A kinda cliche reincarnation story

chapter 25

Ellio's pov. 14 yrs old.

"i'm not from this world."

His words echoed throughout my head, what did he mean? I voiced my question to him and he took a deep breath.

"Well... I suppose a simpler term is I remember my last life."

I gaped, astonished. "Really? What . . . what was it like?"

He watched me with those big, captivating eyes, "you . . . you dont think I'm crazy?"

I shook my head with a smile, "I believe you."

He let out a big sigh of relief and smiled, "thank goodness."

"So, what was it like?" I repeated my question.

Wilder looked up at the sky, "well, there is no magic."

"Wait . . . what?!"

His lips twitched up in a small smile and he nodded. "We had something similar, technology, we called it."

"Tech . . . nol . . . ogy . . . ?'' I tested out the forgien word on my tongue and he nodded again. "What is it, if not magic?"

"Hmmm... well, basically, you know gears right?"

I nodded, of course I know gears.

"Kinda like that but way way more complex. Somebody figured out how to make light without fire or magic, controlled with the flip of a switch. Couldn't tell you who it was though, that was such a long time ago."

I stared in silence for a bit before something came to me, "so then... in math class..."

He sighed, "yeah. That was math from earth, the planet I used to live on."

". . . planet?" I asked, unsure.

He turned to me with a blank look on his face before his eyes grew wide, "holy. Cow. you guys... you dont know about space?"

"...uhh... what?"

"Wait wait wait, what do you guys view the world as? Like, a globe? Or flat? Or... what?"

I just looked at him, "huh?"

He sighed, "like, the universe, your world, you know? How do people think it's shaped?"

"It's flat... right?" I said slowly, not sure what he was trying to get at.

He burst out laughing, "you... its... it's a planet full of... holy..." he was practically rolling on the ground now and I watched him, perplexed.

"Could you . . . explain what's so funny?"

He caught his breath and sat up, panting. "Well you see..." his mouth hung open and he was just frozen for a moment. Then he sighed, "its . . . it's way too complicated for me to explain . . ." Then a new expression crossed his face, one I couldn't read at all.

"Wait... I'm in an entirely different world... it could actually be flat... holy..." he was murmuring to himself and i just watched, then I thought of something,

"What does this have to do with the thing you were talking about before? What does queer mean?"

"Oh that." He sighed and sat back down on the edge, "queer means someone who is either not heterosexual, which means you like the opposite gender only, or not cisgender, meaning a cisgender person identitfies with the gender they were given at birth. You see, when i lived in that other world, we had this community, we called it 'lgbtq'. There were variations on how to say it and stuff, but that's what I used. In that world queer people faced oppression too. There was this religion that was supposedly against it, and some people used it as a reason to hate us. Others said it was, 'unnatural'."

And so, he explained the community and about pride parades, and how the first one was a riot. He explained about liking two or multiple genders, about being neither boy or girl. It sounded amazing, to have that much support. But, as much support that they had, there was just as much oppression. It sounded beautiful, to parade around the streets for your identity, but terrifying too.

"we don't have such a community here." Then he turned to me, a burning fire in his eyes, "So, I'm going to make one. I'm going to gather people like me, people who don't fit in and are spat at for being themselves."

Then he said something else, and my eyes widened at the words. He looked so hopeful and determined.

"Will you help me do it?"