Different Interests, Different Lives

Different Interests, Different Lives

Chris stared down at the paper placed in front of him, and through his single patch of uneven and long black hair that brushed the desk lightly; he saw a bold D- grade. He groaned and thumped his head on the desk while playing with his lip ring. Shit. How am I supposed to bring this up? He lifted his head, slumped back into his chair and sighed as he picked the paper up to get a better look. If dad finds out, I’m really going to be in trouble… His math grade had always been at about a C but a few missing assignments from skipping classes had made it drop an entire grade. Chris, being a B average student in overall classes, was haunted by that C for an entire semester. Scanning down the paper to see just what it was he missed, he saw a note at the bottom: See me after class.
He let the paper slip out of his hand as though he was bored with the whole thing, but it was in fact so he could see the white board Mr. Heights was writing geometry problems on. He seemed to be everyone’s favorite teacher. Twenty-four, and fresh out of college he was young and it seemed everyone who ever talked to him had something in common with him. Chris didn’t really have an opinion of the man, as he never did of any of his teachers. He waited a bit to see if he would get any of what they were supposed to be learning that day, but he gave up after the first few minutes. He pulled a piece of paper and a pen and pretended to take notes as Mr. Heights lectured and droned in the background. About halfway into the class, someone reached over and picked his grade report off of the desk. Chris knew who it was.
“What does he want?” his friend Sam asked.
“Check the grade,” he turned to see Sam’s eyes go wide behind his patch of died blonde hair and nodded.
“Holy shit! How’d you get a D- so fast?!” he whispered as loud as he dared.
“I skipped one or two classes.” Chris shrugged nonchalantly. “What’d you get?”
Sam ran his hand through his blonde patch in front to the short dark hair in back to get a better view of Chris’ face. “C, as always. What do you think he’s going to say?”
Again, he replied dully as he said, “Doesn’t matter. I haven’t been able to understand it lately so I probably won’t be able to do the extra work.”
Sam opened his mouth to say something but changed his mind. He turned and began paying attention to the lesson again. Chris, on the other hand, took his grades back and continued drawing until the end of class. The bell rang and everyone filed out of the room, while Chris took his time packing his things. When everyone was gone, he walked up to Mr. Height’s desk and stood there, waiting to be addressed. He looked up at Chris then back down as he finished writing something down. Once he did he leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head, showing muscled yet thin arms and a thin figure.
“You wanted to see me about my grades?” Chris asked, holding the paper out to him.
“Yes. It worries me a bit that it’s this low. You were doing well in the beginning of the year,” He replied, taking the paper and setting it on his desk. “Then you missed a few days of class and didn’t make-up the assignments, and the assignments you do now aren’t good at all.”
“Well, I’m having a hard time catching up after those missed days. I don’t understand most of the work.”
“So if I suggest extra credit work, I’m guessing you’ll say it’s out of the question, am I right?” Chris nodded and Mr. Heights thought for a minute. “What would you say if I suggested a tutor?”
Chris shrugged and said, “I guess that would work.”
“Alright then, it’s settled,” Mr. Heights began rummaging in his desk drawer as he continued. “We don’t have any students that have volunteered as tutors this year, so I’ll do it,” he found a piece of paper and began scribbling down something, “Now, I can’t stay after school for long because the janitor comes here first and I don’t have a key to the room…”
“Don’t the doors open from the inside when locked?” Chris interrupted.
“Not this one,” Mr. Heights continued. “Which days can you see me after school?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Ok. Tuesday is my best day and today is today is Tuesday. You want to start today?” Chris nodded to him. “Also, I can’t think of any place other than my house; except yours…”
“No,” he said, a slight look of panic flashing on his face. “Ah, your place is fine.”
Mr. Heights looked at him suspiciously, but dismissed it as he said, “Alright. My house it is.” He handed Chris the piece of paper, “There’s the address, phone number, and I need a parent signature before we can do this.”
Chris twiddled his lip ring with his tongue in thought, not noticing the look that Mr. Heights was giving him a strange look as he did so, “I can get it to you today.”
“Alright. Can you get a ride?”
“Yeah.” Chris lied.
“See you at four?”
