Author's Notes:
Before I get into the Legal stuff, I want to say thanks first to my Editor, Pete. He always does a wonderful job. Second, I want to thank my Readers. You guys are the best.
Okay, these characters are not meant to resemble any living or dead person. I make no apology to anyone who is offended by anything in this story.
If you don't agree with the idea of guys being in love, then find something else to read.
Let me know what you think of the story by emailing me at Hnstskr4@aol.com
Copyright 2009, 2010 by Chuck B.
Chapter 11
It happened
When we arrived at Sarah's house, she was already outside waiting on me. She looked extremely worried. I wonder if I look that apprehensive. Things really must have taken a turn for the worse for her to tell me to show up here. I don't want to be here. I want to be home, but if what Sarah told me is true, then Dale sent out another email to my mom. I can only guess that it contained the same picture that was posted around school. I'm sure Dale is punishing me for seeing that he got turned in for his actions against me. Why would he do this to me? Maybe he's trying to get me to rethink my sexuality. Well, I am not going to. There is nothing to rethink. I want him to pay for what he's done to me. I no longer care what happens to him. Well, I can't stay in the car any longer.
When I left the car, Sarah came up to me and gave me hug.
"Eric, Mom knows your gay, but it's worse than that, she wants you out of the house." "What? Are you serious?"
I couldn't believe this. They are kicking me out of the house. Now what am I supposed to do? Sure, I can go to my friend's house for a while but that will get old really fast. She broke the hug and just stared into my face.
"Yeah... I'm serious! She wants you to get your stuff out of the house. Now Mark and I will help you get your belongings, but Steve has to stay away. Mom doesn't want him anywhere near the house."
The front door opened and out came Mark. The pain was building up inside of me.
How could they just throw me away like... like this? It just goes to show you how much they love me. I'm trying, really trying to hold the tears inside of me, but I can't. My tears... I didn't want me to look weak. I can't though, the dam can't be held back. Suddenly, I started to cry. Steve came up and grabbed me and was hugging me.
"I love you Eric!" he whispered into my ear.
He kissed me on the cheek and that is when I felt someone else hug me. I looked up to see Mark embracing both of us as best as he could.
"Bro, I'm sorry man! I won't let you live out on the streets. You can live here, and Steve can come over any time he wants."
Steve wasn't quiet about what he said either. I think he did that for Sarah's benefit. My eyes glanced at Sarah through a veil of tears and she was smiling. It makes me feel good that I have their support. Mark broke off his hug and then Steve released me as he gave me another kiss. Sarah came up to me and gave me kiss on the cheek and then she pulled out her cell phone.
With her phone in hand, she called Mom. It seemed to take forever before she started speaking.
"Mom... Eric is here with me. Mark has told him that he can stay here since you've kicked him out."
I could tell, Sarah was pissed or getting pissed.
"Well, his staying here is our decision not yours or Dads. It's our house and we say who can come and go from our house."
Mark and Steve stood close by me. I felt like they were acting like shields, protecting me from whatever might come out of that phone.
"Look Mom, I know you're angry and hurt, but we need to get Eric's stuff out of the house. Is it okay if we come over and get it right now?"
"No, he won't bring Steve over, I won't allow it. Eric's more interested in getting his life back in order, which means getting settled as quickly as possible."
I stood listening to Sarah and realized that I would have to face my mom. After kicking me out, I'm going to her house to get my life gathered up.
"Bye Mom, see you in a few minutes!
"Okay Steve, you can either stay here or leave, but we need to get to the house and get Eric's stuff. Eric get the truck, Mark get in!"
With Sarah driving, we made good time getting to the house. This is the first time that I wasn't glad to be coming home. In fact, my stomach was doing flip flops all the way over. As I stepped out of the car, I bent over because I thought for sure that I was going to throw up.
"You okay?" Mark asked, as he rested his hand on my back.
"Yeah...yeah, I'm fine. It's just a case of really, really bad nerves."
