7 – The Protest (1)

Axel hadn’t seen Sebastian since that night at the bar, when he had cried all over his shirt. And, despite the texts he had sent him, he hadn’t received a response. Was Sebastian mad at him? He kept replaying that night in his head over and over, wondering what he did wrong. If he did something wrong. There was always a chance Sebastian just had personal problems he didn’t want to talk about. After all, he had been upset about something that night.

Axel sat on a boulder next to Jake. They were at the park he had invited Sebastian to. Now, he wondered what happened at that camp that sent him into a panic at the mention of hiking.

Jake poked at the ground with a stick. “Do you know anything about conversion camps?”

It was as though he had read Axel’s mind. “Only that they’re supposed to make queer people cis and straight. But I have doubts about that.” His mind wandered back to Sebastian. How he claimed to be “normal” because of it. So normal, he listed “wallowing in self-hatred” as a hobby.

What was going on with him? Axel feared he was contemplating suicide. But he also feared his texts were getting annoying. He made a mental note to check in with him later anyway. Better to be annoying. What if Sebastian killed himself because he thought no one cared about him anymore?

“From what I’ve read, it sounds like all they do is give people serious mental issues,” Jake said.

“It does. I have a friend who went to one of them. He swears he’s been cured. But last week he had some sort of break down when I mentioned hiking. He might be straight now, but he’s a depressed mess.”

“Damn. I can’t believe those are legal.”

"They should be illegal." Axel pulled his knees up to his chest as he gazed at the dirt below, memories of Marley surfacing. “My first boyfriend ended up in a conversion school. He committed suicide a year after graduating.”

Jake’s eyes widened. “Seriously? I’m sorry.”

More memories came to mind. Particularly, the last time he saw his parents. “I was almost sent to one of those kinds of places. My parents said it was either that, or getting kicked out. I chose getting kicked out.”

“And everyone is okay with all this?”

“I wouldn’t say everyone. Most people aren’t aware of it. They've got their own problems. They don’t have the time or energy to fight for causes that don’t affect them.”

“That’s just sad. If anything like that happened in California, people would be out protesting. They’d protest about it right now if they knew.”

“Protest that here, and people will assume you’re gay. Nobody would do it, even if they’re on our side.”

“How do people expect anything to change if they don’t protest?” Jake asked.

Axel never expected anything to change. How could it, when most of the country’s political views aligned with the government’s? Besides, he was too busy trying to survive. He didn’t have the energy for protests.

“Protesting will get people’s attention,” Jake went on. “You said so yourself. People aren’t aware. If they see crowds of people-”

“They’ll get annoyed you’re creating traffic, and hate your cause.” Axel couldn’t even imagine crowds of people showing up for gay rights. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you end up in a jail cell.”

Jake stroked his chin, as though coming up with an idea. What sort of idea, Axel couldn’t imagine. And whatever he came up with couldn’t be good.

“Whatever is on your mind, I want nothing to do with.” Axel did a sweep of his surroundings before setting his hand over Jake’s. “Want to head back to my van for some fun?”

“I’d love that.” Jake kissed Axel’s lips long and slow, not bothering to check if anyone was around first. Too bold. Too brave. Axel pulled away in a panic.

“What?”

“You need to look for people before doing that!”

“You are way too paranoid. There’s nobody even out here. We’re secluded. There’s trees hiding us.”

