Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2022 19:40:13 +0200 From: Ryan White Subject: Hashtag Complicated HOLA PEEPS! It's your boy Ryan with yet another story that he started to write because he was bored AF on this Sunday afternoon LOOOOL As always, I really hope you enjoy what I had put down on paper...it was fun in writing it from start to finish #blush My email, should you guys wanna get in touch, is liciousryan@gmail.com Peace and love always, Ryan HASHTAG COMPLICATED CHAPTER ONE *EIGHT YEARS AGO* "Jesus! Dad!" Fifteen-year-old Ravi Cramer looked up to where his father was now standing in sheer and utter horror...towering over him like the semi giant that he really was...hovering in the door way of the room that has been his for the last fifteen years that he had been on this God's green earth... ...and he had this sickening feeling that right now, it was his last. Because Tony Cramer could hardly get a word in...he could hardly seem to breathe...getting more and more red in his face by the second, so much so that he actually started to resemble the features of an over ripe tomato. He was angrier than Ravi has EVER seen him, and considering how quickly and how often Tony did lose his temper, that was saying something indeed. Ravi swallowed...and he felt that the body next to him was totally stiffened in human fright. He tried to push himself up on his hands, but then the teenager seemed to realise to his complete and utter shock that he was still naked...not quite as rock hard down there as he had been just a mere few glorious minutes before, but still...he wasn't quite flaccid either. Safe to say, he couldn't make a move, even if he tried. "Tony! Why are you...oh my...oh my God..." Ravi inwardly groaned as he saw his mother Natasha, ever so reluctantly, joined the gang of bandits that was now facing him and his best friend...what were they thinking? What the fuck did they expect to happen? To think that in this fucking conservative town, that they could get away with having pure, adulterated GAY SEX thinking that his folks was going to be gone the entire afternoon... Natasha folded her arms and turned away from the picture before her, complete with a reddish blush streaked across her still youthful face. "Ravi James Cramer, you get out of that bed right now. And that goes for your...your friend as well." Ravi shook his head and he turned towards Jonathan...the equally naked boy that was next to him, and still half and half inside his loving arms as they were, before they were so rudely interrupted. His lips were still tingling menacingly from Jonathan's incessant kissing and smooching...there was no fucking way that he could hide that. From anyone. The evidence was wall over the place and too overwhelming to say the least. Ravi's eyes didn't leave his father for a second...it seemed like Tony had the world at his feet to say what he really wanted to...he just didn't seem to want to get the words out. "Mom, I'd really love to get out of here, believe me, but there is just one little problem..." "Quite a big problem..." Jonathan giggled, earning himself a solid shove from Ravi himself. It was then that Tony seemed to regain control over his voice and limbs, walking towards his son and his bed hopping buddy, coming to a solid standstill just mere centimetres within touching distance of the two. "Get dressed Ravi. And once you've done that, you get your ass to my study as soon as possible! And you...you get out before I do something that is going to earn me a fucking death sentence," he croaked out towards both Ravi and lastly towards Jonathan, before he took one deep breath and walked out of his son's room in total and utter silence...and what could only be described as sheer disbelief of what he had just witnessed his own and only son doing. With another boy. With another boy...of a different race. Natasha, still with her back towards her son, sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, still refusing to look at the so called unseeable that she was quite sure she would NEVER be able to get out of her mind, as long as she lived... "Ravi...why? Why do this? You KNOW...you KNOW how he is! How he feels about...about them!" Ravi closed his eyes in sheer horror as he felt Jonathan finally make his move...as meek and as mild as Jonathan normally was, living in this town had a way of getting on your last nerve, and his mother had just blatantly seemed to piss all over that of Jonathan...the boy was angry as hell. And he had EVERY right to be. "About them? Do you mean...us coloured people? Is that what you really mean, Mrs Cramer?" Ravi pulled Jonathan back slightly, but he knew there was on stopping his friend when he was really on a roll. He was a big ass fighter for equal rights in the huge race debacle and racial hatred that still seemed to grip the beautiful country of South Africa to this very day, and where it was much more acceptable to see same sex relationships, and even mixed-race relationships...these days, ...there was still a certain point and percentage of those who lived in it, that just point blank refused to accept change. It was like they completely and utterly stood still in time, and anything else but the so-called normalcy of being who you truly SHOULD be, was frowned upon and ridiculed until you were actually fucking sick of it. The mere fact that Ravi had been in bed with Jonathan Mentoor...the mere fact for Tony and Natasha that not only were their son clearly not into girls, as the norm demanded...but he as a white, Caucasian fifteen-year-old boy has quite obviously been having sexual relationships with a coloured boy...and THAT was more than what both parents could stand. Natasha turned around and finally dared to look at the two naked boys in front of her. She shuddered visibly, as if it was taking all her self-control not to...severely explode into a billion shattering pieces or something...before her eyes flashed, and angrily at that. "Ravi, I