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Authors: Josh Aterovis
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cut short by my arrival at the school campus. In my distracted state, I had apparently been driving quite a bit over the speed limit. I was lucky no cops had been out on the highway. I was now a bit early, but I decided to head to the meeting place anyway.
I made my way to Wicomico Hall by way of the maze of brick walkways that criss -crossed the campus. As I approached the Hall, I noticed several people standing and talking in the illumination of the old fashioned light posts, one of which was Noah. So he'd arrived early too. He looked up and caught my eye as I approached. His face immediately broke into a smile. He said something to the guy he was talking to and broke away, walking towards me.
“Hey, Killian,” he said warmly. “I didn't know if you would come or not.”
“I came,” I said, showing off my amazing talent of stating the obvious.
“Well good,” he said without a trace of sarcasm or teasing. “Let me introduce you to a couple people.” He led me back to the group of people he had been talking to. There were two guys and a girl. “Everybody, this is Killian,” he said and they all turned to face me wearing polite smiles. “This is Peter,” he said, indicating the short, pudgy guy he'd been talking to when I'd arrived. He had straight, mousy brown hair, almost no discernable lips, and dull brown eyes. All in all, he was pretty average, probably not someone you'd look at twice in a crowd. “Peter is the co-president of Haven. The other co-president is Val; she'll be here eventually. She's always late.” He pointed to the other guy. “This is Ray, he's the secretary, and that's Tanya.” Ray and Tanya waved cheerily. Ray looked like a tiny bundle of energy. He hadn't stopped moving since I'd arrived; he was constantly hopping and bouncing from one foot to the other, or dancing to music that only he could hear. He looked Hawaiian or Filipino: small, dark complexion, straight black hair, and huge dark eyes. Tanya was a little on the heavy side with pale blonde hair that she'd cut short with tufts dyed blue, to match her eyes I guess.
“Come on,” Noah said, “I'll show you where we meet. See you guys, inside in a few minutes,” he said to the others before he set off for the doors, leaving me to trot along beside him.
“I'm never going to remember everyone's names,” I said as we stepped inside.
“Don't worry about it. We'll probably do one of those annoying introduction things tonight where everybody says their name, major and what shampoo they use or something like that. Peter seems unusually fond of them, but I guess they serve their purpose. You know, I just assumed from your necklace that you were gay, but I never really asked. Are you?”
“Would I be here if I wasn't?”
He shrugged. “I just figure it's never safe to assume anything. So you are?”
“Yeah.”
“And should I assume from the necklace that you're out?”
“Pretty much. I mean, my family and friends all know and I don't make any effort to hide it. For the most part, I came out in high school. I had a boyfriend and practically everyone in the school knew we were a couple, even though we didn't make a big deal out of it.”
“That's cool. So when you said you had a boyfriend did you mean that in the past tense, as in you no longer have a boyfriend?”
I glanced over at him and saw him look at me from the corner of his eye. Was his interest merely polite conversation or was there something more behind it? I decided that clearing things up now might save us both trouble. “I dated the guy from high school for about two years, but we broke up at the beginning of last summer. I'm seeing someone else now.”
“That's cool,” he said casually, but I thought I saw a flash of disappointment. It's just your imagination
I made my way to Wicomico Hall by way of the maze of brick walkways that criss -crossed the campus. As I approached the Hall, I noticed several people standing and talking in the illumination of the old fashioned light posts, one of which was Noah. So he'd arrived early too. He looked up and caught my eye as I approached. His face immediately broke into a smile. He said something to the guy he was talking to and broke away, walking towards me.
“Hey, Killian,” he said warmly. “I didn't know if you would come or not.”
“I came,” I said, showing off my amazing talent of stating the obvious.
“Well good,” he said without a trace of sarcasm or teasing. “Let me introduce you to a couple people.” He led me back to the group of people he had been talking to. There were two guys and a girl. “Everybody, this is Killian,” he said and they all turned to face me wearing polite smiles. “This is Peter,” he said, indicating the short, pudgy guy he'd been talking to when I'd arrived. He had straight, mousy brown hair, almost no discernable lips, and dull brown eyes. All in all, he was pretty average, probably not someone you'd look at twice in a crowd. “Peter is the co-president of Haven. The other co-president is Val; she'll be here eventually. She's always late.” He pointed to the other guy. “This is Ray, he's the secretary, and that's Tanya.” Ray and Tanya waved cheerily. Ray looked like a tiny bundle of energy. He hadn't stopped moving since I'd arrived; he was constantly hopping and bouncing from one foot to the other, or dancing to music that only he could hear. He looked Hawaiian or Filipino: small, dark complexion, straight black hair, and huge dark eyes. Tanya was a little on the heavy side with pale blonde hair that she'd cut short with tufts dyed blue, to match her eyes I guess.
“Come on,” Noah said, “I'll show you where we meet. See you guys, inside in a few minutes,” he said to the others before he set off for the doors, leaving me to trot along beside him.
“I'm never going to remember everyone's names,” I said as we stepped inside.
“Don't worry about it. We'll probably do one of those annoying introduction things tonight where everybody says their name, major and what shampoo they use or something like that. Peter seems unusually fond of them, but I guess they serve their purpose. You know, I just assumed from your necklace that you were gay, but I never really asked. Are you?”
“Would I be here if I wasn't?”
He shrugged. “I just figure it's never safe to assume anything. So you are?”
“Yeah.”
“And should I assume from the necklace that you're out?”
“Pretty much. I mean, my family and friends all know and I don't make any effort to hide it. For the most part, I came out in high school. I had a boyfriend and practically everyone in the school knew we were a couple, even though we didn't make a big deal out of it.”
“That's cool. So when you said you had a boyfriend did you mean that in the past tense, as in you no longer have a boyfriend?”
I glanced over at him and saw him look at me from the corner of his eye. Was his interest merely polite conversation or was there something more behind it? I decided that clearing things up now might save us both trouble. “I dated the guy from high school for about two years, but we broke up at the beginning of last summer. I'm seeing someone else now.”
“That's cool,” he said casually, but I thought I saw a flash of disappointment. It's just your imagination
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