The Truth of Yesterday (9 page)

     I made my way to Wicomico Hall by way of the maze of brick walkways that
criss
-crossed the campus. As I approached the Hall, I noticed several people standing and talking in the illumination of the old fashioned light posts, one of which was Noah. So he'd arrived early too. He looked up and caught my eye as I approached. His face immediately broke into a smile. He said something to the guy he was talking to and broke away, walking towards me.

     “Hey, Killian,” he said warmly. “I didn't know if you would come or not.”

     “I came,” I said, showing off my amazing talent of stating the obvious.

     “Well good,” he said without a trace of sarcasm or teasing. “Let me introduce you to a couple people.” He led me back to the group of people he had been talking to. There were two guys and a girl. “Everybody, this is Killian,” he said and they all turned to face me wearing polite smiles. “This is Peter,” he said, indicating the short, pudgy guy he'd been talking to when I'd arrived. He had straight, mousy brown hair, almost no discernable lips, and dull brown eyes. All in all, he was pretty average, probably not someone you'd look at twice in a crowd. “Peter is the co-president of Haven. The other co-president is Val; she'll be here eventually. She's always late.” He pointed to the other guy. “This is Ray, he's the secretary, and that's Tanya.” Ray and Tanya waved cheerily. Ray looked like a tiny bundle of energy. He hadn't stopped moving since I'd arrived; he was constantly hopping and bouncing from one foot to the other, or dancing to music that only he could hear. He looked Hawaiian or Filipino: small, dark complexion, straight black hair, and huge dark eyes. Tanya was a little on the heavy side with pale blonde hair that she'd cut short with tufts dyed blue, to match her eyes I guess.

     “Come on,” Noah said, “I'll show you where we meet. See you guys, inside in a few minutes,” he said to the others before he set off for the doors, leaving me to trot along beside him.

     “I'm never going to remember everyone's names,” I said as we stepped inside.

     “Don't worry about it. We'll probably do one of those annoying introduction things tonight where everybody says their name, major and what shampoo they use or something like that. Peter seems unusually fond of them, but I guess they serve their purpose. You know, I just assumed from your necklace that you were gay, but I never really asked. Are you?”

     “Would I be here if I wasn't?”

     He shrugged. “I just figure it's never safe to assume anything. So you are?”

     
“Yeah.”

     “And should I assume from the necklace that you're out?”

     
“Pretty much.
I
mean,
my family and friends all know and I don't make any effort to hide it. For the most part, I came out in high school. I had a boyfriend and practically everyone in the school knew we were a couple, even though we didn't make a big deal out of it.”

     “That's cool. So when you said you had a boyfriend did you mean that in the past tense, as in you no longer have a boyfriend?”

     I glanced over at him and saw him look at me from the corner of his eye. Was his interest merely polite conversation or was there something more behind it? I decided that clearing things up now might save us both trouble. “I dated the guy from high school for about two years, but we broke up at the beginning of last summer. I'm seeing someone else now.”

     “That's cool,” he said casually, but I thought I saw a flash of disappointment.
It's just your imagination
, I told myself; s
top being so vain.

     While we were talking, he'd led me down the hall and into a
rec
room complete with pool tables and other distractions. At the back of the room there was a meeting room sectioned off by a glass wall. Tables, couches, and chairs had been set up inside and a wide-screen TV was set into the wall on one end. A few people were already inside chatting with each other.

     “This is where we meet,” Noah said, as he swung open the door.

     The conversations inside broke off upon our arrival. Two girls sat on one of the sofas, a slim black guy lay sprawled out on the floor, and a burly white guy sat in one of the chairs.

     “Hey, Noah,” the burly guy called and was echoed by the others.

     “Hey guys, this is Killian,” Noah introduced me. “That's Olivia and Felicia on the couch, Anthony on the floor and
Everett
in the chair.”

     I wasn't sure which of the girls was Olivia and which was Felicia, but they were similar enough in appearance that I doubted I could have told them apart anyway. They were both average-sized, with short dark brown hair, brown eyes, and not a hint of make-up. They both wore glasses and shapeless, oversized sweatshirts over faded jeans. They almost looked like twins, but something about the way they were sitting made me think they might be lovers.

     “You can call me Tony,” Anthony said from his reclined position. He had the thin, lithe body of a dancer and sharp, chiseled features that made him look like an ebony statue come to life. I gave him a wave.

     “Ooh, fresh meat,”
Everett
said with a smile that let me know he was only joking. Even sitting down it was easy to see that he was a giant, but a gentle one if my initial impressions were accurate-and they usually are. He dwarfed the chair he was sitting in. He had curly reddish brown hair with a matching goatee and greenish-blue eyes.

     “Careful,
Ev
,” Noah chuckled, “he's taken.”

     “Figures,” the big guys snorted, “All the good ones are either taken or straight.”

