Standing for Weirdo

Chapter 29

The following two weeks, since our general rehearsal had been a success, Trevor took to leaving his guitar behind. He left it inside its gig bag, which in turn had found a spot inside his wardrobe. If he had more urges to give into the music, he never mentioned them. We spent our free time together, talking about mundane stuff like classes and ice cream flavors and the upcoming Christmas holidays.

One evening, we even went to Alex's place, Stella and him and me, and we played Super Mario for hours on end on the Wii. Trevor won, and the rest of us refused point-blank to believe that he had never before played the game.

For as long as I could, I allowed myself to forget the freaky events and to just enjoy my time with Trevor. Bliss found us the night before the grand opening of the play. It was probably the most unremarkable Thursday ever, with the four of us going to the movies and then to the café where everything began. We sat there drinking our mocha, Stella and I making grossed out noises while the guys discussed the merits of the endless amount of dynamite used in the SF of the particular film we’d seen. At that precise moment, I realized that this new life looked the same as the one before Trevor. Except, back then, there had been something that didn’t quite work—a discordant note. Something that wasn’t what it was supposed to be.

Stella reached out and squeezed my hand under the table, giving me a huge smile, as if she could read my thoughts. She looked happier as well. She and Josh had been a hot couple, and I’d not be so callous as to say that it’d been built on looks alone, but she had gotten over him. Looking at her now, at the way she laughed and swatted Alex's arm and flung crumbs of cupcake in his hair, I wondered how I had ever overlooked the fact that they were perfect for each other. They both had the same quiet charisma and self-assurance. They both were the kind of people you could look up to, not because of what they were, but because of who they were. They weren’t together, not yet, but it only was a matter of time and I was genuinely happy for them.

The real thing that swelled my heart, though, was the way the two of them had accepted Trevor. Beyond just tolerating his presence as my whim, they had given him a chance. While I had a sneaking suspicion that they had stopped talking to the cool guys for their own reasons, namely Josh, the fact that they had stuck with me, with us, was only half as valuable to me as their friendship with Trevor. He and Alex had sought interests in common, finding their classes of history a starting point and building from there into TV shows, videogames, and Greek food. Stella had become Trevor's unconditional supporter since The Incident, but they also found a shared sense of humor and a deeply entrenched hate for winter cold.

When Alex dropped Trevor and me at my home and sped off to take Stella to hers, I had had the most normal evening in my life and I was beyond grateful for it.

I hugged Trevor before he could think of returning to his own place, leaving me alone.

“Is everything all right?” Trevor whispered in my ear when he noticed the way I clung to his neck, like a lifeline.

No, it isn’t. I don’t want to lose what I just found. I’m scared. I don’t want you playing tomorrow in the opening gala, because I have a bad feeling screaming in the back of my mind, saying it’s all going to go to hell in a hand basket.

“I love you,” I said instead. It might have been too soon for the words, but I knew what I felt, and I needed him to know it as well.

When he exhaled a long, slow breath, his wiry frame relaxing and melting against my body, I knew I had said the right thing.

“I love you, too.”

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