Riley
"What do you mean by protect me?" Ethan asked as he pulled himself off the ground.
I sat up and began telling him everything about our breakup. I remember it as if it happened yesterday. It was the first of four times that I ever cried in my life.
That week when I left to see my father, I knew he would ask me something to help him with his reelection as he always did. I entered his office and his assistant Jolene smiled and greeted me.
"Well hey, handsome," She always greeted me with a flirtatious grin and a pet name. "How's school going for you?"
"Going well, thanks." I answered. "Is father busy?"
"He's on a call, but you can go in." She said as she pointed to his door. As I made my way to it, she asked, "When are you taking me out for drinks?"
I laughed and answered back, "When I'm old enough. Besides, I'm seeing someone right now."
"Oh darn," said Jolene, "Can't blame a girl for trying."
I opened the door and walked in to my father who was talking to someone on the phone. All I heard was his side of the conversation. "I don't care how short handed you are, I paid you for a job to be finished in two weeks, and in two weeks you will get it done."
Father always had some ridiculous expectations he demanded they be met or else. This was imposed on everyone including family. He saw me and gestured for me to sit on the chair in front of his desk. As he continued his conversation, I pulled out my phone and sent Ethan a text.
Hey babe, I'm here at my dad's office. Miss you.
Miss you too. Hector and I are going to the movies tonight. If you finish early enough, want to come with?
Love to. I'll let you know.
My father had finished his call and looked at me as if I had gone on a drunken spree that made the news. "Anything you want to tell me?"
I honestly had no idea what he meant so I replied. "About what?"
He turns a laptop to face me, the screen showing a video player with a black screen and a play icon in the middle. I press play and suddenly am mortified with what I saw. It was a video of Ethan's and mine's first time in bed together.
"Care to explain what you're doing there?" my father asked.
"Where did you get this?"
"Doesn't matter where I got it," he said, "What I would like to know is why you decided to mess around with some guy? Do you have any idea how this could destroy my chances for reelection?"
"Why should it?" I argued back, "We keep to ourselves and whoever took this invaded our privacy."
"Privacy?!" he retorted, "You should know there is no privacy for us. Luckily this was taken by one of our own people. If this leaked out to the public, you'd embarrass the family and ruin our reputation."
"You sent this person to spy on me?" I should've known my father couldn't trust me despite that I was always the obedient one.
"Break it off with him. I don't want you to see him or talk to him again."
"You can't make me." I said. "I've done everything you asked and never complained, nor asked for anything. Let me be happy for once."
"You're right." He said, "I can't make you do anything. But wouldn't it be just tragic if something were to happen to Ethan. Maybe he has an accident, or maybe someone attacks him. Or maybe his career never takes off. Or maybe his financial aid may be denied."
"You wouldn't." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My father was putting his political career before his son's happiness.
"Why don't you ask your brother?" He replied, "You think I would ever allow either of you to embarrass me. You saw what became of your brother's situation."
My brother, Robert, fell in love with this girl in his class. Father disapproved because she and her family were undocumented immigrants. Father forbade them from seeing each other so Robert and Marisol, the girl, decided to get married the moment she found out she was pregnant. Father claimed Marisol was carrying another man's child and demanded a DNA test
Marisol committed suicide when she discovered the test results showed Robert was not the father, and everyone turned their backs on her. Weeks after Marisol's death, Robert said he discovered the results were faked, and it was Father's doing. My brother was committed to a mental hospital in Austin by my father, stating he was mentally unstable and a danger to himself and the public.
If my father was capable of doing that to Robert, he would definitely hurt Ethan. I couldn't allow that to happen. I couldn't bear it if he went through hell because of my father.
I sat back down and started to cry. "Please," I begged, "don't hurt him. Just leave us be."
"Cut off all ties with him." He demanded, "And I will leave him alone. And before you get any ideas, I will be watching you both in case you decide to put on an act."
After our meeting, I knew I couldn't break it off with Ethan as much as I knew he wouldn't let me go as easily. If I had to keep him safe from my father, I had to break his heart to the point he wouldn't want to be with me anymore. I knew he would see me going to the hotel with Jolene that night. I had asked Jolene to help me with this and another matter after I left my father's office. That night at the hotel, she spent the night on the bed while I slept on the floor. She also gave me a copy of the video my father showed me. I figured if I am to end my relationship with Ethan, I want to hold on to as many memories of him as I can.
The following night, when Ethan confronted me about seeing me at the hotel with Jolene, I had to put on an act that Ethan would believe. When he told me to leave, I closed the door behind me and I stayed just outside the door long enough to hear him crying and throwing things. That was the second time I cried in my life.
