Bi The Way

Madison shuffled into Mr. Rogo's office, the familiar scent of lemon cleaner and old books filled her nostrils. She slumped into the chair opposite his desk, a whole week had passed and she still wasn't ready for this conversation.

"So, Madison, what have you come up with?" Mr. Rogo leaned forward, clasping his hands on the desk. His round spectacles slipped slightly down his nose as he gave her his full attention.

"Well," she sighed, tracing the grain of the wood with her finger. "I mean, I don't really know what I want to do after high school."

"Ok, maybe I can help you find a direction you want to explore farther," he suggested, tapping a pen against a stack of career pamphlets. "You helped with the school fashion show last year, maybe something along that line?"

Madison looked up at the office ceiling as she mulled the idea over. "I mean in all honesty I just wanted the free outfit at the end. I like drawing and everything but designing clothes isn't very exciting."

Mr. Rogo nodded along as he listened to her. "Fair enough. So let me ask you, what does interest you? Is there anything you've done that made you think, 'Hey, this is fun'?"

She paused, her mind drifting back to the talent show, planning every detail of Rodney's performance was fun, even if he didn't go with her song choice in the end. She thought about how she gathered information on current trends to make sure it would resonate with their peers, "Well, with Rodney, I helped him with his performance for the talent show, and I liked... you know, gathering info. Figuring out which songs were popular, what styles were in and how to make his performance have the most impact."

"Data gathering and analysis," Mr. Rogo said, nodding approvingly. "Those are valuable skills, Madison."

"Really?" She tilted her head, intrigued.

"Absolutely." He stood up, beginning to pace. "In marketing, for example, these skills are crucial. Companies need to understand trends, to know their audience. It's all about connecting people with products—or with other people, just like you've been doing."

Madison's eyes widened, she had never really thought about it that way. "So are there degrees in that?"

"Let's see what we can find." Mr. Rogo turned to his computer, fingers flying over the keys. The printer whirred to life, and moments later, he handed her a list of university programs.

"All of these are programs I can take?" Madison asked, a smile creeping onto her face as she read down the long list.

"Of course!" He smiled. "What I would like you to do now is explore each one to see what they have to offer and create a short, the top three to five schools you are interested in,"

She glanced over the paper again. "Thanks, Mr. Rogo. I'll see you next week then."

Rodney's footsteps echoed through the emptying halls as he read over the text Ally had sent him. He had been successfully avoiding her since she came back to SDCI but when he woke up that morning she had texted him. He rounded the corner, nearly colliding with Madison, who was standing stationary as she looked over her list.

"Sorry... Madison?" Rodney said, finally noticing who he almost knocked over. "You okay?"

She blinked up at him, her lips curving into an unexpected smile. "Yeah, I am totally fine. I should be the one apologizing, after all, I'm the one standing in the middle of the hall."

"No way. I should have been paying more attention," Rodney explained, tucking his cell phone away so she couldn't see the screen.

"It's fine." She glanced at him, noticing the bags under his eyes and his pale features. "Are you feeling ok? You don't look so good, Rodney. Are you on your way to see the nurse or something?"

"Me?" Rodney chuckled, brushing off her comments. "No, no, just not sleeping well. Don't worry about it."

"Okay, but maybe you should see someone about that," Madison suggested, giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder before she continued down the hallway.

"Sure thing," he called after her, offering a half-hearted smile.

Once Madison was around the corner, Rodney returned his attention to the text again. Ally had made it clear she wanted him to stay away, but it was the suggestion that she would tell everyone what he did if he didn't stay away that scared him. He had seen how some people treated the out-gay kids at school. How Jordan once had their own lunch thrown up into their face. Rodney didn't want that, especially because he wasn't sure he was gay, plus Hunter would hate him if he was outed too.

Rodney ducked into the bathroom, knowing he had to do something to stop this from happening. Slipping into a stall, Rodney perched on the toilet lid, phone clutched in trembling hands. He figured he would have to create a rumour, one that would ensure no one believed Ally if she did out him. It had to be believable, yet damaging enough to cast doubt on anything Ally might say.

'The real reason Ally Mathews left Holy Cross,' he typed into the webpage dedicated to spreading rumours around the school as an anonymous user, 'You all deserve to know why Ally really left our school. It wasn't what you think it was. She outed someone here who wasn't even gay, and they were bullied so badly they had to transfer. When the truth got out, we turned on her. Just thought you should know the kind of person she is."

