NOTE: This is the fictional coming of age story of Jake Grimke as he matures through high school, into college and eventually into adulthood in the Baltimore, Maryland region. 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 one 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 will encounter as well their personal triumphs, you should use the BACK button on your browser forthwith.
Jake really didn't expect his question to be answered with a counter-question. His mind defaulted to the place where he felt the safest and strongest, a lacrosse field and now, all of a sudden he had gotten checked by this long-poler as he made his way to the goal. And there was no wingman to pass the ball to, he was alone, getting checked as he faced the crease.
"Yo, Jake;" Will repeated, "why did you ask that question? I got no problem answering, just wondering why you are so curious?"
Jake forged ahead and countered with, "I just wondered; you seem so certain about it; like it's natural for you. Actually, after all you went through to bring that guy to the junior-senior prom last year, I'd say it was a pretty daring move. Was he, or, um, is he, your boyfriend?"
"Not my boyfriend. Brent and I were seeing each other for a little while last year but it was just a spring fling. Boy meets boy," Will reflected.
"You liked him?" Jake asked back.
"Yeah, he was pretty hot but just had a one track mind," filled in Will without too many particulars.
"And?" pried Jake.
"No meat and potatoes, just gravy," Will added.
Jake seemed confused for a few seconds at Will's last response, "so, no substance, just, you know, some, well, sex?"
Will looked over at Jake in the passenger's seat of his car, clearly on the ropes about how to ask these questions and smiled. "Yes you big lacrosse goon, it was just sex; mind you, it was pretty good sex but he could barely string two complete sentences together before or after."
"Gotcha," answered Jake, "sorry it didn't work out any better for you."
"Don't have to be sorry, my world isn't that fragile Jake; I've taken some of the hard knocks life can dish out and still stand on my own two feet, `cept when a couple B-team football idiots get fired up. But then again, I got the captain of the varsity lacrosse team appearing out of nowhere ready to kick ass and take names," Will added with a genuine smile.
Jake considered that Evan and Jackie were going out to the movies tonight and asked Will if he wanted to stay for dinner just as Will was about to drop off Jake at the Grimke house.
"You sure?" Will asked, wondering how his luck had gotten him this far with Jake.
"Yeah, Mom loves meeting everybody from school that I know; and, I suspect I won't hear from Evan until Monday since Jackie is going to practically make him her husband for the weekend."
Will added his own observation on the situation, "if you don't mind me saying, I've noticed that you seem a little put off that she has taken his attention away from you."
"He'll bounce back soon enough, as soon as winter break is over and he has his stick in his hand. We got a state championship to win," Jake said with confidence.
"You think he will drop her for a trophy?"
"Yeah, I know him that way. He is wrapped pretty tight about lacrosse and the Naval Academy. He's already got a Letter of Assurance holding a spot for him starting with this coming June's Plebe Summer. Playing lacrosse at Annapolis is all that has been on his mind since we met when I moved here."
"And you?"
"U-Va probably. I like their lacrosse program and it's Dad's alma mater. Thinking I would major in journalism or history, maybe teaching but not really sure. Probably get my bachelor's, be a high school teacher and coach lacrosse."
"Why, cause that's what your parents say to do? I'm not trying to be disrespectful to you or them, just kind of, challenging your decision, if that's cool," Will upped the ante in the conversation before he was introduced to Jake's father.
Just before they went in the side door, Jake turned to Will and said, "it's cool, I'm not upset about it. You are pretty cool when you aren't out there having a big old queer moment."
Will followed Jake into the family room, the aroma of a homemade dinner filling the first floor. John Grimke stuck his hand out to shake Will's and introducing himself while Will shook the firefighter's hand with a firm grip in return, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Grimke."
"Just call me John, when I hear Mr. Grimke I start looking around for my dad."
Jake hugged his dad who had since changed out of his uniform into some comfortable jeans and golf shirt, "How was work today? Anything major?"
