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BUZZ…BUZZ…BUZZ… I rolled over in the bed and hit the snooze button on the alarm clock and looked at the time. God how I hated those things! They always seemed to go off at the wrong time. I lay back down in bed and drifted back to sleep.

"Joseph Craig Saren! Get your butt out of bed now, you're going to be late!" My mom called from my door.

I looked at her through blurred eyes and nodded. God, did she have to be such a bitch in the mornings? I rolled out of bed and stood up stretching. I smiled remembering that this was the start of the last week of school.

I walked across my room and into the bathroom turning on the shower and getting it to just the right temperature before stepping under the blissfully comforting jets of hot water. I continued through my morning ritual and stood before the mirror in my bathroom combing my brown hair. Looking at the mirror I realized I hadn't put my contacts in because everything was really blurry. I got them in and got dressed and headed out the door.

I climbed into my car and looked down at my watch. "Shit! I'll be late if I don't hurry!"

I started up my '85 Ford Mustang and backed out of the driveway and kicked it into first and had already hit second by the time I made it out of the subdivision and onto the road. I made it to school in about 4 minutes but in doing so I broke every speed limit between my house and the school. Pulling into Buford High School I parked and sprinted toward the doors. When I got inside the halls were all but empty. Not a good sign! I ran down the cross-hall and turned into the 200 hall in time to run into someone.

I watched as the guy fell back and lost the books that he was carrying.

"Oh crap man, I'm sorry!"

I held out my hand to help the guy up and looked him over. I didn't know who he was and that's weird for our school. It having only about 430 people and being in northern Georgia and all. Looking him over in the split second before he looked up I saw that he was tall, thin, and blond. He looked up at me slightly embarrassed and I had to consciously remind myself to breathe. He was beautiful! He had the most amazing crystal blue eyes.

Taking my hand I pulled him up. His touch was electric as I stammered out another apology.

He smiled at me and nearly blew my mind with the way his lips curled when he smiled. "It's fine man. I should have been watching where I was going." Just then the bell went off.

"Damn man, I'm sorry I made you late. By the way, you look new around here. I've never seen you here before," I said trying to maintain my composure.

"Yeah, I am. I just moved out here from California with my mom. My name's Tyler Johnson, but everyone calls me T.J., and I'm kind of lost. I'm looking for the counselor's office. I've got to get my schedule."

I smiled at him and motioned for him to follow me. "I'll take you. It's the least I can do for knocking you over on your first day." He walked beside me to the counselor's office. He looked over at me, "I don't think I caught your name."

I laughed a little. I had completely forgotten to tell him who I was. "My name's Joseph Craig Saren, but all of my friend's call me Joe."

"So which do I fall into?" He asked smiling.

"I think you qualify for Joe," I replied.

"We're here," I said walking into the counselor's office. "This is the person you want to see," I said walking behind Mrs. Stokey. "She handles all your class assignments and report cards. And she's useful to have on your good side."

She looked up at me and smiled, "And what can I do for you two?"

"I need my schedule Ma'am," T.J. said smiling.

She went through the "name, rank, and serial-number" bit with him and I found out that he was in 10th grade like me, lived close to me, and is in all but one of my classes. When they were finished she printed his schedule out and handed it to him.

"Joe, would you mind showing Tyler to his class since you're both going to the same one?" Stokey asked me. "Sure Stokes. Can you give us a pass? You know Mrs. Maltbie will have a cow if we come into her class this late."

She wrote out the pass and handed it to me and we walked out of the office. T.J. handed me the schedule she had given him. "You'll love Ms. Coley and Mrs. Maltbie," I said with as much sarcasm as I could muster. "Mrs. Maltbie a.k.a. "The Anti-Christ" teaches all advanced math classes, Algebra II and up, and is just a horrid teacher. Ms. Coley is known as "Satan" and teaches Spanish, and to make it worse she looks like a shaven wookie from Star Wars. She looks like Chewy if he were to shave all his hair off." I told him as we walked toward Mrs. Maltbie's room.

When we got in her room she gave me a demonic look as I handed her the note. "Take your seats gentlemen," she said.

