Chapter 6 #2
NNEKA: And meet the Parisian boy of your dreams. Who’s not a thief.
GASTON: Yeah Ben is a special one. Little dude’s got heart
GASTON: Tyler, if you hurt a hair on his head …
TYLER: We’ll be cool
“I can’t believe how much I like those two,” I say, feeling a bit warm and fuzzy inside.
Tyler slips his phone back into his pocket. “Yeah, they’re great.”
I remind myself that Gaston and Nneka are just vacation friends—they probably find me sort of amusing, or maybe they even feel sorry for me.
I know better; a real friendship with a cool straight football player and the prettiest, most-followed girl at Sandy Springs High is too much for a dork like me to hope for.
I mean, look at Tyler—the second he turned hot and popular, he instantly forgot our years of being BFFs.
“Well!” says Tyler, doing a dramatic spin with his arms outstretched—I thought twirling like a main character was supposed to be my thing. “Paris is officially our oyster! We can do anything we want.”
“We’re really just going to do this?” I say. “Spend the whole night out in Paris?”
“I mean, why not?” He drops his arms to his sides, and his face goes serious.
“Um, I can think of a million reasons why not. Getting lost or murdered. Robbed … again.”
“Look. Ben. Remy. You need to chill, bro.”
“Chill, bro?” I ask incredulously.
“Yeah, queen. Chill. Is that better?”
I crinkle my nose. “No, not at all. That sounded so wrong coming out of your mouth.”
He ignores this. “I find that things usually work out for the best if you let them.”
I shake my head. I can’t believe how careless and entitled a person can be. “Maybe that’s true for you,” I say sharply.
“What’s your problem?” Tyler asks, his voice deepening and getting louder. “You’ve been a jerk to me all day. No, you’ve been a jerk to me since the moment I came back to town.”
I feel my breath catch and my stomach flutter. I practically need a fainting couch to collapse onto. Did he really just go there?
“And you have no idea why?” I say quietly.
Tyler shakes his head. “And I’m assuming you don’t wanna tell me?”
A memory flashes through my mind.
Two months ago, I was sitting in the school cafeteria for our first LGBTQIA+ Alliance meeting of the second semester.
I was holding hands with Lucas—I have to admit, we were insufferable with how much PDA we exhibited.
Lots of hand-holding, kissing, and cuddling; I always felt like showing off to the world that Lucas was my boyfriend, and it never stopped being amazing.
It was Tyler Travers’s first day at Sandy Springs High. Since new students don’t usually show up in the middle of the school year, he was the only member of the LGBTQIA+ Alliance who had to stand up and introduce himself so we could all welcome him into the Sandy Springs queer “family.”
As he stood up, you could literally hear the necks cracking as everyone turned to look.
The LGBTQIA+ Alliance is by far the biggest club at Sandy Springs High, which is already a giant school, so most new members are super nervous to stand up and be judged by more than a hundred fellow gays and allies.
But the new guy was so casual that he was literally eating a sandwich, holding up a finger to swallow before he started talking.
He chewed in that Brad Pitt way, taking an overly big bite, his mandibles bulging, accentuating the perfect structure of his jawline.
He brushed a few crumbs off his polo shirt, ran his hand through his sandy hair, and said, “Hi, my name is Tyler Travers, and I go by he/him pronouns.”
There was an excited titter throughout the cafeteria, and I was part of it.
I’d been pretty sure this new kid was Tyler Travers even before he introduced himself, though I wasn’t certain, because he’d had an almost unrecognizable glow-up.
Even the alliance members who weren’t into dudes probably appreciated that the new kid was absurdly pleasing to the eye, as if he belonged in the cast of Euphoria.
But that didn’t matter to me. In real life, I like my leading men quirkier-looking, and besides, I was totally in love with Lucas. All that mattered was Tyler Travers was back, and he was gay! I knew we’d gravitated to each other on the playground in first grade for a reason.
“I already recognize some of you guys,” Tyler went on, grinning around the room.
I swear, he locked eyes with me. I waved excitedly, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“I moved to New York after fifth grade, but I’ve always stayed a Georgia boy at heart.
And I’m excited to get to know everyone again, and meet some of y’all for the first time. ”
Monsieur Higgins, who’s also one of the faculty sponsors of the LGBTQIA+ Alliance, said, “Let’s give Tyler a warm welcome, y’all!”
