Easy

11

Jace Simens

To say I felt like shit was an understatement. I'd gotten sick from swimming in the lake a few days with Sam and Kendrick but it was definitely worth it. I'd told them about how I was at least into dudes, but nothing about Ethan. I'd leave that up to him.

The worse part of being sick was I couldn't even see Ethan. He was swamped with practice and there was no way out. He even had Sunday practices, his coach was definitely over working them.

"Jace get up or you'll get bed sores." My dad said walking into my room.

"I'm not eighty." I coughed out sitting up to look at him properly.

"Feeling any better?"

"No." I deadpanned at the walk in front of me.

"Mentally?" He asked sitting at the edge of my bed.

"A little, I get really bad at night when it's dark and nothing else to focus on." I admitted.

"Oh? How often does that happen?"

"Every night." He scooted closer to me before pulling me into a tight hug.

"You'll get through this, you're the strongest person I know." He said as I laid my head on his chest.

"I hope so, it hurts so much sometimes." I muttered holding back tears.

"I just came up here to say, whatever you do, I one hundred percent support you. I won't lie when I'd first realized it, I'd been a little disappointed, but quickly realized you're still my beautiful son no matter what. You deserve whatever makes you happy, and if that's the Belle boy, then you take it and run with it." He said staring at me intensely before pulling me back into a hug. "Not literally though, I'd ground you until your ninety." He said making me chuckle.

"I love you dad." I smiled in his embrace.

"I don't think I've ever heard you say that, this Belle boy must be good news." I chuckled to him before answering his unasked question.

"Definitely. The best there is."

We'd let go from the hug before talking about random things after that. Sports, my future, school, even girls, though that conversation stopped quite quickly. My dad and I had never been close, I usually never let him-or anyone else for that matter in, so it felt like we were catching up on so many missed years. We'd obviously known about everything being said seeing as we did live in the same house, but now everything was in a new light. It was as if we'd blocked out what we'd known just to talk about it now.

We'd talked for about two hours until Jayla came in with a tray of snacks. "Mom told me to give you guys these. She said your gossiping, but that obviously can't be true, you can't gossip without me." She said a bit offended.

"Oh yes, we were definitely talking about the latest Kardashian scandal." My dad said rolling his eyes. This man is full of surprises, I didn't even know he knew who they were.

"Oh my god, Kourtney and Kim fighting was crazy, they-" she started on a long rant about how the sisters were basically brawling. Dad and I listened attentively, actually intrigued in the story. Mom even came up after a while listening also with a smile on her face the whole time. I looked around my room smiling brightly, we'd definitely needed family time more, this felt so good. I was finding new sources of happiness everyday and it was only making the sadness, and hurt dissipate by the second.

-

"You stink." I said pulling Ethan close to me kissing him softly. He'd snuck away from practice to meet me in the locker room. We'd only gotten to see each other during school, or during his practice. By the time he'd gotten home all he did was eat and sleep, I stayed over last night but we didn't do anything. He was pretty much drained.