Prodigal

~3.17~

After several moments of severe discomfort, the song ended, the table with Cole’s picture and jersey was taken off, and the game proceeded like usual.

Jeffery’s team won. I heard a couple people say that it was crappy for his team to not let Cole’s team win.

Gabbi and I congratulated our boyfriends after their win, but we didn’t hang out because we had a bit of a drive home.

The weekend was uneventful, but the following Monday at school wasn’t.

It was English class and we were all in the library to work on our projects about things people probably wouldn’t know a lot about.

Ethan was with a bunch of his buddies at a table next to mine. And, just like usual, he was talking out of his ass.

“Those two stupid girls at the game Friday night really made themselves look like bitches.” Ethan said. “Like, what the fuck was that?”

“And they think that his teammates bullied him to suicide?” One said.

“They didn’t do shit.” Ethan spewed. “They didn’t kill that guy. He chose to kill himself. He’s the only one to blame.”

“You can’t be serious!” I said to him from my table. “The kind of harassment that Cole went through is exactly the same as the kind of harassment that you’ve put Jeffery through. And me through. People like you literally bully people to death.”

“Look if you killed yourself because of me then you have serious problems.” Ethan said. “Gay people kill themselves all the time because, let’s face it, they’re weak.”

“You need to shut the hell up.” I said. “And you need to think long and hard before you say anything else because your words could literally be the death of someone. Would you really not care?”

“Long and hard.” Ethan mimicked. “Is that what you get in your pants when you see Jeffery take his shirt off?”

I stood up and walked to the teacher. “I need to talk to the principal.”

Notes

As a writer and a scriptural artist, I am having a lot of fun exploring this gender identity area. I think it's really important for it to be seen.