After a while, Liam, who looked more cheerful than usual, appeared with steps that even felt frivolous, then slapped my butt with his large palm hard enough to make a smacking sound.
“Why……?”
When I asked in a state of confusion with bewilderment ahead of pain, Liam said he just hit it and quickly got in the car. Then he looked at me with expectant eyes and asked if I would come to the Halloween party at Leda’s place at the end of this month.
“I’ll go.”
I couldn’t say I wouldn’t go with such an excited kid in front of me, so I said I would go and asked Liam if he had reconciled with Leda.
“We fight during the day and make up at night every day. Of course, this time it seems to have worked out well because you gave me advice.”
“What did I even do? Anyway, that’s good.”
“Right. I’ll be Chewbacca at that party, so you be Han Solo.”
“……Wasn’t that outfit what you and Virgil were supposed to do at Comic-Con?”
That was the plan, but the plan fell through when Virgil decided to go to Comic-Con with Sophia, Liam said, and told me that Leda had allowed the Chewbacca costume just for this year.
“……Alright.”
Liam and I dressed as Chewbacca and Han Solo at the Halloween party. It was strange when I imagined it, but since Liam hadn’t made a difficult-to-refuse request, I decided to just go along with it.
“You’re not forcing yourself to do it even though you don’t want to, right?”
“Honestly, I don’t really want to do it that much……. But you seem to really want to dress as Chewbacca, so I want to respond to that enthusiasm.”
“Yeah. I really want to. As much as I want to slap your butt.”
“……I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that last part.”
I deliberately ignored Liam’s words thrown with a lewd face and drove to school. Then as soon as I got out of the car, I was ‘butt-slapped’ once again and had no choice but to fall into bewilderment.
* * *
Mid-October. The football season ended and the Moonbeam Rangers took the championship this year too. On the day the Rangers dominated the season and Liam was selected as the quarterback division MVP, Ted came dressed in the suit he wore at homecoming to congratulate his son. Liam seemed not to have expected Ted to come that day, as he looked very surprised to see him.
“This is the first time. Coming like this…….”
“Because I thought I didn’t deserve to congratulate you.”
“What kind of qualification is needed for something like that?”
“……Can I come often like this from now on?”
Of course, Liam answered Ted, then made an awkward embrace with him while holding the trophy in his hand.
The principal, who had been watching today’s game with interest, congratulated Liam and asked which university he planned to attend. Liam smiled broadly and answered like this.
“The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.”
The moment Liam smiled at the principal and spoke, my target universities also decreased from two places to one.
* * *
On Halloween day. I headed to Liam’s trailer wearing a Han Solo costume rented through Virgil. The last time I wore a Halloween costume was when I was in elementary school—how many years has it been since I dressed up and set the mood like this?
Hoping that nothing goes wrong today—since recently friends had been involved in big and small problems and experienced a lot of conflict—I drove to the front of the trailer. After that, I almost fainted when I encountered a giant furry monster.
“Hello!”
I wasn’t unaware that Liam had been going around singing the Chewbacca song until this day came, but his costume was so perfect that I was surprised even knowing. I looked at Liam wearing the furry mask for a moment, then removed the mask from him. Then the always-seen but always surprisingly handsome face was smiling at me.
“Oh.”
There’s a pretty boy inside the Chewbacca mask. Having realized the subtle pleasure that fact gave me, I briefly admired Liam. When I looked at him without even properly greeting him, Liam asked worriedly, tilting his head, if there was a problem.
“I just thought you look even more handsome today.”
“Haha, what, really?”
“I can’t say things I don’t mean.”
“I think you’re handsome about a thousand times every time I see you, but if I mention it every time, I won’t have time to say anything else, so I just think it.”
Liam said that, then got in the car, grabbed my face, and kissed me for a long time. Then suddenly, he asked who I thought the football player he respected most was.
“Tom Brady?”
Since he’s a football star frequently mentioned by Liam normally, of course…….
