Alex as Well by Alyssa Brugman

Author:Alyssa Brugman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile fiction
ISBN: 9781921961458
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Published: 2013-01-29T16:00:00+00:00

23

WE’VE DECIDED THE best thing to do is get to school early, and that way I can sit there with my back against the wall, instead of walking into a situation all exposed.

I stomp all the way to school in my steel-capped boots. My fists are clenched. Because if someone gives me shit I’m going to punch them in the eye.

My arm is really itchy. I pull up my sleeve and there is a red rash there.

When I arrive, Sierra is sitting by herself in the empty quad. She watches me approaching. Her face tells me nothing.

‘Are you always this early?’ I ask.

‘My mum,’ she explains. Sierra travels with the lady from the front desk, of course.

I sit on the bench next to her, slipping my bag down between my feet. We are silent for a moment, and then I figure I should just say it.

‘So, umm, do you have a problem with me being’— there is only the slightest pause—’gay?’

‘What? No!’ Sierra says, blushing. ‘No! Not at all. As long as…’ Then she giggles.

‘As along as?’ I raise an eyebrow.

‘Don’t worry, I was just teasing.’ She waves her hand at me. ‘Never mind.’

‘What were you going to say?’

As long as you don’t hit on me. That’s what she was going to say.

‘Actually I think you’re pretty cute,’ Alex says, and he holds Sierra’s eye contact for a moment too long.

What the hell are you doing? I ask him.

You don’t think it would make her feel good? Thinking someone had a little crush on her? Her name is mountain, for chrissake! And I watch her. Alex is right. She’s embarrassed, but I think she’s also flattered.

You could pash her. She’s not ugly, Alex says.

I don’t want to pash Sierra. We can’t have this argument right now.

‘It’s a bit gross for me,’ Sierra confesses, and her nose wrinkles just a little bit. ‘No offence. But you’re into what you’re into, I suppose.’

I nod. Alex runs his eye over her. ‘Which part is gross?’

Stop it! I warn him.

What? We can make her say it, Alex grins.

Don’t make her say it. What the hell is wrong with you?

‘It’s ok, I’m not going to umm…’ I sigh. ‘Well, it’s like you’re into boys, but you’re not into all boys. You know?’

Sierra narrows her eyes.

That was the wrong thing. Now she’s pissed at me, because you’ve said she’s not attractive enough. You should have left it, Alex says.

You were making her uncomfortable, I tell him.

I was making her hot.

We don’t want to make Sierra hot.

Why not?

This time I bump her knee with my knee.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ she asks.

I lean across and put my arm on the wall behind her, so now she’s trapped. I lean in and lick her earlobe.

‘What the hell, Alex?’ She pushes me away. But I can see gooseflesh running up her arms.

I laugh and then I stand up and stretch. I do three cartwheels in a row across the empty playground.

This is the bit I’m not prepared for. You know what it feels like? This is like white-water rafting.

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