Tryst by Gary Cottle

Brayden had dropped out of high school his senior year. He had grown used to the rumors and putdowns, but one day someone wrote “fag” on his locker in large letters with a black marker, and the next day, a group of football players cornered him in the boys room so they could berate and threaten him. He no longer felt safe, so he quit.

He soon got a job at Burger King and he earned his GED. Two years had passed, and Brayden was becoming restless. His mother was always after him to make something of his life, too. But he didn’t know if he was cut out for college, and going into the mines or joining a local construction crew would have required that he work along side the same type of young men who had made his life hell while he was in school.

He had met someone online soon after he dropped out. Isaac was a twenty-six-year old youth minister with a wife and two kids, but he somehow found the time to chat with Brayden for one or two hours almost every evening. Isaac knew he was gay when he was thirteen, but he was told that it was a sin, so he tried to change. He lost his faith soon after he got married. Isaac claimed that Brayden was the only one he could trust.

That night, Brayden snuck out of his mother’s house because Isaac had finally agreed to meet him by the tracks leading outside of town. He told the man that he didn’t expect anything and that he only wanted to see him. Of course, he hoped that the encounter would result in him finally losing his virginity, and he wanted a chance to persuade Isaac to leave the state with him at some point in the future. He wanted the two of them to go someplace where they could live together as a couple. But after waiting two hours, it was becoming increasingly obvious that Isaac had lost his nerve.

Fictional Short Story by Gary Cottle.
Photographer and subject unknown.