Chris twiddled the lip ring again, “Um, how about 6:00?”
“Fine with me. See you then.” He smiled a pleasantly at Chris and went to his computer work.
“Yeah, see ya,” he replied, leaving the room. As he walked down the hall, his eyes fell to his converse sneakers tapping softly on the tiled floor. At least dad will be well into happy hour by the time I need his signature. He made his way to the cafeteria, where he saw his four friends standing in line for pizza, including Sam. Waving and calling their names, he made his way next to them in line.
“What took you so long to get here?” One asked Chris once he got there.
“Mr. Heights wanted to talk to me about grades.”
“So, what did he say?” Sam asked.
“He’s going to tutor me today after school.” Chris replied, grabbing a slice of pizza.
As the rest of them grabbed their pizza, another person in the group named Evan said, “I heard he’s kinda queer.”
“Really? He doesn’t act like it,” Sam said as the five of them left the cafeteria into the sunlight.
“Yeah I know,” Evan mumbled around a mouthful of pizza.
“Where’d you hear this from?” one of the other two friends asked before taking a bite.
Evan swallowed his mouthful before replying, “Stephen from science told me that he caught Mr. Heights staring at him.”
“I remember that. How did he know it was him?” Chris threw his partially eaten pizza away, feeling his stomach cramp already from eating. “It could have been some other person. Or it could’ve been all him his head.”
“No. He caught him,” Evan said back, following in suit with his empty plate. He walked up next to Chris and looked at him through his long side of hair that covered his eyes, “Better be careful, Chris. He might just fall for you.”
Evan and the other two laughed. Chris sighed, “You bastards are all immature, y’know that?”
Ignoring him, they kept on laughing until it finally wore off. The rest of their lunch was spent on some outdoor steps, and when the bell rang, they parted and went to their last two classes. In both, Chris sat in the very back and quietly did his work; waiting for the day to end. When the bell final rang, Chris was out and on his way home on the bus, planning how he would get the signature from his father. By the time he was walking through the front door of his house, he decided the best time to do it. He snuck off to his room to wait for his dad to get home, passing the time by doing his homework. Around 4:45, Chris heard the front door slam and knew his dad was home, already really drunk. He knew it was now or never and ran downstairs with his bag slung over his shoulder and a pen and paper in hand.
“Can you sign this? It’s for school,” Chris said, shoving it into his father’s hand. He looked at him groggily for a moment, then without a word, he turned and used the wall as a hard surface to write on. Giving it back to him, he stumbled to the kitchen to hunt for some more booze to drink. Chris ran out the front door and began walking in the direction of the street written on the piece of paper. He made it there and used a half an hour of time to find the number, noticing that he was close to Sam’s place. Once he found the big house, he walked onto the porch and knocked. A moment later, Mr. Heights opened it and pulled his usually tidy blonde hair back to see who it was.
“Right on time, Chris.” He said, stepping aside. Chris walked in and stood awkwardly by the entryway into the living room as Mr. Heights shut the door and walked pass him saying, “Go ahead and make yourself comfortable. I just have to clean up the kitchen.”
Chris sat down and through a counter window into the kitchen, he could see Mr. Heights pulling his blonde hair in a loose ponytail, showing off his handsome features. He looked away from Mr. Heights and looked around the big living room, noticing the stairs and a doorway to a big family room. After a little bit, he walked into the kitchen and leaned against the counter watching Mr. Heights clean.
“Do you live in this big house all by yourself?” Chris asked him.
“Unfortunately, yes,” He scrubbed a stubborn spot on the small table as he talked, “and call me Matt.”
“Sure.” Chris wandered a bit into the living room. “I’d get lonely living here all by myself.”
“Well I…” Matt started as he looked up and saw Chris. He never really felt any attraction to any of his students, but as he looked at Chris in that moment he saw a boy pretending to be bigger than he was, he saw a student of his that was mature, and something inside of him clicked. It took him a moment to realize he was staring and turned his attention back to what he was doing. “I get lonely every now and then, but other than that, it’s not so bad.”
He threw the towel in the sink and shook off the feeling before walking into the living room to join Chris on the couch. “Now, are you ready to get started?”
