He was the new boy at school. 16 years old, dark brown hair, piercing green eyes. Walking down this new school’s hallway for the first time was terrifying. He had to keep brushing the hair out of his eyes to keep from running into anyone or anything. He looked down and noticed the shirt he was wearing. An old moldy-green shirt. His face showed slight disgust. Thank God I wore a jacket, he thought. As he was walking, trying to find the room number to his first hour class, he dropped one of his books. As he bent down to pick it up he could feel the holes in his jeans wanting to rip even more. D*** it all, he thought. He sighed. He looked down and smiled. He was wearing the black pair of Vans his sister, Tyler, got for him last year. When he got to the class door he went to reach for the handle but pulled away. He then leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. He was scared to walk in. Would they like him? Would they treat him wrong? Are they all nice? These questions roamed his mind. He left his last school from bullying. It had gotten to the point where he wanted to kill himself, but his mother and sister kept him alive. “It’s not my fault I’m gay,” he whispered to himself. He opened his eyes and walked through the door.

When you first enter the room, the smell is what gets to you first. The smell of sweet fruits but then a mix of teenage sweat. Ew.

It was noisy when he first walked in. Chairs were everywhere. Desks where covered with backpacks and papers. Many people were talking and laughing. Only some were sitting at their desks quietly. It suddenly got quiet when the class noticed him. All eyes were on him. He could feel the blood rush to his face and went to look down but then it was like he wasn’t there. Everyone was back to talking with each other and laughing, like no one had even entered the room. He felt his face returning back to its normal color. When he looked straight he saw the teacher at the board, writing what looked like notes. The teacher had to be roughly 40 years old. He wore a tight black and gray striped button down, a pair of jeans, and…cowboy boots? Interesting, he thought. You could tell the girls thought the man was attractive because every time the teacher turned around, the girls giggled.

The new kid walked up to the teacher and noticed he was close in height to him. Both were about 6’1”.

“Um hi,” he said softly to the teacher.

The teacher looked up from the board and went to shake his hand.

“Hello, son. My name is Mr. Scott,” he said with a surprisingly deep voice. “Are you Dominic Ray?”

Dominic nodded. Mr. Scott opened his desk and pulled out a few papers and handed them to him.

“Get those signed and bring them to me tomorrow, okay Mr. Ray? We can’t have any safety issues in this chemistry class, you hear me?” Mr. Scott chuckled and pointed to the back of the room. “Have the empty seat in the corner next to Tommy. Tommy come here!”

The blond in the corner stood up. Dominic watched him as he got closer. Tommy had dirty-blond hair that flipped over his eyes. He noticed that Tommy’s eyes were a deep blue. Dominic’s favorite color. He felt his knees want to buckle but held himself together. Tommy was tall. About 3 inches taller than Dominic. He was wearing a tight shirt with a sweater on top so you could see the muscles from the guy. Dominic gulped. D***n he looked good.

Dominic quickly turned his glance back to Mr. Scott and hoped he wasn’t blushing. Tommy was next to the teacher when he spoke.

“Hey Mr. S, what’s up?” he asked. Even his voice sounded nice. It was almost like a purr. Tommy glanced over at Dominic.

“Is this the new kid?” he asked softly. He then held his hand out. Dominic shook his hand and nodded ever so slightly.

“My name is Dominic,” he said. “I got transferred from Illinois.

“Oh wow,” Tommy and Mr. Scott said at the same time.

“That seems pretty far from Virginia. What made you move here?” Tommy asked.

Dominic looked at the ground.

“Bullying,” he muttered.

Tommy put a hand on his shoulder. Dominic looked up and could feel tears starting to form so he looked away. Mr. Scott then told both boys to go take a seat. He was about to begin today’s lesson.

Dominic and Tommy went to their seats. When Dominic looked over at Tommy he noticed something. He seemed…scared. Up front he went from this ‘cool’ kid to someone who looked utterly terrified.

“What’s wrong?” Dominic asked. He saw Tommy get a little red in the face. Tommy looked shyly at him.

“Um,” he said. “I’m not the brightest student ever and this class is somewhat difficult for me.” He looked back down to his desk and began to fiddle with his fingers. He was nervous, why?

“I can tutor you,” Dominic piped up with. “I’m good at sciences.”

Tommy looked at him with surprise.

“You would help me?”

Dominic nodded and smiled. He could already feel something deep within him. Tommy smiled back. CLICK. Something went off. Dominic shuttered. Tommy tore out a sheet of paper, wrote something on it, and passed it to Dominic, just as Mr. Scott started talking.

Dominic opened it and read it.

‘Meet me after school @ the entrance of student parking lot.’

Dominic knew he blushed and was smiling. After that, the day flew by so fast.

**********

When his last hour class was about to end, he was nervous. He kept glancing around the room, looking up at the clock, waiting anxiously for the bell to ring. He was glad no one was paying attention to him. RING RING. At the sound of the bell he bolted out of the classroom and went straight for the bathroom. He looked at himself in the mirror. He ran his fingers through his hair. He didn’t think he was ugly. He thought he was all right, maybe even cute. His green eyes seemed brighter than normal and his tan skin still looked flushed. Dominic straightened his shirt, looked once more in the mirror, grabbed his things, and then walked outside.

It’s about 3 in the afternoon and it was warm. Slight breeze, you could see the leaves in the trees swaying, you could hear the birds chirping, and a bunch of high-school students laughing.

Dominic was glad his best friend told him about this place. It’s quiet, Dominic thought with a smile. He pulled out his phone and sent a text message to his friend.

‘Hey man, you were right. It is gorgeous. Lol.’

Almost instantly he got a message back.

