~Jeremy Heere~
I feel the soft tears roll down my cheeks as I see gay flags with spray painted "x"s over the colors. I audibly sigh and cringe. My dad looks over at me, and I see his expression soften before it hardens back up again and he says
" this will help you son. It will fix your gayness."
" By God, dad! You should know that this isn't something you can fix by sending me to some homo camp." I yell as we pull in. A man in a blue polo and black khaki shorts opens my door and I step out. He slams the door back shut and dad rolls down the window to talk to him. I don't bother trying to listen to the conversation as I just feel more cold, salty tears run down my face. I finally hear the sound of the window rolling back up as my dad pulls away. As soon as his car is out of sight, the counselor envelopes me in a warm hug. It's been so long since I've had a shoulder to cry on, so I took the  oppertunity to let  the tears fall faster than they were before. After about three minutes of this, he gently starts rubbing my back and whispers in my ear " shhhh it's ok. It's ok. You are not going to be punished for who you are here. We accept you and want you to embrace your sexuality."
" r-really?"is all I can mutter out, and he nods his head up and down to gesture 'yes' and then I start to calm down as we walk towards the cafeteria. He pushes open the huge oak doors and I immediately see the all- too- familiar red hoodie of my bestfriend, Michael Mell. His back is facing me, so I sprint over to him and jump on his back, just like I always do. I gently put my hands over his eyes and say " Guess who"
" what the hell,man?!" He yells and I remove my hands and jump off his back. He turns around with a look of fury on his face. As soon as he sees me, though, that melts and he gives me a bear hug.
" what the hell man, you didn't tell me you had to come to a camp."I asked more than stated. "I didn't know until dad told me to pack my bed yesterday."he replies.
"At least I get to be here with my boyfriend though." He finishes. This is gonna be a very good summer.