We walked over to my desk and he sat in the empty one across from me. We made it through the class only getting menacing looks from her twice because we wouldn't stop talking. I found out that he has two brothers, one in college and the other in the 7th grade.

When the class ended we went to drama and were ushered from the class room and into the theater where we had to finish cleaning everything up and setting stuff up for next year. Mrs. Staples had already set up the scaffolding for me and I climbed up to check all the light fixtures. Me being in charge of the lights does have some perks. T.J. helped me change a few of the blown bulbs and then take the scaffolding down and store it away.

We then went to History together and then to Engineering. After Engineering he left to go to Spanish while I remained in Dr. Ducote's Engineering class where I'm his assistant. After that we all met up for lunch. I got T.J. through the lunch line and sat hi down at the table with my friends.

"Everybody, this is T.J… He and I kind of ran into each other this morning." T.J. said,
"Hi," to everyone and I introduced Chris, Carrie, Andria, and Lily to him. "Until now I was the youngest person at the table. Everyone else except Lily is graduating this year," I said frowning around the table. I had really come into my own this year after finally coming out of the closet to all my friends at a homecoming part over at Eric's. We even managed to get it on tape.

Through lunch we chatted about the usual school stuff but I couldn't keep my eyes off T.J. and Andrea noticed it to. She kicked me under the table and gave me a weird grin. I just smiled and looked back at T.J. We all got up as the lunch bell sounded and put our trays away. I took T.J. to his next class. Before I left him I told him to meet me at my locker after school and I'd give him a ride home. I never thought this school day would end but at 2:35 the bell sounded and I went to my locker.

I smiled when I saw T.J. walking toward me. I quickly got all the books I needed for homework and closed my locker. I smiled at T.J. as we walked down the hall.

"Hey fagot!" A very familiar voice said from behind me.

I stopped in place and turned to face who could only be John. "John, why don't you grow up and get a life?" I said sarcastically. "When the fuck are you going to realize that calling me names doesn't bother me?" He just stood there with that stupid grin of his on his face and laughed at me. "You want to make something of this Fag Boy?" He asked stepping toward me. I stood my ground knowing that if we got in a fight that I'd surely lose but there was no way in hell I was backing down to this low life, homophobic piece of shit.

He walked up to me and grabbed the front of my shirt and slammed me hard against the wall. I looked over and for the first time since this started I saw T.J. Oh my God!!! He knows I'm gay! Fear and anguish washed over my face when I looked into his eyes. I put him out of my mind and focused on John. "John, you really don't get it do you? I really don't care if you call me names and shove me into a wall or beat me down. Do you know why? Because it takes a bigger mind to ignore your shit that it does for someone like you to dish the shit out." I pushed him off me and went to walk away. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him draw his fist back to hit me in the back.

As soon as I saw his fist go back T.J. grabbed his arm and shoved him against the wall. "Now listen to me you sorry piece of shit. You will not say another word to Joe or to anyone about being gay, straight or bi. It takes and incredibly strong person to admit that to an entire school. I think it's fairly safe to say that he's more of a man than you EVER will be. If you come near him again I will hurt you and you better remember that."

During this I just slid down the lockers and sat on the floor. I felt so tired all of the sudden. I am just so tired of this shit, tired of having to deal with all this stuff day after day. Then I looked up and saw John look into T.J.'s face and cower in fear. I would have cowered too. T.J. threw John roughly to the ground and came over to help me up. I just couldn't stand. It was just to hard for me to move my legs right then.

T.J. got a scared look on his face and picked me up gently and carried me out to my car. My voice barely breaking a whisper telling him which one it was as I reached in my pocket to hand him my keys. I watched as T.J. opened the passenger door and gently lay me down in the seat and put my seatbelt on.

As T.J. got in on the driver's side I asked him if he knew how to drive a stick shift and he said yes. He cranked the car drove to his house. When we got to his house I was a little more together than I had been at the school and could at least walk on my own. We went into his house and down to the basement where his room was. There were still a few boxes from the move that he hadn't got unpacked yet. I sat down on his bed in a catatonic state screaming inwardly at myself and at John and the world.

