Home > Work > Openly Straight (Openly Straight, #1)
41 " I was thinking about how snakes shed their skin every year, and how awesome it would be if people did that too. In lots of ways, that’s what I was trying to do. As "
― Bill Konigsberg , Openly Straight (Openly Straight, #1)
42 " I know about urinal etiquette. For one thing, you don’t say anything beyond “What’s up” to another guy while peeing. It’s common courtesy. "
43 " there were about a thousand things I liked better than this part, in which we talked about women like they were just things. I tried to imagine what it would be like if gay were normal and all of us were gay. Would we objectify men in the same way? My "
44 " So maybe if I had found all this stuff on my own, I would have really enjoyed learning about it. But instead, I got a pile of books from Mom, and now it was like I had gay homework from my mother. I was like, Thanks for making this exciting new thing a chore, Mom. Awesome. "
45 " That’s when I felt it.One thin finger. Gently touching my thigh.I kept talking about how alpha loses two protons and two neutrons, like his finger wasn’t on my thigh. And I think he liked that, because he kept asking questions, as if his finger weren’t on my thigh. "
46 " He said he was scared they’d lock him up. That’s his biggest fear. "
47 " It’s hard when you open your heart and let someone in and then suddenly they’re not in it anymore. It doesn’t matter whose fault it is; that empty spot stings so bad that you want to find any kind of relief, or wrap yourself up so tight you can’t feel it anymore. I knew it might be there a little while. Or maybe even a long while. "
48 " I tried to imagine myself part of a pack of guys who picked up local public school girls on weekends. It was hard to envision, but I was definitely willing to try. Not the pickup part. Just the being in a posse part. "
49 " As soon as I tried to remove the label, a lie formed. In the end, that lie created a barrier way worse than the original one. How crazy is that? Ironic, I mean. I created a barrier getting rid of a barrier. At "
50 " All’s I know is the following: Stamina means never having to give up. Stamina means your body never builds up lactic acid. We’re going to get stamina this year, boys."I made a mental note to look up the word stamina later. "
51 " He was an amazing guy, really. Totally himself. Totally unapologetic about having all these different sides of his personality that didn’t quite mesh. He didn’t care what people saw, and at that moment, the envy was so powerful, I wanted to punch him in the face. "
52 " I’d never been part of a group like that, so it was interesting, like a National Geographic special on wolves that I might watch with my dad.And I was part of the pack. "
53 " We’d sleep in the same bed for a year, and finally we’d do it, but we’d never talk about it, ever, and then Ben would get married and I’d be killed in Texas. Probably "
54 " Would you be offended if I said that sounded really gay?” Albie asked. “I would take it as a compliment, "
55 " You don’t have any idea how lucky you are, do you?” I closed my eyes. “Yeah, I do.” “No, you don’t. If you had been born just ten years earlier, you would have been torn apart for being openly gay.” I exhaled. “I know, Mom….” “Twenty years ago, you might have had to quit school. There would have been violence. "
56 " No one had really been looking at me all the time. Other than me. "
57 " I figured I’d come out to my parents, get my first boyfriend, and then just live my life. No. Instead, it was like this thing had happened, and now we all had to mobilize. (I should have known. My mom is a mobilizer.) Suddenly there were six books I had to read about what it’s like to be gay. I said to her, "Mom, can’t I just be gay, and not read about it?" But she explained — and Dad backed her up — that we need to know history. "
58 " You would not believe his imitation of Coach Donnelly," Ben said.I laughed, imagining."Run as fast as you can," he said, trying to sound like what Bryce probably sounded like imitating Donnelly, but failing. "Like the French did in the Civil War, when they eluded the Greeks on their way from Charleston to Nashville.""We knew the only way to attack the axis of evil was by storming the beaches at Normandy," I said back. "
59 " For dessert, Mom ordered us carob-chip cookies sweetened with fruit juice, which were about as delectable as that sounds. After we finished eating, we made sure to give the waitress all our food and dirty napkins so they could be composted. "
60 " @billkonigsberg. "