Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 3

cameras—homosexuality is a disease, gay people are corrupting our children. And most of all, God will strike them dead, and we should help him along with that."
    "You don't believe that," Jude said. "Do you?"
    "No. But every other idiotic fuck in my town does. Including the sheriff's department."
    A chill skated down his spine. "What happened?"
    For a long moment, Ethan didn't say anything. When he finally spoke, it was with broken hesitation. "His name was Tom Forster. Sweet old guy, 65 or so. He moved to town from California after his partner died. Probably just looking for a quiet place to die himself. He wasn't well." He blinked a few times. "I was still in high school. And the kids, they talked."
    Jude sat on the ground next to him—wanting to take his hand, thinking better of it. "Kids do that," he said. "They can say some pretty awful things."
    "They went way past saying them." Ethan's voice lowered. "I wanted to talk to him. Tom, I mean. By then I knew that I...liked boys. But I didn't really understand what it meant to be gay, and I thought maybe he could help. My mother would've killed me if she caught me associating with him. So I'd taken to hanging around his house some nights, trying to get up the nerve to go and knock when no one was around. One Saturday..."
    When he didn't continue, Jude gripped his hand anyway. He didn't seem to notice.
    "There were twelve of them. Mostly guys from school, but a couple girls, too. A few of them had baseball bats." Ethan stared into the distance, as if he could see them now. Maybe he could. "They piled up on Tom's porch, and they were laughing. When he came out, they never said a word to him. They just started beating him."
    The shudder that went through Ethan passed into Jude. "I take it he left town, then."
    Ethan shook his head, very slowly. "He's still there. In the cemetery. They killed him."
    " What? "
    "He didn't die from the beating. His heart gave out. So the sheriff called it a heart attack and wrote the whole thing off." Ethan glanced down at his hand, but didn't pull it away. "I was there, Jude. I saw it happen, and I didn't stop them."
    "You couldn't have. One of you, twelve of them?"
    "I didn't do anything. Didn't call 911. Didn't even tell anyone what I'd seen. I figured that since I was just like Tom, they'd come after me next." He let out a shaking breath. "I let a man die, and let his killers get away with it, because I'm a coward."
    "Ethan. Look at me."
    He raised his head with obvious reluctance.
    "You were just a kid." Jude squeezed his hand. "And it wasn't your fault."
    "Sure it wasn't."
    Before he knew what he intended to do, Jude slid closer and put his arms around him. "I'm so sorry, Ethan," he said. "Even without knowing all this, it was wrong of me to walk away. Let me make it up to you."
    Ethan's shifted to look at him, lips drawn into a tight line. "Look who's just trying to make me feel better," he said. "Do you think I want that, any more than you did?"
    "If I was trying to make you feel better, I'd have picked you some flowers or something."
    "Well, what exactly are you doing?"
    "Wanting you."
    "I can't," Ethan whispered. "You don't understand. All those kids, they still live in town. If anyone finds out—"
    Jude cut him off with a kiss. "I don't see anyone from your town around here."
    For a moment he was sure he'd blown it. Then Ethan smiled. "Neither do I."
    ****
    Reality tried its hardest to intrude on the moment. Ethan's mind offered up a running commentary of all the things he was doing wrong, and how even if he got away with this now— depraved, disgusting, corrupt, blasphemous— he would pay dearly for it. People would talk. The sheriff would call it an accident when they found him bludgeoned to death. He would be—
    And then Jude's mouth was on his, and he heard nothing but the distant crackling of the campfire, muted through the roar of hunger that swept through his blood.
    He clung to Jude, and parted his lips when the man's tongue sought entrance. This. Yes. If he'd ever doubted his sexuality before, he never would again. Kissing Jude was everything he'd been missing in his life. If they didn't go any further, this would be enough.
    But Jude wanted more, and announced it by rubbing Ethan's cock through his jeans.
    With a groan, he shifted to offer better access. Jude worked his jeans open, slid a hand in, and Ethan gasped at the contact. "Wait," he said.
    Jude froze. "What's wrong?"
    "Um." The back of his neck flushed