Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2005 19:21:44 -0800 (PST)
From: Jo Jo <crossingboi2004@yahoo.com>
Subject: Wayward People Chap.9-"Reverend Hypocrite"

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


Chapter 9 "Reverend Hypocrite"


"And the lord said let them do as I have said unto them to do."

Maybe it was me.

"They shall come together as man and as wife."

That might have been the reason why Dylan felt the need to just up and
leave.

"But sadly, today the times have changed."

I didn't even get a chance to ask him anything, and that was a week ago.
I still knew next to nothing about Troy.

"We live in a time where you see constant tragedy."

Still practically had a stranger living in my house.

"Rapidly deteriorating times, indeed..."

And then I still had to make things right with Pete if I was going to
ever hope to be his-"

"Men lying together with men. And let me tell you something about
that-"

Again? Again with the homosexuality speech? You'd think it'd be getting
old by now.

And what the hell did he think he knew about homosexuality anyway?

As a preacher, I'm sure he'd made it his life's mission to stay away
from any and all homosexuals. So really, he had no idea what he was
talking about.

Not that I was saying that I could do a better job. How much was there to
say about being gay anyway?

"And when they're all burning in hell-"

God, this man sure was funny.

"Well...let's all bow our heads and say one final prayer," Reverend
Thomas spoke.

And another thing....why'd we have to pray so much? Once or twice is
enough. But this was going to make the fifth time today.....

"Hand..." my mom spoke, taking my left hand.

Troy was sitting next to me on the right and I took his hand.

Was this a cult?

"Heavenly father, please..."

And my mind drifted away.

Where was Pete?

I wanted to look around but I had to pretend like I was praying right
now.

I opened my eyes and looked around anyway. I noticed Troy was just
staring up at Reverend Thomas, not even bothering to pretend like he was
praying like I had been doing.

"Troy..." I whispered.

Troy looked over at me slightly before looking back at the stage.

He didn't say anything but he looked upset.

I remembered that Troy had told me that he and his family weren't really
churchgoing people before he came here, but it did seem like he was
putting forth honest effort in coming each week with us.

Granted, there had been that incident with Reverend Thomas way back when,
and even though Troy had handled the situation quite radically, he
hadn't seemed all that affected by it.

Until now.

Now he was practically glaring at Reverend Thomas.

And I wanted to know why.

"Troy," I attempted again.

I could feel the grip my mother had on my hand tightening, which was her
way of telling me to be quiet.

I just looked back over at him as he quickly bowed his head, as did I, to
pretend they'd been that way all along once the prayer was done.

"Amen."

I raised my head up.

"Michael what was so important you had to be so rude as to talk during
the prayer?" my mother asked me, first thing.

I knew she was gonna ask me that, so I already had an answer prepared.

"I lost grip of Troy's hand for a minute," I replied.

Because we all know a prayer loses it's power if you aren't holding
hands like in an AA meeting sing along.

"Oh...well don't let it happen again, alright," my mother replied,
standing up.

Lying in church again.

I almost felt bad until I remembered that normal teenagers did it all the
time. I was just now getting around to the whole `normal' thing.

My mom did what she usually did and was off to go chat with some people.
It was weird how everyone in the family, right down to second generation
cousins, was a lot more social than I was.

I was working on that though.

"So he seemed pretty...focused today," Troy started.

I noticed him looking up at Reverend Thomas, who was chatting with
someone.

"Yeah well, informing the masses about the evils of all that is gay and
unholy has always been his thing," I replied.

Although, it definitely seemed to be his thing today.

"Yeah..." Troy replied, sounding just oh so bitter.

Then he turned to me with a different focus.

"So you....have you been feeling okay the past week?" he asked.

Given the way he was acting today, that was probably a question I should
have been asking him.

Over the past week, however, Troy and I had been...mostly getting along.
He still wasn't telling me anything about him, but I had since learned
how to deal with that.

I just had to treat Troy like anyone else. I had to forget about him
being Evan Parker's new best friend. I had to forget about all the
things he'd done to me since he'd arrived, and I had had to forget
about what I'd done to him.

Troy would tell me some things about himself when he was ready, I
realized that now. Really actually and fully realized it.

I finally noticed where Pete was and realized that now was as good a time
as any to talk to him.

