August 16th: First day of school at NorthRiver Academy and of course my first block is gym. We gather around our mascot —a silver raven—painted elegantly on the glazed wood floor, to get our locker combinations which is important here because majority of your grade depends on dressing out. I looked around at my peers who I've known practically my whole life as they naturally gather in their cliques and I stand alone.
Oops! I almost forgot to introduce myself I'm Jeremy Galvin, 15 , 5"9 and obviously the most important characteristic: gay....
its never been that big of a struggle in new groups because at first glance you can't really tell, but after a conversation with me it becomes pretty clear. My type has always been more athletic, dark-brown, boys with a lot of personality.
As we move into the larger than expected locker room I see I where all the money we raised for the football team went, my locker- 329 has a simple combination of 17-5-23...or was it 24? Well who cares I'm already dressed out enough due to the weather, it was a hot day in Tampa so for my first day outfit were lightweight Nike shorts (with white socks to match),a white fitted polo tee shirt, and Birkenstocks because I prefer comfortable footwear. Luckily I have running shoes in my bag I packed for track tryouts which I changed into after my 30th attempt at the lock. As I stuff my sandals into my already too full backpack a make sure I haven't left anything and make my way to the door, I noticed everyone had cleared out for the most part.
*Dang how long was I in here* I think as I reach for the door handle
"Yo!" I hear from down the lanes of lockers which startled me assuming I was alone
"Um hello?" I say curiously slowly making my way from the door
"Can you help me with my lock real quick"
"Yea coming" I say slightly annoyed making my way through the maze-like rows and columns.
Once I make my final turn, three rows and two columns left of my starting point I see a slightly embarrassed brown face staring at me who seems to be rather young, though I still get confused for a freshman myself. After a beat of awkward eye contact I find my words:
"Oh so what did you need help with?" I say already knowing the answer
"Uh my lock, I know the code I just never know how to work these."
"Sure I can help, whats your code?"
"16-18-25"
"16-18-25, 16-18-25, 16-18-25" I repeat to myself to make quick work of his lock and not embarrass myself by having to ask again
"There you go!" Already gathering my things before I can finish my sentence knowing the teacher has probably already began to take roll. As I spin around my eye catch something that stops me in my tracks , and my eyes immediately lock onto him taking off his shirt to reveal a true athletes body. I was familiar with him playing football but I didn't know he was so built.
After a long 5 seconds of eyeing his upper body I realize he can probably feel me looking at him and I don't know to be known as that "creepy" gay guy so I continue to stand up and sling my book bag over my shoulder to move past him, accidentally grazing our bare arms against each other in the narrow space between rows.
"Where are you going?" He asks right as I pass him
"Oh I was going to go and start the warmup, I know how coach T gets about attendance" I say watching his back as he has yet to spin around and talk to me eye to eye.
"You haven't even changed yet, those are the same clothes you had on when you came in." He says placing his thumbs in his waistband to remove his sweats before pausing and meeting my gaze
"Oh yea your right, I couldn't remember the code I got at the start of class...I'll workout in this it's fine" I say half ways stunned between his build and the fact he even knew what I was wearing.
"Well you can just change and use my locker for the day" He says cracking a slight grin that I can comes natural to him with whoever he's talking to.
"Oh sure! Thanks...." I say internally reminding myself to keep eye contact to be respectful even though it makes me uncomfortable.
"Okay just toss you stuff in here...I forgot I don't know you name, what is it?" He says as if he's seen me somewhere but is drawing blanks obviously
"It's Jeremy!" I say a little too eagerly for my own liking , why did I say it like that I usually am bored with the idea of talking with anyone.
"Cool I'm Calvin"
