“You’re a bit crazy, you know that right?” Emmett asked her.
Mel had borrowed her mom’s car for the day and was taking him after school to Nashville to hang out downtown. He knew the bartender at Jade’s on Church Street. Church Street was the unofficial gay street in Nashville.
She was blasting R.E.M. from her mom’s Honda’s speakers with her singing along.
“Six o’clock. TV hour
Don’t get caught in foreign tower
Slash and burn, return
Listen to yourself churn
Lock him in uniform and born burning, bloodletting
Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate”
He watched her as she continued to dance in her seat as she drove, singing that song. It was how she soothed herself.
They didn’t know what kind of place they would be going into today. While the kids who got outed are probably going to have a worse day, that didn’t leave them without worries. There will be fingers pointed, accusations thrown, and they will just have to take it, like they always have. They knew it was Cody who outed the other kids but did those kids know that? Would they be mad that they knew there was a chance they could have stopped him?
Emmett’s biggest worry was Drew, he knew yesterday not to talk to him. Knowing Drew’s dad yesterday must have been hell for him. Drew’s dad had plans for him since he was born that he would be some NFL superstar. While being gay shouldn’t stop him from that dream, life just didn’t work that way.
When Mel pulled into the school, his stomach turned. He didn’t want to be here today, nothing good can come from it. He knows the ugliness that lurks in people.
The school felt different today and he wasn’t even through the double doors yet. Never one to hide himself, he didn’t know what the kids from yesterday were going through. When he was six, he got caught with his big sister’s high heels that she got for a dance. His sister caught him and told him never to wear them again. When he told his Aunt Lula, she got him his own pair just for her house.
Sophomore year was when everything went wrong. Everyone knew he was gay but knowing and seeing were two different things. When he was caught with Billy Hopwood under the bleachers, hell was raised. Billy Hopwood was a Baptist preacher’s son. So, he yelled that Emmett had forced the kiss on him and his Aunt Lula was lucky to get him out of Hazlehurst alive.
She sold her house, but it didn’t bring in much, so all they could afford was a small two-bedroom trailer in the trailer park on the edge of town.
So, he started here his junior year and promised himself he wouldn’t let anyone hurt him like Billy did again. And what did he do almost instantly? Fall for King of the School Drew Boyd. Being someone’s dirty little secret made you feel just like that…dirty.
He parted ways with Mel and headed to his locker, it was in the English Pod near his homeroom. It had taken him a while to get used to the school, not only the people but the layout. The people weren’t as bad as the others thought, he knew bad. Here he didn’t get knocked around just for walking down the hallway. Yes, there were cruel words and sometimes people’s cars got spray-painted. But at the end of the day, they did get to go home. Ted’s case was a one off, it shouldn’t have happened. It was the fucking sheriff that was almost a bigger homophobe than Cody’s dad. Sherriff Stockwell was a Grade A Asshole, as Debbie liked to say. So was that creepy deputy of his, Reichert.
Drew told him once that Reichert volunteered to chaperone an overnight football trip. He said Coach Barr, the head football coach turned him down, had to get his wife to go on the trip with him to help chaperone. When Drew had asked him why he turned him down, the coach told him some people give you a bad feeling in your gut, always trust your gut.
Putting his bag in his locker, he then checked himself out in his mirror on his door. He still needed to get a picture to liven’ the locker up. Last year it was covered with Liza, but this year he was thinking either the Spice Girls or maybe Johnny Depp. Brian asked him last year why he covered the inside of his locker with color and pictures when there’s a chance for people to tear it down. He told him about a life without color and beauty was one he just didn’t want to live.
Lunch was coming up and while they didn’t share a lunch period with all the kids from the video, they did some. Emmett wondered what would happen. Ben, the editor of the school newspaper, had been in his biology class second period. He sat there head held up high and answered most of the questions in class like usual. Maybe they had overreacted yesterday. Maybe Cody wasn’t as powerful with his video as he thought he’d be.
Emmett was first to sit down at their table because he always brought his lunch. Brian never bought lunch or brought it, he usually just picked off everyone else’s plate. No one minded because Brian was the only one of them having to take care of himself, lunch was a luxury.
Brian joined him, then the rest of the gang. No new members yet. Emmett laughed as Brian grabbed the banana from Ted’s tray.
“You’re supposed to peel it,” Ted said as Brian mimicked fellatio on the banana. Justin’s face reddened a little. Emmett wondered if he was a virgin.
“Can I sit here?” a timid voice asked.
They looked up and saw the boy from the band, Blake.
“The band kicked you off their table?” Brian asked with a confused smirk.
“No, they’re still cool. It’s just not a secret anymore and I would like to sit with my boyfriend. If he’ll have me again.”
Everyone looked at each other but it was Ted who smiled. “I’m still broken.”
“I’m good with superglue,” Blake said, sitting down beside Ted.
They all started chatting before they were interrupted again. “Can I sit here?”
Emmett recognized the boy from the video but didn’t know him. He was about Emmett’s height with short dreadlocks.
“You’re Mrs. Llewellyn’s son, Antonio, right?” Blake asked.
