Out of the Closet
by Victor Thomas
Chapter 23
Hannah
I stretched my arms and legs, feeling the blood flow through my body after a long sleep. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and sat up. The room was darker than it usually was at this time in the morning; the light had a faint blue tint to it, and I knew it was because of an approaching storm.
Perfect, I thought, opening the blinds. There were no dark clouds yet, but the sun was entirely hidden. A rainy Saturday is just what I need to relax. I'll invite Kenny over.
I sat back down on my bed and leaned against a pile of pillows that hugged around the sides of my body. Unplugging my phone from the charger, I checked my notifications. Most of them I cleared from the screen, leaving only the important ones.
Message from Kenny, read one in the middle of fifteen from my group chat. I ignored the group chat for the time being.
'Hey, what are you doing?'
The message was short and emotionless. I sighed. Please don't tell me he's still in a funk. He had been acting weird for a while now, and it was exhausting. The last time I had really talked to him was on Monday at lunch when I had asked him to come see me in the lunchroom before my next class. He came, but he still felt distant, despite his smiling.
I replied with a good morning and a smiley face and told him I didn't have anything planned for today. Putting my phone down, I let out a groan.
"What more can I do?" I muttered to myself.
Throughout the week, I had sent him sweet messages, letting him know he was doing great at school and I was there if he needed anything. He barely responded.
But now he did.
'Can I come over?"
'Sure,' I typed back.
His reply came almost immediately. 'Are your parents' home?'
My mouth fell open, and I quickly clapped my hand over it. Oh my god, I thought. He wants a redo.
Enthusiastically, I jumped out of bed and went into the kitchen. Dad was sitting at the table reading the newspaper, and mom was scrolling through something on her phone.
I began to fix myself a piece of toast.
"What are you two doing today?"
I hoped I sounded normal since my adrenaline was pulsing.
"We're going to meet Cheryl and Bob for brunch," mom said, looking at dad. "Actually, honey, we should leave now."
"Sure, darling," he said, putting the newspaper down.
"Going back to the brunch place?" I asked, putting the bread in the toaster.
"Would you like to go with us?" mom invited.
I have better things to do, I thought.
"Some other time."
I stood there and watched the cheese melt on my toast. I wanted to pull my phone out and tell Kenny to come over in twenty minutes, but not while mom and dad were in the room. I wouldn't be able to contain my excitement.
Soon, I heard them start the car and pull out of the driveway. The excitement was building up in my body when I abandoned the last couple of bites of my breakfast and ran to my bedroom to get dressed in something nice, but not too nice, casual, but not sloppy.
'You can come over now,' I texted him.
The reply came shortly.
'Okay.'
I didn't know what to do with myself while I waited. As the minutes ticked by, I sat in the living room and kept my ears open for the sound of his car. At last, I heard it, and sure enough, his car came around the corner and pulled into the driveway. He got out and slogged toward the door.
He's probably just nervous.
I met him at the door and kissed him before he could even say hello. He tensed up when I wrapped my arms around his waist, and flinched when he let his fingers gently touch my shoulders.
I grinned and said, "hey, come in."
He stepped inside and smiled awkwardly, if it was even a smile.
"Hey."
"You look tired. Are you okay?" I asked.
He nodded. He bit his lip and stared hard at the wall.
"I, um… I just have a lot on my mind."
"I figured. I haven't seen you more than just a glimpse since Monday."
He stayed quiet, his eyes fixated on a picture hanging on the wall.
"Kenny?" I said, waiting for a reply. "Are you okay?"
Without looking at me, he nodded.
"It's like you're avoiding me."
"There's some stuff at school…" he trailed off. "It's just that I've been working better alone lately. Less distractions."
He finally looked at me.
I looked back at him, smiling, but noticed that his face was staying serious. My smile disappeared. No, no, no! This can't be happening.
"Hannah…"
"You don't love me anymore, do you?" I said, raising my hand in front of his eyes.
"Hannah, I…"
I held up my hand.
"Did you find someone else?"
There was a long period of silence. Tears welled up in my eyes. He did nothing to comfort me. He just stood there like I didn't mean anything to him. The asshole had probably never really loved me.
"Did you find someone else?" I yelled.
He winced and took a step backward. Finally, he opened his mouth.
"Maybe," he said in a small voice, looking down.
My tears spilled out and streamed down my face. I nodded, speechless, looking away from him. He offered no more information.
"Go to hell," I screamed, storming to my room.
Authors deserve your feedback. It's the only payment they get. If you go to the top of the page you will find the author's name. Click that and you can email the author easily.* Please take a few moments, if you liked the story, to say so.
[For those who use webmail, or whose regular email client opens when they want to use webmail instead: Please right click the author's name. A menu will open in which you can copy the email address (it goes directly to your clipboard without having the courtesy of mentioning that to you) to paste into your webmail system (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc). Each browser is subtly different, each Webmail system is different, or we'd give fuller instructions here. We trust you to know how to use your own system. Note: If the email address pastes or arrives with %40 in the middle, replace that weird set of characters with an @ sign.]
* Some browsers may require a right click instead