What about, I wasn't sure, but I knew that we had to talk.

Why was it that people always had to `talk?' I never had to do this
type of thing before. I wasn't looking forward to it though.

I knew that Pete was still pissed at me.

He showed it to me throughout the week in various ways.

I was almost afraid to approach him and probably would have been had he
not been more of a good person.

But still, I approached him anyway.

"Hey..." I started.

I put on a slight smile as I got nearer to him, but I noticed he didn't
look all that happy to see me.

"You figure out whatever it was you needed to figure out yet" he asked,
as he loosened the tie around his neck.

"Pete, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry," I replied. "I get why
you're angry with me."

"Mike, I'm not angry with you...I'm just...frustrated," he replied.

We stopped talking as we allowed a few people to cut between us to get to
the back.

We were both standing on the far right towards the front where basically
no one was, but I knew we couldn't exactly talk here. Not the right way
anyway.

"Come on," I spoke, leading Pete towards the back.

"What? Where are we going?" he asked.

The only reason I knew there even was a back was from that doomed talk
Troy and I had to have with Reverend Thomas.

I guess the `back' was supposed to be his well kept secret.

I didn't say anything until Troy and I were standing at the end of the
hall right in front of a large stained glass window, where the sun was
beaming through.

"You have to understand that this is all new for me," I started.
"I've never....had somebody care about me like.....they wanted to date
me."

Pete's look changed significantly. He was back to looking concerned for
me, but at the same time like a doting lover of some sort.

"This is kind of new to me too, you know," he replied, a slight smile
of his face. "I mean, before this I was dating girls."

"And now?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You want to date me but what if I'm not ready to call myself.......I
mean, my parents-"

"Yeah....my parents don't know anything about me either," Pete replied.
"But I kind of have a new outlook on life."

There he went again with his `new outlook' attitude. I wasn't sure
what that was supposed to mean. Maybe Pete knew more than he was telling
me.

"And Troy? What about what he and Evan keep telling me about you?"

"Ever heard of jealousy?" Pete replied. "And I think in Evan's case,
some people are just born psychopaths."

I guess I would have found that funny if I hadn't been stuck on the
first thing he'd said.

What exactly did Troy have to be jealous of? There wasn't anything
special about me, physically. So I knew Troy, if I was going to go and
get ahead of myself, couldn't be interested in me.

And it wasn't like Troy and I were all that close, so he couldn't be
feeling threatened.

I didn't know what to think, which just further proved that I really
didn't know Troy at all.

I knew I shouldn't have been listening to Evan though, and I felt stupid
for ever doubting Pete.

But if was different with Troy.

With Troy there was...so much more.....I felt something there. There was an
emotional connection behind his words.....

"So..." Pete started, getting closer to me. "Where does that leave
us?"

"There's an `us?'"? I asked.

"Mike...."

He didn't really finish his thoughts though.

My mind was too mixed up anyway. But the way I felt as I felt Pete's
warm body pressing up against mine as he got closer to my face
practically erased my thoughts altogether.

What came next was surprising, but welcomed entirely.

The kiss felt nice. It was only my second kiss, but kissing Pete just
felt right.

It didn't matter to me that we were both two guys, standing in the back
of a church, kissing each other.

All I knew was that I was kissing Pete again and I liked it.

I don't know why I opened my eyes, but I did.

I guess maybe I didn't know any better, but I quickly regretted having
ever opening them in the first place.

I pulled out of the kiss and moved away from Pete.

"Mike, what-"

"You didn't see him?" I asked, the panic in my voice evident.

Pete looked down the hall towards the door we'd come in, where I was
looking.

No one was in the hall and the door was closed.

"What...Mike-"

"Reverend Thomas....he...I think he saw us!" I replied.

Yep. I just had to open my eyes. And of course this is what I get for
being a disgusting little pervert in church.

I walked down the hall slightly, looking around like I was trying to
figure something out. What was I trying to figure out?

"Mike-"

"He's gonna tell my parents," I replied, running my fingers through my
hair. "My mom's gonna have me committed to a psych ward somewhere....or
thrown out, which ever is easier for her."

"Michael, I didn't see anything," Pete replied.

We didn't see the wind in the air, but that didn't mean it wasn't
there.

"Come on," I spoke, heading down the hall.

