Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 09:14:38 -0500 From: lesli 99 Subject: Young Times Parts 11 Young Times - Part XI I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised at being outed. I mean I had hardly hidden much I had done in the last year, except from my parents of course, and I had heard the rumors about me - about Donnie too - to the effect that we were `faggots' and all. But when it came right down to it, no one had actually come out and been mean about it. It was just a `may be, maybe not' kind of thing I guess. But all that changed abruptly one cold day just before Christmas as the entire student body sat in the gym for a pre season basketball pep rally. Donnie and I were sitting together, high in the bleachers near the top row. The gym was packed with kids, almost every row filled. Several boys were sitting beside, in front of, and behind us as the mind numbing program droned on and on. I was bored, as I'm sure everyone else was, looking for something, anything, to catch my interest. It wasn't happening. Everyone was talking and acting up, but it was lost in the roar of music from the pepband and the mindless cheers of the cheerleaders. "Wow, that's some set of tits on Cheyrl" I heard from behind me. "Yeah, and that's not all she's got either" another chimed in "I hear she gives some of the best head in school." My ears perked up at that. The thought of Cheyrl, a cute sophomore, sucking some guys cock gave me a rush as I imagined it in my head. I turned to see who the speaker was. "Whadda ya lookin at faggot?" the tall blonde sitting behind me asked as I did. Since I was sitting one row behind him, my gaze naturally fell at waist level to him. "I...uh, I..." I stammered, quickly averting my gaze and turning back to face front. I could feel myself redden all over, starting with my face. It was suddenly very warm in the gym. "He's lookin at you" a voice answered, again behind me "you got him all excited talkin about head. Didn't he faggot?" I couldn't speak, my mind worked but my lips couldn't form a single word as I tried to stare at the activity on the gym floor below. `Relax' I told myself `this will just blow over if you don't react'. "I said DIDN'T HE FAGGOT?" he repeated, his voice up several decibels until everyone around us turned to see what was going on. My face was blood red now, I could feel it. The sharp slap across the back of my head almost knocked me off the bleacher seat. Only by gripping the seat on either side of me could I retain my balance. "I.......I......." I stammered, trying to come up with a suitable response. I could see Donnie's concerned look from the corner of my eye. He was as nervous as I was. I could hear the laughter behind us, even thru the ringing in my ears. "Yeah, those two...." it was yet another voice behind us, chiming in. "All ya gotta do to get head from them is hang around the park, huh?" "That's what I hear. I hear they're in that restroom by the basketball court queerin off anybody that comes along." It sounded so strange hearing Donnie and me referred to in that manner. How did they know? 'Oh, come off it' I thought to myself 'did you think no one noticed the fact that you're there just about every night of the week?' No, I knew that they knew, or at least strongly suspected. And I knew that I was in no position to argue with them. For one, they would probably beat me up if I said anything. And that was really enough so I didn't need a second reason. No, I wouldn't argue. I would sit there and take their abuse. Maybe that way they would get tired of it and leave us alone. It was a weak wish, I knew, but the only real option open to me. I sat perfectly still. The next slap was to the back of Donnie's head. It was loud, and I knew, painful. "Owwww" he moaned involuntarily. I could see him grip the seat to keep his balance. "Quit" he screamed, turning in his seat to face his attacker. It was a mistake, I could have told him so. His defiance only served to incite them further and the next thing I knew he was reeling from the full handed slap across his face. It threw him back against me as he struggled to keep from losing his balance and falling thru the open bleachers. I grabbed his shoulders to help steady him as the next slap caught me in the back of the head again, pitching me forward and knocking my books off the seat and thru the bleachers where they crashed some ten feet below. "Fuck you, queer" the voice was directed at Donnie, or me, it was hard to tell because they slapped us both now. I wanted to stand up and get out of there now, but my legs wouldn't work. All I could manage was to hang on to Donnie with one hand and my seat with the other, trying to keep from joining my books on the hardwood floor below us. "Aw, don't get him excited, he'd probably like to get fucked" the voice boomed. Now everyone was glancing nervously around as the boys behind us continued to slap both of us in the head. I was numb with fear and humiliation now. The pain and surprise were gone, replaced by an embarrassment that I had never known. And then, just as quickly as it had turned ugly, we were saved. "Hey, you boys, cut that out" the voice was Ms Sullivan's and I turned my head instinctively in the direction of the sound. I was surprised to find her standing just below us, peering up thru the open bleachers. "And come down here and clean these books up" I finally found the courage to use this excuse to beat a retreat from the situation. Dragging Donnie to his feet, I literally fell over the people to our left, making our way to the aisle and down the bleachers to the floor. I heard taunts behind me, but they didn't register as I forced one foot in front of the other til we were clear. "What in heaven's name was that altercation all about?" she quizzed me as I busied myself picking up my books. "Uhhhh....welll.....I don't....." I couldn't make the right words come out. "Well young man, we're going to get to the bottom of this. Collect your books and follow me, both of you." There was nothing we could do but obey, and we followed Ms Sullivan to the office. Principal Whit was at the rally, but Mr Kemp the assistant principal was in his office on the phone when we arrived. Telling us to wait in the