Published: 6 Mar 2023

Epilogue

The New York Times published the story the next day, Sunday. It was a front-page story that took two columns, each column was three inches in length, and continued on the facing, page three for another two columns, 3 inches each. The worst part was that the front page story was above the fold… Meaning that it was one of the first stories anyone saw when they picked up the paper. It also meant that if the paper was on a stand, or just laying flat on the counter, it was still one of the first stories you saw.

Ok, that wasn’t the worst. It was the way the article was presented. Oh yeah, they got all the facts correct. They even got the history of my conflicts up to the fight Friday correct. However, the article was slanted and made me out to be some kind of poster boy for LGBT teens that smashed all the stereotypes of gay youth. Holy Cow! How unfair is that?

Ok, so that wasn’t the worst either. The cable news networks were just as bad. CNN and MSNBC had even gotten ahold of the video! Granted they blurred our facial images (since we were minors, not even they wanted the lawsuits for revealing our faces), but anyone in Elko would know what was going on and who the teens were. Both of them had the same slant that the NY Times used.

Now we come to it. The absolute worst part was that just in case the good people of Elko missed it, the headline in the Sunday edition of the Elko Daily Free Press, our local paper, had the following front-page headline “Local Gay Teen Thwarts Thugs.” This keeps up and I’m going to have to start a scrapbook for all this crap. Their slant was a little different. This time I was coming to the defense of a teammate who had been injured by the attackers. Once again, I became the Hero!

Don’t these people know that I’m still in high school? That I have to go to school Monday morning? They don’t seem to care as long as the story sells. I think Monday is going to be a very, very long day.

I know you probably have questions. I know I certainly do. Thinking back to when I left my home I had asked, ‘what else is there?’ Now I believe I’m beginning to see things much more clearly, and I’m thinking things out in better terms; Perhaps, ‘This is what there is!’

Author’s Note: I hope you have enjoyed this tale. Did I end it too abruptly? Perhaps. But there is more to Pete’s story. Since this part is already novel length (something I never thought I could write), I had to end this somewhere. So yes, there will be a second book to finish this story. It has already been started.

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