The Increasingly Misnamed Short Story (AKA, This is A Not-So-Short Story, pt. 18)
Not sure what’s going on with the story? Like what you’ve read and want to see more? Feel free to peruse earlier parts here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He takes a deep breath.
“Better than I feared… So, there’s that. There’s still no guarantee that this isn’t going to get back to my family.”, he says with a deep sigh, “But I can’t go back. I can’t let anything get in between us again.”
He hangs his head a little. Even though he no longer lives at home he still doesn’t want to know what it’s like to be thrown out of his family for being gay. Of course, it would help if his parents gave him any sign of what they thought about people who were gay… Unfortunately, that’s a part of their culture. It’s assumed that being gay goes against the social norm at best and that gays were dirty at worst.
He hung his head for a moment.
“I can’t spend my life being afraid of being disowned. I was never truly happy when I wasn’t with you. I simply can’t ignore my happiness in deference to what everyone thinks I should do.”
His boyfriend wraps his arms around him again. He hugs him tightly.
“Y-you kn-know…”, his boyfriend starts.
He nods.
“I know. I’m grateful that I didn’t have to endure what you did. I can’t even imagine…”, he says as he shakes his head.
His boyfriend gently pets his head and says, “B-but th-that’s in the p-past…”
He takes the hands of his boyfriend. He smiles gently at him.
“I know.“, he says as he softly caresses his boyfriend’s face.
His boyfriend’s boy walks up beside him. He wraps his arms around his boyfriend’s sturdy chest.
“Are you sure you want to reminisce about such things now?”, he asks.
His boyfriend shakes his head.
“N-no. I-it’s in th-the p-past.”, his boyfriend says resolutely.
He shakes his head, if only to simply agree. His boyfriend’s boy stands between them, but not obscuring one from the other.
“Besides,” the boy says, “I do believe that there are other things that we need to talk about…”
His boyfriend’s eyes flicker a bit with sadness. As he notices this he is suddenly filled with apprehension and fear.
“This? You can’t…”, he says as tears begin to rim his eyes.
“I-it’s n-not wh-what y-you think.”, his boyfriend says, squeezing the one hand that he is still holding, “I…I-I c-can’t…”
His boyfriend stops short. Almost as though the thought of the two of them not being together is too painful to bear.
“This really isn’t as bad as it seems right now.”, the boy speaks up.
He must have realize that his choice of words at that time was a poor choice.
“No, it’s not what you think. It’s…”, the boy stops for a moment pondering what he really wants to say.
The boy looks at him. He then quickly looks at his boyfriend.
“Actually, I think this is a better question. Would you mind if we talked about this right here and now, or should we go somewhere else?”, the boy says to the boyfriend.
(To be continued…)