Timothy’s Terrible Prompt Stories - 53. Prompt 510 Do you really think he did it?

“Do you really think he did it?” Nelson suddenly asked out of the blue. They were almost at the other end of the park and had fallen silent after an animated discussion about favorite movie stars.

“Do I think who did what?” Eric asked in confusion.

“Did Rob really convince your parents to let you stay the night with me? Why would he do that?”

“You mean apart from his generally pushy behavior and match-making tendencies?”

They both chuckled, well aware what they owed Eric’s older brother.

“Rob may be brash, annoying, and interfering, but he’s honest and rarely brags without cause. He told me he had done his best to convince Mom and Dad to trust me enough to allow sleep-overs with you, but of course I don’t know if his arguments were the main reason. As to why he did it?” Eric shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“My guess would be that Rob has your best interests in mind, even when his actions are cringe-worthy or piss you off. I think he cares about you and wants you to be happy.”

Eric stopped and stared at Nelson in astonishment, and the older teen blushed a bit, as far as he could work out in the light from the lamps along the main path in the park. He mirrored Eric’s shrug as he elaborated.

“I may be wrong, but I’m simply grateful Rob apparently considers me capable of making you happy. It would be quite difficult if he didn’t like me as your boyfriend.”

Nelson seemed to guess what Eric was thinking because he immediately continued. “Not that it would have kept me away from you; nothing can do that now.” He moved closer and slid his arms around Eric’s waist, and the younger teen returned the embrace. He finally found his voice.

“How do you know about Rob being protective and determined to help, even when I don’t want him to?”

“I know how I feel, babe. I care about you, I feel protective, and I want you to be happy. I can recognize the same in Rob as a brother.”

There was no other possible answer than to pull his romantic boyfriend closer and kiss him senseless. So that’s what Eric did. He claimed Nelson’s mouth, trying to show him how much he appreciated and returned those sentiments. Even though he knew Nelson was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, he felt fiercely protective. He understood why his boyfriend felt the same, although neither of them had acted on the feeling yet, and might have been offended if it happened. Soon both of them were lost in the embrace and deep kiss.

“Yo, dude, get a room!” Several people laughed after a wolf whistle and the shout, and Eric detached himself enough to glance up. A group of young people were passing them, with at least two couples holding hands. The guys were grinning at him, and he suspected they thought Nelson was a girl due to the long hair which he had mussed while they made out.

When Nelson turned, took his hand and stared defiantly at the group, some of the grins faltered. There were some mutters of ‘What the f…’ and ‘Shit, it’s a guy’ and ‘Oh, cuuuuute’ – one of the girls, of course. But one guy took a few steps towards them and spoke up. “Hi, Nelson; I thought it looked like you.”

“Hi, Eugene. How are you?” Eric was amazed at how cool and confident his boyfriend sounded.

A tall guy who held hands with a petite dark-haired girl, looked from one to the other. “You know this dude, Gene?”

“Sure, he’s on my martial arts team, and one of the best.” The brown-haired guy gestured at Eric. “I guess this your new boyfriend, Nelson?”

“Yeah, this is Eric.” The pride in his voice was unmistakable, and the blond teen gave Nelson’s hand an appreciative squeeze before letting go to hold his hand out.

“Hi, nice to meet you.”

Eugene shook hands, saying, “Likewise. I can see Nelson wasn’t bragging when he described you.” He grinned at them both. Just then one of the unattached girls in the group joined them. She had short blond hair cut in a flattering style and was slim bordering on boyishly thin. She slid one arm into Eugene’s left arm and smiled at them.

“How about introducing me to your friends, Gene?”

The way he reacted it was clear he had a crush on her, but they weren’t a couple. “Uhmm, yeah, OK. Ehmm, Pat, this is Nelson from my martial arts team and his boyfriend Eric. Guys, this is Patricia, who’s in my business class at college.” His words confirmed Eric’s impression of this group being a few years older than he and Nelson.

“Nice to meet you, guys. Are you on a date?”

“Yes, I invited Eric for dinner at La Dolce Vita on Main Street.”

“Ohhh, very nice. I love Italian food,” Pat said.

“If…if you want, perhaps we could go out for dinner there?” Eugene looked like he was going to faint at his own audacity.

“Why, thank you, Gene. I’d like that very much.” The way she said it made Eric wonder whether she was aware of Eugene’s crush and had been waiting for him to act.

