Last Chance

Chapter 9:

I went to the school first, I notified the secretary and she said she’d leave a message for the principal since he was out today. I didn’t stick around to talk to the students or teachers. I went back out and got back into my car. I drove to Sean’s house and knocked on the door but nobody answered. He must have been at work or over at Alyssa’s. I got back in the car and I started to drive towards home but I drove past the turn to the house a few times. Finally, I decided to take the turn and parked in the driveway. I sat in the car for a few minutes contemplating going inside before getting out of the car and going up to our house.

“Excuse me, mister,” someone calls from across the road.

There are two children in the neighbour’s yard standing next to a two-thirds-of-the-way built snowman.

“Yes?” I question unsure what they want. They are half as tall as the snowman’s body they built.

The one that spoke the first time, a boy, I think but it’s hard to tell with the winter clothing speaks, “Can you put the head on please?”

The other child turns holding the snowman’s head.

“Sure,” I reply.

I turn back and walk across the blacktop road to their yard. I take the head from the second child and notice the other is holding a stick, two rocks, and a carrot for the face. I place the head on top of the body and make sure it’s secure.

“There you go,” I reply.

“Thanks, mister,” the one holding the head says as I turn to go back to my side of the street.

“You’re welcome,” I call back.

Once back across the street, I look back at their house and the curtains in the window shift. One of their parents probably watching them to make sure I didn’t hurt or kidnap them. I unlocked the front door and went inside.

Joel was in the living room watching TV and Jamie was in the kitchen.

“Hey, Luka,” Joel calls.

“Hey,” I replied walking over to the couch and leaning over the back of it to kiss the top of his head. He looks up at me, smiling.

“Anything happen well I was gone?” I ask.

“No, today’s been a good day,” he replies.

“That’s good. Jamie, Joel has an appointment on Saturday. We should be gone for about twelve hours. They have to monitor his reaction and see whether it helps. We also have to go over the course of the treatment and future appointments,” I explain.

“Okay,” he replies quietly.

“Don’t trash the house, or say there’s a party here,” Joel jokes.

“I won’t. Can Sam come over?” he asks.

I look at Joel. Jamie was doing a better job of giving us notice that he wanted to bring his boyfriend over than us with my parents.

“Just be careful,” Joel states with a half-joking, half-serious voice.

“Joel, no. It’s not happening, not here and not now,” Jamie states embarrassed and a little mortified.

“Yes, Jamie, it’s fine,” Joel answers.

I’m a little confused at first until I get the s*x joke. I smile, I’m glad for Joel’s humour despite his being sick. Jamie takes his food and retreats upstairs still embarrassed by Joel’s joke.

I join Joel on the couch, I put an arm around his shoulders and kissed him.

“Did you see Sean?” he asks.

“He wasn’t home. He was probably at Alyssa’s,” I reply. “I left a message for the principal at the school.”

“I hope it works,” he whispers leaning his head on my shoulder.

“I do, too,” I reply quietly.

“Wyatt’s coming to pick up the computers tomorrow, right?” Joel changes the subject.

“Yeah, why?” I ask.

“Did you make a request for vacation time?” he asks.

It was hard to do that from home. Especially, if I wanted to make sure it got to the scheduler and Wyatt so he wouldn’t be driving out here to give me computers I wouldn’t be here to fix.

“Maybe you could ask Wyatt to tell them,” he continues.

“We don’t even have a date, yet,” I reply.

“Do we want to have it in the spring?” he asks. “I don’t think we want to freeze in our tuxes.”

“We could still just go to the courthouse,” I reply.

“Nah, I want a wedding. Since I’m only going to get one,” he answers.

“Okay, do you know where? Our guests will need invitations and to book the day off. A weekend might be better if we want to invite people from the school,” I explain.

“I’ll look into it. You worry about other things. Is there anything specific you want or don’t want?” he continues.

“Not really,” I replied.

I wanted it to be his dream wedding because he was right, he was only going to get one. I’d also learned to settle for less or compromise a while ago when he got sick. I just wanted to love him, be with him and for him to be happy for as long as possible.

“Do you want to try and invite your parents?” I ask quietly.

I figured he’d say no. He was pretty much done with trying to get them to accept us and understand us. He’d tried and I had tried even harder but nothing seemed to ever change any of their minds, aside from Jamie who had his own reasons for accepting us and rejecting them. I never did understand how kids went from not caring what or who you were to rejecting you if you were even slightly different. It was most likely due to societal influences like Joel’s family and their friends. Joel and Jamie were exempt because they were the subject of what they were against and so they were guilt-tripped into feeling that what they were doing was wrong until they realized there were others out there like them who were loved for who they were and they would no longer tolerate it.

“No, they’ve done enough. It’s on them for the way they acted. If they try to accuse you of exiling them from my wedding you can remind them that they weren't there for the past eleven years, especially the last two, and that they not only rejected me and you but Jamie, too and he’s only a kid,” Joel answers.

“Alright,” I reply steadily, trying not to give off any signs that I thought he should have tried at least one last time.

I’d been fighting the battle mostly for the last two years since he became sick. He stopped when he realized that despite the fact that he was sick and could have been dying they didn’t even show up then. I knew that said something about them, and I knew I was a little less pessimistic than Joel and that he was tired of fighting for people who were never going to change, but I didn’t want to have to live with his parents breathing down my neck, blaming me for everything that happened to Joel or their relationship with him.

I decided to put down the fight though. I’d done my best and Joel had even tried, too. They’d had plenty of chances and that phone call to Charlotte must have been the last toll for Joel and now for me. It was on them, it had to be. If we’d never tried maybe it would have been on us somewhat, but we were just living our lives and we had tried countless times.

“I know it’s not the end because we took in Jamie, we’ll hear from Charlotte again. Or at least I know you will but I’m done with my parents. We’ve done everything. They’re responsible for what happened and for destroying their chances with not only us but Jamie, too. At least maybe we’ll get some peace of our own this year if we stay clear of mine,” he finishes.

“I hope we do,” I reply quietly kissing his cheek.