Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 08:30:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jo Jo <crossingboi2004@yahoo.com>
Subject: Wayward People Chap 4 "Holier Than Thou"

Disclaimer: The usual rules apply here. If you aren't legal in your area
to be reading material(non erotic, mind you) about homosexuals and the
activities they may or may not participate in, then please don't read.
This story has been copyrighted and is not to be used elsewhere in any
way without the express permission of the author (that would be me). For
everyone else, enjoy!


Wayward People 4



Chapter 4 "Holier Than Thou"



"Oh...."

Troy and I stared at each other.

He had just come out of his room and I had just come out of mine.

While I admit, I didn't look my best in the mornings, Troy on the other
hand looked absolutely stunning.

He looked even cuter with his shaggy brown hair ruffled up. And seeing
him in his sweats and tight fitting short sleeved tank top, proved that
he could be just as sexy with clothes on than without them.

For a moment, there was an awkward silence between us. I could only
imagine what was going through his mind. But me...I had so many things
going through my own mind, it was a little nerve-wrecking.

For one, now that it was a new day and time for people to start waking
up, I would have to face my family again. And after last night, I was
terrified of the thought.

When Troy and I arrived back at home, it was well after two in the
morning. I don't know what my parents were expecting, but it obviously
must not have been much, as they hadn't been waiting up for me when we
did get home. Even Max had been asleep. At least, I think he was
sleeping. I hadn't actually gone in to check on him last night. For all I
knew, he could still have been at Evan's.

"Morning," I managed to hack out of my groggy morning infected throat.

A small smile formed on Troy's mouth as he continued staring at me.

"Morning," he said.

I still didn't know what to do or even say. It was weird. Just yesterday
I had been angry enough with him to throw him out of the house. And
today, here he was in all his perfectly gorgeous glory.

It was like my fantasy was forming all over again. And I wasn't sure how
I was supposed to handle it.

"Sleep well?" I asked.

Troy glanced back behind him before replying.


"Yeah, thanks," he replied.

I found it a bit uncanny that we had both come out of our rooms at the
same time, symbolizing that we had also both awaken at the same time.

It was actually a bit exciting to think about.

But with everything else I was thinking about, the bit of happiness I had
felt quickly evaporated.

"So...uh, heading for the shower?" I asked.

"Well yeah," Troy replied glancing towards the bathroom door. "But I
could wait...I mean, if you want to-"

"No, go ahead," I replied.

After throwing him out, I figured it was one of the least of things I
could do for him. Even though it wasn't much.

The two of us stood staring at each other for a few more moments before
Troy moved past me to head for the towel closet.

I watched as he grabbed a wash off and a dry off towel and walked into
the bathroom.

I stood feeling a bit disoriented but turned to go back into my room. I
felt, slightly disconnected with the entire world somewhat. Like I didn't
know what to expect from here on out.


Unfortunately, I had been so lost in my own little dream world, that I
had all but forgotten about the rest of my family. Something I was
quickly reminded of once I saw the door to my parents' room open.

The first thought that popped into my head was to quickly jump into my
bed and pretend to be still asleep. But that wouldn't work, as I needed
to be up to get ready for school anyway. The second thought that popped
into my head was to hide in my closet and pretend like I hadn't found
Troy and come home last night. But of course, that wouldn't have worked
for several reasons.

So I just stayed seated on my bed and looked towards my door, waiting for
it to open and waiting for my mom or dad to come in and lecture me about
my actions yesterday.

I must have waited for nearly five minutes before I got up to see what
was going on. Troy was still in the bathroom. But Max's door was now wide
open and he was noticeably absent from it as well.

The door to my parents room was closed, but I knew that didn't mean
anything. It normally always was closed and I knew that I had seen it
opening earlier. And someone had to have come out. Both of my parents
needed to be getting ready for work right about now.

It wasn't until I smelled the slightly overpowering smell of cooking
bacon that I realized that my mom was up, and cooking like normally.

