Here it is. The moment I have been saving up for. Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift. Yeah you guys may have heard that song plenty but it fits the chapter. You'll see why.~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                                                                    Danny

“I had been having sex with my best friends dad because he had cancer and that he didn’t want to tell his son. He said he would tell his son if I had sex with him a few times. I just told Daniel this today and he ran off a few hours ago.”

I felt so stupid and naïve but heck at the time I had nothing to loose. Until now.

The look on Jakes face when I told him that made his eyes tear up. I felt so horrible. How could I have allowed this to go that far?

“Danny that is seriously fucked up.”

Jake looked like he needed a moment when he put both hands on each hip. Then he leaned into the garage door.

“I’m not judging,” he told me, “This was before we dated right?”

His eye’s pleaded for me to tell him yes.

“Yes,” I told him the truth.

Then Jakes mouth started moving in odd directions. I could only look at him for a few seconds then back at the ground only to look at him for a few seconds again. Inside I was screaming with fear at the thought of being rejected. I may have betrayed my best friend but I didn’t want to loose Jake at the same time. Not after everything that’s happened.

“Oh God,” Jake said with his voice trembling he put a finger across his teeth between his lips and squatted down on the ground. That was odd to me somehow. “I am so sorry.”

He wasn’t rejecting me?

Suddenly he popped up again and put his arms around me. He was crying for me. I didn’t know what to do. I was glad he didn’t reject me but I didn’t consider what I would do if he didn’t reject me.

I pulled him tighter into my arms, this was the kind boy that accepts me, stupidity and all.

“Can you tell me,” he looked up into my eyes mirroring my pain, “Everything?”

I nodded to him and told him to tell his grandmother he was going to be right out front for a little while longer. He did as I told him and was back this time with shoes on. We walked together side by side onto the curb of the street. It was almost like our last date. 

Then I started from the beginning and I knew there were holes in it. I couldn’t possibly remember everything.  

Four months ago…

Daniel and I were throwing a football back and forth at each other and it was early October. There was talk about the new kid in town. Daniel and I were talking about my zero relationship status and about the guy I was last with, Josh had just up and left me without a word. I wasn’t brooding over it anymore that was just last summer now. So it didn’t keep me down.

Our arms were getting tired and I saw Mr. Grant was home early. Daniel ran upstairs to go shower. Daniel teased me about joining him. I wandered around the house like I normally did because I had known this house for years. Something about Mr. Grants study always fascinated me so that was where I was drawn to first. I threw the football back and forth between my hands trying to figure out what to do with myself. That was when I saw the papers on his desk. I’m a science nerd so I figured it out quick.

“Danny,” Mr. Grants voice was suddenly behind me. He ran forward and I backed away staring at him. I felt sad. I mean I couldn’t help it. A man I admired. One of the last people Daniel had left was dying.

When I didn’t say anything he did, “Don’t tell my son about this. I don’t think he could handle it.” I watched this man I admired lean forward with the emotion wearing him out. I reached out to help him when he waved me off.

“You’re going to have to someday soon,” I told him, “You know how he gets.”

I tried to smile at the last sentence. 

“I know, I know,” Mr. Grant, “But not right now its too soon!”

I waited a while for him to calm down.

“You’re not going go through with chemotherapy?”

“No, no too painful and a waste. Daniel would catch on,” he told me. He got close to breaking down but got himself back up again.

I watched him walk past me and sit in his chair in front of his computer hiding the papers.

“So you won’t tell him will you?” He said and his eye’s pleaded, begged, but he didn’t ask for a promise. “I’ll do it on my own terms.”

I shook my head but also looked away hardly able to look at him.

Then Daniel was heard coming out of the bathroom. 

“Dude its your turn!” he yelled down the stairs at me.

I couldn’t move and Mr. Grant asked me the same question.

“Hey its not attractive if you smell!” Daniel shouted when I didn’t reply soon enough.

Mr. Grant watched me with Daniel for the rest of the week.

