LIAM HEADED to the gym, to get ready for the daily football practice. Most of the team had been practicing on and off all summer during the various camps the coaches held, but there were a few newbies who were still getting used to the routine. Cody had indeed made the team and was catching on very quickly. He had the playbook almost down in just the one week he’d been practicing. Liam found his locker and began to change into his practice gear.
Football was the one place he could lose himself in the game and not think about anything else. Today, however, Cody was on his mind—again. Seemed Cody was on his mind a lot in the past few days. Liam had absolutely no idea about Cody’s preferences, and in a town like this, it was better to not ask or even ponder the situation. But Liam couldn’t help thinking what it might feel like to hold Cody’s hand, or smooth his hair back behind his ear or even kiss him. Just like those male-female couples did in those old musicals his parents watched.
Most of the team was already outside warming up as the coach, good ol’ Coach Walker, walked by while thumbing through some pages on his clipboard.
“Hartley, get your ass in gear!”
Liam jumped. Coach Walker wasn’t anyone you’d want to piss off. He commanded respect, and it was well earned. “Yes, Coach.” He quickly finished lacing his shoes and slammed his locker shut. It was then he noticed Cody walking by. Cody stopped to tie one of his shoes and Liam could barely hold back a gasp as his shirt rode up slightly, showing off some skin and the ass that was tightly confined in the football pants.
Cody stood up and looked over at Liam. He gave Liam a huge grin. “See you out there.”
Liam smiled back and tried to find his voice. He swallowed hard. “Yeah, behind you.” Oh yeah, behind him. This ass-worship was getting out of hand. He grabbed his helmet and quickly followed Cody out to the field.
“Okay, boys, line ’em up. Drill time.” Coach blew his whistle, and they all dropped for push-ups. Next whistle, they turned over for crunches, followed by jumping jacks, then two laps around the track. The entire team was in sync. It made them much more efficient on the field, which was evident in their winning the all-county meets for five years in a row and then reaching the regionals for three of those years.
Liam went through the drills as instructed. The next bit was running pass drills, something he wasn’t really required to do. He worked with the special teams coach to increase his accuracy with the punts, but he kept getting distracted watching Cody. Cody seemed to be catching everything that came his way.
“Harley! Get your mind in the game. You’ve done a piss-poor job, not even hitting your average. Get in gear or it’s ten laps!”
“Yes, Coach.” Liam took a deep breath and tore his attention from Cody and back to the ball. With pure determination, he got his punts back to his usual average during the rest of the practice. Two hours later, sweaty and exhausted, Liam dragged his bag out of the locker, then started home.
“Liam, yo, wait up!”
Liam turned around at Cody’s voice. “What up?”
“Good practice today. Coach said I’ll be starting in the first game.”
“I knew you would. You can run and breathe, and heck, you can even catch. Coach would’ve been nuts to hold you back. Looks like we’re going to have a good season this year.” Liam gave out a little laugh.
Cody caught up with Liam and fell in step with him. “Well, yeah, I figured as much. But to start when I didn’t practice with you guys all summer.” He shrugged. “My old coach wouldn’t have allowed that.”
“Coach is pretty informal like that. Heck, he’s allowed players to come in midseason. We’re so small that the football association lets us make substitutions, just as long as Coach doesn’t try to bring in a ringer. You’re not a ringer, are you?”
Cody snorted. “Hell no. Couldn’t you tell? I guess I’m decent enough, just because I can run while not looking where I’m going.”
“Yeah, I noticed. You seemed to catch every ball thrown, even the lousy ones.”
“Hey, you wanna get some practice time in together?”
Liam shrugged. “Guess so. We’ve got a pretty big backyard. My dad will sometimes come out and practice with me.”
“Cool. Friday after school? Coach said no practice on Friday.”
“Well, I… I have plans.”
“Oh.”
“But if you want to come over, you can. It’s my birthday party. Nothing big, pizza, soda, cake. Maybe a pick-up game, or we could toss the football, that could be practice.”
“You sure you want me hanging out with your friends? I’m not exactly conventional, you know.”
“Most of the guys think you’re so cool, with your hair and all. None of them would dare color their hair, they’d be disowned.”
“Really?”
“You have no idea. This town is stuck in the 1950s. There’s been talk about your family not attending church.”
“Damn, does everyone go to church?”
“Pretty much.”
“Any Jewish people around here?”
“You’re Jewish?”
“No, just curious.”
Liam hiked his bag higher up on his shoulder. “No Jewish people, no Muslims, heck, no Catholics. Everyone is Protestant and either go to the Methodist church or the Baptist one.”
“My family isn’t religious. Sunday’s all about sleeping in, lazing around, maybe watching a game on the TV or watching a movie. You Methodist or Baptist?”
“Baptist. But—” Liam wanted to talk with Cody about his religious crisis, but wasn’t sure he’d be received well, even with a person who wasn’t religious.
“But what?”
Liam pointed to a brick retaining wall along the front of a yard. “Can we sit?”
Cody shrugged and plopped down on the wall. “Shoot.”
