“What I’m looking at. My feed.”
“That’s ...cool,” I admit, sitting down across from him. And it’s unexpected too. I don’t know what kind of stuff I assumed he’d watch—dumb prank videos?—and I’m surprised by his answer. Though I guess it makes sense; queer stuff, for obvious reasons, and the dance trends, since he’s friends with Alexander. “You follow politics?”
“Kind of?” he says. “I follow some creators who talk about what’s going on with anti-trans legislation, and anti-racism stuff. There’s this one account that does queer history videos. I love it.”
“You do?” It slips out before I can filter my surprise.
He laughs. “Wow.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, shaking my head. “I didn’t mean it like that. It just ...I didn’t...” I trail off, because I don’t know what to say, or what I actually meant.You’re an asshole,a voice whispers in my mind.You’re an asshole. You’re a fucking asshole. He thinks so and so does everyone else.
Stop,I tell myself.
Stop.
Stop.
“It’s cool,” he says. “You wanna talk about the exhibit?”
“Yeah! OK.” I pull out my notebook, pushing down the frantic murmuring in my head. “So, here’s what I’ve been thinking. The library has a display case out front, and it still has the summer reading stuff from the end of last year in it, so this would be a perfect place to put part of the exhibit. I want it to be eye-catching, something that directs people inside the library, where we can have the rest of the exhibit, which I’m thinking could be freestanding around the room. Maybe we could make it like a scavenger hunt, where people go to every installation, write down a fact they learned, and turn it in for a prize?”
“You wanna give people homework?” He tucks in his chin, staring at me from under his eyebrows.
“It would beoptional.” I glare at him. “And it’s just an idea. Way to shoot me down.”
“Yeah, doesn’t feel good, does it?” he says.
I stare at him silently. His lips are pursed, eyes flat and peering right back into mine. I want to come back with a snappy reply, but I’m also just ...tired. I don’t want to do this today.
“OK,” I say. “I know you said we could use this time to fight things out, but I don’t really want to spend my lunch break arguing with you. I...” I blow a breath out. Time to be the bigger person. For the millionth time in my life. “I’m sorry I shot you down. When the club got started. But we’re stuck with each other until the reelection, so I want to make this work, at least until then.”
He glares at me a minute longer, then sighs, looking away. “Yeah, all right. And you’re right. I want to make this work too.”
For the second time today, I’m surprised. I look down at my food, pretending to be very interested in deciding whether I want to eat my apple or my sandwich first. Across from me, Forrest is quiet too.
“It’s not a terrible idea. The scavenger hunt,” he says after a while.
“I don’t know.” I grimace. “I want it to be interesting, but maybe that’s not it.”
“We’ll figure it out,” he says. “What do you want in the exhibit?”
“Well, Stonewall, of course, and other big events in queer history. And important historical figures, like Marsha P. Johnson and Leslie Feinberg, along with people who are well-known right now.”
“Lady Gaga, Lil Nas X, Elliot Page, Laverne Cox, Janelle Monae...” He lists them off on his fingers.
“Yes!” I scribble the names down.
“We should definitely talk about when the DSM stopped classifying queerness as a mental illness,” Forrest says. “And some of the gay marriage milestones.”
“And the current anti-trans legislation.”
He nods, his mouth a grim line. “Yeah.”
We toss ideas back and forth and my paper starts to fill, enough for more than one exhibit. Forrest knows way more about queer history than I expected; as much as me, and maybe more. “We should include Lou Sullivan in historical figures,” he says. I tilt my head, the name unfamiliar. “People think he’s probably the first trans man to openly identify as gay. He founded the first organization for trans guys in the United States and had to fight for the right to medically transition because the criteria for gender identity disorder used to require trans people to identify as straight. But he helped change that, and a bunch of other stuff too.”
“Wow.” I stare at him, wide-eyed. “That’s so cool.”
“I know.” He grins.
