Chapter 2

“Harold Davis,” she shouted at the man who stood at the top of the stairs. But that’s all she said. Ted got to his feet, looked up at the man whose hatred glared at him through eyes narrowed to slits. He turned to his mother, hugged her, told her he loved her, asked her to take care of Dixie, and walked out the door.

Once on the sidewalk, he looked back at the house that had been his home ever since he was born. He thought of his real father. Ted barely remembered him. He had died when Ted was just a small boy, leaving the door open for his mother marrying Harold. Ted had always felt they’d have been better off without him. When he moved in she’d begged him to adopt Ted. Harold reluctantly did.

Ted took a deep breath and walked away, not knowing where he was going or what he was to do. 2

Ted wandered aimlessly and found himself at the playground in a park near his home, or what had been home until a few moments ago. He sat on a swing, idly pushing it back and forth, his feet dragging in the dust beneath as he tried to sort out the jumble of thoughts running through his head. He thought about his stepfather’s rage—rage based on the teachings of the so-called Christian church his family attended. As a boy he’d dutifully studied the Bible as he was required to do. He soon found what he read and what the church taught weren’t always compatible. The founder of their faith seemed to say Christians were to show compassion, tolerance, and forgiveness; they were to turn away from being judgmental and self-righteous. However, this church preached hellfire and damnation on anyone that didn’t think as they did about gays, minorities, the homeless, and people who needed government help to survive. There was no compassion, tolerance or forgiveness offered those groups of people. He had tried to discuss this apparent disparity with Harold, tried to point out scripture to show what true Christianity was meant to be. But his efforts were met with stern rebuffs and references to Old Testament and Pauline doctrines which were antiquated to say the least. Reason was replaced with rage and the declaration that Ted’s views were bordering on heresy.

What difference does all of that make now? Ted thought. I’m out on the street with nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. And for what, just a little jerk-off with Erik? That doesn’t mean we’re gay! We were just playing around.

However, Ted’s disavowing what the mutual masturbatory session meant was a thin veneer over what he’d been worrying about for at least a year. While Erik and other guys his age seemed to be getting more and more into girls, Ted, while he considered females pleasant enough to look at, found himself increasingly drawn to the men in the porn videos he’d secretly watched on his laptop when his parents weren’t home. Sure, they were hetero vids, but it didn’t seem to be the women that turned him on. And in the showers at school he found himself surreptitiously taking in the male bodies lathering up beside him, and then found these images intruding into his jack-off fantasies. He’d usually been able to push these concerns into the background, until earlier that evening when the opportunity had presented itself with his best friend. Although Erik was the one who’d suggested they “whip it out” as he usually did, this time it went further, and they began to fondle each other, also at Erik’s suggestion. Ted discovered he was all too eager to participate. The feel of a male organ in his hand had sent his libido into overdrive and his cock into painful petrification

His brooding about Erik and the results of their sinfulinteraction gave him an idea. Maybe he could bunk at Erik’s. He pulled out his cell phone. At least Harold hadn’t thought of confiscating this!. He punched in Erik’s cell number and waited as it rang. Involuntarily his mind went to thoughts of what it would be like to sleep in the same bed as his j-o buddy. He couldn’t deny it had felt good to be with Erik physically, and he really liked his best friend as well.

“Hello?” came a voice at the other end of the line.

“Hey, Erik?” Ted asked.

“Yeah.”

“This is Ted. You sound funny, man. What’s wrong?”

“I’ll tell you what’s wrong. That fucking old man of yours called my folks and told them I was a fucking queer and that I had ruined you and we were both going to roast in hell forever!”

Ted stopped the swing he was sitting on “Oh, God!” Ted moaned as he silently cursed Harold. “I’m sorry. What did your parents say?”

“They told him to go to hell himself. Then they gave me the third degree about what happened. I told them we were just fooling around and your dad went off the deep end. I didn’t tell them we were doing it to each other. Just that we were messing around.”

“Did they buy it?” Ted asked, feeling like shit that his stepdad had acted like a complete asshole.