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Jay Lear's parents told him to get out, and to take his "disgusting lifestyle" with him.
He knew he wasn't the first person in the world to have something like this happen. He also knew that the experience was different for everyone who faced this kind of rejection and displacement. For some it was a temporary setback, an obstacle to be surmounted. For some it was a shove in the right direction. Some had it easier, for others it was harder. He didn't know exactly where he fell on that spectrum. What was he supposed to do? Where was he supposed to go?
Maybe Ricky Mason could help.
Jay and Ricky were online buddies. They'd never met in person, and they lived roughly twenty-six hundred miles apart--Jay in Redlands, California, and Ricky in Coatesville, Pennsylvania--but they'd known each other for years, and they chatted all the time. In fact, Ricky was the first person Jay came out to, back when he was too afraid to tell anybody else.
"Hey, man, nothing at all wrong with being gay," Ricky had said. "As long as you're happy and living your life the way you want, that's all that matters."
And hadn't Ricky said something recently about his old roommate flying the coop and needing to find somebody new to split the rent with?
"Damn," Ricky said when Jay gave him the news about his parents throwing him out. "That sucks hard, bro. I can't even imagine. If there's anything I can do…"
Jay asked Ricky if places were hiring in Coatesville. He had some money saved up (he'd worked since he was fifteen), but it wouldn't last long.
Ricky understood what Jay was really asking. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Listen, man, get here as soon as you can, okay? I'll throw you a welcome home party. Mi casa es su casa."
Ricky was like the big brother Jay always wanted but never had.
Within a week of moving into Ricky's place in Coatesville, Jay had already begun to question his decision.
He still liked Ricky; it was just as fun being around him as it had been interacting with him online. The problem didn't really lie with Ricky himself, but with the kind of company he kept. Various people Ricky associated with seemed to always be around the apartment, at all hours of the day and night, and some of them didn't have a whole lot of respect for Jay's privacy, space, or personal property. Jay brought it up to Ricky, in the least confrontational way he knew how, and Ricky apologized and told him it wouldn't happen anymore, but nothing changed. If Jay spoke to Ricky's friends directly and tried setting boundaries, they would usually laugh him off and treat him like he was just being uptight.
He had more than a few reasons to suspect that some of Ricky's friends were involved with drugs, and that was something he wanted nothing to do with.
Jay stuck it out for a while, and he picked up extra shifts at work, saving every dollar he could. He even started looking for a second job. He did all this with a vague idea of moving forward in mind.
The way Jay saw it, it would be better to part on good terms with Ricky than to allow things to continue as they were. Ricky had helped him, had been brotherly to him, and Jay didn't want them to wind up hating each other. Living together as roommates wasn't working out, but he still wanted them to remain friends.
Where would he go, though? Returning to California was out of the question. But was there any real point to staying in Coatesville? Then again, would any other city really be all that different? When you stripped away all the superficial details, weren’t they all more or less the same? Besides, starting over in another city where he didn’t know anyone would just put Jay back at square one, and where was the sense in that?
Maybe he could venture out without going too far. Lancaster was less than an hour down the road in one direction, Philadelphia in the other.
Then one day he saw the ad for Drexel University…
This was really happening. He was holding the letter in his hand--his acceptance letter from Drexel. He'd be moving to Philadelphia, into one of the campus dorms. He hadn’t dared believe it could happen, but it had, and this letter was physical proof.
He’d agonized about it for weeks, about whether or not he should even bother applying. He hadn’t applied for college after high school like so many of the people he’d graduated with had, because, he thought, higher education just wasn’t in the cards for him. Twelve years of public education was enough. At least, that’s what he told himself.
And yet, when he asked himself why he believed that, he could never come up with a satisfying answer.
Finally, he’d given in and applied. What could it hurt? The worst that could happen was he simply wouldn’t be accepted.
And now it was really happening. And best of all, he’d made it happen all by himself.
“I couldn’t have done it without you, Ricky,” Jay said.
“Dude, you’re the one who did all the work.”
“Well, yeah, but...sorry, I know I’m being mushy. I can’t help it. You gotta figure, considering the circumstances surrounding the last time I was moving out of a place...I guess I’m just trying to make up for that.”
Ricky nodded. “I get it.” He and Jay hugged each other.
Ricky had known for a while that Jay planned on moving out, so his departure hadn’t come without warning. Ricky had a girlfriend now, who spent so much time at the apartment that she practically lived there anyway. Now she could take Jay’s place and split the rent with Ricky.
He helped Jay pack the rest of his stuff in the car. “You better come back and visit sometimes,” he said.
“Of course I will,” Jay replied. “You know Philly’s just an hour away. And you’ll come and check out the campus, right?”
“You bet.”
“Good. I’ll text you later.”
Jay got behind the wheel and started the engine, and right before he set off, Ricky reached through the open window and gave his cheek an affectionate pinch. “Love ya, kiddo,” he said.