Read Online Totally Joe by James Howe - Free Book Online Page B

Jimmy—”
    â€œThe Twin Faces of Evil,” I corrected him.
    â€œFine. The Twin Faces of Evil. It’s just unfair of them to spread it around school.”
    â€œBut we weren’t kissing!”
    Bobby nodded, like,
uh-huh, whatever
.
    I know I said before that I liked kissing, that I called it “getting smoochy” and all that. But that was when I was little and wasn’t talking about doing the kissing myself. Not
that
kind of kissing, anyway. I mean, bumping elbows is one thing, and holding hands is awesome, but actually putting your mouth on somebody else’s mouth and exchanging saliva?
Ewww!
    It got even worse after history. We went to our lockers. Mine had I ♥ COLIN on it, and Colin’s, which is across the hall from mine, had I ♥ JOE on it. Kelsey said we should report it to Mr. Kiley right away, but I said no, because I didn’t know if Colin had even seen it and I didn’t want to make things worse for him. Luckily, we were able to get the writing off both lockers pretty easily with some paper towels and soap. (Whoever did it must have used really cheap markers.) (As if I don’t know who did it.) While we were waiting for Colin to show up so we could walk to lunch together, I made Bobby and Kelsey promise they wouldn’t tell him what had happened.
    But Colin never showed up, so we walked to the cafeteria by ourselves. Guess where he was! Not at our table, where he’d been sitting for weeks. No, he and Drew were at their old table, sitting with their other friends. I couldn’t believe this was happening. It was even worsethan the Halloween party. It was like he’d turned me invisible—and all because of a stupid rumor that wasn’t true! I started to go over to his table, but Bobby pulled me back.
    â€œDon’t, Joe,” he said. “Just leave him alone.”
    I knew he was right. Whatever I would have said or done would only have made it worse.
    It was then that I noticed how everybody was whispering and looking back and forth between me and Colin. Well, maybe not everybody, but it totally felt that way.
    When we got to our table, Addie was blabbing away about what an outrage this kissing thing was, and how we needed to do something about it, and what we needed to do was start a GSA.
    â€œA what?” I said.
    â€œA GSA—a gay-straight alliance,” Addie explained. “It’s like a club where gay kids and straight kids meet and talk about things. And one of the things they talk about is how to make school a safe place for everyone. For heaven’s sake, Joe, if you and Colin want to kiss, you have every right to. It shouldn’t have to turn up as tabloid trash the next day in school!”
    (Addie talks like this, what can I say?)
    â€œWe did not kiss,” I told her.
    She shrugged. “Whatever.” What
was
it with my friends?
    DuShawn grinned at me and waggled his eyebrows. “Don’t knock it till you try it,” he said. “It’s sweeeeet.”
    â€œDuShawn!” Addie said, jabbing him and turning as red as the streak in my hair. I couldn’t help noticing she was smiling, though.
    All of a sudden I got this picture in my head of Addie and DuShawn kissing, but because I didn’t want to totally lose my appetite (or my lunch), I pushed it away as fast as I could.
    I honestly don’t remember much about the rest of the day. I was kind of in a state of shock or something. Even without thinking about Addie and DuShawn kissing, I could hardly eat my lunch. It wasn’t the rumors that were getting to me as much as the fact that Colin was sitting at his old table and never even once turned around and looked my way. Addie was going on and on about this whole GSA thing, as if being gay and twelve (or thirteen) (Colin is thirteen) and accused of kissing your boyfriend in public were suddenly her personal problems.
    I tried talking to Colin between classes later, but he just