True As It Can Be - Prologue. Prologue

Brad Brooks was the quintessential American high school quarterback. He was popular and his physical beauty attracted many girls and boys in school. His muscular body was sculpted through years of strenuous strength training and careful nutrition. His glorious facial features were a testament to a combination of moisturizing lotions, grooming, and genetics. His family had enormous resources, owning the largest fracking company in Colorado, the second largest fracking oil state after Texas. For a young man like Brad, life seemed to be set for great things, so he was exuberant, vain, and arrogant to a fault. His senior year of high school was marked with expected highs and unexpected dangerous lows.

His football team reached the peak of their performance, reaching the statewide championships and won in a slugfest that saw many of his own teammates injured due to the hyper-aggressive physical lineman of their opponent. Brad without considering his own teammates or what they gave up for their victory took much of the glory for himself running the final play into the endzone for a game winning touchdown, claiming it as a personal accomplishment. Several of his teammates tore ligaments and other muscles, costing them their college scholarships and dreams, while Brad became a much sought-after commodity among the top schools.

He was not all brawn either, he held a very erudite mind. He loved to read books in his spare time and hones his mind with books like Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power and Art of Seduction with its balance of history and strategy being used as a tool in his life. He wanted to be the best, the strongest, and most popular person he could be throughout his life, because he never saw a limit to his potential or abilities. Even in the realm of love, Brad was not afraid to play countless games with his various supposed female lovers; though, he was sexually only attracted to males, it was worthwhile to show platonic interest to females if it served his interests. He did favor one male in particular above all the others, his best friend and teammate, Gary Gaston. They knew each other from childhood, Gary learned many things from Brad as a result, including Brad’s uncompromising drive to get whatever he wanted. Brad loved Gary, because the other boy was a mirror image of himself. He taught Gary how to exercise, how to eat properly, how to groom, how to behave, and how to live. Brad knew it was a narcissistic pursuit, but he didn’t care that he wanted to love someone he made to be just like himself.

Gary was the team’s running back and backup quarterback, second only to Brad himself in importance. He was among one of the few team members not severely injured in the championship game due to the plan Brad developed to secure victory. After winning the championship game, Brad confessed his love for Gary, which Gary did not acknowledge with either encouragement or discouragement for weeks. Before graduation, Gary approached Brad that he wanted them to spend the last memorial-day weekend of high school together at Gary’s family cabin in the woods. Brad in his self-assured manner assumed this meant Gary had accepted his romantic advances. His mind whirled with the possibilities of various romantic and sexual scenarios. In Brad’s mind, he could have everything in a secluded cabin in the woods with the boy he always wanted.

Brad did not suspect that this was not a romantic gesture, nor did he consider telling his parents or anyone else that he was spending time with Gary, knowing that they may still need to remain in the closet if they wanted a better chance at professional careers. Brad bought a bouquet of Blue Roses from a special florist used by his family’s corporate account, nicking and causing his hand to bleed as he forgot to ask for the thorns to be removed, being too enamored with the beauty. He loved the color blue even if the roses were artificial, there’s something clear and refreshing about it in Brad’s mind; even though he knew the color of love should be Red or even pink as he hoped they were going to become gay lovers.

Brad’s memories are fragmented between getting the roses until he woke up in a hospital bed. Brad could not remember what happened to him during the intervening events. He suspected he knew what happened between his injuries and scars, but the thoughts of betrayal and anguish kept him quiet.

Brad went missing without a word for days despite attempts by his parents to reach him or trace his location through his smartphone’s GPS. Gary told the suspicious police that Brad had never visited him with several former football teammates acting as alibis. Brad and his car were found hundreds of miles away from his hometown in a nature preserve, Brad was beaten, naked, traces of drugs in his body, his beautiful face was disfigured, and various wound on his arms and legs would likely mean he’d never play football or even live normally again, if he survived his injuries. Among the most shocking aspects, doctors found evidence of thorns and blue rose petals inside his rectum, which shocked his parents.

Brad did not reveal anything to the police or his parents about what happened to him during the long weekend, but he was angry at everyone, snarky, and wanted to be left alone. The police without evidence and an uncooperative witness had no choice, but to end their investigation. Brad’s parents did not know how to react to the assault on their child, so they allowed him to rage during the months of physical therapy and his eventual move to college. Even there, his indignity and suffering continued. Instead of rooming with the ideal state of the art dorm building for athletes, he was relegated to a “special accommodation” dorm building and his scholarship was removed by the university, leaving him without the lucrative placement or priority status that he had merely months before. Brad’s only saving grace was the ability of living in a large single room due to parents’ wealth. However due to the relative ease of isolation, Brad spent most of his first semester locked in his room, unwilling to meet or see other students. He did not attend any classes and he would be kicked out of college by the end of the second semester, if he did not start coursework. An old-fashioned calendar hung on Brad’s wall with pictures of a cartoonish Blue Rose in various backgrounds, counting the days until he would get kicked out of the university and continuing his self-destructive path.