Reaching Out

Chapter 4: Acceptance

By Grant Bentley

As we were relaxing in the living room, I remembered what Jason had said about hearing John and his dad arguing the night before. I mentioned it to John and I asked him if everything was okay. I wanted to make sure he was safe at home.

John smiled and replied, “Yeah, things are good.”

He explained that Jason’s stepdad had phoned his dad, yelling about his faggot son, and said that if John ever came near his home again, he would wish he hadn’t. When John got home, his dad had been pretty upset–not because John was gay, but because of the way he found out. He had always felt close to John and was hurt that John didn’t trust him enough to confide in him. Since John’s emotions were already running pretty high, their discussion got very loud very quickly, which is what Jason had overheard.

In the end, however, John’s dad had been very accepting of his sexuality. “Like I said, we’ve finally been set free; not just here, but at home too. My dad told me he loved me no matter what. He said that being gay was such a small part of who I am, it changed nothing about how he felt. He even told me that Jason is still as welcome and just as much a part of our family as he ever was–maybe even more so, since dad knows he’s not just my friend, he’s my boyfriend and his future son-in-law,” he said with a big grin towards Jason. As expected, this got him another kiss from Jason.

I was starting to feel tired again and glanced at the clock to see that it was already 11:00. After all the events of the last 24 hours, even though I had only been up for less than six hours, I was exhausted again.

“I’m just about ready for bed, guys. John, are you staying over, or have you two planned something else?” I asked.

“Yeah, if that’s okay,” John replied.

I told him that it was fine with me, but he had better get permission from his dad and let his dad know exactly where he was. He said he would and picked up the phone to call. I told them, “Good night.” and headed for my room. I know you think I was probably insane to go to bed and leave two boys I’ve known for less than a day free to do as they please in my home, but I had a good feeling about the boys and, somehow, I just knew everything was going to work out well for all of us. I can’t explain why, but I knew.

As I was getting ready for bed, I thought that, since the next day would be Sunday, I would invite John’s dad over for dinner to give us a chance to get to know one another. Also, I felt it was important to talk with him about my decision to take Jason in. There was so much I didn’t know, and between the four of us, we could get everything out in the open. I didn’t even know how old Jason was, and that could end up being a problem. With that settled in my mind, I lay back and was asleep almost before my head hit the pillow.

Morning came all too soon. I glanced at my alarm and saw that it was already 10 o’clock. I just lay there for a while, letting my mind remain blank. I finally rolled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. I took care of business and started for the coffee maker when I heard a very load whistle from down the hall. “Whoa, nice ass.” See, I told you I had a nice little ass.

‘Shit,’ I thought. ‘No more running around naked.’ I wiggled my ass at them and then ran for my room to get dressed.

When I came back out, the coffee was already brewing and two very large grins greeted me. I think I turned five shades of red. “Sorry about that,” I said.

“Hey, it’s not every day we get a free show,” John laughed.

“Yeah, well, don’t count on getting another one,” I responded.

“Awwwww, please,” they both laughed.

I flipped them both the bird, left hand for Jason and right hand for John, and asked why my coffee wasn’t ready yet. “What the hell do you think I’m paying you for?”

Just then, the coffee maker made its last gasp and we all said, “Yes.”

“What do you want for breakfast?” Jason asked me.

“I don’t think there’s anything but cereal,” I replied.

“We’ll see what we can find, then. You go relax and drink your coffee,” John told me.

I retired to the living room and left them to it. After about half an hour of banging and clattering, and a couple of shouts of “Oh, shit!” I was called to breakfast. There before me was a plate of eggs, fried ham and hash browns. I didn’t even know I had ham. As we were eating, Jason wondered about getting his schoolbooks from home as he had some homework to do for the next day. Unfortunately, it was AP Physics and John wasn’t taking it. I had no idea how to get them, because I certainly wasn’t going over there and there was no way either one of them could. It was then I told them I wanted to invite John’s dad over in the afternoon for dinner. Perhaps he could help us figure something out. They both thought that was a great idea.

After we had finished breakfast, the boys insisted on cleaning up so I went into the living room and phoned John’s dad. When he answered the phone, I introduced myself.

“Ah, our local hero,” he laughed.

“Well, I don’t know about that,” I replied.

“Don’t be so modest,” he said. “From what John tells me, Jason wouldn’t have survived the night on Friday if it weren’t for you.”

“Thanks,” was all I could think of to say.

“So, have they driven you crazy yet?” he asked.

“No, they’re great. They even made breakfast for me this morning,” I said.

“So you’re not calling for me to come and rescue you, then,” he laughed.

