchen immediately made room for us to leave. The music was still playing loudly, but everyone seemed to forget that the party was still going on.

I ignored Justin as he continued to scream my name and demand that I come back, and finally made it to the backyard with Callum.

When we got outside, Callum took of his jean jacket and wrapped it around me, covering my bare arms.

"Thanks." I said quietly, wrapping it tighter and taking in his scent from the jacket as we walked through the yard together.

Amy's backyard was huge. It went on for what seemed be forever.

We walked past the pool and the jacuzzi where a two people were hooking up. There was a brick pathway that was surrounded by an endless garden of flowers. After walking for sometime, I could no longer hear the music that came from the mansion. The pathway finally led us to a small pond, with a wooden gazebo beside it. Thankfully, no one else was back here.

We both sat down, and immediately opened out mouths to speak at the same time.

I giggled and said "You go first."

Callum looked up at me nervously. "This isn't really the setting that I planned on telling you everything in. But since it's out there, I might as well. Firstly, I want to tell you that I don't regret my actions that led me to get kicked out of school."

I nodded at him to continue. He took a deep breath and said "As you know, I was born in Wales. I told you that we moved to the states so that my mother could be closer to her family, but that wasn't the whole truth."

I didn't know where this was going, but my stomach started to hurt as I was becoming increasingly nervous.

"Back in Wales, I had a brother, Charlie." Callum said, his lips began to tremble and tears formed in his eyes. I grabbed both of his hands and rubbed them soothingly.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." I whispered, staring into his sad, green eyes.

"No, I want to, you need to know the whole story."

"Okay." I said, not letting go of his hands.

"My brother Charlie, he was five years older than me. He was everything I wanted to be, he played rugby, had tons of friends, and was the most likable guy I'd ever know. He was sort of a player, and had a series of girlfriends, but he wasn't living in his truth. He had just started year eleven when he came out to his classmates. My family already knew Charlie was gay, it didn't matter to us, we loved him." Callum cleared his throat, trying not to cry.

"When he came out to his school, all of his mates turned their backs on him. He was bullied to no end for being gay. My parents and I didn't know how bad it had gotten until it was too late."

"One day, I came home from school and found my older brother, whom I idolized and loved, hanging from the ceiling fan in his bedroom." Callum sobbed.

I gasped, as tears began to fall out of my own eyes. A wrapped my arms around Callum's neck as he cried into my shoulder.

"I'm so sorry Callum. I am so sorry you had to see that." I said, sniffling.

He pulled away from me and said "I need to tell you the rest."

I nodded and wiped my tears away as he continued.

"After Charlie died, was when we moved. I kept to myself, not wanting to form close attachments to people for the rest of elementary and all throughout middle school. As I got older, I knew that being alone and secluding myself from the people around me wasn't what Charlie would've wanted for me. When I got to high school, I joined the football team and found real friends. But last year, everything went south."

"Ever since my freshman year, my two closest friends were Evan and Gabe. Evan was the captain of the football team, and everyone else basically bowed down to the guy. One day Evan, myself, and some other teammates went out to eat. That's when we saw Gabe. Gabe was holding hands with another guy at the restaurant, apparently the guy was his boyfriend. None of us knew he was gay, it didn't matter to me, but with Evan, it was a different story." He took a breath, and more tears fell out of his eyes.

I brought my hands to his face, and wiped his tears away. He looked up at me with his watery green eyes. I could feel myself tearing up again.

"Gabe didn't know we had even seen him. When we got to school the next day, there were picture of Gabe and his boyfriend holding hands all over the school. I didn't know that Evan had taken pictures."

It seemed like Evan had turned everyone against Gabe. When Gabe came to school, he was tormented by most of the team, Evan, who was supposed to be one of his best friends, was the biggest tormentor. I tried to stop them, I took down all of the pictures. I took Gabe out of the locker room and told him that I was his friend no matter what. But I guess that wasn't enough."

"That night, I got a call from Gabe's mom telling me that he had overdosed on pain pills, and was in the hospital. He tried to kill himself, for the same reason my brother had." Callum cried, and I couldn't help but cry too.

"I went to school the next day and told my team what had happened, most of them felt remorse for what they'd done to Gabe, but do you know what Evan said?"

I looked at him, waiting for an answer.

"He said to me "better luck next time" and I snapped. I honestly don't remember most of what happened because I had blacked out. All I remember is that two people had to pull me off of him, and when I looked down at him lying on the ground, he was unrecognizable. Apparently I had broken three of his ribs, his nose, and detached his retina." Callum looked down, not meeting my eyes.

"I got arrested and charged with assault and battery. I spent the summer in juvie because of it." He said quietly.

"I know this was a lot to take in, seeing as we haven't know each other very long, but I feel like I can tell you anything. I just hope this doesn't change the way you see me. I know what I did was wrong, but honestly, if I could back and undo what I did to Evan, I wouldn't."

I didn't know what to say, so I just wrapped my arms around him.

"Nothing you did in the past will change the way I feel about you now." I whispered in his ear. I could feel his heartbeat speed up against my chest.

He pulled away from the hug, and asked "How do you feel about me now?" His teary eyes boring into mine.

I don't know if it was the alcohol, or me realizing how much feelings I had for Callum in such a short amount of time, but I didn't respond to him.

I kissed him.

*****

Sorry if this chapter was too sad, but that's life..
Hope you guys liked it!

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-Hannah ❤️