"Nah, all BS calls, two automatic fire alarms and the usual burnt food; but, we are due, we are due for a real snot-slinger soon."
Jake turned to Will and interprets, "a snot-slinger means a decent building fire with lots of truck work to do; open up for the engine company, do a search for victims and get the heat and smoke out. Dad says anybody can squirt water on a fire but truck work is firefighting for thinking men, right Dad."
"Right Jake but enough about that, we don't bore our guest with shop talk," John reminded him.
"Mom, do we have enough for Will to stay for dinner?" Jake asked into the kitchen.
"So long as he is okay with chicken and pasta and some salad; nothing fancy tonight," replied Emma from the kitchen, "your father and I are going over to the Kauffman's for Mr. Kauffman's surprise party tonight after dinner."
Emma finished getting the plates plated in the kitchen and was getting the seats arranged for everyone at the table; "Sweetie, do your parents know you are over here? You can use the phone in the kitchen to call them before they get worried."
It was Will's turn to blush when he heard himself referred to as sweetie and Jake was just glad that kind of attention was directed elsewhere. John poured Jake a glass of red wine while Will made the call home to his own parents. Before he hung up Jake was at his side in the kitchen, "hey, if you want some wine with dinner, your folks got to talk to my folks."
Will shot Jake a look like "really?!"
Jake nodded yes and then turned to John "Dad, time to talk to the Hurleys."
John spoke to Will's mom and after a brief conversation about responsibility and just one bottle of wine with dinner, it was clear that Will would partake also during the meal.
As dinner progressed, Will got interrogated by Jake's parents, mostly about his own plans for the future which were pretty vague since Will himself really hadn't told anybody what he really wanted to do yet. And as dinner ended, Jake the dutiful son cleared the table and cleaned up the kitchen while John and Emma left for the surprise party. Of course, there were standing orders: no parties, no booze and call if you need anything; the usual sort of parental prohibitions any high school senior would be expected to adhere to any time they would be unsupervised by parents.
Will reopened his own line of questioning, "so Jake Grimke, is the U-Va thing cause that's where the `rents want you to go or did you decide that on your own."
"A little of both I guess. I kind of wanted to go around here, maybe to Hopkins but Mom and Dad were pretty insistent that I go away to college and Hopkins isn't even an hour's drive away; plus, the lacrosse program at U-Va is better and the out of state tuition at Charlottesville is less than Hopkins so that pretty much sealed the deal."
"The almighty dollar; seems like everything boils down to that," mused Will. "So what are you going to do?" Jake asked the guest.
"Well, in a perfect world I'll be the lead in the next great Broadway musical, but, if all I can do is play the sax and clarinet, I'm doomed to a life of mediocrity at best," lamented Will.
Jake chuckled, "and in a not so perfect world?"
"Honestly, I don't know. My parents hate their jobs and I just don't know what I really want yet. At least you got an idea of what you want and what you can do and how they might all line up for you," young Hurley replied.
"It's just a rough draft," smirked Jake; "seems plausible, doable. I get to stay connected to lacrosse since there really isn't much in the lacrosse world after college. It's not like I can go pro and have a bling life like other pro athletes."
"Dreams and visions are good Jake, they are a good thing," he said, daring himself to put his hand on Jake's shoulder as they stood in the family room, looking over Jake's lacrosse and swimming trophies and medals and the Grimke family pictures including one of Jake sitting in the tillerman's seat with his dad on one of the tractor-drawn Seagrave aerial ladder trucks favored by the Baltimore City Fire Department.
Jake froze when the gay hand touched his shoulder and Will sensed immediately that maybe he had gone too far and quickly retracted his hand back while Jake offered "want to listen to some music?"
"Sure," Will offered back in order to keep spending time with Jake.
They went to Jake's room and Jake fired up his Mac laptop which played into a decent set of computer speakers. "I listen to everything on here: radio, the music I download, music I upload from CD's and, sometimes when Dad is at work, I listen to a digital scanner and hear him on the fire radio."
