Chapter Three #2
Landon had a terrible tan of someone who spent way too much time under UV lights.
His bleach-blond hair looked extra brassy under the fluorescent lighting, and that made Rus smirk.
But it was the colorful yet conservative outfit the pencil-thin Landon wore that confused Rus the most. It was how Rus imagined clowns in cages dressed.
The pair snickered, poking fun at a fat person with vibrant fire hydrant red hair.
They kept their clothing masculine and their makeup flamboyant while their features were more androgynous.
It didn’t take long for Rus to realize Landon and Emma were mocking some enby creator’s content.
They did ramble, hyper-fixated on something, but Rus hadn’t heard enough to piece together the topic of the video.
Still, he edged in closer, skulking and furious at Emma and Landon, who mocked the video in full two times over before Landon went to respond in his own recording.
“Okay, okay, I know folks are always worried about them sending us to camps”—Landon wriggled vigorously as if that added more merit to his point or undermined the reality that people truly hated queer people in this country—“but lemme just say if they do, please don’t bunk me with this weirdo.
Like, lock me up and throw away the key, but please keep that in a separate cabin. ”
Emma cackled in the background, the pair making light of the idea of detention centers. A joke in their minds because even the reality of these types of facilities didn’t matter to them.
“Seriously, this is why people can’t take the gay community seriously,” Landon continued, moving closer to the register. “Trans people always do too much; they make it their whole identity.”
“All while not committing to an identity,” Emma said, careful to keep herself off camera.
“Exactly,” Landon said with pitchy agreement. “I can’t stand that. Don’t get me started on why the T is just there to add tea to our cause.”
“Well, it’s not really a cause,” Emma corrected.
Landon, the obedient trash he was, nodded affirmingly, likely terrified to be perceived as the type of queer person to make it his whole identity.
Rus never understood the argument for such things.
Of course, there was more to every queer person than their identity, but if they didn’t make their queerness part of themselves, embrace who they were, they’d end up a self-loathing cunt like Landon, bending over backwards to please heteronormative ideology.
Internalized homophobia was pathetic and disgusting.
Rus nearly cracked his plate as he smacked the silver spoon holding black olives onto his salad. Not that Emma or Landon noticed, wrapped up in the bitchy retorts on how trans people didn’t exist in the LGB and why it was important their mental illness wasn’t lumped into the community.
A funny commentary Emma supported, all while keeping her face off camera, likely too soft for the mic of Landon’s phone to catch. Especially since he felt the need to repeat her points before ending his video.
Yes, Rus had stalked enough of both their social media platforms to know they each painted themselves very differently.
Emma offered kind and conservative advice, presenting the perfect picture of compassion—completely opposite of her real-life behavior.
Landon, on the other hand, presented himself as a no-nonsense gay man who wanted to show that not all gay people were terrible liberals obsessed with grooming children and making their gayness their whole personality.
Rus hated Landon even more than he despised Emma. The worst kind of gay person was a conservative. Though that held true for any minority who licked at the boots of their oppressor, and believed they were somehow different.
Thankfully, Rus never had a single class with Landon Cross. He’d had the misfortune of watching Landon’s hot takes online, finding the algorithm sent him to Landon’s videos on more than one occasion, which was his own fault for his obsessive need to know the enemy.
Landon believed that being gay didn’t have to be someone’s entire personality, a truth warped to serve the bigotry of hiding queerness so as to not offend the straight overlords.
Landon’s effeminate behavior only further irritated Rus, knowing he didn’t appreciate that sassy swagger was only tolerated because hundreds of thousands of queer people fought so he could be so uninformed.
Also, despite his fem attitude, Landon suffered from unchecked misogyny.
Not shocking, considering he hung out with trad-wife wannabe Emma Alexander, who only wanted a degree to find a man.
“Do you know anything about the queer community?” Rus slammed his tray onto the table, sliding into the booth, and joining Emma and Landon.
Daysha reluctantly followed Rus’ lead. The café had plenty of seating, and forcing his way into the same booth would definitely cause problems, but all the same, Rus had had enough of biting his tongue.
Landon rolled his eyes. “I know about the gay community, yes. I know there is a lot of political propaganda to force—”
“What about the L?” Rus jumped in quickly. “Do you know why the L comes first?”
Landon didn’t respond, likely surprised by the turn Rus had taken. The biggest issue with Landon was his war on queerness, focused on undermining and belittling the trans communities involved in the so-called LGB.
“Come on, tell me why the G decided to put the L first,” Rus said, goading Landon. “I know you’re not a history major like your lavender beard, Emma, but surely you can show me what you know about gay history. This is one of our most important moments.”
Rus wanted to point out Landon’s hypocrisy and show his bigotry extended to all members of the queer community. Hell, even the gays weren’t safe from Landon, a self-hating gay with enough internalized homophobia to make even the biggest bigots blush.
