1.
There was a tongue in his mouth, coconut-scented tresses in his face, and nope, he was definitely gay. Russell gently yet firmly pushed Trish away.
"Trish, you're great, but I can't do this," he told her earnestly, edging to the opposite side of the car.
The blonde had a look of confusion that was rapidly turning into hurt. She sat up.
"I don't get it," she whispered, voice trembling. "Am I not pretty enough? I thought that you liked me."
Her blue, long-lashed eyes were shiny with soon-to-fall tears. Goddammit. Russell wanted Trish to stop trying to make - advances (God, he sounded like a Victorian-era maiden) on him, but he didn't want to hurt her in the process.
So he hastily exclaimed, "I do!"
However, before Trish could take that as a suggestion to continue what they were doing before, Russell added:
"I think you're a nice girl. And pretty. But I-I don't like girls in general. That way. Sorry."
Fuck, what did he just admit? Shit, shit, shit. This was not how that he had pictured admitting his sexuality to someone else for the first time: in a creepy, dimly lit alleyway, with a homeless guy peering through the windshield of a girl's minivan.
"Oh. Oh."
Well, at least the hurt on her face had completely vanished, replaced by astonishment.
"I haven't even told Gunnar yet; I just didn't want to lead you on any longer. So if you could please, please not tell anyone?" Russell pleaded.
Trish gave him a small but sincere smile. She really was very pretty. Perhaps, if he were a different guy, the two of them would have been great together. But, as things were, it was a different blond entirely that he wanted to date.
"You're a good guy, Russell Middlebrook," Trish responded softly. "I won't tell anyone, not even Kimberly,"
Russell let out a breath he hadn't even known he was holding.
She went on with a slightly impish tilt to her lips.
"I have to confess, it makes me feel a lot better that it's my gender you're not interested in and not specifically me as a person."
He chuckled. "Yeah, there is actually a -"
They were suddenly interrupted by a shout of the homeless man, who was still there, Jesus Christ.
"So. Creepy." Russell thumped his head against the headrest for emphasis.
Trish giggled. "Okay, fine. You're right. We should finish our chat in a less sketchy area."
As they pulled away in Trish's minivan, Russell had to grin. Maybe things hadn't gone the way he expected them to go tonight, but he was glad the way everything turned out. He got rid of an unwanted admirer and made a new friend, all in one evening.
Not bad, Russell Middlebrook, not bad.
2.
"Go on, put the lipstick on him," urged Jared.
Russell glanced at the tube in his fingers. He honestly despised Jared and Nolan; they were the worst type of jocks, mean and overconfident. But they were Kevin's friends. If they started to doubt that he was one of "them", he wouldn't be able to hang out with the blond quarterback in public anymore. Brian was already dressed in a bra and a skirt. Putting the finishing touches wouldn't do that much harm, right?
Then Russell moved his gaze to Brian and flinched. It wasn't the shame or fear in those eyes, but the resigned acceptance that convinced him to cap the lipstick and toss it away.
What the hell had he been thinking? Being allowed around Kevin wasn't worth hurting another human being, especially somebody who had been hurt so deeply that he expected pain and betrayal as his due. If Russell had gone through with putting the lipstick on Brian, it would have made him just as bad as the bonehead jocks next to him.
"Are you chickening out?" asked Nolan with disgust. "Don't be a fucking pussy."
The caged hope in Brian's eyes was killing him and further solidified his decision.
"This is not okay," Russell informed the two angrily. "Nobody deserves to be bullied and harassed like this."
Breaking off his tirade, he turned to Brian and shrugged off his jacket.
"Here, sit up and put this on."
As he helped Brian get to his feet, the poor teen was whispering, "Thank you," over and over again. Russell's conscience twinged at the dark path he had almost taken. For once he was going to do the right thing, no matter the consequences.
But Nolan and Jared stood in his way. Literally. They were blocking the closet door.
The black football player sneered, "You walk out with him, and we'll count you as part of his league of losers from now on."
Russell gave the duo a once-over and then said with a quiet certainty, "I'd rather be a loser than a bully and a coward."
He pushed past them with Brian under his arm and his protection, letting the closet door slam shut behind him with a sense of finality.
3.
"Everybody in school thinks I slept with her!" Russell exclaimed in frustration.
Gunnar raised an eyebrow. "And that is a bad thing because..."
The brunette tossed the list of baby instructions onto the bed and started pacing in the limited space of the room.