He hesitated, knowing he couldn't take it back once it was out there, his thumb hovering over the 'post' button. With a deep breath, Rodney tapped the screen. The deed was done; there was no going back now. As he pocketed his phone, Rodney couldn't shake the guilt settling into his gut. He stepped out of the stall, washed his hands, and stared at his reflection; he was beginning to hate the person looking back at him.

---

The bell above the door of Muggs chimed a welcome as Ally pushed through, the scent of freshly ground coffee beans greeting her. However, Ally wasn't there to enjoy her usual chia latte, a new rumour had spread around the school, and this one seemed to be sticking.

"Hey," she murmured, sliding into the booth where Luke and Steven were already waiting. Without a word, each boy scooted closer, their arms reaching out to encircle her in a double-sided embrace.

"Thanks, guys," she exhaled, sinking into the cracked leather seat, feeling the slight stickiness against her skin. She drew back, biting her lip. "You know I would never out someone, this has Rodney written all over it,"

"Proof?" Steven's voice was gentle but insistent, his brown eyes steady and inquiring.

"Well, I don't exactly have any," Ally confessed, twisting a strand of her blonde hair around her finger. "But who else would do this?"

"Well, there have been like a million rumours started about you since you came back," Luke interjected, sipping his coffee. "This could have been started by anyone,"

"Yeah but I text Rodeny to stay away from me and then on the same day this starts," she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "It's because I know about him and Hunter and he is worried I'll do something,"

Luke's jaw dropped, his expression morphing from confusion to shock. "Dude, Rodney's gay?"

Steven cast a wary glance around before leaning in, his tone cautious. "Ally, you can't just say that stuff out loud. I mean you literally just said you would never out someone."

"This is different," Ally's laugh was hollow. "I thought you both already knew. But I guess Rodney has kept a lot of the terrible things he's done to himself." She explained everything Rodney had told her when he confronted her that night—how he meddled to get into her Christmas party, how he lied to her about dating Erica—all proving her point that Rodney was a manipulative liar in her mind.

"Ok, so Rodney has done some less than stellar things," Luke conceded slowly, the voice of reason as ever, "but you didn't invite him to your Christmas party just because Matt told you not to, which as someone who said they were his friends is not cool."

"Are you serious?" Ally's cheeks burned as they turned red. "You're supposed to be on my side!"

"We are on your side," Steven assured her, taking her hand. "But this is messy, Ally. Attacking Rodney won't fix anything—it'll just make things worse, it's better if we leave it and let it blow over."

"So I just have to deal with this?" she spat bitterly, her frustration boiling over. "I thought friends were supposed to help each other out."

"Sometimes helping means stopping you from doing anything you'll regret," Steven replied, giving Ally's hand a squeeze.

But Ally was done listening, her emotions refused to take on a voice of logic or reason. She stood abruptly, the movement causing Steven's cup to wobble precariously close to the table’s edge.

"Fine," she snapped, turning for the door. "If you won't help me, I'll deal with Rodney myself."

Without another glance, Ally stormed out of Muggs, Luke went to follow her but Steven grabbed his arm, he was sure whatever Ally was about to do would be something they didn't want to be a part of.

Ally burst into her bedroom and threw herself onto her bed. Posters of bands and vacation spots plastered on the walls seemed to mock her with their promises of joy and escape. She stood up abruptly, pacing back and forth on the soft carpet, her mind racing as she tried to think about how to get around this rumour.

"Think, Ally, think," she muttered under her breath, chewing on her lower lip. She needed someone who could get the dirt on Rodney, she thought of Madison. But Madison was close to Rodney, there was no way she would turn on him There was someone else though, someone so obsessed with Rodney that she knew everything he did.

"Erica!" The name burst from her lips. Scrambling for her phone, she scrolled through her contacts looking for Erica's name. She tapped it and her phone rang twice before Erica's voice cut through the silence.

"So you finally read the email didn't you?" Erica said excitedly.

"Actually... no. I kind of deleted it but I want to know what was in it now."

"Ooh, so you deleted it but now you want the truth."

"Erica please," Ally replied, feeling desperate.

"Fine, meet me at the football field in an hour. Don't be late," Erica said, and Ally could almost hear the smirk in her voice before the line went dead.

---

The field was deserted when Ally arrived, the setting sun casting long shadows across the ground. Erica was already there, leaning nonchalantly against the bleachers, scrolling through her phone.

