The Tenth Part

Seven sat on his bed staring at his ceiling. It wasn't a particularly interesting ceiling, but he really had nothing better to stare at so he settled. His cell phone sat on his bed side table and suddenly started vibrating and loudly playing a clip of "Rebel Yell" by Billy Idol. He glared at his cell phone as it rang. He hated cell phones but his mother insisted he have one since he went to "shady places" so often. By shady places, she of course meant the music venues he frequented.

He picked up the phone and looked at the number, one he didn't recognize, which irritated him immensely, and flipped it open, "Hello?"

"Seven?"

He frowned, "Who is this?"

"It's Ann. I got your number from Travis."

"Um, cool. What's up?"

She sighed, "Blaire said you were really good with English and stuff like that. I have this huge paper due in my composition class and I need help."

Seven frowned, "Uh, yeah, no problem. Do you want to come over or meet somewhere?"

"Do you mind if I come over? Blaire and Travis are going to hang out so he can give me a ride over."

Seven bit his lip, trying to push down the intense jealousy he felt when she said Travis and Blaire would be spending time together, "Sure, see you in a bit…"

He closed the phone and sighed. Stupid Travis being oblivious to his pathetic obsessive emotions of gratuitous affection…

He rolled off of his bed and stood up, making his way down stairs. His mother was in the living room, watching a show on the Food Network while clipping coupons.

"Mom, I have a friend coming over in a bit."

"Mm-hm, will Travis be staying for dinner?"

He rolled his eyes, "Mom, it's not Travis."

She gaped at him, "You? Deigning a human being other than Travis worthy of basking in your illustrious presence?"

"Very cute, Mother. Her name is Ann and she needs help with an English paper so we'll just be up in my room working on-"

"No you won't," his mom interrupted, "You can be gay all you like, young man, but rules still apply, members of the opposite gender are not allowed in your room. The two of you can sit down here at the kitchen table and do your work."

He rolled his eyes, "Are you kidding me?"

"No, I'm not. You will obey my rules or I will pull out your baby book, do you understand young man?"

"I'm not afraid of the baby book," he sneered, "I was an adorable baby."

"Of course you were, dear," she sighed, "What with all of the throwing up and running around naked and screaming at your siblings…"

"Fine," he sighed, "We'll stay down here, but only so I don't have to argue with you anymore, not because of the baby book threat. And no one is allowed to bother us."

She looked up at the clock, "Well, your sister won't be back until tomorrow. She's visiting some friends in the city and going to job interviews, you know. Then your brothers said they'd be back around six, so I think you're in the clear."

He twitched, "What about Dad?"

She shrugged, "Probably about six as well."

"Thanks, Mom," he sighed as the door bell rang.

He went over and answered, smiling at Ann as she walked in, "That was fast."

She smiled, "Yeah, well, we were actually already on our way when I called so good thing you said yes, huh?"

"My mom says we have to stay down here and study in the kitchen. Is that cool with you?" he asked, leading her back into the kitchen.

She said down and pulled her laptop out of her bag as she replied, "I don't care as long as you can help me with this paper. I've suddenly forgotten every rule of grammar and I'm fairly certain my paper is somehow all one horrible run-on sentence. The whole thing is underlined in green. Is there a place I can plug this in? My internal battery is utter crap."

Seven pointed to the outlet behind her on the wall and got them each a can of Mountain Dew from the fridge before sitting next to her.

The next twenty minutes was spent with him helping her organize her research and fix trivial grammatical errors. They listened to the music on Ann's iTunes on shuffle as they did their school work, Ann occasionally asking for help or advice while Seven worked on his own homework on Chad's laptop. His computer was a desktop so it stayed in his room.

A song came on with interesting vocals and music that made Seven's ears perk up, "What is this?" he asked.

"Mewithoutyou," she replied, "They're one of my favorites. They're playing in the city next month if you want to go see them with me."

"Yeah, that would be awesome," he replied. "I really like it."

"Um, they're a Christian band," Ann said carefully, "I noticed you and Travis looked a little uncomfortable the other night when the religion thing came up at the concert."

Seven shifted cautiously, "Yeah, uh, I'm… not religious… at all. And a lot of people I've known to be religious have not agreed with me on a lot of things."

Ann sighed, "Seven, I have made a choice in my life. I've chosen to devote my life to Christ and that's not a choice everyone makes… and that's ok. You don't have to make the same choices as me to be my friend and I'm not going to judge you just because of that. And neither will the others. I like you because you're funny and smart and you'll be wild and crazy and dance with me and maybe I won't agree with all of the decisions you'll make in life, but I'm not going to… reject you or be cruel to you, ok?"

He looked at her carefully, figuring if he was going to get rejected it would be better now than later, "What if I told you I was gay?"

She blinked at him then replied, "That's ok."

"Really? I thought…"

"Haven't you ever heard 'love the sinner, hate the sin'? You're an awesome person, Seven, and I'm really excited that I get to be your friend, and while I don't believe that homosexuality is… righteous, I am not going to turn my back on you because of it."

Seven couldn't help it; he reached over and pulled Ann into a tight hug. "Thank you."

She smiled and hugged back, "Don't thank me for doing what's right."

He pulled away from her and sat back in his seat, sighing, "I was really worried, you know? Travis seemed to really like you guys and I was worried that you guys would hate me and Travis would you know, choose all of you instead of me… And I don't have any other friends."

"So you're in love with him then?"

Seven blushed hotly and glared, "Do your homework. Oh, and um, don't say anything? You're kind of the first person I've told other than my family…"

She smiled, "Thank you for trusting me. I'll keep your secret."