(by Edward Zeusgany and Alex Anders, © copyright 2000, all rights reserved)

Lots of kids are somewhat apprehensive about their first year of high school. High school boys, the juniors and seniors especially, have always seemed to be a little wild and dangerous, not to mention big. This is particularly true for a youngster like Quentin, who is small and thin, looks younger than his fourteen years, has a timid disposition, is way too pretty, and even has the wrong sort of first name.

One might think things would be different at a Christian Academy like Warburton. But the boys of Warburton had been warned about the danger posed by Gays to traditional family values. They already knew that the majority of homosexuals were effeminate and could be identified by their mannerisms. So it took no time at all for Quentin to be singled out, if not as one of them, then in grave danger of becoming so.

He didn’t even get though the first week, when an older, bigger boy cornered him in one of the lavatories. A junior, Drew was known for a ribald sense of humor and for getting into trouble with the teachers by creating disturbances and being fresh. “Hi, sweetie,” he said to Quentin in the presence of some half dozen witnesses. He gave the younger boy’s cheek a pinch.

Quentin backed away. “What’s the matter, honey? Don’t you love me anymore?” the older boy mocked.

The other kids looked on in stunned silence, until the red faced youngster fled. Then they laughed, some of them nervously.

It got worse. Drew knew a victim when he saw one, and he had never before come across a more perfect instrument for showcasing his talents. Catching Quentin when there was a suitable audience, a few classmates but devoid of adults, he would grab at the younger boy’s backside or his crotch. If he could sneak up from behind, he would get the kid in a bear hug and pretend to hump his bottom. Pinning the lad against the lockers, he would squeeze Quentin’s breasts or feign kissing the lad’s neck.

In more public surroundings, he limited himself to sophisticated tricks. If Quentin came near on entering the cafeteria, Drew would pull out a chair and hold it for the youngster. Then he would look hurt when the youth tried to pretend that he hadn’t noticed the gesture. The laughter of both boys and girls would spread out from the immediate scene, following in the wake of the buzz of conversation that advanced the news. Of course, everyone, teachers and administrators included, soon realized the sort of thing that was going on.

The adults did nothing to stop it. They expected Quentin to figure out what to do, to stand up for himself and to act more masculine. That would be a very good thing, in their opinion. Gradually, other boys joined in the fun. Stan was one of these.

A senior and co-captain of the football team, Stan did not really approve of Drew or the merciless teasing that the sissy boy was getting. The schoolboy jock told himself that he had to participate because being part of the right group was important to him. He also had the same lame justification that everyone else had, that Quentin needed this lesson and really they were doing him a service.

Not everyone engaged in the harassment. Luckily for Quentin, his fellow freshmen did not. They merely shunned him, afraid of guilt by association, but not actively supporting the victimization. So the youngster was not troubled in class, except the day that Drew appeared at the beginning of English I.

The older boy came into the room with a red rose in his hand. The teacher, Mrs. Brewer, thought that the flower was for her. But Drew brought it to Quentin and laid it solemnly on his desk, then turned and left. There were a few titters, but nothing else.

*****

Like Drew, Stan would grab Quentin and make mock love to him. One afternoon, he caught the kid alone in the toilet. He backed the youngster up against the wall, then he jammed his knee between the youth’s legs, pinning him so he couldn’t escape. As he was pretending that he wanted to kiss the smaller boy’s lips, he suddenly became aware that he really did want to. Stan backed away, suddenly horrified at himself, for what he was doing and for what he was feeling.

Quentin was crying. “Why are you doing this to me? the boy complained. “I thought you were different.”

In spite of so much ill treatment, Stan had never seen the kid cry before. Maybe it was because this time there weren’t any witnesses or because Quentin had just had all that he could take. In any case, the tears that ran down those boyish cheeks seared Stan’s heart.

“I’m sorry,” he said and quickly left.

Stan promised himself that he would stay away from Quentin, then tried to forget about it. It was pointless to flagellate himself for past mistakes. Learn from them and get on with it, was his view. Then, one night he couldn’t get to sleep, bothered by an erection that wouldn’t go away. He gave up, sighed, took hold and brought Helen, his steady girlfriend since eighth grade, into his mind. Slowly, he unbuttoned her blouse.

But when he imagined the naked body, it had narrow hips, a trim backside and the flat chest of a boy. Startled, he looked up into Quentin’s beautiful face, smiling now. Unthinking, he ran his hand through the fine, golden hair.

*****

Early on Sunday morning, Stan’s father went down to the cellar to get a tool for a repair project he was about to undertake. He smelled something foul coming from behind the furnace. “Damn,” he thought, “there must be something wrong with the septic system.”

Going around, the first thing he noticed was the urine stained pants. Then he saw a purple face, eyes bugged out but unseeing, a twisted mouth. For a split second, he didn’t know who it was.

There was not the slightest warning sign, everyone said. “Why?” they asked, over and over. Popular, a good student and star athlete, never in any kind of trouble, what could make such an outstanding youth take his own life.

At the funeral, a tearful Helen spoke from the heart. “He was a good Christian boy,” she said. They had talked of marriage after they had completed college. And they both believed they should wait for that. With him, she had always felt safe and respected, she told everyone.

*****

Ten days later, when Quentin was found hanging in his closet, they said it was a copycat suicide. This happened sometimes. One teenager kills himself and others take up the idea. The public schools brought in a team of psychologists to provide counseling for the adolescents of the town. They intended to stop this run of tragedy before it spread any further.

Local churches provided specially trained ministers for the youth of their congregations. The Academy held a memorial service for the two fine boys cut down in their prime. In his seat near the front, Drew secretly gloated over his power.

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