It's common for gay kids in high school to crush over straight guys. Maybe even more so, when if you're still in the closet. When I went to high school in the 90's, there weren't any kids really 'out', at least not that I knew of. There were a few girls who called themselves 'girlfriends', but they both ended up married with children.... The only guys to crush over were 'straight', and it was a constant battle to keep those feelings under wrap.
I think many of us have had that fantasy of meeting up with that hot 'straight' stud from high school you fantasied about, and finding out he secretly also fantasied about you. That's sort of the feeling I get whenever I see a picture or movie featuring Chad Michael Murray. There is something about Murray, and I know many of you also feel it, that stirs the ole loins every time I see him.
I actually haven't seen much of Murray's work. My crush on Murray was formed through images, mostly through teen magazines from the early 2000's. I remember his face, often looking like he was stoned out of his tree, and his incredibly tight body. I remember his many shirtless pin-ups, and his beautiful suckabale nipples. Those photo shoots and pin-ups were powerful thirst traps, years before the term was conceived and became popular on social media.
I do remember his sexy bad boy Tristin on
Gilmore Girls and those hot scenes with Murray in his grey boxer briefs during his short stint on
Dawson's Creek. I never got around however to really watching
One Tree Hill. I tried, and I certainly caught his naked basketball walk down the hallway at at school, but I didn't get much beyond that episode early in the show's run.
One Tree Hill
I did however recently catch a repeat of one of Murray's Hallmark movies, this one, the summer themed
The Beach House. Those high school crush feelings came running back. No the wasn't a gay storyline, although Hallmark promises they're coming. The flick was one of Hallmark's trademark '
coming home' stories. You know the ones, girl from the big city returns home for a visit, but rekindles a high school relationship and learns her childhood home is where she really belongs.
Those Pin-ups, see what I mean....
The Beach House was a tearjerker, although really not that sad. It was actually quite an enjoyable escape flick, great for summer viewing and provoking dreams of owning a beach house. For the last 9 years, the same group of friends and I have rented a house near, not on, the beach, but this year, it's off due to Covid. I love waking up to crashing waves and the constant feel of sand in everything. This film made me both sad about the cancelled trip, while at the same time, acting as sort of a post card to great memories.
Chad Michael Murray is also like a post card, to a time I was younger, and to those straight guys I lusted over. Murray's sexual charisma has not dimmed a bit for me, and although my connections to his career are fleeting, when I see him, I'm always taken back to when I first saw him, in those many roles and those many shows where he played a high school student. As hot he was then, for me, he's even hotter now.