Mrs. Llewellyn was the guidance counselor; she was alright but besides giving you college pamphlets that was about all she did.
“I go by my middle name with friends. Please, call me Dijon.”
“Like the mustard?” Justin asked.
The other boy smiled. “Yeah, like the mustard.”
Before lunch was over, they were joined by four others outed by the video. Ethan Gold, the boy who was in every talent show playing the violin. Todd from the debate club, Mel said she forgave him for not defending her last year. Dusty from the softball team. The last was a quiet girl that hadn’t been on the video. When they asked her if she was gay, she asked if that was a requirement. That’s how they got their token straight kid, Cynthia.
Justin ran to Brian’s car as soon as school let out. The older boy had been avoiding him all day. Even at lunch he wouldn’t even look at him. He was going to confront the boy even if it was being told to fuck off.
Brian was just opening his car door when Justin saw him.
“STOP!” Justin yelled. Brian looked up at him but didn’t stop getting in his car. Justin picked up his speed, just as he got to Brian’s car, it started to back up. Justin stood behind it, but Brian had enough room now to pull forward and around. “FUCK!” Justin cursed.
He started the long hike back up the hill to the school where the buses were being loaded. Just as he topped the hill, he watched his bus pull away. Could his day get any worse? Looking around, he looked for Ted, Michael, or Lindsay, he knew they drove in. He didn’t see them.
A car pulled up beside him. “Hey, cutie, going somewhere?” Emmett asked.
“I just missed my bus,” he said, shouldering his bookbag.
“Well, we can take you home or you can ride into Nashville with us,” Melanie said from the driver’s seat.
“I don’t know, my mom wasn’t happy about me skipping yesterday. I don’t think she’ll let me.”
“Then ask for forgiveness instead of permission,” Emmett said.
“You’ve been spending too much time with Brian,” Mel told him.
“No, he wouldn’t ask for forgiveness or permission. Come on, you know you want to.”
“It does sound like fun.”
“Should we be here? I’m not twenty-one,” Justin said, looking at the big “NO UNDERAGE PATRONS”.
“It’s alright, we know some people,” Emmett said, saying hello to the bouncer. The man looked like a giant, he smiled at them and let them in. There was a small dance floor, wrap-around bar, the room was bathed in blue and orange light.
“See that hot dish behind the bar? Isn’t he yummy?” Emmett asked.
Justin looked at the guy with a critical eye. “He’s not wearing a shirt. That has to be against the health code.”
Mel and Emmett giggled. After ordering their drinks a tall, blonde woman came to talk to Melanie. Soon they disappeared somewhere. Then Emmett went off with someone he knew, leaving Justin at the bar all alone. If he knew he would have been abandoned he would have gone home. Sipping his drink, he was there for about an hour. A few men tried to hit on him but once they saw he wasn’t interested they left.
“Buy you a drink?”
Justin looked up to an overweight, middle-aged man, shorn dark hair that was receding.
“I’ve got one, thanks anyway.” He looked around for Emmett or Melanie. They weren’t in the club anymore he didn’t think, he had checked the restroom and walked around a bit before.
“I’ve never seen you here before. New?”
His mother always taught him to be respectful of his elders. He wondered if she meant middle-aged men trying to fuck him. Something started to rub his thigh causing him to jump a little.
“Umm…no, I’m mean yes. I just moved to Tennessee but about an hour away from here.”
He decided just to pretend the man wasn’t rubbing his thigh. His stomach rolled when the hand brushed his cock.
“How much?” the man asked.
“What?” Justin asked.
“Come on, you show up like you just came from school. That innocent schoolboy look isn’t fooling anyone.”
Justin had enough of this, fuck his mom’s rules about being polite. He grabbed the wrist of the wandering hand and turned it hard. “I don’t appreciate the assumption and I never gave you permission to touch me.”
“Justin, I think it’s time for you to leave,” a new voice said. It wasn’t Emmett’s voice or Mel’s. Justin looked up and saw his English teacher coming towards him.
“Rodney,” the creep greeted Mr. Murray. “Does the school know you’re taking schoolboys to a gay club?”
Not wanting his teacher to get into trouble for trying to get the creep away, he defended him. “He didn’t bring me; I came on my own.” Also not wanting to get his friends into trouble.
The creep looked at him one last time, the look sent chills down his spine. Then the guy walked away.
“Did you really come here by yourself or friends? I’m not here to bust anyone,” Mr. Murray said.
“Friends but they went off and left me alone. I haven’t seen them in about an hour.”
“I’ll help you look for them,” Mr. Murray said.
“I’d rather just go home. Can you take me?”
Mr. Murray looked torn before he stopped a short, stout woman with a nose ring. “Kat, would you mind riding with me to take Justin here home. I’ll take you home afterwards.”
The woman looked confused before something passed between them, and she nodded. Justin told them he would meet them at the door. After they walked away, he told the bartender to tell Emmett he went home. It wasn’t until they were almost home when he realized why the woman was riding with them. Mr. Murray was protecting himself in case someone saw them, the creep told people or if Justin himself lied about something happening. He had to admit he felt better with her there for the ride.
Chapter End Notes:
Song: The End of the World(as we know it) by R.E.M.