Campus Crush novel Chapter 9

::Casper::

"Good evening, ladies, gents, and everyone in between! Thank you all for coming!" The host welcomed as we all applauded from our seats. "Wow, what a big crowd this evening." She cleared her throat. "My name is Jelina, and I'll be hosting this event for tonight..."

I gazed at the itinerary that was at our round table.

"Performance?" I read off the little card.

"I totally hope it's a drag. So entertaining! I heard they had that last year." Lucas responded. I was glad that I'd accompanied him here; he had an expression of thrill just to be present at this event.

"...to stay true to who you are, love yourself, and love others..." Jelina was saying. She was given another applaud at the end of that statement.

"I want to introduce you guys to Tanner Faugh, who will give a brief, brief speech about stereotypes, gender roles, and labels. Help me welcome him on stage."

We all clapped as a college student came up on stage, standing at the podium and leaning slightly toward the microphone.

"Hi, everyone. Um, as Jelina said, I'm Tanner. Just that. I know all too well how it feels to be grouped into a category and shoved into a department. Sometimes I was even made to believe that was where I belonged. In high school, during freshman year, I thought it might be okay to 'come out', so to speak. See, the funny thing was, I didn't know if I was gay, or bisexual, or pansexual, or any kind of sexual under the sun."

A hum of chuckles spread through the room.

"But I knew I was different. I knew that I was me, and that was enough for me. I liked painting my nails blood red to match my new shoes. In fact, I can recall a day or two when I wore some blindingly shiny lip gloss to school. You won't believe what happened after that. So for some foreign reason, people think that it's okay to look at somebody else's actions, decide it's their business what other people do, and judge them."

"Yes, hunty!" Lucas praised.

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