Epilogue:

Two Months Later

“You guys ready?” Jeff asked.

Luke, Cameron, and several of his former students nodded back at him. They were all decked out in rainbows from head to toe, except for Cam, who was wearing an old “Let Him Teach” shirt instead. No less than five days after returning from his motivational speaking tour, Jeff had been asked to act as the master of ceremonies for this year’s Charleston pride parade. Basically, that meant that he and his friends got to ride on a float, wear special pins on their shirts, and curse out any negative nellies that dared to rear their ugly heads.

The float they had been assigned was basically an old party bus with a platform and railing affixed to the top. Music was blasting from the speakers inside, and the entire shell of the vehicle had been plastered with dyed flowers that were meticulously arranged into rows according to rainbow order. The inside of the bus was jammed full of notable gay figures from the community, while Jeff and his crew stood on top and tried their best to keep their balance as the float rolled on at a snail’s pace.

Jeff had never been to a pride parade in his life, and he honestly hadn’t known what to expect, but it was a truly magical sight to behold. Both sides of the empty streets were lined with screaming blotches of color for as far as the eye could see.

As the float made it to the official starting point of the parade, Jeff was introduced as the grand marshal and the crowd roared their approval. After that though, their excitement waned a bit, and Jeff and Luke were left staring at each other, wondering what they were supposed to do.

“Act like you love each other, damn,” said one of the people inside the bus below them as he was peeking his head out the window. The entire bus erupted with laughter, although Jeff wasn’t quite sure he understood the joke.

Jeff and Luke took each other’s hands and raised them up into the air victoriously. The crowd seemed to like that a lot better, but they still weren’t completely satisfied.

“Kiss him! Kiss him! Kiss him!” They began to chant. The students around them quickly joined in.

Jeff looked up at Luke, who was laughing and looking at him with a raised brow. Jeff accepted the challenge and reached his face up to Luke’s in a picture perfect recreation of the wedding booth kiss. The crowd around them went nuts, and then suddenly there were balloons and confetti in various colors floating gently toward them from the audience. The sea of rainbow flags and signs floating above people’s heads moved even more furiously in all the excitement.

Jeff looked out at the people cheering ahead of them and had to make an effort not to get too emotional. The parade had only just gotten started. He’d have plenty more opportunities to cry today.

Just about every time their float turned a corner and the crowd recognized who they were, there were more demands for them to kiss. It was insane; not that he’d be complaining about kissing Luke all afternoon.

When they reached the final stretch of the parade route, which was ironically located near Apollo High School, Luke took Jeff’s hand on one side and Cam’s on the other. The rest of the crew joined in and then, as they rounded the corner, they raised their arms up together, inciting another raucous cheer from the crowd.

After the parade, the group exited the float, majorly in need of renewed blood flow to their wobbly legs. As such, they all banded together and walked the streets of downtown Charleston in search of something to eat. It took a while, seeing as they had to navigate the crowds and constantly stop for selfies, but they were finally able to settle down at a small burger shop a good distance away from the hullabaloo of the big event. They hadn’t been eating for long before Jeff’s phone rang. Jeff wiped mustard off his mouth and glanced down at it. It was his sister.

“Hello?”

Katherine let out a long string of mumbled words that Jeff couldn’t understand. He frowned and covered up his exposed ear with his hand so that he could hear better.

“Come again?” he said.

“I said,” Katherine enunciated. “I just got a call from that publishing house I was telling you about. They made you a really generous offer for an autobiographical book deal.”

Jeff froze. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He must have looked as shell shocked as he felt, because Luke leaned over and asked him if he was okay. Jeff nodded and returned his attention to the phone call.

“What kind of deal are we talking?”

“They wanted to lowball you at first, but I managed to talk them into a $8000 advance with royalties on top of that. All you have to do is read and sign off on the contract and you’ll be on your way to being a published author.

“Oh,” Jeff said dumbly.

“Oh? Is that all you have to say?” Katherine asked. “You better not have changed your mind about your life’s purpose again, you flighty motherfucker. What, are you gonna run off with the gay circus now?”

The emotion Jeff had been holding back during the parade now came bubbling to the surface. He sniffled into the phone.

“Are you crying? Was I right? Jesus Jeff, I was just kidding.”

“No, no, no.” Jeff choked out a laugh and held his hand to his forehead. “I’m not running off with the gay circus.”

“Good,” she said. “Because I don’t think that such a thing actually exists.”

“God, Katherine, I can’t believe you got me a deal. How did you even manage that?”

“Were you not listening dumb-dumb? They called me about it. This was all you, little brother. Well, mostly.”

Luke was hovering over Jeff now and rubbing circles into his back.

“Honey, what’s wrong? Are you sure you’re okay?”

Jeff kept his mouth shut for a long while. He had no idea what he was supposed to say.

“Look, it sounds like you’re busy,” Katherine said finally. “And I have more stuff I need to take care of, but I’m gonna call you back later, all right? We can talk about the specifics of the deal then, when you’re a slightly less emotional gay icon.”

“All right,” Jeff said. “I’ll talk to you then.”

Jeff hung up the phone and slowly returned it to his rainbow pocket.

“I’m getting published,” he blurted out to the concerned faces all around him. Luke’s eyes immediately widened and he pulled Jeff in for a hug.

The rest of the night was filled with laughter and celebration and drinking. Jeff now had everything he’d ever wanted. His head was already filling with so many ideas about how he wanted to tell his own miraculously weird and wonderful story.

One thing was for certain; it would definitely have a happy ending.