Robbie was thankful that it'd stopped snowing. It wasn't so bad during the day: he'd settled into a routine of sleeping for pockets of time in corners of the library. It was sloshing around in the cold snow and avoiding trouble at night as he walked the lonely streets of Chicago. On his first night out, he tried to get as far away from his home in the Old Town as possible. He rode the train all night worried out of his mind about what he was going to do, and then slept on the train all day, exhausted from emotion. When he woke up, it was night and he needed some place to go. As the train pulled into Belmont, he remembered everything he'd heard about Chicago's gayborhood. The stretch of Halsted where men could walk holding hands, where there were whole establishments dedicated to people that were gay. If he left home so that he could be who he was, this was the place he needed to be.

As it turns out, most of the businesses on the gay part of Halsted were bars. Robbie tried to go in to a few, promising the doormen that even though he was underage, he wouldn't drink, but no one would let him in. He sat at a cute little diner and nibbled on a side of fries, drinking as much coffee as he could. He only had seventeen dollars of his allowance left. That was gone after the fourth night. He was screwed.

After the library closed, he wandered the streets. He passed by Nookies, the diner where he spent his previous nights, and looked longingly in. He trekked along Halsted again, passing a middle aged man opening the door to a tiled building with no windows that smelled like chlorine.

"Hey!" the middle aged called after him. "You want some company?"

Robbie didn't know what to do. Panicked, he replied: "I dunno."

"Fifty bucks."

"What?"

The middle aged man slithered in closer. "I'll give you fifty. Hundred if we do it bare."

Robbie finally realized the implication and pushed the man away. He ran away as fast he could, not sure where. When he finally ran out of breath, he stopped in an alley and broke down sobbing. He sat on the concrete, a train speeding overhead, echoing through the whole alley. Is this what being gay means? Is this the life he had to look forward to? A hand gripped his shoulder and before he could react, he felt a knife come at his throat.

"If you scream, you little bitch, I swear I'll kill you."

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Just joining us? Catch up here:

Volume 1 -
Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five

Volume 2 -
Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five

Volume 3 -
Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five

Volume 4 -
Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five

Volume 5 -
Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five


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