I sat there on his bed and brought my knees up to my chest and started sobbing into my knees. T.J. wrapped his arms gently around me and held me tightly against him.

"Shhhh… it's going to be ok Joe. I don't hate you because you're gay. It wouldn't be practical since I am too," T.J. whispered in my ear.

I looked up at him through tear filled eyes as he smiled at me and wipes my tears away with his hands. He leaned over and kissed me gently on the lips. It kind of startled me at first but when I felt how soft and gentle his lips are I returned the kiss and wrapped my arms around him. T.J. pulled me slowly down onto the bed with him and I lay my head on his chest and fell into a peaceful sleep.

I smiled at Joe as he slept lying on my chest just thinking about all that had happened today. I started out going to a school where I knew absolutely no one. This incredibly hot guy came barreling down the hall into me and then he helps me find my classes and introduces me to his friends and to top it off he offers me a ride home. Then on our way out he gets attacked by a homophobic bastard that is so scared of what Joe is that he feels he has to intimidate him to make himself feel more like a man. And Joe didn't stand for any of his shit. He took it and spat it back at him with simple logic that just made John madder and madder. It completely blew me away that Joe was gay and that someone could do that to another human being simply because of who he or she chooses to love. I couldn't stand my and let him do that to Joe anymore so I stepped in and gave that bastard a piece of my mind.

When I saw Joe on the ground shaking I ignored John all together and got him home. It's amazing how I've fallen for this great guy in such a short period of time. It feels like a void in my life has been filled by him that was empty before. I stroked Joe's cheek with my hand and closed my eyes to sleep.

"T.J. get up Baby, dinner's ready," I heard my mom say as she gently shook my arm. I looked up at her and smiled. "Who's your friend?" She asked looking down at Joe who was still asleep with his head on my chest and my arms wrapped around him. "Oh, this is Joe. We met today at school and he had a run in with some homophobic southern hicks after school," I said shaking Joe gently, "Get up Babes. Dinner is ready."

Joe looked up at me smiling and kissed me gently on the lips before he saw my mom out of the corner of his eye and jumped back. Mom died laughing as Joe scurried out of my arms. "Joe! Man chill! She's ok with it. She knows about me," I said trying to calm him down. He looked into my eyes and said, "Really?!" "Really," I said wrapping my arms around his waist and pulling him back down into my lap. "Dinner's on the table when you're ready Boys," my mom said leaving my room.

"Whoa Man, that was scary," He said into my ear. "Don't worry Joe. She's known about me for a long time." I kissed him gently on the lips as he opened his mouth to invite my tongue in to play. Over the next few minutes a very vigorous tongue battle in sued before he broke it and said that we should go down to dinner. "I don't know about you but I'm starved," Joe said kissing me gently on the lips as we walked up the steps together.

Walking into the kitchen was like walking into the kitchen of a five star restaurant. "Wow," was all I could say. T.J. stood there and laughed at me, "I forgot to mention that my mom is a world famous chef." "Well it smells great!" I kissed him gently on the cheek before walking over to the table and sitting down in front of Ms. Johnson. "Hey! You got my seat!" He yelled from behind me.

"I guess you two will just have to share," Ms. Johnson said laughing from across the table.

"Fine by me!" Said T.J. hopping into my lap. He laughed and kissed me on the cheek. I looked at him and stuffed the hamburger I had just fixed into his mouth. He laughed and chewed at the same time. Ms. Johnson put her hand over her mouth, she was laughing so hard she almost showered me with the Coke she was drinking.

"So Joe, how did you and Hamburger Boy here meet?"

"Well Ma'am I kind of ran over him this morning in the hall right as the bell rang. So I had to come up with an excuse why we could both be late so I took him to the counselor and got him his schedule and stuff. He and I started talking and hit it of well, however I had no idea it would be "THIS" well. I offered him a ride home and he accepted. As we were leaving the school resident, homophobe decided it was a good day to pick on me again. Normally such an occurrence wouldn't upset me, but from the moment I met T.J. this morning I was falling head over heels for him and the fact that he knew I was gay and then probably wouldn't want to be my friend hit me and I kind of collapsed into a ball on the floor. Then T.J. stopped John and brought me here," I said ending the story of the day.

