In August 1994, Castiel Novak leaves his sheltered, evangelical homeschooling background in tiny Lebanon, Kansas to attend the University of Kansas in Lawrence. His roommate is Dean Winchester, engineering student and wannabe rock star, who becomes his best friend and turns his world completely upside down. Through a combination of his liberal arts education and his friendship with Dean, Castiel starts to leave behind the strict and unyielding faith of his parents, and eventually starts coming to terms with the fact that his feelings for Dean are more than those of a friend. He's certain the feelings are one-sided, but much worse than unrequited love is what his parents would do if they ever found out. Can Castiel get past his crises of faith, identity, and sexuality to find happiness?
A group of students sat on the wide steps of the dorm, a couple of them with guitars and one girl even holding bongo drums on her lap. The three people with instruments were playing a song while the others watched appreciatively, singing along to what was presumably a popular song- not that Castiel would know. When the song finished, everyone clapped, and Castiel saw his chance to sneak past them to the front door.
'Any requests?' said one of the guitar players, but Castiel assumed he was speaking to the crowd and kept walking. 'Hey, kid with the suitcase.' Castiel cringed and turned around but kept looking down at the ground. 'What's your name?'
'Um… Castiel,' he replied softly, his face burning. The guitar player didn't respond, presumably confused by the unusual name, so Castiel gave his usual follow-up explanation. 'I'm named after an angel.'
'Well OK then. You got any requests for us, Angel?'
'Oh, um, no thank you. I don't really know any songs.' He let his eyes flick up to the guitar player and his heart felt like it had stopped.
He was probably the most beautiful boy Castiel had ever seen. His lips were full and pink, his hair parted in the middle and slightly floppy in a cut Castiel had noticed seemed fashionable among his peers, a light brown slightly bleached by the summer sun. His features were perfect, delicate to the point of prettiness, and he wore light blue ripped up jeans and a white tank top with a flannel shirt tied around his waist. To his horror, Castiel's mouth went dry, and when the boy's eyebrow went up, he realised he'd been staring for way too long.
'How can you not know any songs, dude?' he asked when Castiel finally brought his eyes back to the ground.
'I, um… I wasn't… I just don't,' he replied, for some reason unwilling to explain to this crowd of strangers that his parents had forbidden radio and television in their house so that demons couldn't enter through popular culture. He remembered hearing them speak in hushed tones about songs and programmes encouraging pre-marital relations and sodomy and wondered if the songs this beautiful boy was singing were like that.
'OK, well, sorry to bother you, then,' the boy said. 'See you around, Angel.' He winked at Castiel before turning his attention back to the others.
Castiel ran inside the dorm before the next song began, his heart pounding with fear at the stirrings of sinful thought the handsome singer had elicited. Lust was bad enough, but lust for another man? Castiel shuddered as he thought of his father's words concerning that particular abomination. Leaning against a wall, he prayed for strength to fight this sin, to close off his soul from the demonic influences that must have caused such a lapse. Perhaps his father and mother had been right about music- after all, the feeling had come after hearing the song the other students had been playing.
