InsaneJournal

WHO: Thomas, Lena and Jamie
WHAT: Thomas making fantastic choices
WHEN: Thursday afternoon/evening
WHERE: Food court/a bit of jail/home
WARNINGS: Mild violence and rampant homophobia



Ever since the news that his son was gay had somehow shocked the conservative people who staffed Thomas' school, Thomas had decided to avoid the staff room during lunch. Thanks to the prying of his nosy co-workers, he had been dining at the food court of a smallish shopping centre a block away. Usually he went with his friend Irene who was the one person he worked with he didn't rather dislike, but Irene was off ill and so he was alone.

Or he had been until someone sat down across the table from him before he could even take a bite of his burrito. It was Glen Fuller, a physical education teacher Thomas hadn't really spoken to much before. "Thomas Kemp, correct?" Glen asked, and Thomas found himself wondering why the man had sat down if he truly needed to ask for confirmation of his name. Now he was going to have to find somewhere else to have lunch, dammit.

"That's right," Thomas said, putting his fork down. "Can I help you?"

Glen leaned in as if they were about to share a deep secret and he said, "I noticed you throwing away one of the pamphlets I slipped you last week and I've been meaning to talk to you about it since then. It's just lucky I caught you here!" He seemed upbeat and full of delight, and Thomas immediately wanted to choke him. Those pamphlets were about gay conversion and they were hate propaganda. Anger rose inside his belly, hot and sudden.

"Oh...lucky is a way to put it. You're the one who has been slipping me those things? Look, I'm not interested in-"

Glen cut him off, further adding to Thomas' fury. "-I know it's not a pleasant thing to discuss. It's always difficult when someone you love believes they're a gay."

Thomas' jaw was working now as he tried to contain his rage. "Look, I'm hungry and I just want to eat my lunch," he managed to grit out, hoping that would be the end of it.

"Thomas, you don't have to lose hope. Your son doesn't have to stay a degenerate. I want to help you." Glen did genuinely seem like he wanted to help, but that didn't make this any better. Thomas felt hot and twitchy.

"My son is not a degenerate!" Thomas hissed, his fury finally breaching the surface a little. "There's nothing wrong with him and I don't want him to change, even if he could. Please, just leave me alone!"

Glen gave him a sympathetic look, which did nothing to calm Thomas down. "You don't have to blame yourself, Thomas."

"Blame my- What?!"

"I understand you raised him all by yourself and that couldn't have been easy. It makes sense that there would have been some shortcomings. But you can fix where you failed before. Your son doesn't have to continue this life of sin-"

It was too much and Thomas snapped. The stress of the past few weeks, the anger at knowing he was going to lose his father in a horrible way and then he would follow, the fury at people still believing there was anything wrong with being gay and taking it out on the person Thomas loved most in the world - it all came crashing to the surface. Thomas jumped up from his chair and he punched Glen right across the cheek. Pain exploded through his knuckles and he barely had a second to focus on it before he found himself on the flat of his back with Glen on top of him, pummelling his face. Thomas never had been all that good at fighting, and Glen was a PE teacher. It didn't take a genius to figure out how that was going to end.

Which was how both Glen and Thomas found themselves sitting in a jail cell together for causing such a kerfuffle in a public place. Both agreed not to press charges against each other, but they still were in a bit of trouble from the shopping centre.

When Lena finally arrived to spring him, hours later, Thomas was relieved. His entire body was sore from the beating he had received, and he felt like an idiot for letting anger get the best of him.

To her credit, Lena didn't look pissed off that she had had to come down to the station. In fact, if she looked anything, it was amused. "Hi, dummy," Lena said as an officer unlocked the cell door and let him out. "You look like shit."

Thomas turned crimson. She had only been his girlfriend a few days and now she was springing him from jail for fighting. "Accurate," Thomas agreed, giving her a hug because kissing her would be painful. He had a fat lip. "Did you drive here? Your ankle-"

"Took a taxi. Come on, Zorro, I'll take you home. We can pick up some food on the way, and you can explain what happened when we get there."

They walked in together, far later than he normally would have been arriving home. "Jamie will probably be hungry," Thomas said, lamenting the fact that his son was about to see him with a rapidly blackening eye. "Jamie! I'm home and we have dinner!" And rather a lot of explaining to do.