believe your father told you to get dressed and to go and see him in the study. And Jonathan...I believe it was time for YOU...to go home. And if I ever...EVER...catch you here in my house again, I'll call the local police so fast, your head will spin!" Jonathan sighed, before he turned to look at Ravi, and he pulled a face, full of sarcasm and added fuel to the fire in an instant... "Told you. I fucking told you, but you wouldn't listen! Just get me my fucking clothes, I'm so out of here," he replied, complete with pushing Ravi out of the way so that he could get to his fallen attire, which was flat lined all over the carpets, of which had been before so ruthlessly scattered all over the place, when they first got started. Ravi urgently looked at his mother, begging her silently for help, but she was like a fucking statue...she just...just STOOD there and watched as his best friend in this whole world got dressed. As Jonathan angrily tossed his t-shirt he had been wearing back over his head, he shook his head, before then finally turned towards Ravi himself. "Don't ever talk to me again. Seriously. Not at school, not out of school. Never! I knew your family was weird, but this is way more than what I signed up for. You and me...we're fucking done." Ravi threw the duvet covers off his still naked teenage body, not even giving a single fuck that his mother was now actually seeing him without any clothes on, before he quickly pulled on his shorts, running out of the room, still shirtless. "Jono! Come on, man, let's talk about this!" he yelled after his best friend, but it was too no avail...the damage was done. more than done. Ravi turned towards his mother and ran his fingers through his hair...miserable as sin by now. He pointed his index finger towards the door and shook his head in sheer and morbid anger. "You see that? You see why I have no friends! Why are you guys like this? Apartheid ended in fucking 1994! Why can't I be friends with who I want to? Fall in fucking love with WHO I want to? What's so wrong about that?" Natasha slowly wiped her hands carefully on her jeans, before she sadly looked up at her son. She walked closer towards him and gently placed her right palm on his face. Her eyes shone as she looked at her only child. "Because that is how we...me and your father were brought up. You stick to your own kind, always! Whether that be white and white, or black and black, but never something in between! We both come from a different time, Ravi...please try and understand that!" Ravi shook away from his mother, wiping the side of his face, as she if she fucking laced him with the wax from a burning candle stick. "No, Mom! Then you bloody fucking get WITH the time! You're wrong...you're both so wrong," he said, before he slumped forward, and walked slowly towards his room, retrieving his shirt, before putting it back on. "Ravi..." "Mom, just...just leave me alone!" "Ravi, you can't keep your dad waiting any longer..." Ravi grimaced and placed his hands on his hips, in typical teenage sarcasm and bravado. He rolled his eyes and scratched the back of his neck in more and more anger... "Let him wait! I don't have shit to say to him! He just cost me the only friend I fucking had!" ** "Your things are being packed as we speak." Ravi froze. Did he hear his father correctly? He sure as hell didn't have a hearing problem, not that he knew of. "Dad? What the hell...?" "Don't call me that. Don't you EVER call me that again!" Ravi slumped onto the couch that was neatly placed across his dad's desk inside their home study...his legs no longer seemingly able to carry his weight. His face was suddenly buried in the palms of his hands. His fifteen-year-old heart and soul seemed to crumble as he finally realised just what his dad was saying... "Dad, you can't throw me out...Jesus Christ, where will I even go?" Tony Cramer's face was like solid granite...hard and untameable. He sat down at his own desk, with both his hands placed securely in front of him, dawned quietly into a solid fist, before he looked up at his son once more. "I don't care where you go. I don't care what you do with your life from here on in. You're not bloody innocent here! You chose this. You MADE me do this. As if you being...being homos...homosex...my God, I can't even say the word...lf that weren't bad enough, you had to go and do those unholy, unspeakable things with a coloured boy!" Jesus Christ. Ravi was now panicking...his dad was obviously deadly serious about all of this. There was no hint of a smile, or laughter, or even any instance where Ravi could pin point that his father just simply and adoringly wanted to scare him or make him see sense or even as little as just teaching him a lesson...he was actually throwing his own son out onto the streets! "Dad...where am I supposed to even go!?" Tony looked away from Ravi...his mouth grimacing as he did so...as if this really truly hurt him to actually do...and for just a moment, Ravi could swear that he saw a sparkle of hope...just a fucking smidgeon, that his dad was going to change his mind...at this moment he'd fucking settle for anything other than being thrown out of his house... ...but in the end...Tony's religious beliefs over took his own sanity, it seemed. "I don't care. Like I said, you brought this on yourself. I told Sarah to pack your things. Every single piece of evidence that you ever actually existed. And after you leave this house tonight, it better be for the final time. I don't want to see you...or hear anything from you...ever, ever again." Tony stood up, and quietly, slowly, walked over towards the closed door of the study, and swiftly unlocked it, opening it...no words were needed...it was as clear as day. He wanted Ravi to get the fuck out and even worse...to stay out. "You...are dead to me," Tony went about to speaking the unspeakable, leaving a distraught Ravi, as well as his tears and his dredged sobs, behind on their own. ** As Ravi walked