Grey was a beautiful boy who's parents loved him very much. He was brought up to be whomever he decided would make him happy and he did, with no resistance. He read the books he wanted to read, bought the albums he wanted to listen to, and watched the films he wanted to see. He was the only male in the small town to have ever read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. He loved Erasure and Depeche Mode. But there was something about Grey that he kept hidden from everyone except his best friend, Mona. Something dark and secret.
People didn't see it when they saw the dark make-up he wore around his brown eyes. Or when he let his dark hair hang Tim Burton-like in front of his face. When he wore the tight shirts and leather pants, no one had any idea what secret he held behind his closet door. But Mona knew.
Mona knew that Grey was straight.
---
"FUCKING FAGGOT!" was shouted a dozen times whenever he walked down the hallways of school. A beautiful, angelic boy, moving gracefully, bumping into people and saying he was sorry in that feminine voice. Tears falling when some other guy grabbed at his pecs and squeezed hard, screaming, "I want to feel your tits, baby! Come on, Grey, don't you wanna fuck me? I want you to suck this big fat cock!"
He dealed with this in school and stopped questioning the others. He couldn't fight back. How could he? How could he prove he was straight without being fake with himself? He hated sports, he hated computers, he didn't stare at women as if they were a hole to stick himself in. He didn't have anything in common with any one male in the city.
Except Christian. Christian was just like Grey. Chris loved the same music, watched the same movies, and had read the same books. Chris was loud, flamboyant, and when he laughed---he giggled. Chris was loved by all the women in town, not because he was some player who flirted his way to popularity. Chris was loved because no matter how much attention he showed every girl in town, they knew they didn't have to worry about him getting an erection everytime they went to the beach with him and he saw their new bikinis.
Chris was gay. And Chris loved Grey.
Grey liked Chris. Chris was horribly likeable. Though, in reality, it was a bit sad, since it was all a lie. The people in town liked him because to them, he was almost a toy. They played with him and enjoyed him when he was around, but when he was gone, they forgot about him. Put him back in the closet.
One day, Chris just decided to deal with his true feelings and invited Grey to his house.
---
Grey was high and he had no idea what drug made him high. All he knew was that Chris and his sister, Mary, were outside laughing at him as they held bottles of beer that were dangerously close to collapsing on the floor.
Grey laughed, too, and stared at his own pretty, yet flush with red face in the mirror. He laughed as Chris came in the bathroom and was laughing as well. The whole world was dizzy around him and he tried to get Chris to help him to his car, but Chris had other plans.
---
Chris and Grey were now a couple, apparently, or at least that was what Chris had to say. Grey denied it and was so angry he could hurt someone badly. Grey's best friend Mona was the same way and confronted Chris, who just laughed her off and made the other girls surrounded them laugh at her, too. They said their horrible things, they called her a "stupid cunt" and spit on her when Chris was gone.
Mona convinced Grey to call the police, but the police in the small town were neither qualified, nor emotionally dedicated to investigating the incident that caused Grey to have small stitches in one of the most uncomfortable places possible.
When the police left, they stared at him and he could see the accusations, the hatred, in their eyes as they walked away, never to bring this assignment up again. No one cared about a supposed gay kid in the small town.
Grey cried and Mona held him in his arms, his body curled up against her stomach. He was going through the most emotionally trying period in his life. His parents were furious at the police. Mona was heartbroken and herself was dizzy with anger. And when she kissed him and the world seemed to suddenly make a lot of sense. When she lay in bed with him for the night, he was set for his life.
---
Grey and Mona were in love now, apparently, though everyone knew Grey was a fag and just trying to get attention off his "fudge-packing" exploits. The worst two people in the school decided it was time to teach Grey a lesson.
Matthew hated Grey because someone told him Grey had touched Matt's younger brother's dick one night. They said Grey wanted to stick his dick in Matt's brother's ass and since then, Matt had plans to finally get revenge on Grey.
Cody hated Grey because Cody wanted Mona and Mona didn't want him.
Both were football players. Both were twice Grey's size. Grey was only five feet and five inches tall. He weighed about one-hundred and twenty. Cody and Matthew together weighed almost 700 pounds. They stood over six feet tall and were so wide they almost had to tilt sideways a bit to step through a door.
The plan was to get Grey after a party.
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The plan worked fine, but there was a small hitch and it was in Cody and Matt's favor. Grey had skipped out on the party, since he was hiding from Christian these days, but had gone for a walk. Cody and Matthew were on a beer run, seeing if their gullible friend Joey, who worked for the local Shell station, was at work so they could buy beer from him. Grey was on a long walk by the station just as they pulled up.
He hadn't a chance. Because not only had Matthew and Cody been in the pick-up truck at the time of the beer run, but three of their football playing friends.