outer office, Ms Sullivan went in and waited til Mr Kemp was off the phone, shutting the door behind her. "Whew, that was some ugly scene" Donnie said as we sat down. His face was still flushed from the embarassement, or excitement. "Yeah, gosh where do you think that outburst came from anyway?" "I don't know, I don't even know them. I have no idea what caused them to go off on us. Do you think they know about the park? I mean one of them said something about it." It was, of course, rediculous to think that our 'adventures' at the toilet in the park would stay secret long. Neither of us really made a secret out of what we were doing there. In truth, other than for my parents, I realized that I hadn't made that much effort lately to hide the fact that I was 'available' for those interested. I mean, I hadn't 'outed' myself in general, but at the same time I had put myself in places and situations that I wouldn't have been in had I not been looking for those who were looking for sex. I had, basically, made myself available for anyone who wanted sex, never saying 'no' or even 'maybe'. I had, willingly, performed oral sex for at least a dozen men and boys in just the past year. I realize now that my actions said a lot more than my words, and keeping this a secret from my parents was the easy part. I also came quickly to the realization that I was doing this only for those who wanted it. I had never had a real bad experience as I looked back on it. Even the black boys, as abusive as they seemed in the beginning, obviously wanted from me what I wanted to give them. That defined, more than anything else, what I viewed as the way life should be. I had never really faced an agressive situation like that in the gym. I had never really been 'bashed' before, and the realization that people would hate me for what I was left me a bit dazed and confused. So, I guess you could say, I was totally unprepared for what was happening now. The door opening snapped me out of my reflective mood quickly, and I before I knew it Donnie was gone, ushered inside Mr Kemp's office out of sight and sound. The door closed behind him, and I was left with my thoughts again. But my mind wasn't ready to work on anything so substantial as what kind of trouble I might be in. I mean, how could I be in trouble? How could Donnie be in trouble? We hadn't done anything. We weren't the agressors. We were simply victims of these vulgar boys who had taken the opportunity, for whatever reason, to pick on us. No, my mind told me, we weren't in trouble. So why was this taking so long? Why had Donnie been in Mr Kemp's office so long? Why was he in there at all? The door opened and Donnie hurried out of Mr Kemp's office. His face was red and I thought I could detect tears in his eyes. I was whisked in before I had a chance to try and speak with him. Mr Kemp was standing behind his desk, his jacket off, looking very stern as Ms Sullivan ushered me to a seat in front of his desk. I sat, unsure what would happen next. "I'm going to get straight to the point young man" he began as I sat meekly in the chair, trying to avert his stoney gaze. "Disruptions to classroom or other activities here will not be condoned. Behavior causing such disruptions as those this morning will be dealt with very quickly and harshly. Do you understand?" "Yes sir" I responded, not sure at all what he was talking about, but starting to realize that he was somehow blaming, or warning, me for what had happened. "What do you understand?" he said, even more sternly - if possible - than before. "I.......I, well, I'm not, I guess......sure". "Are you gay?" I couldn't believe the question. It hit me as cold as ice. "Gay.................I, uh.......gay?" It was all I could do to string the words together. "Gay" he repeated. "Are you a........a........a homosexual?" It wasn't really a question, at least the way he phrased it. He wasn't asking if I was, he only wanted me to acknowledge what he already knew, or assumed. As I look back on it now, I realize that I had options here. I could have lied. I could have resisted the question and refused to answer. I could have taken offense and made a big deal out of it, hoping that the whole thing would be dropped. But as I sat there under the pressure of his gaze, I couldn't think of a single option. I couldn't think of a thing to save me from having to admit the truth, having to confess to my sexual orientation. And as I look back on it now, it angers me to think that I had to make that confession at such an early age. Why couldn't I just stay in the closet like so many others? Why didn't I have the same rights as them? But, of course, this is now and that was then. I was too naive to do anything other than what I did. "Yes......." it was almost a whisper. But in my head it was if I had shouted it out. No matter that I had surrendered to my feelings over the past few years, no matter that I had sex regularly. Until I actually admitted it to Mr Kemp, it was somehow secret in my mind. I had never admitted it to anyone except Donnie and Steven. But I had surely done it, had the feelings, performed the sexual acts that defined the label Mr Kemp was now putting on me. "I thought so" was his soft reply. "Young man, this school is a place of learning. With rules. Rules and guidelines that determine the day to day running of this school. There is no place in these rules for the disruptions caused by deviant behavior such as your's. Do you understand me?" "Yessir........" again a whisper as my eyes sought out the floor. Anything to focus on. Anything other than Mr Kemp's stare. "I............we, that is, cannot expell you for what you are. Even though your kind disgust me personally. But let me make this perfectly clear.........any deviant behavior will result in severe disciplinary action, including expulsion. Do you understand this?" "Yessir" again my eyes glued to the floor. I wanted to crawl into my seat. "OK, now back to class with you. I'll have a conversation with your parents later in the day. But know this, your behavior will be watched. Monitored for any breach of rules." My parents? My God! He was going to tell my parents? My mind went completely blank. I don't know how I got to class after that. I don't