Street Wise - 1. Chapter 1

Preface:

What happens when a group of young men from different back grounds, come together and form relationships? Nothing unusual I hear you say!

The group of young men in this story, Form a strong and protective bond for one another. That bond becomes a powerful tool of survival which they need to protect themselves, as they all work the streets selling their bodies for money to survive.

The Story is told through the eyes of Adam (Ads), as we follow his journey from a secure family home to life on the streets.

Though this story is about young men selling sex for money, Sex will not be the main theme of the story, it will focus on the dangers and issues that gay men and especially those who sell sex for money face. It will also focus on their bond of friendship, and loving relationships that form between different members of the group.

Chapter One

"Shit I have to get home, I’m going to get a bollocking of my dad" I said as I jumped up from David’s arms.

"I wish you could stay over tonight" replied David as I scrambled round his bedroom picking up my clothing that had been discarded all over the room in a mad passionate frenzy that we had shared only two hours ago.

"Me too, but you know my parents are strict and won’t let me stay anywhere over night" I replied as I tucked my tee shirt into my jeans.

"I got to go now babes" I said as I bent over David who was still lying in bed, and kissed his nose.

"I’ll give you a call later tonight" I added as I stood up and made my way to the bedroom door and out to the lounge area.

"Bye babes" I called back as I opened the front door to David’s flat and stepped out.

"Bye" I heard him reply faintly just as I closed his front door, which I always had trouble doing, as it was old and misshaped.

As usual the corridor of the block smelt stale, which always hit me as soon as I left David’s flat. The lift doors were just about to close as I arrived at them; luckily I managed to get in. If the corridors smelt bad, the lifts really stunk of stale piss. The block of flats were in a rough and ran down area of the city. Since the steel works closed nearby the Westside had become run down, factories and shops had closed and were boarded up, many covered in graffiti.

Now my home was on the thriving east side of the city, we lived in a semi detached four bed roomed house, why four bedrooms when I was the only child I will never know. Dad, who is 45, has a partnership in a local estate agent firm. Mum is a district Nurse, and spent her time visiting elderly house bound patients.

Anyway I had to get home before Dad, as I was supposed to be grounded, which was becoming a regular occurrence. For some reason I was not getting on with my parents recently, well actually the reason was because I wanted to spend as much time with David as I could. Dad read my report card from school which had suffered from my sudden disinterest for school. Luckily I managed to get home before Dad, and as Mum was working evenings this week, I had time to get my school books out onto the dining table and make out that I had been studying.

I heard dad’s car come to a stop outside the house, and I made out that I was in the thick of studying as he walked into the kitchen.

"Hi son" he greeted and wandered of into the living room, a few minutes later mum walked in and told me to clear the table ready for dinner. I scraped all my books up and shoved them into my school bag and took off for my room.

"Adam can you come back down stairs and give your mom a hand with dinner" Dad shouted upstairs to me.

"Suppose so" I mumbled as I made my way back down stairs.

"Adam can you set the table while I cook dinner please" Mum asked politely.

"So how’s your day been son?" she asked not turning to look at me.

"Boring as usual" I replied glumly.

"Oh come on Adam lighten up you been in this sulky mood for weeks now" she replied.

"What do you expect when I can’t even hang out with my friends?"

"Well concentrate on your school work a little more and you wouldn’t be grounded" added dad as he walked into the kitchen.

"I can’t help it if I’m thick" I snapped back

"Your not thick son that’s just it your clever, just too bone idle to use your brain" he replied.

"You think you know me, what’s happening in my life, well you know shit" I said harshly and stormed up to my room, immediately regretting my outburst, which was sure to set them off digging into my private life.

I laid down on my bed in the dark and started crying uncontrollably, why my life had to be so shit.

Of course they shouted me down for dinner, but I didn’t go, soon after mom came upstairs and knocked on my bedroom door, I didn’t answer, so she knocked and slowly walked into my room, switching on the light as she did so.

"Son is there something on your mind, are you in trouble or something?" she asked.

"What do you think?" I snapped.

"Oh Adam calm down for a moment will you, we are worried about you that’s all. Your behaviour is not normal" she tried to explain.

"You wouldn’t want to know even if I wanted to tell you" I snapped again.

"Try me?" she said calmly.

I don’t know why but my temper got the better of me, I felt my heart pound and my blood rushing round my body. Then just as dad walked into my room I blurted out "I’m a fucking queer ok, I fancy men, I want to be fucked up the arse, I’m gay ok now fucking leave me alone"

Much to my surprise dad didn’t say a word but after a few seconds his face said it all the disgust in his expression confirmed my worst fears. But he didn’t say anything just turned on his heels and went down stairs.

"Are you sure" she asked.

