I'm getting more and more biographical.

Copyright Julia Bydulia.

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"They're not gay."

"They are so gay."

"I think they're just friends."

"Nerds."

"Band geeks."

"Faggots."

Max and John walked down the hall together, shoulder to shoulder, before school, between classes, and after school was over. John was taller by an inch or so, so he would lean down closer to Max's ear sometimes, so that he could be heard over the constant buzzing of the hallway.

"Have you heard the shit they talk about?"

"Shitty anime and some lame online game."

"It's sort of funny--"

"--one's so big and the other is so little."

Some kids like to laugh at them and point out their flaws and the weirder things. They hung on the details that accentuated their strangeness and dissected the things that made them stand out from the crowd.

"What about their clothes?"

"All those track suits that Max wears!"

"And all of the weird tshirts with animals that John wears!"

"I think Max is funny."

"He's a grade below us, isn't he?"

Speculations flew. About their musical and sexual preferences. About how they spent their time outside of school. About their grades, their other friends. People watched the way they walked and the way they talked. Some wanted to be like them, to know them. Some wanted to avoid them.

"They are such freaks."

"Have you heard how many people talk about them? They're more popular than you."

Max had a way about him that made certain people want to be around him. John was reliable to stay faithful to his personality, rather than changing himself for others. They were both unique in that way.

They made girls like me smile.