remember anything except sheer panic at the thought that I was going to be outed to my parents. I was, in fact, in a deep daze when I met Donnie for lunch. "Jeez" he started "he's going to talk to my parents about me. I can't believe I let him talk to me that way." His defiance gone now, Donnie looked as scared and depressed as I did. "Yeah" I replied, halfheartedly "he's going to tell mine too. I'm dead." Maybe overstated, but at that point in time I was firmly convinced that my parents would come unglued at the idea of me being a queer. I still couldn't think of it as being gay - the word just didn't fit how I felt. Call me queer, faggot, fairy, cocksucker, whatever. They were descriptions of how I thought of myself. Gay just didn't do it for me. We spent the entire lunch period discussing how much trouble we knew we were in. We were sure that both out parents would react in the same way. The remainder of the day seemed a fog to me and I was barely aware as I made my way thru it. It was as bad as I could imagine, my parents had both spoken to Mr Kemp and the evening was spent in question, answer, and general emotional upheaval. I can't remember the details, having put them in the extreme reaches of my mind. I just remember that the rift between my parents and me began that night. And I mark that as the point where my life really changed. I was grounded, of course, and with few exceptions found my available world reduced to home and school. My phone privileges were reduced to incoming calls only and even that limited to no more than 5 minutes per call unless directly related to my schoolwork. This lasted a month before I was trusted enough to gain back limited freedom. When I say limited I mean school functions and the occassional movie. Life became unbearable but of course I had no recourse in the matter. Limited freedom was won only by a combination of time and lies. Time, again, was one month living within their rules. Lies were about my sexuality. I finally convinced my parents that I was no more or less than a typical teenager, caught up in the inevitible experimenting of puberty. Nothing to worry about really. I don't think they completely believed me, but after one month I think they felt they really should ease up on me before I turned into a complete hermit. At any rate, the limited freedom came next and after another month, I was given as much freedom as I had ever known. Oh, I still lied about where I was going, with whom, and for what. I had to. But they didn't seem so concerned as before. I think they just hoped for the best. Donnie wasn't as lucky as I was. He was sent off to military school in the hopes that a macho, structured enviroment would 'straighten' him out. As it turned out, this was as far from the truth as things could be. Given the macho, all male surroundings, Donnie became popular as the campus 'queer', dispensing oral favors to his more than willing fellow classmates. He wasn't the only cocksucker on campus, but he was one of so few that he was kept busy. Without Donnie as a companion, my school life took an increasingly negative tone, band being the only positive exception. Since being outed, the confrontations were almost daily. I was harrassed, called names, and generally shunned by the male students. Females seemed either indifferent or actually friendly to me, but the boys took great pride in putting me down, either verbally or physically. I grew impervious to the verbal abuse, but never the physical, which took the form of pushing, shoving, slapping and the occassion beating. In all honesty even the beatings were relatively rare and not damaging. I suppose it was just good fun to 'bash the queer' and made even the meekest boy feel masculine in doing. My response was always the same. I never resisted or fought back, verbally or physically. I accepted the abuse as the reality of 'outed' life and came to expect it from the macho boys. Not every boy abused me, of course, there were those who simply ignored me as if I didn't exist. And there were those who seemed........well I won't say accepting........more humane towards me. I often wondered if they were some of my 'friends' from the bus station or the park toilet. But, in general, after Donnie was shipped out to military school my sexual encounters with fellow students came to a complete halt. My whole sex life revolved, again, around sex with men. Within a month of my 'ungrounding' I was back in the park again. It was simply too easy and convienent not to go there. And I found plenty of takers for what I offered. As often as I could be their I found them, or maybe more to the point, they found me. I was always waiting, alone, in the farthest stall from the urinals, sitting on the commode with my pants pulled up and fastened. I nvever exposed myself, I never made the first move towards them. I sat. And I waited. And they came, everynight I was there. Like they knew I would be there, and they knew if I was there I would never deny them what they wanted. Most of these experiences were like those at the glory holes in the bus station. Quick, no talking, no looking up at their faces as my mouth worked its magic on their cocks. Just like the bus station. Except for one thing, one important difference. There was no glory hole involved. Although I didn't look up at them as I was sucking, I know they looked at me. They knew who I was. And that simple fact changed the equation in a way that would make it impossible for me to maintain any charade of straightness in this town. I was now not only the school queer, through my willingness to take on all comers in the park, I was now the town queer. Of course I didn't lay claim to that title all by myself, I'm sure there were others, but from the way the traffic picked up in my little stall over the next months, I was surely on my way to becoming one of the most notorious. My black basketball playing friends around as well, and I gave them what they wanted, doing my best to make up for Donnie's absence. We hung out less in the park as in their car, one driving while I serviced the other in the back seat, then switching until they could stand it no longer, at which point they found a dark spot to park and I sucked one while tho other fucked me. I