Once upon a time, I had to come out as straight to my friends.
I was sitting in a hotel room with a bunch of my friends, all but one of whom were women, and all but one of whom were complaining about the meager dating prospects in our liberal arts program. “Like, Sarah has no issues!” Clara complained. “She’s an engineer, she can basically just point at a dude and they fall over to say yes to her!”
Sarah giggled, half-drunk, and agreed.
“But where are the straight guys in our program??” Clara continued. “Like seriously, who do we have? Robert, but he’s gross. John, and Patrick?”
“Spencer and Spencer,” Chelsea added. “Tim and John.”
“I said John already.”
“James, George, Jordan,” Phoebe continued. “… Paul? Is Paul straight?”
“Maybe, but he also has a girlfriend so he doesn’t count.”
“And me,” I said, laughing.
Five sets of eyes swiveled and turned towards me. “What do you mean?” Clara asked.
“Me. I’m straight. I’m a dude.”
My declaration was met with silence. “B, I thought you were gay,” Clara said after a moment.
“Nope. Not gay.”