Okay, this is not a story with a whole lot of sex. Some will come in here and there, but it is not the central theme. It's a story about love between men and self-acceptance, kinda like all of my stories are.
If you're under 18 or 21 or whatever, be aware that in some odd corner of the universe, you could possbly be breaking the law.
If you like anything of mine, please e-mail me at virtualinsanity78@yahoo.com and I will be very grateful to you and a lot more likely to write faster updates. If you don't like what I write, keep it to yourself. :-)
Part Two
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get out of it. My mom and dad were not even trying to hear everything that I had to say about working for gays over the summer. My mom had actually gone on to lecture me about tolerance and diversity and some shit like that, like I was wrong for not wanting to spend the summer being taught some fucked up lesson about gays.
The thing what sucked the most about it was that I hadn't even laid a fist on that kid Skit and I was gonna have to pay with my whole entire summer! Still, I was gonna get paid fifty bucks a day and that wasn't all that bad considering they only needed me to work like four hours a day on most days.
So, I got the go ahead from Morgan to wear jeans the next day at work and after I watched my mom give me curious looks all through breakfast, I got in my car to go down to the gay antique shop, as I had come to think of it. I mean Misti was cool and I'd probably be helping her out for most of the day, at least that's what I'm assuming because I don't think Morgan wants me around all that much. Just the one day I spent with him made me immediately figure out that he was doing this thing under duress. But I really didn't care because I didn't want to be a part of it either and the second I got back to West Central in the fall, I was planning to show Skit Tyler exactly what I thought of him.
I parked behind the store where they told me to park the day before and went inside the back door, which was a lot better than going in the front with the grand staircase and all of that. Misti wasn't there yet, her work room looked the same as it had when I left the day before, so I walked around looking for open doors. From what I could figure out about the place, it seemed like Paul spent most of his time in the store itself, helping customers and overseeing that kind of thing with the help of three kids from the art school, probably a bunch of gays, too. Morgan was more of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy. He worked on the business side of things, looking for new products, working with vendors and doing the accounting and financial part.
I spotted Morgan in a back room piled high with what seemed like a bunch of junk to me. He was high up on a ladder searching for something. I took a deep breath and walked in.
"I can help with that," I said quickly and he glanced around at me, his gaze hardening slightly. I went to the base of the ladder and held it firmly, determined to stand my ground. Even if he didn't like me, he was my boss and we were going to be working with each other for the entire summer.
"Thanks," he said gruffly and went back to searching the piles. He found what he was looking for after awhile and he started to climb down. I waited at the bottom until he was safely down, then stepped back. He was holding what looked like some kind of iron mask. It was almost black with rust. I looked away from it and back up at him. I didn't know what to say.
"Paul's in the front of the store," Morgan said, his eyes still on me. "I'm sure he needs help with something." He looked down at his mask and walked away, dismissing me. I stood there fuming for a second and then turned and walked away, out of the door to find my way to the front of the store.
I had no sooner found my way to the front of the Cinderella staircase when someone smacked into me on the other side. I reeled for a minute, then took a look. Fuck!
Skit Tyler.
Ms. Deneghy really had it in for me. Never was I gonna do another fucking favor for her ever again. I stood there in shock for a minute. The kid had dyed his hair purple over the last few weeks or so and he wore one of those tight, spandex shirts with lots of zippers and holes in wierd places. Underneath it he had on a white t-shirt and he had on a pair of those bondage pants that were so big on him that they looked like they were gonna fall off, but they weren't.
"Shit," I said loudly and Skit was standing there looking at me with wide eyes like he was just as shocked as I was.
"What are you doing here?" he asked in a tiny voice, shutting his eyes in horror. "I stopped, Eric, I swear I stopped. I don't even glance in your direction!"
I stared at him for a long second. He was afraid of me. I had figured that much towards the last months of the school year when he stopped looking at me completely. I knew he didn't want me up in his face again, that's the reason why I had done the whole thing in the first place, just to get the guys off of my back about it.
"I work here," I said gruffly, moving away from him. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
His blue eyes sliced into me.
"I'm here for a summer program," Skit said, his voice kind of shaking, too. "I guess I kind of work here, too."
Just my luck. Hell, it wasn't luck, it was fucking Deneghy.
