Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 11:15:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: Virtual Insanity <virtualinsanity78@yahoo.com>
Subject: Summer of Change 2

Okay, this is not a story with a whole lot of sex.  Some will come in here
and there, but it is not the central theme.  It's a story about love
between men and self-acceptance, kinda like all of my stories are.

If you're under 18 or 21 or whatever, be aware that in some odd corner of
the universe, you could possbly be breaking the law.

If you like anything of mine, please e-mail me at
virtualinsanity78@yahoo.com and I will be very grateful to you and a lot
more likely to write faster updates. If you don't like what I write, keep
it to yourself. :-)

**************************************************************************

				 Part Two

	No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get out of it.  My mom and
dad were not even trying to hear everything that I had to say about working
for gays over the summer.  My mom had actually gone on to lecture me about
tolerance and diversity and some shit like that, like I was wrong for not
wanting to spend the summer being taught some fucked up lesson about gays.

	The thing what sucked the most about it was that I hadn't even laid
a fist on that kid Skit and I was gonna have to pay with my whole entire
summer!  Still, I was gonna get paid fifty bucks a day and that wasn't all
that bad considering they only needed me to work like four hours a day on
most days.

	So, I got the go ahead from Morgan to wear jeans the next day at
work and after I watched my mom give me curious looks all through
breakfast, I got in my car to go down to the gay antique shop, as I had
come to think of it.  I mean Misti was cool and I'd probably be helping her
out for most of the day, at least that's what I'm assuming because I don't
think Morgan wants me around all that much.  Just the one day I spent with
him made me immediately figure out that he was doing this thing under
duress.  But I really didn't care because I didn't want to be a part of it
either and the second I got back to West Central in the fall, I was
planning to show Skit Tyler exactly what I thought of him.

	I parked behind the store where they told me to park the day before
and went inside the back door, which was a lot better than going in the
front with the grand staircase and all of that.  Misti wasn't there yet,
her work room looked the same as it had when I left the day before, so I
walked around looking for open doors.  From what I could figure out about
the place, it seemed like Paul spent most of his time in the store itself,
helping customers and overseeing that kind of thing with the help of three
kids from the art school, probably a bunch of gays, too.  Morgan was more
of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy.  He worked on the business side of
things, looking for new products, working with vendors and doing the
accounting and financial part.

	I spotted Morgan in a back room piled high with what seemed like a
bunch of junk to me.  He was high up on a ladder searching for something.
I took a deep breath and walked in.

	"I can help with that," I said quickly and he glanced around at me,
his gaze hardening slightly.  I went to the base of the ladder and held it
firmly, determined to stand my ground.  Even if he didn't like me, he was
my boss and we were going to be working with each other for the entire
summer.

	"Thanks," he said gruffly and went back to searching the piles.  He
found what he was looking for after awhile and he started to climb down. I
waited at the bottom until he was safely down, then stepped back.  He was
holding what looked like some kind of iron mask.  It was almost black with
rust.  I looked away from it and back up at him.  I didn't know what to
say.

	"Paul's in the front of the store," Morgan said, his eyes still on
me.  "I'm sure he needs help with something."  He looked down at his mask
and walked away, dismissing me.  I stood there fuming for a second and then
turned and walked away, out of the door to find my way to the front of the
store.

	I had no sooner found my way to the front of the Cinderella
staircase when someone smacked into me on the other side.  I reeled for a
minute, then took a look.  Fuck!

	Skit Tyler.

	Ms. Deneghy really had it in for me.  Never was I gonna do another
fucking favor for her ever again.  I stood there in shock for a minute.
The kid had dyed his hair purple over the last few weeks or so and he wore
one of those tight, spandex shirts with lots of zippers and holes in wierd
places.  Underneath it he had on a white t-shirt and he had on a pair of
those bondage pants that were so big on him that they looked like they were
gonna fall off, but they weren't.

	"Shit," I said loudly and Skit was standing there looking at me
with wide eyes like he was just as shocked as I was.

	"What are you doing here?" he asked in a tiny voice, shutting his
eyes in horror.  "I stopped, Eric, I swear I stopped.  I don't even glance
in your direction!"

	I stared at him for a long second.  He was afraid of me.  I had
figured that much towards the last months of the school year when he
stopped looking at me completely.  I knew he didn't want me up in his face
again, that's the reason why I had done the whole thing in the first place,
just to get the guys off of my back about it.

	"I work here," I said gruffly, moving away from him.  "What the
fuck are you doing here?"

	His blue eyes sliced into me.

	"I'm here for a summer program," Skit said, his voice kind of
shaking, too.  "I guess I kind of work here, too."

