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Nicky Hemmick
Nicky had been out for as long as he remembered.
Nicky had been in the closet for as long as he remembered.
Both of these statements were true, and yet they contradicted each other. He had always played the good son to his parents, interested in girls (but not too interested), and a good, practicing Catholic. When he was out of the house, in clubs he was too young to be in at the time, he made out with guys that reciprocated in kind.
His father had always preached that homosexuals would rot in hell, spitting at people in with rainbows who looked gay, muttering about those fags who were ruining America . His mother did nothing to refute this, simply staying quiet like a good, obedient housewife.
Nicky had internalized these thoughts, refusing to associate with those sorts in school. How ironic.
By the time he got to the Foxes, after Erik and Germany and getting Andrew and Aaron, though, he had worked through his religious guilt about not following God’s plan. His plan was whatever He wished. Nicky could only do the best he could to live a moral and good life, and being gay, however much otherwise his pastor father said, was not a sin. Nicky was made in His image, and he finally felt safe in his own skin, living in the Tower with his cousins and his team.
-
Andrew Minyard
Andrew didn’t necessarily come out as anything. The team had their little revelation after Baltimore, and he had told Neil that he was gay before that.
He figured it out through rough experiences that were extremely unhealthy, and for the most part, unless he was with Bee, didn’t think about them. There were other things that he had hidden from even Neil though. No, not hidden. Neil, however many things he was an exception to, still didn’t have a key to every single boundary of his. He would learn of it when Andrew was comfortable enough to say so.
He and Aaron looked very similar, yes, but they were not identical twins. Twins born of different sexes could not be identical after all, so no matter how much he disliked Aaron in the moment (he could never hate him), he wished they were identical.
“Do you know what being transgender is?” Andrew asked one day on the roof when Neil was there. He blew smoke at Neil’s blank face. “Come on, junkie.”
“No, yeah, no,” he quickly said. “I’m pretty sure I know what it is. I mean, Latin roots. Trans, gender, switching of the genders?”
Andrew sighed, although he wasn’t really surprised. After all, the junkie barely knew about his own attraction. He started to explain. “You usually have male or female when you’re born. There are others, but we don’t need to get into that right now. Sometimes, a person that was born female is actually a boy, so they do stuff like cut their hair and bind their chest. Or the other way. where a girl that was born in a boy’s body wears dresses or has long hair. There’s other genders that you can be too that aren’t a boy or a girl.”
Neil nodded, processing this information. “So are you a girl? Or were you-”
“I’m a guy,” he said. “Contrary to what the team thinks, Aaron and I are not identical twins.”
Neil nodded again. “Cool.” It was clear that, while genuine, was about all that he really could think of as a response.
Andrew blinked. “That’s… it?” He’s not sure whether to feel relieved that he was so readily accepted; acceptance had always come with a price attached.
“I wouldn’t care either way,” Neil said earnestly. “It’s just you, Andrew.”
Of course. Neil’s acceptance of himself about this would be unwavering, the junkie that he is. Andrew doesn’t necessarily know how to feel about it. It was something that he was far too used to denying himself, these feelings. He knew another word for it, but it was something that, despite years of talking to Bee, he still wasn’t ready for.
“Aaron had always had issues with it,” he said sardonically. “He had always wanted a sister, apparently. Nicky had been the boy cousin and a pseudo-brother, apparently. Or at least, he had. Before Aaron found out that he was gay.”
Neil frowned. “Being gay doesn’t make you not a boy, though?”
Andrew’s lips almost twitched. “It’s a stereotype that gay guys are feminine, junkie.”
“Oh.” He blinked. “That’s dumb. What’s wrong with being feminine anyway? Some of the strongest people I know are women.”
“Yeah. It is. He’s okay with it now. Doesn’t really have a choice, does he?"
Neil shrugged. "Well. I accept you, and Aaron has to come around at some point. I mean, you and Nicky are both gay."
"Sure." Andrew wasn't sure that that was how it worked, but he didn't wanted to argue the point or anything. He just needed some time to himself after this conversation.
He got up, crushing the cigarette under the heel of his book and leaving Neil on the roof. Neil, like always, somehow knew that he didn’t want to be followed, and so while Andrew was taking the stairs down to their dorms, two at a time, there wasn’t a second sound of a door opening.
~
Andrew’s explanation caused something in Neil’s chest to stir up. He had never really thought about his sexuality or gender on the run, considering how much his mother had drilled into him about staying alive and staying on the run. Sometimes she had made him dress as a girl before he had hit puberty, easy enough by his high voice when he was a child.
