east of eden 𑁋 salvis.

V

♥̩̥̩♥̩̩̥͙♥̩͙ˊˎ

Travis sighs, poking sadly at the grey mashed potatoes on his tray with the flimsy plastic fork supplied to him along with the basically radioactive "meal." The church pamphlets supplied to him by his father sit next to him, barely even getting a glance from the blonde. Or anyone else, for that matter.

He couldn't stop thinking. Thinking about earlier, in math class, when the teacher had taken attendance and said Sarah's name and she had said actually, could you call me Sal?

And that's all Travis has been thinking about, the whole time lunch has gone on. While the teens around him sat around and gossiped or joked or fucking stuck french fries up their nose, he sat at the table and he stared at his food and he thought. What girl would want to go by a boy's name? And he'd heard Sarah's friends using boy pronouns for her, referring to her as though she was a boy.

It was all so confusing for Travis. He'd heard of gay people, of boys that like to take it up the ass and of girls that like to- Ick, Travis didn't even want to think about it. He'd heard of faggots, in fact, he was one. But he'd never heard of girls wanting to be boys. That wasn't something his father ever mentioned to him, or in his preachings.

Travis looks up as the bell rings, shelving away those thoughts for later. He figured he'd ask his father about it. Even if Kenneth was scary and harmed Travis when he did bad things, Kenneth was always happy to preach. In fact, it boosted his mood a bit when Travis asked a question about God, or showed some sort of love for the Lord. So Travis figured asking about girls that want to be boys would probably do no harm.

-x-

The school day is boring and passes by in a blurry haze, mostly consisting of black spots fading in and out of Travis' eyesight as well as getting scolded by a few teachers for doing absolutely nothing. All the teachers hated him, although he didn't know why. Probably because he beats people up, but it's not his fault those people are dirty sinners that need to be taught a lesson! In fact, Travis should be praised for doing what he does, for teaching them the way of the Lord before it's too late.

The bus ride home goes by fast, luckily Travis didn't have to beat any faggot's asses for being in his seat this time around. It seemed they learned their lesson after that morning.

He's greeted by the face of his father when he enters his house, along with the smiling faces of a few other members of the church. It was apparently a day when they were having Bible study, and apparently also at the Phelps' house. That hardly ever happened, most days when the members of the church were having bible study, it was at one of their houses.

Kenneth immediately puts on the Friendly Father act, smiling at Travis and waving at him as Travis toes off his shoes. "How was school today?" He asked, trying to sound nice, but there was a clear strain in his voice. Travis smiles softly, he needed to contribute to the act or he'd be in big trouble.

"It was good!" No, it wasn't. It was shitty and Travis had a breakdown in the bathroom again. The bloodstains on the tile can vouch him. And so can the newly opened scabs on his arms, the stinging in his arm, the blood under his fingernails.

"Got any homework?" A subtle signal to leave now. Travis nods, eyes widening as though he had forgotten until just now. He and his father were quite good at this act, they'd been practicing it for years.