Chapter 17: The Art of Giving
by Emmet
She grinned, took the story, and went to her seat. I noticed Alexa was sitting behind her, and her eyes went to the story Grace held, then to me, and suddenly I worried that Grace might leaf through it now, but told myself there was nothing to worry about. Still, to my relief, Grace put the story in her folder and pulled out her notebook.
At the end of class Alexa came up to me with a few pages. Grace started to approach the desk, but saw Alexa there, turned, and left the classroom. Alexa said, “Here’s the draft you told me to write. I know it probably doesn’t make any sense. But it’s, like, what you told me to do.”
“That’s good, Alexa,” I said. “I look it over tonight and give it back to you tomorrow.”
*****
Thursday, finally, was the Gay/Straight Alliance meeting at my house. I had bought some new Chabichou. I hoped Grace would come first; I wanted to tell her more about Chris. She may not have needed it, but I wanted to tell her exactly what had happened between us; for me, with Grace, honesty was so important, and I didn’t want any airbrushed versions of truth between us. At least in this regard.
But Tad arrived first this time, again to my surprise. “Hey, Mr. D.,” he said, coming into the kitchen where I was getting food ready. He picked some slices of apple off the plate. He looked like he wanted to say something. I stopped pouring chips into a bowl and looked at him expectantly. “Can I ask you something, like, personal?”
“You can ask,” I said. “I might not answer.”
He grinned, then got serious. “Are you gay?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Well, I mean, why do this? And, you teach drama and English, and you have all those CDs of musicals.”
“You’re perpetuating stereotypes, Tad,” I said. “Actually, I will answer. I’m not gay, not that it matters, but have a lot of friends and family who are, and I think this is a worthwhile way to spend the little spare time I have.”
“You have family who’s gay?” he asked.
“Yes. My sister.”
And now he was quiet, and pensive, and for a rare moment the football façade was down, the intelligence underneath came through, and he said, quietly, after looking around. “Can I tell you something, in, like, confidence? You won’t tell anyone?”
“What is it?” I asked, making no promises.
He looked around; no one else had come yet. “I think my brother’s gay.”
“That’s why you’ve been coming to these meetings?”
“Yeah. He’s, like, a freshman, hasn’t ever said anything, but. I saw something”
“Is he into drama and English?”
Tad laughed curtly. “No, actually. Math and science. Swim team. But, I walked in on him one time with his best friend, kind of lying on top of him… I pretended I didn’t see anything, but…”
“Well, it could just be experimenting – ”
“That’s what I tried to tell myself.”
“Or, you could be right.”
“That’s what I really think. I mean, at first, I was kind of freaked, but we’ve always been, close, but, I just don’t want anyone giving him a hard time. I mean, I don’t want people like me giving him shit – excuse me. Especially when I’m not going to be around to protect him.”
There was a knock on the back door. Grace. I just said, “It’ll be okay, Tad. He’s lucky you’re his brother.”
“You think?”
“Yes. Especially if we can really get the Gay/Straight Alliance on firm ground.”
Grace looked questioningly at us, and I shrugged slightly. The front doorbell rang, and Tad went to answer it. Soon we were back to planning, decisions argued, resolved, date set for the dance. Tad left with the group this time, pausing to say a quick thanks. Then, at last, Grace was alone with me in the kitchen.