Bobby didn't understand what he was being punished for.
He'd been friends with Joseph since before he was old enough to even consider that maybe boys weren't supposed to kiss other boys. He'd been friends with Joseph long before he'd known Connie, before he'd ever thought that she looked good in a skirt and that maybe he'd like to hold her hand sometime.
What was more, his father, Hank Hill, had known Joseph as long as he'd been Bobbys father. He'd watched Joseph grow up, he was best friends with Joseph's father and he'd never even liked Connie's parents, especially Connie's dad. So what was the big deal?
Bobby couldn't ask, though, because Hank had shoved him into his room and slammed the door. So instead he sat on his bed beside the window and gazed out at the yard, head in his hand. He wondered if, right now, Joseph was getting a similar treatment from his dad. But Mr. Gribble usually let Joseph do whatever he liked – grow his hair out to his shoulders, stay out past curfew, even start smoking. Bobby wondered if kissing a boy was just one more thing his father would over-look or if maybe this time it'd be too much. Maybe this was what would make Mr. Gribble give Joseph the talking to that Hank had always said he'd needed.
Bobby sure hoped not.
From behind the door and the thin walls, Bobby could hear Hank yelling. No, not yelling. Talking loudly. With his mother – or more, at his mother. Bobby could hear what was being said if he'd listen properly, but he allowed his mind to wander to the blue sky outside and to the way Joseph's lips had felt, his smokey, dark taste.
Then he heard the word homosexual being said rather clearly and his head snapped up, green eyes landing on the door, a knot appearing between his eyebrows.
Bobby did something he'd never dared to do before; He left his room after being told to stay put.
He walked along the hall until he came to the living room where his mother was sitting on the couch, looking worried with her hands twisting in her lap and his father was pacing the small room, hands in the air, face going red.
Hank stopped when he saw Bobby, his eyes widening momentarily behind his square-framed glasses.
"Bobby – What the hell are you doing out here? I told you to stay in your room!"
"Hank, honey calm down." Peggy spoke calmly, reaching a hand out as if a touch from her warm hand would soothe away her husbands rage.
"I'm not a homosexual."
His parents turned simultaneously to look at him, Peggy blinking owlishly, Hank seeming stuck between shock and anger.
"Whats wrong with girls, huh? What was wrong with Connie!"
Bobby blinked. He'd told his father about his break up with Connie. She was smart, already studying to get into college at only sixteen. She had made different friends, had little time for Bobby... And quite frankly, Bobby had gotten bored. When he'd told Hank that, his father had clapped him on the back and explained that people grow apart and that Bobby would meet someone else eventually.
Someone else.
Hank had never said he'd meet another girl. Just that he'd meet someone.
"Nothing was wrong with Connie." Bobby said simply. Nothing had been wrong with Connie. Nothing had been right either. It'd been comfortable, easy. Bobby had begun to wonder if fireworks really did exist in a relationship. Fireworks, passion. He couldn't remember feeling anything like that with anyone.
Connie had been exciting when they were young – their relationship was forbidden, interesting because Bobby had never been with a girl before, had never been with anyone. She'd been interesting back then because he had liked her when they were thirteen. Bobby was sixteen now, and he just as his father had said – they'd grown apart.
"Then why not her?" Hank demanded almost desperately.
"We..." Bobby's brows knit together in confusion. He'd told his dad why not her, he'd told him so what did he really want to hear? "We grew apart..." He said it with a shrug.
"Joseph -"
The name appeared to throw Hank into a fresh rage. Sometime during their short conversation, his arms had lowered to his sides but he threw them into the air again the moment Joseph's name left Bobby's lips.
"I don't want to hear that boys name! No son of mine is going to grow up to be a homosexual!"
Bobby's eyes widened slightly. Was this why Hank had never allowed him to take up ballet? To bake cookies or join his High School's Home Economics class?
"Now Hank, I think you're overreacting.." Peggy started to say, but Bobby interrupted.
"I'm not gay. But even if I were, it wouldn't matter."
Then he turned, walked down the hall with fists clenched, and locked his bedroom door before collapsing onto his bed.
Bobby climbed out of his window when the last rays of the Sun were valiantly clinging to the sky even as it darkened, pulling the shadows long and thin.
Joseph was sitting on a swing at the lonely and empty park, his head down, long hair shielding his eyes. Bobby sat beside him on the second swing and kicked his feet in the sand. Joseph looked up when he heard the chains creak though he'd known Bobby was there the moment the boy had entered the park.
"How bad did you get it?" Joseph asked.
Bobby shrugged a shoulder, "He's just yelling about homosexuals."
"Not much of a punishment."
"No." Bobby agreed. Then, "How do you punish someone for kissing someone?"
Joseph shrugged too and then looked, for the first time since he'd sat down, into Bobby's eyes. A wry grin pulled at one corner of his mouth.
"What do you think he'll do once he's calmed down?" Joseph asked.
Bobby shrugged again, "I dunno."
"Will it have been worth it?" Joseph turned and leaned forward slightly.
Bobby grinned and leaned closer, "You bet ya."
Joseph's lips touched his, wiping out all thoughts of future punishment, of his angry father, and of the awkward conversation that was sure to await him back at home.