Young Writers Society

Frey

As soon as we get home, I go straight upstairs, avoiding Asteria and Juno’s verbal battle. What you have to understand is that I have three sisters. There is no shortage of "girl talk," in this house, and some days it drives me crazy.

Reginald peeks behind Juno’s door, asking me with his monkey eyes whether Juno is home.

“You might want to wait, Reggie,” I say, scratching him under the chin. “The girls are a nuclear bomb waiting to detonate.” I slip into my room, put my stuff down, and check my phone. A text from an unknown number–Adrian?–makes my heart freak out.

Come over. I’m bored. - Adrian

I grin like an absolute idiot. Adrian lives just down the street, I think to myself. I could be there in three minutes tops. Maybe that's why he never bothered to give me his number before today. But, wait, what about the girls? They won’t be mad for long, will they? I start typing.

I’ll be right there. You’d better have food waiting for me.

I shrug at my unfinished Brit Lit assignment and head downstairs. I hear Asteria and Juno digging into each other.

“I’ve never had a guy like me before,” Juno is saying when I get to the kitchen. “You can have whoever you want!”

Juno’s never really liked Ben, but I guess when you think your blindness makes you less beautiful, you feel inclined to take what you can get.

“You’ve had a guy like you before, and you know it,” Asteria says, and I can see it on her face as soon as she says it. Shame written all over, scrawled on her cheeks, etched into her eyes. Juno takes a step back, absorbing the blow of the words, remembering the incident we all choose to forget every single day.

“Juno, I–”

“Forget it, Asteria,” Juno says quietly. She wipes her eyes with the back of her right hand, smearing the eyeliner Asteria had applied that morning. “I don’t even like Ben that much anyway. I guess I’m just a little desperate–” she gestures to her dead eyes, which makes me upset because she doesn’t know that we all can see past her blindness, even if she can’t. “It’s fine, Asteria.”

“No, it’s not,” Asteria insists, taking Juno’s shoulder in one hand. “What I said...it was a low blow.” There’s a silence. It sits between us. “Look, if you want to get to know Ben, you can hang out with him at the Lock-In on Friday. But that’s it.” Asteria’s voice reminds me of water freezing and melting. “No dating. I still have dibs, remember?” Juno agrees, and they hug.

“Uh, guys?” I say, waving a hand. “I’m gonna go over to Adrian’s for a bit. I’ll be home for dinner.”

“Have fun, princess,” Asteria calls as I walk out the door. I roll my eyes.

Roughly three minutes later, Adrian pulls me by my shirt collar into his house.

“Well, hello to you, too,” I say, somewhat breathlessly. Adrian laughs.

“I thought we could celebrate–or mourn, depending on your outlook– the beginning of our last year in high school with a little movie-and-Cheez-Its party,” Adrian says. We walk into a very open, light-filled kitchen. On the granite counter sits a big bowl of cheddar Cheez-Its, a personal favorite of mine.

“You have your choice between 21 Jump Street, Paranormal Activity 3, or West Side Story.”

“Is that even a question?” I ask, popping three Cheez-Its into my mouth.

“West Side Story?”

“True to our theatre geekiness!” I laugh. Adrian sets up Netflix on the TV and I decide where to sit. Adrian’s sitting on the couch, so if I want this to be a cuddly kind of movie, I’d of course sit with him... But I don’t want to come on too strong, and I certainly don’t want to make him uncomfortable, since he just came out to our families two months ago. He and I are both closeted as far as school is concerned, so I don’t want to cause any scandal–

“Frey,” Adrian says, waving a hand in front of my face.

“Yeah?”

“Sit on down,” he says, pointing to a nearby armchair. Ah, I see. We’re starting this slowly. I like it better that way.

Throughout the entire movie, it’s as if we were two straight guys casually watching a romantic musical together. We talk and laugh about how weird it is that we’re seniors, about what character is our favorite, how much we love old movies, and why we like musicals. And I love every second of it.

“I wonder who would play who if we put this show on at school,” Adrian says about halfway through. He passes the half-empty bowl of Cheez-Its to me.

“I’d be Riff,” I joke. For those of you who are theatrically un-cultured, Riff is the leader of the Jets, a gang in New York. Adrian grins.

“I’d be Bernardo,” he says. Again, for you more sports-inclined folks, Bernardo is the leader of the Sharks, the rival gang of the Jets.

“But they’re rivals,” I point out. Adrian shrugs.

“The best real-life friends make the best onstage rivals!” Adrian drones, quoting our director. I roll my eyes. Our director is full of shit. Still, I can’t ignore the buzzing in my head saying, He said best friends! We’re getting somewhere.

The movie ends and the credits roll in a weird silence that seems to beg the question, “What now?” Adrian answers it.

“Can I talk to you?” He fidgets. I remember saying and doing exactly the same thing when I first came out.

“Of course. You know you can talk to me about anything,” I reassure him. Adrian takes a deep breath.

“Do you ever...like...plan on coming out to the rest of the school?”

I thought for a moment. I nod slowly.

“When I’m ready,” I say. “My family has always supported me in my decisions, and up until now, they’ve supported me being closeted. So, for now, no. But maybe in college or maybe even before we graduate if I’m brave enough.” Adrian doesn’t speak, so I ask. “Why are you asking?”

Adrian takes another deep breath.

“Because... I want you to come out with me,” he says. “Both of us. Together.”

Asteria's friends will totally love that, I think to myself.

"I'll think about it," I say after a pregnant pause. Adrian nods, looking down at his hands.

Together, is all I can think as I walk home, minutes later.