“I’ll give you a hint, it’s not alphabetical,” Rus teased. “So, why is the L first?”
Landon stayed silent.
“That’s so weird.” Rus gestured emphatically at Landon.
“Here you are advocating the importance of the gay community, how it’s just the L, the G, and the B, please hold the fucking T.
Running your damn mouth about the importance of not lopping orientation with gender mental illness—because you’re the kind of dumbass who thinks they’ll draw the line at gender dysphoria being a mental illness and won’t push homosexuality right on into the straitjacket even though they already have, another historical fact you don’t know about your own goddamn community—but the strangest part of all this is that you don’t know one of the most fundamental aspects of the gay community you pretend to advocate for. ”
“If you’re going to run your mouth about Stonewall, lemme stop you there.” Landon held up a hand with a snap of his fingers. “It wasn’t as pivotal as the rewritten history would have folks believe. The gay movement actually started…”
Emma nodded in support like she’d coached Landon on his bullshit speech about gay rights like either of them knew a goddamn thing.
“I’m honestly not even sure how you think lesbians played a role in Stonewall, but whatever.” Landon shrugged.
“I didn’t say they did,” Rus continued. “You tied in Stonewall, dismissing a milestone that actually afforded you the right to flaunt your effeminate ass here without getting the shit beat out of you for existing.”
Landon gasped, true offense etched onto his face. “See, you are the bigot.”
“They always are,” Emma added, taking a bite of her salad. “They pretend to care about causes, but they’re just looking for ways to bully good people, belittle beliefs, and be homophobic to gays who don’t agree with them. It’s despicable.”
Rus buried his rage, content with continuing his lesson that Landon wouldn’t appreciate.
“Let’s focus on the L and why it comes first. Way back when the government prayed AIDs would wipe out the faggots of America, they had no one to rely on,” Rus said.
“That’s right, your lovely conservatives were counting the days until every homo met a brutal, agonizing death. And they thanked Jesus for it.”
Rus made a mocking cross sign over his chest, then flipped off the ceiling to show Landon and Emma exactly what he thought of their phony deity.
“So, fun history lesson.” Rus turned his attention to Emma really quickly. “I know you don’t like that kind of stuff, especially since this lesson explains how queer women had an impact on history. Two evils, one stone.”
Emma scoffed, doing her best to poorly ignore Rus. It wasn’t much, but he knew he’d gotten a rise out of her, and that high would make up for the rough morning of class.
“During this epidemic, where gay men were suffering and dying and being smited by the US government under the guise of God, it was only the lesbians who truly stepped up. They rallied in a way only women can. They came together to donate blood, to offer comfort, to give peace, community, and love to their dying brothers.”
Rus let his words soak in, knowing Landon wouldn’t grasp the importance of this unity, wouldn’t give a damn about the L coming first. He was a conservative gay who hated trans people for making his life harder.
The type of man who blamed trans people for the homophobia he faced, with no sense or care for where the bigotry stemmed.
It wouldn’t surprise Rus if Landon were one of those stupid gays who bought into the petty bullshit of being rivals with lesbians, as if such a thing should ever exist in community.
“Sorry, hun. I don’t argue with debate bros,” Emma said with a spiteful lilt in her cheery voice.
“I get that the basis of your knowledge is to pin people down in a verbal altercation where you can feel superior based on your silly little word play, but just because you can talk out of your ass doesn’t mean much of anything. ”
Rus scoffed, sick and tired of morons treating knowledge like a dirty tactic because they remained willfully ignorant. “Other than facts, statistics, truths, literally anything, because—”
“All garbage at the end of the day.” Emma shrugged dismissively. “Facts are just well-rehearsed lies, stats are just mathematical propaganda, and the truth is in the eye of the beholder. Jesus knows the doubt in your lies, even if Satan helps you hide it from yourself.”
“Oh, fuck you.”
Emma nodded, conveying this phony sympathy. No, more like pity, which only further pissed Rus off. He clenched a fist under the table, pressing it hard to his bouncing knee. Her gaze held this satisfied dismissal that only further ate away at Rus.
“Anyway, we should be going,” Landon said, feeding off Emma’s attitude and adding to his own smugness.
Emma and Landon took their leave.
“Bitches,” Daysha muttered.
“Yup.”
“You know that whole rise above thing I push for most days?”
Rus nodded.
“You can totally sink to their level.” Daysha gestured in Emma’s direction. “I’ll join you.”
“If I knew I’d just get community service again, I’d seriously consider running them both over.”
Daysha snorted.
“But alas, I should probably do the mature thing and just hit them with words, even if sticks and stones would be so much more effective.” Rus sighed.
As much as he wanted to punch some sense into Emma and her gay prop, he knew it wouldn’t make any difference. Fuck. Had he actually learned something from those stupid court-mandated anger management sessions?