"Are you stalking me?"
Tony almost dropped the shove. He looked around, not knowing to who the voice belonged, until he spotted Leo at the next house's window.
"Oh my God, you freaked me out." he said.
Leo giggled. "I'm not the one at your window."
"It's nothing like that! I'm just gardening."
"Yeah, I noticed." Leo nodded. "I almost confused you with and old lady, but no old lady has such a nice butt."
Tony really dropped the shove this time. He was visibilly blushing, and Leo thought it was cute.
"I-I don't think th-this conversation is apropriate." he leaned to grab the shove back.
"For the ouside? I agree. Why don't you come in here to have a more private chat?"
Leo was obviously teasing, but Tony was just shocked.
"Dude, I'm kidding. Don't make such a face."
The gardening boy tried to laugh, but it sounded more like a nervous squirk.
"Yeah, yeah. I knew that."
"Sure." he chuckled. "So, what's with the gardening thing?"
Tony shrugged. "I don't know. I think it helps calming me down when I'm nervous or something."
"Yeah, I get that."
"How was it like in New York?"
Leo climbed the desk and sat on the window bay, with his legs to the outside.
"Amazing. There's no other way to describe it."
"Why did you guys came here, then?" Tony leaned himself over the shove.
"My mom couldn't take care of us anymore, and sice we're minors..."
"Wait, you're a minor? I thought you were 18." he looked surprised.
"Almost. My birthday is two months from now."
"Wow, I'm older."
Leo shrugged. "I'm taller."
"Shut up."
They giggled.
"So, if you're still 17, how did you make the tattoos?" Tony asked, continuing with the gardening.
"My mom let me."
"She must be cool."
"Yeah, she is." Leo looked away. "Usually."
They stood in silence for a while after that. Tony was busy taking care of the plants and Leo didn't mind, he liked watching the boy work.
"I better go back inside." Tony left the shove leaned on the wall.
"Okay. See ya."
"Bye."
Leo came back inside. If the rest of the town had more pretty boys like Tony, he'd be done.
He started to set up his art space. The rest of his things was going to be shipped at the end of the week, but he managed to fit his canvas in the bag. He placed them on the desk. Maybe after dinner he'd do some artwork.
***
Leo went earlier to the dinning room, to see if grandma needed any help, but she had already setted everything.
"Come here so we can talk for a minute." she said, going to the kitchen.
The boy followed her and leaned on the kitchen table while she finished the meatballs.
"What do you want to talk about?" Leo asked.
She sighed. "You know I've been very cool about you being... You know." he knew. "But here is different. This is a religious town. So, if you wanna avoid any further discussions with your grandfather, your classmates and pretty much everyone in town... I'd highly recomend you hid that part of yourself."
He didn't know what to say. It took him years to come out. It took him a lot of punches in the face to be accepted. He suffered a lot of things to get to the level of confidence and pride he had now. And she was saying he should back down? Come back to when he was thirteen and got beat up everyday at school without even reacting? She wanted him to go back to when he was depressed? To the worst days in his life? No way.
"I'm sorry, granny, but I'm afraid I won't be able to follow your recomendation. I am not going to hide who I am. Don't worry, I won't mess up yours and grandpa's reputation, but I won't fake who I am. If you can't accept that, then I don't know why you wanted my guard in the first place."
Grandma glanced at him. Leo couldn't read her expression, but he knew he had left her angry and speechless at the same time. It was his intention. He turned and went back to the dinnig room, sitting in his place at the table.
The rest of dinner went without a comment about that matter. Lena babbled all the time about her old school's gossips and about that once time a girl was wearing the same dress as her in a party. Leo didn't think their grandparents were very happy to know that their grandaughter was going to big parties and getting drunk and trowing beer at other girl's dress. But they stood in silence, only their face showing the shock. For him, this was all very fun.
If they lecture him about being gay because of the Bible, then why weren't they lecturing Lena as well? Leo was pretty sure that 90% of the things she was telling them were sins. He couldn't stand that hipocresy.
After dinner, Leo went back to his room. And started his rebellion.
They wanted to push him down, right? That was a red line on the wall. He wouldn't be able to see mom for a long time. A blue stain. He'd have to go to a new school, and go through all the discrimination again. Black stripes. His sister would suffer too this time, because there it was another level. Yellow dots. No matter what he'd said to grandma: he knew that he was going to have to hide if he wanted to survive. Purple purple purple purple.
Now that white wall would never bother him again.
His phone rang and he picked it up. It was Henry, his friend. They were actually more like 'friends with benefits', but things never got sentimental, so it were good. Plus, Henry was easy to talk too.
"How's my favorite boy doing in hell?" he said.
"I just trowed half my purple ink on the wall."
"What happened?"
"Same as usual." Leo sighed. "Old people having old concepts."
"I can crash there when I have the time, if you want." Henry seemed worry.
"I don't think it's a good idea. My grandma was very clear about the fact that she wanted me to hide that I'm gay."
"If I were you, I'd go out of the house with that rainbow shirt right now."
"I'm seriously thinking about doing that."
They laughed. For a moment, Leo could pretend that he was still in New York, just an avenue away from Henry, two blocks away from his favorite club, and one room away from his mom.
"Okay, but there's got to be something good about that place." Henry insisted.
"Well, I have a very hot neighbor." he answered.
"Oh my God, tell me everything."
"There's not much to know. We just met. He's cute and fun. But his son of the minister. I don't think gay hook ups is actually his thing."
"How high is your gaydar for him?"
"Very high." Leo was honest.
"Then go for it, handsome."
"I will think about it."
Henry giggled. "I gotta go, but don't forget texting me tomorrow so I can know the details from school."
"Okaaay, but don't get your hopes too high. It's very likely that I'm going to be completely ignored or avoided."
"Leo, you have to be more positive about things. Tomorrow is a new day! Anything can happen! Including you getting into your neighbor's pants! Bye."
He turned off the call. Leo rolled his eyes. He was glad for having such good friends, but Henry was too overreactive.
The boy turned the lights of his new room off and layed down. He was scared about everything, but he knew he'd have to be strong. Tomorrow, he'd have to go to school with a smile on his face a couple encouraging words for Lena. He was the older brother and he had to do his job.
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