I stopped when I realized Pete wasn't following.

"Pete...come on!"

Pete sighed before trudging along like me seeing Reverend Thomas watching
the two of us, two guys, kiss, was putting him off in some way.

"Oh I'm sorry, this is only my future we're talking about here!"

"Why were your eyes open anyway?" Pete asked, sounding a little
perplexed.

When we got to the end of the hall I stopped.

If Reverend Thomas had in fact seen the two of us, which I was almost
certain he had, then he'd be waiting for the two of us to come out.
Together.

"Wait a few minutes," I replied, putting my hand on the door handle.

Pete grabbed my shoulder gently.

"Mike...."

"Pete...I know what I saw," I replied.

Pete seemed smart enough to just let me think I knew what I saw.

I flashed him one final glance before heading out back into the front.

Pete and I had only been missing a few minutes, but in that time, not
many people were in the main part of the church. A lot were gone and
those that were still here were all in the other part towards the exits,
talking.

I looked around.

For a dumb ass who had no idea what he was talking about half the time,
Reverend Thomas sure did move fast.

Then again...I probably shouldn't be talking about him like that. He was
still a holy man.

"Michael, over here honey!" I heard my mom call out to me.

Of all the people that still had to be in the main part, why did one,
two...all four people I lived with all have to still be out here?

I begrudgingly walked over to where my mom was standing with my father,
unfortunately for me, talking to none other than the Reverend himself.

"I was just telling Reverend Thomas here about how you finally got
yourself a couple of friends," my mother spoke.

Parents loved putting their children's business all out on the street
like that.

"Yeah, of course, he doesn't wanna bring his bud Pete over for
dinner," my dad decided to speak up.

Thanks a lot dad. You just had to bring up Pete.

I looked over at Reverend Thomas who had the strangest little smile on
his face as he looked over at me.

"Peter Reynolds...a fine young man," Reverend Thomas replied. "I can
only imagine why the two of you found each other."

My mom and dad were smiling like they figured Reverend Thomas was talking
about how we were supposed to be like `best friends' now.

But I knew what the son of a bitch was talking about.

At least, I think I did. If he really had seen Pete and me together, that
is.

No, that was Pete that didn't see him, not me. I had to remember that.

Actually, I saw a figure...but the figure looked familiar.

Was this all making me sound paranoids again?

"Well, we really should be going," my mother replied. "The boys have
all graciously volunteered to help me stick to an exercise routine."

"The woman kills us all.....endless stamina," my dad joked.

Troy and Max joined my side moments later and the five of us were headed
out of the church not much longer after that.

What was I feeling as I left?

So many different things, actually.

While it was obvious that Reverend Thomas hadn't told my parents what
he'd seen, if he'd seen anything at all, that still didn't mean that
he hadn't seen something.

Maybe he was just that sadistic and was going to start blackmailing Pete
and me. Or maybe he wanted me to feel all nervous and paranoid knowing
that I knew that he knew.

Whatever was supposed to be coming, I didn't envy myself at all or the
situation I was in.

Being `normal' certainly was a hard job!

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

"So...where'd you disappear off to this morning at church?" Troy asked
as he and I helped set the table for dinner.

I really didn't want to lie to Troy right now, but hell I might as well,
I'd become quite good at it.

"Oh you know....here and there," I replied.

I guess he must have bought it because I noticed a smile form on his face
as he set down some plates.

"You kinda left me with Evan," he replied. "If you're gonna help me
rid myself of my bad influences, you should at least be around some
more."

I smiled as I set down some cups.

"Sorry chief, won't let it happen again," I replied.

Troy and I continued to set the table as we both noticed Max walk into
the room.

"Is it normal to think you're in a pool all the time when you're
not?" he asked, hair wet from obviously having just taken a shower.

"No, but you're weird," I replied. "You do the math."

Max pretended to throw one of the plates on the table at me as I
playfully dodged away.

"Alright, let's settle down boys," my mom spoke as she brought the
casserole she'd cooked to the table.

Max, Troy and I all took our seats at the table and my dad followed not
long after that.

"I win again," he spoke, referring to the fact that my mother had
cooked one of his favorite dishes yet again.

"Oh yes, I never asked you what your favorite meal was Troy," my mother
spoke, setting some sliced peaches on the table.

