NOTE: This is a fictional coming of age story of Jake Grimke as he matures through high school and into college in the Baltimore, Maryland area. It contains and embraces accurate representations of life in Baltimore and its suburbs; Maryland's traditional sport of lacrosse and the career path a firefighter might follow in his profession. All of the characters in this story are fictional and resemblance to any person whether dead or alive is purely coincidental. If you liked this installment, please send me some feed back; I got a rough idea where this is headed but I am always open to some suggestions. Needless to say, if you are offended by handsome athletic young men growing up gay and the obstacles they encounter as well their triumphs, you should use the BACK button on your browser forthwith.
Jake Grimke knew from a young age that he was different than the rest of the boys in his Baltimore junior high school. The little alarm went off in his head one day in the eighth grade while at the barbershop with his dad, a fireman in downtown Baltimore. Together, they went for their weekend haircuts on a Friday or Saturday, depending on when Jake's dad, John, was off from work. While they waited for their haircuts, Jake would thumb through the worn Sports Illustrated magazines and pause at the picture of a shirtless athlete, whether a boxer or a swimmer or from some other sport. He promised himself he would be built like them one day not knowing why he was committing himself to that goal for the long run.
Young Jake was an only child, no brothers or sisters; complications during Emma's pregnancy with Jake forced the doctors to warn her not to ever have children again. And Emma was okay with this, Jacob as it was stated on his birth certificate was a wonderful son. Both parents shared a love for music, John playing guitar with some of his firehouse buddies in a garage band and Emma playing the piano and organ in a Baltimore church on Sundays. The musical ability wore off on Jake and like many other things, he became a quick study of the guitar and keyboards. In the evenings, Jake would play the piano or guitar while Emma and John sang favorite songs from their own coming of age.
Emma Grimke supplemented John's firefighter wages by giving private lessons on the church's magnificent pipe organ where Jake would often go after school. If a student was late or a no-show, Emma would give Jake a lesson on how to play the King of instruments and while not a Mozart or a Bach, Jake could hold his own and developed the ability to quickly master any fugue or toccata thrust before him.
John on the other hand wanted to make sure Jake had an all-American boy upbringing. To that end, John taught Jake how to catch and throw a baseball and then how to swing a bat at the ball as well as how to pass and catch a football. Jake took to these sports but really didn't like them; after all, it wasn't like the swimmer's he remembered in Sports Illustrated. Again, Jake learned quickly but was quickly bored with the hurry-up-and-wait that comes with football and baseball; he preferred something that had constant action like soccer or Maryland's official state sport, lacrosse.
By the end of eighth grade, Jake had become a lacrosse jock, playing in a league near his home. In the fall he played soccer and in the summer, he swam freestyle and butterfly at the community pool. Jake took any and all training advice to heart from any of the coaches that supervised him and set pool records for his age bracket. John and Emma were proud of Jake and sent him away to lacrosse camp each summer as he progressed through high school.
Although lacrosse camp taught all the campers to play all the positions, goalie, defense or long pole, midfield and attack, Jake thrived at being on attack. He never minded the hits he was taking from the defenders on the other team, in fact, he knew the harder they tried to hit him, the harder it drove him to move in with the ball and feed it to a team mate for a shot at the goal or to take a shot of his own.
Jake also had a gregarious personality and could easily become anybody's friend. Boy or girl, jock or nerd, cheerleader or wallflower, he always found the right words to say to somebody to pick up their day, even if it was just a genuine hello and pat on the shoulder in the corridor of the school between classes. Sure, he had his circle of friends, mostly from soccer or lacrosse teams or the pool but he could always find time to sit with somebody outside that circle at their lunch table in the cafeteria.
Needless to day, he was never in any trouble, never in any fights at school and often was the first to intervene if an argument was erupting into something bigger and more physical among classmates. Literally, for some unknown reason, he was wise beyond his years yet ever so humble about it. He never bragged that he was pulling down straight A's and B's all the time; or that he could play multiple instruments or read War and Peace over the summer break. In a couple of words, Jake was a parent's wet dream.
Except that he was gay. He knew and he kept it to himself. By keeping himself constantly pre-occupied with excelling at school work and athletics, there was really very little time left in the the day for him to address it. Sure, he whacked off, he learned about that from one of the older campers at lacrosse camp but instead of thinking about girls at the pool in their bikinis, he closed his eyes and imagined his team mates in Speedos; or soccer gear or lacrosse gear. He even imagined some of the less jock dudes naked as he stroked himself before dozing off into teenage slumber as his body rebuilt itself for the next day.
And then John and Emma announced they were moving out of the city of Baltimore, out to the suburbs, so that Jake could attend a better public high school. While the Grimkes lived comfortably, there wasn't enough income to support sending Jake to one of Baltimore's elite private schools for boys such as St. Paul's, Episcopal, Gilman or Boy's Latin. Even after John's promotion to lieutenant in the fire department and Emma's work with the organ students, the tuition at those schools was untouchable.