“Uh, yeah, whenever you’re ready,” Chris replied, taking his books out of his pack and setting them on the coffee table,” Where do we start?”
“For an hour, they studied and bit by bit, Chris began to understand more and more. Around the second hour, Chris became aware of Matt staring at him a little. He ignored it the first few times, but it soon became more frequent and he started to feel nervous. He tried to deal with it, but it soon became unbearable. He whirled around to face Matt just as he was explaining a problem.
“Why the hell have you been staring at me?!”
Mat clinked a few times, momentarily shocked by the sudden outburst. When he recovered, he said, “Well, I couldn’t help it.”
Immediately, he knew that was the wrong thing to say. Chris was so mature for his age, that it just seemed to Matt like he was talking to one of the adult men he usually fell for and it just seemed to slip out on its own. To talk without thinking is to shoot without aiming, he thought bitterly. In his ears, he heard a book slam shut and saw Chris packing his things up.
“Hang on a minute Chris, we still have work to do,” he said, getting up and Chris headed for the door.
“We can finish it next week,” he replied reaching for the doorknob. He started to open it, but Matt pushed it back closed and held his hand there. Chris looked up to se a full view of Matt’s face.
“We can finish it tonight. There’s not much left to cover.” Matt said seriously, setting his hand on Chris’ shoulder to move him back into the living room.
“Don’t touch me fag!” Chris yelled at him. He tried shoving Matt away, but he soon found his hands caught in two firm grips at the wrists. Chris soon became frantic and started pulling and yanking his arms to get Matt to let go but he wouldn’t. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Matt’s expression change and he looked to see what it had changed to. Every bit of him froze to the core and he could feel himself hit the wall behind him and be pinned there. Matt’s eyes were glued to his and they looked at him with a lust that wasn’t just physical, it was something else bigger. Chris tried to move and tried to get away, and was able to a bit but his eyes stayed locked on Matt’s. His eyes changed direction and his face moved closer and closer. Afraid that he was going to kiss him, Chris struggled more, but Matt’s face just moved by his ear.
“Shhhh,” he soothed, loosening his grip a little as Chris began to struggle less. Much to Chris’ surprise, he felt a bit calmer hearing Matt’s voice and feeling his warm breath tickling his ear. Matt pulled his head back again and this time, Chris didn’t look at his eyes at first, understanding now that he only wanted to calm him, but when he did, there was a strength that he almost fell into, and was caught off guard when he kissed him, nudging his thigh in between his legs at the same time. Chris started to panic at this and began to struggle, forcing Matt to lean in more, his thigh rubbing in between his legs. He showed no signs of stopping and this made Chris panic even more. What if he strips me and we do it right here, right now? Matt continued kissing him a bit longer, then pulled back and looked at him, almost catching him in that gaze. Chris looked away and tried to get him off by saying he wasn’t that way, to get off. He pushed on Matt’s hands and tried to get them to move, but they were placed where they were solidly. Matt in return moved into his open neck and kissed him there, sending shivers up and down Chris back, making him worry with how he was getting hard in his groin. Yet with how much he was worried, he couldn’t get him to stop, and he started to feel fear and anger growing in the pit of his stomach. When Matt was done with his neck, he looked at Chris and what he saw in his green eyes stunned him and made his whole body go numb. He saw fear and hate burning out from Chris and at himself.
Sensing an opportunity, Chris shoved Matt back and stood there a moment to catch his breath. Without thinking, he grabbed his backpack and ran out the front door and far down the street to get as much distance as he could from that house. He played the scene over and over again in his head and felt a pang of lust in his loins every time he did. He stopped suddenly near a bench and his knees buckled, forcing him to sit. Oh, God, what the hell is wrong with me? It’s a guy for Christ’s sake! He continued sitting a while, waiting for his knees to get their strength back. Chris was no stranger in sexual relations. Two times he had been with a girlfriend in bed, but being with a girl and what Matt just did were two different things. Matt’s a guy and he was the aggressor (or the pitcher, if you wish to call it that). That was the role Chris usually played, but Matt had taken over the whole scene, not even showing the slightest hint of give, yet that wasn’t what bothered him the most. What bothered him was he actually began to enjoy what was happening to him. He’s a guy, why would I enjoy it if a guy did it to me?!
