Out: A Schoolboy's Tale by David Brining

Author:David Brining
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay, relationships, family, coming out, teenage romance, school life

16: We found love (in a hopeless place)

CERTAIN now of my emotional and sexual orientation, the possibilities it brought excited me even though Ali's teen-angst confusion was exhausting. He hadn't phoned me since that afternoon. Anyway, the spooktacularly lovely Leo (ha ha) was now in the frame, so, as well as the upcoming play and music competition and Christmas, I returned to school in a fairly bright mood, you know?

I didn't see Ali on Monday. He missed Choral Society and ''Away with him, away, cru-u-u-cify…'', which Fred dismissed as ''exciting as a bucket of cold sick,'' but on Tuesday, smart in his charcoal suit, he took house assembly, reading from Proverbs 15: ''A soft answer turns away anger, but a sharp word makes tempers hot. A wise man's tongue spreads knowledge, stupid men talk nonsense. The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, surveying evil and good men alike.'' Then he recited St Augustine's Prayer, ''Watch, dear Lord, with those who cannot sleep and those who weep this night,'' led the usual mumbled Lord's Prayer, ''Our Father, who art in Heaven,'' recorded our Games choices, snapped at North for mocking Paulus' usual swimming choice and reminded us of Wednesday's rehearsal. He seemed tired and didn't speak to me at all, just gave me this like curt nod. Shit. Was I really that unsettling? ''Watch, dear Lord, with those who cannot sleep.'' Anyhow, me and Leo went to a cubicle in the Sports Centre toilets and kissed till the bell went. Man, it was like having some epileptic eel in your mouth. Best of all, Games was cancelled – thick fog, ha ha – so I got to slack off in the lecture theatre with 100 other Fifth Formers while Wade and Ogden showed some video of the Rugby World Cup and Maxton and me did our homework and played Slaps, which was great till, getting a five-slap penalty, he smacked my hands red-raw and made me yelp so Oggie caught us, moved us to the front and made us write 'Rugby is game for men, slaps is a game for kids' 100 times, the bulbous-nosed twat.

So we reached Thursday's Double Chemistry. I was on the back bench with Maxton, Stewart and Gray. Next to us were Lewis, Collins, Arnold and Burridge, doing an experiment with acid and carbonates whilst Barney was writing 'The Rise of Freon' on the board.

''What's that, sir?'' I called.

''Nothing for you, Mr Peters,'' he replied. ''It's for Lower Sixth Chemistry in Context.''

''Sounds like a film, sir,'' I said. ''Rise of Freon, The Decline and Fall of Freon, Son of Freon, Freon and the Freon Empire… you could get a franchise out of it.''

Barney grunted like a constipated frog whilst Maxton called me a twat and Stewpot Stewart, deciding on another experiment, tipped a ton of calcium carbonate into the concentrated sulphuric acid.

''It just fizzes a bit and lets off gas,'' he explained, replacing the glass stopper.

Sure enough, it began to fizz, releasing this thin white gas.

''That's that, then,'' I said, giving the stopper a brisk, hard smack.

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