He Likes Boys//It (2017)

t w e n t y s e v e n

Chapter Twenty Seven:

As they dropped Stan off safely and continued to drive Hom, both Hom and his mother sat in silence, neither of them quite knowing what to say about the things that had just occurred.

The silence only dragged on for a few more moments, before Hom's mother decided that she simply couldn't stand the awkwardness and the way it was making her thoughts wander to places she didn't want them to. She leaned over and turned on the radio again.

She didn't care much for music these days. Everything just seemed to scream plastic pop music from the moment it hit her ears, but still she cranked it up, not wanting for things to be so quiet.

Hom almost couldn't believe the words that had come out of his mother's mouth. Everything she said was like an instant dream, everything in his life was suddenly more surreal, more perfect. Hom was now living in the world he always wanted to live in, but never thought was possible. His life was finally taking a change for the better.

He had everything he had ever dreamed of in the span of just a few days. He had a fantastic group of friends, a boyfriend with whom he was completely smitten with, and his mom was okay with their relationship, which definitely had to be the cherry on top of everything that was happening.

Music blasted loudly from the car speakers as his mom pulled up in the drive way, turning off the radio, and then pulling her keys out of the ignition. She looked back at her son, lovingly. She didn't want life to be so hard for him, but she feared she could do nothing to change the way things were, and she had to let them just be.

And so she did.

She knew that Hom was old enough to be able to make smart decisions for himself, and if he thought this whole homosexuality thing was what he needed to do right now, then she would be okay with that, so long as the neighbours didn't hear about them and no one at school caused them too much trouble.

Hom was glad to be home, at last, and safely in bed. He sure hoped Stan was too, and that his parents weren't too mad at him about what had happened. Then he thought of Beverly, and everything she had just confessed to him. Hom wondered how he could ever break up with Beverly after every she'd confided in with him, and after everything she'd been going through.

He didn't want to break her heart, although he knew there was no way to let her down easy. There's no way to tell her without having her freak out over everything, although Hom knew he couldn't just keep cheating on Beverly. It wouldn't be fair to both her and Stan. He couldn't do that to two people he cared about.

Hom's thoughts swirled around in his mind, taking him off to the realm of dreams.

Hom awoke in a circus cage, bright stage lights circled ahead in the large and colourful tent.

The rows were all filled to the brim with people wearing animal masks and laughing, cheering as Hom walked around the centre of his cage, standing there, petrified.

The ring leader announced the next attraction loudly, cracking his whip to get the audiences attention. Hom winced at the loud crack of the whip he gave as he circled around Hom.

"And our next attraction, ladies and gentlemen, may look fairly normal...."

He gave Hom a creepy smile, showing off his long yellow teeth. Hom shivered at the sight of it, and became more fearful of what was to come.

What was this place?

What was he doing here?

".....but this next attraction is actually...."

A loud drumroll was coming from somewhere backstage, dragging on for what seemed like forever before the ringleader finally continued, screaming the last words loudly.

"A faggot!" The ring leader yelled and smiled again at Hom.

"He'll bum you in the night if you aren't careful! Wild and hardly tamed, I can barely keep him off me when I enter the cage." The ring leader lied through his teeth.

Hom shook his head. And started to back up, his back eventually hitting the hard metal of the cage. How could this happen? What kind of a fucked up show was this? Questions swirled through his mind as he thought of everything that was happening to him.

"And," the ring leader also announced, more quietly than before, but since the whole crowd was silent, Hom suspected they could all hear it. "He likes being whipped." The ringleader announced with a smirk, as he approached Hom, drawing back his whip.

"It's not true!" Hom yelled as loudly as he could in protest. "None of it is true!" He screamed.

Tears fell down his face as the ringleader came closer and closer to his cage, Hom tried to back away from him even more, but was confined to the tiny walls of his cage.

"It's not true!" He screamed again, as tears rolled down his cheeks.

The ringleader smiled at him. A dark smile. One that sent shivers down Hom's spine and scared him more than any horror movie he had ever seen in his life. He didn't like that smile. He wanted to wipe it from the ringleaders face.

The ringleader leaned in, and whispered to him. "Maybe not all of it is true. But so much of it is, dear Hom. So much of it is." 

Hom awoke from his dream with a start and wiped the sleep from his eyes. He had to go to school today. He realized, and then sighed.