Selfish Pleasure: A Homophobic Nightmare

Chapter 4: A Species Endangered

The next morning, Marcus walked into the locker room where he found his friends changing. When he walked past the bathroom stall where Nathan usually changed, he noticed no one was there.
"Hey, have you seen Nathan?" He asked his friend Jeremy, interrupting his conversation with the guys.
"No, but Marc I did it. I got one of those things you got." He told him.
"What thing?" He asked him, confused.
"A Brofriend; I came up with that." Jeremy answered as the guys acknowledged him.
"What did you do Jeremy" Marcus asked him.
"I went to cheerleading practice after school and found one. His name's Danny. We did it all last night, man. You were right! They are better!"
Marcus looked at him in shock as he had never thought that he would hear Jeremy talking about being with another guy.
"I needa try, does he have any friends?" One of the guys asked before the rest began asking after.
Marcus left to go find Nathan. After noticing his stall was still empty, he went in it to change.

Later that day, Marcus ran into Frankie after school.
"Hey! Marcus, have you seen Nathan? He wasn't in class today."
"I don't know where he is, I haven't seen him either. I'll call him." Marcus told her as he pulled out his phone.
"After what he told me yesterday, I just hope everything's okay." Frankie told him as Marcus looked back at her with great concern.
"Nath, where are you? Everything okay?" Marcus asked over the phone.
"I'm outside of Target, I don't know where else to go." He told him with a shaking voice.
"What do you mean, what's wrong?" Marcus asked him.
"What happened? Is he okay?" Frankie asked.
"Are you alright Nath, are you hurt?" Marcus asked him.
"I'm fine, I just got kicked out." Nathan told him.
"What?" Marcus asked, confused.
"What happened?" Frankie asked waiting desperately to know the answer.
"He got kicked out."
"Oh no, I was worried that would happen." Frankie replied.
"Nath, stay there. We're on our way." Marcus told him before hanging up the phone and rushing to his car.
Frankie followed after him.

After Marcus parked the car, Frankie ran over to the front of the store where Nathan sat on the curb with a backpack and his bike. Marcus followed after her.
"Nathan, I'm so sorry." Frankie said before crouching down and hugging him.
"You okay, baby?" Marcus asked as he sat on the other side of him.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Nathan answered with a stern look.
"It's ok not to be," Frankie told him.
"I know.. and I know I will be fine."
"Nath, what happened? If you don't mind talking about it." Marcus said to him.
"Yesterday after you dropped me off, my parents found out. One of the teachers called."
"It was Vargas, wasn't it? Ugh, I hate him. He's the worst. When those guys were picking on him, he just stood there allowing, almost encouraging it to happen." Frankie told them.
"Yeah, I think it was him."
"What happened after you got home?" Marcus asked him.
"They told me to pack my things. That I no longer belonged there." Nathan told them.
"I'm sorry Nathan, don't worry.. everything will be okay." Frankie told him as she rested her head on his shoulder.
"I know things will be okay, but where am I going to go? What can I do?" He asked them.
"You could stay with me." Marcus answered.
"What about your parents?" Nathan asked.
"They were in a bad car accident a few years ago. I live with my grandma." Marcus told them after a short pause.
"I'm sorry, Marcus." Frankie told him.
"It's alright, I've had a few years now to cope with it. You could stay in our guest room, Nath. My grandma will love you." Marcus told him, smiling.
"Alright," Nathan said before getting up.
He picked up his things as Marcus and Frankie helped him to the car. They drove off to Marcus' house.

