"Oh Heaven! What is happening? Rowan?" a voice way too familiar gasped. The said man turned so fast his neck cracked and made him cringe but that was nothing compared to the way his stomach dropped at the sight of his own father. His hands flew up from the waist of the other man in front of him whom he had been just about to kiss before the door was abruptly opened. Rowan glanced at the man in front of him and barely contained his sigh as he saw how worried he looked. Gray also took his hands off the other and turned to sit more decently on the bed they were on. Rowan realized he should completely get off the other and did just that, mentally preparing himself for the lecture that was about to come.
"Afternoon", Rowan finally said as he stood up. His father looked more puzzled than ever and considering the amount of trouble Rowan had caused him throughout his whole life, this might have just been the worst. He stood quietly as his father tried to make sense of the situation at hand.
"Who is this?" was his first question. Only a second later, just as Rowan was about to open his mouth, Gray stood up and walked over to the old man with his hand held out.
"My name is Gray Harrison, sir", he introduced himself. Rowan was surprised his father even took the hand and squeezed it, possibly he could've thought Gray was filthy.
"Vicar Wilson", Rowan's father nodded. After Gray stepped back next to Rowan, the vicar only looked at Rowan. "Is this your pastime now? Instead of spending your time studying you do this! You do sin. Not only things that will only harm you but this kind of madness! How long have you been doing this? Ever since you moved to this awful dormitory away from your Mother and I?" Rowan stared at the old man with visible boredom.
"Well, to be honest: yes. Ever since I moved here. It was just too suffocating back home to be able to do anything like this, with you and Mother breathing down my neck most the time." Rowan shrugged.
"Could you please leave?" his father turned to Gray, who quickly glanced at Rowan to get a confirmation that it was okay before telling the two good-bye and stepping out of the door next to Rowan's father.
"I demand an explanation at once! Sit down with me and talk, son. Who led you to this kind of behaviour?" Rowan's father walked over to the tiny dining table that was right next to a small window. Rowan followed his actions and sat down opposite his father.
"I led me into this, Father", a silence followed his words, indicating that his father wanted Rowan to continue. "What can I say?" Rowan asked rhetorically.
Only a month before he had moved out of his childhood home to study in London. It had felt like a breath of fresh air to get away from his overbearing parents although where he lived now was not nearly as put-together as his childhood home. His parents hadn't ever had much money so he was used to it by now but still visiting some of his new friends' flats and rooms made him feel a little ashamed of the tiny room he had and the worn-down pieces of furniture he had managed to gather.
His university experience hadn't been boring even at the start. Rowan knew how to make people like him. He knew people very well after seeing how his father treated people his whole life. The biggest difference was that Rowan didn't want to turn people into his religion like his father did. As his father was the Vicar of a rather small town in Southern England Rowan was expected to take the same path as his father. As a young boy he was rather certain he was going to be a Vicar himself one day but as he grew older he realized how little he actually cared if there was someone up there looking over the entire World. With everything bad that was going on - mainly the Great War - he didn't think it was likely that someone was making sure people were safe and everything. Bringing it up to his parents wasn't easy. They weren't so open about their only son not believing in a force that had always been a huge part of their lives.