"Yes of course I’m fucking sure, why would I say I’m gay if I wasn’t? It isn’t exactly cool to be gay" I almost screamed at her response.

"Well if your sure, Then I will support you, you’re still my son." She said calmly and tried to hug me.

"Mum, I’m sorry, I need some time a lone, and I didn’t mean to come out like that." I explained as I started to realise that I had in fact outed myself. I needed time for it to sink in.

"Ok son but I’m down stairs, just call if you want to talk later" Mum said softly and made her way to my bedroom door.

"Mum," I called out almost crying

"What son"

"Dad will hate me now, he has always been homophobic" I stated.

"Let me talk to him son" is all she said as she walked out closing the door behind her.

I spent a good few hours running through my thoughts, scared at the reality of coming out and what will happen next. Then I heard my parents having a heated debate, and knew they were arguing about my announcement. I felt as though my world was caving in on me as I lay there on my bed looking up at the ceiling. As my parents continued arguing the shouting got louder and suddenly I heard the front door slam shut, and instantly knew my dad had walked out of the house, like he always did after an argument. After lying there for a while longer silently crying I must had drifted off into a disturbed sleep.

I woke up to the hot sun beating through my bedroom window, which told me that it wasn’t early morning. I lay there groggy from sleep for a while as though I didn’t have a care in the world. Then all of a sudden my brain kicked in and like a sledge hammer hitting a wall, I remembered the events of last night. Instantly my stomach felt like a washing machine spinning round. Panic and fear kicked in and I was scared to get out of my bed.

Eventually though I somehow managed to calm myself down, and even made it to the bathroom where I locked the door and after having a piss, I freshened myself up with a shower.

Once I was showered and dressed I gingerly made my way downstairs not knowing what I was about to face. I felt like a guilty man waiting to hear his sentence from the judge.

As I walked into the kitchen, I saw Dad sitting at the table reading his newspaper as he always did.

"There’s some breakfast over there if you want it, your mother has gone to visit Aunty Sandra" dad said as he briefly looked above his newspaper. This was strange he was acting pretty normal, which threw me. I don’t know what I was expecting his reaction to be, but I was sure it wouldn’t be this.

I ate my breakfast and drank two cups of coffee in silence, neither of us made any attempt to make conversation, to be honest I didn’t dare say a word. After finishing the second cup of coffee I got up from my chair and took my dirty dishes to rinse under the tap and place into the dishwasher.

"Son, I think you should forget your silliness last night, you are only upsetting your mother and you know she gets stressed so easily. All young men go through experimentation phases. But its time you concentrated on being a real man. Understand?" dad asked as I was about to leave the kitchen.

I just froze on the spot, at first I didn’t know how to react, my thoughts jumbled up. Then suddenly I managed to turn round and face him.

"Dad your asking me to be somebody that I am not, it is you that is causing the upset, you’re the one that is wrong." I replied angrily with tears running down my cheeks.

"Don’t be fucking stupid, I will not have any queers living under my roof, you either straighten yourself out or get out and don’t come back." Dad snapped as he stood up.

"You can’t be serious. Dad, I can’t change my sexuality, just like you can’t change yours. We are born the way we are" I stuttered as I lost control of my emotions.

"Well we better go and fucking pack your case you piece of shit, I wont have your fucking filth in my home" Dad screamed as he came to me and grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into the hallway and up the stairs. Of course I screamed in protest and even tried and reasoned with him. But he wasn’t listening. He just grabbed my clothes and threw them into my small case. Told me I had five minutes to finish packing. Which, I did pack as much as I could into my case, and holdall. I was balling my eyes out throughout the packing. Soon as the five minutes were up he came to me grabbed my arm, almost making me drop the holdall and he dragged me downstairs to the front door. He handed me an envelope and told me to give him the house key.

"you are to use that train ticket to go to London, I don’t want to see your fucking queer arse again, your dead to us, we don’t want to see or hear from you again understand. There’s enough money in there to last you a couple of weeks after that your on your fucking own now get out before I fucking kick you out!" dad said in a non emotional voice. What could I do, he was much bigger then me and stronger. I couldn’t win a fight with him even if I was able to think straight.

After hesitating I opened the door grabbed my bag and case, and walked out.

"Don’t you fucking come back you hear me? I didn’t reply, but just kept on walking. I must have walked for a couple of hours, aimlessly not knowing where I was going, then once I got over the initial shock, I realised that maybes it wasn’t so bad, I was sure David would let me move in with him. After all we loved each other right! Without any further thought I jumped back to my feet from the park bench I had been sitting on and made my way to David’s place. Suddenly I was feeling a little happier, thoughts of me sleeping in shop doorways vanished from my mind. "Mind you living at this end of town is almost like living rough." I thought to myself as I entered the part of town where David’s flat was situated.