"Well I had fries and gravy a lot back home," Troy replied. "But I
don't think that qualifies as a nutritious dinner meal."

"Well, what else do you like?" my mom asked.

I looked over at Troy who seemed to be thinking to himself.

"Well.....I don't know really..." he replied.

The happy look I'd become used to seeing on his face by now was slowly
fading.

I was realizing that whenever we talked about anything at all that had to
do with Troy's home, his demeanor always changed.

It just made me really want to find out what Troy was really like back at
home.

"Uh, why don't we say grace, Evelyn," my dad spoke.

He obviously knew what I knew. That home was obviously a touchy subject
for Troy.

I wondered when my mother was going to pick up on that.

"Well alright then," my mother replied, sounding slightly disappointed.

I knew she just loved pleasing other people and probably really wanted to
know what Troy's favorite meal was so that she could cook it for him.

"Lead us in grace tonight, Mike," my dad spoke.

I bowed my head just like everyone else and thought about what I really
had to be thankful for.]

I had a guy from Canada living with me, who I knew less about than I did
Britney Spears.

I had my own personal bully, whose girlfriend just so happened to be one
of my new friends.

Dylan, my only link to Troy's home and past, inexplicably vanished.

And to top it all off, my own local reverend knew more about my sex life
than I wanted him to.

At least I still knew how to write.

"What a great prayer, honey," my mother spoke.

I guess I really could think and pray at the same time.

"So...what's new?" my mom started, as she fixed her plate.

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

I couldn't do it anymore. Sit down and actually think about all the
things that were bothering me.

You always know what's bothering you, but you tend to really only focus
on one or two things until you actually really think about all of the
things bothering you.

Then you have problems and right now I was having problems.

I guess I never really thought about it all. It just kind of sat there in
my head as I tried to deal with it all.

Of course, I also never really had a multitude of problems before, let
alone the ones that I was having.

This was just weird for me.

I...didn't want to deal with any of it now, so I just walked over to my
backpack and took out one of my notebooks.

I started a new story about a group of teens who all lived in a mental
asylum, but they were in comas and had dreams like they weren't in
comas. The chapter I was working on was the one where one of the main
characters, who just so happened to think he was a professional race car
driver, crashed into another character, who was a black belt in karate,
which is the reason why he gets put in the mental asylum...supposedly
after he tries to kill the first guy.......

Okay, I'll stop now.

I just get so into my stories to where I don't even realize anything
else exists.

That was actually the point, really. To be somewhere else, and right now,
I was actually just hoping to be somewhere else.

That was generally the only way I wrote. I didn't feel like writing
otherwise.

Of course, I had to stop my writing briefly once I noticed that someone
was knocking at my door.

I walked over to it and was going to open it but noticed that there was
more than one person behind it.

"Guys...welcome to my humble abode," I replied, letting my brother and
Troy into my room.

"Did you just welcome us to come inside your toilet?" Max asked, as he
walked over to my bed and sat down on it.

"That's commode, dumb ass," I replied. "Does this look like a
bathroom to you?"

"Gee I don't know, why don't we ask Troy," Max replied. "Troy, does
this look like a bathroom to you?"

Troy shrugged.

"In Canada, we just call it a washroom."

This was nice, the witty banter. I'd never really done it with anyone
other than my brother and it just felt like I was a part of something
doing it with Troy as well.

"So I just thought of something," Max started. "Why we never have any
parties."

"Because mom and dad would kill us," I replied.

"Yeah, but what they don't know, can't hurt em," Max replied.

I knew he was kidding. Mom and dad never did anything special enough to
warrant time away from home without taking Max or I along. So there was
never going to be an opportunity for either of us to throw any of the
kind of parties Max was thinking about.

"Sometimes I kinda hate living in this town," Max sighed. "Why can't
we live somewhere like Los Angeles or-"

"Canada," I spoke.

"Or Canada," Max agreed.

"You guys like snow right?" Troy joked.

I was just about to say something when we all heard my cell phone
ringing.

I looked over to my nightstand, where the phone was just sitting there
ringing.

"He's more popular than me these days," Max said. "How's that
possible?"

"Shut up," I replied, shoving Max in the head before I jumped across
the bed grabbing my phone.

