Don't Call Him That

Chapter 4

"Goodbye, Erik," I whisper to him as I hug him goodbye. He kisses my forehead discreetly and smiles at me. "And goodbye, Eleanor," I say to his mother. I give Dylan a simple wave. Erik keeps smiling and Eleanor stares at him as I'm about to turn and walk out the door.

"Why are you smiling like that?" she asks him. I decide to leave the house before I hear the rest of the conversation. I leave Erik's house with a happy feeling in my stomach. And I notice that Erik actually only lives two blocks away from me, so not very far at all. I can come visit him whenever I want. I decide that I'm going to come back tonight and visit him to see how he is. I walk home and as soon as I walk through the door, I see Cosette.

"Ooo, someone's happy. How was Erik's family?" I sigh and glance at her.

"They were kind of weird. His brother called him the r word at one point," I sigh. "But Erik is so amazing."

"You love him, don't you?" Cosette asks.

"I... I do. And he likes me back... I think we're going to be a couple soon."

"YAY! I'm so happy for you guys!" I hug her, crying tears of joy. She sighs.

"But one thing. So, like... is Erik's mom nice?"

"I don't even know. Sometimes she is, sometimes she isn't. I don't know what it is with her." Cosette sighs.

"When am I going to meet Erik? I'm waiting."

"Tomorrow. And since it's a Friday, he wants to stay overnight."

"Will you two do the do?" I start laughing.

"There are a lot of things I want to do with Erik. That, however, is not one of them. I'm sure he agrees." She smiles at me.

"Well, at least y'all are happy. Are you excited to see him tomorrow?"

"Well, obviously yes, but I'm going to see him tonight, too. I'm going to visit his house late tonight. There's a tree right by Erik's window that I can climb and look into his window from."

"How romantic," Cosette whispers.

"Plus I want to see what the situation is with his mom and his brother. They seem a little sketchy." Cosette nods.

"Yeah, I don't know, though. Some people are kind of weird when they have a disabled kid. They're probably trying to make sure you're a nice person and you're not going to hurt Erik."

"I suppose you're right, but I just want to make sure." I take a deep breath. "I still want to visit Erik again tonight. Just to make sure." Cosette smiles at me. She brushes back her blonde hair - we almost look the same, but her hair is longer - and looks into my eyes.

"I'm just glad you're accepting your love for Erik. I know six weeks ago you would've been nearly disgusted at the thought. Now you actually like him. It's sweet." I look down and sigh. I should've been nicer that first day, though. I shouldn't have begged to be in the other classes. I'm just glad I'm with Erik for the whole day. Erik is nice. I smile at Cosette.

"You know, it was thanks to you that I started thinking of Erik differently. You helped me remember that he's a person."

"Well, it wouldn't be fair to Erik if you were just hanging out with him to get good guy points. I know you, Clarkson." I sigh. It's kind of hard for me to genuinely be a good person, but when I fall in love with someone I really care about them. That's what happened with Erik. I haven't loved a real person in almost two years, I didn't know if it was  even possible for me. But I guess I was just waiting for the right person to come around.