On the Same Page

"Charlie, you have another visitor. Is it okay if I send them in?" the nurse on call asked, standing in the door. "A Mr. Tilman. If you would rather rest I can send them away, or tell them to come back later."

Charlie was watching a talk show starring some woman named RuPaul. Since the only other shows on the tv were soap operas and he found them boring. Since Joey didn't come everyday and Charlie only had one real close friend, he got lonely in the hospital. The only ones who came to see him were the nurses and doctors during their rounds so he filled his boredom with his tv shows. He was not sure why but he felt more comfortable watching the RuPaul show. However he didn't want to let others know he was into it so he would change the channel a few times to look like he was bored when someone came in. The nurses would give him a tongue in cheek grin as they noticed his habit. So as he was asked to see someone new he quickly flipped the channel to a channel with a cologne commercial with Johnny Depp on it and responded, "Oh ummm sure. " Then he pondered on who was Mr. Tilman? He was bad with names so he tried to play it cool despite his headache.

A few moments later a young man stepped into the room, he was big, and very tall, Charlie would recognize him as Lyle, he was on the basketball team. "Charlie, Charlie..." he said slowly as he approached the foot of the bed, "Charlie." the last time was said hard and punctuated by the boy grabbing the rail at the foot of the bed. "You and I need to have a little talk." he said hitting the K sound hard. He was intense and intimidating but didn't sound angry...at least not yet. "So we're going to have a little chat. And I want you to listen very close to the words I am going to say to you because I'm only going to say it once, and we both know you tend to need help understanding the gravity of situations." he let go of the bed and made his way to a chair and sat down so he could lean in close. "Now, are those ears open?"

Charlie was confused by what was going on. Granted he knew Lyle from the sports crowd but they were hardly close and the fact that Lyle came to visit him was rather.....curious. Even though Charlie still had a headache, he still picked up on Lyle's odd behavior towards him. He wondered if he did something to make Lyle upset at some point, but nothing came to mind. So Charlie softly spoke up, "Uhhhh......yeah. What's going on?"

"Good, Good." Lyle said, "You see I happen to know something." Lyle said, "But don't worry, secret is safe with me. I know how to keep my lips shut. But..." he drew out the but. "I also need to talk to you about it so we are going to cut right to the chase and not make it complicated. Galaxy is my sibling." he said, waiting a beat to make sure Charlie absorbed that. "And I care about them very much. Now, word travels fast in a close family so you'll understand that I know you danced with them. I also know you had a panic attack when Galaxy explained things to you." Lyle said. "Are we still following? Do we have any questions?"

Charlie let the words sink into his head as he understood the situation now. Galaxy was siblings with Lyle and they talked about his panic attack at the dance. Charlie was filled with a lot of mixed emotions as he turned white in the face and dropped his jaw. Poor Charlie looked like he just saw a rather haunting specter and now looked like the catch of the day at an all you can eat sushi bar with his mouth agape. Now Charlie knew this conversation was going to a bad bad place real quick and he was in no condition to fight Lyle if it came to that. Sadly he was feeling scared to fight Lyle, panicked since his conflicting emotions for Galaxy, confusion for liking a guy and still on the fence when it came to dealing with his inner demons. Was he gay? Was he straight? Was he Bi? Was he just to dumb to figure things out? Charlie was in a bad place and had no idea what to do so he nodded at Lyle and replied, "Yes but all I have are questions. I don't have any answers to them."

Lyle clapped his hand together, "You are in luck because I might have answers, but I'm going to finish what I need to say first." he leaned in again. "I'm not here to hurt you, nor do I particularly want to but that doesn't mean I won't." he said. "Now I care about my sibling, and don't want them hurt. But from what they say you seem infatuated...or more so in your terms 'have the hots for' them. Which is fine, I don't take offence. Can't just beat up anyone who finds them attractive they are their own person. So you have nothing to fear from me...at least for now, what I came here to say is. If you hurt them, physically or emotionally. You and I will have problems, big ones..." Lyle locked eyes making sure Charlie knew he was serious, "But until then we are cool." Lyle patted Charlies forearm.