Chris noticed it was getting dark and began walking home. By the time he got there, it was past nine. Not wanting to get caught by his dad, he snuck around back and slipped through the window over his bed. He changed and went to sleep, glad to put that whole afternoon behind him if not forever, then for just the rest of the week he had off from school.


Chris woke up the next week and got ready to catch the bus for school. He was almost out the door, when he noticed yesterdays mail by the door unopened. Picking them up, he looked through them quickly and found a school letter addressed to his dad. He ripped it open and scanned it. Once he was done, he ripped it and threw it away, glad that his dad hadn’t found it. Chris headed off to school and went straight to first period, trying to avoid questioning from his friends, but to no avail. When second period came, Chris walked into the classroom and sat in his usual seat in the back. As the bell rang, he saw Evan, Sam, and one other of his friends wander in and his heart stopped. Damn! I forgot I had second period with them. He waved at them and they sat down next to him, Evan with an expecting look in his eyes.
“So how’d your little tutoring session go?” he teased.
Chris shrugged and took out his notebook to take notes, hoping Evan would drop the subject, but he didn’t.
“He hit on you, didn’t he?”
“Why do you want to know?” Chris asked, turning full attention to Evan. He felt a bit cornered and tried to not show it.
“He did, right?” Evan sensed Chris’ nervousness anyway and had pounced on it.
“What?! No way!” Chris protested.
Sam sighed, “Evan, leave it alone.”
Evan looked like he was about to add more, but ended up sort of pouting at Sam for ruining his fun. Chris silently thanked Sam and went back to work, forgetting it for the time being. It wasn’t until clear into third period he remembered it and he started to worry about what he should do. The bell rang and he took his usual route to fourth period. As he neared the classroom, he thought about the week before and began to play with his lip ring nervously. He put his head down and walked faster, passing by Matt’s classroom without a second thought. Unknown to him, Matt saw him go by, and sighed, marking down that he was in class for that day.
Chris kept going until he found a place to sit and avoid the campus police. He sat there for the longest time and stared at nothing, but then he felt something hit him emotionally. It hit him so hard that it almost hurt him physically and he curled up to keep it at bat. Why do I feel like, like I jilted him? There he sat for the rest of the period, curled up and confused. When the bell rang, he was able to get up and go to fifth period along with sixth after that. He finally stopped thinking about it on the bus and started to worry about his dad instead. Chris got home and walked through the living room, and was almost in the hallway, when he heard his dad behind him. He was home early. Chris hurried to his room and locked the door.
The next day he went to school and skipped Matt’s class again, and was overcome with that same emotion. It was like that for another two days. Chris soon felt like he was running away from Matt. I’m not running away, he thought as he rode the bus home on the fourth day of skipping class, I-I don’t thinks I am. He got off the bus and walked to his front door. Chris went inside and immediately knew his dad was home early again; the smell of booze polluted the air, making him want to gag.
“Chris!” His dad stumbled into the hall, banging into the opposite wall, “You skipped your class again!”
Chris took a chance and tried to run past him, but his dad noticed and threw his whole weight on him, banging Chris’ right arm into the doorframe so hard, Chris thought it had cracked. Chris shouted and used his other hand to push him off, which, despite his heavy weight, he was able to do. There were times when Chris’ dad was weak like this, and there were times he could have a hold of Chris, and he wouldn’t be able to move. It all depended on how much he drank. Chris headed for his room and locked to door. His arm throbbed badly and already started to look a little black and blue. He sat down on his bed and held his arm while his dad yelled and banged around the house. Trying to move his arm, he winced as pain shot through it. Well, I think it’s just badly bruised. Around six, his dad finally stopped banging around and left for the bar or went to his room to sleep the booze off for work the next day. Chris snuck out and got something to eat before spending the rest of the night locked in his room.


Chris snuck out of the house through his back window that Friday morning, afraid to catch his dad during his hangover. He got to school, and went through his first three periods. As he neared Matt’s class, his mind said go past it, but his legs turned him and before he knew it, he was in his usual seat in the back. Not wanting to even look at matt, he took his math book out of his pack and pretended to read. He was now able to understand all the problems without listening to Matt’s lecture, but there were times when his head would look at him without him knowing it. Chris didn’t know how many times he subconsciously looked at Matt that period, but anytime he caught himself doing so, he would just simply look away.
