“I don’t care what they think,” I reply. “I’m not saying anything when we get there. I’m just going to sit in the back quietly and cause no problems, like in theater class.” I turn and look at Keli. “And please don’t get into a fight. You know I’m not a fighter. I will run.”

“Look,” she responds. “If anyone steps to my face, I will start throwin’ bows. It’s not up to me. It’s up to anyone who wants to try me.”

“Come here, girl,” Gabby says. “You need this most of all.” Gabby lights a plume of sage and douses Keli in the airy white smoke. “If this doesn’t help, nothing will.”

“Amen,” Earnell says, hoisting himself up off the floor. “I feel protected by the blood of the lamb. Let’s go.”

The meeting begins with the Pledge of Allegiance “to honor this great nation and the rule of law.” Already I want to leave. I don’t look at Earnell, Gabby, or Keli, since I know I would burst out laughing. Instead, I focus on the flag they have hung across the blackboard in front of the room. The room is mainly full of white men, a few white women, and two other students of color, one South Asian and one East Asian. I expect to see Daniel, but he doesn’t make an appearance. He probably would have outed us anyways. We didn’t think about that at all.

The first part of the gathering is business: which speakers to invite next, minutes from the last meeting, and whether they should stage another affirmative action protest in the middle of campus. The second part is a debate about freedom of speech and whether there should be limitations for certain people based on beliefs and ideas.

“I can start,” Stephen Clark, who is chairing the meeting, begins. “In my opinion, free speech is only complicated due to certain groups, mainly far left-wing liberals, attempting to put restrictions around what conservatives think, feel, and believe. The answer is simple. Let us believe and speak about whatever we want to our willful audience. Then there is zero problem. Not sure why that’s so hard to grasp.”

I am burning. I hate Stephen Clark and his squinty little eyes and his squeaky little voice. I cover my ears and count the stars on the flag even though I already know how many there are. I can still hear what they are saying, though muffled.

“People have a right to ‘hate’ speech publicly if that’s what they believe.”

“There shouldn’t be any ‘safe’ spaces that allow the voices of some but deny others. It’s unconstitutional.”

“This is really a discussion about who gets to draw the line between morally acceptable and unacceptable speech. I definitely don’t want them deciding that for me.”