He hadn’t really cared either way, but Andrew had said something about there being other genders. Not a girl or a boy.
Neil’s mind was whirring, focusing on this new information that he didn’t quite understand yet. It was only natural that he would get hyper-focused on it, considering his likes and dislikes only manifested as obsession and hate. Neil was going to have to research things.
-
Dan Wilds and Matt Boyd
Matt and Dan had practically dragged Neil into the den to watch a movie. Neil didn’t remember the name of the movie, but he was pretty sure that it started with an O. Or a V. Either way, it was a pretty fast-paced movie, one with a ton of action, but a strange lack of blood. If someone was getting showered in broken glass, there was bound to be more blood than just a drop.
Of course, he didn’t want to ruin the mood by making the movie night about his shitty childhood, so he just watched the film, squished between Matt and Dan. It was a pretty good movie, once you were able to get past all the unrealistic details.
Neil scrunched up his nose when someone went shirtless, and everything slowed down. After multiple movie nights with the other Foxes, it seemed as if these scenes were required in every movie for whatever reason. He didn’t understand the whole thing with “sex appeal.”
Matt sighed dreamily. “Do you see those abs? My dreams couldn’t make those up.”
Dan did something similar, with the whole sighing and ogling thing. “And look at the woman next to him. Do you think it was a requirement to be insanely hot or something?”
Matt shifting, putting his head in Dan’s lap. He was spread across Neil now, too, but they made it work. “Don’t worry, babe. You would definitely be able to be in the movie.”
Dan smiled, but she also must’ve noticed Neil’s confused look, since she tilted her head. “Are you confused about something, Neil?” she asked, patting his head. “You know we can always answer your questions.”
He shrugged. “I just thought that you were only into guys. And that you,” he said, turning to Matt, “were only into girls.”
Matt laughed. “No way. I mean, women are great and all, but I can appreciate a good man any day.” He winked at the end of his statement, and Neil felt his face grow hot. He also felt something feel unsettled in his stomach, not from the sentiment of the sentence, but rather from being called a man. The conversation with Andrew had definitely stirred something up in him, but he was ignoring it for now.
“And I, personally, have far too much attraction to women to just stay attracted to men,” Dan explained, patting Matt on the head. “Don’t worry, babe. You’re definitely the only one for me.”
“Gross,” Neil said plainly. “I’m literally right here. In between the both of you.”
The two of them laughed at him, but once they calmed down, Matt started to explain a few things. “I’m bi, and Dan’s pan, if that means anything to you.”
“It doesn’t. I don’t really know any of the terms other than gay,” Neil told them.
Dan shrugged. “I figured as much. Bi, or bisexual, means that you’re attracted to 2 or more genders, while pan means that you don’t really care about the gender when you’re attracted to someone. Does that make sense?”
Neil nodded. “Yeah. Andrew already explained the multiple gender thing.” He hadn’t, really. More like he sat Neil down at a computer and told him to read an article. It was a pretty in depth article, and it was certainly helpful.
“Huh,” Matt said, surprised. “Who would’ve thought?”
“Well, everyone knows that Andrew has a soft spot for Neil,” Dan reasoned.
“Neil is right here,” he said, trying to grab the remote. “Can we go back to the movie?”
Matt reached for it, since it was on the table and he had the longest arms. “Yeah, of course.”
The movie was pretty good, although Neil spent a good majority of it deliberating what the feelings he felt when Matt called him a man was. Jesus, Andrew had really done a number on him. Neil, actively thinking about his feelings?
-
Allison Reynolds
Neil hated shopping. Specifically, he hated shopping with Allison. She made him keep going, and despite the fact that Neil was literally a collegiate athlete and slated for the Olympics, he got absolutely exhausted after just a few hours of walking. It was probably the mental toll that spending several hours around Allison Reynolds took on a person. And Neil had literally gotten tortured.
“Are we done yet?” he asked, finally stepping out of the dressing room in his own clothes again. His voice wasn’t a whine, but Neil wasn’t above doing so if it would get him out of here.
Allison, thank the gods, nodded. “We’ll just have to go ring this up. And stop giving me that pout. You and I both know who will appreciate those tight jeans the most. Especially this Friday.”
She winked, then gathered up all of the clothes that she planned on buying for Neil and dumped them in her bag. Neil flushed, still, somehow, unused to the crass things that his teammates said about his relationship with Andrew.