into his bedroom...still in a daze that words...words of that cruel calibre could ever leave his father's mouth...directed towards him of all people...he saw that Tony had totally meant what he had said. Sarah sighed as she saw Ravi hovering between herself as his bed, and once the first tears were spilling across the unblemished flesh of his cheeks, she immediately dropped everything that she was doing, as the boy rushed towards her and buried himself in her warm arms. Sarah Philander was their domestic worker, and had been for several years, even before Ravi was born. She practically raised him from a baby, with Natasha going back to work after giving birth, the moment that it was safe to do so. With Tony being a high power in government circles...they literally had no time to take care of their own son right from the off...it didn't mean that they loved Ravi anyhow less, per say...it just meant that work was more important than taking care of their son. And why bother with that in the first place, when they could just pay someone to do it for them? Sarah was the mother than Ravi had always felt he SHOULD have had. He could see the tears inside her wise old eyes as she held his tired, emotionally scarred body to her own warm bosom. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..." she whispered as she finally allowed him to breathe, her eyes full of emotion and sadness as she looked up to the boy who she raised with her own two hands, whilst his parents just didn't' seem to give a fuck about a new born at home. She knew him like the back of his hand...or so it seemed. Ravi sighed and sat down on his bed...all his suitcases that he owned had been viciously taken and scattered across the room, as well as what looked like every single bit of his belongings that he had in this world. This was serious...this was no movie or story you would read in a book...this was actually fucking happening. "I suppose you heard what happened. And what my dad is doing," he whispered, his head down, as the reality dawned onto him. Jesus...what must Sarah be thinking of all of this? Did she and her little seven-year-old boy Jayden even hear any of what was going on? What was really happening here? And the reason that he was now being shunned out of his house like a fucking leaper in medieval times? Still not looking at their beloved domestic worker, he felt the mattress heave with the sudden added weight, before he noticed that Sarah had taken one of his hands into her very own in sitting down right next to him. She squeezed it tightly, like only a mother could, before she seemed to take in a much-needed breather. "Look, my boy...I don't understand what you are going through, and yes, me and Jayden heard every word of what happened, although shame...he's way too young to ever even try to understand what all means. Anyway...I have to be honest, you know me...I don't understand why two men or two women would ever be...well, sexually attracted to one another, but I do know this..." Sarah took both of her callused hands, tired and wrinkly from all her years of working...and placed it on the sides of Ravi's face, turning the boy's sad features to directly face her own. A lonely tear escaped from her eyes before she smiled warmly at him. "All I know is...I raised you. I fed you, and I clothed you. And I know you're not a bad person. You're the same funny, charming, witty...stupid kid with a heart of gold, that I have always known. And this...this thing where your father, Mister Cramer has now thrown you out of this house...just because you...and with a coloured boy on top of it all..." Ravi shuddered as he heard her call a spade...well, a space, before she hugged his body to hers once more. "If I was you mother, I'd never allow Mister Cramer to do this. Never! They'd have to kill me first! I'd never treat Jayden, or even a dog for that matter, the way that that man just did." Ravi nodded, his eyes full of unshed tears of his own, but the last thing he wanted to do was to cry in front of Sarah more than he had already done. It was like he wanted to be strong, like she had always taught him...like he wanted to prove to her, of all people that he could stand on his own two feet even after everything that has just occurred. As Sarah was patting his shoulder for some much-needed reassurance, a young coloured boy of about seven came running into Ravi's room, and his eyes immediately seemed to lit up as soon as he saw the teenager. "Ravi, wanna come play soccer outside with me? I'll be Man United and you can be Liverpool!" he yelled on the top of his voice, before Sarah stood up and gave his behind a slight tick with the back of her hand. "Jayden! We don't shout when we're in the big house, how many times have I told you that?" she hissed towards her son in her native Afrikaans, before she nervously looked around for either Natasha or Tony...but there was no sign of either of them. Ravi stood up and smiled towards the little boy, before he turned around and hooked his own World Cup 2014 replica soccer ball close with his hands, and slowly walking over towards Jayden. The little boy once more seemed to light up, his eyes full of heroic admiration towards the older kid...his buddy Ravi...before he looked upwards, as Ravi was handing the ball towards him. "There you go, buddy. All yours. Go nuts, and have fun, yeah?" Ravi whispered, as the boy looked at the soccer ball as if it was the most expensive piece of jewellery that he had ever seen in his entire life. "You're really giving me your ball, Ravi?" he asked so innocently as only a boy of that age could, inside his young, tiny, youthful voice, his eyes taking turn flickering between the ball, and towards Ravi himself. Ravi nodded, and playfully ruffled the little boy's hair, before he stood up, and turned towards Sarah. "I'll finish up here, Sarah, don't you worry about that. I'll pack my own shit up here. If they want me out of the fucking house so damn bad, the least