The door jingled as new customers walked inside, catching Kaiden’s eye as they wandered toward their table instead of the growing line.
An effeminate guy dressed in the preppiest polo, clashing shorts, and insultingly rugged sandals sauntered over, accompanied by a very well-dressed petite blonde with a horrendous spray tan. It was too extreme, too out of season, and not at all blended with her makeup. Kaiden bit his tongue, having a thousand tips on how to improve each of their shitty try-hard looks, but finding both already nauseating. Though that might’ve had to do with the snarl Rus let out when they approached.
“You’re that guy who got the shit kicked out of him for—”
“Get fucked,” Rus spat before the girl could finish her statement. Her hateful insult.
But the damage had already landed. Kaiden clammed up, lost in the realization that despite not wanting to press charges or make a big deal out of his assault, people still ran with the story. Between online trending videos and so-called newspapers, there had been enough of them to drop his name and picture that did the rounds in town. It was horrible knowing that if someone searched up his name online, they’d find articles and images of his assault. It would follow him forever, always at the top of the search engines.
“Don’t worry, Emma,” the gay guy said while batting his eyes. “Rus is all bark and no bite. Probably why he got the shit kicked out of him, too.”
“Fuck off, pick me,” Rus snapped.
“Don’t speak to Landon that way,” Emma retorted. “I swear, the way you—”
“Sir, yes, sir,” Rus interrupted, straightening up in his chair and giving Emma a salute before flipping her off. “Anything for you, Commander Conservative Cunt. And while I know you’d love to spell those Cs with Ks, you’ll just have to keep crossing your fingers that the kappa kappa whatevers sorority you’re in update their name.”
Emma furrowed her brow, and the deep creases in her face were amplified by her overly tanned skin.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my favorite bitchy bi boy,” said a Black girl with a familiar face as she strutted over and side hugged Rus, who responded with a polite morning growl.
Between Rus’ scowl and the girl’s side eye of disdain, Emma and Landon took the hint and wandered away to a corner booth of the café.
“Daysha, right?” Dylan pointed, and the name quickly returned to Kaiden.
He always struggled learning names, whereas Dylan could meet someone for five minutes and have half their life story memorized in his vault of a mind. It probably had to do with how many teens shuffled in and out of Dorothy’s Home over the years. Or maybe Dylan was just smarter. Kaiden wouldn’t be too surprised by that.
“So, are we just going to pretend like that whole scene didn’t happen?” Kaiden asked, gesturing to the empty space where Emma and Landon had stood a moment ago.
“That’s your best bet,” Daysha replied, tapping Rus on the shoulder. “Unless you want to be like this guy, provoking them into an argument every time they appear.”
“It’s not my fault,” Rus said. “They’re ignorant and evil and deserve to be mocked.”
“And I have missed your vicious mockery as of late,” Daysha said, eyeing Kaiden and Dylan. “Especially, since y’all have been holding my buddy hostage.”
“Sorry about that,” Kaiden said with a chuckle, letting the stress of their last encounter wash away.
Tension still ate away at Kaiden. Thankfully, his friends noticed. They didn’t make a big deal out of it but offered solace. Dylan gently shoulder-bumped Kaiden, and Rus pressed his knee against Kaiden’s under the table, each offering a subtle way to soothe away the stress.
“So, you coming to the Pride Club event?” she asked, eyeing her friend.
“Huh?” Rus did a poor job pretending not to know what she was talking about, then returned to sipping his coffee.
It hadn’t taken long for Kaiden to realize Rus scrunched his face when he was genuinely confused and stared out blankly into the void of the world when faking it.
“There’s a Pride party?” Dylan asked with a glint of excitement. “That sounds awesome. Is it only for students?”
“No,” Daysha said. “It’s just hosted by us. Pride Club likes to organize a few fundraisers every year, and work with local communities to raise donations.”
“I’m in love with your club already,” Dylan said. “When is it?”
“It’s tonight at Himbos.” Daysha nudged Rus. “And I’ve only told him about it like a hundred times.”
“Oh, yeah,” Rus quickly covered. “But we’re not going to be able to do that on such short notice. We were going to, um…”
“We were going to—um—nothing,” Kaiden jumped in, wondering why Rus felt the need to hide this, to play it off.
He stared at Rus, trying to understand where this came from, but when he caught a quiet Dylan with a pensive expression in the corner of his eye, Kaiden had his answer.
