Urban Lit 4 | Page 48

The Final Moments By Paul Edward Fitzgerald The cold, wet feeling of water seeping between his bare toes stirred him. He moaned, his head pounding with the slow, labored beat of his heart. Where am I? He thought. What happened? The boy opened his eyes and squinted, trying to see some semblance of light or familiarity in his surroundings. He moaned and tried to roll over but was unable to as his back bumped up against an unseen barrier. In trying to figure out what he had bumped into the boy made his first attempt to feel his way around with his hands. Upon doing so he realized he couldn’t move his hands freely. Indeed they seemed to be bound together. The boy struggled against the ties that seemed to bind his hands to one another. As he struggled he began to realize his bare feet now seemed to be completely submerged in a cold, flowing water. men weren’t with men as the boy had been before his boyfriend split. But it still did not explain why they had taken his shoes. leaving the bar. And he could remember the tall one coming up and offering to buy him a drink. He knew he shouldn’t have accepted it, but he had already had a few drinks and after The boy’s mind suddenly fighting with his boyfriend any bit of flashed on his boyfriend and the foolattention seemed like it could serve as ish fight they had earlier that evening. a welcome comfort. In hindsight it seemed so silly. Perhaps he had let his insecurities get the best The boy had left with the tall of him, he now realized as he lay one as well as with the fat one and bound in this cramped, dark prison. the balding one with the missing He knew his boyfriend loved him, just teeth. Why did he leave with them? as he loved his boyfriend. But the boy The truth is even he wasn’t sure. But it wasn’t confident in his own looks or had not seemed like a big mistake unsocial skills whereas his boyfriend was til the tall one’s demeanor changed popular with everyone. It wasn’t even completely and he began to quote that he thought his boyfriend was ca- bible verses about the sin of a man pable of cheating. It was simply of laying with another man while the matter of he loved his boyfriend so other two chortled and snarled like much and he felt he wasn’t good hyenas at the boy’s apparent, growing enough for him. His greatest fear was fear. that his boyfriend would realize it They finally pulled off in some eventually and find someone more in deserted, wooded area and that’s his league. where the three men proceeded to “I’m not going anywhere, take turns beating and assaulting the babe,” his boyfriend had told him sev- boy. The boy had almost reached a eral times before. “I love you.” state of unconsciousness when the balding one suddenly reached down “And I love you,” he’d always and pulled his feet up toward the sky replied. by his ankles. He muttered something In fact, there was never a the boy could barely hear over the parting between the two in which ringing in his head before removing they did not say they loved one anoth- his shoes and socks inexplicably with er. Not until earlier that night, that is. hysterical laughter at some apparent, For all he knew now, he had blown his missed joke. final chance to tell his boyfriend “I He did put up as much of a love you.” fight as he could. His mother had alThe boy suddenly seemed to ways told him to stand up for himself become more aware of just how and he always had, especially when it boxed in he was, and he could feel mattered most. Though perhaps this panic beginning to swell within his time he should not have, he now body. thought. As he kicked his feet inside the forming flood of