014 Echo
Character: Luke
"Hello!" Luke listened intently as he heard the shout echo back to him on the cave walls. He grinned, enjoying the sound. "You know it's because of echoes that bats can fly. Some ships also use sonar to find object around them that they might not be able to see with other sensors?"
"You relate everything back to flying, don't you?" Mitt, Luke's friend since he was just a little kid was laughing as well. "You want to go in? Maybe we'll find some bats and you can chat with them about flying." He looked around at the open cave and smirked. "You know this might be a great place to bring girls. It looks nice, seems like it will have a good view of the sunset. They'd be putty in our hands."
"Yeah, a perfect place." Luke looked away from his friend and into the darkness. He took a deep breath, hoping that Mitt wouldn't notice his lack of enthusiasm. The thing was Luke wasn't all that interested in women. Unlike Mitt and his classmates Luke didn't feel attracted to the girls that he sat near in class. Instead he found himself more interested in the boys. He was fairly sure something was wrong, broken in him that was making him feel this way about the wrong gender.
"So do you want to check it out or not?" Mitt frowned at Luke, confused by his actions. "Are you all right? I mean you've been acting odd lately."
Luke contemplated telling him. He had no idea how Mitt would react if he found out that Luke wasn't into girls. He was a bit afraid that he would think him a freak and no longer want to be friends. Then again, maybe Mitt would know what was wrong. Maybe it was an illness that he needed to see a doctor about.
"Are you sick? You're just staring at nothing in silence." Mitt reached out and put a hand against Luke's forehead. He couldn't help but blush at the contact. "Well you don't feel like you have a fever."
Luke made a decision right then and there. He trusted Mitt more than anyone in the worlds, and he was sure his friend wouldn't abandon him when he needed the help. "I think there's something wrong with me." Mitt furrowed his brow and waited for Luke to continue. "I know that everyone in our class has started dating and getting into girls, but I'm not. I'm not interested in them."
"Oh, don't worry, buddy. I'm sure eventually you'll come around and hit puberty like the rest of us. Then you'll become a man and start having man urges and all that junk they keep telling us in health class." Mitt grinned, brushing off the entire thing.
"No, I do have the urges, just not toward women." The look that Mitt got on his face didn't inspire confidence in Luke. "I feel those urges, but for the guys in our class."
Mitt took a step away from Luke and he felt hurt by the action. "What do you mean you like guys? Guys aren't supposed to like guys."
"But I do. I don't know why but I do." Luke was starting to feel scared. Mitt wasn't reacting the way he had hoped he would. He had hoped for support, but that was far from what he was getting.
Mitt shook his head, taking another step back away from Luke. "There's something really wrong with you. My dad said guys that liked guys were evil." Mitt frowned at Luke and then pointed at Luke. "That means you're evil."
"No, I'm not evil." Luke panicked. This was what he hadn't wanted to have happen. He was trying to regain control of the situation, though he had no real idea how. "I'm still the same person, I just like guys."
"No, you're evil. You like guys so that means you're a sinner like my dad said. Sinners are evil." Mitt shook his head a bit faster and then turned, running off.
Luke stood at the entrance of the cave, staring in the direction that his friend had gone. He didn't know how things had gone so wrong. He didn't know what Mitt had been talking about when he said he was evil. He was so confused and the only person he'd trusted to help him through it had just told him he was a sinner and run off leaving him alone. He cursed the fact that he couldn't just be normal like all the other guys and be attracted to girls.