Skurdulka VS Bystander: A Queer Family Horror Story (Complete!)

Part 7: OurCity Standard

For the first match, Chris chose Marth, a blue-haired, anime character with a long sword and quick movements, while Peter picked Donkey Kong, the large, slow, but powerful ape that was nearly impossible to knock off the stage. He randomly, and wordlessly, selected computer player characters, too. Chris was glad; playing one-on-one against Peter was nearly impossible, and it was way too obvious when he let Chris or Ash win.

"Hey, did you talk to Rennie today?" Ash asked.

"Yeah, I was over there this morning." Chris didn't take their eyes off the screen. They knew that Ash knew what that meant—that Chris slept over at Rennie's place—but it still felt too weird to say outright. Dating Ash's sister, thankfully, hadn't created any awkward distance, like they feared. They all had fun hanging out together. But Chris knew there were lines—and talking about sleeping with his sister was one of them.

"Are her roommates still being weird?"

Chris frowned. "Yeah."

"Did you ever say anything? To them or to Rennie?"

Shrugging a shoulder, Chris tried to focus on the game and not the lie forming on their lips. "I dunno, it's not a big deal." Relationship problems were another line. Not that Rennie's roommates were really a relationship problem. At least, Chris hoped not. They told Ash that Rennie's roommates didn't like them, but stopped there. They hadn't told Ash about Carly and Madison's habit of misgendering them. Ash would probably confront the two of them, maybe Rennie too, if he knew. And the prospect of that amount of drama—on top of a full class load, which seemed to be getting heavier all the time—was just too much. Still, tip-toeing around the growing number of pitfall-trap topics Chris didn't want to bring up around Ash was unsettling.

Thankfully, Ash didn't press them. "Did she say if she was going home this weekend?" he asked instead.

"No, I can text her though. Are you? Going home?" Chris glanced quickly, barely dodging Donkey Kong's flying haymaker, and making Marth flee to the other side of the platform.

"I..." Ash hesitated. "I dunno. Maybe. I was gonna go to a thing on the floor but..."

"Ah, shit." A well-timed hit from the computer-controlled Pikachu sent Marth flying off the stage, with little hope of recovery. Leaning in, Chris tried to recover, but graceful Marth's flips through the air didn't get close enough. "Fuck."

"I'll avenge you," Peter vowed. Donkey Kong made a B-line for Pikachu.

Scooting the chair back a bit, Ash glanced at the screen. "Did you die?"

"Yeah. Fucking Pikachu." With a wry smile, Chris shook their head. "You gonna play?"

"In a sec. Come here. Have you seen this?" Ash's eyebrows drew in as he studied Chris. That look evaporated the relaxation just starting to form in Chris's chest.

"Seen what?" Chris stood up, leaning in to see Ash's computer.

"This." As he turned back to the screen, the white-blue glow of a Facebook page lit his face. His furrowed brow darkened his eyes as he studied the page. Glancing once more at Ash, Chris scanned the page. The top post caught their eyes first. From the first bit of the paragraph showing, looked like a news story. But it wasn't from any news source Chris had ever heard of.

Lesbian Teacher Fired For Inappropriate Conduct

A lesbian teacher at West Central High School was fired this week after numerous incidents advancing a radical gay agenda in the classroom. Ms. Monica Breiner, a lesbian teaching English and History at West Central High School, was warned repeatedly by administrators to keep to the curriculum, but continued to lecture on her lifestyle and sexual practices. The students, some as young as 14 years old...