After they got there and met with his grandmother, Nathan and Frankie followed Marcus to his room.
"Oh my god, guys, have you seen the news?" Frankie asked them as she looked on her phone.
"What?" Marcus asked her.
"The guys at our school were on TV." Frankie said before showing them a video.
"Today, at West Valley High, a group of male students seemed to have begun the latest nationwide trend. Can you tell us what inspired all this?" A reporter asked Jeremy on camera.
"Yeah, my buddy! I saw how happy he was with his Brofriend, I came up with that by the way, and I just was curious and wanted to try it out." He told the reporter with a smile.
"Now, this trend has been becoming wildly popular throughout the state, and even country. Though at the same time, it's also a very controversial issue for many people. What would you say to that?" The reporter asked.
"I'd say forget that! With a different F word. This is network television, hi Mom!" One of the other guys interrupted.
"No, I'd tell them that there's nothing wrong with this. We're just expanding our knowledge trying new things. It's a new world, just like the earth, people are evolving." Jeremy told the reporter.
"Earlier today, we talked with Jeremy from West Valley High. We also got to hear from his parents and what they had to say about all this." The reporter told the audience off camera as the clip of their interview played in the background.
"I cannot believe what this school has done to my boy. He has been going there for four years now, and in his last year, hopefully, they went and did this to him? This is my child, why would anyone do this to an innocent child?" His mother asked the reporter.
"We also spoke with his father, Pastor Lucas." The reporter said before playing the clip.
"This is a disgrace to our nation and family. I am ashamed and I do apologize on behalf of my son. I can only pray that this doesn't happen to anyone else. May God forbid it!"
"We have commentators Haley and Richard here with their views on this controversially growing trend. Guys, what are your thoughts on this?" The reporter asked them.
"Well, I for one believe this is nothing but a beautiful thing. As simple as that!" Richard told them.
"No! What? How could you call such a hideous, distasteful thing beautiful? This is an abomination, it says so in the Bible. See, this is the problem with kids these days, and parents! What are we teaching our children?" Haley told them with an upset look.
"That love is stronger than hate, no matter what everyone else says or thinks about it, nothing could influence their love!"
"That is incorrect, hate is much stronger. Was it love that killed those preschoolers last year?"
"No, it was the hate that son of a *censored* had from never been given the love we all need in this world. When you turn your back on people, you leave them feeling unloved and unwanted. You leave them with an empty void they need to fill with anything they can think of. And you never know what they're capable of, you never know what anyone's capable of." Richard told her.
"I'm sure he was gay, that's why he ended up shooting himself too." Haley replied.
"If he was that wouldn't have any relevance to it, he was mentally unstable."
"What's the difference?" Haley asked before the crew laughed in the background.
"The difference is gay people are capable of controlling themselves," Richard replied.
"Then why don't you gays control yourselves from spreading all over the country like the black plaque!" Haley told him.
"I'm not gay, I have a wife and three children." He told them.
"Really? Then why are you standing up for these people?" Haley asked him with an angrily confused face.
"For that very reason; they're people." Richard answered.
Frankie paused the video before checking her phone for more updates.
"Wow," Nathan said softly.
"What have we done" Marcus asked him.
"What do you mean? We didn't do anything."
"Yes we did, Nathan. Look what we've done! We got Jeremy in trouble with his Pastor father, got you kicked out, and now half the country's trying this on for size while the other half's losing their minds." Marcus told him.
"There's no way this could've reached the whole country, I mean come on." Nathan replied.
"Guys, it's the number one trending topic on Twitter." Frankie told them.
"What is?" Nathan asked.
Frankie showed them the list of trending topics as the top line read
"Brofriend"
"Oh my god, see! This is what we did. If we never talked or hung out or kissed, none of this would've happened." Marcus told him.
"Marcus, it's not your fault. You're just a guy who happened to fall for another guy, that's all. It's not like you were just a straight guy who discovered a new way to get better sex or anything." Nathan told him.
Marcus nodded as he looked down trying to take all this in.

Nathan stayed at the house while Marcus brought Frankie home. She watched the rest of the video after she got there. Marcus looked up the video as well as he watched in his car.
"People who are disgusting. People like them don't deserve anything much less this much attention. You say you're straight, will you be trying this new trend?" Haley asked Richard.
"No, I am married."
"Well if you weren't, would you"
"No, I love women. I've loved women all my life." Richard answered.
"Well so did the young man in the interview earlier." Haley told him.
"Well that's different. He tried something new, he enjoyed it. I try new things all the time, doesn't mean I enjoy them all. If I ever did try it, it would have to be with someone I happened to fall for, if that ever did happen, and not just for the sake of trying it." Richard told her.
"And that's what these kids are doing, Richard. With that kind of talk just think of what you're putting into the minds of our children. Just think of all the children now questioning themselves, 'hm.. am I gay too now?' I mean, think of the severe destruction that would cause to the future of our country; to our world!" Haley told them.
"How could love cause destruction to our world?"
"By destroying our desires and abilities to reproduce. We'd be the last of our kind."