Queer-ish

Queer-ish Part 1: Isaac

 Isaac's long legs dragged on the ground as he swung from a low-hanging swing, his feet flopping back and forth, waiting for his friends who should have been there five minutes ago. But that was just like them, to be late. As obnoxious as it was, he was the only punctual person in his friend group. Or perhaps he was always early and they were right on time. However, he didn't have to wait much longer seeing as Caleb came along a few minutes later followed by the others. Caleb sat next to him on the adjacent swing, pumping his legs so he could go higher and higher as the others appeared and took their places on the previously desolate playground structure. Around him he saw smiling and not smiling faces, but the one he was most captivated with was Caleb's. After breaking up with his girlfriend, Jessica, Isaac had been feeling... different, per say, towards Caleb. A way he'd never really felt towards another guy, besides that one kid in elementary school who's name he could hardly remember. 

"...Yeah I'm not sure I'm ready for that test. You okay Isaac?" He snapped out of his train of thought and turned to Nicole who was across from Emma who peered at him from behind her. "Yeah, you seem a bit out of it. You good?" Isaac shook his head, "Yeah guys I'm fine. I'm just a little tired, that's all." They both raised an eyebrow, but then went back to whatever thing they were previously talking about. He noticed Penelope coming towards them with 9 waters in a drink carrier from the local coffee and tea shop, Hymn. As she passed them out, Caleb turned to him. "How are things with Jessica?" Anyone who knew caleb would've figured he was being nice, but in reality Caleb (who wasn't alone in this opinion) absolutely hated Jessica. The rest of the group did, too, which wasn't unsolicited. Jess did give them a hard time, especially because some of them are openly gay and she's homophobic. Which is partly why he broke up with her, besides her overall personality being that of a female dog, she was a pretty decent girlfriend. 

Suddenly, his phone buzzed in his pocket so he stood up, immediately Skyler took his place, her 'Pronoun Beads" jangling with her. She shrugged, "Well, if you're going to get up, I want to swing. Get over it." Isaac wasn't even bothered but sometimes Sky was a jerk and that's all there was to it. They all loved her anyway, but sometimes she could be a little bit much. Penelope came over handing him a water with lemon, but spotted his phone. "Still dating Jessica, I see," which wasn't true but he hadn't told anyone that just yet. Her face was that of disgust, much like all the others'. He nodded and went to a covering laden with ivy and wisteria, his favorite place in the park, and picked up the phone. "What do you want, Jess," his voice shaky with anger. She'd cheated on him with another guy. Even though he had relatively low standards when it came to mental capacity, that still stung. "Hey, Isaac, I'm sorry to call you but I have to tell you something." Isaac rolled his eyes and tapped his foot on the ground, anxious to get the call over with. "Well then, spit it out." From the other side of the phone, Jessica held her stomach. 

White faced, he returned to the park where he was bombarded with questions. "What did Jessica want?" Emma asked, but then she was spoken over by Penelope and Skyler. "Did you finally  break up with her?," but Isaac just walked passed them and sat down on the swing, head in his hands. Nicole put a hand on his shoulder and faced the others. "Guys, it doesn't look like he's in the mood to talk bout it," eyeing Penelope and Skyler she added, "so why don't you leave him alone. He'll tell us when he's ready." Isaac appreciated the effort but he wasn't sure if he would be ready any time soon. He wasn't ready for the countless 'I told you so's', but luckily the attention was, for the most part, shifted off of him when Sam arrived. The group's homophobe, only in the group because everyone feels bad for him and he's known Emma and her family for years. As far as he knows, Isaac, Emma, Nicole and Andrew are the only straight people in the group. He's sadly mistaken due to the fact that Emma is asexual biromantic and Andrew is bisexual. Let alone Isaac's recent questioning of his sexuality, it seems to be that Sam is the only actually straight person here. And not to mention, Nicole's recent questioning of her sexuality, much to his eventual and inevitable dismay, it was likely very true. 

"Hey Em," Sam put a hand on Emma's shoulder, who flinched a little, as she always does when she's hiding a secret. Recently, it's gotten worse because she came out to everyone in the group excluding Sam. She turned around and smiled. "Hey, Sam. How was youth group?" Sam shrugged, his hand still on her shoulder. "It was alright. We debated about gay rights. The pro-same sex marriage side had like two people on it." Emma side-eyed Sydney and then Caleb, skeptical of what kind of homophobic thing he was going to say then. "Who was on the pro side?" Sam removed his hand and sat over across from Nicole. Isaac moved up next to Emma who was repeatedly rubbing her hand on her shirt to calm down, so she wouldn't have to stand next to him again with Penelope already on the other side. Nicole turned to Caleb mouthing 'help'. "Oh well, Baillie and Erin, but only Erin because Ballie couldn't hold her own. I led the debates against it. It was fun. My side easily won." Nicole hung her head and Skyler aggressively  threw a wood chip on the ground. Isaac didn't know how someone could aggressively throw a wood chip on the ground, but Sky somehow made it look that way. "You know you're in a group of gay people, right?" Alex was starting to get mad, and that's not something anyone ever wanted to see, but for some reason, Sam laughed. "Yeah, but you all know. It's just a phase, you'll get what I'm saying someday soon." From Isaac's point of view, which he shared with most of the others, Sam was everything homophobia embodied. It wasn't like religious people were automatically homophobic or rude or racist or anything like that, it was like Sam tried to be disagreeable in the sense that he did everything the worst homophobes do. It was horrifying to everyone and, at that point, the only real reason he was in that group was because Emma's family forced her to be friends with him. Her family did a lot of things, like make her go to church every Sunday, but thankfully not to Youth Group, do Bible studies every week, that sort of thing. But she just wasn't really into it, she identified as Agnostic mostly because religion was forced upon her at a young aged and she hated the way her church treated her. Isaac was religious, too, and it was really really important to him and when the first friend came out to him, he took a break from that group to come to terms with the people close to him being homosexual, then bisexual, then pansexual, gender fluid, agender,  and finally, asexual, they came out one-by-one and he had to come to terms with it or risk losing those closest to him. 

There was an awkward silence before Emma checked her phone. "Oh looks like my mom's here, guys. Sam aren't we driving you home?" Sam nodded, getting up from the teeter-totter making Nicole slam down on the ground beneath her. Everyone chuckled a little, but it would've been funnier if it weren't the mysoginist, Sam. He left her there, not bothering to ask about her well-being as she stood up and brushed off her jeans. Isaac watched them leave, feeling worse and worse for Emma and how much time she actually had to spend with Samuel Werner. 

Slowly, friends began to trickle away. First was Skyler who took with her Alex. Then it was Andrew and right after him, Nicole who took Penelope with her and finally, there were only two left. Isaac took his place on the swing next to Caleb who kicked at the small layer of dust beneath his feet. He looked up at the sky and a raindrop hit his eye, and then another on his head, and more and more until it was full-fledged raining. Digging through his backpack, Isaac pulled out a hello-kitty umbrella that his sister had needed at her soccer practice the other day. He had obviously forgotten to put it back, but it was both parts lucky and embarrassing that it was there. As soon as he pulled it out, Caleb began to laugh, although he was grateful for the coverage due to his "super fly" hair. "I'm not even going to ask why you have this in your backpack," Caleb laughed, but his face fell when he saw Isaac's tears. "Hey, dude what's wrong?" Isaac turned to him, wiping tears mixed with raindrops from his face. "I broke up with Jessica. She cheated on me," Caleb put his hand on the other boy's shoulder. "I'm sorry man, you didn't deserve that." Isaac's head lowered into his hands again. "That's not the worst of it. She says she's pregnant. And it's mine."