“And people can be hiding behind the trees.” Not for the first time, Axel found himself annoyed with Jake for not understanding the consequences of getting caught. “Come on. Let’s go to my van. We can make out all we want in there.”

~~~~~

Sebastian dreamed. Dreamed he was back at Camp Hope, trapped in a dirt hole too deep to climb out of. And even if he found a way out, two Rank 4 kids sat watch at the edge of the hole. They'd do whatever it took to stop his escape. Anything to earn enough precious points to go home.

It was a common nightmare. But something different happened this time. The end of a rope dropped down. Was his time in there finally over? Sebastian climbed the rope to the top, and came face-to-face with Axel.

“Come on,” Axel whispered. “I’m breaking you out.”

The two ran through the woods, in the dark of night. Somehow, there were no kids or counselors around to see them. It never would've been like that in real life.

The dream changed. Sebastian laid on his back in bed, with Axel lying on top of him. Only a blanket covered them.

“You saved me,” Sebastian said breathlessly.

“Of course. I’ll always be here to save you.” Axel leaned in, and whispered in his ear. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Sebastian whispered back.

They kissed. Axel moved from kissing Sebastian’s lips to kissing his neck. Slowly he left a trail of kisses down his chest, towards his stomach.

Sebastian moaned. “Axel…”

Axel moved further down, stopping to take him in his mouth. Sebastian gripped Axel’s hair, moaning his name again and again. Louder and louder. The pleasure too much to handle…

Sebastian woke up to a sticky wetness in his nether regions. He pulled his blankets aside, and sat up on his knees to inspect the large wet spot on the front of his boxers. They were soaked through.

His bedroom door, which faced the foot of his bed, burst open. Waylon barged inside. “What’s all this shouting-” His eyes landed on the stain before Sebastian had a chance to cover himself.

Face burning, Sebastian yanked his blankets up to his chest anyway. “Can’t you learn to knock?”

“Did you have a wet dream? At 23?”

“No! I, uh, pissed the bed.”

“That don’t smell like piss to me.” Waylon wrinkled his nose. “Wet dreams at your age? This wouldn’t be happening if you had a wife to take care of that sort of thing for you.”

Celine entered the room. “What’s going on in here?”

“Nothing, dear. Sebastian just pissed the bed.”

“At 23?” Celine sighed. “Do you need me to take the sheets downstairs?”

“I can do it,” Sebastian said quickly. Celine left the room.

Waylon gave Sebastian a knowing smile. “What did the girl in your dream look like? Maybe we could find you someone who looks like her.”

“I don’t remember. You barging in made me forget.”

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay. It sounded like you were yelling about axes. I thought there might have been a crazy ax man in your room.”

Nope. Just in my dreams, Sebastian thought as he watched Waylon finally leave his room. He buried his face in his hands. That was absolutely mortifying. Hopefully his father would forget about it, but Sebastian had a feeling he wouldn’t. If he wasn’t pushing for him to marry before, he’d definitely be pushing now.

On top of that, shame and disgust engulfed him. Why did he have such a gross dream? Exchanging “I love you’s” to a man he’d barely known a month. How pathetic. He didn’t even want to think about the rest of the dream. Best to forget it ever happened. Better to forget Axel existed.

Sebastian’s phone chimed. Another text from Axel, asking how he was doing. He had just asked him that question three days ago. Why couldn’t the man take the hint, and never contact him again?

~~~~~

Jake stood down the street from city hall, holding a sign that read “Gay Rights are Human Rights.” He didn’t care what Axel said. People needed to be aware. Laws needed to be changed. And protesting was a good way to do it.

Jake had put up flyers around town. He made posts about it online. “Protest for LGBT+ rights Saturday at noon.” Hopefully there were people out there who cared enough to show up. He’d prove Axel wrong. At the very least, Maple might show up. When he asked her, she said she’d think about it.

It was 12:05. Not a single person arrived, but it was still early.

At least there were passerby. Except they mostly ignored him. One guy called him a slur. Jake ignored him.

Finally, a woman stopped to talk. “What are you doing?”

Jake gave her a friendly smile. “Fighting for gay rights. Did you know conversion therapy is legal?”

“Well, yeah. How else will they get cured?”

Jake struggled to keep his anger in check. The woman was probably misinformed. “It’s not something that needs to be cured. There’s nothing wrong with being gay.”

“It’s a sin. People go to hell for that.”

“Hell isn’t real.”

The woman scowled at him and left. Jake supposed he’d have to be more sensitive towards religion with the next person.

Nothing eventful happened for about ten minutes. Another woman stopped to ask what he was doing. Jake repeated what he said to the first woman. She laughed as though it were a joke, then went on her way. Jake’s heart sank. Maybe Axel was right.

A man walked by without looking at him. Not even when Jake started chanting “Gay rights are human rights” through his megaphone.

How hard was it to get someone to join in? Jake was ready to give up, when he saw a familiar face.

“What’s going on?” Luke asked as he approached, holding a little girl’s hand. Jake assumed she must be his daughter Aydan had told him about.

