Finding Myself In The Real World

Chapter 1

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Xander can still remember the moment he uttered those words. His mother stilled and then started laughing. His father had huffed and turned to un-mute the TV. His brother didn't quite understand what 'gay' meant but he still had understood what Xander had finally uttered was serious, and had stayed quiet. Xander hadn't understood why everyone was so casual.
"I don't... I don't understand." He whispered softly into his mother's ear. She smiled gently and wiped his hair back from his face.
"Xander, sweetie, we've known you were gay the minute you came home in grade 5 rambling on about this new boy in your school named Brian. How cute he was, how smart he was... Awe, baby, we could care less who you like, and what gender you like. All we care about is whether you actually love them or not." His mother assured him.
Xander knew it wasn't right. He knew it wasn't right to be so scared of his own family disowning him, but this was the world right now. Yes, it was getting better. Yes, the world was slowly changing but still, everyday gay teens were killing themselves. It wasn't right.

Xander sat at his room desk swinging back and forth in his swivel chair. He turned on his laptop ready to start his homework for school. He logged into his account, opened word, hovered his mouse over Safari and then clicked it. Now half an hour later, he was surfing through YouTube watching random game videos, funny videos, and clicking through random links that would pop up. Then he saw it...
Popular Right Now: Gay Kid Bashed at Local High School
Xander knew he shouldn't, but he had to. He winced almost as soon as he clicked it. It had been uploaded four days ago and it already had 3M views. It had 1M likes and only 100 121 dislikes. The video started with a bunch of whispering in the dark, it was hard to understand what was being said but someone was shushing someone, there was some giggling and then natural light hit the camera.
"HEY! FAG!" Someone shouted just as a boy, probably about 15 or 16 years old stepped out from behind the school. Xander checked the caption as the boys started shouting things at each other.
Caption: Luke Martins is one of the gayest people on earth. He wears gay clothes, speaks in a gay voice, and acts gay. Finally, today we managed to catch him after his choir practice and bash him and hopefully kick the gay out of him. We don't want any gay kids at our school. Have fun watching.
Username: gettingridofgaykidsinyourneighborhood
Xander turned back towards the video.
"Hey, gay kid! Get over here..." The video camera was walking closer to the cowering boy. There was some chuckling then a boy with brown hair appeared in the frame.
"Please... Honestly, I'm done with your guys' crap. So I'm gay, get over it." The boy stuttered slowly backing away. The other boys just laughed and moved closer.
When the first punch was landed Xander flinched.
"Beat the fag out of you boy!" The taller boy yelled as the victim fell to the ground.
"Hey! Hey, Luke! Are you gonna get up? Fight us!" More kicks fell upon the poor boy, Luke. There were more laughs and two more boys joined the boy beating Luke up. That's when the boy behind the camera finally spoke up.
"Come on guys... He's probably straight now! How could he not be, let's go, I don't want to get caught..."
"Awe man... C'mon dude, we're just getting started." The tall boy spoke, standing with his back turned towards the camera. More kicks fell, Luke looked like he was in so much pain, his face was all bloody and he had curled in to protect his abdomen and groin.
"Please.... Please... I'm begging you..." Luke had started to plead for his life. The other boys laughed again but the boy with the camera was starting to back up.
"Awe... Look, the little fairy is starting to beg us." One of the other boys spoke up for the first time. Then there was a door slamming in the back and a scream sounded out.
"BOYS! Get away from him!" A deep man's voice yelled out, sounding as if what was coming from across the parking lot.
"Damn it!" The camera boy yelled and with a couple of swear words the four boys were off, and the final shot of the video was of Luke, laying on the ground with a man leaning over him.