When they got to the register, Neil was zoning out. If it had taken Allison ten more minutes in the shop, he would’ve actually faked his identity and gotten the fuck out of there, FBI and yakuza be damned.
Allison’s high-pitched, flirty tone snapped him back into reality, as dreary as it was. He blinked in confusion as he saw Allison flirting with the cashier. The female cashier. Actually, Neil wasn’t going to assume anyone’s gender, but he figured that Allison, at least, would view the cashier as a girl.
“I hope you have a day as lovely as you, darling,” Allison said. There was something in her voice that was suggestive, and as they left the store, Neil could see her putting what looked like a piece of paper with a phone number on it in her pocket.
“Is there a reason you look confused as fuck, baby boy?” she asked. Neil sighed, knowing that his teammates’ nicknames for him were forever going to remain embarrassing. At least he could count on Aaron calling him a fuckwad or something along the lines of that.
“I just-” he paused, remembering Dan and Matt talking about how they were attracted to multiple genders, naming their labels of bisexual and pansexual. “Are you bisexual? You were flirting with the cashier,” he added, upon seeing Allison’s eyebrows scrunch up. Neil had to admit that this was rather random, even for him.
She shrugged. “I guess. I don’t really use labels, but bi works for me. I mean, I can appreciate any hot person, and I fuck who I want, so.”
Neil could feel his cheeks turning red involuntarily, and Allison cooed. “Aw, you’re so cute and innocent sometimes.”
He groaned internally. Sometimes he could really hate the things that his friends said.
Neil, despite the near-hell he went through during the shopping trip, decided to wear the black skinny jeans when they went to Eden’s the next Friday. It was somewhat uncomfortable, but better than some of the other things that Allison had forced him to try on. Just thinking about the inevitability of another shopping trip made him shudder in horror.
At least the jeans were well-appreciated by Andrew.
-
Kevin Day
Neil was with Andrew and Kevin during their night practice when he learned about Kevin “it’s easier to be straight” Day’s boyfriend. Correction: boyfriends .
The three of them had already been practicing for an hour and a half, and Kevin had finally let them take a water break. By that, Neil meant that Andrew had just walked off the court, and Kevin, attempting to save face, “gave” them a five minute break to drink water.
Andrew, like usual, ignored him, stretching out on the bench as he put his water bottle on his forehead. His shirt rode up his torso since his arm was angled upwards in order to keep the cool metal on his head, and Neil took a moment to appreciate the view.
Of course, Andrew, like usual, knew everything, and cracked one eye open. “Staring,” he muttered.
Neil knew better, though, noticing his boyfriend’s reddening ears. “You like it,” he commented.
Andrew scowled, and out of the corner of his eye, Neil saw Kevin fake-gagging. “The two of you are sickeningly gross,” Kevin muttered, taking a swig of his water bottle. It was aggressively bright orange with a fox-paw on it. Neil wondered why he was the junkie while Kevin had that water bottle.
“Don’t be homophobic,” Andrew said lazily. “Can’t have you ruining your little Son of Exy image, now can we?”
At that exact moment, Kevin’s phone buzzed. Then again. Then again. Andrew and Neil stared at him, confusion clear on both their faces. Kevin’s phone never buzzed.
He blushed furiously, reaching for his phone. However, Andrew was just a little bit quicker, snatching it from the bench. He looked at the caller ID. “Jeremy Knox?” He looked up. “Really, Kevin?”
Kevin forcefully snatched the phone from Andrew’s grasp, scowling as he saw that the call had already gone to voicemail. “None of your business. Either of yours.”
Neil brought out the “kicked puppy eyes,” as Allison and Matt liked to call them. It usually resulted in them doing whatever he had wanted in the first place. If there was ever a time to use them, it would be now.
Andrew looked slightly confused, although there was definitely an undercurrent of some other emotion there. Kevin just scowled more. “That isn’t going to work on me.” Neil pouted, and Kevin’s resolve visibly started to crumble.
It was only a few moments before he finally gave in. “Fine,” he muttered. “Just stop that. It’s really weird.” Kevin sighed. “The two of you guys are going to give me a heart attack one of these days and then dance on my grave.”
“Get to the point,” Andrew said, impatient.
Kevin glared, rolling his eyes. “Jesus fucking Christ. The point is that Jeremy is the love of my life. Jean is the other love of my life. If you’ll excuse me, I’m leaving now.”
