Girl Meets Boy - Ali Smith [12]
He was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen in my life.
But he looked really like a girl.
She was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen in my life.
you
(Oh my God my sister is A GAY.)
(I am not upset. I am not upset. I am not upset. I am not upset.)
I am putting on my Stella McCartney Adidas tracksuit bottoms. I am lacing up my Nike runners. I am zipping up my Stella McCartney Adidas tracksuit top. I am going out the front door like I am a (normal) person just going out of a (normal) front door on a (normal) early summer day in the month of May and I am going for a run which is the kind of (normal) thing (normal) people do all the time.
There. I’m running. That feels better. I can feel the road beneath my feet. There. There. There.
(It is our mother’s fault for splitting up with our father.)
(But if that’s true then I might also be a gay.)
(Well obviously that’s not true then, that’s not true at all.)
(I am definitely, definitely not a gay.)
(I definitely like men.)
(But so does she. So did she. She had that boyfriend, Dave, that she went out with for ages. She had that other boyfriend, Stuart. She had that one called Andrew and that weird English boyfriend, Miles or Giles who lived on Mull, and that boy Sammy, and there was one called Tony, and Nicholas, because she always had boyfriends, she had boyfriends from about the age of twelve, long before I did.)
I am crossing at the lights. I am going to run as far as I can. I am going to run along the river, through the Islands, round by the sports tracks, past the cemetery and up towards the canal
(is that the right way to say it, a gay? Is there a correct word for it?)
(How do you know if you are it?)
(Does our mother know about Anthea being it?)
(Does our father know?)
(It is completely natural to be a gay or a homosexual or whatever. It is totally okay in this day and age.)
(Gay people are just the same as heterosexual people, except for the being gay, of course.)
(They were holding hands at the front door.)
(I should have known. She always was weird. She always was different. She always was contrary. She always did what she knew she shouldn’t.)
(It is the fault of the Spice Girls.)
(She chose the video of Spiceworld with Sporty Spice on the limited edition tin.)
(She was always a bit too feminist.)
(She was always playing that George Michael cd.)
(She always votes for the girls on Big Brother and she voted for that transsexual the year he was on, or she, or whatever it is you’re supposed to say.)
(She liked the Eurovision Song Contest.)
(She still likes the Eurovision Song Contest.)
(She liked Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)
(But so did I. I liked it too. And it had those girls in it who were both female homosexuals and they were portrayed as very sweet, and it was okay because it was Willow, and she was clever, and we knew to like her and everything, and her friend Tara was very sweet, and I remember one episode where they kissed and their feet came off the ground and they levitated because of the kiss, and I remember that the thing to do when we talked about it at school the next day was to make sick noises.)
Four texts on my phone. Dominic.
WOT U UP 2?
COMIN 2 PUB?
GET HERE NOW.
U R REQD HERE.
(I hate text language. It is so demeaning.)
(I will text him when I get back from my run. I will say I left my mobile at home and didn’t get the message till later.)
I am down to just over seven stone.
I am doing well.
We are really revolutionising the bottled water market in Scotland.
Eau Caledonia. They love it as a tag. I got a raise.
I get paid thirty-five thousand before tax.
I can’t believe I’m earning that much money. Me!
I am clearly doing the right thing. There is good money in water.
(She is still insisting on calling them shaveys or whatever, and it is unfair of her to lump them all together. It is just fashion. Boys are worse followers of fashion than girls. I mean,