More Happy Than Not

Thomas comes by when Aaron is playing a milk-cap flipping game called Skelzies with his friends. Brendan brings up a video game they played obsessively when they were 12 because of a rumor that you could find a nude picture in the game as an easter egg. Aaron remembers that he genuinely liked girls when he was younger; he thinks that being gay has come upon him suddenly within the last few months. Thomas arrives and asks how Genevieve took the breakup. Brendan is furious to find out that Thomas knew about this before he did. He starts a fight with Thomas, striking at him and yelling at him to “Get—out—of—my friend’s head!” (133). Aaron breaks it up, taking Thomas’s side, and they leave together.

Aaron brings some beer to Thomas’s house, and they talk about the fight the day before. Thomas says Aaron’s friends think he’s going to steal him away. They talk about celebrity crushes; Aaron chooses Emma Watson and Andrew Garfield. Thomas chooses Natalie Portman and, when pressed, says if he “had to go gay for someone” it would by Ryan Gosling (135).