Chapter 2-2
800 Words
When Father Nate came back an hour later, Alex
thought the room had shrunk until it was only the two of them,
himself and Jamie. The fading sun through the windows was hot, too
hot, heating up the room until Alex felt he needed a cold shower
just to cool down. It’s him, he thought, smiling up at
Father Nate as Jamie watched them closely. It’s Jamie, he made
me this bothered, he was trying to and damn, he did a good job of
it. “You boys are still alive,” Father Nate said, smiling at
Jamie. “You get along okay?”
“Fine.” As Alex stood, he noticed Jamie’s stare aimed at
his groin, and hoped his feelings weren’t obvious. Casually he
tugged at his shirt, but not before Jamie raised those endless eyes
to his and smirked. f**k. “Nice meeting you.”
“Aww,” Jamie pouted, suddenly looking much younger than
eighteen. “Do you have to go? Just when things were heating up
between us.” He punctuated that with an audacious wink.
If Father Nate caught that, he didn’t acknowledge it. Instead he
waited for Alex to reply…what else was there to say? “I’ll come
back later,” Alex tried.
“You live with your parents?” Jamie wanted to know. “My
mom hates me. Says I’m a bad influence on Robbie.” He laughed at
that. “Me, bad. Can you imagine?”
All too well. Keeping that thought to himself, Alex shook
his head. “I’ve got an apartment downtown.”
Jamie set the chair down on the ground and stood up. “Can I see
it?”
“Maybe later,” Father Nate said, placing a hand on Alex’s
shoulder. Jamie pouted and sat back down, glaring at them. “Next
time, Jamie. You guys just met.”
“So?” Jamie sulked, crossing his arms in front of his
chest. “Any place is better than here.”
With a sigh, Father Nate prompted, “Say goodbye.”
Because Alex didn’t know who that was directed to, he said,
“Goodbye, Jamie.”
Jamie didn’t reply. He glared at a spot somewhere in the middle
of Alex’s chest and refused to look at either of them. Father Nate
sighed again as he led Alex from the room. Closing the door behind
him gently, he asked, “So how’d it go?”
Alex shrugged. “Okay.” He didn’t want to say anything about
Jamie’s blatant flirting, but there was something in the way the
priest waited that suggested maybe he expected to hear it.
“He’s…personable.”
Father Nate laughed. “You mean he hit on you.” Alex nodded as
they started down the hall. “I hear the other kids talk, Alex. I
know Jamie spends too much time in gay clubs, looking for a good
time with whoever he can corner in the bathroom. I know he thinks
sex is the end all, be all in a relationship, and that scares me.
In this day and age, you know?”
He waited until Alex nodded again before continuing. “That’s why
I picked you. I checked your references, true, but mostly I asked
the kids here what they knew of you. As long as they’d never heard
of you, I figured you weren’t into the drugs and clubs and all that
crazy mess. Jamie needs to see that he doesn’t have to whore
himself to get somewhere in life.”
“Yeah,” Alex said quietly. Somehow he thought that Father
Nate knew more about him than he let on. Maybe he wants Jamie to
see that a gay lifestyle isn’t necessarily f*****g a lot of
guys, he mused, following the priest back through the shelter.
Maybe he thinks I can show him how to get through life without
the parties or the s*x or the drugs. But s**t, just looking at that
guy makes me hard. How can I show him he doesn’t need s*x when
thinking about him makes me wish I was one of those guys he picks
up at the clubs?
At the front door of the shelter he stopped, remembering
something. “Jamie said there was someone else before me,” he
prodded. “Another friend? From the program?”
Father Nate laughed. “Marie,” he said. Alex nodded. “They didn’t
get along too well. He was too much for her.” In a softer voice, he
added, “He’s too much for a lot of people.”
“He said she died.” Killed herself, actually, but
Alex wasn’t going to say that out loud.
Father Nate frowned and shook his head. “No, she’s not dead.
She’s working with another youth now, a girl Jamie’s age, and they
get along great. She was just in here today, actually.” He sighed,
a sorrowful sound. “Jamie likes to say things just to get a
reaction. I’m sorry if you thought—”
“No, it’s okay,” Alex said quickly. “I thought he might be
lying.”
Opening the door, Father Nate stood aside as Alex stepped out
into the late afternoon. “Don’t think bad of him. He’s had a rough
life. He just needs someone…”
So you keep saying, Alex mused, but he nodded at the
priest and took one last look at the large building, the kids still
on the basketball court, the tall fence caging it all in, before he
turned and walked to his car. He needs someone, but why
me?
As he slid behind the wheel of his car and started the engine, a
small voice inside his mind whispered back, Why not you?
He didn’t have an answer for that.
- Writer