"Because?" Gunnar prompted again, starting to sound irritated with his friend's ungratefulness.
"Because I like somebody else, okay? A boy! So would you please stop trying to get me and Trish together?" Russell shouted.
The look of shock on the other boy's face would have been hilarious if the situation hadn't been so tense.
"You're my best friend, Gunnar, and I'm tired of keeping secrets from you. I know that you're really into Kimberly and you want me and Trish to double-date with you guys or whatever, but it's not going to happen. This is the one thing I refuse to change about myself. If you give a shit about me, you wouldn't be pressuring me into this situation."
The room was filled with the sound of harsh breathing. Russell rarely spoke this long at once, let alone with so much passion. As if his strings were cut, he sat down on the bed.
Finally, his childhood friend spoke. Gunnar was a perpetual asshole, so Russell probably should have anticipated what happened next.
In a falsetto:
"For heaven's sake, you might have told me this a little earlier. It would have been useful to know before we had dear little Eliza."
Gunnar wiggled the one-eyed baby's plastic arm for emphasis. The doll promptly released a loud electronic wail that Russell knew from experience would take close to an hour to stop.
The two boys looked at each other for one long moment. Then, they burst out into laughter.
Sides sore from the guffawing, Russell flopped onto the comforter. Gunnar joined him.
"I'm sorry I didn't notice you lost ten pounds," the brunette offered after a moment.
The portly blond sniffed."Yeah, you should be. I'm wearing skinny jeans, man. And I guess that I'm sorry too. I am the one who hasn't been acting like much of a friend lately."
"Apology accepted," Russell murmured, staring at the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling that he and Gunnar had put up when they were in their third-grade astronaut phase. God, he was glad that his friend had taken the news so well. The two of them had been so close for so long that it had felt unnatural keeping an entire section of his life hidden.
"That is so unfair that all the ladies dig you. It's like throwing pearls in front of a pig!" Gunnar complained.
Moment over then.
"Yes, that's exactly it," Russell snorted.
Gunnar nudged him. "Come on, you know what this means, right?"
"That I have to tell Trish I'm not interested in her because of her gender?" the brunette retorted sarcastically.
"Nah buddy," his friend crowed, "it means there are more ladies than ever now for the G-man!"
+1
Kevin took one step, then another. His heart was pounding so hard that he could hardly hear the bustle of the hallway. Finally, he reached Nolan, Jared, and the crowd in front of Room 327.
"What's up," he greeted his teammates. His voice was surprisingly steady.
"Yo," Jared replied, "we're just seeing how many secret homos there are in this school. Crazy, this GSA thing."
Nolan added, "There's been like ten of them so far. Including Brian Bund, can you believe it? I always thought he was a little faggot, but this is proof! Don't even get me started on Middlebrook."
Some of the people gathered there laughed, but a good deal of them averted their eyes and even glared at the two athletes. Huh. Good to know that not everyone there was here to harass new members of the former Geography Club.
Kevin took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"Eleven."
The hallway went quiet. Jared started chuckling, but everyone else was wide-eyed and silent. His black teammate soon noticed the change in atmosphere.
"Wait, seriously? Are you kidding me?"
The quarterback just gazed back patiently.
"Well, you're off the fucking team then. We can't have no gays in our locker room, peeping at us."
Kevin tensed. This, this was what he had been afraid of. He loved football; it would kill him to not be able to play. Luckily, the words came to him.
"I'm the captain, so that's not your decision. You already pushed Russell away; he was the best damn runner we've had in years, and you know it. We barely won the game last Friday. That victory was thanks to me. Take me off the team, and see what happens to our average. See what happens to your football scholarships for college."
The more he spoke, the more confident he got. By the time he finished his speech, Nolan and Jared seemed pissed but clearly knew that they were ham-stringed by the situation. Kevin scanned the crowd behind them. Most of them still appeared vaguely concussed by shock. Nothing he could do about that.
The blond turned and began heading towards Room 327.
Nolan tried one last time. "Is Middlebrook your fucking boyfriend, is that what this is?"
Kevin paused. He thought of Russell. Smart, kind, beautiful Russell who had looked so hurt yesterday in the gym shed. Smart, kind, beautiful Russell who deserved a boyfriend he could call a boyfriend in public.
Without turning around, he said, "Yeah. He is."
Kevin Land walked into that classroom and into the light.