It struck me as strange that she would come out of her room and
altogether ignore that I was up. She had to have known. Besides the fact
that I was normally up at this time on the weekdays, my door had been
open. I always slept with it closed. Which meant if it was open, I was
up. And she hadn't come in to see me. In a way I was relieved. But I also
couldn't help feeling like my mom was waiting for something. I didn't
know what, but I knew she wasn't finished with me. She never passed up an
opportunity to scold me whenever I had done wrong. And throwing Troy out
had to be the worst thing I'd done so far, in her eyes.

I hated to think what was in store for me.

So to keep my mind off of it all, I decided to start getting ready for
school.

I was in the middle of ironing my clothes when I heard the shower stop
and Troy coming from out of the restroom.

As my door was open, I got another chance to see his gorgeous upper body
as he passed by my room. I made another mental note to try and get him
the weights Max mentioned.

Once Troy was situated in his room, I noticed the door to my parents'
room opening again. This time, it was my father dressed up in his work
suit with his tie and briefcase in hand.

I was so hoping that he'd be too busy to say anything to me.
Unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky.

"So, what time did you get in last night?" My dad asked.

He was still fumbling with getting his tie around his neck, looking into
the mirror on the side of my room.

"Pretty late," I replied trying to sound as not nervous as possible. "I
didn't wanna wake you."

"And what about Troy? Did the two of you make up?" he asked.

While Troy and I had talked a lot on the way back, neither of us really
'made up' per se.

"I guess," I replied.

"You know your mother's still pretty upset with you."

I stopped ironing temporarily and looked up.

"And you're not?"

My dad turned around to face me.


"Well I can't say that I really understand why you did it. But I know my
own son. Obviously something had to be wrong," he replied, smiling a
little.

I couldn't help the slight grin that grew on my own face.

"Would you mind passing that on to mom?"

"Just to give you a heads up, she's staying home from work today."

I found that odd. My mother never just took off of work. Unless she was
sick. But she wasn't sick.

"What?"

"Yeah," my dad stared, moving past me to head for the door. "Beware the
wrath of mom."

Oh I definitely didn't need to be warned of my mother's wrath. And for
that reason alone, I found myself even more nervous to face her than I
already was. But at least I could take comfort in the fact that it
appeared my father was no longer upset with me.

Obviously there was more to the story than I had told everyone. But in my
eyes, it was all over now. I had given Troy a second chance. Only, I knew
that as far as my brother and mother were concerned, I still had a lot of
explaining to do.

But I was going to avoid my mother for as long as possible. So once I
finished ironing my clothes, I set off to take as long of a shower as
possible. I knew that maybe I'd be able to avoid having to see my mother
this morning, but not really having a life outside school, she'd be home
when I got out.

Unfortunately, even though I set out to take a long shower, I really only
wound up showering a good ten minutes or so, which is about five minutes
longer than I normally spend in the shower.

I was downstairs by eight. I took the long way around to the kitchen
trying to work up something in my head to tell my brother and mom once
they started on me. The thing I sometimes hated about the two of them was
that even though something would be said as a joke sometimes, the way
they tag teamed me was a bit frustrating to say the least.

I was a bit relieved, however, to see that neither my brother or mom were
in the kitchen once I finally made my way in.

There was, like usual, a terrific looking and smelling meal set up on the
table. I rarely ate alone at home, and this was going to be the first
time in a while that I had.

I took a seat at the table, a bit cautiously. I kept expecting this to be
a gimmick and for either Max or my mom to pop out of nowhere demanding to
know exactly why I had thrown Troy out.


As I fixed my plate, more time passed, and I still was alone. A good five
or so minutes had passed and I was starting to grow completely relaxed at
the table before I heard someone coming down the stairs.

I immediately tensed back up, assuming trouble was coming.

In a way I was right. Because a few moments later, Troy was entering the
kitchen.

"Smells great," he smiled, looking at my plate of half gone food.

"Yeah well a minute later and it all would have been gone," I joked.

