18 – Controlling Maple (1)

Axel walked downtown with Jake by his side. Every so often, Jake would brush his hand against Axel’s. But as much as Axel wanted to hold it, he knew better. His chest tightened as they walked past a man and a woman holding hands. It wasn’t fair.

“This sucks,” Jake muttered. “We can’t even hold hands? What’s the worst that can happen?”

“You could get blacklisted. We could get beat up. Someone could pull a gun on us.”

“Pretty sure they’d get arrested for that. That would be a hate crime.”

Axel stopped in his tracks to frown at Jake. What the hell was a hate crime?

“What?” Jake asked.

“Whatever that is, isn’t a thing here.”

“Wait. That’s legal? You can assault people for their sexuality? Race? Gender?”

Axel flinched at Jake’s appalled tone. “Please don’t start a protest.”

“Seriously?! You’re okay with this?”

“Assaulting people technically isn’t legal for any reason.” With the exception of husbands hitting their wives. Axel chose to leave that bit out. “But cops and judges tend to look the other way if the person just so happens to be a minority.”

“That’s fucked up!”

“Welcome to the Free States of America,” Axel said flatly. He really wasn’t in the mood to get into it. They continued walking, right past a church. Axel couldn’t remember the last time he’d set foot in one. Although he still believed in God, the church’s stance on homosexuality kept him at bay.

Jake nudged him, and jerked his head towards the church. “Wanna sneak in there and screw in the bathrooms?”

His tone was joking, but Axel still flinched. Doing such a thing felt wrong. Despite his disagreements, it was still a sacred place.

A group of people walked up a set of steps towards the church’s open doors.

“Is there some sort of event going on?” Jake asked.

“It’s Sunday morning,” Axel reminded him.

“Oh. I guess that makes sense.” Jake’s smile returned. “You know, it’ll be even more fun when church is in session.”

Jake had to be joking. Axel matched his tone. “It’ll be just as fun in my van where there’s less chance of getting caught.” And it wouldn’t be sacrilegious.

“That’s part of the fun. Don’t you want to stick it to these people?”

Somewhat. “Those people” were the source of all his problems. If not for them, he’d be able to rent an apartment. He wouldn’t have to hide his relationship with Jake. He’d still consider himself a christian.

Honestly? He didn’t blame Jake for wanting to do something so sinful in a place of worship. As Axel pondered it all, Jake walked towards the church doors.

Axel grabbed his elbow to stop him. “What are you doing?”

“I need to use the restroom.”

His voice lacked the playfulness from before. Perhaps he was serious. Axel followed him through the double doors, into the church.

The lobby was empty. There was another set of double doors straight ahead. Those ones were closed, but Axel could hear a faint voice speaking into a microphone from in there. Jake walked off towards the side of the room, where Axel spotted restroom signs.

“This is so ridiculous,” Jake muttered at the sight of the fingerprint readers on each door. “Heaven forbid a man and a woman pee in the same room.”

“So bathrooms are all gender neutral in the ESA?” The thought of one made Axel slightly squeamish for reasons he couldn’t explain, and he imagined women would feel even worse.

“Of course.” Jake pressed his finger against the reader, and the door clicked. He opened it and Axel, not wanting to be alone, followed him inside.

There was a row of several urinals, followed by several stalls, all of them open. Jake took Axel’s hand in his. “Looks like we’ve got the place to ourselves.”

Axel yanked his hand away and jerked his head towards the closed door. “Are you insane?!”

“You know I don’t like that word.”

Axel let out a groan. “I thought you had to go.”

“I do. But then you followed me in.” There was a gleam in Jake’s eye. “I thought you might have reconsidered my offer.”

“I only followed because it feels weird standing around alone out there.”

“Afraid someone’s gonna try to convert you?” Jake used one of the urinals, while Axel stood in front of the door, eyes on the water-damaged ceiling.

After washing and drying his hands, Jake walked over to Axel. Axel made a move to open the door, but Jake kissed Axel’s cheek.

Heart pounding, Axel nudged Jake away. “We’re gonna get caught.”

“We’ll hear someone unlocking the door,” Jake said. “It clicks first.”

That was true. Axel remembered the clicking sound when Jake had put his finger on the reader. He checked his watch. He wasn’t completely certain what time this church got out, but he estimated at least another ten minutes. That would be enough time to…

No! Axel shut the idea down. They were in a church, for God’s sake! His eyes met Jake’s through his frames, then dropped to his lips. The usual urge to kiss them overcame Axel. An innocent kiss wouldn’t be so bad. “One kiss. That’s it.”

