The School of Freedom and Love

Oh, man, it can't be morning already. I rolled around on the bed and checked the time. "SHIT," I said out loud. It was 5:30 a.m. and I only had one hour left to say goodbye to my room, to my house, to my life. Ok, maybe I was being too dramatic, but being sent off to boarding school wasn't my idea of a great eighteenth birthday present. Yep, that's how I was told by my Dad.

"Hey, Josh. Happy Birthday, buddy. Here're the keys to your new car....and the brochure to your new all-boys school is on the kitchen counter."

I, of course, being too busy running for the door with keys in hand when I suddenly stopped and turned around slowly, not believing if I just heard the last bit right. I slowly walked to the kitchen just like in those movies where a bomb is about to explode and the heroes start running away from it in slow motion. Only I was walking towards the explosion that was going to occur in my life in slow motion. There it was on the counter, a big blue packet with Mount School For Boys written in silver.

After weeks of fighting with my dad, and doors slamming and shouting, I realised I didn't have a choice. So, here it was the day I have been dreading for 3 weeks and four and a half days. Summer vacation was over and I had to leave my old life, all my friends and just, well, everything I have come to know and grown up with. It's not easy for a guy to change the school he's been at for 13 years plus make new friends. The fact that my school was also very comfortable and open with homosexuality was also one of the reasons why I loved it here. Yeah, I was gay and nobody even cared. How cool is that? Well, they cared in the beginning when word let out by my great ex-best friend, but once it died down everyone was ok with me. Even the jocks went back to talking to me like nothing was wrong.

You might think, this is every gay teenagers dream right? Being sent off to some all guy island. But, trust me, that was the last thing on my mind. In fact, I was so pissed about the situation that I didn't even acknowledge the fact that because it was all guys maybe i wouldn't be completely stuck with my right hand my whole final year in high-school. Ok, maybe I did, but I still wasn't that happy about it.

My name's Nate. 18 years old with green eyes and brown wavy hair that never seems to tame no matter how much I've tried. I'm pretty damn proud of my body, 14 years of swimming really paid off. I'm pretty tall and was offered to play on the basketball team a couple of times, but I refused. Seeing wet guys in Speedos was more my thing I realised.

I finally got myself out of bed and took a long shower, savoring every hot little drop of water that landed on my body. I bet this Mount place didn't even have hot water. I groaned at the thought and after shampooing my hair I got out. I wrapped a towel around my face and went to the bathroom mirror staring at myself. "Not bad" I said to myself, smiling. Pearly white teeth and still a nice tan on my body that I got from spending most of my time at the beach in Spain over the summer.

I went into my room and could smell the breakfast coming from downstairs. Poor dad had to learn how to cook (along with myself) after mom died. I sighed to myself as I was flooded with memories of her. How her hair use to smell, how she felt whenever she would hug me and how she smiled and told me she still loved me when I came out to her. "Stupid cancer, stupid mother fucking cancer," was all I could say at her funeral when they told me to say a few words. Yeah they weren't the best, but that's what I felt at the time. Three years passed and I still thought of her every day, sometimes I'd try talking to my dad about her, but he'd just nod or leave the room. He luckily still hasn't found out from anybody that I am gay which I was very happy about. I'm not exactly sure on his feelings towards gays but I knew deep down my dad was a big softie at heart.

After dressing in some dark blue jeans and a white polo I went downstairs, ignoring my dad's greeting. He needed to suffer for the time being was what I had decided. We packed all my suitcases into the trunk of his car still in silence as he drove me to the airport. Oh, yeah, didn't I mention? It's gonna be in a totally different state...Torquay, the middle of nowhere in England. So let's add that to the list of things I have to hate about my life at the moment.

It was a fairly silent drive, both of us as usual not finding anything to talk about to pass time. I stared out the window and looked sadly at all the passing Neighbourhoods I grew up in, the tree I once got a broken ankle falling out of, the swing where I kissed my first boyfriend. Oh, God....Sid. I wonder what he's doing right now. Yesterday's farewell was awful. Lots of tears from him, some secret ones from me, hugging and promises of keeping in touch. We weren't exactly passionately in love but we were two guys who found it convenient to go out. London guys were usually really stuck up and all into themselves but he was an exception. We never really had that burning flame going on that most couples usually do. We agreed to break up and knew it was for the best. We were more like best friends and that's the reason why we were sad. We were gonna miss each other as friends. Kinda weird when I think about it.

We got to the airport and we sat in the car for a whole two minutes in complete silence. I knew my dad had something to say so I just stayed quiet and waited for him.

"Look, Nate, I know your angry at me," he said slowly which earned a snort out of me. "Ok, I know you're pissed, but this is for the best. With me moving to Paris for two months for this new job and just traveling back and fourth, I couldn't do that to you, it's not right to drag you along with me. This is going to be great, mate. You're gonna make new friends and I'll drive your car up there so you can take out all the guys out on dates and I'm sure..."

I didn't let him continue and almost screamed a 'WHAT?!' He just looked at me with calm expression "You don't really think your father is that stupid, right? Never once going out with a single girl? All those sleep overs with Sid and the weird suspicious noises coming from it...OH, and the time when you...."

I didn't let him continue though. I hugged him and laughed a relieved laugh. He was ok with it. He was fucking ok with it. He got surprised by the hug but after a minute returned it with lots of feeling, causing me to fight back the knot in my throat.

"It's ok, kiddo. You're my only son, of course I was gonna love you even if you wanted to go all shemale on me or whatever they call it. Call me when you land, and whenever your short of money just call and I'll handle it. Focus on your studies and make me proud. And please try not to break too many hearts like your old man." I nodded shaking his hand, getting back into my macho mode and smiling at him when he gave me a pat on the back.

Yeah this still wasn't going my way at all but maybe it wasn't going to be that bad. Maybe my life would turn out not totally fucked like I thought...