Not likely. I was a really light eater. I once went 36 hours without
eating a single thing. Which is about 36 more hours than I could say the
rest of my family or anyone else I knew could go without eating.

Troy smiled at me before walking over to the kitchen island where the
food was spread out and began fixing himself a plate.

"So I think I heard you and your dad talking earlier," he said.

I swallowed a piece of my breakfast roll and reached for the syrup on the
table.

"Yeah."

Troy continued to fix his plate.


"What did he say? Is he mad at us?"

I found Troy's choice of words to be amusing at best. Was he mad at 'us'?
Truthfully, if anyone was going to be mad at someone, then it would be
me. But at least Troy wasn't making this all about me and what I had
done.

"I don't think I have to worry about him so much as I do my mom," I
replied.

Troy joined me at the table, taking a seat across from me.

"Look, I'm sorry ahead of time for whatever problems my behavior is gonna
cause you," he said.

Most of me believed that he was. Yet, there was still this small part of
me that was unwilling to trust him. And that small part was just as heavy
in my mind as the rest.

It was probably also why I all of a sudden felt so unwilling to talk to
him. Troy made no attempts to say much himself once he started eating.
Thus, things remained relatively quiet among the two of us.

But I have to say, I'd have much rather been forced to endure Troy's
company for an eternity than have to put up with my mom when she was in
one of her 'moods', which was evident once I noticed her come into the
kitchen.

Apparently, she had been somewhere downstairs all this time, as I hadn't
seen or heard her come down the stairs.

But she was here now and I suddenly found myself eating a lot faster than
I had been before.

"Good morning boys," were her first words.

She said it a little stiffly, indicating that she had said it so as not
to be rude, not because she actually thought there was anything good
about this particular morning.

She had entered the kitchen and walked straight over to her now steaming
pot of coffee, poured herself a cup, and stared out the window.

She was wearing her slippers and bathrobe, indicating that she hadn't
bothered to get dressed yet.

Glancing at her, I could tell that she had a lot on her mind the way she
was just staring out the window over the sink. She was probably trying to
decide on what would be the most cruel and unusual punishment for me.

And after waiting for another couple of minutes, she finally turned
around to face Troy and I.

Obviously, Troy didn't see the harm in the situation, as he looked just
as calm and relaxed as ever. And why shouldn't he? After all, I threw him
out, not the other way around.

"So, who wants to tell me what happened between the two of you
yesterday?"

Somehow, I knew she was going to ask that. Troy had stopped chewing and
stared at his plate, not daring to look up.

I stared at Troy as I slowly turned my head towards my mom.

"Do we have to talk about it?" I asked. "It's over now."

"Yes, Micheal, but I'm just trying to figure out how it happened in the
first place," mom replied. "You don't just throw people out of your house
without having a valid reason for it."

Now Troy looked uncomfortable. He was probably wondering whether or not I
was going to mention what he had done to me.

I knew my mom wasn't gone to take the excuse I had somewhat given to her
during diner yesterday so I had to come up with a way to doge the topic
without looking like there was still a problem.


"Look mom, we had a misunderstanding but we talked about it, Troy and I,"
I looked over at Troy, who was still looking down at his plate. "We're
cool now."

My mom continued to stare at me like the Iron Judge that she was.

"A misunderstanding huh?" she asked.


"Yes."

I noticed her look briefly at Troy before she turned he attention back to
me.

"What kind of a misunderstanding?"

God, she was really pressing this. Troy looked as uncomfortable as I
felt. I knew neither one of us wanted to bring any of this up again, but
unfortunately for us, my mom did.

"Mom...."

"Micheal, I'm sure you think that everything is okay now that you and
Troy have had a chance to talk, but the fact still remains that you threw
him out in the first place," mom started.

I really didn't want to be hearing this right now.


"What's to stop you from doing it again, the next time you two get into
an argument? Obviously things have to be pretty bad for you to even
consider throwing someone out."

Well, they were.....but....

"Mom, Troy knows I'm sorry and it's never going to happen again so-"

"Micheal you're not getting it are you?"

Well apparently not.

