Page 43 of Isn't It Obvious?
“I’ll start the car. Get in when you’re ready,” she says, and she climbs into the driver’s seat and shuts the door behind her.
Crouching to obscure himself, Ravi strips off his jeans, scrubs himself down with three sequential wipes, and pulls on Yael’s pants. She’s right; he tightens the strings at the waist, and even with them hanging low on his hips, the pants stop a few centimeters above his shoes. He balls up the soiled jeans and stuffs them into the bag, tying it shut in the hope of stopping the smell. Probably a useless effort since he’s about to spend who knows how long in an enclosed space with Leo.
He takes a deep breath before sliding into the back seat. “Hey, padna,” he says. “You feeling okay?”
“Thank you,” Leo whispers.
“Alright, I got your address from the directory,” Yael says. “Can you just confirm for me that it’s still good?” She reads it out, Leo grunts in affirmation, and then they’re off.
A few minutes pass, uneventful. As the seconds tick by, Ravi’s anxiety level ticks upward. If Leo goes again, he doesn’t think he’d be able to hold his sympathy in this time. “How much longer?” he murmurs to Yael, unsure if Leo’s still awake.
“Like fifteen minutes. He’s at the other end of the school district.”
Ravi nods, trying not to panic.
Leo mumbles something from Ravi’s side.
“What was that?” Yael asks.
“I was talking to Ravi,” Leo says.
In the rearview, Ravi can see Yael’s eyes roll. At least trying not to laugh distracts him from the possible vomit. “I couldn’t hear you, either,” he says.
“Alex dumped me,” Leo says, now way too loud.
“Oh,” Ravi says, racking his brain for the names and faces of every club member, but Alex doesn’t ring a bell. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“He’s not in book club,” Yael says, as if she can sense Ravi’s confusion.
“He said it was homophobic to have a queer club that conflicts with the fall play,” Leo says.
At the stop sign, Yael turns around, mouth agape. “Play practice isevery single day!”
Ravi barks out a laugh. “I think it’s a joke.”
“It is,” Leo says.
“It’d better be,” Yael says. Under her breath, she mutters something like “Fucking Alan.”
Leo turns to look at Ravi again. “He broke up with me because I wouldn’t come out to my parents yet, and he said that he couldn’t love someone who doesn’t love himself,” he says, and promptly bursts into tears.
Ravi puts his hand on Leo’s shoulder and gives it a gentlesqueeze, and Leo leans into the touch, tucking his chin to his chest. “I’m so sorry, Leo,” Ravi says, his voice cracking. “I’m so, so sorry.”
“I’m just not ready,” Leo mumbles.
“You don’t have to be,” Ravi says. He lets his hand fall, but then Leo curls into him completely, and he switches to rubbing his back. He feels a little uncomfortable here, essentially hugging this kid, but he can tell Leo wants to be held. He knows he would.
“Alex doesn’t get it. He said, ‘Why is it such a problem?’ His dad is religious, too. But his dad is from Portland, and they go to a church that has a gay preacher!” He takes a few shaky breaths, like he’s trying to slow the tears. “My dad is from Honduras, and we’re Catholic! It’s not the same!”
Ravi closes his eyes briefly, trying to reach for what to say. This isn’t exactly what happened to him, not quite the tipping point that pushed him to come out to his family. But it could’ve been. He can still picture the look on Cole’s face when he’d said,You’re out, right?and Ravi had replied with,Sort of. “You’re right,” he murmurs. “It’s not the same.”
“He’s not—” Leo hiccups. “My dad’s not… I don’t know. He hasn’tsaidanything to me. But I know he’s uncomfortable with it, and I just can’t do it yet. Not until I’m sure it would be okay.”
A taped-over portion of Ravi’s heart tears open a little. “You can’t let anybody rush you. This is about you, on your own terms. I’m sorry that Alex broke up with you, but I also know you can’t be with someone who refuses to understand you.”
Leo lifts his head. “Have you told your parents?”
Ravi nods.