My sister was already knocking at the front door by the time we got to the porch. Mom seemed to be taking her time getting to the door. The door opened and Mom greeted Sarah and Mark, but didn't acknowledge my presence. Mark had a couple boxes in his hands and Sarah had a box of garbage bags. I also had a couple large boxes. I just wanted to clear out my room and get the heck out of this place. I hated the fact that I had to be here. It felt almost like a punishment.
I was being punished by my own parents just for being me. I can't change this part of me, no one can, and yet here I am, loading up my life so I can move out of the house that has been my home for all of my life. I'm being torn away from my family. I watched as Sarah carefully took down pictures from my wall and wrapped them up in my bed sheets to protect them. Alex came into the room and tried to help pack up the room with tears streaming down her face, but Mom told her to get out. Evidently, she is worried that Alex might catch the homosexual virus or something from me and become a lesbian. So my little sister can't even associate with me just because I love Steve. It's not fair. Right now, I want to cry so bad, but I won't. I won't give my mom that satisfaction. We finished packing up my room in just under two hours.
As we were getting ready to walk out the door, Mom stopped me dead in my tracks.
"I want your cell phone! I will not have my property being used by a faggot."
All of the sudden, Mark got really upset and looked at my mom.
"Look, you can't talk to him that, he's still your son! Besides that, you shouldn't talk to anyone that way."
She looked at me and then looked at Mark before speaking.
"Look, I'll talk to him any way I want as long as he is in my house."
I can't stand here anymore and take this abuse.
"Look, I'm still the guy as I've always been. Nothing has changed. I'm still your son."
She suddenly became even more upset. Her face was beet red and I actually felt scared that she might hit me.
"No...no, you are not my son. My son doesn't kiss boys. I don't know what that boy did to my son, but you aren't my son. I hate what you've become!"
Mom turned and walked into the kitchen, crying. This would be one of the few times that I would see my mother cry. We walked out of the house and Mark closed the door. Suddenly, I got a chill. I realized that this would be the last time that I would be at my home. After I left the driveway, I could no longer call this place home.
When I got into the vehicle, I looked at all the boxes and bags and started to cry. I felt so bad. My mom hated me. She had always shown us just how much she loved us. I never had to doubt it, and now all of that was over. I wonder what Dad must think of me. Mom would never act alone with something this big, so Dad must have agreed with her. Mark rubbed my back to let me know that everything was okay. Right now, I would do anything to be straight. I don't want to lose my family, not like this. It didn't take long for us to reach my new home. I tried to wipe my eyes and stop the tears, but they wouldn't stop. I couldn't get them to stop.
When we got to the house, Mark opened the passenger door and removed his seat belt. Steve stepped out of the house. When he saw me crying, he walked up to me. Carefully, I put the stuff that I was holding on the ground and really started to cry.
"She... she... she hates me."
"Eric... it's going to be okay. Somehow... it's going to be okay!"
Before I knew what was happening, Steve was crying too. I'm not sure when it happened but we embraced. It felt as if we were there holding each other forever. Right now, I didn't care who saw me. I caught a glimpse of Sarah hugging Mark as she spoke.
"Mark, I don't what they're saying, but that is love."
Mark didn't say anything or at least I didn't hear him.
Mom's Thoughts:
I received a very large email from Dale, Eric's friend from church, strange. The subject is marked, `Urgent, Bad news About Eric'. I was shaking, whatever this email contained was not good. When I opened the email, Dale explained how he captured this on his phone. He was walking to his bus when he happened to see Steven and Eric kissing. He also explained that everyone at school knows that Steve is gay. Lately, he's been seen a lot with Eric. All this weird behavior from Eric can only mean only thing and photograph proves it, Eric is gay.
After closing the email, I called my husband at the church.
"Honey, Dale sent me a very disturbing photograph of our son. It shows him in a car kissing that Steven boy."
My husband was quiet for a few brief seconds, before he said anything.
