STORYTIME

Somewhere Under the Rainbow

An unusual coming of age tale about coming out

No one knew exactly when Mike arrived nor from where, but his arrival became well known and spread like wildfire to nearby towns.

There’s nothing like a new family settling into a small town in middle America to get people’s tongues wagging.

When you add to that the mysterious nature of their arrival, their noticeable wealth and strikingly good looks, things were bound to get stirred up.

Even though Toby was only 5 years old when he and his family moved to their town, he distinctly remembered the strange and unpleasant looks they got for a long while afterward.

Tensions grew high, but no havoc became of it, at least not outwardly.

He didn’t know it at the time, but Toby later realized that the tensions he picked up on had less to do with them being new to town and more to do with the racist and sexist attitudes that the locals harbored.

He had no idea how much his family had rocked their little world.

Toby’s parents, and the adults in their social circle from the big city, were all very liberal and progressive. A few of them were even in same sex marriages.

His parents had openly talked with him and his siblings about race, sex and sexual orientations.

His dad’s choice to take a long leave of absence from work to help raise the kids made for interesting conversations, since most people heard of only mothers staying home with the children.

Toby and his siblings loved having their dad at home with them so much, but their friends teased them about it. He rationalized that they were just jealous. He didn’t get why other kids made it such a big deal and thought less of other kids because of it.

Toby’s sister Alicia is 3 years older than him, and his brother Tommy is 7 years older. He oftentimes wished it was the other way around, that his brother was only 3 years older, especially when Toby started high school.

Alicia was openly bisexual by the time she was 12 years old, and cared little as to what other people thought about it, especially Toby. He was only 9 years old when she came out to everyone.

Their parents were very supportive, but one day he overheard them questioning whether Alicia’s bisexuality was just a phase. This made him wonder whether his sexual feelings were simply a phase.

The school year had just ended and summer had officially begun when Mike and his family moved to town.

Toby would soon be 15 years old, was no longer a “filthy freshman”, and was still questioning his sexuality.

One of the most unusual things about Mike’s family was that his mom was not with them. However, it was pointed out by observers that his dad wore a wedding ring.

Many people assumed that he was widowed, but did not want to ask, not yet anyway.

Some of the neighbors greeted the new family and found out that an elderly woman lived with them. She rarely left the house. It was commonly thought that she was the mother of Mike’s father.

It eventually came to light that it was actually his mother’s mother.

This really made people think that the mom had died, which made some of them act kinder than they might have otherwise.

The Stansons, Mike’s family, kept to themselves most of the time.

The oldest children were twin girls who were preparing to leave for their first year of college. They were fraternal twins which made it easy to tell them apart, but they were not interested in meeting new people.

Their minds were elsewhere reminiscing over their old home and friends, while also getting excited about their new lives about to begin a thousand miles away.

Most people only saw the Stansons when they were out shopping or going in and out from their home. Toby saw them more often because he lived across the street from them.

He was fascinated by them, especially Mike.

The Stanson’s property took up half the block. Their place used to belong to the mayor of their town. Toby watched as Mike did impressive physical feats across their lawn. He was pretty sure that Mike was a gymnast.

Toby used to do gymnastics for several years, but never took it seriously. He started playing soccer and baseball, then eventually focused all his attention on baseball.

He was one of the best at his school and was pretty sure that he would make the varsity team that year. Watching Mike made him miss gymnastics. He used to love doing somersaults and the degree of control he had over his body.

Mike’s body was in impeccable condition and his face was beautifully androgynous. Toby found himself getting aroused while watching Mike.

When Mike and Toby officially introduced themselves, they soon discovered that Mike was exactly 6 months older than Toby. Their birthdays came up because Toby’s first questions were all about local sporting leagues, many of which made decisions based on age.

One afternoon, Mike invited Toby and his dog Lucy over to his house for lemonade. It was the first of many days they spent together that summer.

Mike never had anyone else over, which made Toby feel special.