I can do, is this. I don't wanna owe them anything. I'm done. I'm so done, Sarah. With their homophobia, with their racism...with them as people. DONE! DONE!" *PRESENT DAY* "Ravi...Ravi, wake up!" Ravi's eyes shot open the moment that he felt an arm on his shoulders, and for a few seconds, he didn't quite know where he was. He turned his head towards his right-hand side, where he saw Akeem's warm, caring, loving eyes looking into his own, before Ravi sighed, and wiped the sweat of his forehead. "Fucking hell...dunno when last that happened...thought I was over it..." he whispered, before reaching over towards the nightstand next to the bed, grabbing the glass of water he always had there during the night, and taking a huge ass sip of the damp, yet deliciously cool liquid. He took a few more sips, before he placed the glass back where he had found it, and laid back down, his eyes wide as saucers. "Did you have that dream again?" Akeem asked, his voice full of sympathy, as he placed his hand solidly on top of his husband's chest. Ravi nodded slowly, his breathing still not completely under control, and he closed his eyes...he could actually SEE his father's eyes in his mind's eye...the anger, the disappointment, his mother Natasha doing absolutely nothing to help her one and only child from being kicked out so fucking viciously into the street in the middle of the night. Ravi composed himself and turned towards Akeem, and gave him a slight kiss on his lips, leaning his forehead against his own. He didn't know what would have become of him, if it wasn't for this dude before him. Akeem was a full ten years older than him, and at first it didn't seem that much of a big deal...but these days, all that Akeem could talk about was his big promotion at work, and how important it really was to impress his new soon to be partners at his law firm. They often took care for the big political parties of South Africa, including the ANC and the DA, so this was huge for both of them as a married couple. But on the other hand...poor Ravi tended to stick out like a sore thumb at these social events they were forced to host and to attend. Countless and countless of boring dinners had taken place over the last few weeks and days that Ravi simply HAD to find a way to get through...even though he didn't understand a single word of what was said, once the legal eagles started to talk shop. Akeem loved him, he knew that. There was a lot of bigots inside his law firm and he could have dropped Ravi long ago for exactly that reason, he probably would have made partner by now if he did, go figure...but he didn't. Instead, he stuck by him and he honestly, genuinely loved him, that he knew, that he was sure of. There was just...something missing. Something that wasn't there anymore, as it was before. Akeem was the sweetest, kindest man you could ever meet, and Ravi felt like a backstabber for even remotely feeling this way in the first place. "I'll be fine. I just need to get some sleep. We have another dinner tomorrow night, don't we? Need to get my beauty sleep, then! Can't have you taking Shrek to that thing!" he joked towards his husband, which earned a massive smile from the latter for his trouble. "I love you, Ravi. You're my whole entire world, you realise that?" Akeem whispered once more, before he leaned in and the two men once more kissed lovingly, with Ravi gripping the bottom half of Akeem's lip just a tad, before he released it. "Yeah...same here," he replied, turning in his side, before closing his eyes, and he immediately felt Akeem's arms encircle his body in the classic "big spoon-little spoon" manoeuvre. He couldn't even say it. He couldn't say the words. God knows...he really felt like shit. The slight snoring noises coming from his husband was a clear indication that Akeem had immediately fallen asleep once more, but sleep was the furthest thing from Ravi's mind. They hardly had any sex any more. Akeem was always too busy, or too tired. Sometimes he actually wished that Akeem was a monster, or someone who abused him...just anything to make Ravi feel better about wanting out...wanting more...wanting WAY more, than what he now had. They lived in a modest two bed room house, and Akeem didn't even want Ravi to work...he told him that as his husband, he was taught to take care of the person he loved and eventually married. Whilst obviously a more than just, kind thought in theory...Ravi felt trapped. He felt like he wanted more...that there was more outside of this, out there to live and explore than what he had with Akeem. And he felt like an absolute asshole for doing so. ** In the days that followed, Akeem was away from the house and from Ravi more and more. At only twenty-three years of age, Ravi was as lonely as he ever was. He couldn't even blame Akeem, in the slightest...he was busy with trying his best to launch a career that would probably mean that they were financially set for life...how could he deny the man he loved that opportunity? Was it still love though? And not complete and utter pity? Self-loathing? Forcing himself to stay in a relationship whilst everything since his very being was crying out for more? It was already seven a clock in the evening, and although Akeem had more than promised, more than once, that he would make the time so that himself and Ravi could have at least one meal together since the previous week, Akeem still wasn't home. Around eight a clock, Ravi still had hope, but it was fading fast. And when a text message...not a call...a fucking text message showed up on his phone, he knew what was up. He knew. "Babe...I don't even have words. The senator has just turned up and I really can't leave now. I really need to be here. Oh, and I hate to ask this of you, given how things are going but can you please pick up some facial scrub for me? I've run out. I love and appreciate you!" "Jesus! Why...just why?" Ravi yelled out on top of his voice to anyone in that house who would