Step three was about to be passed today. I had decided Taylor was ready, at the least, stand up for gay rights. He had defended me a little bit in the past, but that was more physical protection of a friend, not a supporter of the cause. So that's just what I told him.
"You're gonna learn today how to stand up against homophobes."
"Huh?"
"You need to learn how to stand up against previous versions of yourself. As a gay guy, you gotta stand up."
Taylor gave me a dirty look.
"Sorry. STRONGLY BISEXUAL."
He didn't look convinced, but he let it go.
"And how do you plan on doing that?"
"We're gonna go downtown where the gay community is & we're gonna get into a fight."
He narrowed his eyes in puzzlement.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me," I smiled.
"We're gona get into a fight on purpose?"
"Uh huh."
"Why?"
"So you know how to beat homophobia by any means necessary. No matter how physically...uncomfortable it may get."
He scoffed.
"I think starting a fight is a little extreme."
"C'mon, it's easier than it sounds," I said.
"You've done this before?" asked Taylor.
"Yup. I've helped lots of people at school come to terms with themselves & this is not only my favorite step, but it's also pretty important, too."
"Other gay kids at school?"
"Yeah."
"Any in OUR grade?"
"Are you kidding? Our grade has the most. By a looong shot."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Who?" he asked.
I smirked.
"Why do you wanna know? Lookin' for someone special?"
"That's funny Nick. My sides are just splitting."
I laughed.
"I'll tell ya what."
"Hmm?"
"Later on, I might tell you other people. But only onceyou & me have reached a certain stage in your little...development & also if they'd be ok with me telling others."
"Fine," he ended.
"Ok, so here's what we're gonna do today..."
"Is this really necessary?" asked one hell of an uncomfortable Taylor Kipps.
We were walking around the streets of the gay community holding hands. We passed by countless adult toy stores, adult book store stores, adult video stores, gay bars & clubs, gay strip joints & much more. Gays, lesbians, transgenders, transexuals, bisexuals (like Taylor...pft. Yeah, right), drag queens & kings wandered the sidewalks all around us. Any attempt by Taylor to hide the fact that it was the two of us together was met with a sharp jab to the ribs.
"Yes. You're gonna defend my honor."
"What?"
"Ya know how gaydar is when you can 'detect' gay people? Well I seem to have the same thing with homophobes. So you know the plan, right? I'm gonna accidentally' bump into somebody who's homophobic, wait for them to say something crude & offensive & then you jump in & defend me by saying something very liberal."
"You honestly expect this whole thing to work anyway?"
"Well, this IS my lucky coat. It was the last thing my grandma gave to me before she died. Now I wear it when I help people."
He rolled his eyes.
"What?"
"This is so stupid."
"No, it's not. It's brave, the right thing to do AND it's very charming."
"I'm not TRYING to charm anyone, Nick," Taylor said with a giggle.
Oh please.
"You can't possibly know who'se homophobic around a gay community can you?" he asked, skeptical of my 'ability.'
"You'd be surprised actually about how-" before I could finish, I found myself flat on my back on the ground, pain surging through my spine. I also realized that I didn't have my jean jacket on anymore.
Apparently, somebody had ripped my coat off, sending me flying in the blink of an eye.
Two men were standing a few feet away laughing, one of them holding my coat in his arms. By their loud laughter, jagged movements & off-speech, one could tell they were drunk.
When they stopped, turned around & saw us, they took a long look at each other & started laughing again.
"Oh look, I took the princess' jacket. Shame. That'd suck if it got dirty," said guy holding it. His speech was slurred. Then he began wiping it along the ground.
"Here," said Taylor, giving me a hand up.
"Now THAT'S just adorable," mocked the second man. Just then he burped, sending the two Neanderthals into fits of laughter. People were turning their heads.
"C'mon Taylor, let's just go."
I started walking off but Taylor grabbed my sleeve, stopping me.
"Wait, I thought you said that coat was special. You just told me it was the last thing your grandma gave you."
"Yeah, so?"
He scoffed in disbelief.
"SO, it obviously means a lot to you Nick."
"Yeah, but it's not worth fighting some fucked up drunks to get it back. I'm not big enough to fight them anyway, so let's just go."
"Dude..."
We turned to see the two men, who were in their early twenties, throwing my soiled coat into small mud puddles. They laughed drunkenly over it.
"Fine, I'LL get it," said Taylor. He walked over to the two men.
"Give me the coat back please," he said calmly but firmly.
"This piece of flith?" said the man holding it.
"It's kinda queer lookin'. Is that why you want it?" said the second man.
"It belongs to my friend, all right?" said my friend.
"So then it's not yours?" the first man said, clearly too drunk to remember whose body he tore it off.
"No."
"Then it's not your problem, princess," said the second man, poking Taylor hard enough in the chest to move him back a couple steps.
"Don't touch me."
The men laughed at his response.
"Look where you are kid! Welcome to the HOMO part of town. And I may be smashed, but I believe I saw you two holding hands before. So from my alaysis, er anlyasis, er analysis...I'm gonna guess that you LIKE being touched," slurred the second man, laying a hand seductively on Taylor's chest, running up & down his flat torso.
Taylor shoved his hand away.
"Just give me the fucking jacket, asshole."
The men scowled at him. Then, the first man tossed my ruined coat into a large puddle in an empty parking space.
"Go get it."
Taylor glared at them, walked over & picked up the article of soiled clothing. He shook it off & started making his way back to me.
"Fags," said one of the men fairly loudly. They both started laughing like they had heard the world's funniest fucking joke.