"You threw someone out. Someone who had no place to go, no less!"

She was raising her voice now.

"And then when everyone got home, you said nothing. Not until we all
started talking about Troy. And then you just casually announced that
you'd thrown him out and that he'd been gone for hours!"

"Mom, I'm sorry! It's over!" I shouted.

I never really argued with my parents. Mostly because I didn't spend
enough time talking alone with either one of them for me to. And I got
great grades and was well behaved, so they never disciplined me much,
except for the occasional fights with Max. But basically, for me to be
shouting now.......I was angry.

"Lower your voice Micheal."


"Can I go now?" I asked, the edge in my voice still prevalent.

"Can you go now?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Absolutely not. I wanna know what would make my own son do something
so...rude!"

"Mrs. Carson, it was my fault!"

My mom and I both turned to face Troy who had now taken his eyes off of
his plate and was staring at my mother with bold determination.

"Micheal threw me out because of something I did to him......I'm sorry,"

My mom at first, looked a bit shocked. But she quickly regained her
composure and took a sip of her coffee.

I, however, hadn't recovered from my own shock of hearing Troy's words.
He had just defended me to my mother, which essentially meant that he was
putting himself directly in the line of fire when it came to my mothers
rage.

"Okay, so maybe it was your fault. That's still no excuse for what my son
did to you," mom spoke.

"Don't you want to know what happened?" Troy asked, a bit cautiously.

I watched my mom as she played with several ideas in her head for a few
moments before she finally responded.

"If were going to make this work, then the two of you are going to have
to get along," she replied, ignoring the question. "And I want to make
sure that whatever problems you were having are really gone."

"Mom....what are you-"


"I want the two of you to have a talk with Reverend Thomas after school
today."

Okay...what!

"Mom-"

"This isn't open for discussion, Micheal. You and Troy are to go directly
to the church after school today. I'll set up and appointment for the two
of you and inform the Reverend of the situation."

All of a sudden, I felt like I hated Troy again. This was his fault. If
he hadn't been such a jackass to me in the first place, then I wouldn't
have been forced to go have a chat with my good old fag hating preacher.

"Mom, please, we don't need to-"


"You will go see the Reverend and that's final. Am I understood?"

Troy and I exchanged glances.


"Yes."

Hell. That's what this day was shaping up to be. Complete hell.

Satisfied with herself and her obvious punishment for me, my mom took off
to wherever she'd come from in the first place, leaving Troy and I alone.

Troy looked a mixture of confused and nervous. He probably knew what I
already knew. That this whole thing was indeed his fault and that that
was the way it would definitely come out once I told Reverend Thomas all
about it.

Max coming into the kitchen a few seconds later forced the two of us to
stop staring at each other.


"So you did find him then," Max spoke.

From his tone, I could tell that he was still pissed at me. He had every
right to be. I did bail on him at Evan's without telling him where I was
going.

"Hey Troy," Max said, grabbing a piece of bacon, not even bothering to
say good morning to me.

Troy's slightly hesitant looked remained for a few more seconds before he
seemed to ease up, all the tension he was feeling leaving his body.

I was getting to see first hand exactly what Troy had said about him
being nervous around me. It was like, when he was around me, he was
so-so, but when he was around my brother or Evan, he was totally relaxed.

"So what did my mom say? Did she ground Mike?" Max asked.

"You know, I'm right here," I pointed out.

Max spared me a side glance before taking a seat at the table to dig into
his food.

Troy joined him, taking a seat across from him and the two began a
conversation about things that were way out of my league.

And I knew when I was not wanted. Which was pretty much at all hours of
the day.

So I decided to go back up to my room and finish getting ready for
school. It wasn't like there was all that much that needed to be done. It
normally only took me about forty five minutes to get ready for school,
less than that if I took my showers the night before.