Neil blinked, suddenly out of his depth. It completely made sense that Jeremy and Kevin were together, considering Kevin’s unhealthy obsession with Exy and USC. It was definitely no coincidence that Jeremy Knox, personified Exy at USC and golden boy extraordinaire, was the object of his affection.
Jean was a bit more subtle, but after spending those “two” weeks at Evermore, that made sense as well. They had always found comfort in each other, and while they had needed time to recover from their traumas separately, they were always going to find their way back to each other.
The thing that had thrown Neil off, however, was the fact that Kevin was leaving practice. In the middle of it. For something that wasn’t a literal tornado. And even then, Neil definitely thought that Kevin would use the justification that the court was reinforced to make them practice through a tornado.
“You’re just-”
“Leaving?” Kevin finished, sitting up. “Yup. What am I going to do, not call Jeremy and Jean back?”
He laughed as he packed his things up, as if the very idea of Exy being more important than his boyfriends was ludicrous.
When he left, just a few moments later, Andrew and Neil exchanged glances. “I didn’t hallucinate that?” Neil asked. “That actually happened?”
For once, Andrew seemed to be confused. It would be something that Neil would’ve certainly teased him about if it weren’t for the fact that he wasn’t just as confused. “I-” He frowned. “I think so.”
“Huh.” Who would’ve thought?
-
Aaron Minyard
Andrew is just about ready to jump off a roof. Not actually, of course, but his mounting frustration with Aaron is getting off the charts. Every single time that Aaron entered a room where Andrew and Neil were within five feet of each other, he immediately wrinkled his nose in disgust, spun on his heel, and left.
Bee didn’t seem to be getting any headway with him either. It was one of their joint therapy sessions, and while they had worked through some of their issues, like with their deal and their general dislike for each other (that was slowly, but surely, waning), they still hadn’t gotten to Aaron’s homophobia.
It wasn’t as if it just affected Andrew, either. One would have to be blind in order to miss the way that Nicky’s whole demeanor deflated whenever Aaron opened his mouth and said something that was back-handedly or just outright homophobic.
“Is there something that you want to say, Andrew?” Bee asked, her voice patient as ever.
For once, there was. “What’s up with you being homophobic?” he asked, his voice blasé. “Nicky and I are going to be here for at least the next year, and we’re both gay.” Andrew’s irritation just increased when he saw Aaron look disgusted when he said the word ‘gay.’ Andrew went on, but his voice became more challenging. “Do you just plan on avoiding homosexuals your entire life?”
“I’m not homophobic,” Aaron argued. “And I don’t plan on avoid gay people!”
His voice stumbled on the word ‘gay,’ and Andrew just looked unamused, crossing his arms.
Bee cut in. “Aaron, remember. It’s a safe space for both of you, not just Andrew.” She shot Andrew a pointed look, and he uncrossed his arms in acknowledgement. “You can continue if you feel comfortable enough to.”
Aaron huffed. “I get that you think that I’m homophobic. I get weirded out whenever Nicky says those things, but try to understand it from my side. I grew up with him as my cousin. Of course I’m going to get weirded out whenever he says things that have to do with sex.”
Andrew opened his mouth to say something, but Aaron held up his hand to stop him. “I’m not done yet.” He took a deep breath. “Maria and Luthur found out that Nicky was gay, and when they sent him to conversion camp, they immediately did everything they could to make sure that ‘his sin’ wouldn’t spread to me.”
He said ‘his sin’ with air quotes, and Andrew started to understand why Aaron was the way he was. He had never thought that his twin had had it easy just because he hadn’t been in foster care, but his reasoning had always come from the time that he had spent with Tilda. Andrew had never thought to factor in Nicky’s shitty parents.
Aaron continued. “So I had to make sure that I was the perfect straight boy for them. After a while, it starts to get hard to separate what you know and what others tell you.”
Andrew nodded. He doesn’t offer an apology, because they both know that it would sound insincere as fuck, but Aaron doesn’t need one. Just listening is enough, for now.
“I’m trying to reconcile the extreme Christian… whateverness with what I know now, and Katelyn is helping me with that.” He narrowed his eyes as Andrew rolled his. “Don’t give me that look. We’ve been over this. She’s good for me, and she doesn’t care that I’m bisexual.”
Wait. What? “Since when?” Andrew asked, lacking all tact. To be fair, it was beyond strange that his twin, the one that had looked at him in disgust when he had found out that he was gay (even though he hadn’t technically said anything homophobic), was bisexual.
“Since I was born, dipshit,” he responded. “I figured it out in eleventh grade. Remember that guy with the green eyes?”