Charlie nodded at Lyle as he looked down with pain in his eyes. He could understand that Lyle was just looking after his sibling. It was a normal thing he had seen with others kids he hung out with in the past. Charlie then muttered, "I......I.....I am confused. My folks told me to date hot babes all my life. My best friend Joey always hooked me up with girls so we could double date. But..........I never felt anything for them. I hear the girls talk crap about me because of that but it never bothered me before. Charlie shuttered as he tried to breath and once he calmed down He spoke again, "When I saw Galaxy.........I felt something for the first time. I thought I found the girl I was always looking for. But then I learned that she was a he. I.....I.....I don't know what to do. Does that make me gay? My folks will kill me if I turn queer." Charlie looked like he was terrified as he curled up into a ball with his arms around his legs.

Lyle sighed. "They, are non-binary." he said. "I'll try my best to explain it, but at the end of the day it's really more about just accepting them." Lyle said, "So listen, Galaxy is assigned male at birth, so in your simple terms they are male, at least if you did medical test, however they don't feel male, emotionally or mentally, but they don't feel female either, they feel something between the two. Like..." he scratched his chin. "Football, right, anyone is capable of catching a ball and running, it's the people doing it that make it competitive right? The reason small people don't play basketball or football isn't because the can't it's because it's up to be easier for larger people. Now this point for Galaxy is they like the 'girly' stuff, but don't think that should stop them from liking 'guy' stuff. In simple terms many people see the world as black and white, and binary or two things and only two things boys and girl, Galaxy and people like Galaxy see the world like one of those sixty-four color boxes of crayons. Varity and variations a plenty. So calling Galaxy a 'he' is offensive to Galaxy, not likely they would say much to keep you from saying it, it's not a hassle to them but you should know that before you start making your choices."

Charlie was a bit confused by the explanation since Lyle used a lot of big words, but he kind of got the idea of what he was saying. Charlie nodded as replied, "So just call Galaxy by their name instead of he or she. I get that but how will it help me now? I mean........I just found out the person I like a lot has to same junk I have. I don't know how to deal with this. I use to bully guys like me. Does this mean my whole life has been a lie?"

"You can use They in place of he or she." Lyle told him. "And no, as long as you stop bullying people for it, it's only a lie if you keep doing it." he told Charlie, "and," Lyle dug a folded paper from his pocket. "Consider this." he said handing the page to Charlie, a flyer for the LGBTQ+ Alliance on campus. "Consider going to a meeting. You might learn a few things and understand what you did and should stop doing hurts people. And not in the scrapped knee way. Much much worse. You have a lot to learn, and it'll be confusing at first, and you might have to throw some punches at some people you call friends now if they turn on you, but if they really are your friends, and I mean truly this won't change anything and if it does then they were never your friends, and you'll need support." he flicked the paper in Charlies hands. "Just think about it." Lyle slid the chair back. "I'll let you rest your head. Just remember what I told you, be good to Galaxy and I'll be good to you. If you want to talk, come find me. After you get better anyway." he stood and walked out.

Charlie's hands were shaking as he slowly reached for the paper and looked at it. Then he sighed and mumbled, "That's if Galaxy will talk to me again." He then looked out the window and saw a bluebird on a tree singing and looking around and before he knew it tears were rolling down his cheeks. He didn't know why he opened up to Lyle since the two of them hardly ever talked before unless it was sports related, but for some reason he could not stop himself. He was scared and confused now that his whole world was crashing down on him. Joey still called him a friend which was comforting, but he knew his folks would disown him if they ever found out. He was also scared how his school friends and teammates would treat him when he returned to school. He was in over his head now and needed help. Sadly Joey could not help him since he was just as clueless as himself when it came to being gay and similar stuff. As he looked at the flyer he knew he had to choose between going to them or living a lie. It was a huge weight on poor Charlie's chest.