Weeks went by and I distanced myself from him, but he still sent me texts. I wanted so badly to reply back and tell him I want to be his and only his. Unfortunately, knowing my father, he is still watching us. I had no choice but to ignore him. But that didn't stop him. He would wait for me after class, he would follow me around to the point where I knew I couldn't be alone. I started flirting with girls in my classes so Ethan would stop, but he didn't.
I knew he wouldn't give up, so I arranged for a girl to come with me to a hotel with a bar in the lobby. Maybe there was a chance to meet with him and we could see each other secretly without my father knowing. We went upstairs and once inside I saw the thug my father hired to follow me. He was waiting in the hallway watching the door. I came up with a plan to distract him or to have him detained long enough for me to get out and meet Ethan. I had called the front desk and had him reported and sure enough after about fifteen minutes, the police had come and escorted him away.
Now was my chance. I told the girl I was with that I was going to get some drinks and left the room. I headed to the bar keeping a lookout for the thug. Thank goodness Ethan was still there at the bar. I was about to approach when I saw the thug heading in Ethan's direction. The thug reached into his pocket and pulled out some brass knuckles. He was going to hurt Ethan.
I ran to Ethan and grabbed him. The thug followed us as I pulled him into an alley and said, "Just give it a damn rest, would you?"
I looked at Ethan, I could swear he saw through my act as I knew I couldn't mask my fear for his well-being. He looked a real mess, and I knew I couldn't make it better, no matter how much I wanted to try.
"Just stop, Ethan. It's pathetic. Stop stalking me from class, stop texting me and don't follow me on my dates. You are being creepy."
"I can't help it." He answered, "It bothers me."
"What?" It broke my heart seeing him like this.
"I can't stop thinking about you. I'm going crazy not having you there with me. I wanted you to come back to me."
I punched the wall behind him, the pain in my fist was nothing to the pain I felt in my heart. I didn't want to do this but I had no other way to keep him safe from my father.
"If you don't quit it, I will tell the whole school that you're gay."
"What?" He asked, clearly shocked that I would do this.
I pull out my phone and open the video of us having sex. He was clearly affected by the video.
"As for me, I'm bi," I said. "I have no intention of hiding my sexuality. But you, on the other hand, are still in the closet."
"When did you take this?"
"As soon as we started having sex," I replied. "It's my fail-safe for situations like this."
Ethan was too shocked about the video that it took little effort to convince him to keep away from me.
"Don't bother me anymore. No more calls, no more texts, just stay away from me." Saying this to him was the hardest thing I had to do in my life. I turned the corner and called Hector.
"Hey, Riley." He answered.
"Hey Hector, could you pick Ethan up? I'm leaving Dallas and can't take him home."
I waited for half an hour and in all that time, Ethan did not move. It broke my heart that I left him there, but I couldn't risk my father doing anything to Ethan. Once Hector picked him up, I never saw Ethan again. Every day since was just a monotony of loneliness. No matter who I took to my bed, my thoughts always went back to that night. After my father died, I felt free finally, but so much time had passed and I was no longer the person that Ethan loved. How could I ever be the man he deserves?
As I told him this, I was expecting Ethan to call me a liar or a coward. Either way I deserved it. But he just sat there, processing it all.
"So you never cheated on me?" he asked.
I shook my head. "I didn't start sleeping around for a year after that night."
"So you put me through hell to protect me from your father?"
"He falsified a DNA test to humiliate a girl who loved my brother and had him committed. My father would probably have killed you and made it look like an accident."
Ethan
After hearing Riley's story, I thought back to certain things from those events. With what he explained to me, everything started to make sense. As angry as I was for him putting me through that, I finally understood why he did it.
"Asshole," I said to him. "You should've told me. Now, help me up. You need to get some rest."
"About the drug.." Riley started.
"I'll turn a blind eye to it." I interrupted. "Right now, let's get some sleep. If you're going to lug me around tomorrow, you're going to need it."
Riley picked up the pill and threw it into the fire. As he lifted me up from the ground we made our way back to the cabin in silence. I didn't know what to tell him. I was angry he still left me, but how would our lives have been if we stayed together and his father was holding this over him. I dreaded to think he would end up like his brother in some institution, or him constantly making our lives miserable to make us break up.
As we lay in bed, I pull him close and whisper to him. "I forgive you, jerk."
"Thank you." was all he said as we lay in each other's arms and drifted off into sleep.