Andrew did. He and Aaron had always seemed closer than usual guys friends, but considering the homophobic things that Aaron had said at the time, he had completely dismissed the idea.
“It’s good that you two got all of this out,” Bee said, putting her hands together. “We’ll definitely continue this next week.”
Andrew and Aaron didn’t immediately become best friends overnight. But when Aaron stumbled on Andrew and Neil together in the den watching a movie, Neil quietly sleeping with his head on Andrew’s lap, he didn’t immediately leave the room.
Progress, Andrew thought to himself.
-
Renee Walker
Renee and Neil didn’t talk very often, but when they did, it was often eye-opening. Neil found her unsettling at the best of times, and a startling reminder of his past at the worst. Still, he understood that she and Renee were rather close, and therefore didn’t do anything to get in the middle of that. They had their understanding that they didn’t really interact unless it concerned Exy or Andrew.
That’s why it struck Neil as odd when he found himself in a room with her, alone. Although, once he thought about it, he supposed it made sense. Andrew was in his weekly therapy session with Bee, and Nicky, Kevin, and Aaron were out for some ‘bonding.’ He didn’t know exactly what that entailed, but he didn’t exactly want to question it. Allison was at a spa with a friend that she had made in her Women’s Studies class, and was certainly going to be out for the rest of the day. Dan and Matt, for the first time in at least two weeks, went out on a date. Probably to the bowling alley, if Matt’s excitement gave any indication.
But in any case, Neil wasn’t about to not go in the den just because Renee was there. He had been in plenty of awkward situations, and he found that the solution was to just not give a fuck. It had worked out for him so far.
“How’s it going, Neil?” Renee asked from her place on the sofa. Neil was in the kitchen, making himself a snack. Her voice was characteristically pleasant, but of course, Neil was just the right kind of fucked-up to the point where that just made him uncomfortable.
He shrugged. “It’s fine.”
Even Renee had to groan a little at that, and honestly? That made Neil feel less like her entire persona was fake. “I thought you were starting to work past that?”
“I guess.”
A moment of silence.
“So? How’s it going with you and Andrew?” she asked. When she asked it, though, it wasn’t like it was coming from the rest of the team. Nicky would just ask to tease them about their bedroom life, and Allison would probably just ask to see if the ‘Monster’ was capable of real, human emotions. Renee, however, was one of the very few people who, besides Neil, genuinely cared for Andrew.
Neil shrugged again. “It’s going fine.”
Renee’s lips twitched, although whether it was to frown or repress a smile, Neil hadn’t the slightest clue. For all his investigative skills, she was the one person he had never been able to properly get a read on. “Andrew constantly talks about you. During our sparring lessons.”
Neil fiddled with something on the bag of bread. “Really?”
She nodded. “It’s rather…enlightening, sometimes, although it’s mostly things that you already know.”
“Right.”
Another moment of silence.
This time, Neil decided to break it, wanting to ask something that he didn’t feel like asking Andrew, mostly because he knew that he wouldn’t answer it. “How come you said that Andrew wasn’t your type?” he asked hesitantly. “I know that Andrew just doesn’t like women, but…”
Renee smiled at that. “Well, I’ve been hearing how you were starting to get curious about these sorts of things. I’m a lesbian, and Andrew’s gay, so it works out in exactly the opposite ways.” She paused. “He told me that he told you that he’s trans?”
“Yeah,” Neil said, nodding. “Of course, he had to explain what that meant, but I understood it. Why?”
“Just like how Andrew’s a boy, I’m a girl,” Renee said. He blinked. Of course Renee was a girl. It took him a moment before realization dawned.
“Ohh,” he said. He thought about it for a moment longer. “Oh. So you’re a girl. And Andrew’s a boy. Okay.”
“I’m glad that you’re understanding of Andrew,” Renee said softly, but there was an undertone of frustration that was hidden. “Not very many people are.”
He bit the inside of his cheek, trying to figure out how to ask the question. “How…How did you know? Like, what made you figure out that you were a girl.”
Renee seemed to ponder the question carefully. After a few seconds, she responded, “I think it was because I always felt like I looked more like Allison, even when I actually looked like Andrew or Kevin. It seemed much more natural for me to be a girl. Of course, the world isn’t very kind to boys that like to dress up like girls, so I got into a lot of trouble with that.” She smiled. “But Stephanie was very understanding and kind, and she helped me become who I am today.”
Neil nodded, although some things he still didn’t completely understand. “I guess that makes sense.”
