A Very Queer Reality

(Chapter 19) Falling Back Into Place

Kelsey, Casey, and Summer were at school Monday for the first time in a week. Finally we were the four of us there again. Everything was back to normal. Back to us. 

It was wonderful.

But gym period told a different story. Kelsey and I shared a gym period as rotation one of six of the classes. Fourth rotation, just after the period after lunch. Girls and boys had separate changing rooms/locker rooms. Some people just changed in the bathrooms, like me. I did it mainly because some boys would give me dirty looks if I changed with them because apparently my sexuality was public news for public discrimination. Kelsey, however, had no shame in changing in the girls' room. 'None of the girls in there are worth gawking at' she claimed, also saying the human body shouldn't be so sexualized that teenagers are afraid to be around others' underwear-clad bodies.

I was walking back from the bathroom to the gym when Kelsey came running out of the gym and plowed right into me. I wrapped my arms around her. She was crying, but that was all I could tell.

"Kelsey. Kelsey," I tried to calm her down, "Honey, what happened?" She backed up, looked at me at eye level. She was shaking, silently crying in calm streams, but more than that she looked 4000% done and was bleeding from her nose and forehead.

"I want to scream," she whispered with clenched teeth. "She elbowed my ribs." Her broken ribs.

"Who did this?!" I practically yelled. I was sure I knew.

"Jennifer," she confirmed my suspicions. 

"That bi-" I took a deep breath, "I swear to God. Is she in the gym?"

"Kyle, please don't do anything. It's okay. I don't want to get people in trouble."

I sighed heavily, "Okay, fine." 

All through gym, I glared at Jenifer where she played volleyball with some other girls. Kelsey had gone to the nurse and hadn't come back. She had told me that she was going to tell the nurse t hat she slipped and fell into the bench in the changing room, which was technically true according to her.

The rest of the day, I was kind of on edge, but sitting with Casey at lunch had put my mind a little at ease. Beginning the walk home was when it fell apart again.

"Hey you!" a familiar Jennifer's boyfriend pushed me into a wall, grabbing the collar of my shirt to seem intimidating. He would've been, but I was extremely done with everyone involved there. 

I looked up at him with a glare, "What?" I spat angrily.

"Tell your little girlfriend to stay away from mine," he growls.

"My what? Kelsey?? Okay, first off: I'm gay, she's gay and she's an individual. Do you know what that means? She is her own person, not owned by any person or relationship." 

"That's the problem- she's a lesbian in a girls' changing room. She tried to make a move on Jen. Keep that dyke away from my woman." He cussed in my face, his spit just missing my face. 

"What did you just call my best friend?" I yelled up at him, trying my luck at pushing him back...to no avail.

"I called her by what she is," he got this proud look on his face like he'd just made the best comeback, "what're you gonna do about it." Again, I struggled, pushing him away but barely moving him at all. I  closed my eyes and focused all my strength into my arms, punching him in the shoulder and the side of his face. He laughed, getting this wild look in his eyes, "Oh, boy, you shouldn't have done that."

"Then what should he have done?" a voice called behind him, Casey's voice. My shoulder was on fire with pain, from the pressure of the jock's grip, which was now releasing as he turned to face Casey, and from the force with which I had been trying to get him away. Then the pressure was fully released and in front of me was nothing at eye level. Casey had gotten a good punch in to my attacker's face, knocking him to the wall beside me, which he hit hard with his massive muscular weight, resulting in his ultimate fall to the ground. Casey stood, breathing hard, sniffing as he looked from the jock to me. "Self defense," he muttered to the jock while his gaze remained locked with mine. My eyes were wide, "Kyle was doing what he should have- he was trying to get away. You were attacking him, physically, mentally. Tell me who's in the wrong now," Casey's words were full of bitterness. He flinched at the jock, as to make another move, faking him out; a quick scramble of testosterone and fear was all I saw of the bully that day. He was gone. Casey rushed the few steps between us wrapping his arms around my waist and burying his head into my good shoulder, hugging me tightly, breathing in. I breathed him in, too, closing my eyes and wrapping my arms around him as well.