But today I had been a little off the entire morning. So I was and had
been ready. Ready to leave and just get away from everything. Sure,
occasionally I felt lonely at school. I'd look at all the popular kids,
and even some of the more nerdier kids with all their friends, happy and
laughing. And I'd wish that I could at least have one friend. But then I
remembered just why it was that I didn't have any friends, and knew that
for the most part, it was my fault. It takes initiative on a persons part
in order to start some kind of relationship. They way I'd always seen it
though, it went both ways. I always imagined that whenever I got friends,
it would be because they talked to me first. And I imagine a lot of kids
in the world felt that way.

It didn't matter anyway though. I was the one who was friendless, and had
been all my life. And by now, I'd learned to get used to it. It was also
when my affinity for writing grew even more. I lived vicariously through
the stories that I wrote.

But when all the talk of Troy first started, it was when I started to
become hopeful again. And I'd done more than hope. I'd actually come out
of my proverbial shell a little more. I had this idea in my head that
Troy and I would become best friends and maybe even more given time. But,
of course, none of that happened.

And why?

Because of Troy.

I understood when he told me it was going to take him some time to get
used to me. I was just hoping that it would have happened right away.

Only, given what Troy had done to me, most of me still wasn't completely
ready to let my guard down when it came to him. Especially now that the
both of us had to go talk with Reverend Thomas, after school.

It was something I don't think I'd ever be ready for. It was also
something I didn't think I was ever going to have to do. But thanks to
Troy, it was now going to be happening, and I just hoped that things
would go well.

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

Things at school had thus been completely and utterly unlike how they
usually went. Normally, I showed up and went into invisible mode. Even my
freaking teachers ignored me. Occasionally I saw Max, but that was only
when he went out of his way to find me because all of our classes were no
where near each other.

The exception to the day to day humdrum had been the previous week when
uber jock Evan the asshole had decided to pick me to be the unlucky
subject of his so called wrath. Of course, Max stuck up for me like the
caring younger brother that he was and that had basically been the end.
Up until Troy came along and stirred things up between Evan and I yet
again. Still though, just as soon as a problem with him had come up, it
was like Evan forgot about me for the time being. And I knew just as well
as everyone else at school that as long as Evan had forgotten about me,
so would they.

Today, however, was different.

People were paying attention to me. And not in a good way at all. Some
people blatantly stared at me with looks of semi disgust and
bewilderment, no doubt the first time any of them actually noticed me.
Some people pointed at me, as if to make sure that I was the one that was
actually on the end of some joke I had yet to realize. And others
whispered things to each other. Rumors....I don't know.

The whole thing was just disturbing and I had no clue why all of a sudden
I seemed to be the only person anyone in school actually noticed, a far
cry from the norm.

Troy, who surprisingly had stayed by my side since the minute we arrived
at school, probably out of a feeling of obligation to make things right,
didn't seem to notice the attention I was getting. And why would he? This
was only his third day of school here so I really didn't think he knew
just how unusual it was for people to be looking in my direction.

But as soon as third period ended and I noticed Evan coming our way did I
get my answer as to why I was everyones new favorite shiny thing to look
at.

"Hey Troy," Evan greeted, pet Andrew at one side and Sienna at another.

A slight crowd of people began to form, like always, around and behind
the three most popular students in school and things grew noticeably more
quieter in the halls, something I was quick to pick up on.

"Evan, what's up man," Troy replied, a smile growing on his face.

Andrew seemed to have this smug little look on his face as he stared at
me. He was quiet and not laughing, weird for an idiot like him.

Sienna on the other hand, seemed to be studying me with this unnervingly
thoughtful expression that I wished would go away.

"So are you okay? I mean, I can't believe he threw you out," Evan
replied, making himself somewhat comfortable by leaning on a row of
lockers behind him.

I was growing more and more uncomfortable with the situation. It was bad
enough with Evan and his entourage here, but the subject matter......the
whole thing seemed to be like something in a show or movie. The calm
before the storm I guess.

Troy flashed me a side glance while he scratched his head without
thought.

"Yeah....that was ah.."

"Fucking stupid! What kind of moron are you anyway, Carson?" Evan asked,
incredulously.

"Hey, come on man, it's over-with now," Troy said, half-hearted.

