Church | Klance

2

The two boys sat on two sings at a park not too far from the church, Keith had nearly finished his icecream while Lance had his dripping down his fingers as he hurriedly tried to eat it before the heat did.

Lance laughed, nearly falling off the swing as he did, "Wait, you did what?"

"My brother and I were running from the police for something stupid, I can't even remember what now, but I tried to climb the fence but I slipped on the jump and my shirt got caught. I was hanging from the fence by my shirt when they found me." Keith chuckled lightly as the memory.

"I thought your parents said you're their only son?" Lance asked, confused as to why Keith said 'my brother'.

"I am, but when I went to live with my aunt I was also living with my cousin, Shiro, he and I got really close and I see him as my brother." Keith explained.

"So did your brother get away then?" Keith nodded to Lance's question, "And what about you, did you get charged?"

"I was a minor then and I was only with my brother, I wasn't committing any crime so I didn't get any charge."

Lance was fascinated by Keith, he wasn't afraid to do what he wanted, he didn't stop to think about the consequences he'd have, not only from this justice system but also the religious consequences. His whole life he was taught to think of the consequences of his action, not just in this life, but also in the after-life.

Lance continued to eat his ice cream which was melting faster by the second, "You said you were a minor then, so how old are you?"

"I'm nineteen." Keith responded, "What about you?"

Lance sighed, his ice cream was melting faster and faster, and with the last attempt to eat it, it had fallen off of the cone and onto the ground beneath the swing. "I'm seventeen, almost eighteen." He scooped the icecream off the ground and back into the cone before walking to a garbage bin a few meters away and threw it away.

Lance looked at his watch, it was one now, he had two hours.

"Do you ever get mad at religion? Not at religion itself, but how people use it?" Keith asked. He'd been meaning to ask it all day.

Lance walked back to his seat on the swing and thought about it, "Sometimes, but then I remind myself that they're only doing it to remind themselves of their faith."

"You don't even get mad at people using it to justify things that are wrong?" Keith questioned.

Lance tilted his head a bit, "Like what kind of things?"

"Like homophobia, racism, sexism. Those kinds of things."

Lance didn't answer, instead, he asked his own question, "Why did you have to leave your parent's house?"

Keith didn't answer, instead, he just looked away and Lance knew that he had brought up a sensitive topic.

"Do you have a phone?"

Lance brought his phone out of his pocket and nodded, "Ya, why?"

"Well, I want to be able to talk to you if we're going to be friends."   Keith was already reaching for Lance's phone as he spoke.

"Are you trying to ask for my phone number?" Lance questioned

"What else does it look like?"  Keith replied rolling his eyes.  Lance handed Keith his phone, "I doubt my parents will let me meet up with people often, they're still pretty strict on what I can and can't do."

"You're nineteen, you can do what you want though." Lance watched as Keith typed into his phone, likely putting his phone number in there.

"Just because legally I can do whatever I want, that doesn't mean I'm able to.  I still live with them, so in their eyes, I have to follow what they say."  Keith handed lance his phone back.

Lance sent a quick text to Keith saying 'Hey, it's Lance', "I just texted you so now you can put my number into your phone."   

Keith nodded, "So, church boy, why are you so eager to sin?"

Lance picked at his nails, "It's not that I'm eager too, it's just that you seem so care-free and you don't need anyone to tell you what to do.  You're not constantly searching to know if what you're doing is okay you can just do it.    I've always wanted to be like that, but I can't.  Or, at least, I have never been able to."

"You still care though, you still want people to be okay with you, just because you sin, it doesn't mean that you don't care anymore.  I still care, but I don't let other peoples feelings affect what I do.  That's the hardest part, Lance."  Keith explained, he wanted to make sure that Lance understood what he was getting into.

"I know that, but I don't want religion to hold me back anymore.  There's so much that I want to do but that I can't do."  As Lance was explaining thoughts came into his head, the thoughts he'd had about boys in the past, nothing in a sexual way, but the attraction he felt to girls, he also felt to boys.   Each time one of these thoughts came into his head he would recite the same verses to get rid of them or to tell himself that it was wrong, but he knew he couldn't change it.  He knew that his feelings went agaist the bible in may ways.  That scared him but at the same time, he couldn't hide the feeling of excitement that he felt when he thought of boys.

Keith nodded, he could tell there was something that made Lance want to do this, but he also knew about how hard it would be especially for him with his family dynamic since his dad was the pastor of the church.  "Okay."  Keith stood up from his swing, "There are some people I want you to meet, they're two friends of mine.  I kept in contact with them when I was gone and was going to meet up with them today, you can come if you want."

Lance nodded and stood up from his swing and began to follow Keith to wherever they would be meeting up with his friends.

Within half an hour, the boys were on the other side of the town at a coffee shop.  Two people were sitting outside of the shop together talking who Keith seemed to know.

"Pidge, Hunk."  Keith called out to get their attention, quickly both stood up and ran over wrapping him in a hug.

"Guys, this is Lance.  Lance, this is Pidge and Hunk.  I think they're both closer to your age, I met Pidge through my brother, he's friends with their brother and Hunk is close to their family."

Pidge waved their hand at Lance, "Hey, I'm Pidge."  Lance smiled at Pidge he noticed how Keith had used gender-neutral pronouns for them.  He had never met anyone who went by neutral pronouns since no one in his church or his religious highschool had gone by them, but he knew to respect them.

Unlike Pidge, Hunk wasn't so reserved in his greetings, he hugged Lance like he'd hugged Keith.

Keith laughed, "He's a hugger."

Lance smiled when Hunk let go, "I can see that.  It's okay, I am too."   Lance stated with the group for another hour before he went home so he could be back home before three as his parents had said.

His family felt boring compared to Keith and his friends, they didn't care.  His family did.  Lance could be himself around the three friends, but not his family.

The rest of the evening was boring until he got a text from Keith I went to my aunts because I'm gay.