Will drank in the jock's room and was just as stunned as he was in St. Michael's earlier in the day. It was clean, picked up, almost nothing out of place and the book shelves were lined with great titles. history books and a few more trophies. On the wall behind the full-sized bed was a lacrosse poster and in the open well of the nightstand was a stack of select old Sports Illustrated magazines that Jake had amassed.
Jake went through his playlists, sitting at the desk while Will looked over his shoulder and smiled, able to make out the image of their faces together superimposed on the screen of Jake's computer back lit with Jake's ITunes. Jake skipped anymore of the classical music and stuck with newer stuff he liked and what the Mohawks were currently learning to play including stuff from Fallout Boy and Chemical Romance.
"You know, if you guys ever wanted or needed some back up vocals or instruments, I'm sure most of the guys and girls from the Show Choir and Band would be willing to jump in, they are pretty good you know."
"I don't know Will, I think the Mohawks were just kind of a flash in the pan sort of thing, just a senior moment," added Jake laughing at his play on the senior moment pun.
"Jake, we're home," Emma announced as his parents returned from the neighbor's surprise party.
"Upstairs Mom," answered Jake before he froze remembering one special rule he agreed to when he came out to his parents in his junior year.
"What's going on here?" questioned John after climbing the steps, seeing Will in Jake's room.
"Jake, what are you doing?" Emma sternly demanded to know at once arriving behind her husband.
"Umm, we were just listening to music Dad" replied Jake knowing he had broken that one rule.
John Grimke turned to Will, "I'm sorry Will, but I think it's time for you to go home now."
Will had no idea what was taking place. The nice Grimke parents he met early in the day were all of a sudden monsters for no apparent reason that he could detect. He looked at Jake for a clue but only received a blank stare before turning to walk past the older Grimke's.
Jake started to walk past his parents to show Will out when Emma cut him off and John led Will to the side door he came in to their house from earlier in the evening.
"Jake will see you Monday at school; it was nice to meet you Will." John said in an almost monotoned voice, making sure to shake Will's hand before he turned to leave.
"I'm sorry Mom," Jake said apologetically as John returned to the doorway of Jake's room.
"I thought we had a clear understanding about this Jake: No boys ever in your room alone when we are not here. That's the rule we agreed to, right?" John reminded his son.
Jake looked at both of them, nodded affirmatively and began to apologize for breaking the rule, "I'm sorry, I didn't even think of it while Will was here. We were just talking and then I said `want to listen to some music?' to him and I just invited him in there. Nothing happened, I swear, nothing happened."
"Well Jake, we have that rule, we agreed to that rule, the three of us, to protect you and me and your mother. We even said we would have the same rule if you were straight and you had a girl here alone. You asked us to protect you when you came out to us and we felt this was one way we could do that for you. Please don't make this any harder for us," ranted Jake's father, in as much as he ever ranted which was seldom at best.
Emma picked up almost on cue, "Honey, I'm sure nothing happened with you and that Hurley boy, but, you have to think about what others are going to think and say. We talk to the other parents and we know what he went through last year to bring that boy to the Junior-Senior prom.
You know we both love you dearly but just want to caution you to be careful in what you say and do and who you say and do those things with; otherwise, we won't be able to give you the help you asked us for."
"I know, I know, I know," Jake answered; "but if it's okay for Will to be out, then maybe it's time for me to be out too."
John and Emma looked at each other before John continued, "that's your call son, you know we are in your corner no matter what you choose to do. Just tell us when you are ready to do it, don't blindside us with it, promise us that."
A single tear trickled down Jake's cheek as he thought about all that was racing through his head as Emma followed her husband in the conversation, "We love you honey, you know your father and I will do anything to support you. Just make sure you think all of this through carefully."
"I will, I can promise I'll do that. I'm sorry I broke our rule tonight, it won't happen again" Jake promised.