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“Is that my skirt?” Jayden raises an eyebrow at me as I walk up. He’s waiting at the corner of Union Square. He’s got bright gold make up swiped across his eyes, a black tanktop, worn black denim shorts, and gold gladiator sandals.
“Do you think it looks good on me?” I give a little swish of my hips so that it flies out a little and do a pose for him. I went for a too-tight red and blue football jersey that I made into a crop top to pair with his little red pleated skirt and a pair of rainbow sneakers.
“I would have said thank you for cleaning it, but I imagine I will have to clean it again after I get it back from you.” I give him my best innocent face.
“Why would that be?” He purses his lips in response, both annoyed and totally charmed by my flirty bullshit.
“Are you at least wearing actual underwear?” Which is a fair question since it’s Pride weekend, and I definitely have spotted some people on the street in Manhattan wearing only approximations of underwear.
“Of course, I am.” I flip up the skirt in a quick flash so he can see the tight blue boxer briefs I have on. “I wouldn’t sully your skirt. Or I guess I would, but not in a boring way like only wearing a jock under it.” He rolls his eyes slightly, but he’s smiling anyway. He takes my arm as we walk over to 5th Avenue.
“I still do not understand why we’re here. The parade is tomorrow. And I hate the parade. It is too crowded.” As we get close to 5th, there’s a bit of a crowd, but not nearly as bad as it’ll be tomorrow.
“The main parade is tomorrow, but the Dyke March is the best parade. Not a corporate sponsor in sight and just a bunch of lesbians shouting their politics or showing their tits. It’s great.”
“This is a punk rock thing for you, isn’t it?”
“God, yes. Dykes are way better at punk than fags.” He’s skittish about me saying dyke and fag, but he doesn’t say anything about it. Neither does the crowd of our fellow onlookers. We missed some of the marchers, but Jayden gets the idea as a gaggle of old butches with anti-fascist slogans on big signs stomp past, followed by a trio of girls in pixie outfits offering kisses to women on the sidelines. “Anyone who identifies as a lesbian can join. Totally punk DIY parading.”
He doesn’t respond to me, he just grins and shouts agreement with some woman’s sign. We cheer for the marchers as they go past, and I’m glad I brought him. DZ’s having a label crisis since she and Bobby V officially became a couple, so she bailed on coming with me.
Yesterday, she went on a tear about how every straight girl has a strapon these days, so it’s not even transgressive for her to use one on Bobby V, which just made me remind her that enjoying sex is as important as the political messaging of sex acts. I mean, honestly, I think it’s way more important, but I’m not a professional poet, so I give allowances to her for having some nonsense priorities. Regardless, she’s in a weird state for Pride this year.
When the marchers have all gone past, we start to walk back over towards 4th when I hear a tiny voice.
“Coach Kyle!” A tiny girl in a princess outfit bounces up to me. I immediately switch into little kid mod, hands on knees, hunching down so that my face is near her face.
“Hey Lila! Did your moms bring you to the march?” Jett and Laura are already on approach, both dressed in baggy shorts.
“Yeah! It was so cool. I like your skirt.” Lila bounces as she speaks. Jett smiles her thin, weird smile as she puts a hand on the kid’s shoulder. Laura doesn’t smile, but does nod politely at me.
“Thanks. I’m just borrowing it from my friend, Jayden.” I point at where Jayden is awkwardly standing slightly behind me.
“Hello.” His voice is small and awkward, because he clearly has no idea how to interact with kids.
“Your make-up is really pretty.” She says quietly back to him, and he smiles awkwardly.
“Thanks for saying hi, Lila. Have fun with your moms!” I give an over-exaggerated wave and Lila bounces off with her moms. I can hear Laura muttering something to Jett as they walk.
“Who was that?” Jayden says as I slip back into my normal stance and loop my arm with his.
“Lila Reno-Yashere. She’s in one of my swim classes.” We walk away from the parade route, heading east.
“You work with children a lot.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you like it?”
“Yeah. Being coach Kyle is pretty cool. New York kids are kind of feral, but some of them are really sweet, especially the under tens. Aquarobics for old folks is also fun, but those people don’t call me coach. They do give me their grandchildren’s phone numbers though.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, everyone has an absolutely lovely grandchild who would love to meet me. Doctors, lawyers, high school students. No one seems to have any idea how old I am.” He laughs. “Thanks for coming out with me today.”
“It was fun. I am glad you invited me.”
“What are you up to today?”
“I’m meeting Caleb and Sam soon. They wanted to do karaoke.” That sucks.
“Oh cool. Have fun.” What am I gonna do? I dressed up for him. I didn’t think that he might already have other plans. This is why DZ says I should actually plan things ahead of time.
“Would you like to join us?” Of course I would.
“I don’t wanna crash your thing.”
“I would like if you came.” My heart races when he says that. God, I’m so stupid. I’ve got it so bad for him.
“I mean, I was just gonna bum around. Sure.”
“Perhaps after we could get something to eat.”
“Cool.” We head downtown to one of those private room karaoke places. When we go in, Sam is in the middle of Missy Elliott’s ‘Work It’. She waves when we come in, but absolutely does not stop. She obviously takes karaoke seriously, which I love about her. Caleb offers me a fistbump and gives Jayden a hug. Neither of them seem surprised that I’m here.
Caleb does ‘No Diggity’ by Blackstreet after Sam finishes, and I start digging through the song book trying to decide what I want to do. Sam does ‘Call Me’ by Blondie after Caleb finishes, then Jayden does ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane’ by Scorpion, and I just get more and more into him every time we hang out. I go with ‘Dance Apocalyptic’ by Janelle Monae for my first round, which feels like a good starting point.
Caleb and Jayden pick a bunch of hard rock and classic rap songs. Sam bounces all over the place, doing everything from musicals to rap to rock to pop. She does uptempo and ballads in a way that I would never do. She kills it every time. I jump around a bit, some Green Day, some Creedence Clearwater Revival, some Dolly Parton. Sam is into everything everybody does, having a great time. Caleb is more serious most of the time. I can’t tell if he’s just being cool or if he’s actually annoyed with certain songs. Sometimes, he does break a smile and get into it though.
After karaoke, Jayden and I go to a dim sum place.
“Do you think Caleb likes me?” I don’t think he does. I don’t know how big of a deal that is for Jayden, but I’m pretty sure Caleb thinks I’m too dumb to date Jayden.
“Yes.” Sometimes, I hate how Jayden answers questions. Where’s the context? Where’s the information? Babe, I need more than that.
“Really? I don’t know. I always feel dumb when I try to talk to him.”
“He wants to win at conversation. It is not a judgment of you.” He gives me a little gentle smile, tilting his head slightly.
“It just… he’s your best friend, Jay. I don’t want him to think I’m stupid.” Is he seriously not getting why I’m worried about this?
“Caleb always assumes he is smarter than everyone else. I would not worry about it.”
“I mean… I guess I kind of worry I’m too stupid for you sometimes. Because I’m really into you, but you’re this brilliant biomed grad student getting a PHD. And I teach kids to swim and hit things with sticks.”
“I do not think you are stupid, Kyle. Even if Caleb did, I would not think so. I… I am in love with you.” Did he really just say that to me? My heart is racing, and I can hear blood rushing through my ears.
“You’re in love with me?” He looks away awkwardly. Fuck. I am totally an idiot.
“Yes.”
“Thank fucking christ.” His eyes snap back to me. “You know I’m ridiculously into you, right? Truly, madly, deeply. I love you too, Jay.”
“Good.”