Lisa and I sat together at King Lear, a bit off from some of the other ALOHA students that were also in attendance, we held hands the entire time. My mind sometimes had difficulty focusing on things going on in front of me, like plays and movies and stuff like that, so as we watched the performance, and even though I really do enjoy Lear, my brain wandered to thoughts of Lisa. I imagined doing simple, everyday things with her. Eating with her in the cafeteria. Walking to class. Studying at the library. Sitting on her bed and watching something on her laptop. It certainly made it hard for me to appreciate the performance. Before I knew it, it was over.

As we stepped out of the theater together with the rest of the audience, Lisa stretched her arms up high over her head, her crumpled program in one hand. She smiled adoringly at me and I couldn’t help but return that smile.

“Hey, um, excuse me,” I heard a voice say off to the side. Lisa and I both looked over and Kai stood there, looking to jump into conversation with us. He was a sweet boy, lanky, his hair a mess. But I could tell he was kind. A good person.

“Hello,” said Lisa with a grin. “You are… Kai, right?”

“I am,” he said.

“How can we help you, Kai?” asked Lisa, a playful glint in her eye.

“I was just talking to Professor Sacco,” he said. “She’s still inside the theater. She’s looking for you. Something about the dinner reservations.”

“Oh!” exclaimed Lisa. “Great. Thank you, Kai!” She turned to me and smiled. “I’ll be right back, okay?”

“Sure,” I said. And with that she took off, sliding along the concrete underfoot to find Sacco.

After a moment of silence, Kai and I standing there together, he spoke up first.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi,” I said.

“Did you enjoy the show?” he asked. I really wasn’t a fan of small talk. It made me feel anxious. I was much more interested in talking about ideas. But, you know, it’s hard to just talk ideas with everybody all the time without coming off as a total weirdo.

“Yeah,” I said. “Did Sacco really want to talk to Lisa?” I said with some suspicion.

“What are you trying to say by asking that?” said Kai, mirroring my suspicious glance.

“I, um—“ I said, stammering. “I mean, were you just trying to get us apart?”

“No,” he said with a curious smile. “Sacco really is looking for her. But I did want to talk to you also. So I guess it just kind of worked out.”

“Okay,” I said cautiously.

“I’m just wondering, you know,” he said, he himself obviously having a difficult time with words now as I so often did. “Is that, um, lesbian thing — I mean, for you — is that a hard and fast rule?”