I wish I could’ve stayed back with my friends. Losing my parents in the car accident, had been hard enough, but having to move away from my friends too was the worst thing ever. The only good thing about living in the middle of nowhere is that I was with family and could jog whenever and wherever because of the lack of crazy people.  The sun is hot and the air is dry all the time during the day, but once the sun goes down everything becomes cool and the dew wets the grass, perfect for my midnight excursions.
I start my run and think about my first month of school. Those who were willing to talk to me, most being my teachers, and how I became the talk of the town. Back in my old school, kids didn’t care if you were gay, they just kinda accepted it. It also wasn’t like what I did screamed ‘I’m gay’, I’m just an average guy, I play sports, I dress like everyone else, I don’t live my life any more different than the next guy, I just like guys. How should I know that a picture of me at pride could ruin everything for me. I now walk through the hallways and streets, people watching and leaning over to their friend, whisper to them about someone they don’t even fully know.
As I get to the bottom of the hill I pass Darren’s house, the homeschooled boy has become the one person I have shared everything with. We met on my first day in town when his family had visited my aunt and uncle’s, my new home, to welcome me and my older brother to the town. Then when I started working at the pool, we became closer as he would bring his little siblings to the pool often.
About a block away from Darren’s, it felt like someone was following me. I look in a car mirror, and see someone in a black hoodie and grey sweats, jogging behind me about four houses down. I hadn’t seen them out running before but I just assumed it was someone new to the nighttime workout scene, so I continued on a few more block. As I got closer to the outskirts of town they were still following me, so I took a right at the next intersection and they followed, so I decided to go around the block, but they were still following me.
I immediately got scared, my breath quickening and becoming more obvious in the cool crisp air. I had heard stories about gay people in small towns getting beat up. I needed to somehow get rid of them, I quickly cut down a dark old alley going behind the small houses and sprinted. I had never heard the sound of the gravel crunching under my feet like that before, it was faster and louder. I got to the next street and turned around to see the black hooded person was even closer somehow.
‘Maybe I can lose him if I run up the hill’, I thought. I thought about yelling but I figured that no one would think something like this is happening in a small town. I couldn’t do anything in this moment but run.
I turned around quickly to see if they were still following me and I didn’t see them. I then ran into the old water tower lot, to stop and catch my breath, but soon realize that I have trapped myself as the black hoodie shows up, blocking the only way in or out. I look around to find a way out but only saw the small weeds that grew in the sandy ground. The only thing I could think of is to run over to the ladder of the water tower. I start to climb and I don’t see them anymore. I decide to continue to climb so I can call someone for help from the top of the tower.
As I near the catwalk the rungs of the metal ladder start to become unstable, I become worried as the cold metal rungs coming and going through my hands faster and faster. As I was about to place my hand on the catwalk, the rung below my feet broke and fell to the ground with a silent thud. I immediately closed my eyes shut not wanting to see the ground below me as I dangled there, but a hand had hoisted me up, keeping me from losing my grip and falling. When I had gotten to safety on the catwalk I opened my eyes, I looked to see who had saved me, but found the black hooded figure breathing heavily and starting to turn to face me. I sat bewilder as I find out who my pursuer was.
“What the hell Darren!” I yelled at him, as he takes off his hood and moves to sit on the edge, legs dangling over the side of the catwalk. “Why are you ignoring me? You were just creeping on me and somehow got up here faster than me!” I wasn’t actually mad at him though, I just was confused and scared about what had just all happened.
“Well to start, I didn’t get a thank you for saving your life,” he said leaning back on his muscular arms, and flashing his pearly whites. It made me laugh on the inside but I kept a cold hard exterior, he would have a lot of explaining before it came down. “C’mon, relax. I mean look at this,” looking back over the city like it was candy and he was a kid.
I couldn’t help but do as he said and joined with him sitting. I looked out on the city and saw the small dots illuminating the way of the streets, the whistle of another train started making the train track crossing signs light up like a tree on Christmas, a breeze could be felt coming from behind me, and with the help of the full moon overhead, I could even see to other hills that surround the small town.
“Beautiful isn’t it?” he asked, interrupting my peace. I turned my head to give him the stink eye but realized that he was actually looking at me. It would have weirded me out but there was a part of me saying he was the only human being on earth. I couldn’t think of anything and ended up blabbering out some nonsense about puppies. He let his head fall and laughed, “Yeah, I guess there are some puppies out there that are the definition of beauty, but I think that there’s something even better out there,” he looked back up at me and went to reach for my hand, I realised what he was talking about.
“No, no, no,” I said, moving my hand before he could place his hand on mine, and accidentally hitting it on the metal railing of the catwalk, causing a ringing noise to vibrate from the pipe. I cursed under my breath, holding my hand close to my chest as if it would help the pain radiating through my hand go away faster. I looked back him as he laughed at my actions, “You don’t get to be all creeper and think you’re going to get off the hook, with some beautiful town at night.”
“You’re right, what do you want to know? I’m an open book,” Darren said becoming very serious.
“Why were you following me?” I asked.
“I wanted to join you on your jog.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me it was you?”
“I thought you had your headphones in, and I didn’t want to wake the neighbors by yelling at you. I mean it 2 in the morning some people might find that weird”
“How did you know I was jogging?”
“You told me you liked to go jogging at night because you don’t like people staring you down. So I stayed up and waited for you to past my house and then tried to catch up to you but you were too fast.” He said. “That and I was really needing to talk to you.” He kept talking as if I had understood but there were still questions I wanted to ask, but I let him continue. “You came to this dead town and you were just another guy. But after one picture you became the only thing this town talked about, bringing life to it that most people haven’t seen in years, ” he said, looking out over the town in a daze.  I thought he was done but he continued, “You came to this town as an ember, but would spark a fire that would make this town interesting again. You would make people think of things they never would. I had never thought about being with another guy before, but now,” I hadn’t realized that I was looking at him the entire time he was talking until he had faced me, blushing a little bit.
It fell awkwardly silent between us and I felt like speaking up was the best idea, “You know the hardest part about me coming out, was not knowing if I would ever have a boyfriend,” I said reaching out and grabbing his hand. I placed my head on his shoulder, and I could feel the weight of his head on mine.
We sat there like that before I broke the silence again, “How are we getting down? How did you get up before me?” I was completely confused again. There was no way that he could have gotten up here before me.
“I used the ladder on the other side.”