	Just my luck.  Hell, it wasn't luck, it was fucking Deneghy.

	"Just stay out of my way," I told him and walked around him.  I had
taken no more than two or three steps when this tall kid came out of the
main part of the store where I was headed and went straight for Skit.

	"Skit," he called out exuberantly and curious, I turned to see them
meet up.  The guy was older than both of us, probably one of the college
kids that worked there.  He was tall, but pretty lanky and thin.  He had
long hair that looked dyed black, hanging around his shoulders.  When he
reached Skit, he scooped him up off the ground in a big hug,
laughing. Skit's face had broken out into a huge smile and I stood there,
feeling sucker punched.

	Underneath all of the bondage gear and hair dye, Skit was a pretty
good-looking kid.  I pushed the thought away as soon as it came at me.  I
was not going down that road, to start thinking about shit I didn't want to
think about.  That's the way I handled wierd thoughts, I just stopped
thinking them.  But I still watched as the tall kid swung Skit around in a
circle, cracking up laughing.

	"What's going on, baby?" the guy asked and Skit was laughing and
blushing.  I turned away, practically sick to my stomach.  Was this the
kind of thing I was gonna have to endure for the whole summer?  A bunch of
fucking queers hugging and laughing all over the place?

	I turned and walked into the main part of the store and caught Paul
eyeing me quietly.  He quickly smiled at me and waved me over to the
counter he was behind.  I managed a smile back and walked over to him.
When I glanced over my shoulder, it was to see that the tall kid had Skit
by the hand and they were disappearing around the staircase, going in the
direction I had just come from.

	"Hey, Eric, how are you this morning?" Paul asked and I shrugged.
He was smiling at me as he lined up some small trinkets on the counter.  I
watched him quietly, the fluid movement of his hands and the way his eyes
danced.  He was a generally happy guy but it was glaringly obvious that he
was gay.

	"How are you?" I asked, remembering to be polite at the last
minute.

	"Good, I have a huge job for you," he told me and eyed me up and
down quietly.  "I don't know if its a one-man job or if you'll need help."

	"I can handle it, I'm sure," I said quickly.  I didn't want to be
bothered with having to be around someone, making small talk and trying to
ignore the fact that everyone around could very well be gay.

	"There's a van out back in the employee lot full of some things
Morgan and I picked up when we were up north two days ago," Paul said.  "We
haven't had time to unload any of it.  Sheena, can you show Eric here the
loading room?"  Paul called out to a girl I hadn't even seen, a Hispanic
girl crouched low on the ground by a rack of metal pans.  She popped up and
smiled at me.  I never did all that well with girls.

	"Okay," Sheena said.

	"Here are the keys," Paul said.  "You can drive, right?"

	I nodded.

	"Well, you can pull the van around to the dock and unload
everything.  That room is kind of chaotic right now, but maybe sometime
later in the week, you and I can go back there and clear it out," Paul
suggested and I nodded, glad to get down to the whole work part of
everything.

	I took the keys and followed Sheena.

	"Your name's Eric right?" she asked and I nodded.  "I'm Sheena.
I've been working here for like three years now.  I've got one more year at
Kendall before I finish my art degree."

	She was tall for a girl with long, curly dark hair and huge,
piercing dark eyes.  She was extremely thin, a small wind could have
knocked her over and she dressed the way all of the kids around here seemed
to dress...artsy.  She had on dark jeans and polka dot leg warmers and a
red sweater with suspenders.  I eyed the whole thing distastefully.  If she
wore something like that to West Central, she would get ragged on right
away.

	"You'e not Paul and Morgan's usual type," she told me when she had
led me to the loading room.  I shook my head.  Since we were out in the
open about it, I just said what was on my mind.

	"Is everybody here gay?" I asked and she laughed.

	"No," she said, a wide grin on her face.  "There are some lesbians,
too."  She had fixed her dark eyes on me and I knew I looked trapped.  I
just smiled.

	"Are you one?" I asked and she nodded.

	"Yep, Paul and Morgan are very active in gay and lesbian community
organizations around here," she informed me.  "They usually recruit their
employees there and run summer programs with the art school through high
school GSAs."

	"What's a GSA?" I asked.

	"Gay Student Association," she said quickly.  "Sometimes its GLSA
or GLTSA or GLBTSA, whatever, its all the same.  Gay, lesbian, bi,
transgendered."

	"So, everybody here is one of those?" I asked.

	"No," she informed me.  "Majority, I would say, are, but Misti's
not and there's Mario and Rafe and Scottie who play soccer for Grand Valley
State.  They work here part-time, too, and they are extremely hetero...but
they're cool."