wanna listen, but of course there was no one around. Even the maids and their servants had the evening off. He sunk to his knees inside the kitchen area...having never, ever in his life felt so God damn alone as he was now. His heart was pounding, his breath was coming quicker and quicker, as he looked up...dared to look up, at the delicious meal that he himself had prepared for himself and Akeem. Completely like a man possessed by a vile, bastard of a creature, Ravi stood up and ripped the table cloth from where it was, ripping the food and the expensive glasses, wine and several pieces of cutely from the table at the same time, complete with a raw rumble from deep inside his throat what would make Bigfoot look like pussy. It all tumbled to the floor, along with bits and pieces of cooked food, slathering all and sundry completely along onto the previously, sparkling clean kitchen floor. Ravi's eyes teared up at the sight of the mess...he had to get out. There was no where he could actually go through...all of their mutual friends were Akeem's...he was literally, come to think of it...only on speaking terms with them because of his husband...and he didn't think he could complain about his life to them of all people...not if he valued his marriage. Fucking hell. A twenty-three-year-old living the life of a spinster. Fuck this. He had to get out. Even if it was just to get Akeem's god damn facial scrub. Right at that moment, Ravi felt like he needed to be ANYWHERE but there. ** "Geez...look at that que at the cashier...man, I hate this," Ravi rolled his eyes and shook his head. Normally they had a domestic worker who did all these kinds of stuff for them once or twice a month, but definitely not at this hour. He was lucky to have found the local Dis-Chem chemist in town, still open and operating even after eight at night, but the lord knows, he needed fresh air and he needed it now. Grabbing the face cream and moisturiser that he knew Akeem always used, he aimed right for the pay point...but not before bumping into a woman as he tried to get out and away from all these people as soon as possible. "I'm sorry, Mam, forgive me...I totally didn't care where I was goi..." he started to bundle out what had to be the least sincere apology in recent history, before he was stopped severely within his tracks. One look at the woman...dressed perfectly in a pink jacket against the cold icy winter weather out there, ripped blue skinny jeans that wouldn't have fitted her in the million years before...and with his eyes narrowed, Ravi barely saw the family resemblance...for the first time in eight long years... "Mom? Mom, that you?" Natasha Cramer's eyes flickered towards that of her son, before she seemed to cling her fingers to the shopping cart that she had been pushing before Ravi had bumped right into her. She took off the black shades that she was wearing, before her own features almost flatlined, as she realised at once, just who was standing before her. "Ra...Ravi?" she whispered, so softly that Ravi almost couldn't make out what she was actually saying, but for his name only had two syllables, he could easily lipread to see what she was saying. Mother and son stood staring at each other, not saying or doing anything remotely for what seemed like decades, when in sheer reality, it was only for like a few short minutes. Finally, it was Ravi who broke the ice, and wandered curiously towards her, with what he hoped to God, was a friendly enough smile. "What are you doing here this late?" he finally asked, just...anything to end this pathetic struggle for silent power between them. Natasha softly smiled as she gently pointed her forehead towards the shopping cart, and Ravi could see what it was all kinds of woman's things...perfume, panties, headache tablets, bath saults, those kinds of girly stuff. "I...I just needed a couple of things...Ravi...I..." Ravi shook his head as he saw a multiple of people starting to enter the chemist, hoping to get in some last-minute shopping before it closed at nine, before he looked up and his mouth, it felt, just started talking...robotically if you would... without him even realising what he was actually saying. "Mother...please not here, okay? Not in front of all these people. Look, let's just both pay for our stuff, and I'll meet you outside. There is a bench close to the exit, near to the McDonalds that I saw when I parked my car. If you wanna talk...I'll be waiting there." ** It took a while for Natasha to show up, Ravi had even started to think that he was waiting for the grass to grow before she would eventually turn up. When he finally spotted her, he stood up, before she came to a sudden rest before him. She had no grocery bags in her hands, which allowed hi the time to frown and start off the much-needed conversation... "Mom...didn't you have a bunch of stuff in a trolley earlier? Did you put your bags away?" Natasha shook her head, before she reached out...and as if inside a dream...not the like nightmare that Ravi had several nights prior...she took hold of his hand, and held it tightly within her own. "Forget the shopping. It can wait. I just...I can't...I can't believe my little boy is now...is now a full-grown man! I haven't seen you in what...how long has it been..." Ravi smirked, and not in a good way. "Eight years, Mom. EIGHT YEARS. And you wanna tell me you can't remember that? Wow...some mother you are." Natasha wiped away some tears which had totally been threatening to roll down her cheeks like a roller-coaster on a steep line, but she kept herself in check, sitting down on the bench in the process, and as their hands were still joined, he didn't have a choice but to do the same. "Mother..." "No, Ravi...please...let me have this. Okay? Please give me a chance." Ravi sighed...before things were a little quiet for a few seconds once more, before he finally nodded and turned towards his mother. Natasha licked her lips a fair few times, before she closed