As that first week of school slowly turned into the first month, Pat and John found themselves more in love with each other, and more at ease with the world around them. Pat was making steady progress with his counseling, and John was behind him all the way. Plus, now they were members of the Swimming Team, and they were performing much better than anyone had expected. So, in all, both boys were happy.
While all this was going on, though, the young lovers had been doing some planning of their own. Now that they knew their love was not a youthful fling, they began to talk about committing themselves to each other. To be fair and honest, they discussed it with their parents present.
As they discussed the pros and cons about it, it became obvious to Mr. and Mrs. Stephens that their sons were indeed serious about committing to a life- long relationship. Although they were scared, and very nervous about what would happen to their sons, they were also very proud of them, too.
The boys told no one else of their plans, and wisely so, but they soon made exceptions for Mr. Galvez, Coach Sloane, and Dr. Mike, who were all very happy to hear the news. Pat went to see Dr. Mike with a special request, however. With his mother in the background, Pat asked Dr. Mike to give him away at the ceremony, and to represent his deceased parents. Dr. Mike didn't know what to say, he was so honored. Shaking his head in silent agreement, Dr. Mike agreed to do so.
John had making up the guest list, and was having trouble. In sending announcements, and calling friends, he found that while their friends had no problem with a commitment ceremony for the boys, many of their parents did, and wouldn't let them attend. Mr. Stephens tried calling the parents and kept running into a wall of fear and hate. To say the least, this upset him.
Even Mrs. Stephens felt that hatred from her friends, and while it made her very angry, she dealt with it. Her neighbors loved the boys, for they knew how loyal and gentle they were, but her co-workers were also often very cruel about the boys. Since the Stephens' owned their business, this made listening to the remarks of 18 employees hard to take.
Coming into work on a Monday, Mrs. Stephens heard a particularly loud- mouthed employee named Renee making comments about her sons, and gays in general. The worse thing was that Renee was doing this while customers were there, waiting for service. Mrs. Stephens immediately took action.
"Renee, I need to see you in my office, please." They went into the office, closed the door, and sat down.
"Would you care to tell me what that was all about?", Mrs. Stephens asked calmly.
"Nothing, really.", Renee answered, "we were just talking about.....faggots."
"Really. On company time AND in front of customers. I also noticed you spent more time talking than you did waiting on customers. One other thing; Since when did my sons become a topic for gossip?"
Renee's face turned red for a moment, then she said, "Since your homo sons are getting married! It's all over town! Two pansies are getting hitched and are going to hell, and so are you for letting it happen!"
Mrs. Stephens fixed Renee with an icy glare, then pulled her file from a cabinet. "Renee, as of now, you are terminated. No pension, no benefits, nothing. Get your stuff and get out, or I'll have you arrested." With a shocked look on her face, Renee said, "You can't fire me! I've been here 25 years!" With a smile, Mrs. Stephens said, "I just did." And with Renee watching, Mrs. Stephens fed every page of her file into the shredder.
That same afternoon, the Stephens called a meeting of their employees. Mr. Stephens began the meeting. "I was not happy to learn that our most veteran employee had been fired this morning. I was even more disturbed at the reason why. Now, I can't tell you what you what to think, or how you should believe, but when there are displays like there were this morning, an employee should quit, because if I hear of any more insults against my sons, I will fire you!
Another veteran employee stood up to ask, "Are you asking us to remain silent and accept this relationship of theirs?"
Mr. Stephens looked at his employee, sadly, "No, Tom. All I'm saying is if you can't remain silent at work, then there's the door. I mean, think about it, we all have something about us that is considered wrong by somebody else. My sons agonized over this, together. That is what they plan to be one day...a couple. You've heard about about their injuries, right? They stuck beside each other during the worst times in their lives, what with death, injury, and hate. Who are we to judge them for loving each other when Christ himself taught love for everyone?
Everyone grew silent after that as they were deep in thought. "Boss," Tom said, "your boys are good kids, we all know that. We also know that they are gay and they do things together. But we also know that all of you are working together to control the situation,'cause teen sex isn't easy to handle. Give us time to get used to it, okay?"
Mr. Stephens grinned, and shook Tom's hand. "I could always count on you, Tom!" With that support, the other employees agreed to help, and they all went to dinner, courtesy of the Stephens'.