Homosexual (Short Story)

Homosexual

"You're such a faggot! I bet you like watching us dress for gym, don't you? And heaven forbid someone take a shower; you'd be right there, drooling!"

I did not reply to my tormentors, but let my eyes glaze over and pretended not to care. Yes, I was gay, that much was true. But I did not enjoy being in a smelly locker room with a buch of half-dressed guys around me. In fact, I purposefully picked a locker that was as far away from anyone else as possible. But, of course, they failed to acknowledge this fact at all.

"Why don't you go cry to your boyfriend? Have him hold you and talk sweet!"

Truthfully, I didn't have a boyfriend. I had never had one. So once again, I kept silent and tried not to show how much this bothered me.

"Why don't you go get a sex change? Then we wouldn't have to share a locker room with you!"

This type of confrontation happened at least once a month. I'd thought that I would get used to it eventually, but even now it tears me up inside.

The leader of the group, Jake Macob, decided that it was getting boring and shoved me. I fell to the rain-soaked ground. Mud splattered all over me, and the group of guys laughed obnoxiously. I didn't bother getting up: They'd just push me down again and again until they were satisfied.

"Well, if not your boyfriend, then go home to your mommy! Oh, that's right... She's dead! I wonder what she would say if she knew she had a fag for a son?"

As much as I fought not to show any signs of irritation, my hands balled into fists at that. Unfortunately, they noticed my slip up.

"Ooh, struck a nerve, did we? I'll bet your mother would faint from horror if she heard that her son likes balls!"

He was wrong yet again. My mom had known about it, and she had been the only person to accept it without any sort of disgust. She used to tell me that it wasn't my fault and that I would find 'the happiness that every person is entitled to'.

Then they decided that they were done with verbally abusing me and switched to physical means. They kicked and punched and pinched and slapped. I curled into a ball on the ground, trying tokeep from getting too terribly beaten. I felt bitter tears come to my eyes as pain wracked through my body. But then something unusual happened...

I heard a female voice, "Hey! Stop it!"

And a male voice joined in, "Leave him alone!"

Suddenly, my attackers were being pulled away from me. Even after the last one had been tugged off of me, I stayed on the ground. I was confused. No one had ever bothered to interfere before... not even when I had called for help. A feminine hand stretched towards me and I looked up.

"It's alright now. Max will take care of those bullies."

I recognized the kind face of Eloise Grainer. She was one year older than me, but her brother was in the same grade as me.

I reached out a shaky hand and she helped me to my feet. Her brother, Max Grainer, was facing off with Jake and his gang. Jake was in my grade as well, but much larger than me. Even Max was dwarfed by him. But Jake wasn't entirely stupid; he knew that Eloise would probably get a teacher if he didn't leave. So he snapped one last insult towards Max and led his cronies away. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Max spun around to face us, a grin on his face, "You okay?"

It took me a minute to realize he was talking to me, "Y-yeah... I think so... Thanks for helping me."

Eloise wrapped a supportive arm around me, "It wasn't right for them to tease you like that. It's not like you can do anything about who or what you like."

I gaped at her. She had sounded so much like my mom...

Max came over to us, "So... are you... you know... gay?"

A slight blush tinged my cheeks and I couldn't meet his eyes. My mouth went dry. I nodded silently at the ground.

"There's nothing wrong with it; I was just curious..."

I dared to lift up my eyes to meet his again and noticed that he was blushing as well.

"I just... That is... My girlfriend dumped me a couple days ago.. and.. I'm bi..."

I felt my eyes widen in shock. Did that mean that he was... interested? In me? No, there was no way. Cute, kind, popular, muscled Max Grainer would never...

He put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a crooked smile. Eloise invited me over to their house for dinner, and I gladly accepted. As we walked, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of relationship Max and I would end up in later...

~END~