Almost as soon as Jake was home from lacrosse camp at Frostburg University in western Maryland, it was time to pack up and move to Severn, Maryland, a few miles northwest of Annapolis. The commute to Baltimore was a little longer for John and Emma always had a few students to teach and tutor as future organists. They moved into a neighborhood of single family homes and families escaping the increasing crime and decreasing quality of schools in Baltimore proper. Before long, Jake was making friends left and right and latched on to Evan Harmes, another lacrosse player.
Evan and Jake clicked instantly. Both were superb athletes and standouts in lacrosse and both were kind of smart. They entered Severn High School as freshman and did just about everything together.
Literally, almost everything; Evan could have been Jake's shadow or vice versa. And if one was lacking in trigonometry or chemistry, the other was there to help and the same on the soccer or lacrosse field; they were each other's constant wingman.
Except that Evan was as straight as a pin and Jake knew this; he knew it without a doubt. And Jake, as much as it pained him that his best buddy on the planet was straight, was okay with this, he knew it was not his place to try to sway Harmes into being something he wasn't. Being gay was Jake's burden and nobody else's, just Jake's.
Until one day in the summer before the start of their senior year at Severn High. Jake had taught himself how to down play any interest the girls in school were giving him and how to keep it suppressed when Evan or anybody else would ask who he would take to a dance or other school function. But Jake wasn't prepared to be outwitted by Evan as they hiked together just killing time along the creek.
"You know you are my best bud ever Jake," started Evan as they hiked, "and, if you don't want to answer this question, it's cool with me, I respect you, and it won't change anything with me about you...but, I got to know: Are you gay?"
Jake hesitated, kind of floored by the statement but it was Evan and they had talked about everything worldly that most teenagers can come up with and he was totally comfortable with it. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I am," he answered.
"Well, it's our secret, I won't tell anybody and you know that. And I got your back in case somebody decides they can't handle a gay team mate. They will have to deal with me before they think they can get to you."
Evan continued on, "You tell your folks yet? They always seem very cool, of course, they might be pissed there won't be any grandchildren."
"Yeah, I told them a year or so ago, just kind of kept it to myself," Jake finally answered with, not sure where the conversation would continue.
They continued hiking, talking about growing up, going to college and where each of them might go. Jake put his hand briefly on Evan's shoulder and said thank you and they hugged, a real hug, not a fake man-hug. As they hugged, Evan reassured him, "it's going to be okay; I know that about you Jake, you make everything perfect, every time."
Sure, Jake wanted to plaster a big kiss on Evan but knew that was out of the question and he settled for the hug from his best friend. "Wanna come over and jam out with my dad and I, we could use you; hell, we could start our own garage band. There's definitely enough talent on the team to do that after practice."
"Jake, that would rock, I bet we could smoke the fall talent contest at school," Evan added.
"You and me on guitar, maybe Aaron on bass; I can float from keyboards to guitar but we need a drummer; with drums, not just somebody from the school band without a set."
"Syms plays drums, not sure if he has a complete set. What should we call ourselves?" Evan demanded to know.
"The Mohawks; in honor of our game," answered Jake, "and then, we get mohawks when we go on stage."
"Our moms will freak, but bro, that idea is out of this world," Evan answered as they bumped fists.
"Okay, I'll call Erik and see if he has drums that he can put in that truck of his and bring over. Dad is on his days off so he will want to play and Mom will be happy that we are all out there making music."
"What time at your place, this is all moving really fast dude." asked Evan.
"Eat at six o'clock and be jamming by seven , don't want to be making too much noise cause the old people down the street will probably call the cops if we go crazy."
They walked back to Evan's Jeep in the park parking lot, confident and ecstatic that they would be the next rock stars at Severn High School.
Even though Evan was 100% straight, he enjoyed watching Jake in action, whether on the soccer or lacrosse field or at the pool, Jake's almost picture perfect male body was something to behold. At 6'-0" he was barely an inch shorter than Evan but a little broader across the pecs with barely a trace of hair on his arms or chest but plenty down his muscular legs. His strawberry blonde hair always bleached a little in the summer and has he matured into a handsome young man, many of the freckles on his green-eyed face began to disappear.
Before heading home, they stopped at the Park Severn Swim Club. Jake slid off his cargo shorts revealing a square-cut Speedo which he frequently wore in the summer just so he could pop into the pool without having to change before hitting the water. Jake turned a few laps of freestyle and then butterfly with Evan timing him unofficially on his digital watch. As they left the club, Evan reminded Jake that everything they talked about was between them and nobody else, no matter who asked and that Evan would always be his friend.