Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills

Author:Kirstin Cronn-Mills [Cronn-Mills, Kirstin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: teen fiction, teen, Young Adult, dj, YA, Minneapolis, Romance, Young adult fiction, Music, radio, transgender, ya fiction
Publisher: Llewellyn Pubns
Published: 2012-08-14T04:00:00+00:00

I click into Facebook. Liz and her one friend. Pathetic. Then, when I look at the fan page for the Ugly Children Brigade, there’s a new post, by a guy named Jason SerialKiller, with a Jason mask as his profile picture.

It’s not just a turntable issue—YOU NEED TO KNOW GABE IS REALLY LIZ WILLIAMS—not a guy. Thank you Mara for the clue. Liz is the IT who went to West. She lied. Now we’re going to fuck IT up. Nobody that sick should be allowed to live.

I call Paige.

“I just left!”

“Look at the UCB page.”

Silence while she turns on her computer.

“Do you see it?” I try to keep the shake out of my voice.

“Who is this asshole?”

“He was in the parking lot at the station Friday, when I came out.”

Instant anger. “Why didn’t you tell me? Did he hurt you?”

“He just asked if I was Gabe. How was I supposed to know he wanted to kill me?”

“We’ve got to go to the police.” Now she’s got her don’t mess with me voice on.

“No.”

“You are so fucking dense. This isn’t funny!”

“The cops won’t care.”

“Don’t be dumb! What if you get hurt?”

“I’ll figure it out.”

“Dammit, Gabe!” Now she’s almost crying.

“Look.” I take a deep breath and scan the Facebook page again. “If there’s more, we’ll go to the cops. Next time he posts, him or his friend.” I’m brave. Brave, brave, brave. And I’m shaking so hard I can barely hold my phone.

“There was more than one?”

“A guy in a Scream mask.”

“I’m coming over right now.”

“No!” But she’s hung up.

I meet her in the driveway before she’s had time to storm my house. She’s pissed. “You get in this car right now and let’s go.”

“If something else happens, then yes. Right now, he’s just talking shit.” In the time it took her to get here, I’ve calmed down and thought it over. That’s all it is. Just talking shit.

“You are so fucking stubborn!” There’s a tear on her cheek, and she wipes it away.

“Be happy about that, or I would’ve given up on you a long time ago.” I manage a grin, so she knows I’m not serious, but she hits me anyway.

“For that, I’m leaving.”

“Good.” Another smile.

She backs out fast and burns away, but I know she’s not really mad. If she was mad, she would have erased my number from her phone. I’ve seen her do that before.

One more time, she’s got my back. I love her for that.

When I go back inside, my mom hollers at me. “Was that Paige again?”

“She just came back to get her iPod.”

“All right.” And that’s that.

Suddenly I want to go to her and say, “Guess what, Mom? I got asked out by a girl, then she outed me, then I got threatened, and now I just want to quit. Okay? Can I quit? I don’t want to be Gabe anymore.” I want to hug her and put my head on her lap and cry. I want her to stroke my hair and say, “Shhhh, honey, it’s all right.

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