Chapters (44)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Books by Julie Murphy
- Back Ad
- About the Publisher
Even though I say I’m not one for organized groups, it hits me that I’ve never actually put myself out there enough to be considered part of a group and I feel a little regretful that my beef with Kyle held me back from this one. Except it wasn’t just Kyle. It was me and my fears and anxieties, too, that I wouldn’t be the right kind of gay and that I would be alienated by the one group where I should belong.
I feel like a real tool for only showing up here when I need something, but—“I need your help with something,” I say, and look to Kyle for his express approval before I continue.
He bows his head solemnly. “Anything we can do for our once and future queen.”
I laugh. “Okay, well, it’s not that serious. Actually, nothing is ever that serious. But this is time-sensitive. Like, tomorrow time-sensitive.”
“Well, consider our schedules cleared,” says Alex.
Thirty-One
When I filled everyone in Prism in on my plan, they were completely on board. We would paint the wall outside of the cafeteria in the 300s hall. Corey had the idea that we should paint the wall the colors of the Pride flag.
Dad helped me source the paint and supplies, so on Thursday, after school, I showed up prepared.
Thirteen members of Prism, including Clem, Alex, Hannah, and Kyle, volunteered to come help me, which was way more than I expected on such short notice.
Like Tucker promised in his note, he marked the wall with an X.
“You’re a genius!” Kyle calls to me as I carry the paint down the hallway with Clem and Hannah.
“Well, yes, of course,” I say. “But why exactly?”
He gently knocks his fist against the wall. “For priming this thing last night.”
“Um, that wasn’t me.”
Clem and Hannah look at each other knowingly.
“My heart is not the gates of heaven or something,” I say to them. “He can’t get back in with a prayer and a few good deeds. It’s going to take a lot more than paint primer.”
“Everything has a price,” Hannah says ominously as she pulls her hair back into a floppy bun.
“I don’t want to think about it anymore,” I say. “Can we get to work?”
The three of us set our buckets of paint down, and Alex is already hard at work taping off the wall for each color.
On top of a plastic tarp, we lay out small rollers and brushes alongside trays of paint. As people file in, Kyle assigns jobs. Some of us do edges while others take on the work of filling in the larger spaces. The wall Tucker secured for us is so big, I almost second-guess that we got approval for the whole thing. But Tucker did prime all of it, so I guess this is right.