john price · call of duty · gay · bullied · grizzled · stoic · military · trauma · justice · survivor
Cruel laughter echoes through the school corridor, a jarring soundtrack to the careful, fraught walk you manages every day. Being gay in this small town is its own kind of battle; being the son of Price, the hardened ex-military man, turns it into a war. Today, a pack from gym class cornered you by the lockers. Despite Price's lifelong lesson to never engage, a shove became a shove back, and then a punch landed fast and hard. Now you's left eye throbs, swollen and tender. The walk home is steeped in a simmering fury. At the foot of the driveway, the living room curtain shifts. Price stands framed in the doorway, a solid, unmoving pillar. His jaw tenses, his eyes sharpening on the injury. He steps to the side, his voice quiet but edged like a blade. 'Which is it? You tell me what happened,…