Guyliner by J. Leigh Bailey

Author:J. Leigh Bailey [bailey, j. leigh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay romance
ISBN: 978-1-63477-726-1
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2016-10-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

GRAHAM CLOSED his eyes, the question echoing in his head.

After a long silence, Connor swung his legs over the side of the bed. “Look, you don’t have to—”

“No, it’s fine. I was figuring out where to start.” Not only was he hesitant to relive the worst experience of his life, but Connor had only just acknowledged that he was gay. Telling Connor what he’d experienced could add fuel to the fear fire.

“When did it happen?” Connor pulled his legs back up and wrapped his hands around his knees.

“About a year ago. You know how I told you my parents knew I was gay, but they found out in probably the absolute worst way possible?” He released a shaky breath and turned to face Connor. “It was a gay bashing.”

Connor blanched, eyes widening. “Oh my God! How… I mean….”

“I’d been seeing this guy—Brandon—for a while. We were keeping things on the down-low, mostly because neither of us was out to our families, and he was scared of what his older brothers would think.”

“Were they—” He stopped to swallow. “I guess I really mean, why was he scared?”

“Let’s say they held a certain resemblance to the Tweedles except they were bigger, meaner, and overprotective of their little brother. He was different. He didn’t quite fit in with them. He was smaller, sweeter. They always sort of looked out for him. We went to the same school but didn’t hang out much. Different interests, mostly. We actually met at a club a lot like the one we went to last night. It was my first trip to a gay club, and there he was. At first it was like oh shit, because we obviously didn’t want to be out at school. Him more so than me, as it turns out. We spent most of the night pretending the other wasn’t there, all the while watching each other. Finally, he came over to me and asked me to not tell anyone that he’d been there. Since I wasn’t ready to advertise, it was no big deal. We started talking.”

“And you guys went out?” He held on to his knees tighter, as though trying not to reach out.

“Yeah. We didn’t have a lot of time together. Between school and the soccer schedule, I was busy. But yeah, we started getting closer.”

Graham stopped to try and wrestle his chaotic thoughts into some kind of logical order. His feelings about the attack and Brandon were a jumbled mix of excitement, infatuation, and pain. “It isn’t really fair to blame Brandon, but I do. Did. Still do, I guess. It’s all messed up in my head.”

“What happened?”

“We’d been seeing each other for a while, and I was getting tired of sneaking around. After a while it gets hard to pretend. Hard to pretend that you don’t know him in school. Hard to pretend that your dates are study sessions with friends. And you don’t expect the shame that comes with the hiding, the sneaking around. I didn’t like feeling like a dirty little secret.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.