‘It better be the weather and not some boys. :P’

Dominic chuckled. Only his best friend, Duke, accepted that he was gay. Sure, Duke joked around with him, but they had been best friends since they were little kids. Duke was the only one who stood by his side. Well, Duke and Tyler. Even with Duke still being in Illinois, he was protective and Dominic loved him for that.

As Dominic put his phone back in his pocket, he looked up and saw Tommy waving at him. Dominic walked over to him, nearly tripping over a big branch on the ground. It was practically camouflaged with the grass. Dominic caught himself and quickly looked around to make sure no one saw. When he looked straight up at Tommy, he had a huge smile on his face. D***, Tommy saw me trip, he thought to himself. When Dominic reached the sidewalk, Tommy started laughing.

“I guess you met the school branch,” he said in between laughs.

Dominic blushed and smirked. “Yeah, apparently.”

“Aw, don’t let it get you down,” he said sweetly. “The branch gets everyone.”

Tommy smiled at Dominic and he knew he was in trouble. First day at a new school and he was already developing a crush. He happily sighed.

“Hey you ready to go?” Tommy asked.

“Let’s do this,” Dominic said while laughing.

When they walked up to Tommy’s car, Dominic had a shocked expression. He was sure Tommy noticed because Tommy began laughing again.

“Yeah,” he laughed. “This truck is fairly new. My dad owns a mechanic shop so he keeps it looking fresh.”

“Wow,” Dominic exclaimed. The truck was a big Toyota Tundra. It was a shiny red-metallic color with a big black stripe going from front to back, across the top. It looked amazing. It had polished chrome wheels and everything.

“Get in,” Tommy said as he smirked. God, was he cute. Dominic opened the truck door and got in.

As they drove off of school property, Dominic realized this was a start of a new life. He sat back and smiled. Yeah, he may be alone but he was going to find new friends. He didn’t care if Tommy noticed him smiling. He felt happy. He was able to start over.

The whole time to Tommy’s house, Dominic was looking out the window. He loved being away from the city. This way he got to enjoy the countryside, the woods, and the dirt roads.

Dominic looked forward and noticed they were turning on a dirt road. After a few minutes they turned around a bend and there it was. A gorgeous 2-story house in the middle of the woods. Tommy stopped the car and looked over at Dominic.

“Wow,” he gasped. “This house looks amazing!”

Tommy laughed and nodded. They both got out of the car and walked up to the porch. The porch reminded Dominic of a cabin. It had a dark, wooden frame. When they walked inside you found yourself in a small hallway. To the left was an opening to the kitchen and farther that way was the living room and dining room. If you faced the right there was a bathroom and 2 bedrooms. Directly in front of you, at the end of the hallway, was a stairway. Dominic gulped. He only lived in an apartment. He glanced to the left and Tommy began walking in that direction. The kitchen was huge.

It had a double-oven, double-door fridge filled with tremendous amounts of food, the countertops were a subtle, blue marble mixed with a slight hint of grey granite, and on top of that it had an island with a grill built into it. Dominic was almost overwhelmed by it all. When he walked past the kitchen, he couldn’t hide his amazement when he walked into their living room. They had a 60” plasma screen TV hooked into an entertainment center that included Xbox 360, PS2-4, and a Wii. Dominic looked down under the TV and noticed an empty space and pointed it out.

“Why is there an empty space?” Dominic asked.

“Oh, my little brother wanted an NES with some classic games. It should be coming in sooner or later,” Tommy replied.

Dominic was stunned. He then sat on one of three velvet couches surrounding the TV. He started getting comfortable when he suddenly heard a dog barking. Dominic glanced behind and saw a semi-big Chocolate Lab run towards him, jump over the couch, and land on his lap. Dominic laughed as the dog licked his face and Tommy trying to get the dog off of him.

“Sorry about Percy,” Tommy said, slightly embarrassed.

“Oh, it’s fine,” replied Dominic. “I love dogs. I used to have one until I moved away. Your dog is very playful.”

“Yeah, that he is.”

They both sat on the couch when Tommy spoke.

“So,” Tommy started then cleared his throat. “Why did you move out here? Isn’t it somewhat far from where you’re from?”

Dominic sighed and faced the pillow on his lap.

“Last year, sophomore year, I went to a private school,” he started. “I had lots of friends and got along great with everyone. I was…popular.”

“That doesn’t sound bad at all,” Tommy said, staring at Dominic.

“Well it was, until the beginning of junior year, this year. At my school they aren’t exactly open to gay people. I had a crush on someone and suddenly the whole school found out. Ever since then, teachers and students wouldn’t stop harassing me. They wouldn’t look at me. I lost my friends. This group of guys would pick on me, shoving me up against the walls yelling that I like it up the ***. I eventually got tired of it. I just hope that at this school I can be rid of that. I left my mom and sister at home. I miss them. I don’t want this trip to be wasted.”

“Aw honey,” Tommy said softly. This caught Dominic by surprise.

“What did you just call me?” Dominic asked. He was quite stunned. He watched Tommy’s face flush.

“Um,” he quickly said. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to.” Tommy looked down at his hands. He wasn’t telling Dominic something and he was pretty sure he knew what it was.

“Tommy,” he slowly asked. “What’s the matter? You were fine a minute ago.”

Tommy cleared his throat. He looked directly at Dominic and into his eyes, sending a shiver down his spine. It was like something went off in his head. A click. Suddenly Dominic noticed how innocent he looked. His blue eyes filled with wonder, his lips so delicately resting, and the slight flush that rose to his cheeks. Dominic couldn’t help but stare. Tommy began to fiddle with his fingers, proving that he was nervous. Tommy sighed.

“I’m gay too,” was all he said.