It's Easier For Some
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CHAPTER 4:
“Jesus!” Graham Carter helped Dave bring John inside, but wasn’t really sure what to do with him. He was covered in mud, and clearly needed to lie down. “Look, we’ll take him up to Steven’s room”. They slowly helped John make his way up the stairs.
All the commotion brought Steven out of the daydream he had been in for the last half hour, and he opened his door to see what was going on. When he saw John, he nearly burst into tears. Bruises were forming on his face, he was nearly doubled over with the pain in his stomach, and he was covered in brown and red filth.
“Steve, don’t just stand there, help us get him onto the bed.” Steven took over from the exhausted Dave, helping John make it into his room. They lay him down on his back, and Sarah soon had towels, warm water, a blanket and some bags of frozen peas. After a little while, John settled down, and Dave and Steve’s parents quietly left the room.
“John. John. What happened?” Steve whispered, fighting back tears again.
“I don’t think Kev likes me anymore” John managed to say, with a pained expression on his face.
“Oh God! I’m so sorry, this is all my fault.”
“No, it’s not.” John let out a big sigh. “Steve, you’re all I’ve got now.”
Steven started gently stroking John’s hair, aware that his lover was drifting away. Once John was asleep, Steven went downstairs to talk to his parents. He found Graham, Sarah and Dave sitting round the kitchen table, all drinking whiskies.
“Carter, I mean Steve, how is he?” Dave asked, with a desperate and concerned look on his face.
“Er, OK. He’s asleep.” Steven wasn’t really sure how to act around someone who had helped beat him up earlier that day. But then he realised that Dave obviously knew about him and John, and was probably alright about it. “Thanks for helping him get here.”
“Steven, honey, what happened to him?” asked his mother.
“He was beaten up by someone who hated him for who he loves.”
Dave looked down at the table. He couldn’t believe Kevin. He had never seen him so angry, so intent on hurting someone, and it had all been directed at John, their ‘boss’.
“Who?” asked Graham.
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Yeah it does” said Dave. He looked angry. “It was Kevin Granger. John told him he was a faggo…that he is gay, and Kev just went mental. Steve, I’m so sorry. For everything.” Dave did look truly sorry. Steven knew that he was clearly OK with anything that John was OK with, which was both pathetic and admirable.
“Thanks Dave. Look, I am going to put the camp-bed up in my room – I don’t want Johnny to be alone tonight. Is that alright?”
“Yes, of course it is” said Graham. Steven’s father thought he knew his son well, but today had been a turning point. Not only was Steve gay, but he was in love, and his affection for John Dixon was obvious. While Graham still had a number of issues about his son sleeping with other men, he knew that right now all Steven wanted was to make his friend, his lover, better again. How could he stand in the way of that?
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The night was a broken and upsetting one for Steven Carter. John woke up a number of times, clearly distressed from a bad dream, and even when he was asleep, he made muffled whimpering noises. Steven only managed to get to sleep at about 5am, and was woken a couple of hours later by shouting from outside.
“OI!!! CARTER!!! GET YOUR QUEER LITTLE ARSE DOWN HERE AND FACE ME!!!” Steven got out of bed, and looked out the window. Kevin was standing in the street, holding a virtually empty bottle of whisky with his shirt partly covered in vomit. Steven felt panic rising up inside him – having seen what Kev had done to John, he hated to think what he would do to him.
Then, to his surprise, Linda and her brother marched out of their house and over to Kevin. Steven couldn’t hear what was being said, but Linda was gesticulating for all her worth while her brother stood and looked mean behind her. At one point, Kev raised his arm, as though to strike Linda, but her brother pushed him to the floor. Kevin was clearly pissed, as he struggled to get up for quite a while. Several of the neighbours had come to their front doors to watch. Eventually, Kevin turned away from Linda and headed back down the street, staggering from side to side, and at one point falling over the kerb.
Linda stood and watched until he was gone, then turned towards Steven’s house and marched over. Steve didn’t know whether to be more scared now. He raced downstairs to open the door, bringing her silently up to his bedroom. His parents clearly hadn’t heard Kevin’s ravings, given that their bedroom was at the back, and he sure as hell didn’t want to wake them now.
When Linda entered his room, she took one look at John, and then hugged Steven. John was still in a deep sleep, so they went back downstairs to the kitchen to talk.
“Stevie, sweetheart! What happened last night? He looked fine when we got back!”
“He was, well, physically anyway.”
“So?”
“I’m not sure – he couldn’t really speak last night, and Dave didn’t want to say much, apart from that Kevin did it.”
“Dave?”
“Yeah, he helped Johnny get here. Linds, he was such a mess. That fucking bastard Granger must have really laid into him.”
“God, I wish I’d set the dog on him now.”
“You don’t have a dog.”
“I mean my brother.”
“Linda, thanks. I’m not sure how we could have got rid of him. What did you say to him?”
“Now that would be telling. So, are you and John back on?”
“Yeah. One of the few things he said to me when Dave brought him in was that I’ve all he’s got now?”
“I guess he’s told his parents then.”
“Sounds like it. Shit, what are we going to do? Why can’t everyone just be as understanding as you, Jess, my parents?”
“It’s all a matter of love, sweetheart. We all love you. Maybe John’s parents don’t know how to love him.”
“But he’s their son. How could they not?”
“I don’t know. Look, we don’t know what happened, so there’s no point in discussing this now. I think I’m gonna go back to bed, and I guess you should go and be with loverboy when he wakes up.”
“Thanks again Linds. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“No, neither do I. Have fewer cuddles I suppose.”
Linda left and went back next door, and Steven returned to his bedside vigil.
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