Trust and Love

TRUST AND LOVE

by Jason E. Maurer

This is dedicated to Amanda and Krysta. I don’t know where I would be without all of your support.

***

This novel is also dedicated to the memory of Asher Brown, Tyler Clementi, Billy Lucas, Seth Walsh and all of the other gay teens who committed suicide because they were bullied in school by uninformed bigots who don’t understand that all life is equal.

These unfortunate suicides are the reason the It Gets Better Campaign was started on Youtube.

The It Gets Better Campaign is a means for members of the LGBT community to be able to reach out to the younger generation of individuals to show that we are here, that we are proud of who we are, and that no matter what, there is always, ALWAYS someone to support you.

I took some liberties throughout this novel in regards to the actual campaign, which was not started until 2010. My novel is based in 2005 and 2006, but the message remains the same: No matter what you are going through in your life, please, please always remember that there is someone in this world who cares about you, whether we know you personally or not. Just reach out, and we are here to support you.

Don’t Give Up On Yourself, Because We Will Never Give Up On You.

http://www.itgetsbetter.org/

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Brandon Thomure for your help in keeping me sane during the rewrites and edits, and for providing some character background.

Jane Linsdell & Susan Toth: Thank you for your valuable time and effort in helping to proofread, for giving me ideas, and for providing that much-needed push to create something worthwhile.

A special thank you goes to the amazing Pam Griffiths for allowing me to use an excerpt of her poem Freedom of Speech. Please check out her work because she is a talented poet and deserves more recognition than I could ever give. You can find her at http://www.pamelagriffiths.com/

This story contains some strong language and sexual scenes between gay lovers that may not be suitable for some readers.

The names of people, characters, products, companies and/or data mentioned within this document are fictitious and are in no way intended to represent any real individual, company, product, or event, unless otherwise noted. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of the author.

The poem Freedom of Speech Copyright © 2012 Pamela Griffiths. Used with permission.

Trust and Love

by Jason E. Maurer

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 Jason E. Maurer

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Chapter One

His name is Trevor Harper, and I fell in love the first time I found out who he was.

At his birth on February 19, 1987, Robert and Patricia Harper had no idea their son’s name would someday be one of the most widely recognizable around the entire globe. They were simply pleased to have a child.

The Harpers were in their late thirties when blessed with a pregnancy. Both wished their son had been born earlier, but through no fault of her own Patricia had been unable to bear any children. The doctor said it was hormone imbalances and put her on daily supplements. Of course, this was during the time when in vitro fertilization was still in its infancy, and before any of the other pregnancy miracles that are available today.

A middle-class couple, Robert and Patricia were born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama, and in fact lived within two blocks of each other. They dated their senior year of high school, and were married the following spring. Prior to Trevor’s worldwide celebrity status, their only claim to fame was that they once met Frank Sinatra on a flight to Las Vegas a few months before Ole Blue Eyes passed away.

Trevor Harper had a wonderful home life growing up. Robert and Patricia were the best parents a child could want. They were incredibly supportive of whatever endeavors their son pursued. First was a season of t-ball, but Trevor disliked being dirty. Next Trevor wanted to learn to play trumpet, so the Harpers invested in an instrument and lessons. The trumpet fad lasted through the first lesson, after which Trevor declared it wasn’t for him. From trumpet stemmed softball, which Trevor actually enjoyed for two seasons in spite of his abhor for filth. At age fourteen, he announced he wanted to play piano. Thus, the Harper’s, being proud parents of an only child, bought him a baby grand and signed him up for lessons. Within weeks Trevor was excelling, and spent all of his free time practicing with concentrated effort.

It wasn’t long after that when Trevor told his parents he wanted to try playing guitar. Within three days, Trevor was the proud owner of a used Les Paul Gibson, the cream of the crop. Seriously dedicated and with plenty of money from his parents having been spent on instruments, he had guitar lessons each Monday, piano on Thursday.

Nine months after starting piano, seven months after beginning guitar, Robert and Patricia came home one evening to witness the start of an idea.

On that particular night, Trevor invited his parents downstairs to the basement where the piano and guitar were kept. It was there that he announced he had been writing some music and had full intentions of becoming a musician. He played some of his original tunes for his parents, and they were overjoyed at the sight of their son doing something he loved.

After much more practice and devotion, young Trevor began to advertise his musical skills. He was sought out by local families to perform for small crowds at birthday parties and the like. After only his second performance at a friend’s bar mitzvah, he was being asked if he had any records for sale.

In the best interest of their son, Robert and Patricia spent more of their life savings and bought Trevor some recording time at a studio in Montgomery so he could make his own independent record. He titled it Just Me, an eleven-track compilation of some popular covers and original music. It was immensely well liked among his growing fan base of local kids and their families, and was the main gift for the holidays that year to everyone in his family.

The Harpers eventually decided they would pull Trevor out of the school system and hired a home tutor, giving him more time for his instruments and music-making endeavors.

After the initial success of Just Me, Robert and Patricia purchased more studio recording time so Trevor could create a second independent record. He titled it To the Core. It consisted of thirteen tracks, mostly new original songs.