“Yo, Pat, Gene, come on, we should get going.” The tall guy looked impatient and was obviously ignoring Nelson and Eric. But Eric told himself snubbing was better than hostility, and anyway, it might be more due to them being high school kids than gay. The other people in the group were chatting amongst themselves, seeming more disinterested than actively ignoring them.

“We should be going home too. See you on Tuesday,” Nelson said to Eugene, who managed a few words of leave-taking in spite of being apparently quite dazed over Patricia’s acceptance of a dinner date. Eric couldn’t help grinning at the wink she gave them when she wished them a good evening before dragging her companion off into the park after the rest of the group.

“I guess we gave them a bit of a show; sorry about that,” Eric said as they made their way out of the park.

“Never apologize for wanting to kiss me, babe,” was Nelson’s firm answer. He reached out to take Eric’s hand, and the couple shared a tender smile before walking on. Eric refused to look around to see if anyone was noticing them, but he noted Nelson’s eyes sweeping back and forth. As the older teen didn’t tense up or let go of his hand, he assumed all was well.

“Did it piss you off to be taken for a girl?”

“Nah, it was a natural assumption for them to make, and it was fun to see their faces when they realized their mistake.”

“But weren’t you worried they’d be upset or something?”

Nelson shook his head. “I’d already seen the group approach behind you while we talked and I knew there were girls with them. I would have been very surprised if they’d been OK with unacceptable behavior like name calling or worse.”

“Girls can be as unaccepting as guys, look at Rob’s former girlfriend.” Eric didn’t want to say the name of that stupid bitch and he relished the term ‘former.’

“True, but they still change the dynamics of a group, and make violence less likely. And I think we’re able to deal with any verbal abuse, even without Jasper’s wit or Rob’s confidence tricks.”

“Have you had much of that after coming out?” Eric thought this might be his chance to get the true story about the Clayton incident.

“Some, but probably no more than what other high school kids suffer from being different in any way. A bully will find an excuse to harass if he wants to, so I hate all kinds of bullying, not just gay-bashing. At least I don’t have to worry about physical abuse unless there’s a whole gang of them.”

“I heard some rumors…” Eric prompted.

Nelson sighed. “I’ll never live down that episode with Clayton, will I?”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“There isn’t really much to tell. I was standing in line for lunch three weeks into my freshman year and some jocks from the football team were behind me, making stupid remarks using the ‘f-word.’ I turned around and told them their language was offensive and unacceptable. Jazz was there too and you know how he’s not afraid of saying what he thinks.” They shared a smile at the thought of the fiery redhead jumping into such an argument.

“Of course they got angry, and after a few more mutual insults, Clayton ran out of words and tried to ram us. Jazz knew what would happen and simply stepped aside. I crouched and used the idiot’s momentum to have him go over my head, and he crashed into some chairs and a table.”

Nelson ended his story, and Eric chuckled over the image of a huge footballer taking a short, fateful flight into school history as the idiot who tried to attack the martial arts expert freshman.

“So what happened next?”

“Well, of course we had to face the principal, and Clayton got a week’s suspension for starting a fight. Since it happened so fast, no one really saw what I did. I simply claimed I had ducked and he tripped over me, which was basically what happened apart from me making sure he’d do so.”

“Did Clayton realize what you did?”

“Not at the time, but of course Jazz let slip about my martial arts training and basically told people the idiot never stood a chance if he’d tried to fight me.”

“So that’s where the legend of you ‘wiping the floor with a footballer’ came from.”

“Yes, and I haven’t said anything to contradict the story, since it was rather useful. Every time I’ve seen or heard anyone being bullied or encountered mindless bigotry, I’ve been able to speak up against it and my reputation has protected me from physical retaliation. Of course, this might not be the case outside our fairly protected high school environment, but at least I’ve hopefully made a difference there.”

“I know you have, babe, and I admire you for it.”

“Yeah?” The shy-but-delighted smile on Nelson’s face was a nice reward for Eric’s heartfelt compliment.

“Yes. It’s not surprising Trevor wanted you to be the next GSA president.”

Nelson shrugged. “I wanted to do it, but I’m simply not cut out to be a public figure. I prefer a supportive role.”

“Pulling the strings and pushing the buttons behind the scenes, you mean,” Eric teased.

Nelson veered sideways and gave him a playful shove while trying to put up a disgruntled face.

“Hey, you can pull my heartstrings and push my buttons all you want, Nel.”

Sorry about the long delay on this. We’ll get to the fun part next. Maybe…  
Thank you to AC Benus for his usual helpful edits and suggestions.