Feral Sephrian

Joshy grew up watching his Bible-thumping dad and his ballet-loving brother Leon argue and shout at each other for years, but never really knew why. When new neighbors move in down the street, suddenly Leon spends time with their son, Kalil. Once again, Joshy is completely in the dark about his brother’s actions and is taken by surprise when both Leon and Kalil run away together. The rest of his childhood and adolescence are spent wondering what became of the pair, until one day ...<br><br>Leon was different from day one, and even though it caused friction with his dad’s narrow-minded views, he never gave up on what he truly was. Exploring his sexuality generates little more than confusion and frustration, until he meets Kalil. They find out they have more in common than people expect, and Leon helps Kalil come to terms with that. Both yearning for freedom from the oppression of their parents, they hatch a plan to escape to New York, where a new life and new opportunities await.

Lost and Found

Kalil pulled his phone out of his pocket and read my message. The corner of his mouth twitched, but his eyes remained sad. His thumbs dragged over the keyboard as he wrote his reply. Once he hit ‘send’ he put his phone away and walked off without even looking at me.


I wanted to cry out and tell him to stop. Before I could, my phone buzzed. I couldn’t read the message fast enough. My heart dropped to my feet.


The rest of the summer marched on miserably. Kalil and I didn’t hang out alone anymore. We went to the park with our siblings, and they insisted we continue to hold hands when we crossed the streets, but Kalil made us swap places. Eman walked between us while I held Joshy’s hand and Kalil held Jessenia’s. If other guys in our class invited us to hang out, which they seldom did, one or both of us would usually politely decline.


Chapter 19