Three months ago…

“Danny I…” Mr. Grant said catching me alone in the kitchen while Daniel ran to answer the door for the pizza he was craving. “I want to ask you something.”

I should not have nodded and said, “Anything.”

It wasn’t like I was in a relationship at the time. No one had my eye yet. Not even the new kid named Jake yet. He and I never shared even a “Good Morning” with each other. Also it wasn’t like I was under age either. I was helping a man in pain that said he would tell his son if I gave him something in return.

I admit it shocked me at first because I never saw Mr. Grant that way because he had a wife and kid. Of all these years he never once made a pass at me. It wasn’t like he wanted anything more from me. Just sex. He bottomed and I topped. It wasn’t like I never had sex before. This was just different. I thought I was doing the right thing. If it meant him telling Daniel the truth, Daniel would never have to find out about this.

Gosh I was so stupid and naïve to think that way when all it did was make things worse.

Halloween Night…

Daniel was drunk and out on his bed. I was getting ready to leave when Mr. Grant followed me.

“You know I think I may have found someone,” I said with my hand on the front door handle, “Someone I really like.”

“I know but one more time?”

“You said you only wanted it once, then it happened again.” I almost regretted the spite that was in those words.

One look at that man though made me give in for the third time. This time on his office desk that I once liked sitting by. I shook hands with Mr. Grant like we just did business two hours later. Finally I was able to relive the night in my mind during my walk home.

Two days later…

Mr. Grant had called me again telling me he needed more because he was so close to telling his son. So I went over when I heard Daniel wasn’t home yet that night. It wasn’t until Monday came that…

Stop feeling guilty! I made a slap at my forehead. Then the devil in the form of my best friend appeared made me feel worse. He knew where to find me because the library would be the only place I would go to. It was also my free period but not his.

More stuff happened there but I didn’t want to think about Gary there.

Daniel sat at my other side and I knew something was up.

“I just talked to Charles,” Daniel said putting his feet on the table and Miss. Roberts turned her head away offended.  

I nodded my head and rolled my eyes maybe dramatically for him to continue. 

“Jake is really depressed,” Daniel stated at the same time Gary found some chick he had for over a week now standing in the non fiction aisle.

I didn’t follow at first because all I could think about was how I wish I could talk to my best friend about something. 

Ugh I was so close, so close!

“Danny?” He was waving his hand an inch in front of my face, “Was my being super drunk that bad for you to see?”

I fucked your father that night that was what was really wrong.

The present…

“This is starting to make more sense now,” Jake said staring at the street.

A car passed by on that street heading in the opposite direction he and I were at.

“You couldn’t tell anybody. All this time I could tell you were holding something but it wasn’t for me to know yet,” he continued.

I waited a while longer letting it all sink into our heads.

“So what happened next? I know there’s more.”

“I’m so glad I met you,” I told him and took his hand which he responded with a light squeeze. 

Early November…

“Mr. Grant this is going to have to be the last time. Jake kissed me and I can’t betray him too,” I said maybe too harshly over the phone call.

“Ok, this is going to be the last time,” he said.

“I really mean it,” I continued trying to explain to in the best way possible without coming off as cruel, “I want to be in a relationship with this guy. I just went to his house yesterday morning.”

“I hear you,” he started to sound a bit weaker but I wasn’t falling for it.

I lost count now as to how many times we did it. Doing it with a man decades older than me was getting… old. Even though I still wasn’t dating Jake I still thought about him a lot. He probably thought I lost interest in him by now and would be ok with it. I was not ok with that.

Thanksgiving Day…

“You’re in love with that boy,” Mr. Grant said while everyone else was cleaning up the dining room. Jake was still blushing while talking to his parents and Grandmother over in the other room for how they ambushed me like that. He didn’t want me to see this so I left the room to stand some place else while they had their family squabble. They really made a nice family.

“Yes, Mr. Grant I am,” I said stiffly without looking at him.

