A Tragic Love - 1. Chapter 1 – An Angel Appears

I’m lying on a gurney with needles piercing the veins in my arms and tubes extending from them, leading to containers I can’t see. While attempting to stay relaxed and in an effort to take my mind off of what was currently happening to me, I tried to focus on something more pleasant. No matter what fond memory I wished to recall, however, my mind kept shifting back to the same thing. I found myself mentally reliving the first day I met David and the beginning of the ill-fated love that had led to me being in this situation.

It was the first day of seventh grade and I was scared to death about leaving the security of the elementary school I’d attended for the past several years. At the same time, I was thrilled about the possibility of meeting new people from the other elementary schools that had now all merged into the same Junior High. It wasn’t that elementary school had been so great, because I didn’t have a lot friends when I was there, but I knew what to expect and whom to expect it from. Now, I was uncertain about what the future had in store for me.

The class schedule I’d received in the mail had indicated my homeroom would be in room 127, so I went directly there and found a seat in the back corner, where I could observe what was going on, while still remaining somewhat anonymous. I figured that from this location, I would be able to become more or less invisible behind the other students as they filtered into the room and took their seats, but I’d still be able to look everyone over. This would provide me with the opportunity I needed to assess whom I might have to avoid or whom, if I was very lucky, I might want to get to know better. Eventually, the teacher, a slightly built man with unruly gray hair, entered the room and began to speak.

“Class! I’m Mr. Carruthers and I’ll be your homeroom teacher,” he began. “If you’ll take your seats, I’ll call the roll.”

After everyone was seated and quiet, Mr. Carruthers began calling names.

“MacDonald, Judy.”

“Here.”

“Mack, Adam.”

“Present.”

“Major, Jason.”

“Yo.”

At that response, Mr. Carruthers looked up and flashed a very disgusted look at Jason. After a couple of seconds, he went back to calling the remainder of the names from the list and droned on, until I heard my name.

“Maynard, William.”

“Here,” I responded meekly.

Now that my name had been called, I tuned out the reading of the remainder of the list and slowly began my timid perusal of the other students in the room. I recognized a couple of boys and one girl that had attended my elementary school, but so far no one to fear or avoid. I also didn’t notice anyone who looked as if he might be a good prospect for becoming a friend either, but then it happened! The door to the classroom opened and into the room stepped the cutest boy I had ever seen.

He was about 5’4” [163 cm] tall, had a swimmer’s build and black hair, which was parted on the left side and combed forward, across his forehead. He also had dark brown eyes that you could just fall into, a big, heart-melting grin and a wonderful tan. He stopped briefly and glanced around the room first, before he strode over to the teacher’s desk and spoke to Mr. Carruthers. The teacher then marked something down in the attendance book, but the boy remained there until Mr. Carruthers signaled him to take a seat. There were a handful of desks available, but he strode directly to the back of the room and took the seat next to mine. I nearly fainted.

I kept looking down at my desk, since I was too shy to gaze directly at him, but I was taking quick glances in his direction out of the corner of my eye. I was in the middle of doing that when he turned toward me and introduced himself.

“Hi. I’m David Michaels,” he stated in a hushed tone, while flashing me that same huge grin.

I still didn’t dare to look directly at him, so I merely turned slightly in his direction and replied.

“Hi, my name’s Billy… ummm, Billy Maynard,” I basically whispered back.

“Glad to meet you, Billy,” he responded, while still grinning. “I just moved here and was hoping that maybe you could help me find my way around. My first class is language arts in room 215 and I’m not exactly sure where that is. Would you help point me in the right direction?”

My heart leapt into my throat, because I had language arts next in the same room. We were going to be in the same class together.

“Hello, Billy, are you still with me?” David teased, when I didn’t immediately reply to his question.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I apologized meekly. “I was just thinking about my schedule and what class I had next. I think we’re in the same language arts class.”

“Great! Then I’ll just follow you,” David agreed. “What do you have after that?”

I looked at my schedule really quick before I answered.

“Math, in room 230,” I offered.

“Same here,” he confirmed. “Hey, let me see your schedule.”

Hesitantly, I handed it to him and he examined it next to his.

“Hey, dude, we have exactly the same schedule, so I can just hang with you all day,” he announced. “That isn’t a problem, is it?”

“Uh, problem? Uh, no, not for me,” I stammered, while my heart was doing cartwheels in my chest.