"Leaps over beds in a single jump!" Max spoke in an announcer-like
voice.

"Hello?"

"So, I've been thinking..."

It was Pete. Which meant I definitely couldn't be in the same room with
them right now.

"He comes, he goes," Max spoke as I exited the room.

"I've been thinking too," I replied. "I know he saw us-"

I heard Pete sigh on the other end of the phone.

"We have to start thinking about what this means....about all of it."

"Mike, you wanna just slow down for a second-"

"Pete, why am I the only one who seems to care about this?"

"I'm not saying I don't care Mike-"

"Alright then you should be helping me think about how we're gonna-"

"Mike-"

"I mean, cuz this could quite possibly change everything-"

"Mike-"

"Maybe we should just-"

"Mike, I'm trying to ask you out here!" Pete spoke into the phone.

I'd heard that well enough and it had stopped my whiplash of a verbal
assault on Pete.

"What?"

"Yeah...that's all I called for," Pete replied. "I figured you needed
to take your mind off of what happened earlier."

"So...you mean....like go out on a date?"

"That's generally what you do when you like someone," Pete replied.
"And then it means you're dating."

This was all happening so fast.

Now we were talking dates?

It would be my first date. I'm sure Pete had experience in this
department, and it was probably the reason why he was a lot calmer when
it came to this.

It still didn't explain why he was being so calm when it came to what
had most definitely had happened earlier today.

"Mike?"

"Uh..."

"You haven't said anything.....are you okay?"

No, but he didn't need to know that.

"Yeah...I'm fine."

"Well alright then...um...so you'll go out with me this Friday, then?"

This was what I'd been wanting....wasn't it?

Funny how I had a gorgeous baseball player wanting to take me out Friday
and I was hesitating because I was actually thinking about Troy of all
people.

How could I be thinking about him right now? He wasn't even gay!

But still.....

No...no...I wanted Pete. I knew I wanted Pete.

"Yes, I'll go out with you Friday night," I replied.

"Good...really good," Pete replied. "You should get some rest...this
thing about Reverend Thomas sounds like it's draining you."

I found it cute how Pete could tell I was tired through the phone.

He really would be the perfect boyfriend.

"Everything okay?" Troy asked.

I turned around to see him coming out of my room.

"Yeah, everything's fine," I replied.

Troy smiled.

"So who was it, Sienna or....."

I could feel it coming even before I'd said it.

"Oh it was Sienna...reminding me to give her a book I borrowed back
tomorrow," I lied.

I really needed to learn to stop doing this before it stopped being weird
and started becoming fun.

For a moment, it almost looked as if Troy actually hadn't believed me.

I looked over at him with a `what?' look before he shrugged and passed
me to head for his room.

I couldn't be bothered to think about him right now.

After all, on Friday, I was going on my first date!

I spent most of the week the way I'd spent the week before Troy came.

Zoning in and out, having all kinds of wild daydreams.

I had to say, they were honestly both good and bad.

In some, the night ended perfectly, complete with Pete walking me to the
front door and kissing me again.

God he was such a good kisser.....

But then there were the bad daydreams. The ones where Pete revealed to me
that he'd made a bet with his popular friends that he could get a loser
to go out with him like he was gay or something.

If it could happen in movies......

I tried to just stay excited all week but now that we were closer to the
actual date...as in closer to the hour, rather than day, I was just
nervous.

I guess for a lot of reasons, but this was still going to be my first
date with a guy, even if it was my first date at all.

"Something really important must be happening tonight," Troy spoke,
leaning on the edge of my doorway.

I'd told my parents that I was going out with Pete. Just like that.

Of course, they thought I'd meant going out like two friends would, but
they didn't care. They were just happy I was actually informing them
that I was going out for once.

Of course, since mom was home, dad had to be less cool and actually gave
me a curfew, but it was pretty late.

"Not really," I replied. "It's just......it's just Pete."

I realized that for the past week, I'd....somewhat intentionally allowed
Troy to believe that I had all but stopped associating with Pete.

I guess that was what I wanted him to think. It was almost like getting
the best of both worlds. Having both Pete and Troy as friends, neither of
them really realizing that I was still friends with the other.

And what was so wrong with that really?  All I wanted were friends, and
lately, both Troy and Pete made pretty damn good ones.