It was raining. Joey turned the lights of the gas station off so passerbys couldn't see what was happening.
They kicked his ribs in and shattered four of them. He couldn't breath. They destroyed his mouth, breaking his jaw and sending teeth chattering down the wet pavement like dice. They kicked his head in hard until he was seeing tiny black dots. Matthew kicked him in the genitals, over and over again until Grey was a fetal ball, hiding his most precious organs.
When he was black, they still kicked. The fever was on them. They were killing him. They were killing the faggot. The person who sucked on men's cocks and liked cocks in his ass. The guy who talked like a girl. They guy who was pretty. They hated him for being so different, but mostly because he just made their hearts fiercely anger by his complete lack of respect for the rules that were laid down by God and science years ago.
They could kill him and their minds had snapped long into it. There was nothing stopping them from doing it. It felt so good to take out their creeped-out feelings on him. Like seeing a snake on the side of the road, getting goosebumps, and stepping on the snake constantly until it was dead. They had to kill him, but someone had seen them begin and the police were already on the way.
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They were never caught. Grey lay in the hospital, passing back and forth between the light of the living world and the dark of the dead world. There was no middle ground for him. He hadn't opened his eyes in days and if he could muster the strength, he still couldn't, because his eyes were swollen shut.
Mona sat by his side every minute she could, holding his hand. She was missing school and was being threatened with detention and suspension if she didn't return. On the eighth day, the truant officer appeared and escorted her from the hospital.
---
The football players were laughing and enjoying themselves, giving each other massages and slapping them on the butt as they congratulated everyone on the great job they did beating the opposing players in the last game. The coach, Mr. Rich, stood above them, smiling wide at them, proud of the little monsters he had created since they were fourteen.
They had anger and brute strength and they were created by him, the Dr. Frankenstein of the sports world, he thought to himself.
And then a little, young woman came walking into the locker room. She was beautiful, a frail girl with blonde hair and big, brown eyes. Her hair was messed up, her eyes streaked with running tears and mascara. She was in her cheerleader's uniform and wearing only a coat over it. Her arms were pressed close to her body as she trembled with suffering.
The boys thought she looked so fuckable that the ones coming to or from the showers were standing, staring at her with erections.
Mr. Rich knew these things happen, so he went into his office and hid himself. Girls in love with players. Admiring their strength, their pure manliness. The power that someone like a sports hero could hold. They were gods in their small town and she was a priest on knees, offering her mind and body to whatever pleased the gods. He knew it was every girl, every cheerleader's dream to fuck the entire football team and he wasn't going to stop it. He knew she was emotionally fucked ever since her little faggot friend was beaten by his boys.
But instead of hearing the sounds of orgy, he heard nothing. He leaned his head out the window and saw his boys slowly walking towards the scared little girl, some of them even masturbating already in anticipation.
"You want it," they said, "You want us to fuck you like a bad little fucked-up slut that you are."
And she pulled a pistol from her coat and began to fire at every inch of bare skin that she could see.
---
Grey lived. He was learning to walk again, but alive. Mona was arrested and was facing trial for what was called the worst tragedy in the history of their little town of Tavern. September 11 had taken the front page of the paper for an entire week. The horrible murders of the town heros, the babies of all the middle and upper-class business leaders, took up the front page for almost an entire year.
She could have faced the death penalty. She could have faced life. But instead she sliced open her wrists with a small screwdriver she found in the jail cell next to her's.
She lived. And she was sent up. It was decided that the beating and near death of her best friend---not her boyfriend, the boy was gay---her best friend was the reason for her suddenly going insane. And so she was sent to a Fair Woods, a mental hospital. Whenever, if ever, she was deemed mentally stable, she would stand trial for the deaths. Or she could die in the hospital. Alone.
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Grey visited her and comforted her and cried as he held her. He told her he loved her and he would marry her if she could only be free. He was agonizing and the wards at the hospital had to fight back tears as they watched him give her a kiss on the lips and walk away, his entire body trembling with pain and anguish.
He turned and faced her, refusing to just walk away, and told her he would visit her every single day for the rest of his life.
She winked. And she mouthed, "I love you".
---
A month later, Grey was accepted to Fair Woods. It was said in some circles that it was being nearly killed by unknown assailants that made him start slamming his head against the wall. Some in the know said it was a horrible rape by a gay man that did it. Others said it was his best friend going insane.
Regardless, he walked into Fair Woods and never saw the rest of the world for his entire life. He would spend every last day of his life in Fair Woods---
---holding Mona's hand and laughing and giggling with the only person he ever loved.
And they lived happily ever after.
Copyright 2004, Ryan Ailts. Can not be reproduced without author's permission.