No Such Thing As Broken

Chapter 5: Care

The next couple of days were decent enough. Nothing really important happened outside of the girl working on her paper and watching YouTube. She had just gotten into the gaming channels, and, as a poor college student, count not afford the games. That wasn't really the reason why she watching that gaming videos though, it was the people, their voices to be exact. Susan always noticed people voices more than anything else. She loved accents. Trying to pick them apart and understand what makes them different than her way of speech. The British were the best. They even had a different way of screaming which the girl just found hilarious.

She loved watching the story of the game unfold, it was something you lost while playing. You're too focused on playing the stupid thing to notice how the characters develop and move with the plot. Certain games had a plot that you can play through, others had a plot so they could tell a story. Susan was always of the opinion that a game was just another way of telling a story.

Needless to say, her week went by pretty fast. So, it wasn't all too long before she found herself standing in front of building 40. The sky was cloudy and a light sprinkle was beginning to fall. Take away the pain. She thought and she stared at the building.

She didn't belong there. Yes, she did.

They wouldn't accept her. Someone had to.

Would they accept her? Only one way to find out.

Slowly, Susan entered the building. It looked like any other building on the campus, plain, boring. A far cry from the beautiful brisk that made up the outside. The inner walls were a cream like white and the doors were shut. She shouldn't be there. And yet she was. Slowly she approached room number 7. There was still time, she could run away now and not face her problems.

Stay in the closet. It was safe in there. No one hurt you.

It was lonely. It was so lonely though, in a place where only you knew who you were. Staying in the closet meant leaving yourself to a life of isolation. Stepping out though was a risk that you could not come back from.

Susan removed the black ring from her bad and slipped it on her middle finger. She needed someone to be with her at the moment. Even if it was just in spirit.

She pushed open the door.

The room looked like any other room, a simple setup with chairs that came with a wooden block to write on. There was a surprisingly large amount of people there already and at the front of the class was Nate. He looked up and smiled, choosing not to draw attention to the girl in case she still decided to bolt. It was kind and the girl appreciated it. She took a seat by the door and adjusted her hat. The marks of rain still present on her clothing. Wash it all away. She thought.

"Alright," Nate said, clapping his hands together "Welcome everybody, new and old. To the weird club." a couple of laughs sprinkled the room. How queer. "Is that not the name? Ah, right, welcome to the LGBTQIA club." IA, he said IA. Susan felt a little hope bubble in her. Maybe these people cared. Of course, he could just be using A to stand in for allies. But he knew. He knew and he said it. She had to be careful though, hope often meant lose. "My name in Nate for anyone who does not know me. He Him pronouns please. And I would like to start today's meeting my saying some good news!" he paused "I got a boyfriend."

"Finally!" Someone yelled. "Boy you be too cute to be single for as long as you were." the person sounded southern. But Susan could not tell where in the south they were from. She was careful not to place a gender on the voice. Anywhere else, she wouldn't have noticed the need to put labels on things, but here, you never know. Got to be careful even in your own head.