Free Fall

: Chapter 2: Study at least three hours.

(Unedited)

My room is my sanctuary, where I sit and collect thoughts about telling my Catholic - Jewish parents I'm gay. Additionally, as I think about their religious views, this is not the best thing to do. Their religious views are precisely the things keeping me from telling them. In addition to my father, a full Catholic, my mother, a full Jew, attended church with him. Over the years, I had repeatedly rebelled against going to church; if the Catholic Church did not support gays, why should I bother going?

Shortly after realising my sexuality at such a young age, I knew that I had broken the rule I was supposed to follow. Men cannot love, and women bring love to a relationship. With this brought to mind, I realised that LGBTQ teenagers and youth brought up in religious families often weren't accepted upon coming out when they identified as LGBTQ because their religious societies shun identifying as LGBTQ, which causes them to remain in the closet.

While I was in the middle of a class essay, I heard Dryden in the living room. No doubt on his mission to get me a homework assignment done. He, much like myself, didn't attend church, except for temple at least once a month, something I had gotten used to over the years. He finally got my attention when he stood in the doorframe, opposite a Twilight poster I had got on a dare with him in middle school. Said poster is something I often debate taking down or not.

"How was the bus ride?" Dryden asked, followed by a scoff as he crashed on my twin-sized bed. I should speak up and tell him how I got home. He was my best friend, and I was sure that I could tell him anything. What if I couldn't tell him, though? What if he also judged me, telling me that I shouldn't ride with Christian. On second thought, would he even give a shit?

"I didn't ride the bus. I found a ride," I told him half the secret I had been dreading.

'What's going on? You, Luke Bradyn Montgomery, asked someone for a ride home?' Dryden confused me as he used my full name, which he rarely used. I couldn't understand why I still allowed him to do so. However, now in senior year, I doubted telling him even so rarely not to call me by my full name would do any good.

I added before he could ask any other questions. "How was football?" I ask in place to change the subject. As he talked about football, I showed what little knowledge I had. He could explain for hours, and I still wouldn't understand a word he had been saying, another thing of the years he had gotten used to.

"Shouldn't you be doing homework instead? Isn't that what you came over here for instead of bugging me about events you weren't there for?" I integrated him again, knowing Dryden had shown up more than likely for anything but homework.

"I will do my homework when I get home. Gotta keep it clean for football, you know? If I want this scholarship, my grades need to be good. That is something you should know if you have acquired that homework," Dryden says with apparent authority.

"I do acquire it, though. I don't have a football scholarship waiting for me as you do, Dryden," I responded as a reaction towards what he had said. "I don't guarantee I'll have all straight A's, and I don't know if the college I plan to attend will accept me," I revealed to him, not knowing what he'd say.

It was the moment my phone sent me a notification notifying me of a new text message. Instead of answering it right away, I decided to do it later. Dryden suddenly eyed my phone as though he wanted me to respond to see what it was or if it had anything to do with him. I had a suspicion it was Christian. I didn't want the questions that would follow if it were.

After removing my history book from my bag and setting it on my bed, I tell Dryden that I am studying for a history test tomorrow. I was not sure if he would believe me because of his reaction.