“Are you questioning some of your own things?” Renee asked.
He made the impulsive decision to confide in her. If she was good enough for Andrew, then he knew that Renee would keep his secret. “I don’t know. Yes? Andrew showed me an article about the different genders, but it didn’t really say how to tell, which is why I asked you.”
She nodded, clearly understanding. “It can be difficult, especially at first. The best advice I can give you is not to worry about labels just yet, but instead to focus on what you really feel about yourself. Do you feel like you’re a boy or a girl?”
He shook his head. “No. Not really. My mom made me dress up like a girl when I was younger. Sometimes I liked it, but I usually didn’t really care.”
“Yeah, clothes can be a helpful indicator of what you feel comfortable in, and so can pronouns,” she explained, and Neil remembered seeing something like that in the article. “I can refer to you with gender neutral pronouns like they and them for now, if that helps.”
“That sounds okay,” he responded. He hesitated for a moment, taking a breath. “Thank you.”
Renee smiled whole-heartedly, and for once, his skin didn’t crawl. “Of course, Neil. Anything for a friend.”
She got up, and Neil felt slightly unmoored. Not in a bad way, though. He wondered if he would ever get used to it.
-
Neil Josten
After two more weeks, he finally asked Andrew to go to the roof with him. He had noticed how Andrew had been growing more and more concerned, although it just manifested as him being more irritable. Their other teammates were becoming more on edge, and so Neil ended up just making the decision to come out to Andrew.
It wasn’t as if he was scared of Andrew’s reaction. After all, there would have to be a lot of things to happen before the two of them were pulled away from each other.
After a lot of research and help from Renee and Matt, he found two labels that made him feel strangely comfortable. Demisexual and agender. Demisexual had been defined as being sexually attracted only to people who you have known for a while and/or formed a close emotional bond with , and Neil thought that that fit him perfectly. He had never really wanted to have sex with anyone other Andrew, and that girl in Canada had just been a kiss. Something that he had paid dearly for. He wondered if his mother had played a role in him being demisexual, but just when he was about to spiral about that, he found a section of the article saying that “no matter the experiences that you go through, your sexuality is always valid.”
Agender was defined as just not having a gender or being genderless , and Neil figured that it was pretty much what he had felt. He didn’t really care about being a boy or a girl, and being referred to as “he,” “she,” “they,” “boy,” “girl,” or anything gendered didn’t really matter to him.
Andrew was smoking on the roof, not looking at Neil. “Staring,” he said gruffly, the cigarettes taking their toll on his throat.
“You like it,” Neil reminded him, then paused for a second. “When you say you’re gay, does that mean only guys or anyone who isn’t a woman?”
He took a drag of his cigarette, then turned towards Neil, blowing the smoke in his face. “Guys only, usually, although I would be open to anyone who isn’t a woman,” he conceded. “Why?”
Neil took a breath, trying to find the words to say exactly how felt about it even though he had all but practiced it in his mind. “You talked to me about your gender, and then that got me thinking about mine, and then I talked to Renee about it. And I know you don’t like me talking about my mom,” he said, noticing how Andrew immediately stiffened, “but I remembered how she used to make me dress as a girl when I was younger, and I liked it? Sometimes? So then I asked Renee about some things.”
Andrew was now fully turned facing Neil. His cigarette was abandoned on the ledge next to him. “So, junkie? Any thoughts?”
“I’m attracted to you,” Neil said, open and honest. “But I don’t think that I’ll ever be attracted to anyone else like that. Sexually, I mean. Someone called it demisexual?”
Andrew nodded. Of course he would know. Neil had almost forgotten that he was taking a Gender and Women’s Studies class with Renee. “And your gender?” he prompted.
“Oh. Right.” Neil fiddled with his shoelaces. “I don’t really care about my gender? It’s called being agender. So I just am. But I don’t care about being called a boy or a girl, and I still use he and him pronouns. I don't mind they and them pronouns, though.”
“Is this what was going on the past few weeks?” Andrew asked, accepting this fully but still confused about the previous weeks.
Neil tilted his head. “What else would it have been?”
Andrew scowled. “Oh, I don't know. Maybe the mafia?”
“Oh. I forgot about that,” he admitted, and Andrew rolled his eyes.
“Of course you did,” Andrew muttered. Neil laughed. The sound blew itself through the crisp, dark air, ringing out sharply.
They were two college kids who had been through everything and then some, and they still had more to go through. Neil knew that they were going to be just fine.