Alicia was getting ready to start college that fall and although he wanted to tell her all that was going on with him, he felt anxious that she would figure out that he was gay before he was ready to tell anyone.

Autumn flew by for Toby. There were many nights where he stayed up late wondering what to do about his feelings. Mike’s birthday was coming up and part of him wanted to do something grand and romantic, but he kept feeling stupid for even imagining such things.

Mike was a kind person and talked about being attracted to girls, but he had yet to date any. However, Toby had tiny seeds of hope that Mike was secretly in love with him as well, and resolved to find out before the year was over.

Mike’s birthday came and went. Time was running out.

Toby decided not to make any grand gestures for Mike’s birthday and gave him a thoughtful gift instead- a first edition rare book that was extremely hard to find.

It was one that Mike had mentioned in a conversation they had over the summer. Toby was good at remembering things like that and Mike was deeply touched.

Mike oftentimes received superficial gifts that appealed to his physical senses, but rarely his mind. Mike knew that Toby must have done some serious digging to track down a rare edition of his favorite book.

It was New Years Eve.

Toby’s parents went out of town to celebrate. Alicia and her older brother went to a mutual friends’ house party. Mike invited Toby to his place to shoot fireworks in the back yard.

They had the best of the best of everything, including bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne to toast in the new year. They felt like kings and jesters prancing about and rolling around on the ground laughing all night long.

Shortly before dawn, everyone was back home and asleep.

Mike was on the verge of sleep, laying on the couch with Toby sitting next him, right by his head.

Toby was staring at Mike’s face when he blurted out, “I’m in love with you.”

Mike woke up out of his dreamlike state, furrowed his eyebrows and said, “What did you just say?”

Toby repeated himself, this time looking straight ahead into nowhere, hands in his lap, body stiff as a board.

Mike slowly sat up so that he was now sitting next to Toby about a foot away from him, elbows on his knees with his head in his hands, looking down.

Toby’s heart was pounding, his mouth was dry, his breath short and labored.

It was the longest few minutes of his entire life.

He finally admitted to someone that he is gay and that someone happens to be his best friend with whom he is now in love.

Mike looked up at him from the corner of his eye, head still in his hands, and said, “I wish you chose another time to tell me this, than after an entire night of drinking.”

Then he smiled.

The mood was lightened, but Toby was still uncertain as to what was to come. He didn’t mean to blurt out that he loved Mike, but he couldn’t keep it inside any longer.

They had so much fun, had such great conversations and seemed to be very comfortable with one another in ways he’d never imagined he’d be with anyone.

He did not want to wait any longer and was determined to start the new year without this weight on his chest.

Mike sat up completely, opened his eyes wide, relaxed them and turned to Toby saying, “There’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you as well.”

Toby could hardly stand it.

He was sure now that Mike was going to tell him that he was in love with him too when Mike said, “I am intersex.”

Toby had never heard the term before and wondered if it meant that Mike was bisexual. They spent the next few hours talking about what it meant for him to be intersex.

Mike told Toby about him being born with a vagina and how doctors tried to convince his parents to raise him as a girl. Mike explained how it affected his mother, who left the family 3 years ago.

She could not deal with Mike reaching puberty, looking like a male and having a vagina, especially when he started menstruating.

Toby’s mind was reeling when Mike said, “Let’s get some rest and talk about this more tomorrow.” He lightly chuckled and added, “or rather later on today.”

Toby had no words.

He loved Mike, but he thought that Mike was a guy, with a penis, like him.

Did he still love Mike, as a guy with a vagina?

Endless questions to which he had no answers floated through his mind.

The long night, alcohol, adrenaline and shock had all exhausted Toby, but he finally felt at peace.

He muttered something to Mike as he was placing a blanket over him and kissed him on the cheek.

Mike laid back down on the huge sectional couch in his basement, the tops of their heads touching, when Mike sighed and said, “I love you too Toby. Happy new year.”, and off they drifted into sleep.

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