In the late 1950's, fourteen year old Philip Noland is a gay but sexually inexperienced freshman at St. Sebastian’s, a Catholic high school for boys. Alone and emotionally isolated, with the exception of two friends named O’Riley and Carlin, there are no familiar guideposts for Philip to follow, just an excess of rules and regulations that make no sense to him.<br><br>A late bloomer, Philip learns to masturbate effectively and fall in love for the first time, but his greatest challenge isn’t the regimented behavior at St. Sebastian’s -- it's surviving a bully named Molinara who has set his sights on Philip.<br><br>Can Philip navigate the minefields of St. Sebastian's and emerge victorious?

Boys Will Be Boys

My world didn’t collapse quite as soon as I thought it would. Molinara suddenly became quiet and focused in class. Everyone worried about passing mid-year exams in December. Teachers piled on the homework, including a research paper in ancient history; we all griped about that injustice. Mr. Lewis, my only lay teacher—meaning nota priest—was somewhere in his fifties but looked older. Most of us figured he was around when Mesopotamia was thriving and had actually waded across the Tigris and Euphrates as a boy. He gave that impression. What did we know? Not much. Not then.


Chapter 9