Balconial Conversations

interlude \\ 76

"Wow, Kat, you're smiling. Did you kill an unsuspecting gentleman this morning?"

"Hey, Gabriel." I drop the smile a few notches and try for a frown. He drapes an arm around my shoulders as we file into the auditorium.

"So what's up?" He leans into me until I yield to the direction he wants to go, because apparently we're sitting here.

"Nothing."

"Nuh-uh. Did you kiss Alex again?"

"Again?"

"He told me about earlier." I cringe. "Okay, I'll take that as a no... oh. Ew. Don't tell me please, I can guess who did it."

"Did what?" I ask, coyly, and he scrunched up his nose.

"Stop, stop. Shh. If it's Cam, I don't want to know. Maybe. Ah, Hell, what happened?"

"Nothing. Nothing." We almost exactly in the middle of the middle row. A trio stand at the front of the room messing around with microphones.

"I don't believe you. What's this about, anyway? I thought we had a Afro-Canadian anti-racism seminar last week," he chins the dark-skinned woman with a pile of braids.

"You can't assume she's African."

"She's got dreads and her skin is brown."

"So?"

The feedback from the microphone scars out eardrums before a woman with a Mohawk and nineteen ear piercings speaks. "Hello! My name is Keith Mathews, and my friends and I are here to talk to you about the Halifax transgender community."

"Oh. My. God." Gabriel murmurs, crossing his arms. "I should have skipped first period."