One Man’s Love.

Jason watched her as she fanned herself with a loose leaf on the ground, she’s gorgeous, he thought to himself. Her cheeks were flushed from the sun, and whenever she laughed, her long blonde hair would bounce along to the beat of it. Sometimes her big blue eyes would find his smaller green eyes, and they would sit there staring at each other, under the large oak tree, for hours on end. They weren’t supposed to be together, yet somehow they always wound up spending their weekends hidden away from the rest of the world. Jason had found this tree sometime during fifth grade, him and Brian, his best friend, had run away from school after their teacher had threatened to separate them in class. A small smile appeared on his face, they had spent the entire day hanging from the lower branches of the tree.


Brian wasn’t sure what drew him to the woods, he hadn’t been planning on spending his only day off from work hiking through trees. Perhaps it was the absence of Jason that drew him to the oak tree, he had been behaving rather strange lately, and Brian hadn’t spent as much time with him as he would have liked. He found them lip locked, much to the embarrassment of the girl, the one who lived a few houses down from his. Sophie, is it? He watched as the two jumped apart, Jason had turned a bright shade of red, the girl looked like she was close to tears.
The three stood there awkwardly for a while before Brian finally cleared his throat,

“Jason, a word?”
Jason stared at him unhappily, the girl whispered something, and he nodded, his eyes never leaving Brian’s. He made sure she was out of sight, before he stepped closer to Brian.

“She’s pretty,” Brian remarked, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a wrinkled cigarette. Jason stared down at his feet, his heart was pounding under his ribcage. It’s only Brian, he tried to assure himself.
Brian shifted uncomfortably, he wondered why he was so surprised to find Jason with a girl, he’d known Jason was different from him, from everyone since they’d met. He’d been avoiding this conversation for almost a year now, in fear of how this could alter his life. He puffed on the now lit cigarette, his curly brown hair swayed in the wind.

“Its okay if you are…” Brian wasn’t sure why he was whispering, there was no one there who could hear him. He wasn’t even sure about why he was telling Jason he was okay with this, not when he liked Jason the way he did.

“It’s not okay.” Jason finally said, his voice strained.

“Are you sure…” Brian didn’t have to finish the question for Jason to know what he was asking.


Jason didn’t reply. Wasn’t he? Hadn’t he just been kissing her, surely that was not for any other reason but because he liked her. Normal men don’t walk around kissing women, only people like me, us heterosexuals. The word sent a shiver down his back, he let his mind drift back the 1995, the first year the heterosexuals had retaliated. Men and women had marched down Sunlake Avenue, demanding their lifestyle be accepted. They had held hands with each other, and had publicly displayed their affection for the world to watch. That was, until the police had shown up. The riot that followed lasted three days. People were murdered, and hung out for everyone else to see, as an open threat so no one else would ever retaliate against the status quo again. Yet each year since then, the parades had grown longer and the people a little less fearful. By 2003, the parade had stopped ending in riots, and the police had taken to protecting the paraders from their onlookers, instead of starting the riots themselves. August 15 through 19 became pride week for those who were courageous enough to come out and tell their loved ones they were straight. This however, didn’t stop their harsh community from ridiculing them with inequality and no rights to protect themselves. The heterosexuals had but four days during the year to celebrate their pride, the rest were filled with torture, discrimination and even murder.


Brian watched Jason contemplating his answer, his green eyes stared down at the ground as if it was going to explode any minute and hand him his answer. Brian wasn’t sure if he even wanted an answer to his question, what if he says yes?
His fathers will disown him, Brian knew for sure, Jason’s fathers were firm believers of the lifestyle the Ancient Greeks had taught them. The Ancient Greeks had taught them that the only form of true love was found between people of the same sex, for it had no benefits to it. A man and woman’s love purposeful, it was to create a child, it was selfish love. Back then they had allowed men to bed women for the sole purpose of reproduction, the men and women would then return to their respected homes, where their lovers of the same sex awaited them, and the men would live out the rest of their lives unsure of whether they even created a child. The priests would take away the healthy children and raise them until the age of 12. The cycle would then continue on. The method of reproduction had changed since then, yet the belief had stuck around. Men were allowed to be friends with women to a certain extent, and women with men, but any form of sexual behaviour was illegal. Since then, In vitro fertilization had become the only legal method of reproduction, and even then, anonymity was used to stop women and men from having any form of relationship other than what was neseccary.


“I’m straight,” Jason’s whispered words shook Brian out of his thoughts, it took him a while to process the statement. He felt as if someone had taken his heart and dropped it down Mt. Falton. Brian took a moment to puff on his cigarette, he’d asked the question in hope of a miracle answer, the confirmation of his suspicions bit into him. Jason smiled, he thought back to the conversation he and Sophia had been having a while ago. The smile shot a pang of jealousy through Brian, he had never been able to make Jason smile that way. It seemed right, him and her being together. Despite years of religion and history teaching him otherwise, he allowed himself to wonder if his ancestors had been right about true love. Shouldn’t love be true for anyone, and not just for those who did not benefit from it in any way. So what if along the way you just happen to also gain a child from it? Brian struggled with his thoughts, years of teachings against the heterosexual love was hard to diminish in a matter of seconds.

“You’re straight.” Brian laughed, hoping it would mask the struggle within him.

Jason expression grew sturdier, “I am. I am straight.” He was shouting by the end of the sentence, Brian laughed along. He could get used to this Jason, the one he’d become friends with in prep school.

Brian wasn’t sure who appeared first, the gunman, or Sophia. Her hands were tied together, and she had a gun pointed to her back. Brian jumped in front of Jason before he did something that got all three of them killed. He knew the man, it was Mr. Lancaster, the man who owned the farm right at the border of the woods. He’s seen them come in here, he knows. Brian racked his brain for an excuse, Summerville was a suspicious little town, known for it’s unforgiving people, the man was going to kill Jason and Sophia anyway.

“Who said that?” He gun dug deeper into Sophia’s back.
Brian felt Jason press up against him, he’s going to do something stupid.

“I did.” Brian shouted just as Jason did, the man wasn’t pleased. His finger dug down, blood splattered everywhere. Sophia hit the ground with a thud, it’s a test. Brian lunged for her body before Jason could even register her death. The gun went off again, seconds later, Brian felt the bullet pierce his abdomen, his mouth filled up with hot liquid. He spluttered. He needs to run.

“Go-ah.” Brian choked on his blood, he blinked, it had gone dark.
Jason ran. Hot tears pierced his eyes, but he kept on going. He ran until his feet no longer listened to the cries of his lungs. He wasn’t going home. There was no longer a place for him in Summerville. He wouldn’t wake up each morning in the town that had murdered Sophia and his best friend. He was almost two towns over by the time he tripped over a root and stopped. He wasn’t going to stop until he was far from Summerville, unfortunately for him, the world consisted of a million small towns, just like the one he was running from. Yet he ran, not in hope the hope for a better world, but for the sacrifice Brian had made for him.