“You know I’m not going to ask you anymore.”

I kept a cold expression, “Good. Now go tell your son.”

“On Thanksgiving?” he had the right to look astonished?

I rethought my words.

“No maybe not on Thanksgiving but its got to happen.”

Then I turned my back on him and went back to Jake. The boy I fell for.

The present…

“Thank you for telling me,” Jake said and I could tell he meant it. “I bet you didn’t get to tell the details to Daniel.”

I shook my head.

“What a mess,” Jake commented and I started to worm my hand out of his.

Jake wouldn’t let me go and said, “It can still be made right. We’ve been through something pretty bad together already.”

“What do you mean?” I asked him, “How can I fix this?”

“I think you already know.”

“Jake…” I was starting to feel annoyed. First he was being too accepting. Not that I was really complaining or anything. Second this was a problem that had been eating me up all this time. And he might have thought of me as a prude from our Christmas Eve chat by the fireplace. Third I was ready to snap under all of the stress.

“I mean you want to find to him and tell him the complete truth,” he squeezed my hand, “You’re already doing the right thing and you don’t even realize it.”

I blinked, he made it sound so easy.

“My dad told me how there is a difference between doing the right thing and what you want. What you want is not hiding anything from your best friend. What was right was what you did which he ran off from. Not everyone can handle these types of situations. Yet you managed to pull both off. That‘s a real friend.”

I thought about it. He was right.

I kissed Jake again like I never kissed anyone before. I used my passion, my guilt, my joys, my sorrows, I gave it all to him.

“You’ll find him and you’ll be able to tell him everything,” he said and at last I got the courage to get back on my feet. 

“He would have gone back to his house by then.” I said knowing the truth.

                                                              Jake

Watching the way Danny shot off the ground like he did made me proud. It was like watching a boy become a man. I stood up myself and saw him off as he got back into Daniel’s jeep. I recognized it now as the jeep that was swerving like a drunk on the morning I thought I was late to school on. The thought passed so quickly it barely registered.

They were best friends and they would stay that way. I was so sure of it.

When he drove off I saw him smile at me. I knew without being psychic that things between those two were going to mend by tomorrow at the most. I went back inside feeling like I had done something good. Something right. Then I to check on my grandmother. She was still awake and in her nightgown now. She stood by my bedroom door watching me with an expression I could name: adoringly.

“You are growing up,” she told me and she rubbed my arm.

I fought back the emotional stuff and asked her if she needed anything and she declined. When there was another knock at the door. I smiled at my grandmother while she backed off to get into my bed. Maybe Danny wanted me to be with him and I would do my best to do whatever he needed.

I was giddy with excitement as I skipped to the front door and opened it.

It was two police officers. 

Bad things come in three’s you know.

This time I didn’t have Danny near by. My grandmother must have sensed something because she snuck up behind me. We had to have the news repeated so she and I could hear it together.

I looked to my grandmother at the same time she did. She was a strong woman and I was a strong man. We gave each other that identical look that said, “This is our burden to carry, the world doesn’t need to see us break.”

I gave the police our thanks and shut the door in their confused faces.~~~~~~~~~

                                                                 Danny

I pulled into Daniel’s driveway hoping against hope that Mr. Grant wasn’t home. Of course he was home. Daniel was drunk and was smashing everything in sight and aimed some of those things at his father.

“YOU BETRAYED MEEEEH!” Daniel may have been drunk but his aim didn’t suffer. His father was on the floor bleeding from his head and shaking.

I didn’t know who to run to first.

A glass bottle filled with liquor was aimed at my head then. I ducked just in time feeling the shards of glass rain above my head. All I had to worry about now is if Daniel decided to light a match.

“You were supposed to be my best friend!” and at that he threw the lid of a glass dish with no target in his drunken state.

Oh this was all happening in the kitchen. I hoped he didn’t find the knives.

“My best friend! My best friend!” Daniel was screaming at the top of his lungs his body swaying like a puppet against his will.

