halls. I’m getting a room in a house with other students. I can’t
wait to be out from under my parents’ thumbs.”
“I’m not allowed to take a gap year or do anything except what I’m told.”
Jack shrugged. “That’s what you want, isn’t it? A daddy to tell you what to do.”
It was true. That was exactly what he wanted. Maybe he wasn’t a good slave after
all. “I guess.” He chugged his beer and got a couple more. The bar was starting to get
busy, and when they got up to dance, Angel was unsteady on his feet. “Did somebody
put something in your drink? “Jack asked when Angel stumbled into him.
“I haven’t eaten anything since lunch, and then I chugged two beers in quick
succession.”
Jack took his arm. “We should get out of here and get you some food. There’s a
kebab shop down the street.”
“He was so mad. He was so disappointed in me.”
Casting up his eyes, Jack said, “Are you going on about Big Daddy again? Forget
him for a while. Come on, let’s go.”
Fyn Alexander | Sins of the Father
75
“Let’s get another beer first.” At the bar, they ordered two more beers. Jack held
his while Angel chugged half of his in one go, looking around at the mixed crowd,
mostly men, but among the younger set, their own age, there were girls as well.
“Have you ever thought about going with a girl?” Jack leaned forward to scream
in his ear. With the increasing crowd, the volume of both conversation and music had
elevated.
“Are you kidding?” Angel said. “I’m gay, for Christ’s sake.”
“Sometimes I think I could go for one of those really boyish girls.”
“Not me.” Angel finished the remaining beer.
“Can I get you another one of those, mate?” The man was in his forties or possibly
fifties. Partly because Angel was drunk and partly because he had a hard time telling
how old older people were, he wasn’t sure. The dude was definitely older than Daddy.
“Oh yeah? What do I have to give you?” He made himself sound deliberately
cocky, like he’d done this a million times before.
“Anything you feel like giving.” The man ordered more beer and gave one to Jack
as well, who looked a bit uneasy about taking it. When the man was distracted, he
whispered in Angel’s ear. “I don’t like older blokes. They make me nervous. Your
daddy makes me nervous. Let’s go before he expects anything back.”
Angel tipped his head back and drank most the bottle.
“Take this with it,” the man said. He handed Angel a pill and gave another to Jack.
Angel popped the pill, washing it down with the remaining beer.
The flashing lights on the dance floor, which Angel usually loved, were
scrambling his brain in his drunken state. He couldn’t think, and he was very
uncoordinated, which was kind of good and kind of scary at the same time. He didn’t
want to think about Daddy because Daddy was upset with him, and he didn’t want to
think about his future because it was too complicated. Being drunk was a relief, but
he’d better not do anything he would regret later.
Fyn Alexander | Sins of the Father
76
At first he thought the hand on his arm was Jack, and they were halfway across
the dance floor when he realized it was the dude who had bought him the beer. Now he
was steering him down the passage and into the washroom. “I have to go home.” Even
to Angel, his voice sounded strange and slurred.
“Yeah, you can go home afterward, kid.”
“After what?”
Two men already in the washroom left when they entered. The flashing light was
replaced by a harsh fluorescent light that blinded Angel’s sensitive eyes momentarily.
The pounding music was muted by the closed door. Suddenly he was alone with a man
stronger than himself, and he was too drunk to use his self-defense moves. The reality
of what he was doing began to set in.
“I made a mistake. I want to go,” he said. The man pushed open a cubicle door
and shoved him inside, locking
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