Devotion (boyxboy)

Chapter 1

“I could not tell you if I loved you the first moment I saw you, or if it was the second or third or fourth. But I remember the first moment I looked at you walking toward me and realized that somehow the rest of the world seemed to vanish when I was with you.”

― Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Prince

My instructors tell me that I have an amazing gift with words.  That my deeper understanding of the written word puts my level of excellence beyond even some of them.  What they do not know is that I have already published some of my most intimate and deepest desires and longing only to come to this place where I am at today.

My name is Balin Arendale and I currently reside at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh for boys.  A prestigious private boarding school that my otherwise working class family could never afford.  Because of my gift for writing, I was able to obtain a scholarship for the school but not all is covered and the very first year I entered was hard for me and my small family.

Now, things are different.  I was thirteen when I arrived at Merchiston and the moment I saw him, my life changed.  Unable to voice to him what I felt for him, I started to write it all down, a journal of sorts.  I turned my dreams into stories and when I got the courage to send one to a publisher, Kensington Books, financially I was able to take care of myself and my family.

I write under the penname of B. Dale.  My stories, homosexual love stories that all star me and HIM...Keaton Yarberry.  Now at seventeen, I am a household name.  Who knew there were so many people who would take to my stories to make me a number one best selling author over and over again.

I am anonymous and my publisher keeps it that way at my request.  No one knows what I do.  Not even my family.  Thank God I am great with words because the kinds of lies I have told my family in the past to explain the financial help I have been able to give them is the stuff of legends.  I laugh to myself when I think on this.

I do have to thank Keaton for this after all the only way I can give him my devotion is by putting it on the page.  When I write down my feelings it releases the heavy burden in my soul.  It has helped me cope better than any therapist could.

Some days are good, some are dark.  The worst of it all is that here we are, another year and I have never had the same roommate twice.  I keep to myself and hone my gift and I express my emotions onto the page.  I would probably have to classify myself as extremely shy but not in my stories. In them, I am everything that I am not in real life.

So here we are, another year begins. My parents are helping unload a few things into my new room.  Can't wait to see who I get shacked up with this time.  Although homosexuality is not as frowned upon as in the past and seems to be pretty evidently present throughout this school, no one knows of my sexual preference.  Not even my parents.  It makes it easier.

So, my mum and da are mindlessly jabbering about who knows what because the moment I turn around to look at them, the door opens and in walks my new roommate...Keaton Yarberry.  You know, with how well I play with the english language, the only thing that comes to mind is, WHAT THE FUCK!