First Base

Alex Matthews was tormented by the same group of boys all through middle and high school for being "different" which in translation meant being gay. So who would have ever thought that he'd end up falling in love with one of them and happier than he ever imagined? He and Ryan have settled into their shared apartment and shared life, away at college and away from the stressors of a close-minded small town and most of all, Ryan's close-minded father. Alex is willing to give Ryan some time, but when Ryan seems to have put telling his father what he really wants out of life way on the backburner, Alex begins to worry. He wonders if he's losing Ryan to one of the hot jocks on Ryan's baseball team and with the help of his close friend Harry, he tries to "transform" himself into what he thinks Ryan might really be looking for. When nothing seems to be working Alex will have to examine his own soul and decide if living with Ryan in the closet from his parents will hurt more or less than the hole that losing him will leave in Alex's soul. Ryan Reed is as popular in college as he was in high school, and surprisingly, everyone he knows at NYU knows he's gay. He feels free and happy and most of all content that he can live with the man he loves and be himself without feeling like he needs to hide behind a reputation that was never really his to begin with. At least as long as he stays in the city he feels that way. Back home Ryan knows that his father still believes he's raised a masculine jock that leaves a string of broken hearted women everywhere he goes. Alex is pressuring him to tell his father about them, and even considering issuing an ultimatum that if Ryan continues to cling to the lies he's held onto for so long, he will end up losing the only person in the world that has ever loved and accepted him for exactly who he was. Ryan's going to be forced to grow up quickly and make a choice that could alter the very course of his life and Alex's.