Red, White & Royal Blue

by Casey McQuiston

RULE #1: DON’T GET CAUGHT

the foreshadowing here

can’t think of a single other way to start this email except to say, and I do hope you will forgive both my language and my utter lack

You should be a writer, you are a writer

How is a man to get anything done knowing Alex Claremont-Diaz is out there on the loose? I am driven to distraction.

O, fathers of my bloodline! O, ye kings of olde! Take this crown from me, bury me in my ancestral soil. If only you had known the mighty work of thine loins would be undone by a gay heir who likes it when American boys with chin dimples are mean to him.

henry fox my sweet angel

Listen: I’ll fly to London right now and pull you out of whatever pointless meeting you’re in and make you admit how much you love it when I call you “baby.” I’ll take you apart with my teeth, sweetheart.

The fruity truth: My favorite English author is Jane Austen.

feels like somebody has probably warned him about private email servers before,

Come back to me when you’re done being flung through the firmament, you lost Pleiad.

Bitch, you took me there.

“You’re brave. I could use some of that.”

once again, how had he convinced himself he was straight?

“Awesome, fuckin’ love doing things out of spite,”

the Elton John songbook. Henry closes his eyes, playing from memory. It’s “Your Song.” Oh.

Because that’s what he would do if he were here in this palace to fall in love with Henry,

He remembers, as if from a million miles away, telling Henry once not to overthink this.

“Okay, Bug,” Alex says. He leans down to kiss the top of her head. “I can do that.” “Thanks, baby bro.” “Don’t call me that.” “Tiny, miniature, itty-bitty, baby brother.” “Fuck off.”

I love siblings

the glow of Brooklyn summertime

“And you are good. Most things are awful most of the time, but you’re good.”

Henry kisses his mouth over and over again and says quietly, “You are good.”

So you need to figure out if you feel forever about him. And if you don’t, you need to cut it the fuck out.”

History, huh? Bet we could make some.

Makes me scream everytime i read it

Alex, First Son of Founding Father Sacrilege

“see attached bibliography” is the single sexiest thing you have ever written to me.

I love henry

Should I tell you that when we’re apart, your body comes back to me in dreams? That when I sleep, I see you, the dip of your waist, the freckle above your hip, and when I wake up in the morning, it feels like I’ve just been with you, the phantom touch of your hand on the back of my neck fresh and not imagined? That I can feel your skin against mine, and it makes every bone in my body ache? That, for a few moments, I can hold my breath and be back there with you, in a dream, in a thousand rooms, nowhere at all?

HENRY!!!!!!!

Haplessly Romantic Heretic Prince Henry the Utterly Daft

My favorite quote in the book

Anyway, you should be a writer. You are a writer.

I guess that makes you the North Star?

I kind of can’t stop thinking about you all sunburned and pretty sitting out there in the country.

The comment sayij f henru sfill thought it was only physical

This is mortifying and maudlin and, honestly, I hope you forget it as soon as you’ve read

Henryyyyyyyyyy

“They’re both good,” June says, suddenly distracted.

NORAJUNE

Lake LBJ?” “Nora?” Alex says. “Lake LBJ,” Nora says, “or Lake Lyndon B. Johnson, is one of six reservoirs formed by dams on the Colorado River known as the Texas Highland Lakes. Made possible by LBJ enacting the Rural Electrification Act when he was president. And LBJ had a place out here.” “That’s true,” Alex says. “Also, fun fact: LBJ was obsessed with his own dick,” Nora adds. “He called it Jumbo and would whip it out all the time. Like, in front of colleagues, reporters, anybody.” “Also true.” “American politics,” Henry says. “Truly fascinating.” “You wanna talk, Henry VIII?” Alex says. “Anyway,” Henry says airily, “how long have you lot come out here?” “Dad bought it when he and Mom split up, so when I was twelve,” Alex tells him. “He wanted to have a place close to us after he moved. We used to spend so much time here in the summers.” “Aw, Alex, remember when you got drunk for the first time out here?” June says. “Strawberry daiquiris all day.” “You threw up so much,” she says fondly. They pull into a driveway flanked by thick trees and drive up to the house at the top of the hill, the same old vibrant orange exterior and smooth arches, tall cactuses and aloe plants.

and Alex is. Well, Alex is so in love he could die.

“Is that an apron?”

HOUSEWIFE ALEX

Dear Thisbe, I wish there weren’t a wall. Love, Pyramus

HAahahhahahahahahahahaahba

“When have I ever, since the first instant I touched you, pretended to be anything less than in love with you?

“What do you want?” “I want you—” “Then fucking have me.” “—but I don’t want this.”

“I’ll leave,” he says, and he turns back and leans in, “as soon as you tell me to leave.” “Alex.” He’s in Henry’s face now. If he’s getting his heart broken tonight, he’s sure as hell going to make Henry have the guts to do it right. “Tell me you’re done with me. I’ll get back on the plane. That’s it. And you can live here in your tower and be miserable forever, write a whole book of sad fucking poems about it. Whatever. Just say it.” “Fuck you,” Henry says, his voice breaking, and he gets a handful of Alex’s shirt collar, and Alex knows he’s going to love this stubborn shithead forever. “Tell me,” he says, a ghost of a smile around his lips, “to leave.”

“Prince Consort Road? Oh my God, take a picture of me with the sign.”

“Actually … you remember how I told you about the gay king, James I?” “The one with the dumb jock boyfriend?” “Yes, that one. Well, his most beloved favorite was a man named George Villiers. ‘The handsomest-bodied man in all of England,’ they called him. James was completely besotted. Everyone knew. This French poet, de Viau, wrote a poem about it.” He clears his throat and starts to recite: “‘One man fucks Monsieur le Grand, another fucks the Comte de Tonnerre, and it is well known that the King of England, fucks the Duke of Buckingham.’”

george villiers we love you so much on this house you absolute divaaaaa!

We only needed Villiers and his trolloping ways with the queer monarchs. To me, if there were a registry of national gay landmarks in Britain, Samson would be on it.”

He brings Henry’s hand to his mouth and kisses the little knob of his knuckle, the skin over the blue vein there, bloodlines, pulses, the old blood kept in perpetuity within these walls, and he thinks, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen.

it’s actually really nice to have queer people having a good relationship with the church or alternatively being able to separate the ideals of christianity from the actual institution of the church. at the core of it, god is about pure and good love and that’s what alex and henry have, especially in this scene OOOUGGGHHG

Hey, have I told you lately that you’re brave? I still remember what you said to that little girl in the hospital about Luke Skywalker: “He’s proof that it doesn’t matter where you come from or who your family is.” Sweetheart, you’re proof too.

With me it is quite stark: I miss you even more than I could have believed; and I was prepared to miss you a good deal.

Please do keep me in your—what is it American politicians say?—thoughts and prayers.

gagged them with that one

I see you with your own apartment somewhere outside of the palace and a desk where you can write anthologies of queer history.

waking up in the same damn time zone with you every morning.

ldr realness

Please keep most of your heart in Washington as long as I’m here for most of mine is with you!

Here lies Prince Henry of Wales. He died as he lived: avoiding plans and sucking cock.

But the first time I saw you. Rio. I took that down to the gardens. I pressed it into the leaves of a silver maple and recited it to the Waterloo Vase. It didn’t fit in any rooms.

I thought, if someone like that ever loved me, it would set me on fire.