"Doesn't change the fact that it happened in the first place," Evan
replied.

"Yeah, I mean, everyone loves you man. No one likes YOU, Carson," Andrew
added.

"Evan..." Troy spoke.

Troy was a difficult person to understand, something that I was starting
to realize as I watched his half assed attempt to defend me. After
attending school with the likes of Evan all my life, I pretty much
understood what to when it came to him, which was to ignore him. But when
he'd done so last week, pretty much the first time I'd actually come into
immediate contact with him, something had possessed me to at least try to
stand up for myself.

And now, I wasn't saying anything. I wanted to hate Troy for not sticking
up for me but I realized that that was the only thing I could not blame
him for.

I was the only person who could stick up for me. If I actually wanted to
stick up for myself, that is.

"You know, after I told everyone about how much of a flake you were for
throwing Troy out, I don't know...I guess they all agreed with me," Evan
said, grinning a menacing grin.

So that was why everyone had been acting so strangely. They, like Evan,
saw Troy as someone utterly fascinating and probably hated the fact that
he was even hanging around the likes of myself.

I wasn't sure why I'd actually put it past Evan to tell the school about
my error in judgment. He was just that miserable of a person and I was
finally starting to understand just how miserable he was.

And Troy was his friend.

"Uh, I'll see you in class Troy," I said meekly as I started to back
away.

"Oh where's the little pussy fag going? To get his brother to stick up
for his fagot ass?" Andrew laughed.

A few other people laughed as well while Evan looked amused with his best
friends comment.

"Better watch out at home Troy, this fag might be scamming on you when
you're not looking," Evan laughed.

"Alright that's enough," Sienna spoke.

I turned back around looking as shocked as everyone else.

"Can we just go? I'm bored now," she replied.

Evan looked between his girlfriend and then me before responding.

"Alright. Troy, you coming man?" he asked.

Troy looked around at everyone's faces before turning his look to me. I
already knew what his answer was going to be.

"Yeah...sure," he replied, a bit unevenly.

Evan and Andrew walked off with satisfied looks on their faces while
everyone else went back to either ignoring me or staring and pointing.

I was once again alone. And while normally such a thing wouldn't bother
me as much, with Troy being the way he was, it was definitely bothering
me.

He said he was going to try. Try and be the person that I had hoped he'd
be. And stupidly, I believed him and allowed him to come back to stay
with us. And there was no undoing the decision I had made now.

Even if I was more than starting to regret it.

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

I saw little of Troy as the day progressed. I wasn't sure if that was a
good thing or a bad thing but at this point, I honestly didn't care.
Sure, Troy and I shared all the same classes, but I also shared most of
my classes with Evan, the guy Troy had been with pretty much the rest of
the day.

I couldn't even take comfort in the fact that the school day was almost
over and that soon I'd be home because the truth was, I wouldn't. Because
as soon as the last bell rang, Troy and I would have to report to the
damn church. A doomsday event in itself.

My misery was only reinforced once the final bell actually rang. I tried
to move as slowly as possible. I tried lots of things to stall. I even
went to my locker pretending like I had a reason to be there. That was
when I got a visit from someone I'd never think would.


"Hey."

Turning to my side, I was shocked to see Sienna standing next to me.
Without Evan or any of her cheerleader friends.

"Uh..."

"Don't worry, I didn't come to bother you," she said.

She was wearing her cheerleading outfit which told me that she was
probably about to go to practice. Which also told me that she was
forgoing practice for the time being to talk to me of all people.

What a concept.

"Oh," I replied, turning back to my locker wondering if her being here
had a point.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry, again, about Evan," Sienna replied.
"I know that he can be a little cruel sometimes."

"Which poses the question, why are you his girlfriend?" I asked.

There was something about Sienna that made me just feel like saying what
was on my mind to her. Granted, before the day at the park, we'd never
talked before. But when we did talk, I didn't feel as shy to talk to her
as I normally felt around other people.

