My gaze drifted across the aisle to Brody. His handsome face was hidden: the high cheekbones, the expressive mouth. All I could see from this angle was the top of his head, longish light brown hair curtaining over his face, and one strong upper arm straining against the sleeve of his tight athletic shirt. He also wore long athletic shorts and flip-flops, as always. On the coldest day of the year, which admittedly wasn’t very cold around here, he might add a hoodie. We’d been in various advanced classes together since middle school, but the way he dressed, he looked like he’d taken a wrong turn from the gym. That’s how Brody had always been: grinning, a bit of a mess, and a world away from me.
Twenty minutes later, I’d checked Noah’s homework. I hoped I had just enough time to finish my questions on the chapter in English so I wouldn’t have to take my book home. Ms. Patel interrupted my thoughts. “Class, may I have your attention, please? Quinn and Noah want to make an announcement before lunch.”
Sawyer stirred and raised his head from his arms. Brody couldn’t even make that much effort. He kept his head down but shifted so he could see around Sawyer. He would be sitting up in a minute, though. Surely he knew what was coming. I put my hand on Noah’s back as he stood. He smiled nervously at me before he and Quinn made their way up the row to stand in front of Ms. Patel’s desk.
“We. . . ,” Noah began, then folded his muscular arms. He was African American, with such dark skin that the fluorescent lights overhead highlighted the indentations of his huge muscles like he was a comic-book superhero. He’d also perfected a threatening scowl he used to intimidate other football players, but he wasn’t wearing it now. It was strange to see him look nervous. He glanced over at Quinn.
“Tick-tock,” Ms. Patel said. “The bell’s going to ring. Better get it out.”
Quinn wrung his hands in fingerless black leather gloves, an odd accessory during hot weather in Florida, even for one of my friends. Then he ran his hands through his black hair. Finally he burst out, “Noah and I are dating. Each other.”
Silence fell over the classroom. It was so quiet that Mr. Frank’s voice filtered through the wall from the next room. I wanted to jump up and pound on the wall to stop Mr. Frank, but I felt dizzy. That’s when I realized I was holding my breath.
Brody started clapping.
The class burst into applause.
Sighing with relief, I clapped along, harder and harder as the weight of the last year lifted from my shoulders. I’d been so worried about Quinn and then Noah when they came out to me. This positive reception to their official, public coming out was a great sign for their future.
The door opened. Kennedy gave the noisy classroom a bewildered glance. Ms. Patel pointed to an empty desk near the door, indicating that he should park it rather than moving all the way back to sit behind me. As he slung off his backpack and slouched in the desk, Noah mouthed an explanation for the commotion: “We’re gay.” Kennedy blushed bright red.
Not the reaction I’d expected from Kennedy. He prided himself on being open-minded. I’d thought he’d be mildly supportive, or have no reaction at all.
The applause died down, and Noah cleared his throat. “Some of you may be wondering, ‘Why now?’ A couple of weeks ago, when we voted on the Senior Superlatives, I wrote in myself and Quinn for Perfect Couple That Never Was. I thought the student council would take it as a joke. Really it was just wishful thinking, I guess. I wasn’t even sure Quinn was gay.”
Quinn put his gloved hand on Noah’s shoulder. “I did the same. Principal Chen called us both into her office and told us that if we had something to say to the school, we could go ahead if we did it in a way that wouldn’t disrupt class.”
My friend Chelsea raised her hand. “Those were secret ballots, I thought. How did Ms. Chen know they were yours?”
“Because she’s creepy?” Quinn said.
“Careful,” Ms. Patel spoke up.
“She’s really old,” Noah said with a sideways glance at Ms. Patel. “You know how she’s always telling us in assemblies that we’d better not try to slip anything past her.”
Ms. Patel bit her lip, trying not to laugh.
“Anyway,” Quinn said, “we decided to do it here in study hall because we wanted to come out in front of the people who’ve encouraged us the most.” He put his hand over his heart. “For me, that’s Harper.”
“Awwwww.” A chorus of girls’ voices echoed how I felt. I’d tried to support Quinn any way I could, but I hadn’t expected him to acknowledge me in front of the class.
“And for me,” Noah said, “that’s Harper and Brody.”
“Brody!” Sawyer yelled a raunchy, “Aoow!”
Brody thumped him on the back of the head.
Sawyer turned around and took a swipe at Brody. Brody leaned back in his desk to dodge the blow.
“We also wanted to come out in front of Sawyer,” Noah said, “so we’d catch him off guard, before he had the chance to work up any jokes.”
“Oooooh,” said the class. All eyes were on Sawyer now. It wasn’t often that somebody stuck it to Sawyer.
Quinn went on, “And of course, Sawyer is our study hall’s student council representative. He can help us address our grievances to the school if anything bad happens.”
Sawyer nodded. He must take his position seriously. I’d been as surprised as anyone when he nominated himself for student council representative at the beginning of the year. We’d elected him because nobody else ran. But it was nice to know he would step up for Noah and Quinn if they needed him.