Accept Me or Except Me

I’ve changed. I know that. I don’t understand who I was a month ago. I was stupid. It made more sense to punish the things I didn’t understand rather than trying to understand. It’s not like the teachers at our school are actually supportive of gay rights. Why don’t they teach this stuff in Health class?

It just slipped out. How could I’ve been so stupid? I guess I’ve felt so relaxed lately that I forgot my guard was down. Lee’s cleaned up nicely and he seems to have forgiven me, which hurts, to be honest. I was terrible to him and he pretends he’s OK with that. He’s not… is he? Does he love me that much?

Since we had a couple of days off school, the weekend rolled by and it was time to walk through those fucking doors and meet my fate. Which, of course were whispers and giggles accompanied by looking at phones with a picture of, no doubt, my naked ass on that gnarly tree. Josh was such a bitch sometimes.

People slammed into me a few times as I tried to reach my destination: Lee. Once I swore I looked in all possible places before the first bell went, I saw him. He was chuckling quietly but uneasy. There were probably pictures of him too. I ran up to him.

“Hey there, baby,” I said into Lee’s neck. He laughed and leaned back into me.

“So what’s the plan, Frankenstein?” he asked, suddenly getting serious while still being moderately jokey.

“Frankenstein? Like the monster?”

“Frankenstein wasn’t the monster, he was the scientist,” he said as if everyone on the planet had such information. “Hence why he’s called Frankenstein’s monster, dimwit.”

He stood on tiptoe and ruffled my hair. I loved it when Lee was like this. Calm, geeky and open. I needed to see him like that more often, but his Dad had to put his big fat nose out of a Bible for one day to stick it into our business. I sighed. I guess I shouldn’t really be thinking of him like that, but can you blame me?

“I think we should stay together,” I said. “Forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and –”

“You think so?” he asked.

“- and ever and ever and ever and ever and –”

“Danny. Listen to me!”

“- and ever and ever and ever and –”

He kissed me to shut me up. He tried pulling away after a second – we needed to talk – but I kept him in the kiss. My fingers found his hair and our faces melted as the kiss got pretty heated.

“Ugh… guys? Guys?” asked Matt. “I am still here you know.”

I pulled away and smiled goofily at Matt. I just completely ignored him for the entire conversation! I ruffled Matt’s hair to get a look of disapproval from him. Lee spoke into my neck as I hugged him.

“Danny… do you really think that?”

“Of course, baby. Who else would want me?” he asked.

“With that body, you could have anybody you want…”

“And I want you,” he smiled into another kiss. The bell snapped us out of it.

Only then did we notice that there were people standing around, looking at us. Some were looking at us funny and some were looking at us like we were cute. Cute. Ugh, I hate it when people think I’m cute. I am not!

I rushed to my worst class with Lee’s hand in mine: History.

* * *

I sat next to Lee in History with Assface Howells. I hated that man. He just oozed criticism. He kept giving Lee and me some pretty dirty looks. He kept on with his job though, writing in his who-the-hell-can-understand-this cursive. My god, his flaws just shine right from him.

Lee leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Mr Howells keeps looking at me like I’m something he found in his lunch. I’m guessing, with his dietary habits, that’s not a good thing,”

I let myself laugh a little and grab his hand. It may have been my laugh that caused his attention, but no, Mr Ballsack Howells does not need to bother with such things. But, in extreme cases like two boys holding hands however, cases must be dealt with. He sighed slowly.

“I do not, Mr Jockling, like to see PDA in my classroom,” he sighed with his nose.

I looked around and saw that Alice and her new man-whore – I mean, respectable boyfriend, I guess, were all over each other. “Why don’t you tell that to the couple at the front?” I ask, but Lee sends lasers through my skull with his eyes.

“You’re being disruptive, Mr Jockling. You’ll get detention…”

“I’m sorry if physical contact with my love makes you uneasy, Mr Howells, however it is not your place to judge. As a fellow Christian I urge you dearly to love me, thy neighbor.”

“DANIEL JOCKLING – DETENTION.”

I sighed. I honestly couldn’t care less. We always get detention at lunch, since home time is homework time (schools just don’t get it, do they?) and I don’t particularly like meatloaf anyway. Gonna miss some tater tots, though.

* * *

The school day whizzed by and I was leaving the building with my darling boyfriend’s arm around my waist and his head against my right neck and shoulder. We were crossing the road to the small park (which is not to be confused with the park in which I asked Lee out) opposite, when we were almost hit by a car.

I turned to bark at the guy in the car, but to my surprise, it was Laurence in his sleek black roofless ride. He was laughing.

“G’day mate!”

“Laurence, you’re not Australian. You are an asshole. They may sound similar, so they may confuse you, but there’s a difference, ‘K?” I laughed at him.

Matt, who we left at the top of the school steps, saw Laurence and was running into the car like a flash. Laurence smiled and shouted, “Get in losers, we’re going shopping!”

“Oh joy,” I said sarcastically, but Lee sprinted into the car excitedly.

“Actually we’re going to Gay Pride,” he said as I strapped my seatbelt in the back of his car, which had the steering wheel on the wrong side.

“Why’d you say that, then?” Lee piped up.

“I said it for the reference, God,” exhaled Laurence as he started driving again.

“What?”

“Haven’t you seen Mean Girls?” he asked. Only Matt nodded. Figured as such. “My God, guys. You can’t claim to be gay and not have seen Mean Girls.”