her eyes, as if she was actually thinking back...relieving...what had happened in the not-so-distant past. "Words...words mean nothing, I know. But...both myself and your father know what we did was wrong. Ravi...it was so wrong! Putting your child on the street just because he was...he was...I mean..." Ravi grimaced and gently pulled his hand from his mother's grasp. "Can't even say it, can you, mother? I'm gay. Okay? Your only living, breathing son, is GAY! And guess what...I'm married to a wonderful man, who literally worships the ground I walk on. And guess what more...HE IS BLACK! Yeah? How do you and dad like them apples?" Natasha didn't blink once during Ravi's confession. She just...continued to look at him blankly, without saying anything. Ravi had enough...he was already under enough pressure with Akeem and his new political career, and now running into his mother...it was all just one big snowy avalanche right now...he had to get the heck out of there, for the sake of his own fucking sanity, if nothing else. "You know what, as fun...as this was, I better get going. My husband...Akeem...is actually waiting for me. So...I guess I'll see you guys when the first parent croaks..." "Come with me. Come home with me." Ravi stopped in his tracks. He turned around and looked back at his mother, who was by now looking as desperate as a garden mouse fighting a anaconda. She was actually...was she begging him? Jesus...when did Natasha Cramer EVER beg for anything in her entire life? She seemed truthful enough, however. Her eyes gleamed as she willed him to say yes. "Mom, like I said, I have a husband at home who's waiting for me..." he carried on with the vicious lie...it wasn't like she knew what was going on or how hard Akeem worked that he never had time for the two of them. Natasha crossed her arms and shook her head as negative, brushing her hair out of her eyes as she did so. "No...Ravi, I meant...come home with me just for a while. Right now, in fact! Just...just come home for a while. Just to have some coffee or tea or...well, you're an adult now...there is still some of you father's beer inside the fridge if you want that..." "I don't drink alcohol." Natasha nodded and smiled once more. "Come on Ravi...just, just for thirty minutes or so! And I just know that Sarah for one will be overjoyed to see you." Wow...Sarah...their domestic worker who practically raised him as her own...a sudden prang of guilt ripped through Ravi like a hot knife through butter. When last did he even think of her...how she was must be doing? If she was still even working at her advanced age. She must be getting close to sixty by now...and oh yeah...Ravi smiled...she had a little boy as well...that little monster must at least be a teenager by now...God...how times flies. Even when you don't realise it. "It would be awesome to see Sarah again..." he murmured, as Natasha's eyes lit up, and her hands were suddenly clasped in sheer joy. "Great! You can drive on after me. And Ravi..." Ravi turned towards his mother...and the huge ass smile on her face completely and utter ripped him a new one. He so much wanted to hate this woman...and for a long time he actually did, with everything that he had inside of him. But the look on her face, that joyous, overzealous, happiness etched on her older features, seemed to just...destroy and envelop whatever animosity there still was. This was his mother...he still loved her. He couldn't help himself...it was still very much there. "Okay. But only for a few minutes! Oh...is Dad gonna be home?" Natasha's face fell just a tad, before she sighed, and shook her head. "He's...you don't have to worry about him anymore. He's out of my life. That's all you need to know." ** "SARAH!" Like a little kid of old, Ravi ran towards the older woman, the moment they had had laid eyes on her once they were home, and hugged her very tightly to him. Eight years has passed since he had last seen her, and by the looks of things, he had been severely missed, beyond belief! Sarah clung to him literally as if she was afraid, he would die if she ever let go! "Dis so goed on jou te sien, ek het jou so gemis!" Ravi told her in her native Afrikaans language as a sign of his huge respect he had for her, simply and honestly stating that it was good to see her, and how much he had missed her. For a few seconds, Sarah just held on to him, before she finally loosened her Titanic grip, and stood back to actually take a good look at him. "Your mommy phoned me from inside her car just now when you guys were on your way here, and she told me she found you in the chemist and you're coming over for a visit...I honestly didn't know what to believe...but here you are...my sweet, sweet baby boy, all grown up now..." Ravi looked around the kitchen area, leading out into the patio, and of course the garden, which was majestic and as green as it had always been. His father Tony, didn't win all those trophies and awards from the best garden in the entire province for yonks, for nothing! "You must sit down; we haven't seen each other in ages! Tea? Coffee? Coke?" Ravi snickered at Sarah's bursts of energy, exactly how he had come to know her over the years, and even more when she rushed towards the kettle when he asked her for a cup of coffee. Natasha winked at him, before she solemnly asked Sarah to speak to her in private...no doubt wanting to warn her not to tell his father that he had ever been there. Ravi wasn't sure, but he had his suspicions. The moon light shone over the twenty-two-year-old as he entered the garden and took a walk through the beautiful plant scenery. Flashes and images of simpler times boiled through his blood and mind...how he had grown up here on this estate. How he had played soccer with his buddies until kingdom came. How he had totally fallen in love with his former best friend Jonathan Mentoor back in the day...and knew nothing could ever come from it, because they were both males and because of