Chapter 1
Chapter 1
The Question
“Are you a fag?”
The bar went quiet enough for Hunter to hear his own pulse.Sallisaw, Oklahoma. A backwoods bar where men drank cheap beer and watched each other like predators sizing up weakness.
Hunter didn’t hesitate.
“No.”
He added offense to his tone. Defensive. Masculine. Convincing.
The one-toothed man laughed. “It’s okay. I’ve been in jail. We’re all a little gay.”
The blonde bartender cut in. “Mind your business, Jack.”
Hunter stared at his drink. In a town like this, suspicion spreads faster than truth. He could feel it already — the whispers, the looks.
He wasn’t even sure himself.
He’d had a girlfriend once. Five months. That was supposed to mean something.
But there were also the late-night searches. The Grindr downloads. The deleting. The praying afterward.
In Oklahoma, you could smoke meth. You could steal. You could beat your wife.
But you could not be gay.
Jamie arrived his maid and unlikely friend. They moved to the corner by the pool table. Safer there.
Colton walked over.
Colton with the easy smile. Colton with the girlfriend. Colton who lingered too long when their shoulders brushed.
They talked about Johnny Cash. About music. About nothing.
But underneath it was something neither of them could afford to name.
Later that night, there would be moonshine. There would be a bonfire. There would be memory.
Because Hunter had already learned the rule at fourteen:
Confess nothing.
Survive everything.
And in Oklahoma, survival meant silence.
End Chapter Hook:
Hunter wasn’t afraid of the man in the bar. He was afraid of the truth the question forced him to swallow.
