This is my first story ever. I have read a lot of what is on this site. I have had some stories kicking around my head, and I decided, "What the heck, try one." I know it isn't perfect and I hope you will all take it as it is offered. Just a fun, sexy story about interesting people that aren't all that different from you and me. This first one is long, and I will be releasing it in multiple parts. I have at least two for now. I'm sure there will be more. I am putting it in Romance because that's where I think it is going. Thank you for reading. I will take any comments that are sincerely given to heart. Enjoy!
*
Getting shot sucks. Getting shot as part of a mass shooting at a school... Well, let's say that it will change your life for the worse. I was a perfectly ordinary guy not long out of college. I had always loved history. Read, I AM A NERD. I wasn't a total disaster. I had friends. I had girlfriends. I had even had sex. I know, hard to believe but true. I just loved history and thought that I should teach it to others. And so I wound up at a high school in my home state of Ohio. Things were going great. The students like the young hotshot teacher who really talked to them. I liked being the bad boy of the history department. I felt like a made a difference. And then the world exploded.
I don't want to go into all the details. They are too complicated. But some of them are important. The alarms went off, and the lockdown went out over the speakers. Students were screaming. I started throwing things against the door. Loud bangs were going off. Several of the students were helping me. Then a part of the door exploded inward, and my left shoulder went numb, and the world slowed down.
Later, I was told that I dragged two students back from the door as I fell. We had piled enough stuff on the door that the deranged student couldn't get in. Others weren't so lucky. I lost colleagues. I lost friends. The school lost students. Parents lost children. After the pain came and came hard, I started to recover. But I also had changed. I WAS PISSED. Nerdy me began to do research; angry me began to plan to make sure this would never happen again.
I got into politics. The local congressman never did anything. I mean literally. He wasn't on any committees. He hadn't proposed a bill that had passed in 25 years. Worst of all, recently, he hadn't even held a town hall in several years to meet with his constituents. And as nerdy me started to do more research, I learned that he took a lot of money from the gun lobby. Like I said, I was mad. So I started calling around. Local press, radio, anyone who would listen. And then, all of a sudden, they did. I was on TV. I was in the newspaper. And then I was a candidate. Me. A nerdy history teacher was running for congress. I had no real plan other than to talk to people. Tell them what I had been through and the history behind it. Try to connect with them. There was no money. We had a massive uphill battle..... AND IT WORKED!!!! So here I am, Ted Bates, taking the oath of office to be a congressman for the great state of Ohio. Where the hell do I live?!?!?!
"Here is your orientation packet," says Mike Edwards, my chief of staff. The DNC sent him over after I won. I didn't know I needed one, and neither did they until I won.
"Thanks. Where is the part where it talks about housing?" I said, flipping through the manual.
"Huh"
"Living space. Apartment. Home. I can't live in the office when I'm not at home. And with what I get paid, I can't afford D.C. prices. So what do I do?"
"Most congressmen and women are lawyers or businessmen. Few of them are shot in the dark teachers or baristas or taxi drivers like you."
"Oh, so I shouldn't be here!?!?!?"
"No man, just no one expected you to run the most successful grassroots campaign in 30 years!!!! You were amazing, but no one thought you would win. That is why I'm here. When you started to pull ahead in the polls, they asked us who wanted to help, and no one raised their hands. I was an intern and realized what you had going. I knew you had it. So I volunteered, and now we are going to kick ass. The problem is you still don't have an apartment. You need to find one like everyone else."
Fortunately, I wasn't alone. There were several other young congressmen and women in my class that needed a place to shack up. After a few phone calls, I had met Eddie Jones of Pennsylvania. He was a former marine who was representing a district in Philadelphia. And Raj Kahn of Michigan was a local representative who had unseated a long-term politician, just like I had. We thought we would be fine until we heard the prices. We knew we needed another renter.
"Hey, I saw the ad," said a young woman.
"For the apartment? I thought that only went to congressional representatives."
"It did," said the voice. I thought this was impossible. I had sent it out to the entire DNCC list of reps. I hadn't heard back from any women. How was this possible?
"I'm Maddie Crawford from South Carolina. Yes, I'm a Republican, but I need a room. Apparently, you guys have the last good spot in town."
I was taken aback. I wasn't sure it would work until I heard the voice on the other end of the phone say, "Please...."
We held a house meeting. The guys were ok so long as there were rules. We were all single. Eddie was gay. None of this could become a house business. Nobody looked at each other's papers, even those of us from the same party. Maddie agreed. She was legitimately desperate and swore that she wasn't a religious nut, just conservative. She didn't care who we slept with; so long as we all played by the house rules, she was in.
Honestly, things worked out well. Raj and I were good cooks, and we both liked doing it. Eddie was just happy the food was military fare and that he didn't have to cook it. Maddie made sure that the place wasn't filthy and convinced all of us that upside-down boxes weren't furniture. Best of all for me, she was a baseball fan. Sure she liked Atlanta, and I liked Cincinnati, but at least we could talk about it. It kept politics in the office and gave us something to tease each other about.
Work, on the other hand, sucked. Everything you heard about Washington was true. You spent most of your day in a committee meeting talking about a continuing resolution for a bridge in Oregon or a base in Arizona. When you weren't doing that, you were raising money. I made sure that I talked to real people as much as possible, taking advantage of virtual town halls and social media, but still, I felt like a robot. Everybody was so two-faced—friends in the halls, enemies when the cameras were on. I got into trouble early by thinking that I was talking to a Republican who offered to take me to lunch. He told me why he had come to town, and I told him how I wanted to talk about gun reform. He said he understood and thought there was room to maneuver on it. Sure enough, though the next day, the conservative news channel was giddy with the news that Congressman Bates was going to take everyone's guns. I was more careful from then on.
Finally, in September, my chance came. After another shooting in Texas, there was finally a push to do something. A bill made it through committee. It wasn't perfect, but it was something. My party controlled the House so that the bill would make it to the floor. The vote was the next day. Everybody was preparing their floor speeches. I knew I had to make my point.
After what felt like days but was just a few hours, I thought I had it. I only got to talk for one minute, but I had drafted it and had my staff check it at least ten times. They thought it was good, and Mike told me to go home, relax, and get some sleep.
I sat on the couch and turned on the game. It was two west coast teams, but I didn't care. A few innings would help me relax. I heard someone come into the room behind me. It was Maddie.