“Awesome. This isn’t as bad as I feared,” he confessed. “First day at a new school and I’ve already made a new friend. Not only that, but he just happens to have the same schedule as me. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

‘New friend? Did he mean me?’ I wondered. ‘I mean we hardly knew each other, so he couldn’t be calling me his new friend. Could he? Maybe he met someone else before he got to this room and he’s talking about him, but then he also said he had the same schedule as that person, so he must mean me. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to handle it though, because I certainly can’t let him know I like boys. If that happens, then he might not want to be my friend any longer, so I’ll have to play it cool. Damn, my heart is pounding so hard that I’m sure he must be able to hear it and it’s going to give me away. Oh, God! What am I going to do? He’s so cute that I won’t even dare look at him or else I’m going to pop a stiff one. Be cool, Billy, you can do it. Keep your mind focused and don’t blow it now.’

Suddenly, the bell rang to end homeroom and signaled us to go to our first period class.

“Hey, Bud, let’s get moving,” David urged. “We don’t want to be late on the first day.”

I stood up and hoped he didn’t notice the erection straining against my jeans as I moved toward the classroom door.

The morning classes went by quickly and David took the desk next to mine in every one. During the lulls, he would start asking questions about what types of things I enjoyed, what the school was like and any information I knew about various kids that were in the class with us, along with almost anything else he could think of. Before I knew it, it was already lunchtime.

“Hey, what do you do around here for lunch, Billy?” he asked.

I wasn’t sure how to answer his question, because I didn’t want to tell him that I’d brought a sandwich and a banana in a paper bag. That was kind of lame. I also didn’t want to admit that I was just going to buy a container of milk from the cafeteria and then go outside to eat.

“Well, you could, um, eat in the, uh, cafeteria or you could, uh, go off campus to someplace nearby, I guess,” I stammered, while sounding like a fool.

“What were you planning to do?” David followed, while staring at me intently.

“I guess I was just going to go and sit outside, because I don’t usually eat lunch,” I fibbed, since I couldn’t think of anything else to tell him.

‘Oh, God,’ I thought after saying that. ‘I immediately knew it was a really stupid lie, because I’m starving and if I don’t eat lunch, then my stomach will be growling throughout my afternoon classes.

“Why don’t you come with me and we’ll go off campus?” David offered. “I want to see what else there is to choose from, because I hate school food.”

“Yeah, ok,” I mumbled. “Going for a walk would be cool.”

I then strolled beside him to the main lobby and along the way David resumed his probing into my life.

“Where do you live, Billy?” he asked next.

“Out in the country, on a small farm,” I answered simply.

I didn’t dare say too much, because some of the kids in my elementary school used to make fun of me about this. They called me ‘hick,’ ‘manure boy’ or other degrading names just because I lived on a farm.

“Sounds nice,” he replied. “I live on Camelot Lane. Do you know where that is?”

“Uh, yes. I do,” I confirmed.

How could I not know where that was? It was one of the nicest streets in this whole rotten town. A lot of the doctors, lawyers and even the principal of my elementary school lived on Camelot Lane, but we didn’t even drive in that part of town. Now, I felt that I really had to be careful about what I told him, because his dad must have some kind of really important job.

“What’s your dad do, Billy?” David pressed, as we continued to walk.

‘Oh, no! Now what am I going to say?’ I wondered. I didn’t really want to get into this with him jus yet, since it was a major source of irritation for me, but I had to tell him something.

“Ummm, my dad left when I was really little, and uh, I haven’t seen him since,” I reluctantly admitted.

“Oh, that’s too bad,” David commiserated. “How about your mom?”

“Uh, she just does a lot of different things,” I offered, because I felt uneasy telling him she was a waitress at the Waffle House. “How ‘bout your parents?”

“My dad is the new plant manager at the factory, but my mom died a couple of years ago,” David confessed, with a pained expression of his face. “She was killed in a head-on collision with a drunk driver. That’s why Dad took this new job, so we could move away from where we used to live. Dad said there were just too many memories there and he couldn’t cope with Mom’s death as long as we stayed in that area. He told me our old house, the neighborhood and just about everything else reminded him of the good times they’d once shared, so he had to get away from there. We moved here a few weeks ago and Dad started his new job last week.”

‘Oh, shit. Now I’ve gone and stepped in it by bringing up painful memories for him,’ I thought. ‘How do I gracefully get out of this one?’

“I’m really sorry about your mom,” I offered, while trying to apologize for blundering into this. “I, uh, just didn’t know.”

“That’s ok,” he replied. “I guess I’ve just gotten over her death a little better than my dad. I still miss her and the first year was really tough, but it doesn’t hurt as much now.”

