enchanted

chapter i

three months ago

when my friends and i were accepted into markman academy, i wasn't sure what to expect. this prestigious, and not to mention expensive, boarding school sure looked a hell of a lot different than the local public high school we'd gone to for the past two years, which... let's just say wasn't all that great for a group of four queer kids, especially with two of them being trans. markman's website made it seem pretty queer-friendly though, if the person with the red buzz cut on the site was any connotation. we were just surprised we'd all gotten in; apparently it had a relatively low acceptance rate.

the term started in september, so we had three months to just sleep all day and stay up all night; watch movies and drink monsters and swim in graham's pool and just be lazy teenagers. graham, ethan, lennox, and i had had these lazy, wonderful summers since i befriended them when we were ten, one by one. we'd shared many milestones, crises, and secrets, and i wouldn't trade the three of them for anything in the world.

speaking of milestones....

"i hate you, rowan thomason," ethan deadpanned to me one june night, shooting a spitball at me from across our booth at dairy queen.

"you love me, asshole," i laughed. i'd just jokd that he was a basic white transmasc emo, and he was not having it.

graham and lennox were stifling their laughter.

"shut up, you boring straight white male," ethan shot at graham, who immediately stopped laughing.

"HA!" lennox burst out.

"hey, you can shut up too," ethan muttered, but couldn't say much else as lennox was like half the letters in lgbtq+.

"uh, guys?" graham interrupted. "I've been doing some thinking, and, um...."

"FINALLY!" lennox exclaimed. i laughed and smacked them on the arm, shushing them.

graham laughed a little. "i just... i think, no i am... gay." he whispered the last word, as if admitting it to himself for the first time, but smiled a little too, perhaps finally feeling right. i knew how that felt.

there was silence for a few seconds, and then: an explosion of clapping and cheers. "LET'S GOOOO!!!!!" lennox yelled, scaring some poor, unsuspecting server and making her drop her tray. "oh, fuck, i'm so sorry," they murmured, jumping up to help her clean it up. it amused me how they could go from strident to soft-spoken in seconds.

i snickered at them and turned back to graham. "holy shit."

"yeah."

"no, i mean, holy shit, it took you this long."

"i--" he looked stunned. he glanced at ethan, then back at me. "really?"

i nodded emphatically.

"yes, dude," ethan smirked, shaking his head condescendingly (affectionately). "it was pretty damn obvious."

"seriously?" graham buried his face in his hands.

ethan winked at me. "yes. we have weekly meetings to discuss when and how to tell you you're gay."

graham scoffed. "whatever."

"seriously though," i smiled as he looked back up at me, "congrats. we're proud of you."

"yeah," lennox agreed as they slid back into the booth beside me, its maroon vinyl chipped and peeling. "we are." they held out their fist across the table. graham bumped it with his own, like the dorky tweens we were when we'd met.

"how'd you know?" ethan suddenly asked. we all looked at graham for an answer; i guess we were all curious.

"uh." he blushed. "i don't know. just... did some thinking, i guess."

lennox gave me a dubious look.

"okay," i said cheerfully, sipping my choco-dipped strawberry blizzard.

he could tell we didn't believe him, but we didn't want to push it. we could tell he didn't want to talk about it.

we changed the subject to the merit of drinks at dairy queen: which ones were remarkable and which ones were icky (lennox's words, not mine). and thus went our summer; quick months and slow, sweet days, sitting in a dairy queen at midnight or sleeping in my living room til noon. we were sad to see it go, but omptimistic for markman. here's to hoping.