Shawna’s eyebrow raises, looking at AJ pointedly and moving her hand in a get on with it motion.
“Oh! Um— Have y’all seen Luc?” He looks around the group of us, in case his beast of a friend might be hiding behind one ofus. He gives Luc’s younger sisters a wave while they’re talking to Naz just a few feet behind where Blake is chatting with Mr. Martín.
“Nah. He’s off fuckin’ somewhere.”
“Shawna.”
She has the decency to look at least a little genuine when she cringes and apologizes to Mr. Martín.
“Oh. Well, if you see him… You know what. I’ll just send him a text. And I absolutely will not go to his house without letting him know first.”
“Is he telling her or talking to himself?” Will asks me under his breath.
I shrug. I don’t know, but I am highly entertained. Who knew a stoic guy like Luc had such fun friends?
“They’ve been gone since halftime,” I say, looking at Blake. “Are we even sure they’re still here?”
Blake actually smiles. “As long as they don’t get photographed doing whatever it is they’re doing, I don’t even care. I think maybe tonight was a turning point. Maybe we can start moving away from the drama and getting back to the music.”
Mr. Martín makes an affirmative “hmmph” sound, and it occurs to me that both Luc’s dad and his sisters are probably aware of what’s out there in the media about him. God, I hope they didn’t see it. It was hard to avoid for a little while there.
“Are we sure that’s the right way to go?”
Blakes shoulders droop. “What could you possibly mean by that?” He looks deflated, like he’s waiting for Will to tell him some bad news.
“I just mean that we’ve been lying low and not fighting back for a while now. At first it was because we didn’t know where it was coming from, and then it was to keep things a little quieter for Jesse and Luc. Which, let’s face it, was completely ineffective. I think we’ve been going about this whole thing the wrong way.”
“It’s not as if we’re doing nothing,” Blake says, crossing his arms. “Legal has filed charges against the blogger, and cease and desist letters have been sent to every media outlet still sharing the videos.” He cuts his eyes to Luc’s dad, obviously feeling as awkward as I do talking about this in front of him.
“None of that matters and you know it,” Will says, mirroring Blake’s posture. “For fuck’s sake, the president of the United States of America was convicted of thirty-four felonies and has faced zero consequences. The so-calledDepartment of Justiceredacted the names of politicians and powerful figures and released the names of dozens of victims instead.”
Blake frowns. I’m sure he can see what Will’s point is going to be as well as I can, but he lets Will continue.
“You’re trying to fix things behind the scenes and do things professionally, which is respectable. But we’re getting killed in a dirty game played by dirty people.”
“He’s right,” Naz says, coming to stand on Will’s other side, making us a united front. Minus Jesse, of course.
“So what do you think we should be doing?” Blake asks calmly.
“I think we should fight back. We need to do more, get louder and stay louder. Look at how much things have progressed just since the beginning of the year. People are being detained without due process. Families are being separated. Rights are being stripped quietly and publicly at the same time. It’s our duty to stand up and say something that people will listen to.”
I nod. “Nobody is suggesting that we can save the world, but maybe we can open people’s eyes. Raise awareness. Encourage people to vote, to call their senators, to speak out and protect their neighbors.”
“You’ve already struck a nerve—” Blake starts, but Naz cuts him off.
“How much worse could it get? Jesse and Luc are out now. The damage is done, and they managed to get through it.”
“Not unscathed,” Blake points out.
“Meh, Luc is fine,” Shawna says with a dismissive hand wave.
“Yeah, and you know, I think quite a few guys from the team would probably be on board if there’s anything we can do to help. I’m not the only son of immigrants on the team, and a lot of us have queer friends and family. And Treydon, well, he just likes pissing off politicians, honestly.” AJ chimes in.
“Oh, I love that guy,” Will says. “We had a great chat when you all came out to that game in New York.”
“Yeah man, you know he’d be up for some trouble.” AJ throws up his hand, and he and Will do one of those hand-shake bro-hugs that I could never pull off.
“You know I’m in,” Naz says.