Sam watched this display of Chris’ and knew that Matt had done something to him that night, but he didn’t ask him about it. Not only was it not Sam’s style to ask about personal life, but he knew that Chris would tell him when he was ready. He usually did. Sam and Chris had known each other since kindergarten and they never kept secrets from each other for long, but it changed once Sam moved. For some reason that Sam wouldn’t tell, (another untold secret) he moved south to California for a year or two, and then came back. After that, the time between revealing secrets took longer and longer to happen. Yet there was one that Sam knew he would never tell, for years, Sam had suspected that Chris’ dad beat him every now and then, but just like he was doing with the Matt business, he had dismissed that. Chris never liked telling people things because they usually went and gossiped about it. Everyone but Sam that is. Yet, he still didn’t tell him everything outright.
The bell soon rang and Chris packed his things, hurrying to do so, but he wasn’t fast enough. All the other people had filed out and it was mainly Sam, Chris and Matt left in the room. Sam waited for him for a moment, but Chris told him to go ahead. After a bit of silent arguing with him, Sam finally gave up and left while giving and unnoticed glare to Matt. Soon, they were alone, and Chris was hurrying to get packed and leave, which he was soon done with and was getting to the door.
“Chris, wait a minute, “Matt said, getting up from his desk. Chris didn’t say a word, but kept heading towards the door. Matt ran to it and leaned heavily on it so Chris wouldn’t be able to open it. “Chris, hear me out at least.”
“I don’t have to listen to anything, “he stated indignantly and turning his back to him.
Matt sighed, “You’re right, you don’t have to, but I want you to. What I did the other night was unacceptable. I don’t know what came over me, ok? I’m sorry. Please, don’t hold onto it, ok? If you don’t like me, then find a way to transfer out of my class, but I don’t want you to fail math on my account, so don’t skip class.”
Chris stood there, touching his arm as Matt turned to go to his desk and murmured, “My dad made sure of that…”
“Excuse me?” Matt asked, turning back to Chris. He didn’t answer, but rubbed his greenish blue forearm, barely touching it. Matt’s eyes widened as he walked to Chris and took it in his hand to get a closer look. “Oh, my God, Chris! How’d you do this?”
Chris tugged once, but due to the pain in his arm, he stopped. “What do you care?”
Matt studied the bruise and was thinking if he could ever remember Chris getting into a fight with anyone that he remembered and when he didn’t recall any, he asked. “Did your dad do this to you?”
Snapping back his arm painfully, he said, “It’s none of your business.”
“Chris…”
“I said it’s none of your fucking business!” He yelled, yanking on the door. Matt leaned against it again and studied Chris’ face as he stared back at him. At first, his eyes were soft and warm, but when Chris looked away, then back at him he saw that they were cold.
“Fine, it’s none of my business,” he coolly replied, opening the door. Chris stood there a moment, not knowing what to do in this suddenly cold reply until Mat said. “You can go now Chris, that’s all.”
He walked out the door and down the hall without a word. As Matt slowly shut the door, Chris stopped and as he leaned against the wall of his classroom, Chris did the same against a locker. Neither of them knew that the other was doing this and that they were connected from that point on, by and emotion that tore one apart and confused the other.


That night, as Chris was reading in his room, he heard something bang outside his door. In a panic, he hurried to lock it, but his dad flung it open before Chris could even get to it. He stared at Chris with glazed eyes and his whiskey-laden breath came out in quick huffs. Chris stood there a moment, unsure what to do, when he heard a crinkling sound. He looked and in his father’s hands, were the two halves of the school letter.
“Oh, Shit,” he muttered as his dad took a step towards him.


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Hello! I hoped you enjoyed my story. Its my first gay love story I did and my friend who kinda got me into writing them liked it a lot. I have two others. one is a WIP, and the other needs to be typed up and this one is almost done being typed up, hence it being complete while a WIP. :D So, leave me a comment to let me know what you think! Thank you. :D