"Everything was destroyed!" Luke paces up and down Joy's living room as he explains to his Mum what had happened with his locker today. Joy had phoned her when Luke had got home so agitated that she couldn't make head nor tail about what he was talking about. "My drawings, my books!"
"Do you know who did it?" she asks, horrified that this has happened in his school and that, by the sounds of it, no-one did anything to stop it.
"I can guess! Isaac Raine!"
"I say we go and beat the shit out of him!" Dave says, looking over his reading glasses at Luke from his seat at the kitchen table.
Joy rolls her eyes and tuts at him, "We're trying to be constructive here!"
"I thought I was!"
"Did you tell the Head?" Liz asks.
Luke dismisses her, "He doesn't care! It's all because of this group?"
"What group?!"
"Luke and Chloe started a gay straight student alliance!" Joy tells her with pride on her face.
"Yeah but they shut us down! Said we hadn't gone through the proper channels..."
"Even if you had I bet it wouldn't have made any difference!" Dave pipes up.
Joy slaps her thigh in annoyance , "Do you have to piss on the kids idealism?" she asks her brother, glaring at him.
"He might as well know the truth!"
"We just wanted a place to talk, we couldn't even have that!"
"Well considering what's happened maybe it's best that you don't draw attention to yourself?" Liz asks, wrapping her arms around herself.
Luke looks at her in disbelief, "You want me to hide?"
"I want you to be safe!"
"So I should just give in? Let them intimidate me my entire life?" he shouts frustratedly, looking at his mother.
Joy wags her finger at him, "You stick up for yourself Sunshine! And you stand beside him!" She adds, wagging her finger at Liz too.
"Joy! Would you just please stay out of this?!" Liz retorts.
"Oh I forgot! He just eat, sleeps and jerks off here! What do I know?! I'll keep my big mouth shut!"
Dave sends Joy a look as she crosses her arms and shuts her mouth, looking from Luke to Liz in turn.
"Mum, this isn't about me!" Luke steps towards her, realising they're going to get nowhere fast by arguing like this. "Or even about what happened at school! This is about speaking out, demanding to be heard whether people want to hear you or not."
Liz looks at him worriedly, "Where did you learn all that?!"
"It's what you and Dad taught me..."
"We did?" she asks disbelievingly as Luke nods.
"Well he sure as hell didn't learn it at Norwest!" Joy pipes up again, unable to remain silent for any amount of time.
~~~
Michael shuts the door to his black Jeep and walks up the driveway slowly, watching the man he thought he knew inside out and back to front stick his tongue out as he polishes the bonnet of his car to a shine. He used to do that thing with his tongue whenever he was concentrating at school too, over a decade before.
"So how was dinner with Boo Boo and Balthzedar?" Michael asks, unsure as to whether he'd got their names right.
"Balthazar," Calum corrects him. "Balthazar's really funny and Boo Boo is the smartest person I think I've ever met. You'd love them."
YOU ARE READING
Queer as Muke
Fanfiction"The thing you need to know is, it's all about sex. It's true. In fact they say men think about sex every twenty-eight seconds. Of course that's straight men. With gay men it's every nine." Twenty nine year old advertising executive Michael Cliffor...