Taylor handed me the jacket, walked back over to the men & introduced his right fist to the first man's face. I heard a slight crack & could tell that Taylor had just shattered the man's teeth. The man stood back, holding his face in his hands with blood pouring from his gums & lips. He was howling in pain. My own jaw dropped. But in a metphorical sense.
"Taylor, stop!" I called.
"What the...?!" exclaimed the other man. He suddenly turned angry & turned on Taylor.
"You little shit!" he yelled & lunged for the boy.
Taylor took a smooth, swift step to the side & blew his fist into the man's groin twice.
The guy went down like a brick. A very injured brick.
"Don't you ever call me or my friend that that again, got it?" yelled Taylor.
The men groaned in agony.
"All these people who live in this area shouldn't be put down by those kind of fucking comments. It's disgusting. They don't shun YOU for being heterosexual, so leave them alone & back the fuck off. They've earned enough respect in the world now with movements, just like blacks & women. If you're also racists & sexists, then you better move to some lonely island. But until then, get the fuck out of here!" he told them off.
I lowered my head & sighed. Boy.
NONE of that went as planned...except for him standing up I guess.
"Nick, you thidn't thell uth thith one wath fiolent," said the man without his two front teeth.
Taylor turned around & looked at me, baffled.
"Wait...you know these guys?"
Before I could answer, the guy clutching his crotch for dear life managed to stand up & speak.
"Yeah, he does. Tell him Nick," he squeaked.
I sighed.
"This is Craig & Jimmy. They're not drunk & they're also two of my best friends."
Taylor stared at me, wide-eyed.
To be fair, I DID tell him we would get in a fight.
"Then why did they...they like, wait...no wait, why'd they practically attack us? Wait, no...what?" he stuttered.
"Because whenever I do these steps of helping closet cases stand up for themselves, I call these guys so they can help stage a small fight. Key word, Taylor; SMALL."
"Well gee Nick, I actually thought these guys were two wasted thugs."
I laughed.
"Thugs? Please. Craig is in college, majoring in bioengineering. Jimmy is the manager of an aviation plant."
"So this was all a trick? Everything was staged?" Taylor asked.
"Well almost everything," I remarked.
"The part where you cotht me thive thouthand dollarth in denal planth for new teeth wath different," said Craig with his brand new lisp. He held his two front teeth in his hand. His lips & gums were cherry red.
"So was you sterilizing me," Jimmy chimed in. His face was almost green with sickness from his busted up groin.
"Oh geez...look, guys, I'm so sorry. I didn't know this whole thing was...I mean, ya know I didn't know &...aw man."
"Usually when I mean fight, I mean a loud verbal argument. Not fists flying everywhere," I laughed.
Taylor glared at me.
"Nick, I seriously hurt these guys. YOUR friends. How can you possibly think this is funny?"
"Not sure. I just do. Hahaha."
And it WAS pretty funny. To me at least. I mean, here I was, attempting to help a closeted-oh sorry, BISEXUAL-friend of mine stand up to people who used to be just like him & he turns out kicking the shit out of two of my friends. Or in Jimmy's case, kicking the jizz out of him. Haha.
"Oh god..." moaned Taylor.
"Relax. Hey, at least something good came out of this."
"What?"
I smiled.
"You stood up to them, Taylor."
He stared at me blankly.
"Is that your way of making me feel better?" he growled.
"YOU need to feel better?!" Jimmy exclaimed.
I ignored them.
"All right, so it's not exactly a get-out-of-guilt card, but still. The whole point of this was to get you to show some backbone towards guys who put down homosexuals. And you did. Maybe not in the most subtle way...but you still did. Even though it's not exactly parading around, you did your share of doing what's right. You should be proud Taylor."
I saw a little grin spread over his face like butter. Butter that would melt in seconds on a hot face like that.
"Congrathu-fucking-lathunth," Craig said dryly.
I rolled my eyes.
"So, how's it feel to defend a gay person?" I asked him.
"I guess it feels nice. Lot different than being on the other side of it, that's for sure."
"So, overall, you feel good about it? I asked.
He smiled.
"Yeah."
"Cool."
Good.
"We're fine, don't worry 'bout us," Jimmy said as loud as he could.
"Pay," said Craig.
I took out two $20 bills & gave them one each.
"C'mon, let's go," I said.
"They gonna be ok?" asked Taylor.
"They'll live," I chuckled.
We started walking off towards the rest of the city when he asked one more thing.
"That coat isn't really special, is it? It's not from your grandma."
"Haha. My grandma lives in South Dakota & doesn't even know I was ever born. Don't ask. And I bought this coat two weeks ago at Macy's."
He started laughing & I joined in.
We continued walking down the streets past small stores & shops. Other than Craig, Jimmy & a couple other people I knew down here, I usually wasn't in this part of town with anyone. It felt nice having Taylor with me. Boy. He'd make one hell of a boyfriend to somebody. And they'd be the luckiest person in the world.
As we kept walking around, we talked about different things, like how he felt about his childhood, when I realized I was gay, what kind of music we liked, what we wanted to be when we grew up up, etc. For some reason, I was having some weird feelings in the pit of my stomach every time we laughed or talked about something we had in common. But I ignored it as we kept going.
Just then, I felt Taylor's fingers touching mine & then, he was holding my hand in his.
"What are you doing?" I let out a nervous laugh. I usually didn't feel this nervous or flustered.
He cracked a heart-melting smile.
"Maybe we should act as a couple just a little longer," he said, staring into my eyes.
I found myself looking away & blushing as we ventured through the neighborhood, our hands joined like a spider web.
Oh damn.
I was starting to fall in love with him. Uh oh.
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