“Ambassador for anti-bullying,” Jordan says.
“Fine,” Rainer says, more to me. His tone is frayed, and I feel my pulse lurch. The last thing we need is a fight before we have to video broadcast ourselves to millions of people.
“Come on,” I say. “We made a promise.”
“The three of us?” Rainer asks.
Jordan glances at me. “Yeah. It’s only ten minutes.”
Rainer snaps closed the top of his water bottle. “For Alexis, sure.”
I follow them back up to the condos, but instead of making a left when we get to the lobby, we make a right. I’ve never been on this side of the condos before. I’ve never been to Jordan’s room before.
He leads us up a side staircase and then around to the left. He pops the door open, and I walk in, Rainer behind.
Jordan’s condo faces half out to the water, and half to the mountains. You can see all the way up the hills here—hills that I know disappear into Haleakala.
Rainer flops himself down on the couch. Jordan switches on his laptop. I take a seat on the coffee table, across from them.
“I’m dialing in,” Jordan says.
They both look right at me. “Okay,” I say.
Rainer gestures to the space between him and Jordan. “You’re probably going to need to come sit here.”
I smooth down my hair. “Yeah,” I say. “Sure.” The couch isn’t giant, and my knee brushes Jordan’s. I put my hands on my thighs and keep them there.
The screen shows the three of us. I look down at the little box with our picture, and then a woman’s face appears.
“Oh my goodness,” she says. “You’re never going to believe who just came to join us.”
She steps back to reveal a fully packed auditorium, and the kids go wild. Whooping and screaming.
“We’re calling you from Hawaii,” Rainer says. He waves and slings an arm over the back of the couch. “We miss you, Alexis!”
Alexis is standing at a podium on the stage, wearing the same T-shirt she gave me but altered in such a way that it looks wildly flattering on her. She waves at us. “Hey, friends!”
“How is it going?” Jordan asks. I see her beam back at him. “We can’t wait for you to get here.”
“Is anyone else jealous these guys have spent all day on the beach?” Alexis asks the students.
“We’re working,” I say.
Alexis winks at me. “You guys want to hang out while I talk?”
More yelling. Rainer leans forward. “We’ll stick around if you guys stop screaming!”
The students freak out even more, and I’m reminded of the impact Rainer has on people. Even here, in Jordan’s living room, from thousands of miles away, he has command of the audience.
“Do your thing,” I say. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Alexis looks at us, and out of the corner of my eye I catch Jordan give her a quick thumbs-up. She takes a deep breath. I can feel her energy, even through the screen. She seems nervous. I’ve never seen Alexis nervous before.
“I’m here today to talk about bullying. I joined with Do Something about six months ago, and I had planned to speak today, as I have many times before, about kindness in schools and treating each other with respect. I was going to tell you about how it gets better after high school, and I want to be clear all of that is true… but there’s something I need to say first.”
Confused, I look at Jordan, but his eyes are fixed to the screen.
“I’m gay,” Alexis says.