"First off, don't call me ma'am, call me Lisa, Secondly I'm sorry you have to deal with people like this John person, Thirdly I think you're a keeper." She said as she squeezed my hand from across the table. I blushed and told her thanks and then got a very long kiss from T.J.

We finished dinner and I told them both reluctantly that I must get home. T.J. walked me out to my car and kissed me goodnight as I got behind the wheel and started her up. I drove home thinking about how this day had gone. Arriving at home I parked the car in the lower driveway and climbed the steps up the small bank and went inside. "I'm home!" I said calling as I came in the front door. No one was home. I went down the hall to my room and pulled my cell phone from my pocket calling Scott, my best friend.

"Hello?"

"Man, Scott you are not going to believe what happened today!" I went on to recite the tale of my day as I had for Ms. Joh…for Lisa.

"Wow…I'm happy for you Man," He said as I finished.

"Yeah me too," I said laughing.

My phone beeped telling me that I had another coming in. I looked down at the screen, "Scott hang on a sec., my boss is calling me." I hit the send button again and put the phone back to my ear, "Hello?"

"Joe, this is Larry, I know it's a school night but I need you to come in. The server is crashing and we've got to get these prints finished."

"Yes Sir, I'm on my way."
"Thanks Joe, you're a lifesaver man. See ya!"

"K, bye"

I hit the send button and started walking back out the door. "Ok Scott, I'm back. I'm heading into work. If James fucked that server up again I'm going to kill him."

"Does that guy have any idea as to what he's doing?" Scott asked.

"He thinks he does simply because he's thirty and I'm just sixteen. After tomorrow he'll think differently because as of last Friday I'm the head technician there."

I climbed back into my car and plugged my headset into the phone and drove the twelve miles to Visix, a professional graphic designer that I work for. I am their head I.T. man. I keep their computers humming.

Arriving at the lab I hung up with Scott and walked in opening the side door with my keys. Walking into my office which is also the server room I sat down at the terminal and was disgusted by what I saw. I reached over and hit the intercom button on my desk.

"Larry here," Came his reply.

"Larry, I need you to come in here. I have some bad news," I said.

I sat back in my chair and waited for him to come in. He came in looking pissed and sat down in front of me. "What is it?" He asked,

"Last week I bought four new hard drives and I was planning on installing them on the RAID array this weekend. However it seems James decided to do it himself, but he fucked up the entire array. I would say we would be saved by the mirror drives but when he added the new drives and formatted them he formatted the mirror drives also. And then to make things worse he decided to write zeros over half the drives making them permanently non-recoverable."

"What are my options Joe?" He asked looking incredibly pissed.

"The only option available is to restore from the backups I made last night before I left. You'll lose all the work you've done today but it won't devastate you. This happened because he didn't listen to me when I left him an email saying that I would take care of it and for him to just maintain the systems and not change them."

"He's gone…" Larry said looking over at the server, "I'll call a temp agency and get someone in here for the rest of the week. Since you're his supervisor it's your job to fire him unless you want me to do it."

"I'd be all too happy Sir," I replied smiling, "I should have the server up in about an hour. It's the best that I can do. Most of the time will be spent waiting on the tape to restore the drives but hopefully an hour will get the data back online."

Larry nodded and walked out. I spent the next hour getting the RAID reconfigured and waiting while the backups restored on the drive. Before leaving however I deleted James' log-on and disabled all other accounts except mine and Larry's.

I walked out into the graphic lab and told them that the server was up now and got a standing ovation. Larry thanked me and I headed for home. When I finally got home it was almost 11:00. I was mentally and physically exhausted so I just lay down and went to sleep.

BUZZ…BUZZ…BUZZ… I slammed my hand down on the clock and looked at the time. I wondered why I had set it for 5:45 a.m. and then I remembered that I had to go fire James this morning. This is going to be fun. I got up, showered, shaved, etc…and called T.J. He answered his line but still sounded asleep.

