The Queerest [🗸]

infinity and more

pls the way this is the last official chapter before the epilogue 👁

***

Standing at the exit of the train station,  I tuck dark strands of hair behind my ear, exhale a breath as I inhale my surroundings.

I'm back.

After moving to California about halfway through the year and finishing my senior year over there, I've finally come back home. Moving wasn't easy, not when I finally had a girlfriend and a group of queers that I might love more than life itself.

Long distance is always known to be shit. But for Evelyn and I, it wasn't complete shit. Days weren't always sunny, and I missed her every fucking day at my new school, but we always made time for each other, visited. 

Being in a new state with Mom wasn't perfect, but I could see the liberation in her eyes as she started afresh. She smiles more often; bigger, brighter smiles. For once, her shoulders are eased like she's not carrying the weight of the world on them.

Seeing Mom happier makes it worth it, even if she needed the move more than I did. 

The day I'd come out to her via phone, she was simple about it. Mom hasn't ever been one to react extremely strongly about things, especially things that weren't necessarily subtle. She'd reminded me that I made all my gay-ass purchases on her account, so she did her research and put two and two together.

So, it's okay. We're okay. In fact, we're more okay than we've been for a while now. I'd made some friends over there, too. I met Jason Nguyen, a queer-ass half-Viet icon with a devil-may-care attitude and the softest spot in his heart for one Lucas Garcia. There was Amir Karim, a 6'3'' asexual that absolutely radiates calm and composed. Finally, there was Dani Romano, a curly-haired pretty person constantly bounding with energy.

But even with all these positive changes and new bonds, I was still missing my girlfriend every fucking night since our move in early January.

So, now, here, in the town that I grew up with and hate and love, my chest swells with everything. I'm back home. Not home because of the quaint house Mom and I'd lived in, or our pretty rural-esque neighborhood—but home because of the queerest kids at Aspen High and the June Midwestern wind that blows at my hair.