"Just stay out of my way," I told him and walked around him. I had taken no more than two or three steps when this tall kid came out of the main part of the store where I was headed and went straight for Skit.
"Skit," he called out exuberantly and curious, I turned to see them meet up. The guy was older than both of us, probably one of the college kids that worked there. He was tall, but pretty lanky and thin. He had long hair that looked dyed black, hanging around his shoulders. When he reached Skit, he scooped him up off the ground in a big hug, laughing. Skit's face had broken out into a huge smile and I stood there, feeling sucker punched.
Underneath all of the bondage gear and hair dye, Skit was a pretty good-looking kid. I pushed the thought away as soon as it came at me. I was not going down that road, to start thinking about shit I didn't want to think about. That's the way I handled wierd thoughts, I just stopped thinking them. But I still watched as the tall kid swung Skit around in a circle, cracking up laughing.
"What's going on, baby?" the guy asked and Skit was laughing and blushing. I turned away, practically sick to my stomach. Was this the kind of thing I was gonna have to endure for the whole summer? A bunch of fucking queers hugging and laughing all over the place?
I turned and walked into the main part of the store and caught Paul eyeing me quietly. He quickly smiled at me and waved me over to the counter he was behind. I managed a smile back and walked over to him. When I glanced over my shoulder, it was to see that the tall kid had Skit by the hand and they were disappearing around the staircase, going in the direction I had just come from.
"Hey, Eric, how are you this morning?" Paul asked and I shrugged. He was smiling at me as he lined up some small trinkets on the counter. I watched him quietly, the fluid movement of his hands and the way his eyes danced. He was a generally happy guy but it was glaringly obvious that he was gay.
"How are you?" I asked, remembering to be polite at the last minute.
"Good, I have a huge job for you," he told me and eyed me up and down quietly. "I don't know if its a one-man job or if you'll need help."
"I can handle it, I'm sure," I said quickly. I didn't want to be bothered with having to be around someone, making small talk and trying to ignore the fact that everyone around could very well be gay.
"There's a van out back in the employee lot full of some things Morgan and I picked up when we were up north two days ago," Paul said. "We haven't had time to unload any of it. Sheena, can you show Eric here the loading room?" Paul called out to a girl I hadn't even seen, a Hispanic girl crouched low on the ground by a rack of metal pans. She popped up and smiled at me. I never did all that well with girls.
"Okay," Sheena said.
"Here are the keys," Paul said. "You can drive, right?"
I nodded.
"Well, you can pull the van around to the dock and unload everything. That room is kind of chaotic right now, but maybe sometime later in the week, you and I can go back there and clear it out," Paul suggested and I nodded, glad to get down to the whole work part of everything.
I took the keys and followed Sheena.
"Your name's Eric right?" she asked and I nodded. "I'm Sheena. I've been working here for like three years now. I've got one more year at Kendall before I finish my art degree."
She was tall for a girl with long, curly dark hair and huge, piercing dark eyes. She was extremely thin, a small wind could have knocked her over and she dressed the way all of the kids around here seemed to dress...artsy. She had on dark jeans and polka dot leg warmers and a red sweater with suspenders. I eyed the whole thing distastefully. If she wore something like that to West Central, she would get ragged on right away.
"You'e not Paul and Morgan's usual type," she told me when she had led me to the loading room. I shook my head. Since we were out in the open about it, I just said what was on my mind.
"Is everybody here gay?" I asked and she laughed.
"No," she said, a wide grin on her face. "There are some lesbians, too." She had fixed her dark eyes on me and I knew I looked trapped. I just smiled.
"Are you one?" I asked and she nodded.
"Yep, Paul and Morgan are very active in gay and lesbian community organizations around here," she informed me. "They usually recruit their employees there and run summer programs with the art school through high school GSAs."
"What's a GSA?" I asked.
"Gay Student Association," she said quickly. "Sometimes its GLSA or GLTSA or GLBTSA, whatever, its all the same. Gay, lesbian, bi, transgendered."
"So, everybody here is one of those?" I asked.
"No," she informed me. "Majority, I would say, are, but Misti's not and there's Mario and Rafe and Scottie who play soccer for Grand Valley State. They work here part-time, too, and they are extremely hetero...but they're cool."
