The story of Chase, 16, unfolds a coming-of-age drama where the beautiful order of his life cracks in the presence of fear.
Tell Robert... of those things that could make for a warning sound.
Writer’s note
Traditional folk tales often come from the forest. Bad things are there. If your high school doesn't have a forest nearby, maybe it has a park where the bad things are. That is, at night. And the boys can always go looking for trouble if it doesn't happen to find them in the normal routine of school and after-school.
A high school boy gets the idea that it's time to tell his best friend who he likes, which is boys. He's been putting it off for a long time and there is still no reason to do it - it could send things spinning out of control if his friend gets all weirded out. Chase doesn't know why he needs to do it - he just does, even if it costs him a friendship that has gotten close since freshman science.
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The beginning of the story…
I'VE GOT to tell Robert the truth, which is that I like boys. Me and Robert are 16-year-old boys ourselves. I want him to know about me because he is my best friend.
What I'm afraid of is that the whole thing could just weird him out. Or he could start thinking I'm in love with him and that could totally weird him out. I don't even like to think about that, which is why I never say anything to him.
I'm sitting here in the bleachers thinking about him and thinking about these guys I like. I never actually had a relationship with any of them. I guess that's one reason why I can keep it a secret from Robert. It all just sort of goes on in my head and if we don't talk about it, then it isn't real.
What if he turned the tables on me and said that he was in love with me. I would probably freak. I don't know what I would do.
But it isn't going to be that way because Robert talks about girls all the time.
Me and him go to school together at Jefferson High. We just started our junior year a few weeks ago. We met when we were freshmen in a science class, partners at one of the lab tables. I guess you could say we hit it off because we've been friends ever since.
I like everything about him. Robert tells jokes and he dresses really nice. If I could just tell him how I feel about guys in general, then I wouldn't have to lie to him so much about school dances and who I like.
The dance always comes and goes and I tell him some reason why some girl couldn't make it. Geez, the last dance of our sophomore year, I went with him and his girlfriend, somebody named Alice. They broke up over the summer.
It was fun at that dance. They were out on the floor and Robert was waving toward me. I was sipping punch on the sidelines like it was an activity that you really had to concentrate on. But he was waving because he was calling me to him.
I looked around like he meant somebody else but I was pretty happy that he meant me. I set down my cup of punch and moved across the floor. You had to sort of make dance motions as you went so that you didn't feel like a total moron.
I guess I felt like a fool but when I reached Robert it was like touching home plate. I put my arms around his chest and his back, sort of from the side. He laughed and he hugged me.
Then he goes, "Dance with us."