“No.”
“Peyton Manning?”
“I’ll give you a hint. That person’s position isn’t quarterback.”
Not quarterback? I tried all the names of non-quarterback football players I knew, though there weren’t many—Nathan even came up at the end—but none of them was the player Liam respected most.
“It’s Michael Sam. His position is defensive lineman……. He was the first among NFL players to come out in 2014.”
“Ah.”
“Tchaiki.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m gay. And I want to tell everyone that I’m gay before graduation.”
Liam asked me not to worry too much since he wouldn’t mention that his boyfriend is me. However, if I seemed unable to accept the situation he would face after coming out, he expressed his intention to make that goal never exist.
If Liam comes out, even if he doesn’t talk about me, there will be unfriendly looks and words we’ll receive from sticking together every day. Liam seemed to be worried about such things.
“Don’t worry about me. Just tell me when you’re going to come out. I need to be by your side then.”
“……Alright.”
With Liam speaking happily beside me, as I was about to start the car, a hand covered in a costume mask came over my hand holding the gear. And the following words.
“Won’t you kiss me?”
“It’s hardest to figure out how to react when you say this.”
“The solution is simple. ‘Kiss Liam right away.'”
I see. As soon as I heard Liam’s solution, I immediately put it into action. Then I headed to Leda’s house where numerous people were gathered.
Sophia and Alice were also at Leda’s house, and they all revealed that they had no choice but to come because Leda insisted so much that they come. Saying she had something very important to discuss today, so they must come.
Olivia was also among the party guests, and the surprising thing here was that she came here at Alice’s invitation. The two were rapidly recovering the friendship they had lost under the slogan ‘Down with Liam Blake,’ so from my position as Liam’s boyfriend, it’s…… ambiguous to say this is good. Liam himself reacts like it’s very good though.
For the first while at the party, I spent time enjoyably playing beer pong with Chewbacca Liam and chatting with kids like Charlotte, Nathan, and Juliet. Until Leda appeared in the middle and asked everyone to listen for a moment because she had something to say.
“I’ll only say this once, so listen well. I’m a lesbian. So I’d appreciate it if you all didn’t make weird misunderstandings. I’m not a misery obsessed with my friend. I just liked Sophia Hernandez and didn’t want to lose her to Virgil Praxis.”
Leda said that and went up to her room in a huff, and for a moment everyone at the party shut their mouths as if by agreement and looked at each other.
“…….”
“…….”
After a moment of silence, the party venue filled with all kinds of ominous murmuring, then suddenly several kids left making flimsy excuses and the atmosphere only became more chaotic. Meanwhile, Sophia stood with a pale face, then headed to Leda’s room with a look full of anger. Charlotte, who noticed the bad signs seeing this, followed, but Sophia blocked her from approaching.
“This is a problem between Leda and me.”
A moment later, shouting began coming from the second-floor room where Leda and Sophia were. Thus, the Halloween party Leda prepared remained in everyone’s memory as the worst.
* * *
On the Monday after the Halloween incident, Leda’s locker had these graffiti written on it.
Lesbo
Disgusting
If you have dirty pics with your girlfriend send them
The incident Leda faced after coming out was similar to what Olivia faced, but this time the difference was that Sophia just passed by even after seeing the wrecked locker, and unlike with Olivia, all the kids who did the graffiti were tracked down and received heavy punishment.
“When a rich kid goes through the same thing, the response is different. Fucking school.”
Even as Olivia said that, she seemed to be secretly worried about Leda. The same was true for Alice. But only Sophia maintained a cold attitude, and Leda didn’t come to school after the locker incident. And after a while, I was able to hear from Liam the news that Leda had quit school.
* * *
The short vacation ended, and as we entered the last semester of high school, war-like college entrance preparation began. Since both Liam and I had only one target university, we did our utmost to prepare various documents and interviews with the determination that if not there, we wouldn’t go.