"So you didn't even take a peek at what I sent you before you deleted it?" Erica asked, standing upright as Ally approached.

"No, I just thought..." Ally trailed off, shaking her head. "I really believed Rodney was a good person,"

"Oh, you fell for his whole nice guy routine," Erica said, pushing away from the bleachers and stepping closer. "Don't blame yourself, I fell for it too," She brandished her phone like a weapon, showing the picture of Rodney and Hunter's kiss at the science fair.

Ally hesitated, her heart thudding. "Right... well if I show people that, it would out Hunter too. I just want to get back at Rodney."

"Fair enough, with the right editing we can make Hunter impossible to identify. That way Rodney just looks like a cheater." Erica smiled as she looked over her photographic evidence.

"True..." Ally chewed on her cheek, the plan seemed risky. She knew people would try to figure out who Rodney was kissing, "Do you have anything else we can use?"

"Of course I do," Erica said, a smug smile curling her lips. "I mean he told me everything while we were fake dating. He was so obsessed with you that he tried to break you and Matt up."

"Yeah, but to be fair Matt wasn't a good guy," Ally said, remembering the controlling relationship. "I just want to make him admit he started that terrible rumour about me,"

"Oh so you want a confession, I take it the outing rumour is the one you're talking about," Erica smiled, her voice laced with a hint of excitement. "That one is doing some serious damage,"

Ally nodded, though the knot in her stomach tightened. She wasn't sure just how far Erica would go, she always got a weird feeling from her.

"Let me see those photos again," Ally finally said.

Erica tapped her phone a few times before turning the screen toward Ally. There it was—a frozen moment in time—Rodney's lips pressed to Hunter's in the dark of the school's gymnasium.

"I'll tell him that I will take the photos down when he admits he started the rumour," Erica put her hand on Ally's shoulder.

"Okay," Ally muttered, straightening her shoulders to loosen Erica's awkward grip. "So he confesses and we take the photos down. But he has to tell everyone he lied, I don't want there to be any doubt,"

"Exactly," Erica agreed with a nod. "I'm sure everyone will be on your side after this,"

"Perfect," she whispered to herself, "I just want my life to go back to normal,"

"Ally, don't do this," Derek said, emerging from behind the bleachers with a frown creasing his brow. He'd listening to music while on his usual walk went he noticed the pair.

Ally's head snapped up, her eyes wide. "Derek? How much did you hear?"

"Enough." Derek's gaze was steady, and there was a weight to his words that made Ally's insides squirm with guilt. "Rodney would never spread a rumour about you. All he has been doing since you came back is trying to stop them."

Erica snorted, but Ally bit her lip, staring at Derek's earnest expression. "Why are you so sure?" Erica challenged.

"Because he told us to shut down any rumours we heard," Derek said simply. "Come on Ally, you know he didn't start this rumour? You know he actually loved you; it broke him when you ghosted."

The words stung, Rodney really did seem to want to be with her last year—but who else would have started this rumour? The timing just seemed too perfect.

"If you spread a rumour about him, all you'll be doing is making him hurt more," Derek continued, his voice softening.

A hollow laugh escaped Erica as she waved her phone. "You really think a rumour about Ally outing someone just happened to start after Ally threatened Rodney to stay away from her?"

Derek paused, clearly divided. His reaction was subtle, just a slight stiffening of his shoulders as Ally showed him the message she left Rodney. "Why don't I just ask him? He wouldn't lie to me,"

"Please," Erica scoffed, rolling her eyes. "You think he would just tell you."

"He's my best friend, and I know he would tell me the truth," Derek handed back the phone.

"Did he tell you he was gay?" Erica asked as if she already knew the answer.

"Yes.. well no... Rodney's not gay," Derek retorted, crossing his arms. "He's something else,"

Erica laughed, giving Derek a look a parent gives a toddler after catching them in a lie. "He kissed another guy. You can't tell me that is straight."

Derek's jaw clenched, his hands forming fists at his sides. But instead of engaging further, he took a deep breath and turned away, his departure silent.

Ally watched him go, as Erica packed up her things. Ally wondered if Derek was right, maybe it was just a coincidence that the rumour started that morning. Derek's words resonated, should she just ask Rodney if he started it? Was involving Erica in all of this a step too far?

"Let's not do this," Ally huffed, looking back toward Erica. "At least not yet,"