I noticed Sienna shuffle a bit, probably trying to shrug off the
question.


"I'm sorry," I found myself saying as I turned to her completely. "That
was rude."

"It's okay," Sienna replied, smiling a bit. "It's not like I haven't
asked myself that same question before."

She seemed a little lost in thought as I watched her stare blankly past
me.

"I know that it seems hard to believe or understand, but Evan is a good
person. I've known him for a really long time.....he's just...."

"A jackass?" I said.

Sienna smiled.


"Sometimes," she replied.

And then the two of us stared at each other, probably wondering what to
do or say next.

"Well, I have to get to practice," Sienna finally said. "I guess I'll see
you around."

"Yeah, sure," I replied.

It was weird how I got the feeling that she had more she wanted to say or
ask me but didn't. It was also strange how I actually wanted to talk to
her again.

My inner feeling of warmth quickly disappeared once I saw Evan and Troy
making their way towards me.

I, thinking on my feet, shut my locker quickly and began to briskly walk
down the hallway in an effort to pretend like I hadn't saw them when the
three of us knew that I had.

I kept going until I was outside at the car.

Max was at swim practice again so I didn't need to worry about finding
him. It was just Troy that I had to wait on.

I didn't have to wait long though because a few minutes later I spotted
Troy waving goodbye to Evan and making his way over to me.

"Hey, I saw you in the hallway," he said. "Didn't you see me."

"No," I lied, getting into the car.

Troy climbed into the passenger side of the car and shut the door.

"Sorry about earlier....just...Evan's my friend you know?" Troy spoke.

"Right, he's your friend, not your housemate. You know, someone you see
at school for a few hours rather than every day all day for the rest of
the year. Someone who knows more about you than I do!" I found myself
shouting as I started the car.


"Wait a second, I thought we got all this out of the way yesterday when-"

"When you lied and said that you'd try not to be as big of a jackass as
Evan. Right, I remember," I replied.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Troy staring at me with an
incredulous look on his face, probably wondering where all this was
coming from.


"I'm not the one being difficult here, Mike," he said. "I stayed with
you-"


"I'm not some stupid little kid that needs you to babysit me. You didn't
have to stay with me,"

"But I did. Because you and I agreed that I was going to try and get
along with you better!"

"Up until you get around Evan and the rest of the popular crowd and
suddenly you see me as the laughable fag that they do!"

"I never called you-"

"God, you just aren't getting it are you Troy?" I said.

"Apparently not," Troy mumbled, crossing his arms and sitting back.

Well he could tell it to the reverend as far as I was concerned because I
wasn't saying anything else to him until we got there.

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

It occurred to me while I was in the car that I didn't even have to go to
the church and talk to the reverend. If I wanted to, I could have got
Troy to agree that we had saw him and tell that to my mother once we got
home. But just as quickly as the crazy thought had entered my head did it
also occur to me that with my mother being the beacon of the church and
the community, she'd find out one way or another that we hadn't gone. She
found out everything.

Still though, it didn't make me feel any better once we were actually
inside the church and waiting for what was sure to be time wasted that
I'd never be able to get back.

"Troy...Micheal, I've been expecting you for a little while now,"
Reverend Thomas spoke as he led us back to his office.

It was strange. Even thought we were inside a church, with the dark
corridors that led back to Reverend Thomas's office, I felt somewhat like
I was being led into the fiery abyss. Or at least some kind of a trap.

"Have a seat," Reverend Thomas said, motioning for us to have a seat in
front of the two large chairs in front of his desk.

Once Troy and I sat down, I made a point to move my chair far enough away
from the Reverend and Troy for my own selfish reasons.


"I know I said I wanted to chat with you earlier but that was before your
mother told me what happened Michael," Reverend Thomas spoke. "Now it's
more important than ever."

"With all due respect sir, Mike and I got everything out of the way when
we talk yesterday so if you could just talk to us about whatever it is
you wanted to talk to us about before....."

"Well Troy, before I just wanted to welcome you to the community,"
Reverend Thomas replied. "And tell you a little bit about the church. You
know, the church is a very important figure in this community and impacts
everyone's lives that attend."