“I’m protesting for gay rights. Did you know conversion therapy is legal here?”

“Most people here want to keep that legal,” Luke said.

“But it’s torture. Do you know what happens in those camps and schools?”

“I know it’s bad, but one person isn’t going to change anyone’s mind.” Luke smiled at the pile of signs, and picked one up. “You’d have a better chance with two more.”

Jake grinned. “Thanks!”

“No problem.” Luke put his hand on the girl’s shoulder. “You never met my daughter, did you? This is Skye.”

“Hi Skye. Nice to meet you.”

Skye ignored him, opting to eye a pile of small pride flags instead. Jake handed her one. She took it, and twirled it.

Three people caused more attention than one. Not long after, a teenage girl wordlessly grabbed a "Ban Conversion Camps" sign, and raised it up.

More people stopped to ask questions. A few joined in. Most people still ignored them, but Jake felt a lot better, now that he had a group of eight people. Someone else Jake recognized joined in. The man who ran the mechanic shop- Axel’s boss.

Across the street, Jake spotted an equal-sized gathering. Were more people joining the cause, spreading it across town? Someone in that group held up a sign. Jake squinted to read it.

“Homosexuals are gay.”

What? Jake frowned as someone held up another sign that read “Protect family values.”

“Counter protesters,” Luke said to Jake, as more people joined that crowd.

Jake’s stomach dropped.

“Hey.” Axel approached Jake, smiling. “I heard there was a protest here.”

Jake threw his arms around Axel. “Thank you!”

Axel pulled away, flushed. “Yeah, yeah. Just keep things peaceful, alright?”

“Kinda hard to, with them across the street.” Jake nodded towards the counter-protesters.

“Fuck ’em. They’re just mad there’s people who disagree.”

Someone tapped Jake’s arm. He turned to find Luke next to him, Skye’s face pressed against his leg. “We’re headed out now. Skye’s getting tired.”

“Okay. Thanks so much for your help.”

“No problem.”

Jake watched Luke and Skye walk away. In doing so, he spotted another familiar person off in the distance. Sebastian! Jake never had the chance to apologize. He hurried over to him, sign still in hand. “Sebastian!”

Sebastian stared at Jake and the sign. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Protesting for gay rights. I heard some of what happened at Camp Hope. I had no idea. Sorry for being a dick earlier.”

“You’re insane,” Sebastian hissed. He eyed the gathering behind Jake. “What do you think this is going to accomplish?”

“Banning conversion therapy. Surely you don’t want anyone else to go through-”

“It works,” Sebastian spat. “I’m normal now.”

“You can’t cure sexuality. You shouldn’t have to.” Jake recalled some of the posts he read, and tried to be sympathetic. Sebastian had been practically brainwashed. “It’s wrong, what you were put through. Nobody should have to go through that.”

“I don’t want your sympathy...” Sebastian’s eyes widened in what might have been shock. Or fear. “Axel?”

“Hey Sebastian.” Axel grinned at him. “Come to join the protest?”

“Hell no! I’m not gay.”

“There’s plenty of straight people supporting us,” Axel said. “Even my boss is here."

“You two know each other?” Jake couldn’t recall Axel ever mentioning Sebastian.

“Yeah, we’re good friends.” Axel gave Sebastian a pat on the shoulder. The action caused Sebastian to turn slightly pink.

Sebastian's eyes darted between Jake and Axel. “How do you know each other?”

Axel lowered his voice, but smiled. “He’s the boyfriend I told you about.”

“What!” Sebastian’s jaw fell slack. “You’re dating… him?”

“Yeah. Is something wrong?”

Sebastian didn’t answer. He turned around, and walked back the way he came.

“What was that about?” Axel asked Jake.

“He kind of hates me for being an asshole to him. I didn’t know about his past. I tried apologizing just now, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“I’ll talk to him later, if I can get a hold of him.” Axel rubbed at his arm. “He hasn’t responded to any of my texts. I think he’s mad at me. But I don’t know why.”

“It’s fine.” Jake figured Sebastian must have a lot of mental issues causing his strange behavior. “I’d be the same way, if I went through what he has."