Mute [Joshler]

Part 2 (Tyler)

Ever since I was a boy I would always get a weird tingly feeling in my gut when a cute guy smiled at me, but when a  beautiful girl would smile at me I wouldn't get that feeling. I come from a very christian family, so my parents absolutely despise gay people. On the night of my 17th birthday I told my parents about my feelings towards men....and lets just say they didn't take it well.

(Flashback)

After the party had wrapped up and my siblings retreated to their rooms, I walked slowly to the living room to address something very important to my parents. Tonight was the night I was going to come out to them. "H-hey, uh, mom, dad can I tell you something?" 

"Sure, what is it honey?" my mom asks me while still staring at her Good Housekeeping magazine. 

"Well uh, uh, um-" My dad cuts me short. 

"Just spit it out already Tyler."

"Ok, well.....I'm gay," As soon as I say this, my dad spits the beer he was drinking out of his mouth and all over the coffee table, and my mom's eyes go wide and she drops her magazine with a gasp. 

"TYLER ROBERT JOSEPH!" my dad bellows, causing my siblings to stir upstairs and open their bedroom doors. "ZACH, JAY, AND MADISON JOSEPH CLOSE YOUR DOORS RIGHT NOW YOU HAVE NO PART IN THIS!" Dad's yell is followed by 3 doors closing. Not that the doors being open or closed will even matter, you can hear dad from space when he yells,  I say to myself mentally. "WHY, TYLER, WHY?! WE RAISED YOU A PERFECT CHRISTIAN BOY, YOU WERE GOING TO GET OLDER AND FIND YOURSELF A WIFE AND GIVE US BEAUTIFUL GRANDCHILDREN THEN GROW OLD AND DIE, JUST AS ANY OTHER GOOD CHRISTIAN MAN WOULD!" 

I stand and start to say something back to him but he slaps me with such brute force I fall to the ground and my head snaps back. He unhooks the buckle of his belt and I curl into a small ball at the base of his feet. "TYLER UNCURL YOURSELF RIGHT THIS INSTANT! JUST BE A MAN AND TAKE YOUR BEATING!" Due to my lack of listening to his instruction, he cracks the belt down on the small of my back. I cry out in pain as my mom watches my father beat me. As the tears stream down my face, my father snaps the belt down onto my frail body again, this time on my right bicep.

"D-d-dad please stop. I can't handle it." I manage to squeak out between the snaps of his belt on my skin. 

"OH YOU CAN'T HANDLE IT?! POOR LITTLE GAY BABY TYLER! YOU'RE GOING TO LEARN A LESSON WHETHER YOU 'CAN HANDLE IT' OR NOT!"

After 5 more minutes of being whipped by the belt, I was screaming at the top of my lungs because it hurt so bad. If dad keeps beating me like this I'm going to pass out, I think while i close my eyes and start sobbing even louder. In a few places the belt had broken my skin and blood was slowly starting to soak through my shirt and into the beige carpet. I have no doubt that all of my siblings heard me screaming, but only Madison came down the stairs after minutes of being whipped by my father's belt. 

"DAD STOP IT!" she shrieked, "CAN'T YOU SEE HOW BIG OF A MONSTER YOU'RE BEING! JUST LOOK AT TYLER!" she was sobbing at this point. "YOU AREN'T ANY BETTER MOM. YOU STOOD THERE AND WATCHED YOUR SON GET BEATEN FOR ALMOST TEN MINUTES!" She slowly walked over to where I lay in a crumpled heap, bleeding and sobbing. "It's going to be all right, Ty," she cooed, "Lets go upstairs and get you cleaned up a bit."

"O-okay," I say, my voice is only a hoarse whisper because of the sobbing and screaming. Madison helps me up and I nearly collapse again because I'm so weak. As I limp up the stairs, using her for support, I can feel my parents eyes follow us until we are out of sight. 

Once we reach the upstairs bathroom, she sets me down in the bathtub and tells me to wait while she goes and gets me clean clothes. I do as she asks and she returns one minute later with a pair of clean sweatpants and a soft plain black tee.

She slowly starts to peel the blood stained shirt off of my trembling torso and I cry out in agony. "Shhh, shhh, I know it hurts but I'm going to make it feel better, I promise." Once my shirt has been removed she grabs a washcloth and soaks it in warm water from the faucet. The second the rag touches my skin it feels like I'm being branded; I muffle a scream by biting down as hard as I can on my hand. She finally finishes wiping the blood off of me after a minute and a half of excruciating pain. "Time for the hydrogen peroxide," when she says this I ask her if I can have a washcloth to bite down on so I don't shriek. She grabs a clean washcloth from underneath the sink and hands it to me. I mumble a quick thanks and she starts to clean my wounds. 

When she finishes she helps me out of the tub and gets gauze, bandages, and neosporin out from under the sink. "Sit." she says and points to the toilet.  I do as told and she starts to cover my torso in neosporin, then proceeds to wrap my stomach, chest, back, and right arm in gauze and bandages. She takes a step back to admire her wrapping job and then hands me my clean clothes. "Be careful getting dressed. I don't want you to hurt yourself even more. I'm so sorry about dad, I wish I would have stopped him sooner." She started to say more but I cut her off.

"I'm fine, don't blame yourself Madison. Goodnight, I'm going to change and go to sleep. Love you."

"Goodnight, Tyler, see you tomorrow morning." She then walked into the hallway and closed the bathroom door behind her. 

After I get dressed I text Chris. 'I'm coming over...right now.' I pack the few clothes I own into my backpack, along with my ukulele and a few other possessions. I quickly scribble down 'keep in touch' on a note and slide it underneath Madison's door as a walk by. I slip into the garage unnoticed, grab my bike and ride to Chris's house...at 2:03 am.