"Yes, well I'm quite sure that it is," Troy replied modestly.


"I always used to like to think that the teachings here would have some
impact into the lives of our teenagers...but apparently, the message
hasn't been reaching everyone the way it should be," Reverend Thomas made
a point to look in my direction.

Troy looked over at me too.


"I know what I did was wrong. It's called a mistake, we all make them
Reverend Thomas," I spoke up in my defense.


"Yes, the bible points that out clearly," Reverend Thomas replied. "It
also says that one can be led astray by the devil very easily."


"You think that I was led astray somehow?" I asked.


"I didn't say that Micheal...you have to understand....what you did, was
a very big...mistake in the eyes of God."

So I'd heard.

Then again, people got kicked out every day and I hadn't heard about any
of them getting struck by lightning and shucked straight down to hell
yet.

"Sir, Mike and I-"

"Are just two teenagers who had a misunderstanding," Reverend Thomas
said. "I understand that."

"Well if you understand it then what are we here for?" Troy asked.


I looked over at Troy who seemed to be getting more and more upset. I
hadn't exactly brought up religion with him because I hadn't gotten a
chance yet. But it was obvious to me that Troy didn't go to church. And I
could see that being here now was agitating him. He probably felt like I
did. Like this was a huge waste of time. The only difference was, unlike
me, I don't think Troy had a problem expressing that with Reverend
Thomas.

"What I'm trying to do today is to just smooth out the rough edges
between the two of you. Maybe understand the events that led up to you
getting thrown out Troy."

"Here's the thing though Reverend," Troy started, his voice getting a
little louder. "We've already gotten this all out the way. I really don't
feel like bringing it up again."

"Have you gotten it out of the way?"

Troy and I exchanged knowing glances.


What happened yesterday...before....it was just a misunderstanding
between a guy at school and I," I said. "Troy's new here so he doesn't
really know exactly how I can tolerate and who I can't.

I don't know why I was saying this. Or exactly what I was saying. I sort
of felt like as long as the Reverend got the basic gist of what happened,
he'd think he understand and leave it alone.


"Words were said-"


"What kind of words Michael?"

"Accusations....some people were calling me names..."

"Names?"

The guy certainly was a nosy little fuck, wasn't he?

"I don't know...."

"They were calling him a fag," Troy replied. "And...I just joined right
along with them because...I don't know...I got scared."

"Well, throwing around vile homosexual jargon would rattle anyone up now
wouldn't it?" Reverend Thomas spoke.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Troy asked, edge evident in his tone.

"Relax Troy, no one is assuming anything. I think we all know that being
a homosexual is horrible and against everything God set up for our
lives," Reverend Thomas spoke.


"Says who?" Troy asked.

Reverend Thomas flashed me a brief look then looked back at Troy.

"Troy, it's in the bible that-"


"Oh...you pull that shit out of a damn book, now do you?"

"Troy, that language-"

"Let me tell you something Reverend, being gay isn't wrong because it
can't be helped. I can understand if people choose to be gay but since
they don't, I don't really see it as being all that wrong."

Where was all the gay talk coming from? I didn't know where, but I was
starting to feel really uncomfortable.


"Son, I think you got the wrong idea about-"


"No I get it. You're a bigot. Which is understandable since you're a
preacher and all. But what if you found out one day that your son or
brother or someone was gay. What would you do then?"

"I think we should talk about why you got thrown out-"

"Answer the question!"

Reverend Thomas looked highly upset as did Troy.

"I believe were done here," Reverend Thomas said after an intense staring
session between himself and Troy.

"Yeah, me too," Troy replied. "As long as we don't understand each other,
I guess that means we don't have to have any more little heart to hearts
now do we?"

Troy stood up and I followed suit, still feeling very shaken by the whole
exchange.

Troy and I walked out the door to the office and Troy turned around to
shut the door.


"Oh..see ya Sunday," he said.

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

Copyright 2005