the fucking colour of Jonathan's skin. Anger ripped through Ravi once more...what the fuck did it have to do with anything? Love is love, dude! And if you have a special connection with someone...who cares if they were the same gender as you, or had the same skin colour...it was insane! Giving up on love because of politics...far out man. Far out. "FREEZE! HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" Ravi tensed. That was a voice that he certainly didn't recognise. Jesus...on the first night in nearly eight years that he decided to visit the home that he grew up in...please don't tell me that this was a break in...talk about wrong place at the fucking wrong time... But no. The voice belonged to a teenager. A teenager...with a very real, sharp ass knife pointing straight at him. "WHO ARE YOU? What the hell are you doing here?" the teenager demanded, his voice hoarse with emotion and anger, and even Ravi could see that whoever he was, that he was as uncomfortable holding that knife, as Ravi was of seeing it. Ravi held out his hands in a surrender motion, as if he wanted to force the boy to calm the fuck down... ...before the teen decided to come closer, and the flood lights shone over his handsome, youthful face. Jesus! He knew that face! It had been eight long years...but he would recognise those eyes ANYWHERE! "Jayden? Jayden, relax, it's me! It's Ravi!" The boy lowered the knife just a tad at the sound of Ravi's words, and he came a little closer...etching his feet one before the other, in literal slow motion esque, before he came to an utter stand still. Panic suddenly surfaced inside Ravi's brain...it was one thing to tell Jayden who he was...but Jayden had only been seven years of age since they had last seen each other...would he even still recognise him? Ravi could now see Jayden's entire body very clearly...and boy...fucking hell, did that little boy grow out! He was almost as tall as Ravi himself, who was a full eight years older, his biceps were clearly defined and strong, there was a dash of hair across his strong, muscled legs...and his short, cropped hair was short and plastered to his head, thanks to him sweating bullets holding a knife to what he was perceiving as a total stranger. "Jayden...look at me! Okay? It's me, its Ravi! Remember? Mister and Missus Cramer's son? I left here years ago...! We always used to play together when your mom Sarah would work in the kitchen and she'd always make us yummy peanut butter and jam sandwiches...and we'd always see who could finish theirs the quickest...you always used to beat me, every damn time! Come on Jayden...just put that knife down, please?" Jayden's eyes were all over the place...it was like he was trying to remember or think if what he was hearing was the truth or a vicious lie...for a while both Ravi and Jayden just...stood there in total and silent unison, as if they were surveying the crap out of the other, before... Jayden dropped the knife. Ravi sighed...but Jayden wasn't moving closer to him. He was standing just where he was. "Ravi?" The voice...so deep, so powerful...so completely different to that seven-year-old little angelic voice that used to plague his ears as they played their hearts out years ago. Ravi smiled...and that's probably when the last piece of the puzzle fell into place for young Jayden... "Wow...it really is you...I totally remember you now!" Ravi took down his arms, still in that ridiculous position all this time, before he slowly walked over to where Jayden was standing. Man...he'd kill to have a soccer match with this kid now...after all these years. In the past, as a seven-year-old boy, he would always LET Jayden win...but by the looks of things, Jayden would be more than able to run circles around him now. "I can't believe...you're a teenager! My God...I really missed you, buddy..." Ravi croaked out, before he grabbed Jayden inside a bear hug, and held him close. He could feel, almost instantaneously, how the boy gasped for breath, before he slowly, but surely, encircled Ravi's own upper body and shoulders with his very own. Together the two of them stood inside the epicentre of that garden...two souls that had found each other again, at last. "You're squeezing the crap outta me..." Jayden giggled, in the typical Cape Coloured accent that was so well known to those that resided in the Western Province of South Africa, that Ravi had to stifle a laugh. He finally broke the hug, before, just like he always did JUST when this young handsome man was about as tall as his knees as a little boy, he ruffled Jayden's hair to the point where the kid pushed him away playfully. "This is my pride and joy, dude! You don't get to touch this masterpiece anymore, yo!" Jayden laughed, complete with a solid twinkle in his beautiful, mesmerising green eyes. "Oh really? That minced up fuck fest is supposed to be a masterpiece?" Jayden giggled and tossed himself over towards Ravi, who started to tickle the boy immediately, yet another classic, blessed attempt to get back where they were before Ravi had to leave his home, and sure as hell, the latter quickly surrendered from his awful failed attempt to get some much-needed revenge. "So, are you like... moving back here? Momma told me years back that Mister and Missus Cramer, that they told you to leave, but she never said why? I remember we playing together, and I still have the ball that you gave me, believe it or not. But I don't get why you're suddenly back and all," Jayden bantered and raved, still not taking his eyes off Ravi even once. Ravi sighed and placed his arm around his younger buddy. "How much time you got? I scheme you'll be seeing me a little bit more these coming days...me and my mom are probably going to try and work things out between us if we can. Oh, by the way, my mom also said that my dad doesn't live here anymore? When did that happen?" Jayden looked down at his bare feet, before he shrugged his shoulders and wiped his eyes. "I don't