"Who the fuck is calling me at 6:00 in the morning?" He asked still half asleep.

"Morning Babe…"

"Oh! Hey Joe! What's up?"

"I was wondering if you wanted a ride to school. I've got to go to work first though. So I need you to get your ass moving and be ready in fifteen minutes."

"Ok, I can do that. See you in a few. If you get here before I'm out just come on in."

"Ok."

I was climbing in the car as I talked to T.J. and threw my laptop and backpack in the back of the car. I backed out of the driveway and headed to T.J.'s house. I pulled into his driveway and got out of the car and walked into the side door that led into the kitchen. Lisa was sitting at the table drinking a cup of coffee as I walked in. She smiled at me as I walked over and kissed her on the cheek.

"Morning Mom," I said.

"Morning Honey, want a cup of coffee?"

"Sure, I've got to get wired before a hard day of school," I said smiling as a I poured myself a cup.

I sat down beside her and we chatted while we waited on T.J. to get up here. She asked about my parents, school, and old boyfriends. I answered all her questions and looked back to see T.J. come up from the basement in a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt that hugged him very snuggly. I whistled as he walked over to me and kissed me and took my coffee from me. He took a sip and his face cringed, "How can you drink black coffee?"

"It's an acquired taste my dear sweet boy," I said taking my coffee back and downing what little was left.

We kissed Mom goodbye and walked out to my car. I told T.J. about James as we drove to Visix.

"What an idiot!" T.J. said as I told him what he'd done last night.

"How that man got his MCSE I'll never know," I told him.

"So you're looking for someone to replace him right?"

"Yeah, you know anyone that's certified or is willing to learn?"

:"I'm not certified but I'm willing to learn. I've always wanted to get in on I.T."

"Great, I'll talk to Larry," I smiled at him and took his hand in mine.

We pulled into the parking lot and I saw James' car sitting in the lot. We got out of the car and made our way into the office and down the hall to my office. I put my key in the lock and opened the door to see James sitting at my desk trying to log onto the server.

"That won't be necessary Mr. Anderson," I said walking over to my desk.

"What?" He asked a little surprised to see me there at 6:45 in the morning.

"Mr. Anderson would you kindly remove yourself from my seat and take a seat on the other side of my desk," I asked in a very serious tone.

"When did it become "your" desk Joe?" He asked looking at me accusingly.

"It became my desk when Larry put me in charge of this department," I said, "Now kindly remove yourself from my desk."

"T.J. wait outside for me please," I said looking at him.

"Sure Joe," Came his reply as he walked out.

I sat down at my desk and watched as he took a seat in front of it.

"Mr. Anderson do you have any idea how much trouble you caused me last night?" I asked.

"No, what did I do?" came his reply.

"You crashed the server and caused this company to lose all the work done yesterday. You went ahead against my orders and installed those drives yourself. Did I or did I not leave you an email tell you that I would take care of it?"

"Well yes, but I thought I could save you some time by doing it."

"Well you not only wasted my time you wasted the time of every person that did any work here yesterday. I'm sorry to have to tell you this Mr. Anderson but I spoke with Larry last night and we decided to let you go."

"What! I don't believe this! I'm being fired by a 16 year old kid who thinks he knows more than me! I'm going to Larry about this! You can't do this!"

"Actually Mr. Anderson he can and he has," Larry said walking into the office.

"So please remove your things and leave the premises as soon as possible," Larry said looking down at Larry.

James got up and stormed out of the office leaving Larry and I standing there.

"That went well. I think I know of a replacement for him, but that will have to wait until tonight. I'm going to be late for school!"

"See ya Joe," He told me.

I ran out of my office and pulled T.J. behind me and into the car. We headed for school and made it there with five minutes to spare. I parked the car and shut it off. I took T.J.'s hand in mine and pulled him to me and kissed him passionately. We kissed for what seemed like forever. When we finally let go of each other I looked deep into his eyes and said, "I love you T.J."

"I love you too Joe." He said kissing me gently on the lips.

With that we got out of the car and headed for the school.

For the Love of Pete gay/highschool

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