And hopefully, soon I'd be able to call Pete more than a friend.

"Pete....you're still hanging around him?" Troy spoke, coming into my
room.

It didn't surprise me that he was acting the way he was. In addition to
neglecting to tell either Pete or Troy that I was still friends with the
both of them, I'd also made sure that I was never seen with either of
them when the other was around at school.

I guess I was learning to be pretty damn sneaky.

"Troy-"

"What did I tell you about him?"

"More than you have about you," I replied, instantly regretting it.
"Sorry."

"I'm trying to protect you...what don't you get about that?"

Why did they both think they were protecting me somehow by keeping me
from the other?

"Troy, you don't like Pete, I don't like Evan," I said, spraying a
small amount of cologne on. "I figure we could at least compromise
there."

I think Troy realized that I'd actually made a good point, but he still
didn't look happy.

He crossed his arms as he sat on the edge of my bed.

"Look Mike...I don't wanna sound harsh...but what do you think a guy like
him sees in you?"

I was still trying to take this all in stride. After all, it had been a
while since I was angry with Troy. But he was really starting to push it.

"Well, I've asked myself what the town bully and his annoying other
half could see in you the day you came," I replied. "There's that
birds of a feather saying...."

Troy let out a sigh and looked away.

I think he was finally starting to realize that he just wasn't going to
win here.

"Mike-"

"Look, Pete's my friend...okay? And when you defend Evan to me, I don't
say anything...anymore.....if Pete's such a bad guy, why don't you just
let me find that out on my own."

He sighed and I noticed that he actually looked like he agreed.

"I don't wanna see you hurt you know..."

"I know," I replied.

I really did know that. That was probably what I'd known about Troy's
claims all along.

But now.....now I just had to make my own decisions.

Troy had to let me.

"You know what time you're gonna be back at least?" he asked.

I shrugged. I honestly didn't know.

I didn't know what Pete had in store for me tonight.

"Well if you go to the movies, bring me back some of that yummy double
butter popcorn stuff," Troy started, standing up. "I wish they made it
that good in Canada."

"They don't there?" I asked.

"No they.......no," Troy replied.

I was learning. Learning not to bring up Troy's past.

It was just going to take me some time to learn to refrain from doing
that.

"Well...I guess I should head downstairs and wait for Pete," I replied.

"Yeah..." Troy replied. "I'll see you when you get back then."

"Alright," I replied, heading down the stairs.

And apparently I had perfect timing, as once I got downstairs, the
doorbell rang.

Max was on the phone with someone, probably his best friend Sadie, and
had looked up.

I signaled for him to stay seated while I opened to door.

"Hey...wow, you look great," Pete smiled.

I could never grow tired of his smile. He had the most amazing smile, I
could almost get lost in it....

"Ready to go?" he asked.

I glanced back for a moment before turning back to Pete.

"Yeah," I replied.

I was still nervous as hell but I was ready for this.

I had to be. I had, after all, agreed to this.

"Okay then," Pete said. "Let's go."

The date thus far had been perfect to me.

Pete had taken me to downtown, where just about all the good stuff was.

We just walked along the streets mostly, taking in all the sites and.
Being so close to Las Vegas, there were a lot of people out as well, even
though it was nearly 12 a.m., some from town, other probably from away
settling for here because they couldn't afford Las Vegas.

Pete had bought the both of us ice cream, even though it was mid October.
It wasn't really cold out though. It didn't get too terribly cold here.
Not as cold as I'm sure it got in Canada.

Whatever part of Canada Troy was from....

"So I know it doesn't exactly top our first date," Pete said as we
walked slowly down one side of a long strip of stores and clubs. "But I
just figured I'd get your mind off of...well everything."

It certainly was nice of him to try, but it just wasn't going to stop me
from thinking that one well placed phone call from Reverend Thomas would
be enough to ruin my life as I know it.

And I was actually starting to like the way my life was turning out.

It actually looked as though I wasn't going to be spending all of my
life alone.

And I liked that thought.

But still....I knew what I'd seen. I couldn't just undo time somehow.

"I'm really glad you asked me out, Pete," I replied. "I'm really
enjoying myself."

"Well good," Pete smiled at me. "I accomplished what I set out to do
then."

I felt safe with him. Like this was just right.

There just couldn't be anything wrong with this.

