And They Lived . . .

by Steven Salvatore

Taylor whispers, “Go find your adventure.”

laugh awkwardly like old-school Goofy. I want to die. In Jack’s arms, preferably.

“I’ve never been a surprise to anyone. I’m just me.” “Something tells me that’s not true.”

People like me rarely get the storybook ending.

“Tropes are a luxury of the majority. And LGBTQ-plus and Black, brown, and Indigenous folks should get to use these tropes because, for people like us, they’re not tropes. They’re just never-told stories or stories told over and over again by the majority.”

many straight white girls co-opt queer culture like fashion accessories when it suits them but stay silent when we talk about the actual struggles of being queer.

“’Sup.” Why is this my go-to? Am I an early 2000s straight-bro?

we exist in the breath between lightning and thunder