~Chapter 8~
Re-living Rejection

Joe walked up to his parents door, he had finally managed to make it back to their mansion in Dallas, he saw Jason and Dani's car in the drive way so he wondered if they were there. He rang the door bell after taking a deep breath and looked back at Tommy who had tagged along for support; he stood down a few steps giving him thumbs up. He waited and no one answered so he rang the door bell again, this time he heard footsteps, and he saw the door handle twist, no turning back now. His mother revealed herself from behind the black wooden door.

"Joseph? Oh my… what are you doing here? Your father's not going to be very happy…"

"Adam cheated, err um… left me…" Joe said fighting back the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes.

"Oh honey… I'm so sorry…"

"I joined the military... and while I was gone they thought I was dead, so when I got back Adam had fallen in love with someone else, and didn't want me anymore…I loved him mom…" Joe said tearfully. "I need a place to stay for now…"

"Well your father will be the judge of that but I will let you stay until he gets home, I want you to stay much longer but you'll have to talk with your dad to finalize it, Jason,Dani, and Nate are all here, Bradley should be back in a while he went to the movies with his 'girlfriend.'"

"Oh honey who's this?" Lea asked.

"Oh! This is Tommy, Tommy Ratliff, he's Adam's bass player and one of my friends, he's been letting me stay with him, and I just thought it would be nice to have him tag along…"

"Hi, I'm Lea, Joe's mom obviously, come on in both of you…"

They entered the house and Joe introduced Tommy to the others, and hugged both of his brothers, it had been almost 2 years since he had seen them. A lot had happened. He told them about what had gone on between Adam and himself, they all showed there sympathy, he had confirmed he was still going to be gay, even though his first relationship didn't work it wasn't like Adam was some experiment. They had been in the middle of dinner when Paul entered Joe's stomach did flip.

"Whose Red mustang is outside?" He asked from the foyer before entering and stopping in his tracks at the sight of Joe and Tommy. Joe stood up and said,

"Okay I'm sorry if you don't want me here, and before you jump to conclusions, this is Tommy and he is not my boyfriend, he's straight and strictly a friend."

"What are you doing here?"

"I needed a place to stay…"

"Why, did you get tired of sucking cock?" His father spat.

"Dad please, Adam and I are over, he left me…"

"But you're still gay?"

"Yes."

"Then no you are not staying here I'm not exposing Bradley to your lifestyle…"

"My lifestyle? I'm not a man whore, or a male stripper, so what is so bad?"
FCC
"The whole gay situation."

"Please dad, I promise to not have a boy friend under your roof and I promise not to go to gay bars under your roof, and I promise not to show any affection towards the same sex under your roof, I just need my family right now please…"

"As good as that little speech was, no…Joe I don't want a homosexual freak living under my roof."

"I'm not a freak! I'm your son, and I'm sorry if you don't approve of me! I just wanted someone to love me!"

"Well no one is going to love a gay obsessive freak, Adam didn't love you apparently after you swore he did, and our deal was you can't come crying back to us after he leaves you remember?"

"Dad…" He croaked his voice breaking.

"LEAVE NOW! YOU'RE GIVING ME A HEADACHE!" Paul said.

Joe stood quickly and ran out of the house quickly Tommy followed suit.

"Joe wait!" Tommy said.

"No! I'm not going to let him hurt me anymore!"

"Joe…"

"Just get in the car I knew this wasn't going to work."

Tommy climbed in and they sped off,

"I wish someone could accept me for who I am… I mean I would give anything in the world to get my dad to accept me and actually be my dad again, I mean we never were that close but I would give absolutely anything to go back to those days, I miss how he would tell me he was proud of me… I won't ever get that again, my dad's and mom's praise are the two highest things I can get… and now I won't ever get them again."

"I know what you mean… my dad was always there for me he actually practically raised me my mom was a drug addict, and an alcoholic, and when my dad got terminal cancer when I was 15, he died not a month later, I would give anything to hear his voice again."

"Wow… that's even worse than what I had to go through…"

There was a silence that took over the car until Joe broke it.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I don't know how much more I can take…. No one wants me, no one loves me…no one cares enough to love me…I mean fighting for our country it really boosts your self esteem but when I came back here, it seemed like it was worse than being in that war zone… I would rather take a beating any day than have Adam come back and tell me he doesn't love me anymore…that was just like a smack in the face… it hurt me so much."

"I'm sorry…"

"I know but still someone giving me sympathy isn't needed, I don't need any more sympathy it doesn't do a damn thing! I mean it does say that you have their support somewhat but still, someone can be sorry and it can mean nothing… so sympathy doesn't help me one fucking bit, so whatever you do don't tell me your sorry…"

"Joe you are a strong man I know you'll get through this… I know you'll move on no doubt what Adam did was kind of low, but still you can take the pain… you've been shot and bruised whipped and punched, verbally abused and physically abused, you're not dead yet. You can get through it."

"That doesn't mean it won't always have a lasting effect on me…"

"I didn't say it wouldn't affect you I said you are strong enough to get through it."

"I hope so… you know war is nothing you want to be in… war with anything… rather it be love, physically war, or war within yourself, I mean your torn between two sides and you know only one side can win… and it just tears people apart… having been through two wars in less than 2 days really gives you a blow to the head… it makes you go crazy… so I'm sorry if I was off earlier… or if I have been off… It's just been hard."

"Oh don't worry it's okay… you don't need to worry… you have the total right to be an emotion wreck…I'll be with you the whole time don't worry. I won't leave you out in the cold… anyway I don't plan on getting married ever... so don't worry. I'll be behind you the whole time…"

"Thanks, that means the world to me right now, I just hope you don't change your mind later, I mean others have so why not you too?"