At least, not the way the Reverend Thomas was trying to scare me into
thinking. Or at least, had tried and failed.

I knew that I could grow to like feeling like this all the time.

"Now for something really wild," Pete spoke.

I just licked my ice cream silently.

"You game?"

"For what?" I asked.

"Well...like with you, this whole gay thing is still new for me," Pete
replied. "I figured we could get a taste of how `our doomed kind'
lives."

I looked over at him feeling perplexed.

"Pete...what are you talking about?" I asked.

"What do you say we take a little trip further downtown?"

He had a mischievous grin on his face, but it was playful at the same
time.

I guess now was as good a time as any for me to decide how much I trusted
Pete.

Troy sat in his room looking over at the clock.

He'd been playing off and on with his laptop, but found that he
couldn't really concentrate for one very important reason.

He was too worried about Mike.

He wanted to be there for Mike and be a good friend. He finally admitted
to himself that he had been in the wrong before and was trying to make up
for it now.

That was why he was trying to get Mike to see what he obviously wasn't.

Back home, he knew guys like Pete. The ones that thought they could get
away with doing whatever they wanted just because they could get away
with it.

And he wasn't talking just simply picking on a person similar to the way
Evan was doing with Michael.

No, he was talking about the same guys that thrived on crushing peoples
feelings.

And he figured he had Pete all sorted out.

He was using Mike...for what he didn't know, but he knew that Pete had to
be using him.

Granted, he wasn't sure what Evan's claims were all about, but he had
his own reasons for not wanting to see Pete with Mike.

There was that...and then.....he felt some kind of connection with Mike.

He didn't want to start getting into what he thought the feeling was
exactly because he didn't want to allow himself to start thinking about
home.

He almost couldn't stand to think about it.

He still couldn't believe the nerve of Dylan just showing up in town
like he had.

But he'd taken care of that and there was no need for Mike to ever know
anything really.

But now, now he had a new problem.

It was well after 12 in the morning.

Troy knew enough about Mike by now to know that he wasn't a person
who'd ever been out late before.

If he knew it, Pete had to know it since he and Mike seemed to be so
close.

Yet, it hadn't stopped Pete from keeping Mike out at all hours of the
night...or now, morning.

What was going on anyway?

What were they doing?

He was almost going nuts thinking about all the possibilities.

"You look like you're going postal in here," Max spoke.

Troy turned to see Max standing at his open doorway.

"Aren't you worried?" he asked, standing up.

"Not really," Max replied. "Pete's a good guy. Besides, Mike called
me an hour ago."

"What?" Troy asked.

"Yeah...he said he and Pete were downtown walking around the central
square."

Troy snorted.

All this time and all they'd been doing was walking around. Pete sure
was cheap.

"I don't think we have to worry though, it's still Mike we're talking
about here," Max replied.

Troy looked down at his watch.

He couldn't believe he was more worried about Mike than his own brother.

"Alright....you're right," he replied. "But I'm actually kinda
tired...I think I'm gonna hit the sack."

"Alright man....I let you know tomorrow what time he finally came back,"
Max replied.

Troy waited until he saw Max go into his room and shut the door behind
him before he did anything.

It wasn't like he'd never snuck out of a house before. He knew what to
do, and he knew what he had to do.

He had to go find Mike and bring him home. Now.

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

This certainly was an...interesting part of town Pete had taken me to.

It wasn't Las Vegas, but it sure was lit up bright like it was.

There were a multitude of things in this part of town that I'd never
seen before.

Women...or men that looked surprisingly enough like women to fool some
poor unsuspecting guy.

Transsexuals I think they were called. I didn't really know. I didn't
see this kind of stuff on t.v. and I wasn't exactly a porn person.

Pete called them some kind of funny name.

Trannies. It was funny to me.

And of course there were the normal gay guys.

Some of them were wearing those biker chap pants.

Some of them looked hot enough to mistake for celebrities.

And some of them looked and sounded like maybe they should have been
trying to be a tranny or something.

Feminine gay guys.

It was all so weird, yet fascinating at the same time.

"Imagine all this in little old Wayward, huh?" Pete spoke.

He and I were watching the same thing. Two guys making out. Just making
out in the public and not caring.

A lot of the other guys were touching on each other as we passed them.