David didn’t say anything more for a while, so I just walked silently next to him. At the same time, I was thinking about his dad being the new plant manager at the factory. I already figured his father had an important job and I’d heard my grandpa say something last week about them getting a new plant manager, but I guess I hadn’t put the two things together. You see, my mom and I live with my grandparents and Gramps works at the factory, in the shipping department.

“Hey, Billy, what do you say about getting some pizza?” David wondered, breaking my thoughts. “It looks like a good place over there.”

“Uh, I told you that I don’t usually eat lunch,” I responded, since I didn’t want to tell him I only had a quarter for milk.

“Look, I’m not going to eat in front of you,” David responded. “Come in with me and I’ll get us both something. I’m sure you’ll be able to eat a little.”

Reluctantly, I followed him inside and he bought us each a slice of pizza and a Coke. I thanked him and downed it in no time at all. I really needed that and felt much better now.

“Well, for someone who doesn’t usually eat lunch, you sure devoured that in no time,” he joked, while flashing me another one of his grins.

I looked down at the ground embarrassed, while I attempted to think of something to say.

“Yeah, I guess once I, uh, took a bite, I realized that, um, it tasted pretty good,” I admitted sheepishly.

“Great! I’m glad you liked it,” David stated, seemingly pleased that I’d enjoyed what he’d done for me. “Come on. We’d better start heading back.”

“Yeah, let’s go,” I agreed.

During the return trip, we talked about our afternoon schedule and arrived in plenty of time before the period ended. Our first class of the afternoon was P.E. and our instructor was the J.V. football coach. He started out by telling us that we had to come prepared for class each time we had it, which meant we had to have the appropriate gym suit. He then told us where we could buy the items and explained that we should also have a jock strap as well, since our bodies were starting to mature and develop. He then added that we also needed to bring a towel as well, since we were required to shower before we went to our next class.

I don’t remember much about the rest of the afternoon, because I kept thinking about having to take showers with a bunch of other boys. I knew this was going to happen in a large shower room, which meant I’d be in there naked with every other boy in my P.E. class. Oh, God, what if I get an erection in the locker room or shower? Then everyone would know I was gay, especially with David in my class, because he’d selected the locker right next to mine. One look at his naked body and my cock will probably get hard enough to cut diamonds. God, I’ll have to figure something out and fast, but at least it will be two days before our next P.E. class.

“Hey, Billy. Do you want come over to my house when this class is over?” David asked, just before our last period class ended.

“I’d like to, but I’ve got chores to do at home,” I answered. “I’ll also have to get my mom to take me shopping for some school supplies, a gym suit and a jock.”

“Yeah, right. How about tomorrow after school then?” David pressed, without giving up.

“I don’t know,” I balked. “You see, uh, I have chores every day and, um, I live pretty far out it the country and, uh, I can’t always get a ride home, except on the bus.”

“Don’t you have a bike, man?” David followed, while looking at me hopefully.

“Uh, no,” I reluctantly admitted. “I had other things I needed to spend my money on instead, so I never got one.”

“No problem. You can have my old bike then,” David offered. “Dad bought me a new one for my last birthday, but I kept the old one too. I don’t really have any use for it now, so you can have it. It’s only a five-speed and not as good as my new ten-speed, but I guess it’s better than not having one at all. So when you come over, I’ll give it to you and you can ride it home. Ok?”

“Uh, I don’t know,” I replied, since I wasn’t know sure how I’d explain a bike suddenly appearing at home. “I’ll have to, ummm, talk it over with my mom first and I’m not sure what she’s going to say, but it was sure nice of you to offer. I’ll let you know what we decide tomorrow.”

I was really kind of shocked and a little honored that he would even think about giving me his old bike. I mean, it may not be much to him, but it would sure make a big difference in my life. Damn, we’d basically just met and already he’d offered or done so many wonderful things for me. I knew it was silly, but I was already starting to have a crush on David. No, it wasn’t just due to the fact that he’d bought me lunch and wanted to give me his old bike, but it was because he was so sweet, so thoughtful and so easy to talk to.

I was rudely yanked away from my thoughts when the last bell rang, announcing the end of the school day. Hurriedly, I gathered up my things, said a quick goodbye to David and sprang for the door. I felt I needed to get out of there before I got all mushy and said something that might divulge my true feelings for him. I figured the best thing for me to do would be to head straight for the bus, but the last thing I remembered as I walked out the school door was a voice calling to me from behind.

“See you tomorrow, Billy,” I heard David's melodic voice ring out.