A Secret in Salem - 1. Chapter 1

He felt incomplete, like he was supposed to do so much more than finish school, get a job, and live the boring life that everyone else did. But what? What more could you want out of life than that? Excitement? No, that wasn’t it either. He had done plenty of exciting things. Love? No, it would be great to be in love, but it wasn’t something he was yearning to find. He had always thought that if he finished school, got a job, lived on his own, and didn’t have to depend on anyone, that he would be happy.

Well, he was almost there. When he graduated in a few months he was going to be promoted to the Manager position. That salary would be plenty of money for him to afford a small apartment. Check two off of the list. Then, what was left? Live the boring life? To Sean that seemed stupid. What was the point? Go to work, make the money, come home, hang with friends, rinse and repeat.

He leant back in the uncomfortable plastic chair that was apparently now a requirement in schools and crossed his arms over his chest. At least he had a seat next to the window in this class. Looking outside, he saw the trees so green and crisp in the early spring sunshine. Even that didn’t lighten his mood.

Great, even an awesome spring day can’t make me happy? I am so fucked, He thought.

The teacher finished handing out their assignment and Sean stared at the paper without really seeing it. The rest of the period was left for the students to start working on whatever it was she had assigned. Sean just rested his head on his arms and started staring out the window again.

Something has GOT to happen, and soon. Otherwise I think I will go totally insane.

“Hey… Looks like we got paired up for this thing.” Sean raised his head as a guy with long black hair stopped in front of his seat.

“Say what?” Sean asked, raising his eyebrows. The kid gave him a look like he was an idiot.

“The assignment… We are working in pairs… She really just said this like five seconds ago.”

“Oh… sorry man. I totally wasn’t even paying attention.” He shrugged.

“Well that’s obvious. So anyway, space cadet, we are paired together. See? Sean Reynolds and Toby Morris.” He pointed to the spot where their names had been typed together on his packet of papers.

“Oh… alright. So, Toby, what exactly are we supposed to be doing?” He smiled and grabbed his pen from his backpack.

“Well, we have to write a paper on a specific time period. It’s our choice, but it has to be about something that affected the culture. Like how World War II affected Germany and stuff.” Toby took a seat next to Sean that had been vacated when someone went to work with their own partner.

“Ok, so what are we writing about?” Sean asked. Toby tucked his straight black hair behind his ear and folded his hands in his lap. He didn’t look at Sean when he replied.

“Well, I have an idea and I know lots about it, but I figured we should agree together…” He was fidgeting with his hands and Sean noticed that his nails had been painted black.

“Honestly… I really don’t care as long as we can get a good grade. I mean I don’t expect you to do all the work but if you have an idea, I say we should just run with it.” Sean readied his pen on a blank page of his notebook. He waited while Toby took a deep breath as if preparing to dive into a pool.

“How about… the Salem Witch Trials?” He asked, glancing at Sean to gauge his reaction. Sean cocked his head to the side. “You know, where they burned and hung all the witches in Massachusetts?”

Toby watched the light of recognition flash in Sean’s eyes and for a moment he felt a glimmer of hope that maybe he wouldn’t disagree. That was when he watched Sean give him a once over. Toby knew he wasn’t exactly your normal guy. Long hair and black nail polish aren’t exactly on par for a boy. Pair that with all black clothes and pierced ears and you get Toby. He started to tell Sean to forget about it, when Sean spoke up.

“Well, why not? There’s got to be plenty to write about.” He shrugged, and gestured at Toby. “I mean, no offense, but you really do look like you know a lot about it. Shit. It’ll be easy to do if I can just ask you when I have a question instead of searching through books.” He grinned and wrote down ‘Salem Witch Trials’ on his notebook.

Toby sat up a little straighter and gave him a half smile. Sean glanced out the window again and heaved another heavy sigh. Toby raised an eyebrow and turned to face him fully.

“So what’s with the heavy sigh? And the spacing out?” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “Girlfriend not putting out?”

Sean laughed and rested his cheek on his fist. If it were only girl trouble it would probably be a lot simpler.

“Nah, I don’t have a girlfriend at the moment. I was just pondering the meaning of life, you know. The usual stuff.” He had never spoken to Toby before but now that he was, he found it easy to talk to him.

“Oh, absolutely. If I don’t think about that at least once a day, I check myself for a fever.” Toby giggled. “So, no girlfriend huh? Come to think of it, you never really have had a girlfriend.” He was grinning like the Cheshire cat and had a sly look in his eyes. Green eyes, Sean noticed. Like emerald green. They were nice.

“And what exactly are you implying?” Sean raised his eyebrows. He had never been with a guy, but he wasn’t going to say he had never thought about it either. He just never had.

“Nothing. Not a thing… I should warn you though. You ought to be careful being seen with me. I am rather out there. I might scare off the ladies.” He held up his hands as if to say ‘God Forbid.’ He tucked his hair behind his right ear and turned his face to Sean. There was a dangling earring there in the shape of an upside down triangle filled in with the rainbow colors. “Everybody knows I am gay. Since they’ve never seen you with a girlfriend they might start talking. I mean, ME hanging out with a cute boy like you?”

“Please, they’ve already been talking. Unless you make out in public with a girl they will keep talking.” Sean shrugged. He knew that Toby was flirting just a little bit. He grinned and leaned toward Toby and whispered in his ear, “And who’s to say that they’re wrong?”

Toby sat back abruptly, spine completely straight. A crimson tide flooded to his cheeks and his eyes were wide as saucers. “You mean… you…?” He couldn’t even finish the sentence. He hadn’t had any idea; he had just wanted to mess with the cute straight boy. Sean was laughing. This was backwards. He was supposed to be the one laughing it off. He looked down at his lap again and his hands were fidgeting like crazy.

“Seriously man, lighten up. I am not a homophobe. I am also not gay…” Sean said, but on the last word he trailed off. He laughed again a bit nervously and looked down at his notebook. Toby didn’t miss the implications of that. He raised his eyebrows and turned toward his own notebook.

Well now, I think we may have a battle of wills by the end of this. His face finally cooled down with the embarrassment of the moment over. We’ll see, Sean… We’ll see. He smirked to himself. It was definitely a conversation that was far from over.

“So how do you wanna do this, exactly?” Sean asked, interrupting his plotting. He thought for a moment.

“Well, if you’re not wierded out by it, we could meet at my place tomorrow afternoon.” Toby shrugged. Sean scratched the back of his head in thought before saying,
“Sure, why not?”

“Alright then. My parents won’t be home, so there won’t be any of that weirdness either.” He said thanking his lucky stars that his parents worked late. He scribbled his address on a piece of paper and handed it to Sean. The bell rang signaling the end of the school day. And not a minute too soon in Toby’s opinion. He wasn’t quite sure why but it was a relief not to have to say anything else. He didn’t want to slip up and reveal any of the plan before he was ready.

“See you tomorrow then.” Sean said with a smile as he gathered his things.

“See you…” Toby smiled back and felt just a hint of the warmth come back to his cheeks. Sean left before Toby and headed out to the parking lot. Toby followed at a discreet distance behind him and watched him get into the red Toyota Camry that beeped when Sean pressed the button on his key ring.

Sean glanced in his rearview as he pulled out of the parking lot. He saw Toby standing there by the entrance to the school watching him drive away. As he drove home he thought to himself,

Well, I may have never been with a guy, but he is not a bad one to start with. He has nice eyes at least.

He grinned as he turned the radio up. Maybe life wasn’t so boring after all.