"Get out of my way you fucking fag!" Ty immediately flattens himself against the lockers. It's not as if he's come out to his classmates (an operation that seemed less and less wise as he entered high school), and his genuine love of sports have actually done a great deal to camouflage his sexual orientation. Still, he does plenty of things that could easily let people know what he truly was.
When no blow comes, he realizes that they aren't talking about him. He looks over to see their target. He's tiny for hockey, even with all the hockey gear on he can't weigh over a hundred pounds. He's wearing coke-bottle glasses even though the rest of the world had converted to the newer technology of thinner frames. He was not about to defend himself. It not only looked like he didn't know how, but that he was such a pacifist as to take a beating without a word.
"Back off," Ty says, taking a step toward the crowd around the new kid.
"Come on, O'Neill, you don't want to shower with the freaking queer, do you?"
The idea has considerable appeal to Ty, but he's not about to admit that. Besides, he's not actually sure that the kid is gay. He's just not a jock.
"Come off it, the only person who accuses others of being a queer is probably queer themselves," Ty says. He hates using that word, he hates playing into their which hunt, but he has saved a kid from a beating.
The other kids wonder off with a few more slurs, and a nasty look or two.
"Thanks," the boy says, clearly ashamed.
"No problem. I'm Ty, and you are?"
"Eli," the kid says, extending one hand to shake hands. Ty is taken aback by the adult gesture, and doesn't respond for a second. The kid quickly covers by using that hand to push his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose, further magnifying his already brilliant green eyes.
Ty's heart skips a beat.
"So, welcome to the team," Ty says.
"Right, hell of a welcome party you've got there," Eli replies.
"Ignore them, they're jerks," Ty says.
"I'm not gay," Eli says quickly. All doubts Ty had disappear with the rapidness that the words escape his mouth. He is definitely gay.
"Ok, I'm fine with it either way," Ty says. He wants to tell Eli more. He wants to tell him that he himself is gay, but he doesn't dare. Not in the locker room, and not until he gets to know him better. After all, if Eli betrays him the next year, it is going to be him getting beat up in the locker room. Sure, he can take most of his fellow hockey players in a fair fight, but he isn't going to be able to do anything against the sort of odds that he will no doubt be up against if it came out that he was gay.
"Good, 'cause I'm not."
"Right, but you are the new kid, so do you want to come over to my house after school?"
The kid looks at Ty for a few long moments, considering, before he nods his head.
-0-
When Eli is stripped of all his hockey gear, he looks even more frail. Ty feels like he should wrap him up in bubble wrap to protect him from the world. The kid does it himself, though, with the donning of a giant downy coat.
"You know it doesn't get that cold in Colorado, right? Where did you move from?" Ty asks.
"Chicago," Eli says.
"Get out of town! My dad is from Chicago."
Eli doesn't look up from his blindingly white sneakers. His default setting seems to be watching himself walk.
"Look, man, if I said something back there that got under your skin, I'm really sorry. I'm gay myself."
"I'm not gay," Eli says, still looking at his shoes.
Ty lets the words sit between them for a moment before he says, "Right, well I hope my confession isn't going to get all over school."
"Geez, I'm not going to throw the guy who kept me from having the snot beat out of me under the bus, what kind of a loser do you think I am?"
Ty should have felt relief at the words, but he's so unsurprised by them that they have no effect. "Well, I hope that you don't stop being friends with me because of it, either."
Eli kicks a rock with his sneaker, marring its perfect surface with a tiny rub of scoria. "That would be pretty narrow minded of me, wouldn't it?" Eli says with a smile quirking at the corner of his lips. A smile of things that were shared by never spoken of.
"Downright homophobic," Ty says catching the smile.
"I'd be a bigot."
"Well we wouldn't want that," Ty says.
"Just don't ever give my parents a hint that you are…" Eli can't even bring himself to say the word, and Ty's heart aches for him. He was scared enough to come out to his parents, and he'd never been seriously worried about what they would do.
"Right, well, I'm only really 'out' to my family, and my best friend Olivia, so there is really nothing to worry about there."
Eli looks up into Ty's face, startled.
"Your parents know? How bad did they flip out?"
"They really didn't flip at all. In fact, they kinda knew ever since I was young, and they just kind of let me know that it was fine, and I told them. That was it," he shrugs his shoulders, realizing for the first time what a blessing the fact that his coming out what a non-event had been.
"How did they kinda know since you were little? I mean, you're like an all-star hockey player out on the field. I certainly never would have guessed."
"Well, I wore a dress to their wedding, for starters," Ty says.
"Oh," Eli says.
"Then there was my love of ballet. I mean, I grew out of all of that girly stuff, for the most part. I'm not going to lie, I still enjoy it when my little sis Jenny asks me to play dolls with her."
"I don't do any girl stuff, and people still call me a fag," Eli says spitefully.
Ty doesn't know how to respond to that, so he just doesn't.
"My parents have never gotten over the fact that I am not an athlete. They think that if they just force me to try enough sports, one day it will sink in, and I will grow muscles, and start hating calculus like any self-respecting American male."
"I like calculus," Ty says.
"You've got to be kidding me? You've got a bod like that, mad hockey skills, and a brain?" Eli complains, "They certainly broke the mold when they made you."
"Yeah, well, I don't have eyes which contain the entire universe," Ty retorts back, before he realizes that this is flirting, and that flirting might not be welcome by someone who claims not to be gay. Even someone who just complimented his 'bod'.