“I’ll take it.” Jake leaned forward, and pressed his lips to Axel’s.

Axel returned it, intending to pull away, but he found he didn’t want to. Instead, he strained to listen for any footsteps approaching, or locks clicking, as he deepened his kiss.

Jake ended up being the one to pull away. He smirked. “I thought you didn’t want to do this.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s that I don’t want to get caught.” And the fact that they were in a church at that! But kissing wasn’t that big of a sin, right? Axel kept his ear out while he resumed making out with Jake. Jake rubbed his body against Axel, hands gripping his ass. Too far! They needed to stop. Axel set his hands on Jake’s shoulders to push him away. Just one more kiss…

The door clicked open.

~~~~~

Maple found herself attending church with Neil. Not that she wanted to, and normally, her brothers would drag her. But this morning, Neil pulled up to the house and her brothers made her get into his car. Of course, they were expecting him.

Pastor Mark rambled on about the importance of women submitting to husbands. Maple had to suppress a groan. Neil reached for her hand. She actually groaned, and pulled it away.

“I need to go to the bathroom,” Maple whispered to him, and left before hearing his reply.

Instead of heading for the bathrooms, Maple headed for the front door. She stepped outside, relishing the fresh air. It was a bright, sunny day filled with better things to do than sit in a boring old church building.

She decided to wander along the streets. Maybe she’d get lucky and bump into Jake.

Maple didn’t find Jake anywhere, but she did find herself inside a book store. There were shelves upon shelves of books, organized by genre. She hadn’t a clue what genre to thumb through. She’d only actually read one book. What else would she like?

She stopped in the fantasy section. Every cover featured a man front and center. A few did have a woman in the background, but it was clear they all starred a man as the main character.

Maple moved on. The romance section was in the next aisle. She scrunched her nose at it, but the cover of one of the books stopped her.

It depicted a man and a woman embracing while gazing at each other lovingly. The man looked a bit like Jake. If Jake took off his glasses and had more muscle, anyway. The woman could have been herself. Maple picked it up, flipped through the pages, and landed on a scene. A very inappropriate scene. She couldn’t help but imagine Jake during it. Jake, kissing her like that… Maple grew warm and flushed at the thought. And this was just sitting on a shelf for anyone to pick up and read? How was it allowed?

“Can I help you, miss?”

Maple jumped. A male employee had his eyes on her. “Just browsing,” she said quickly.

“You’re a little young to be in this section.”

“Sorry.” Maple put the book on the shelf with the back facing outwards.

“Teen fiction is over there.” The employee pointed towards the back wall, near signs and posters of cartoon animals advertising the children’s section.

“Right.” Maple narrowed her eyes at the display, and walked towards it.

Teen fiction, much like the fantasy section, featured boys on the cover. It was enough to make her want to return to the romance section. At least those books actually had women on them, even if they were all being held by men.

Like how she wanted Jake to hold her.

Finally, she found a book that didn’t have a boy on the cover. Instead, it had a cat. Next to it were books with different cats on the cover. There were shelves filled with them. Orange cats, black cats, white cats, tabby cats.

There were more books with cats on the cover than with girls. What a depressing world. She picked up a book featuring a black cat titled Shadeclaw’s Shadow. It looked stupid. And yet, it made it onto the shelf of a book store.

Where were all the books with women?

The male employee walked by again, and smiled. “That’s much more appropriate for a young lady.”

“Do you have any books with a woman as the main character?” Maple asked him.

The man laughed until he realized Maple wasn’t joking. “No. I’m afraid you’d have to travel to the ESA for that sort of nonsense.”

“And this isn’t nonsense?” Maple waved Shadeclaw’s Shadow at him.

“I didn’t say it wasn’t.” The man stroked his chin. “Now that I think about it, I do recall a book series about women.”

Maple put Shadeclaw's Shadow on the nearest shelf, and followed the man to Nonfiction, where he pulled out a book, and handed it over.

There was a woman on the cover. She stood in a kitchen, stirring something in a pot on a stove. The title read, Mrs. Wrigley’s Guide to Domesticity: Cooking Edition.

“Seriously?” Maple would rather read one of the books with a man on the cover.

“It’s perfect for a girl your age. They’ve also got ones on fashion, cleaning, and child-rearing.”

Maple handed the book back to the employee. “I’ll pass. I need to get going anyway. I’m… um... late for an appointment.”

“If you say so.”

Maybe Jake could help her find a good book starring a woman. She made a mental note to text him about it on her secret phone later.