Liam sat down next to him. For some reason, he threw all caution to the wind. In retrospect, he was glad he did. “Do you believe in God? I mean, you don’t have to answer that if you don’t want.”
“Nah, you can ask me anything. And yeah, I believe in a higher power, just not a Christian God. I can’t believe there’s this all-seeing patriarch in the sky who takes notice of our every move.”
“What do you believe?”
“Well, my mom’s a—look, this doesn’t go beyond us, right? I know we’re only here for a few months, but I don’t want any cross burning or harassment.”
Liam grunted. “No cross burning here. While it may look and sometimes act like the 1950s here, we are a bit more civilized. And yes, I swear, this is between you and me.”
“My mom’s a Wiccan. She believes in a dual higher power. She believes that the higher power can’t be exclusively male or female. If it was entirely male, how could it create a female and vice versa. Also, whatever you put out into the universe will visit you in threes. Put out good, good will come back to you threefold; do bad and you’ve got some bad karma heading your way.”
“And your dad? Is he Wiccan too?”
“Dad’s more of an agnostic, doesn’t really know if there is a higher power or not, but he lives a good, moral life.”
“And you?”
“Sorta like my mom. Not entirely sold on the Wiccan thing, but I like the ‘do good and good will return threefold’ thing. So what about you? Are you into the Christian thing?”
Liam looked off into the distance, watching a squirrel run up a light pole and scamper across the wires. He wished he could just scamper away without a care in the world. He collected his thoughts. “I-I-I don’t know. The stuff they talk about and believe, I just can’t get behind sometimes.”
“Like what?”
Liam swallowed. He really didn’t want to get into the whole “same-sex marriage” issue with an almost stranger. But he did feel at ease with Cody. Plus, it wasn’t a secret the church was anti-gay. “The big thing right now is the same-sex marriage issue. Most people are all up in arms about it. They think gay people are going to corrupt all the children.”
Cody laughed. “I wonder how they’d feel if they realized they probably already know a gay person.”
Liam felt his cheeks get warm. Did Cody know? Was there a way to identify a gay person Liam wasn’t aware of? “What do you mean?”
“The current research estimates about five percent of the population is gay, maybe more. This town has what, five thousand people? So there’s probably a couple hundred gay people around here.”
Liam’s eyes lit up. “A couple hundred? Wow.”
“The percentage is probably lower here, being in the middle of nowhere, but even two to three percent gives you about a hundred people. Since it seems everyone knows everyone, then everyone knows a gay person.”
“I never realized.”
“Yeah, most people will ignore the things they don’t want to see. You have any older adults, two men or two women, who are roommates?” He accentuated the word roommates with air quotes.
“There’s Bill and John, they’ve been roommates for as long as I can remember. They live two blocks over from me.”
“Not to say they are, not to say they aren’t. It is possible for two older same-sex people to live together, but does give you pause.”
“I guess you’re right, never even thought of them as possibly gay.”
Cody tilted his head toward Liam. “So it’s the social issues that makes you question your faith?”
“Mainly. I do have a problem with people picking and choosing what they want to follow out of the Bible.”
“My mom says the Bible is a good book for morals and has some good fables and lessons, but it’s a work of fiction in her eyes.”
“Don’t let anyone around here hear you say that.”
“Yeah, I got that.”
“You’re lucky.”
“How’s that?”
“You get to leave in a few months. Go back to civilization. I’m stuck in the ’50s for two more years.”
“It can’t be all bad.”
Liam let out a breath. He wavered a moment, but since both of them had been honest, he decided it was time to tell his secret. “You know the five percent?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m one of them.”
Cody shrugged. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m the first one you’ve ever told.” Cody said it as a statement, not a question.
“Yeah.”
“I’m honored. I consider myself bisexual.”
“Bisexual?”
“Yep. I date girls and boys. I find everyone pretty fascinating.”
“That’s awesome.”
“So, what’re you gonna do for two years? Seems like everyone here pairs off, just like those sitcoms from the ’50s. How you gonna get away from not going to prom or dating?”
Liam shrugged. “I’m not sure. Fake it, I guess.”
“You really think the world would end if you came out?”
“My world here, yes.”
“You know you are kinda cute.”
Liam felt his cheeks redden. “I’m cute?”
“You’ve got that small-town, all-American boy charm going for you. I find it adorable. Where I come from, most kids my age are already jaded, like they’ve seen too much and just don’t care anymore. I like that everyone here is kinda innocent, to an extent. I’m just going to have to deal with the bigotry while I’m here. Date only girls.”
“I-I think you’re kinda cute too.”
Cody looked left and right, then put his hand over Liam’s. “Let’s hang out. Your parents allow you to have friends over, right?”
Liam felt his heart start to race. He looked around as well, seeing no one in the near vicinity. It felt good to have Cody’s hand on top of his. “Yeah, sure.”
“So, we’ll hang. If we end up liking each other, well, that’s just a benefit. We’ll just have to keep it quiet.”
“I’d like that.”
“Fantastic!”