Eli seems to soak up the compliment though.
"So that's my house," Ty points as they approach. "I don't know if you want to watch TV, or do homework, or talk, or whatever."
"Actually, there is a show on this afternoon that I kind of wanted to see, but I'm sure that you would not be interested."
"What is it?"
"Wormhole Extreme."
Ty almost chokes on the mere thought, "I thought I was the only one in the whole state that watches that show! Well, that's not true. My family watches it too, and there are some friends of the family that we call our 'SG-1 family' after this team that they all used to be on, and that some of them still are. Yeah, they all watch it too, but I thought we were the only ones."
"It is my guilty pleasure. I usually like my sci-fi to be of a bit higher quality, but I just cannot resist that show for some reason or another."
"Oh, I hear you on that one," Ty says with another giggle. The truth is, he knows exactly why he likes the show so much, but he can't exactly admit that to his friend.
-0-
"Daddy!" Jenny calls, running through the house as Jack opens up the door.
He bends down to give a girl a hug, and then walks through the living room in dress blues. Jack doesn't often wear his dress blues, being much more comfortable in BDUs. Ty understands that most people are intimidated by Generals, but he grew up with it enough to be immune to this.
"Hi," Jack says, looking at Eli.
"Hello, Sir," Eli says with a touch of a stutter which must be leftover from childhood. He feels the need to stand up, even though they were a foot apart on the couch.
"This is Eli, from hockey," Ty says.
"Ah, you choose the best sport," Jack says.
"Well, his parents choose it for him, and he's not actually a big fan," Ty says
"Well that's ok, too," Jack says trying to smile and disarm the terrified young man before him, "You staying for dinner?"
"I'd bet… ter not, Sir, I have some unpacking to do," Eli says, taking a few steps toward the door.
"You can call me Jack, son," Jack says to the retreating form. As soon as the other boy is out of earshot, Jack turns to his son, "So, is that your boyfriend?"
"We're just friends," Ty says, but he looks a little bit nervous as she says it, and it's not missed by his father.
"It would be ok if he was your boyfriend. You're going to be eighteen in a couple of months. I have no problem with you starting to date."
"Right, well, that's a little problematic, considering the fact that I still haven't come out to people at school," Ty points out.
"Well, the people at school wouldn't have to know that you were dating, would they?" Jack asks.
"Eli says he isn't gay," Ty says.
"Yet he is?" Jack asks, not knowing if his gaydar is working properly.
Ty nods.
"Well, that could easily change when you get to know each other a little better."
"I don't know. I mean, I had just told him that I was gay, and he denies it like it would be the worst thing that could ever happened to him. I feel sorry for him. I think he is getting a lot of pressure from his parents not to be who he is."
"That sucks," Jack says in sympathy.
"Thank you for accepting me. I guess I didn't appreciate how big of a deal that was until now," Ty says standing up to hug his father.
"Of course, son, that is what a family is for."
The Next Day
Ty sits down next to Eli at lunch. He doesn't ask permission to do so, because he knows that if he did, the boy might say no. It's his second day in a new school, and Ty isn't going to let him sit alone. He doesn't know if they are friends or what, but he's going to find out.
"So your dad is a General then, right? Stars mean 'general', right?" Eli asks.
Ty nods his head.
"But not just any General, right? 'Cause there were a lotta stars."
Ty rolls his eyes, "If you got to know my dad, and found out how silly and goofy he was, you would so not be intimidated by a coupla stars."
"But you're the son of a General; that's a huge deal, right? That's like practically being the son of a president."
"Not even close! For one thing, I don't have to deal with the inconvenienced of secret service," Ty joked.
Eli looks around to make sure that no-one else is listening to their conversation, before he leans forward and whispers, "You came out to him?"
"Actually, I came out to three people who were or became Generals," Ty whispers back. "My grandpa is dead now, and he retired when I was pretty young, but he was a General. Then my dad is one. He keeps saying he is going to retire, but what he does for a living is super important, and he just can't bring himself to retire. My mom is a General too, she's oversees right now."
Oversees was code word for 'on a space ship', but Ty figured it was close enough; after all, gone was gone.
"Three generals? So, like, you are guaranteed to grow up and join the Air Force?"
"Oh, that is so not happening," Ty says with a laugh.
"Right," Eli says, flinching, and obviously thinking of 'don't ask, don't tell'.
"Oh, it's not that I couldn't join the Air Force. I just don't want to. They don't have a hockey team, for starters. I'm going to be a physicist like my mom. Well, obviously I could do that and be in the Air Force, like she is, but she doesn't actually get to do a lot of physics. She mostly flies around and saves the world. I want to sit around and think thoughts all day, and get paid for it."
"So, theoretical physics, then," Eli says.
Ty nods, pleased that Eli is as smart as he is handsome, not that the comment about liking calculus the other day didn't give him a hint.
Eli fidgets in his chair, "So, was your dad mad?"
"No, I'm allowed to have friends over," Ty says, confused.
"I mean… he didn't think… did he?" Eli asks, flustered.
"Actually, yeah he did, and he made sure I knew that he was fine with it if we were," Ty glances around before whispering, "… together. But I told him we weren't."
"Right," Eli says, with just the smallest touch of disappointment that Ty doesn't miss.
A silence hangs between them, pregnant with possibilities unfulfilled.
"So, who is your favorite character on Wormhole Extreme?" Ty asks.
"I like Dr. Levant," Eli confesses with a hint of admiration bordering on a crush in his voice.