Dawn of the Sun Wolf

Chapter Two

I stepped out of the house, the weather had gotten worse; the wind was now blowing the leaves and shaking the bushes, and the air was thick with humidity. But I noticed none of this. My mind was focused on answering only one horrible question: "What now?" Knowing I had to move quickly, I decided it would be good to get as far away from that house as fast as possible. I made my way to the downtown area. After about a ten-minute walk, I made it to the public library; I sat down outside near the entrance and pulled out my phone. Should I call one of my friends to see if I could go stay with one of them for a bit? No--I was stronger than to go hat in hand, practically begging for a place to stay. It was already bad enough that I was a lousy fag; I couldn't be a beggar as well. Grandma's words rang in my head: strength, honor, courage. I kept thinking about it, would it be strong, honorable, or courageous to try and live on my own, homeless? No, that would be foolish, dangerous, and weak. So, I decided to try and be strong. I pulled out my phone and called Austin. He picked up on the second ring.

"What?" Austin asked, sounding irritated. Ugh; this wasn't going to be easy.

"How you doing?" I asked. Really, "how you doing?" C'mon, brain, think of something a bit better than that.

"Fine. That last time you talked to me, you made it seem like you never wanted to talk again, so why did you call me?" Austin asked, angrily.

"Well, there's a really long story that I promise to tell you, but for now, the really quick summary is my parents kicked me out and I need a place to stay," I cringed saying it; it felt so embarrassing. I can only imagine what's going through Austin's mind. Why was I kicked out; was I some sort of criminal? I waited for his response, I could hear him breathing on the other end, but no words. After about a minute, Austin still hadn't responded.

"Austin, you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm still here, umm, yeah. Where are you?" Austin then asked.

"Why do you wanna know?" I responded without thinking.

"Cause I'm going to come pick you up, unless you want to keep using that tone". Austin shot back.

"Umm, thanks!. Sorry I got bitchy; it's been a horrible couple of hours. I'm at the library" I said, embarrassed.

"Okay, be there as fast as I can," Austin said seriously.

"Thank you" I responded starting to get tears in my eyes.

"No problem." Austin then hung up.

That went surprisingly better than I thought it would. I was still unsure of what he'd think when I told him everything. Would he hate me? I mean, why would he? He had protected me from bullies for all these years--bullies who had used gay as an insult. But then why would my parents do all this to me? They were supposed to protect me. It would have helped if Nixon were here; he always knew what to do. Just then I heard the sound of Austin's car pull up in front of the library.

"Conner," Austin ran up to me and asked "I'm here; let's get your stuff and get off the streets. It's not safe out here."

"Sh-sure. Get me out of here, please." I replied with tears in my eyes.

I semi-watched him as he picked up my stuff and put it in the trunk, followed then by picking me up and putting me in the car. I was able to buckle myself in... Small victories.

I was silent the entire ride to his house, staring out the windows, looking at the trees and buildings going by. When we drove past the forest preserve, I could have sworn I saw what looked like a wolf. I quickly shook it out of my mind; wolves don't live in Maine, and even if they roamed into the state, they wouldn't roam this far south. That's when it started to rain. As the clouds poured out their deluge, the tears flowed out of me. We kept driving; another five minutes and we were at Austin's home. It was a good-sized mansion; his aunt Kathy was like some kind of communications person for some company, so she worked at home. His Uncle Mark was like a really good handyman; he who could fix anything. The mansion originally belonged to his grandparents; their family was one of the founders of the town, and over the centuries, they'd built up a pretty big fortune from several businesses and investments. His parents had moved to Colinsport when he was little but died in a car crash a couple years later, so he moved back here.