Some of them were even shooting looks our way.

We hadn't exactly gone into any of the clubs or bars that surrounded
this particular strip, but I was a little curious.

"Wanna try getting into one of the clubs?" Pete asked.

"Don't you think I should be getting home?" I asked.

Not that I wanted to go home. The night had certainly been perfect thus
far.

But it was really late and I wasn't used to staying out this late.

"We don't have to stay...we'll just look around for a little bit,"
Pete replied.

I was curious.....

"Okay," I relented.

Pete smiled at me, stroking my face gently.

For some reason, with being in this part of town, I actually didn't mind
having all the people around us see him doing it.

Pete took my hand and led me over to the outside entrance of the club

There was a long line, signifying that this must have been a popular
nightclub.

"Pete, I don't have time to stand in line all night," I replied.

"Okay so maybe there's a back entrance...." he replied, looking towards
the back. "I'll go-"

"No, wait Pete-"

Pete stopped and looked me in the eyes.

"You gonna be okay here? I won't be gone too long, I promise."

If he promised, I trusted him.

Looking into his eyes, like I had, did that to me.

"Yeah, sure," I replied.

This time instead of stroking my face, Pete kissed me before heading
towards the back.

I walked away from the front and over to the side, which was less visible
from the front.

I had just decided to sit back before I noticed an angry, but very
familiar face, heading towards me.

"What the hell? Troy!"

Troy didn't say anything. At all. Wasn't even going to attempt to
explain to me how in the hell he'd found me or what he was doing here.

Instead of doing some explaining, he did some rough grabbing and started
pulling me along in the opposite direction from which we'd come.

"Troy....stop it-"

"In the gay part of town? What did he bring you here for?"

"Let go of me.....get off!" I shouted before finally managing to get
Troy to let go of me.

He had dragged me along for a few seconds though and now we were in a
quieter part of the area.

"I can't believe of all the places to find you-"

"Troy, why are you here in the first place? How did you find me?'

"I've been looking for you for a while now-"

"You knew I was out with Pete....what's wrong with you?"

"I told you I was trying to protect you and I let you think you could
trust Pete....as soon as that happens, look where you end up! These kinds
of places are dangerous Mike!"

"Dangerous? Nothing happened to me...to us-"

"Mike-"

I noticed Troy stop when it looked like he was looking at something
behind me.

"Troy..."

I turned around and nearly passed out from shock.

Behind us was Reverend Thomas, coming out of one of the clubs further
down, making out with a hot looking....guy!

"Isn't that-"

"Reverend Thomas!" I exclaimed.

Neither Troy nor I moved at all. I'm sure this was more shocking for me
than it was for Troy.

All this time...all this time he was going on about homosexual this and
homosexual that.....and he was spending his Friday nights making out with
hot gay guys.

"What a fucking hypocrite!" Troy mumbled, sounding more upset with
Reverend Thomas than he was with me.

We both continued to watch Reverend Thomas even as we noticed a group of
shady looking guys approaching the two of them.

"Wait a second...what's going on?" I spoke.

I noticed one of the guys was holding a bat.

Reverend Thomas was just now noticing it as well and had moved just in
time before the bat smashed into the back of the guy he's been kissing.

"Whoa!" Troy spoke.

"Wait a second, I'm a pastor," Reverend Thomas was saying.

"Oh, well ain't this just a sin...you faggots out here like this-"

"Please...don't-"

"Hey....is there a problem?" Troy asked.

I guess I'd been so wrapped up with what was going on that I hadn't
even noticed Troy leave my side until he was actually involved with the
scene.

What was he doing?

When I felt my legs carrying me over to him, I asked myself the same
thing.

Reverend Thomas looked a mixture of shocked and humiliated to see the
both of us.

"You a fag too?" the main guy asked.

Troy looked over at all the guys.

We were outnumbered and they were bigger. What exactly was he going to
do?

"Run!" he shouted.

He'd grabbed Reverend Thomas and started pulling him along.

I was running alongside them.

We ran a good half a minute before we realized we weren't even being
chased.

But we couldn't stop.

We were all running from something just then. And it was going to take a
lot of explaining to get through the events of this night.

 For advanced chapters visit:
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Comments?: crossingboi2004@yahoo.com

Copyright 2005