On Friday when Luke got to the bus stop Michael was there waiting for him. His hands shoved deep in his pockets, the shorter boy leaned against a stop chewing his upper lip nervously.
"Michael?" Luke questioned, "What are you doing here?"
"Do you um-do you want to go to school today?" Michael asked, his voice barely above a whisper, "If you do we can but I know you said we could... I don't know sorry."
"Michael," Luke laughed, "Do you want to come over?"
His cheeks burning with embarrassment, Michael nodded.
The walk to Luke's house wasn't a far one; however, it was quiet, neither boy quite sure what to say to the other. The silence was only broken after Luke had led him inside an impressively large house, closing and locking the door behind them.
"This is so nice." Michael breathed.
Luke forced a smile, "It's alright."
"You have wooden floors." Michael pointed out, "And paintings, in frames, and a piano."
"I feel like a guest, you know." Luke replied, "I don't feel at home here."
Looking around in awe, Michael took off his well worn sneakers since walking on the floors with them seemed sacrilegious.
"What do you want to do?" Luke asked, seeming eager to change the subject, "We can watch a movie, or we can play a game, there's a wii in the basement if you want to play Mario Kart or there's an Xbox in the living room. We can go up to my room if you want, or there's the pool."
His mind racing through the options trying to prioritize which of the foreign pastimes he wanted to complete first, Michael shrugged, "Whatever you want to do."
It was Luke's turn to shrug, "Do you want to watch a movie?"
It seemed the safest option with the least amount of talking involved. He hoped it would decrease the awkwardness.
Michael nodded.
Luke then led the way to the living room, which was large, carpeted with what felt like clouds, contained an enormous leather couch and a TV so large Michael wondered if they'd purchased it from the movie theater when it had closed two years prior.
Flopping down on the couch, Luke picked up a remote and after pressing several buttons the screen displayed an array of movies Michael had never heard of.
"You can sit." Luke said, turning to look at Michael was standing awkwardly in the entrance of the room.
His cheeks burning once again, Michael hurriedly crossed over to the couch and sat.
"What do you want to watch?" Luke questioned.
Fiddling with his fingertips Michael studied the screen, "Whatever you want."
Glancing at him then back at the screen Luke turned on a horror movie.
The two boys watched the film in it's entirety, in silence. It wasn't until the credits began to roll that Luke spoke.
"Michael?"
"Hm?"
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Mhm."
"If you don't want to answer, you don't have to."
"Okay.."
"Does your Dad hurt you?"
Michael stiffened.
"I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to." Luke rambled, "But you can talk to me if you need to, if you want to. If you need help, I can help you, my ex boyfriend, well he wasn't really my boyfriend but his dad hurt him and it helped a lot to talk about...."
Michael's ears were ringing.
Boyfriend.
He wasn't even listening to Luke anymore.
Boyfriend.
Luke had a boyfriend at one point.
He was gay.
Of course the one person that was nice to him was gay. His dad would be pissed enough to know Luke had ditched school but to hang out at a gay guys house.
Michael's Uncle had been gay, or "A fag" as his Dad referred to him. He didn't know what being gay entailed all he New was it was two men, it was gross, and it was super wrong.
There were more things, vulgar things that his dad said, but Michael didn't like to listen. It made him feel weird hearing about the relative he'd never met who had done something so horrible, been something so shameful, that even in death he wasn't absolved.
"Michael?" Luke questioned, leaning towards him, concerned by the horrified expression on his face, "Are you okay?"
"You're gay?" Michael choked out, the words prickling his throat.
Immediately Luke stiffened, his shoulders bunching up towards his ears, "y-I mean- I thin-I don't-no."
In an instant he went from looking like a teenage boy to looking like a kicked puppy. His eyes wide with fear, pleading silently for acceptance.
"I didn't know you were gay." Michael said thickly.
"I didn't think it mattered." Luke mumbled, crossing his arms over his chest then uncrossing them.
"Uh. No. It's cool." Michael said, realizing that Luke's eyes were welling up with tears, "hey I-uh-i gotta go."
"Michael." Luke whispered.
Standing up, Michael backed away, "I'm sorry, I lost track of time."
"Michael," Luke repeated lamely.
"I'm sorry." Michael blurted out before turning on his heel and fleeing the house, leaving a broken hearted, horrified Luke in his wake.