	I sighed in relief.

	"When do they come in?" I asked hopefully.

	"In a few hours," she said.  "They come in whenever they feel like
it really, but they work hard when they're here."  They sounded like my
kind of guys.

	"So, what are you?" she asked, eyeing me quizzically.

	"Huh?" I asked and she put a hand on her hip.

	"Are you gay?" she asked and I gaped at her, shook my head
confidently.

	"Nope," I told her emphatically.  "I'm straight."

				***
	I had moved all the stuff in from the van in less than two hours
and I was standing around hesitating to go back out into the store.  But I
knew that I had to, so I left the now crowded loading room and went back
into the back hall, walking down its long length and knowing that I would
run into some more work sooner or later.

	I hadn't even made it all the way down the hall when I spotted Skit
and the tall kid drooling all over each other.  The kid has his arms around
Skit's waist and was pressing his forehead against Skit's.  I felt
something lurch in my stomach, so I looked away, but I could hear
everything they were saying.

	"Let me kiss you," the guy was saying to Skit and I just felt a
flash of something inside of me.  God.  I had to get out of this place!

	"No, Drew, I told you," Skit said in a plaintive voice.  I didn't
even try to walk past them.  I didn't want them to spot me.

	"Fuck that guy, whoever he is," Drew said.  "I've been wanting you
for like two years."

	"You're too old for me," Skit told him.

	"Bullshit, I'm eighteen."  Damn, he looked older.

	"I don't even turn fifteen for like three weeks," Skit reminded him
and Drew groaned.

	"You're gonna let three weeks stop us?" he asked and Skit giggled.

	"You're crazy, I like you, Drew, but not like that," Skit told him
and started to pull away, but Drew hauled him up and buried his face in
Skit's neck.

	"It'll feel good, I promise," Drew told him in a slow way and I
could feel Skit on the verge of relenting.  It was thick in the air.  No!

	Just when Drew's mouth was hovering near Skit's, Paul's voice came
out of nowhere.

	"No fratrenizing on store property."

	Drew let Skit drop carefully back onto his feet and they both were
looking at Paul.  Then, Paul's eyes travelled down the hall to spot me.  I
stood still.

	"What are you doing lurking back there?" Paul asked and I started
walking forward.  Skit's blue eyes crashed into me.  He was pale with
fright.

	"Didn't wanna interrupt 'em," I said.  "I - uh - finished unloading
the van."

	Paul watched me for a moment, then gestured to Misti's work room.

	"Misti requested your assistance moving some furniture," he told me
and I slid gratefully in that direction.

	By the time I got to Misti, though, I was shaking and I felt like
my world was tilted on its access.  I did everything I could to hide it,
though.  I hated not being in control of the way I felt.  I like things to
remain calm and I liked to understand every emotion.  This whirling,
gripping sensation in my stomach was driving e crazy.

	"Hey, Misti," I said and she looked up from a huge roll of fabric.

	"Eric, babe, you are just what I need," she exclaimed, dropping her
work and coming to grab me by the arm.  She led me off to the side of the
room where a bunch of chairs, a couch and some old dressers were standing.

	"I want to move this stuff so that I can work on each piece," she
told me.  "I just want them spaced well enough apart that I can begin work
on them. The dressers will have to be stripped and the original woodwork
restored so that means I'll have to do them on the dock when everything is
clear so that I don't fill the place with fumes."

	"Okay," I said, not really paying her much attention.  I unhooked
myself from her and went over and started unloading the chairs, moving them
strategically away from each other so that she could get at them easily
enough.  My mind was back there in the hall, with Drew mauling Skit.

	A minute or so after I started, Misti came to stand near me.

	"Are you alright?" she asked, quizzically and I looked over at her
briefly before going to get the next chair.

	"Yeah," I grunted lightly and she stood for a little while longer
peering at me as I worked.  Then, she turned back to her fabric.  I sighed
with relief, glad that she wasn't going to try to question me.  I really
didn't know what I'd tell her because I really didn't know what I felt.  I
didn't wanna know.

				***

	I woke up in a cold sweat the next morning.  I had dreamed the same
thing over and over again in my sleep.  It was the hallway scene with Drew
and Skit...only Drew was nowhere to be found and I was the one with Skit in
my arms...and Skit wasn't telling me no.

*****************************************************************************
To be continued.......................virtualinsanity78@yahoo.com

I am Virtual Insanity and my other Nifty stories are:
Wade and Christian - high school 2004
The Prick - high school 2004
Mannie the Marine - military 2004