Noah loosened his hand a little. Not letting go. Just giving me room. Waiting for me to choose.
That mattered. That mattered more than anything.
So I stepped forward.
We made it maybe five steps before the football guys showed up.
Chad stepped right in front of us. Chad Patterson. Starting linebacker. Six foot two. Captain of the team. The guy who’d been saying “no homo” in my direction since freshman gym class.
Nathan came up right beside him. Nathan Riggs. Already smiling, like he’d just found the funniest thing in the whole room.
And Ali lingered behind them both. Ali Hassan. He played wide receiver. He was quiet. Quiet enough to pretend he wasn’t really part of this.
Chad looked me up and down. Slowly. From the corsage down to the hem of the dress and back up again.
“Wow,” he said.
I stopped walking.
“Use a full sentence, Chad.”
His smile twitched.
“Big entrance,” he said.
“Move, Chad,” Jada said.
“I’m not in your way.”
He was standing directly in our way.
Nathan looked at Noah. “You really walked in here with him? Like that?”
Noah’s jaw went tight.
“Of course I did,” he said.
Chad gave a short laugh. “Come on, Damien. You had to know people were going to say something.”
“I knew you would,” I said. “That’s different.”
His face changed. Just for half a second. Something flickered in it.
Then Nathan looked around the room and raised his voice. Loud. Loud enough for the whole room.
“So are we all just pretending this is normal?”
The word hit me harder than I expected.
Normal.
That was the word I’d spent most of high school pretending not to care about. Four years of trying so hard to be normal. To be small. To be easy.
Jada’s voice went sharp as a knife.
“Nathan, if you need everybody’s help deciding what normal is, that sounds like a you problem.”
“Stay out of it, Jada,” Chad said.
“No,” I said. “She should stay in it.”
Chad looked back at me. Surprised.
I could feel Noah glance at me too.
My hands were ice cold. But I kept them still at my sides.
Specialty: Quiet Comebacks & Personal Justice
David Reynolds focuses on stories where underestimated individuals regain control of their lives. His writing centers on measured decisions rather than dramatic outbursts — emphasizing preparation, patience, and the long game. His characters don’t shout; they act.