“Daniel! That’s enough!” I yelled back at him.

All that got me was another liquor bottle thrown at me. I smelled like whiskey now. 

“Daniel… please…” Mr. Grant was saying he looked so pale.

I ran to him to check his pulse which wasn’t good. This took much of a toll on him. I started to wipe away the blood on his head with my shirt.

Daniel saw this and let out a roar of rage.

“Daniel stop it! Your dad is a sick!”

It got Daniel to stop for a moment when used just enough venom in his words, “A sick man is right.”

Mr. Grant flinched on the floor like he had been shocked.

“Daniel! This isn’t helping! He‘s your father and he‘s been there for you when no one else in the family would be!”

Normally when I yelled at him which was very rare it would calm him down. I also didn’t want to pull that card. I felt horrible like I was sinking further in something. How did make things get so bad? 

Considering the circumstances and that he was drunk…

“Fuck if this isn’t helping!” and he threw something else at us. I had to shield Mr. Grant with myself taking a glass plate to the back. It whooshed the air right out of me.

I coughed and luckily there wasn’t any blood because I checked my hand. My back was going to bruise for sure though and it was going to be stiff.

“Fuck! FUCK! FUCK!”

More items got smashed and I moved Mr. Grant further from Daniel’s rampage.

“Daniel! Daniel! Snap out of it!”

He didn’t snap out of it. All he did was get angrier and found the knives. That did it.

“Go ahead Daniel,” I said calmly now, “Throw them. Kill me. Kill your father. The people that love you most.”

Daniel looked at the set of knives in his hand. He was hesitating which is what I wanted.

“Hurt me more. You already hurt me,” and I flashed my back at him where the plate hit me.

Daniel swayed in his spot just staring.

“Do it. Hurt me more.”

Daniel slowly looked up at me with his eyes not in full focus.

“I don’t mind. Just do it.”

Sometimes egging him on made him hesitate and this was one of those times.

“Go hurt yourself,” he told me with cruel words but he didn’t mean them.

I took the opening and tackled him. He fought me of course. There were fists throwing and feet kicking. More things got broken. I was going to have a lot more bruises now. He rolled and got on top of me. Then I let him punch me twice. After that I overpowered him again by getting him under me again. 

There was a rip as my shirt got torn. He still wanted to fight me. 

“Stop. Stop. Stop.” I told him almost calmly.

He didn’t stop.

He elbowed me in the stomach and I fell off of him.

“That is your best friend!” Mr. Grant yelled with a force I didn’t know he was capable of. “Why are you fighting your best friend?!”

His voice was powerful though his body didn’t look it.

Then I remembered why I admired him.

“Hit me,” he said.

“Mr. Grant, no…” I said heaving another breath that was hard to do.

Daniel was blinking rapidly, he was crying. Now there was a half a chance he was going to get pissed off from crying and half a chance he would stop.

I tried to make a notion of grabbing a hold of Daniel from behind but he was too quick. I tasted blood in my mouth.

“I was the one that asked him to do it, not him,” Mr. Grant said. “He didn’t really want to do it because he didn’t want to hurt you. This is all my fault. I should have never gotten cancer.”

Daniel was still trying to blink all the tears that were uncontrollably streaming down his face. He wiped his face trying to make sense to what was going on. Daniel wasn’t a crier. I looked away because with him being drunk it would make him hate me more if I was watching him cry.

“Its no ones fault for getting cancer,” he said in a near sobered voice.

Mr. Grant couldn’t stand anymore he went down and Daniel went for his father.

My chest was still hurting and the blood from my busted lip was still flowing. I was doing my best to not swallow any of it. That would just be disgusting. Ha! Funny that I could think of something so mundane at a time like this.

Daniel had his father in his arms like a parent cuddling a child. 

“I’m so sorry dad!” and at that he cried in his fathers chest.

Oh please don’t mind me laying on your kitchen floor bleeding just a little bit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:( so what's going on with Jake?