14. Chapter Fourteen
Chapter fourteen
B rennan
“What are your plans for the holiday weekend?” Keegan asked.
“I don’t know. Nothing probably. I don’t know anyone here but you.” I shrugged.
“And I think it’s time we changed that, don’t you?”
“And how exactly would we go about that?”
“We go to a party, have a good time. I haven’t pushed you up till now because I knew you were trying to save money, but now you’ve got this job, and you’re in the money. What d'ya say? Want to go out?”
“I guess. Do you have any ideas where we could go?”
“Sure, there’ll be all kinds of parties this weekend. I’ve seen all kinds of posts on social media about parties on Saturday night. It shouldn’t be hard to find a place to go that we can both enjoy.”
“Okay, sure, why not? Since I don’t have to work on Monday, I can afford to feel like shit on Sunday. Let’s do it.”
This was the first time since I’d moved here that I’d gone out like this, and I hoped the clothes I’d picked out would be okay. Keegan assured me that this party would be a mix of people from all different walks of life and that I wouldn’t be the only queer person there, but I was nervous about it.
I reminded myself that this was what I wanted—a fresh start.
Finding a job had been the first priority, and that was going well, so now it was time for me to put myself out there and try to meet some people.
Keegan couldn’t be my only friend, and as great a guy as he was, I wanted to find friends who were part of the LGBTQIA+ community.
That wasn’t something I’d ever had. The only other guys who were out in high school were very in your face about it.
Secretly, I was envious of them and the fact that they felt so free to be themselves, but I also knew that wouldn’t fly at my house.
Instead, I reminded myself that I was lucky I had a family who didn’t care if I was gay and chose not to make waves by hanging out with people they wouldn’t approve of.
I’d planned for things to be different once I went off to college, but Keegan and I hit it off right away, and I mostly hung out with him and his friends.
Shortly after that, I met Patrick. He was a successful older man that I assumed knew the best way to navigate the gay world, and to my surprise, he was a lot like my father.
He was out and didn’t hide the fact that he was gay, but he also made an effort to present as straight as an out gay man could.
The one time I suggested maybe we could go to Pride, he informed me he wasn’t one of those gays who wanted to go parading around in short shorts waving a rainbow flag. Both he and the company he worked for had their reputation to think about. So I didn’t go.
Now, here I was in Austin, and for the first time in my life, I was free to be whoever I wanted to be without anyone else’s expectations. I was determined to live my life authentically as me. All I had to do was figure out exactly what that meant.