Tyler got unusually enthusiastic applause. Somewhere behind me, I heard Topher Willis saying, “Damn, I wonder if he has an OnlyFans,” and his gaggle of Nike hoodie–wearing Ken dolls with teeth Crest-White-Stripped within an inch of their lives guffawed.
Even though the LGBTQIA+ Alliance does a pretty good job with inclusivity, there are definitely some toxic cliques that remind you that there are problematic gay bullies in high school just like there are in the straight world.
I turned to shoot Topher a death glare, then turned back to whoop and cheer for Tyler. I was excited to start up our friendship again, as if the last six years during which we’d totally lost touch hadn’t happened.
And I couldn’t wait for him to meet my boyfriend. I whispered to Lucas, “That’s my elementary school bestie!”
“No way,” Lucas whispered back, a skeptical expression on his face. “You were friends with him?”
I didn’t know what he meant by that, but I didn’t read into it too much at the time. I just gave him a playful poke in the ribs—Lucas was always roasting me lovingly—and said, “Tyler is the best. I’ll introduce you guys. You’ll see.”
“Yeah, definitely introduce me,” said Lucas, a little dazed.
After the meeting wrapped up, Tyler was surrounded like a celebrity or congressman greeting his adoring public.
I literally had to wait in line to get face time with him.
But it’d be worth it—the whole time I was standing there, I was bouncing on the balls of my feet, anticipating everything we needed to catch up on.
When did he come out, and how did it go?
Did he date? (I was sure he could date anyone he wanted.) Was living in New York City as amazing as it looked on TV?
What brought him back to Georgia? How was his mom?
Was his nanny, Roseline, still around? We also had years of movies and TV shows and books to talk about, and I needed to tell him about my new bestie, Ashley, who’s a genius and hilarious—and maybe all three of us could be besties now.
And most importantly, he had to meet Lucas, my boyfriend!
“Hey, of course I remember you!” I heard Tyler saying to Anita Narayanan, wrapping his long arms around her in a hug. “You were a harp prodigy back in fifth grade. How’s that going now?”
Topher Willis ran up to the front of the line, cutting everyone. “Tyler, my man, remember me?” he said, giving Tyler a bro-y hand-clasp-shoulder-bump combo that I could never pull off.
Tyler gave Topher a frozen smile. If Tyler remembered him, it wasn’t for any good reasons. Topher was the bully of fifth grade and hadn’t really stopped—the only difference now is that Topher has “Red-pill Gay Republican” on all his social media bios and bleaches his hair platinum blond.
“Yeah, Toph, of course I remember,” Tyler said through his perfectly straight teeth. He’d clearly had some high-quality orthodontia done since elementary school.
“You got tall, man!” enthused Topher, looking him up and down. “Any chance you play basketball?”
“Yeah, I played some up in New York,” Tyler said, which was news to me—the closest Tyler and I ever got to sports was playing Ping-Pong in his basement. “I’m definitely gonna try out here.”
“No way, man, I’m on the team here!” said Topher, giving Tyler a flirtatious tap on the chest with the back of his hand. “Us gay dudes are way underrepresented in varsity sports.”
I rolled my eyes while Tyler and Topher continued talking about sports. Finally, the line moved and it was my turn to reunite with Tyler. I was so impatient by then that the first thing I blurted was “Tyler, meet my boyfriend, Lucas!”
I beamed and spread my arms wide, as if saying Ta-da!
I expected recognition to flood Tyler’s face before he cried “Ben! Is that really you?!” And then I’d invite him over for dinner with me and Mom, and we’d reminisce about old times.
On weekends, Lucas, Ashley, and I would teach him the rules to Lorcana if he didn’t know them already, while we laughed and swooned at whatever rom-coms we’d find streaming.
Life would be pretty much close to perfect.
But Tyler didn’t seem to hear me. He was too busy reaching into his back pocket, where the sandwich he was eating before was wrapped in a napkin.
He tilted his head and looked at me as if I had a mini Sarlacc sprouting from between my eyebrows.
There was no recognition on his face, just confusion …
and maybe even a little disgust, which I may or may not have been imagining.
After a second, he turned back to Lucas and said, “Nice to meet you, Lucas. I’m Tyler.
Do you mind if I finish up my snack? I’m starving.
I’ve gotta keep my calorie intake high for basketball season. ”