Firefly
Chapter 2
By Sunshine Boy
Sunday morning Travis got up early, had a cup of coffee, and planed his day. He had to go find the local grocery store, find all of the rooms for his Monday classes, and he had a gay club meeting to check out.
The grocery store first because Travis felt like going for a drive.
He stepped outside and was just about to walk to his car but was instead distracted by a really cute boy walking down a path a unit away. Light hair, cute face, thin, slight tan and maybe a little taller than Travis. Travis watched him walking away.
"Hey Whatcha doing?" Greg's voice came out of nowhere. Travis jumped in surprise and Greg glanced over to where Travis had been looking. He rolled his eyes and looked back to Travis. "You really are gay."
"Mhmm. Anyway, I'm going for a drive, I have to find where I can get food 'n stuff."
"Oh. Can I come too? I need a few things."
"Sure."
In the car, as Travis struggled to get the engine to start, Greg said, "His name is Milo, that's all I know."
"Who?"
"The boy you were looking at, his name is Milo."
"I see... that's a cute name." Travis said thoughtfully. "I'm not single; I shouldn't be looking at boys; it's not fair to Jebb."
"Jebb?"
"My boyfriend back home, I miss him."
"Yeah. I miss my girl, Claire."
*
The gay club wasn't what Travis has expected. Everyone seemed to know each other, but Travis didn't know anyone and he felt awkward. Still they were all very nice to him, he just didn't feel like he belonged. He did get to meet Mark however; the leader of the club, or rather, the club organizer. He was an interesting person, he seemed to be rather scattered and not at all cut out for his position, but everyone seemed to respect him so Travis guessed there was more to Mark than it appeared. The biggest surprise for Travis was the boy he'd seen earlier, Milo, was there. Travis was in psychological turmoil, he wanted to meet and hang out with Milo but he couldn't think of a reason why other than he was cute.
At the end of the meeting Travis decided he would be back next time, not only to prove that he could fit in if he tried but also to prove that he could be loyal to his boy.
*
Travis woke up at 1:00 am to the sound of car doors slamming and people talking outside. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. It was enough to fall asleep in a bed that wasn't his own led alone trying to block out the noise of res all night.
Eventually Travis flipped on his light and got up to see what the noise was about. When he peeked outside he was surprised to see several police officers with search dogs combing the area. Feeling rather unsure of what to do, Travis checked the locks and then decided to go back to bed, if something happened that needed his attention he was sure it would come as a knock on his door that would wake him up.
In the morning Travis had an orange and a cup of tea, brushed his hair, and he walked to his morning math class. There was no mention of the previous night's disturbance in any of his classes that day.
In the evening, as Travis was leaving his chemistry class and walking down a hallway he passed a curious security bulletin,
Have you seen me?
Thomas Franklin
Missing - Sept 3rd 04
That evening after doing some studying Travis sat down with a cup of tea and just felt homesick for a bit. He didn't know the city or the people, he wasn't in his own home, or sleeping in his bed. And now people were disappearing off campus.
Luckily Travis was saved from his homesickness when the phone rang. It was Greg, "Hey Trav, wanna come over and have a beer?"
Travis knocked on the door and Greg let him in. "Hey. I got someone else over right now, you might know her." Greg said as Travis stepped inside and saw the girl who lived next door to him, the one with the strange nose and short brown hair.
"Hey, I'm Tammy." She said.
"Travis." Travis smiled and nodded.
Greg passed Travis a beer as he sat down.
"We were just sitting here talking about the boy who disappeared a few days ago. Did you see the police were out last night?" Greg asked.
"Yeah, they woke me up."
"Apparently his name was Thomas." Tammy said. "He's a second year in engineering and he just disappeared."
"Maybe he just decided to take some time off, rethink his life or whatever and it was all just a big misunderstanding." Greg suggested.
"I dunno." Travis sighed. "If he's missing it's because someone reported him missing and no one was able to confirm his whereabouts."
"Yeah... well guys I'm sorry but I have to go now, I've still got one more class this evening." Tammy said as she got up to leave.
"Ok, nice meeting you." Travis said.
"You too." Tammy said as she stepped through the door.
"Anyway Travis, I'm not sure if you knew this or not but that boy was a 2 year member of the gay club, he was gay."
*
"It's a basher!" Mark was livid. "Somehow they found out that he's gay and they made him disappear!"
Everyone in the room looked worried. "So what are we going to do?" Some people asked.
"I'm not sure, we should brainstorm some ideas." Mark suggested.
Travis snorted. "Like what exactly?" Everyone in the room looked. Travis knew that he was receiving 'new guy, let him speak this time' curiosity. "Travel in pairs? Live in fear? The simple fact is we really don't know what happened to Thomas, he might have just decided to run away for all we know. This is a University campus with tens of thousands of people; some of them are bound to slip through cracks. Maybe he ran away, or this was random, or perhaps someone really does want him to disappear but for TOTALLY different reasons. Look, all we know is that he's missing, that's it and for us to be distracted with fear over this seems frankly very paranoid."
