His Safety Net

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

       I was woken up by my alarm suddenly going off, so I tiredly reached for my phone and turned off the alarm. I rubbed my eyes and sat up, looking beside me to see Jerome was still fast asleep. I was surprised he was able to sleep through the alarm, because he was normally the first one out of the two of us to wake up.

       I waited a few moments to see if he would wake up, but he was still fast asleep. So I decided to try waking him up in a way I was sure he would like. I mean, I was sure he would like it because he was always being inappropriate... A bit too much...

       I laid down on top of Jerome, resting my arms on his chest. I placed my chin on top of my arms, waiting for Jerome to wake up. He did with the sudden weight lying down on top of him, even though my weight was very light.

       He slowly opened his eyes and waited for his sight to adjust before seeing me lying on top of him. He smiled slightly and said, "Well, good morning."

       I smiled back. "Morning."

       "You should wake me up like this more often," Jerome said, running his hands through my hair.

       "Or, and here's a better idea," I said. "You can just wake up with the alarm."

       "The alarm went off?"

       "Uh huh."

       "So... We're going to have to get ready to get to school?"

       "Yep."

       "Actually, how about we skip instead and do something else? Like..." Jerome placed his hand on my cheek and leaned closer to me, but I took the opportunity to roll off of Jerome and lie down beside him. He sighed heavily. "Why did you do that?"

       "Morning breath," I said as I sat up. "And we should be getting ready to go to school. I've already miss a bunch of days and can't afford to miss anymore. Besides, I... think I'm doing a lot better at not being afraid of being who I am at school. Like... I don't feel too afraid to go to school anymore."

       Jerome sat up as well, giving me a small smile. "That's good to hear. So... How have you been feeling? Like... Overall?"

       I smiled back at him. "Great. Actually great. My anxiety is still hear but... I feel happy. I mean, I'm painting a mural in the city hall, I'm a bit healthier than I was at the beginning of the year, I'm getting back into dancing... I have the world's most amazing boyfriend."

       "I don't know, you're pretty amazing yourself," Jerome said. "But I am really happy to hear that you're doing better." He kissed my cheek before getting out of bed. "And I guess we have to get ready to go to school now."

       I stayed in bed as I watched Jerome dig through his suitcase for some clothes to wear today. Jerome did go home after the whole outing at the dinner, but he only went when his parents were at work and that was to pick up everything he needed so he could stay here until, in words, all this blew over.

       My parents were completely fine with Jerome staying here for however long he needed and to be honest, I wasn't sure if it would eventually blow over. From what he told me, his mom wasn't the most accepting person and she was pretty mad to find out that he was gay.

       He said she really blew up when Anita outed him, and he left before things could get worse.

       Yet since then, he has seemed fine. Like it wasn't bothering him. Like it never happened.

       Either he was fine with it, or he was trying to hide how he felt. My guess was the latter since he was constantly hiding his feelings from me because he thought I had a lot to deal with. He didn't want to make things worse, even though he would never make things worse.