As he promised, Hunter was at my house at 7:00 am sharp. He was at the table with Pa when I got downstairs. They were laughing and I was a little jealous. They always got along well and I began to fear than Pa preferred him over me. Pa and I weren't exactly poster people for close family relationships, but we made it work. When they stopped laughing Hunter looked up at me and got up, as if he was just realizing my presence.
"Ready to go?" He asked suddenly sober from his private joke with Pa.
"Yeah. Bye Pa."
He responded with a passive wave and picked up the paper.
Slightly hurt by his dismissive attitude towards me, I grabbed an apple and we walked out the door.
We arrived at school at 7:25, our faces glistening with sweat from the walk.
Our printed schedules in hand, we walked to our first class, English.
...
"Don't forget to finish your worksheets for tomorrow." My math teacher, Mr. Johnson said.
I walked down the hall to the auditorium. Theatre was my last class and we were going to learn about the big production that was to be held in April of the next year. When I got in, a few students were already there, including Hunter. I sat next to him and soon everyone else arrived. There were 14 of us. Suddenly, a woman walked in. She was dressed awfully extravagantly in a rainbow coloured boa around her neck, large sunglasses on her face and the baggiest pants I'd ever seen.
She smiled, her smiled reminded me of a cat's because it was sly like she knew something that no one else did. I later found out that she did in fact harbor secrets that only a few people knew about.
"I'm Miriam Reed, your drama teacher." She spoke loudly, her voice filled the whole room and echoed in our silence.
We mumbled a greeting, partly because of what we thought we knew about her and partly because we were shocked at what we had just seen.
"I bet you are all wondering what this end of year production is going to be. Well, it's an exciting one. Drumroll please..."
She waited expectantly until we drummed our hands on our legs a few times.
The next three words she said will forever haunt me.
"Romeo and Juliet."
***
YOU ARE READING
The Heteros
Teen Fiction"As I stood in front of the mirror that night, I had come to accept the truth. I was straight. I was a breeder. I was heterosexual. I was a disgrace to myself, my family, my community and most of all, our society, but there was absolutely nothing I...