Poor Mark was totally shot down, he looked around the room lost for words for a moment. "Yeah I guess you're right." He said.
"Hey where'd that boy go?" Someone asked.
"Which one?"
"You know, the guy with the blonde hair that was here last time."
"You mean the cute one" ~giggles~
"Yeah... where is he?"
"I don't know, it was his first meeting, maybe he just decided this isn't for him."
Travis looked around and sure enough Milo wasn't there. Travis' unofficial reason for being there was gone plus he'd made Mark look stupid and lectured everyone... suddenly he felt very unwelcome.
*
Travis sat at his computer finishing up his Chem pre-lab report after lunch and 15 minutes before the report was due. As he was about to print it off Jebb appeared online.
'Hey!'
'Hey!'
'Missed ya!'
'awwww *hugs* I missed you too.'
'Whatcha doin?'
'Lab report, almost done.'
'What's it called?'
'Titration of Ethanoic Acid with a standardized Sodium Chloride solution.'
'Nerd!'
'Who? Me?'
'Nerd!'
Travis giggled. 'Will you be online tonight?' he asked.
'Umm ok, why?'
'I gotta go to my lab.'
'Aww... skip it and talk to me for a while, we haven't talked in like two weeks, I really miss you.'
'I can't... this report is due.'
'*Sighs* I know... you better go. Cya.'
'Ok *hugs* bye for now.'
Travis grabbed his report from the printer, his lab coat and goggles and ran out the door.
Travis sat in the lab waiting for the lab instructor with the rest of the students in his lab. He looked around the room until suddenly he saw a major cutie. Short sandy colour hair, a little shorter than Travis but he kind of liked that, good tan, pants that showed his cute ass without being too tight... he even had that 'I'm hot and I know it' look.
The lab instructor stepped into the room, took attendance, ran through the safety info. Then he paired off all the students for the lab and wonder of wonders; Travis was paired with the really cute boy who turned out to be named Martin.
After the lab Travis and Martin went to the library to finish the after lab report and then talk for a bit. A discarded newspaper sat on the edge of the table that the two boys were sitting at. After a few minutes Martin picked it up and read the headline. Liberals push for gay marriage
Martin rolled his eyes, "Goddamn fags, it's bad enough we have to tolerate them at all."
"What's wrong with gays getting married?" Travis asked. Martin looked momentarily shocked,
"If someone steals something from you that's wrong right? Of course it is, it says so in the bible. So if two guys have 'Sex' (Martin gestured quotation marks with his fingers.) somehow we're supposed to be totally fine with that, but now we're even letting them get married, that's like giving the thief a gun and telling them that it's ok to shoot anyone in their way when they steal."
*
"Heh. Why are the cute ones evil." Greg said while he ate potatoes chips with Greg at his house.
"I dunno, he is soooo cute though." Travis sighed.
"Well maybe you're in luck and he's just overcompensating."
"Yeah... well I already have a boy remember?"
"Yeah."
Greg ate some more chips.
"I knew a guy named Martin back home who was a suspect in the disappearance and attempted murder of a local gay kid. But I came from a small town in cattle country, it's like that there."
"They tried to kill him? For being gay?"
"Basically." Greg had stopped with the chips now. "They kidnapped him, and kept him in an empty grain silo or something like that for a while then they stabbed him a bunch of times and left him in a field to die... oh and when they found him he had a pipe or something up his... yeah... pretty gruesome."
"And he lived?"
"Surprisingly. I'd hate to be him though."
"Hmmm...wow."
"Yeah, I lost a very good friend forever because of it."
"The boy who almost got killed?"
"No, one of the boys who did it to him."
~Long pause~
"Let's change the subject."
"Ok."
"The student housing director election is in 3 weeks. I'm going to run."
"Yeah? Kewl, I'd vote for you."
"Sure you would, but I need more people than just you."
"Well then you need to advertise, you need a campaign."
"Mhmm." Greg smiled suggestively.
"What? ... OH no! I don't have time, or ambition, you need someone else."
"Sure you have time, but I wasn't asking you. Tammy said she'd do it. All I need you for is to put up posters."
"Oh... ok, I can handle that." Travis smiled.
*
Hey you.
I hope you're having fun at school. Life here is the same as always.
*Hugs*
Jebb.
Travis started a reply. He told Jebb the whole story about the boy who had disappeared and his argument with Mark. Then he talked about Martin and his classes. The e-mail was actually quite long and when he was finished he had a shower and climbed into his bed with some suggested reading for his psych class. Travis was beginning to develop some resistance to the nightly noise of res.
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