“I was calling to ask you over for dinner. Actually, that’s just the bait; I was also hoping to have someone to talk to about everything that’s going on,” I said.

“You’ve got all the help you need from my end,” he said. “What time do you want me to come over?”

“Any time you want is good, I’m just going to be sitting around doing nothing all afternoon,” I replied.

“How about somewhere around 3:00?” he asked.

“Sure. You have my address, right?” I replied.

“John gave it to me last night. See you at 3:00, then,” he said.

We said our good-byes and hung up.

I was already feeling better knowing I had his support with Jason. The boys had found my Xbox and were well into a game, playing as if their lives depended on it. I never played the thing myself; I had bought it for when my sister’s boys came over. Since the boys had found something to entertain themselves with, I decided to work on my story some more. For the next three hours, the boys played the Xbox and I played on my laptop, stopping only to go to the bathroom, put the roast in the oven and peel some potatoes and carrots.

At about five to three, the intercom buzzed, letting me know that John’s dad had arrived. After making sure it was him, I buzzed him up, shut down my laptop and went to the door to await his arrival. When he knocked, I opened the door and was facing an older version of John. It took me a second to recover.

Finally, I greeted him, introduced myself and invited him in. He introduced himself as Ian Dawson, shook my hand and stepped inside. I offered him a coffee and we headed for the kitchen. The boys were so wrapped up in their game, they didn’t even notice his arrival.

Ian stopped for a second. He looked first at them and then at me and smiled. “World War III could break out right around them and they wouldn’t notice when they’re on that thing,” he laughed.

“No kidding,” I responded.

Once we’d had our coffee, we sat down at the kitchen table. I told him how I had found Jason almost frozen in the parking lot, and that I had brought him in, warmed him up, fed him and put him to bed on Friday.

Other than expressing his deepest appreciation for what I had done for Jason and John, his response to that was to state his wish to see that Jason’s stepfather was charged with at least child endangerment, if not more. He said that he had already informed the police of everything, and it would be up to Jason whether charges would be laid.

I learned that both Jason and John were seventeen. Jason would be eighteen in two months, and John a week after that. I was very glad to hear that as it meant Jason could stay with me without too much trouble. We didn’t need to involve social services or anyone else as he was old enough to live wherever and do whatever he wanted.

I learned that the boys had been friends since kindergarten; Ian just had no idea how deep their friendship had gotten in the last couple of years. He did say he’d had his suspicions since the boys seemed really close and neither one had ever had a girlfriend. Also, he had never heard them raving about “this hot chick” or “that hot chick” as most boys their age do.

We also talked about how hurt he was when he learned of John’s reluctance to tell him he was gay. He felt their relationship was stronger than that. I told him that was probably exactly the reason John hesitated to tell him: because he was terrified of losing that relationship. He was afraid Ian would be disappointed in him for not being the man he expected his son to be. I explained how difficult it often was for boys to accept the idea that they were gay. If they found it hard to accept for themselves, they would hardly expect others to accept it.

“I never thought of it that way,” he replied as the boys came into the kitchen hand in hand. They stopped suddenly when they saw Ian sitting there. He looked down at their hands and smiled.

“That’s going to take a little getting used to,” he laughed. Both boys blushed bright red as they realized he had seen them holding hands. I smiled as I thought to myself, ‘Just wait till you walk in on one of their lip-locks.’

“Hi Dad, when did you get here?” John asked.

Ian roared with laugher. “I’ve only been here for the last couple of hours,” he replied. “Not that you would notice anything when you’re glued to that game box.”

I glanced at my watch and realized it was nearly 5:00. I excused myself to finish getting dinner cooked. All I had left to do was put the potatoes and carrots on the stove and get a salad ready. The boys offered to do the salad and, not one to refuse help, I told them to go for it. Within half an hour, everything was ready to be served. Ian offered to slice up the roast, I mashed the potatoes and in minutes we were all seated and ready to eat.

As we ate, Ian asked Jason how he was. Jason replied that things had never been better. He told Ian that he had never been happier than he was right then. He laughed and said that if he had known that all he needed to do was hide in the corner of a parking lot to turn his life around, he would have done it years ago. Ian laughed and gave him a gentle smack on the arm.

“Don’t forget that hiding in that parking lot nearly cost you your life, kiddo. You know what kind of shit I would have had to deal with if you had?” he joked.

Jason quickly became very serious and his eyes teared up. He looked at Ian and then John and replied, “I know. I’m sorry.”

“There is no way you need to apologize to anyone; it wasn’t your fault you ended up there. I’m just thankful everything has turned out so well,” Ian said reassuringly.

Jason gave a small smile and we all resumed eating again in silence.

Chapter 5