SIX YEARS LATER

KYLE

When I turned in my last piece of the article on the guys of Liberty Avenue, it turned out to be my last article for any newspaper. I wasn’t a hard hitting journalist, I couldn’t turn people's lives upside down to sell a newspaper. I wanted to do something that made me feel good about myself.

My editor told me he wanted an exclusive on Drew and Emmett or he wouldn’t run my feel good piece. I told him no, I wouldn’t invade their privacy like that. He told me to decide if I was a reporter or quit. I told him to take his job and shove it.

Drew and Emmett would have done the exclusive but my editor wanted me to bring up their past. He wanted the broken engagement and an interview with the ex. I told him that I would do an article on their wedding and family life, but not a hatchet job, because the ex is still bitter. He told me nobody wanted happy endings, they wanted to hear all about Drew treating his fiancee as a beard. I realized I hated my job. It wasn’t that I hated writing the who’s who section, I hated the idea of printing something that hurt people. I wanted to help people. That is what I found out with the gang, they all love what they do. I wanted a job that made me want to wake up every morning. Blake was the one who helped me.

I told my parents I was going to go back to school and to do something I loved doing. My parents told me they were willing to support me. I realized that I tended to discount my parents because they weren’t marching at Pride, but they marched behind me. I told them about the gang and put my mom in touch with Deb and Jen. Every time I visited my mom she was talking to one of them.  She became the mother hen in New York, the guys thought it was funny that my mom, who is only a few years older than them, was mothering them.

The night Justin and his posse tried to break into the wedding area, Blake stopped to help a patient at the rehab center. He was making someone’s hard night easier by being there for them. Blake and I talked and I want to do that too. With the help of my parents, I went back to school and got a Masters Degree in social work. I wanted to help LGBT teens before they made bad decisions. Blake was lucky, people cared enough to help him and I wanted to be the person who helped someone else.

Brian and Justin visited often, Deb sent me enough food to feed half the school. Michael sent me comics. Ben told me to call if I needed any help with papers. Emmett and his kids came to visit all the time. Drew retired after the season ended the year they got married. He told me he wanted to still be able to walk when the boys got older. Blake and I talked about subjects I was learning. Mel and Lindsay were like mother hens. It was hard not to visit, but they all made sure I was still alive. I was their family and they didn’t let go of anyone.

Gus was angry that I didn’t want a relationship right away, he told me if Justin could do it so could he. I told him that not everyone falls in love and stays with that person. Gus argued that I was scared of commitment. I told Gus that two weeks isn’t enough time to know if we would make it. Gus told me that he knew, and if I wanted time he would give it to me. He hung up and wouldn’t answer my calls for a few months. Justin told me to give him time, Gus was hurting. That life wasn’t the perfect fairytale he’d been told by his family.

Brian called and asked me what really happened. I told him I wanted to become someone who I could be proud of, and I wanted to let Gus grow up to have the perfect life Brian wanted for him. Brian told me that the reason he worried is because Gus wasn’t told the bad things, but the love story. Brian told me that Justin not only had to grow up because his shithead of a father threw him out, but because Brian spent years hurting him. He respected me for not making Gus go through all that. He told me that if Gus is anything like Justin, he’ll never give me up. I told him I hope that’s true, but I have six years before I finish school.

Gus finally called me again, and I told him that until I was through with school and he was able to explore his sexuality, we could only be friends. We needed to finish growing into the men were going to be. I wanted to tell him we could still see each other, but I didn’t want to make promises I couldn’t keep. Gus, like his father, expected you to keep your word. Our lives got in our way and we stopped calling every day, then it was every week, until the phone calls were rare. I didn’t allow anyone to interfere, if we are meant to be we’ll find each other. Emmett told me Gus was like a man possessed, taking as many classes as he could to finish school faster. I told Emmett Gus was an overachiever, just like the rest of them. I know they all wanted us to last, but the odds were against us.

I also think at sixteen he was still too young to make a life commitment. I won’t say it wasn’t hard, but I wanted a life partner, not someone who might change his mind about us as he grew up. Justin told me so far there was no one. Gus told them he didn’t have time. It gave me hope, until my graduation.

Everyone but Gus showed up for my graduation. I had hoped he would show, but respected his decision not to be there. I guess we weren’t getting the fairy tale. I made a big show of pretending I was okay with it. It’s hard to love someone so young and know that you needed to wait. I did find out he finished school and now works with Brian. I decided that even if we didn’t have a relationship we could still be friends.

Brian told me to go home and get dressed. They were talking me and my parents out to dinner. My mom and dad were talking about moving to be closer to their new friends. Deb and Jen were helping them find a place in Pittsburgh. I was happy, my parents had been adopted by the gang. Brian told me to hurry up, he had a present for me. I got to my apartment and hurried to change to meet with everyone else. On my way out I stopped at my front door and told myself, I had time to try to win Gus. I opened the door to leave.

“Hey Kyle. How about we skip the reasons you can come up with that we shouldn’t be together and just start our life.” I guess I do get the fairy tale.