The warm Carolina wind blew threw Shannon Moore and Jeff Hardy’s hair as they drove toward a perfect late spring sunset. Highway One was littered with the evidence of the day’s events. Shannon Moore let go of his graduation gown, watching it hit the road behind Jeff’s car. Feeling the material slip through his fingers as if he were letting the events of the past year go at the same time. He couldn’t have told you if they were headed north or south, and he really didn’t care, as long as they were headed away from Cameron, North Carolina.

It had been almost a year to the day that Jeff and Shannon’s world came crashing down around them with the force of an atomic bomb. It was the night of Jeff’s graduation. They had been caught by, Jeff’s brother, Matt in a very intimate situation. Being raised in a rural community, that didn’t really preach tolerance or acceptance, Matt was not very understanding of his baby brother’s feelings for his younger friend. He’d known there was something different about Jeff for some time now, but he had no idea it was this different. Hours of screaming ensued between the two brothers, until Matt stormed, fuming, and Shannon ran out, crying.

It didn’t take Matt long to pour his concerns out to Gilbert Hardy, the patriarch of the Hardy family. Gilbert forbid Jeff to ever see Shannon again, and went to have long talk with Mrs. Moore, who was just as shocked and disturbed by her sons behavior. She also forbid Shannon from seeing Jeff. They tried to keep it under raps, but as small community’s go, that didn’t last very long. Before anyone could stop it, it seemed like the whole town knew. There were deviants in their small town. The town wasn’t in an uproar, but it was definitely whispered about over back fences and at the one gas station in town. The boys were humiliated, and the talk of the town.

Jeff was the lucky one. He went to, nearby, Fayetteville and got a job as a waiter in some restaurant. He saved his paycheck and his tips, knowing, one day, he’d be able to take the man he loved away from all this. Shannon, on the other hand, was living in a personal hell. His family were devout Christians, and just couldn’t accept the lifestyle their son had chosen for himself. They tried everything to change him. He was in therapy, church functions, and they even considered sending him to a Christian based school, to get the demon of homosexuality out of him. Home was one thing, but Shannon had no outlet. School was the worst. The other kids would talk behind his back, and that he could handle, it was when they talked directly to him that hurt the most. That was, if the kids were allowed to talk to him at all. Most parents were afraid if their son got close to Shannon that his ‘disease’ would rub off on them. Shannon tried to go through all this with his head held high, but deep down it really hurt him, and without Jeff beside him, it almost killed him.

That’s the way their world existed for almost a year. They would skulk off to the woods or some nearby city to spend a few precious moments together, but they dared not spend too much time together, fearing the wrath of their parents and maybe even the town. The few times they spent with each other, were reassuring moments, letting each other know their feelings had not changed. Sometimes in intimate ways, other times a slight touch or just a smile. It didn’t matter what they were doing on those rare occasions, so long as they were with each other. If their parents and the town’s people could only have looked past their own prejudicial ideas, they would have seen the kind of love that they told their children existed. They would have seen the never ending devotion of two young hearts.

That morning, Jeff had told his father he had to work. A lie that he’d gotten used to telling. Work was not on the schedule that day, however. The love of his life was graduating, and their plan was about to come to fruition. Jeff drove to the high school that afternoon, stood in the shadows and watched Shannon accept his diploma. After the ceremony he cleaned out his bank account, and went home while his father and brother were away, packed his bags and took one final look at the place he’d called home since he was born. An hour later, Shannon was in the car, shedding the remainder of his own past, heading down the highway toward a very uncertain future.