Eyeliner and Sharpie Marks

I focused as hard as I could during History as my teacher rambled on about the European renaissance. My head was elsewhere as I watched gapingly outside the window, chewing on my pen cap. My best friend Tanner nudged my arm and I looked over at him quickly as he motioned at my paper.

“Dude, we're turning these notes in,” he said with a half chuckle and I cursed and looked down at my paper. I had turned my Renaissance notes into a Picasso masterpiece with guns and roses. I slapped the palm of my hand against my forehead as I looked at his, which were advanced scholar type notes and even color coded.

He nudged my arm again and motioned to a girl sitting across the room watching the lecture.

“She wants me,” he whispered softly and looked over at me. I looked at him dumbfounded and raised an eyebrow.

“Is it just because she's actually paying attention?” I smirked and he glared at me out of the corner of his eye. He set his pen down and watched her for a moment and I nearly gagged. Tanner could be such a flirt, even when girls didn't want him too. He had a way with convincing them though, something about the way he talks I guess. I never quite understood. I just watched over and over again as girls fell for him.

The bell rang and I gathered my stuff up, playfully shoving Tanner as I walked out the door to find Moxxie's distraught face. His head was tipped down so that his hair was covering his face. I rushed up next to him and guided my hand to his chin and pulled it up towards me, examining his face.

His lip was swollen and there was a bruise under his left eye. His pale skinny body seemed emotionless and I pulled him into my arms quickly, kissing his forehead.

“Babe, what happened?” I asked as the hallways started to clear out.

“I-i don't know, I was j-just walking to class, a-and a bunch of guys, they came up, they came up behind me and shoved me into a locker. K-kept calling me a faggot... what did I do?” he blubbered and buried his face into my shirt.

“Babe, you didn't do anything...” I whispered as the bell rang and I silently cursed under my breath. I pulled away from him and took his hand loosely in mine and I guided him toward the door. The principle passed us and as soon as I got a good enough excuse on where we were going, he smiled.

“Good afternoon boys,” he said in his loud principle like voice and we walked right passed him. We got outside and I led him to a park across the street from school. We found a big tree and I pulled him behind it, sitting down on the ground and looking at him. He sat next to me and laid his head in my lap.

“I'm so sick of this,” he muttered and touched his face warily, whimpering softly. “I want to get away...”

“Lets get away,” I said with a smile spreading across my face like a disease. “Let's run away for a little while... not forever, just a while... remember when we were kids and we used to talk about running away? Just me and you?”

“Ace, lets run away!” Moxxie yelled stomping into there room where I was sprawled across his bed with crayons scattered all over and a Batman coloring book in front of him. I looked up confused, setting his crayons down and sitting up on his bed, crossing his legs.

“Why Mox?” I asked as he sat on the edge of my bed with a large 'hmph'

“Because we got in trouble again. Our teacher told Mommy that we were kissing under the play structure again and she told us we had to stop... or else,” he said angrily, laying back on my bed. I moved next to him and laid on my tummy, my legs kicking behind me. I played with his hair and he stared at the ceiling angrily, which was not an emotion I saw often from him.

“Where will we go?” I asked and his smile grew and he hopped up. He started ripping through our room and looking for something. I watched as he hopped around then he squealed and pulled something from his underwear drawer. I watched his 7 year old body shut the door softly and tip toe over to me.

“Here,” he said slamming down a small pamphlet. “Daddy got this for me... he said he'd take me here one day. He said they like everybody... even boys who like boys. I'm not supposed to tell Mommy about this, she doesn't like it there,” he said and I read it slowly.

“C-castro street...” I sounded out slowly, opening up the pamphlet to a bunch rainbows and smile.

“Its in San Francisco!” Moxxie said and moved the pamphlet, straddling me and facing me. “Can we go there? Can we run away?”

“Lets run away to Castro street, Mox, like we always wanted. Baby, now we can, let's do it..” I begged softly and he straddled my waist, pressing his forehead against mine.

“I haven't thought about there for years...” he whispered softly.

“Please?” I whispered, jutting out my bottom.

“Yes Ace, let's run away to Castro street!”