"She doesn't want me to see Rich anymore!" Tommy slammed his locker shut.

    "Really," Nigel said. "Well, I guess that's understandable.  I mean if I were to find out my son was takin' it up the arse..."

    "Oh, shut up," Tommy spat. "We all know how you feel about it, Nigel, but it doesn't matter. She doesn't approve, but fuck her. What is she going to do? Lock him up? Send him away again? It won't change him. He'll only fucking fall off the edge again. He isn't that strong."

    "I know," Nigel fretted. "I'm worried. I haven't seen him in days."

    "And look at this." Tommy held up a pink slip. "I haven't done anything worth one of these in a while."

    "Smoking in the toilet, playing truant?" Nigel offered.

    "No, No," Tommy replied. "I haven't done any of that in...a while anyway.  I guess I'll go find out what I've done this time." He waved the paper in the air.

"It's probably nothing to fret over," Nigel consoled him.

"You're probably right," Tommy agreed. "It usually isn't."

--

    Nothing to fret over turned out to be a full-fledged meeting with the headmistress and his mother.  What it came down to was Tommy Sinclair had, unbeknown to himself, had accumulated so many demerits that he sat slack jawed in front of the two women as his scholarship was unceremoniously yanked out from underneath him. Tommy knew he was as good as expelled. He knew his mother would never be able to make up the tuition on her own, and he also knew that he hadn't gotten nearly as many marks against him as the headmistress made out. He had to say something.  He didn't think he'd deserved to be punished so harshly, and the look his mother was giving him was torture.  It was a mixture of fury and disappointment that caused a lump of distress to form in his throat.

    "You're a liar," he finally said as he leveled his gaze at the administrator. "Smoking fags does not deserve this sort of punishment."

    "It is that attitude, Mr. Sinclair, that has gotten you here!" She glared back. "It has been brought to our attention by members of the community that you do not exhibit the proper behavior of a representitive of this establishment. Your constant disregard and disrespect for your educators can no longer be tolerated."

    "Oh, pants," he grumbled, as his mother shushed him and began to plead with the other woman. He listened to them bicker. The headmistress made him sound like the most horrible child on the face of the planet when the thing he'd gotten the most marks for was leaving the bottom four  buttons of his shirt unfastened. As he sat there replaying what was being said, something about her comment concerning members of the community clicked in his head and he jumped out of his seat and exited the room as quickly as he could.

--

    Nigel was almost halfway down the street with Liam in tow when he felt a hand on his arm.  He was spun around and came face to face with Tommy.

    "What's going on?" He asked. "Finished getting in trouble already?"

    "Shut-up," he snapped. "Do Richey's parents donate money to the school?"

    "Yeah...they contribute quite a bit, why?" Nigel asked.

    "Oh, blood fucking hell," Tommy yelled. "Fuck, Fuck, Fuuuuck."

    Both his compatriots were staring at him as well as numerous passers by.

    "What in gods name is your problem?" Liam asked.

    "I'm afraid you'll have to get a new scholarship winner to commiserate with," Tommy wailed. "Because Richey's mum just paid to have mine taken away."

    "Have you been smoking pot again, or are yo always this paranoid?" Liam muttered.

    "Wait," Nigel said. "They took your scholarship?"

    "Yes." He sighed as the reality of what he'd gotten mixed up in hit home. The Blumes were very powerful people, and at least one of them was out to get him. He began to feel faint and collapsed into Nigel's arms. His friend held him upright as he regained his balance.

    "She's your aunt, Nige," he said. "Would she do something like this? I don't see any other reason for them to suddenly consider me an entity of scholarly ineptitude who's behavior showers shame upon the prestige of our resplendent institution."

    Nigel sighed. "She might, Tom. She's vindictive, and she'd do anything to keep her name from being sullied. I'm sorry."

    "It's not fair," Tommy replied. "I'm a good student. Who I fuck doesn't have anything to do with it."

    "I guess it does," Liam said. "When you're fucking the son of one of the most powerful families in London."

--

    Things weren't getting any better later on that day when his mother returned home and found her son lying on his bed staring up at the ceiling in complete and utter silence.

    "Thompson, come out into the other room please," she said.

    He stood without any protestations and followed her.

    "I have a headache," he said as he sat on their sofa.

    "Good." She replied. "Listen to me, Thompson. I'm going to give you a chance to explain yourself before I start screaming. That is how angry I am with you right now."