I sighed in relief.
"When do they come in?" I asked hopefully.
"In a few hours," she said. "They come in whenever they feel like it really, but they work hard when they're here." They sounded like my kind of guys.
"So, what are you?" she asked, eyeing me quizzically.
"Huh?" I asked and she put a hand on her hip.
"Are you gay?" she asked and I gaped at her, shook my head confidently.
"Nope," I told her emphatically. "I'm straight."
I had moved all the stuff in from the van in less than two hours and I was standing around hesitating to go back out into the store. But I knew that I had to, so I left the now crowded loading room and went back into the back hall, walking down its long length and knowing that I would run into some more work sooner or later.
I hadn't even made it all the way down the hall when I spotted Skit and the tall kid drooling all over each other. The kid has his arms around Skit's waist and was pressing his forehead against Skit's. I felt something lurch in my stomach, so I looked away, but I could hear everything they were saying.
"Let me kiss you," the guy was saying to Skit and I just felt a flash of something inside of me. God. I had to get out of this place!
"No, Drew, I told you," Skit said in a plaintive voice. I didn't even try to walk past them. I didn't want them to spot me.
"Fuck that guy, whoever he is," Drew said. "I've been wanting you for like two years."
"You're too old for me," Skit told him.
"Bullshit, I'm eighteen." Damn, he looked older.
"I don't even turn fifteen for like three weeks," Skit reminded him and Drew groaned.
"You're gonna let three weeks stop us?" he asked and Skit giggled.
"You're crazy, I like you, Drew, but not like that," Skit told him and started to pull away, but Drew hauled him up and buried his face in Skit's neck.
"It'll feel good, I promise," Drew told him in a slow way and I could feel Skit on the verge of relenting. It was thick in the air. No!
Just when Drew's mouth was hovering near Skit's, Paul's voice came out of nowhere.
"No fratrenizing on store property."
Drew let Skit drop carefully back onto his feet and they both were looking at Paul. Then, Paul's eyes travelled down the hall to spot me. I stood still.
"What are you doing lurking back there?" Paul asked and I started walking forward. Skit's blue eyes crashed into me. He was pale with fright.
"Didn't wanna interrupt 'em," I said. "I - uh - finished unloading the van."
Paul watched me for a moment, then gestured to Misti's work room.
"Misti requested your assistance moving some furniture," he told me and I slid gratefully in that direction.
By the time I got to Misti, though, I was shaking and I felt like my world was tilted on its access. I did everything I could to hide it, though. I hated not being in control of the way I felt. I like things to remain calm and I liked to understand every emotion. This whirling, gripping sensation in my stomach was driving e crazy.
"Hey, Misti," I said and she looked up from a huge roll of fabric.
"Eric, babe, you are just what I need," she exclaimed, dropping her work and coming to grab me by the arm. She led me off to the side of the room where a bunch of chairs, a couch and some old dressers were standing.
"I want to move this stuff so that I can work on each piece," she told me. "I just want them spaced well enough apart that I can begin work on them. The dressers will have to be stripped and the original woodwork restored so that means I'll have to do them on the dock when everything is clear so that I don't fill the place with fumes."
"Okay," I said, not really paying her much attention. I unhooked myself from her and went over and started unloading the chairs, moving them strategically away from each other so that she could get at them easily enough. My mind was back there in the hall, with Drew mauling Skit.
A minute or so after I started, Misti came to stand near me.
"Are you alright?" she asked, quizzically and I looked over at her briefly before going to get the next chair.
"Yeah," I grunted lightly and she stood for a little while longer peering at me as I worked. Then, she turned back to her fabric. I sighed with relief, glad that she wasn't going to try to question me. I really didn't know what I'd tell her because I really didn't know what I felt. I didn't wanna know.
I woke up in a cold sweat the next morning. I had dreamed the same thing over and over again in my sleep. It was the hallway scene with Drew and Skit...only Drew was nowhere to be found and I was the one with Skit in my arms...and Skit wasn't telling me no.
***************************************************************************** To be continued.......................virtualinsanity78@yahoo.com
I am Virtual Insanity and my other Nifty stories are: Wade and Christian - high school 2004 The Prick - high school 2004 Mannie the Marine - military 2004