"Well, what do you want to do about it?"
I knew what we had to do. It's not going to be easy on us, I know, but I don't want Alex to see her brother's behavior and think that is the right way to act. We have to kick Eric out of the house.
"I think if Eric wants to act this way, then he needs to find a new place to live. We can't have him influencing anyone else."
"Okay, well, I agree with you. You can tell him when he comes home from school. Actually, I would call Sarah and have her come over to help you pack up his stuff and have it ready for him. There is a home for kids not too far away from us that I can make arrangements for him to stay at till they can cure him. How does that sound?"
"Sounds perfect honey! I know you're busy, so I'll let you go."
Back to Eric:
Steve has been helping me set up my room. It was getting late and Steve said he had to get home. I walked him to the door and gave him a goodbye kiss and thanked him for all his help today.
A bit later, I was filling my dresser when the phone rang downstairs. I heard Sarah pick up the phone.
"Eric, pick up the phone in my room please!"
I left my room and walked into Sarah and Mark's bedroom. I lifted the phone from the base and pushed talk.
"Hello!"
"Eric, Mom told me that Sarah and Mark helped you empty out your room."
It's my dad, or at least the guy who used to be my dad. I really didn't want to talk to him.
"Well, they helped me get my stuff out of your house."
"Don't you think that was a bit premature?"
"Oh no... Mom was quite clear. She wanted me out of her house and I take it that you did too."
"Look, I talked with your mom and at first I agreed with her, but then after praying about it, I was inspired and if you would agree to therapy then you can come back home."
WHAT? Doesn't he have a clue? Doesn't he know me enough to know that there is nothing wrong me?
"Dad, I'm not the one who needs the help. You guys kicked me out of the house. What does that say about you?"
"It says we love you enough to let you go."
"Look Dad, I don't therapy! I'm not broken."
I hung up before Dad could even get another word out of his mouth. I've never disrespected my dad in my life, but today I've had enough and just can't deal with it anymore. I went and found Sarah and Mark so I could vent.
"You will not believe this, Dad called, giving me the option of moving back to the house, if I'm willing to go through therapy."
"I'm going to play the devil for a minute, why not agree to the therapy, especially if they are willing to let you go back home?"
I know Mark didn't mean any harm by his question, I'm not really in the mood to be playing around like this, but I had better not bite his head off.
"Mark, I just don't see anything about me that needs to be changed. I'm not broken."
Mark smiled and patted me on the back.
"Look bud, I'm not even trying to send you packing, you know that you're welcome to stay here, and I am certainly not trying to suggest that you're broken."
Sarah left the room and was gone for just a few seconds. When she came back, she looked at Mark and motioned for him to follow her. I heard the car pull away and decided to give my new room a once over just to make sure that I like the way it was set up. Then I went out into the backyard and just sat out there. When I heard the car pull back into the driveway, I went around front. Mark came up to me holding something out to me.
"Here, you're mom had no business taking your phone away from you, so we got a new phone. Hope you like it!"
I thanked mark and Sarah. Then I went up to my room and started programming my new phone, and the first thing I did was to call Steve up.
"Hello!"
"I guess my new phone doesn't show up on your caller id?"
"Where did you get the new phone?"
"Sarah and Mark got for me. Can you believe that my dad made me an offer? He was willing to let me move back into the house if I went to therapy."
"What?"
The tone in his voice said it all. He couldn't believe it either. Now, they are putting conditions on the already rough relationship.
"So... I guess I'll have to let the school know about my move, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess so! Maybe Sarah could go up with you to the school and she could take care of it. Do you have any other bills that have to be transferred or subscriptions?"
Now that he mentioned, yeah I do. I'll have to get started on that right away.
"Thanks for reminding me to get busy and get that done. Guess I'll let you go and get to work."
*** I apologize for the use of "faggot" in the story. I am using it to show the attitude that the mother has towards her son. If you find it offensive I am deeply sorry.