    "I know," he whispered. "I deserve everything I get. You gave me every freedom I could have asked for. More, even, and I've ruined everything. You shouldn't have let me sleep with him."

    "Let, you?" She gasped. "How the hell was I going to stop you? This isn't even about that; it isn't even related. You have not only had your scholarship revoked, but you can't go back this year even if I could afford it. You've been kicked out completely because of your outburst today."

    "That wasn't an outburst," he muttered. "You've seen my outbursts."

    "You called the headmistress a liar to her face, Thompson," she growled. "You don't do that! I don't know what has gotten into you. I have never seen you behave in front of your superiors in such a disrespectful way."

    "You don't understand," he said. "Mrs. Blume paid them off, I'm telling you!"

    Madeline didn't doubt that he might be correct, but what it came time to excercise her parental muscles she was no weakling.

    "That's shit, Thompson, and you know it!" she said. "You have done something wrong, and you have to take responsibility and accept the consequences of those actions."

    "But I haven't," he cried. "I've done nothing wrong. I haven't had a mark against me since last year. It doesn't make any sense."

    "Be that as it may," Madeline said. "You have no proof and you don't go around making accusations without proof! Under any circumstances."

    "My life is over," he wailed dramatically and flopped down on his side as his mother paced around the room.

    "Richey won't talk to me, I've got an overprotective mother after my head, who thinks he's going through a phase and that I'm the reason he's going through it...I've been chucked from school. I hate myself."

    "We're moving," she suddenly announced as if she had just made the decision.

    "Why?" He sat bolt upright and glared accusingly at her. "I can go back to my old school."

    "You're not going back to your old school," she said. "We are not staying in this city. I don't want you in this environment any longer."

    "What environment? What's wrong with London?" He strained to keep himself from crying. "I love it here."

    "I know you do sweetie." She sighed and sat down next to him. "But I've been talking to your father."

    "Oh, No," he muttered. "No, No, no." He could see right where the conversation was heading. It was heading straight for Mesquite, Nevada, USA.

    "It will be good for you. You can meet new people...and your father will be in your life. I think that's important."

    "My father is nothing but a voice on a long distance telephone line," Tommy spat. "I do not want the man in my life."

    "Thompson, do not say that," she chided. "He loves you, and he wants to get to know you better. I want you to give him a chance. I think we owe him that at least."

    "We owe him shit!" Tommy shook his head. "I don't need a father, and I don't need to be banished to America. I don't believe you. I thought you understood. I thought that you cared!"

    "I do," she replied. "But I think having a man around...will do you some good. You need a father figure in your life. God only knows who you've been looking up to in that respect."

    "What are you saying?" He scowled. "Do me some good? What are you trying to do? What do you think I am?"

    "Maybe you're just confused..."

    "No!"  He shouted.  "I'm not.  Having my dad around is not going to make a difference.  I thought you knew that?  I told you; I'm bisexual.  I've always been, and I'm never going to be anything else. And I'm still going to love Richey no matter how far away you drag me! I am what I  am, and I want what I want, and all I want is to wake up and for someone to tell me that this is all the most horrifying nightmare I've ever had. But that's not going to happen is it?"

    "No it isn't, love." She shook her head sadly.  "It's a fine mess we're in, but your father offered to help..."

    "Forget him, I'll stay here!"  Tommy said.  "I'll get my own place, so I can stay with Richey!"

    "You cannot, and you will not," she said. "That is absolutely ridiculous. You aren't even sixteen, Tom! And it seems to me that all this boy has given you is trouble!"

    "I don't care!" Tommy yelled in frustration. "I don't fucking care. I love him, and you are not going to drag me half way across the world. I'm not going to American."

    "You're going," she said. "The decision has been made."

    "You didn't even ask me," he cried. "Fuck you." He stood from the couch, "I fucking hate you!"

    She watched helplessly from her vantage point as he fled the room and she began to cry.

--

    "You've got to get him to come over here." Tommy stood on Nigel's doorstep soaking wet from rain and hopping nervously from foot to foot.

    "I don't know," Nigel murmured. "I don't know if I want to get in the middle of this."

    "Please, Nige," he begged. "I need to see him. I need to know that he's okay."

    "Come on inside." Nigel wrapped an arm around his friend and led him to a seat in the parlor.

    There was no wasting words when Richard arrived after nearly an hour of Tommy waiting not saying a word to Nigel. He just sat on a chair with a look of abject misery adorning his features and slowly air drying while Nigel supplied him with hot cocoa and sat beside him. They didn't really need to talk. Nigel, in fact, was feeling rather uncomfortable around Tommy in the state of despair that seemed to have overtaken him. He was his friend, though, and he would stay by his side until Richard arrived.