know nothing. You're gonna have to talk to Missus Cramer. I know nothing that happened." Ravi narrowed his eyes... ...now why didn't he believe Jayden? Why was there...something so...so sinister...so absolutely mellow about the kid when he bought up Tony Cramer? Oh well...his mother would probably tell him eventually. He needed to get back soon...although he had no fucking idea when Akeem would actually be home. Jesus...Akeem! This whole time... ...this whole entire time...he hasn't thought about Akeem, even once! Man... Ravi's eyes caught those of Jayden...still standing to the side and carefully watching him, as if he was curious, or afraid, after what had just happened when he had dared to mention his father. "Say what...wanna do things like old times? Race ya to the main house?" Ravi asked, his eyes suddenly full of mischief and former teenage bravado. Jayden smiled wickedly, before he SPED off the direction of the destination without so much as a warning. "HEY! NO FAIR!" Ravi shouted but he chased Jayden with all he had anyway. ** "Mom...what the hell happened between you and dad? I know he's not living here anymore, and when I asked Jayden, he completely..." "Why are you asking Sarah's son these kinds of questions? It has nothing to do with him!" Ravi paused, on his way to taking his cell phone out of his pockets, to check if there were any messages at all from Akeem, but it was like THAT tone of voice from his mother stopped him RIGHT in his tracks. "What now? Why are you so angry all of a sudden? You didn't wanna give me answers so..." "What...what exactly did Sarah's boy tell you?" Natasha demanded, her eyes flashing dangerously. Ravi stepped back...before he held up his hands and got the keys to his car. "On second thought...I really don't wanna know. If you and dad really are separated, then I'm happy for you. You can tell him that I was here, if you want...and that I'm good. Like I said...married to a wonderful BLACK man who's soon going to have a great career in politics. So, both of you don't have to worry about me. I'm doing more than good." Well, no matter how much he still loved Akeem, he was still miserable as sin, but of course, his mother didn't need to know that. Natasha composed herself a little bit, before she solemnly grabbed Ravi's hand, and once again, softly squeezed it. "I'm sorry...I really am. It's just...seeing you after all these years...and the reason you had to leave. It...it shook me, Ravi! It really did! Seeing you and that...that boy in your bed, the sheets all over the place...both of you naked as the day you were born...ask ANY mother if she would be okay with seeing that!" Ravi frowned, before he unlocked his car by pressing the red button on his remote, with the car flashing its hazard lights in quick succession. "Tell me one thing, Mother, and I promise I will never bring it up again, but I really need to know...why didn't you stop him? Dad, I mean! That night he threw me out? You just stood there? Literally! That's something I can never get over! Even Sarah supported me more than you back then! Even she and even Jayden was happier to see me tonight than you were!" Natasha sighed...before she took a deep breath, and for a minute it looked like she was about to divulge what just could have been her deepest, darkest secret, before... "DUDE! IS THAT YOUR CAR?" Natasha smiled softly at young Jayden's antics, whether it was relief, more than anything else, Ravi would now never know, before she pulled her son in for a quick hug. "Take care of yourself, okay? And please...feel free now that your father is no longer around here, to bring over your husband the next time you come to visit. All of us would love to meet him," she whispered in his ear, before giving him a soft kiss on his temple. ** "Sorry...I shouldn't have shouted like that. Old habits..." Jayden said as Ravi returned to his car and opened the driver's side of the door. "Geez...you must be rich as fuck to afford things like this!" Jayden breathed out in a low voice, full of once more, admiration and appetition for what he was seeing before him. Ravi smiled warmly at Jayden, once more pulling the boy close to him. "Actually...I don't have a job or even money of my own to be honest. My husband completely and totally looks after me. Sucks I know...but that's the way he wanted things, he was taught to take care of those you love." Jayden stiffened immediately. Ravi sensed it immediately. For a while, things were silent...Ravi still with his arm around Jayden... ...before... "You're married?" Ravi blinked. "Yeah." Silence. "To a dude?" Once more, Ravi nodded. "Yeah." More silence. More awkwardness. Jayden cleared his throat, before he manoeuvred himself from under Ravi's arm. "I guess that's cool. Wait, hold up...is that why...? Jayden didn't quite finish his sentence...but Ravi instinctively knew what he wanted to know...if being gay was the reason that Tony had thrown him out of the house in the fucking first place. He has literally known Jayden his whole life...and Jayden could say the exact same thing in vice versa. He wasn't going to lie to him for God's sake, this was 2022 after all. He looked Jayden's directly in his beautiful green eyes, and nodded. "Yeah. That was why. But it's over now. Okay? I promised my mom and yours that I'll visit more often now. We've lost so many years...I don't wanna lose anymore." Jayden crossed his arms, and took a look back to the house, before he nervously looked back at Ravi. "I'd...I like that. I'd really like that," he replied, flashing a handsome smile, back towards him. ** THANKS FOR READING!! First chapter, setting the scene and the storyline...DONE! If you're familiar of my stories, you'll know this is how I operate. I love writing for you guys, and I really hope you enjoyed reading it. Any feedback? Any happenings you wish me to include for the second chapter? Because obviously Ravi and Jayden ARE gonna get closer...and closer hahaha. liciousryan@gmail.com