To the Core instantly became as popular as Just Me, and all his fans were constantly bombarding him at the malls and other teen hangouts whenever he went out with his parents. There was always someone, somewhere, who was inquiring about appearances and such. These minor events gave Trevor his first tastes of fame, slowly whetting his appetite for the spotlight.

Mid-summer 2004, only a few months prior to Trevor’s eighteenth birthday, the Harpers received a telephone call from an anxious gentleman by the name of Paul Diaz, who said he was from a lesser-known record company. He proceeded to explain that he wanted to become Trevor’s manager, and offered the excited teenager a record contract.

Paul flew down to Montgomery and met the Harper family, and laid out the full details of his offer. In terms of deals, it was a fairly lucrative one and offered Trevor the security of five albums before the contract expired. Part of the agreement was that the record company would allow Trevor to re-record thirteen of the songs from Just Me and To the Core, using only the best of the best recording equipment in a state-of-the-art studio.

Robert and Patricia wanted their son to think about the deal for a few weeks before making such a monumental decision. He understood of course, but that didn’t stop him. Barely two hours passed before he signed the contract, without knowing the consequences or even discussing it with anyone. His dream was coming true, no matter the cost. That’s not to say he was being conceited about it, he just really wanted something good to finally come his way.

The record company flew Trevor and his parents to Los Angeles, and the recording process began almost immediately. It took nearly a month for Trevor to record the actual album.

On November 30, 2004, the record company released Trevor Harper’s song Betcha Won’t to the radio stations. The single turned out to be an immediate success, as it was constantly being requested. In physical form, the single sold nearly two hundred thousand copies its first week out.

The record company didn’t actually release the record itself for another three weeks, until the buzz about Trevor was so great that even the President of the United States made note of him in a speech. Thus, on December 21, 2004, less than two months prior to his eighteenth birthday, Trevor’s worldwide debut album The Core of Me, a compilation of his two independent records, was released to an eagerly waiting fan base. For an unknown musician, it sold an impressive 401,874 copies during its first week. You couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing Betcha Won’t or seeing Trevor’s face all over the television.

I remember that day, December 21, 2004, because it was the first day I ever saw Trevor for myself. Sure, I had heard the song and immediately latched onto its catchy upbeat rhythms and dance beats, but it was the lyrics that spoke oceans to my soul. This unknown musician was telling me that it was all right to be who you are, despite what everyone else says and does to suppress your emotions and your true self. When I first heard Betcha Won’t, I had my suspicions that Trevor was secretly gay just from the lyrics alone. Then again, I’m also gay, and can pick out another of my kind out of a thousand. This is the secret weapon we homosexuals call gaydar.

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nathan Parker. I’m 5’11, weigh 165 pounds, and have brown wavy hair that I keep trimmed above my ears. My eyes are also brown, which I hate with a passion. The rest of my body is good enough, but my eyes... ugh.

I have always known I was gay, and fought my way through a lifetime of hardships to achieve the ultimate goal of happiness and the American dream. This is not about my past experiences, though. It’s about the life [and my obsession] with Trevor Harper, as if you couldn’t already tell.

My best friend Bianca was sitting in my living room beside me on the sofa when we first saw Trevor on television.

He is NOT gay! she countered after I’d stated that he was. Thank goodness for commercials, otherwise we would never have heard Trevor talking during the interview portion.

Yes he is! I retorted. Look at his gorgeous eyes. No straight guy has ever had eyes, or lashes, like that. And his features are too delicate. You said you knew I was gay the first time you met me!

That’s different, she replied. I know you in person. He’s just a celebrity, so who cares where he sticks his dick? Besides, you just can’t find anyone to date so you’re only projecting your hidden desires to attract a mate onto a teen idol, she added, with no intention of the remark being cruel. Simple, stated truth. That was my Bianca, the closest girl a gay man can have. She is fiery and outspoken, yet loving at the same time. She can be one hell of a domineering woman when she puts her mind to it, which is just her nature as an Irish redhead. Green-eyed, with hair that rolls in soft waves to her shoulders, she stands the same height as me so we are always eye-level to each other. My mother says we would make a perfect couple, if I didn’t already find myself attracted to guys.

I know, I replied with a sigh, but I’m single because I choose to be. The truth, instead, was that I was too damn fussy for the guys I’ve dated. Here I am, age twenty-three and single. Of the dozen guys I’ve dated, none was perfect. Not that it would matter, because inevitably I would overanalyze them with a fine-tooth comb to find their shortcomings.

It’s okay, there’s someone out there for you, Bianca said with an encouraging smile.

And I’ve just seen him for the first time, I said, tipping my glass of orange juice toward the screen as Trevor performed his first hot single for the audience of screaming teenybopper girls.

Bianca laughed. Fine, if you’re so sure about him being gay, let’s bet on it. Fifty bucks says he isn’t.

That’s a ridiculous bet because we’ll never find out, I countered.

Make it a hundred, she said. Neither one of us can lose, she added with a wink. So let’s go all crazy on it and also say that one of us has to sleep with him to prove it.

This was a surprise coming from her lips, because she is normally attracted to the rough lumberjack types who are manly, built like a brick shithouse and have a ton of hair covering their bodies. I highly doubted that Trevor, with his typical gay-standard