    Nigel excused himself then, and the two young lovers collapsed into each other's arms and stood cheek to cheek in that parlor for nearly ten minutes before breaking the embrace.

    "I love you," Tommy whispered, staring up at Richard with his big brown eyes brimming with tears. "Where the fuck have you been? Why didn't you ring?"

    "She wouldn't let me...she wouldn't let me go back to school, until...until she knew you didn't go there anymore. I'm so sorry, Toms," he sobbed. "She didn't even want me to come over here, because she knows you're friends with Nigel."

    "Don't be sorry," Tommy said. "Look on the bright side, love."

    "What's that?" He replied. "Me mum hates me even more now, and it's my fault. I left the door opened, I left the radio off. We should have gone to your flat like you wanted to. None of this would be happening if I wasn't so reckless."

    "Do not blame yourself." Tommy ran his fingers through Richard's impeccable hair, ruffling it out of place. "This is not our fault."

    "I want to kill myself," Richard sighed miserably. "I've ruined your life, and...I'm useless. There is no point to my existance."

    "I am the point to your existence," Tommy said quietly. "And the only way you'll ever ruin my life is if you go and do a selfish thing like that.  What's done is done, and we must accept it, I guess.  Just don't you do it, Richey.  Don't even say it to me.  Don't you fucking dare."

    "You're better off without me. My parents...they didn't even want me. What does anybody really care?"

    "I care," Tommy wailed. "You don't even seem to care that I care! You never seem to give a shit what I think. Do you even know how that makes me feel, Richard?"

    "I'm sorry," Richard grimaced. "I do care what you think. I do...but everybody else, people who control my life. It's like it's me against the world and maybe I feel like I'm wrong, and one person in my corner doesn't seem like it matters in the grand scheme of things."

    "So I don't even matter?"

    "That's not what I meant." Richard squirmed. "You know what I meant, but you will never know what it feels like."

    "I know what you've told me," Tommy replied.

    "We shouldn't have done the things we've done," Richard whispered. "I should have said no..."

    "No?" Tommy laughed. "You came on to me. You initiated nearly everything, Rich. You were so gaggin' for it, mate, and you can't deny it. Do not blame yourself.  It's only natural and you can't ingore it any more than you can ignore the weather that's pissin' down out there. And do you think that if I were a girl this would have happened? Yer dad would be giving you a hearty slap on the back and congratulations would be in order, right? So they're the ones who are wrong.  They're the ones with the problem and they are the ones to blame. They don't know right from wrong anymore than we do, Rich. We're kids though, so what can we do? They can keep us out of school, cut us off from the rest of society, send us away, or drag us off to America...but it will never be our fault. Never."

    "America?" Richard timidly replied. "What do you mean?"

    "My mum wants us to move in with my dad," he sighed. "She thinks I need a masculine role model in my life. I think she think's it's her fault. The way she raised me. I don't know."

    "Your dad lives in Nevada," Richard stated. He was shocked to say the least.  The thought of having Tommy so far away was unnerving. He wouldn't have anybody around to set him right when he went off the deep end. There would be nobody to love him. Nobody had ever been as there for him as Tommy was. Nobody had ever cared before.

    "That's, like halfway around the fucking world, Toms."

    "I know," he sighed with resignation. "What am I going to do in the middle of a fucking desert?"

    "You're really leaving?" Richard whispered.

    There wasn't a reply needed because the look on his face said it all. Richard hugged him again and Tommy lay his head on the taller boys shoulder.

    "I told mum I hated her, Rich," he said.

    "Oh, Toms," Richard lamented knowing full well the force of those words on a person. "She knows you didn't mean it."

    "But maybe I did mean it." Tommy looked up at him and held his gaze before kissing him. "Nobody's going to change the way I feel about you," he whispered intensely. "I've never felt love. Before you came along it was only a word and it didn't mean anything, but now I know. I know what it is now, Richard Michael."

    Nigel's reappearance startled them as he came barreling into the room.

    "You've got to get the fuck out of here now," he pointed at Tommy.

    "Why?" he asked.

    "Because Aunt Elizabeth just showed up," Nigel scowled. "That's why."

    "Richard blanched and Tommy sighed again. There was only time for a fleeting good bye kiss before Tommy was whisked away to the garden and sent scurrying home under the cover of the rainfall.