     I sat in the center of one of the other couches and Noah sat to one side of me as another group of students made their way across the
rec
room in our direction. The group I'd met outside had now grown with several additions. More introductions were made, the names no longer really getting connected to faces as more and more people arrived. A few I recognized from a couple of my classes, but I didn't know any of them by name. I was actually kind of surprised to learn that they were gay; but then I remembered that just because they came to these meetings didn't necessarily mean they were gay. It was a gay/
straight
alliance after all.

     Peter called the meeting to order and, as predicted, they played one of those annoying name games. Everyone had to say their name, major and what type of underwear they favored. In case you're wondering, the girls favored bikini style panties and boxers held a slight lead for the guys. As for the guy/girl ratio, it was fairly even. There was one person there who could have given the girls a narrow majority if I could have figured out whether they were male or female.

     Peter was just about ready to begin the meeting proper when a very pretty Hispanic girl burst into the meeting room. She was on the short side with long, glossy black hair, beautiful brown eyes, and
pouty
red lips. She was wearing a tight sweater and even tighter jeans that showed off her shapely figure, a small black leather backpack was slung across her back.

     “And
Valora
makes her grand entrance as always,” Ray mumbled under his breath as he made a note in the notebook he held in his lap. He had sat on the other side of me and if I hadn't been sitting next to him, I probably wouldn't have heard him.

     “Sorry. I'm late,” she said in a lightly accented voice.

     “It's ok, Val,” Peter said with a grin, “It's not like it's unusual. We were just getting ready to start.”

     “Cool, then I didn't miss anything?” she asked as she settled gracefully into a spot on the floor next to Tony.

     “Well, you missed the introductions. What kind of underwear do you wear?”

     Val blinked in surprise for a second. “That question sounds funny coming from you,
Petey
,” she quipped and everyone laughed. “Shall I assume this was part of the introductions?”

     
“Yep.”

     “Then, if you must know, I wear a thong,” she said with a small smile. There were a couple catcalls before she continued. “If we're having introductions, does that mean we have someone new?” She scanned the group-now about twenty-five or thirty strong-and quickly picked me out. “Ah-ha, I haven't seen you before, have I?”

     “Probably not,” I said, trying not to blush. “My name's Killian. This is my first time here.”

     She giggled. “You make it sound like an AA meeting. Hi, my name is
Valora
and I'm a lesbian.” She giggled again. “I'm only teasing; don't turn all red on me. You can call me Val.”

     “Val is the co-president,” Noah reminded me.

     “Can I move on now?” Peter asked impatiently. Val arched an eyebrow and leveled an icy glare in his direction that didn't seem to faze him in the least. I decided that Val was the people person while Peter was the administrator for the group. They probably made a good pair.

     “God forbid we should get off schedule. Yes, you may get on with your agenda now,” Val allowed. Peter stuck his tongue out at her and she reciprocated; then they both broke into wide grins.  

     “They're always like this,” Noah leaned over and whispered. I tried not to shiver as his breath tickled my ear.

     The meeting itself was rather unremarkable. I was a little lost for most of it, as they were mainly discussing the success of their National Coming
Out
Day Celebration. They also talked about plans that they already had in the works, including a Halloween costume dance that didn't appeal to me since I had rather unpleasant memories of the last Halloween costume dance I'd attended a few years ago. At that particular dance, the windows of my car had ended up smashed out, a schoolmate had ended up dead in a creek, and I, as I learned later, had come perilously close to joining him.

     The meeting ended promptly at nine, when the TV was turned on and everyone tuned in to Will & Grace. Once the sitcom was over, the group began to break up. A few people stayed and chatted. Noah invited me to stay too and since I figured it was a good way to get to know them, I did. It ended up being about five people who stayed, not counting myself: Noah, Val, Peter, Tony, and Everett. Val moved to the couch next to me in the spot vacated by Ray.

     “Well, what did you think of your first meeting?” Val asked me.

     I shrugged. “It was ok.”

     “Only ok?” Noah asked.

     “Well, I didn't really know what you were talking about most of the time. It'll be better once I get more involved.”

     “Then you'll probably be back?” he asked. I thought I detected a note of hope in his voice.

     “Probably,” I said.

     “Can I ask a personal question?” Val interrupted.

     “Would saying no even slow you down?” Peter teased.

     “Nope,” she said with a grin. “So, are you Noah's new boy toy?”

     I didn't even realize she was talking to me until Noah said, “He's dating someone, Val.”

     “Oh, you meant me?” I asked, feeling very dense. “We just met in the bookstore earlier this week. Noah saw my pride necklace and invited me.”

     “The campus bookstore?” she clarified.

     
“Yeah.”

     “You go to Stinky?” she asked with surprise in her voice. Stinky was the affectionate nickname given to
Pemberton
University
due to its initials.

     “Yeah, I'm a freshman.”

     “Damn, I'm sorry. I thought you were like sixteen at the best and Noah was robbing the cradle or something.”

     I laughed. I was used to being mistaken for a lot younger than I was. Sixteen was actually an old estimate for me. Maybe I was finally starting to mature in my looks. “No, I'm eighteen,” I told her.