Chapter Eighteen

Jeff spent the weekend alone in his apartment feeling sorry for himself. Right after he’d gotten home on Friday he’d sent Luke a text saying, “I’m sorry. Take care of Cam. I’ll be fine,” and now he greatly regretted it. It had been two whole days and he hadn’t heard back. That, combined with the general sadness over losing his job had reverted him into sad sack mode. He wasn’t shaving or showering or picking up after himself. He deleted all social media apps from his phone because he couldn’t stand the constant pinging. All he wanted to do was eat ice cream on the couch in his pajamas. It was basically like going through a breakup, but with slightly less crying because he was too mad at the world to cry.

Currently, it was Sunday afternoon and Jeff was in the middle of his third sad movie in a row. It was about a couple who found out that their daughter needed a lung transplant, but there was no way they could get her one, so she slowly starts dying and the couple tries their best to make her last days meaningful as they desperately fight for her to get moved up the transplant list before it’s too late.

He was really only half paying attention. He was in one of those numb states where you’re already so sad that heartbreaking things don’t really have any impact on your overall mood. That probably made him a terrible person for caring more about his own problems more than a dying child, but at the end of the day, no matter how realistic, it was just a movie. The actors got to go home and leave these roles behind them. Jeff was stuck in his own skin for life. He couldn’t stop thinking about Luke. It was very hard for him not to automatically jump to the conclusion that the two of them were done forever. It just seemed like the most likely path since Jeff had gotten his heart broken so many times. Jeff had thought about just breaking down and heading over to his house to see where they stood, but Luke had had plenty of opportunities to call or talk to him if he wanted. Plus, Cam had specifically asked Jeff to stay away.

Jeff chewed on his fingernails and stared at the screen. The little girl, Isabella, was playing on the playground with an oxygen tank strapped to her tiny back while her father was on the phone arguing with someone. Isabella kept looking up at her dad hopefully and then turning away. Jeff was about to give up and turn the sob fest off when his phone started ringing. He pressed mute on the TV and dug the device out of his pocket.

“Hello?” he asked.

“Hey J,” said Katherine. “Are you at home?”

Jeff scoffed and stuffed the last of his ice cream in his mouth.

“Where else would I be?”

Katherine didn’t skip a beat; in fact, she sounded a little bit frantic.

“Turn on PJXN news right now.”

Frowning, Jeff switched off the movie and scrolled through the guide until he found the right channel. He was shocked to see a well renowned national news anchor standing outside of his school. Jeff leaned forward with wide eyes.

“Yes, thank you Tim. I’m here at Apollo High School in Charleston, South Carolina where local teacher, Jefferson Martin, has been put on administrative leave in what many people are calling a ridiculous act of homophobic discrimination.”

Jeff watched in awe as they cut to a prerecorded segment with a smiling picture of him posing with the drama club for last year’s school yearbook.

“It all started Friday morning when this picture of Mr. Martin was posted on SocialBook.”

They cut to a slightly cropped version of the wedding booth photo and lingered on it for a second.

“The picture was not posted by the high school teacher, but by a former student who had invited Jefferson, and his partner, to her wedding earlier this month.”

Next they showed an interview with April via webcam as she was still on her honeymoon in Bali.

“I never meant to cause anyone any harm,” April said. “I just dumped all of the pictures from the photo booth onto SocialBook the first chance I got. When I saw how many people were sharing the picture and saying nasty things about Mr. Martin, my first instinct was to delete it, but by then it had already been shared so many times that it wouldn’t have done any good.

“Jeff Martin has taught English at Apollo High School for more than a decade. He is known by all for his friendly disposition and willingness to go above and beyond for his students. We have had several reports from parents and faculty members claiming that Martin is the only person keeping the school’s severely underfunded drama department alive, and without him, the club’s future is in limbo.”

“Mr. Martin literally saves lives,” said Enrique, popping up on the screen. “I’ve seen him talk kids out of hurting themselves or dropping out. I’ve seen the difference he makes in all of our lives just by caring and treating us with respect, like actual human beings and not just a means to a paycheck.”

“Drama club means everything to me,” said Rin. “It’s the only place I can truly be myself. Most of that has to do with Mr. Martin. He makes us all feel welcomed and safe.”

“He helped me get accepted to my first choice university,” said Tammy Cravelli. “Who cares if he’s gay? He’s the best teacher I’ve ever had.”

The compliments just kept coming and coming.

“For years I was failing English before Mr. Martin intervened and helped me get diagnosed with my learning disability. Now I’m doing better than I ever have.”

“Honestly, it’s refreshing to have someone teaching who genuinely cares about you.”

“It’s absolutely disgusting that people are still discriminated against for being gay. Mr. Martin didn’t do anything wrong.”

The interviews were finally capped off by Jessica, who said, “We just hope that the school realizes that they’ve made a mistake and allows Mr. Martin to come back. And if they don’t, we’re not going to let the issue go. Mr. Martin always fights for us, and we can do the same for him.”

The screen cut back to the original anchor standing outside of the school. Since the picture was posted on Friday morning, it has been shared over 50,000 times, garnering national attention. The hashtag, Let Him Teach, is trending across multiple social media platforms and there have been several petitions made in Jeff’s honor. We have reached out to the principal of Apollo High who declined comment, and to Jeff and his partner, both of whom have yet to respond. As of now, the teacher remains on administrative leave. This has been John Gibbins with PJXN news. Back to you Tim.”

Tim thanked John and continued covering the rest of the night’s stories and Jeff stared at him, slack jawed.

“Jeff? Are you still there?” Katherine asked.

“Yeah,” he croaked. “I’m still here.”

He couldn’t believe this was happening. Him, on the national news. This wasn’t just one of those shitty underfunded news programs either. This was about as bigtime as it got. His parents used to watch this show. God what must they be thinking right now? They were probably glad he got fired. They were the exact type of parents who would have called the principal to complain if something like this had happened when he or his sister were in school.

The anchor had also mentioned something about having tried to reach out to him, but Jeff had been glued to his phone all weekend, waiting to see if the school or Luke would call. Maybe they’d reached out on some of the apps that he’d deleted from his phone for his own sanity. Sure enough, when he pulled out his laptop and checked, there were three hundred new messages on his SocialBook account, one of which was from PJXN news.

Jeff reached over and turned off the TV with a loud click. He had completely forgotten about the phone in his hand until Katherine spoke again, startling him.

“Are you okay?” she asked

“I don’t know,” Jeff answered honestly. He was touched, of course, but he’d always been a pretty private person. It was one thing for the whole school to know his personal business, but now the whole country? It was going to take some getting used to.

“Well you better be okay,” Katherine said. Jeff could hear her heels clicking on the other line as she walked across some sort of hard surface. “Because I’m coming to stay with you for a few weeks.”

Jeff sat up straighter and furrowed his brows. This was the exact reason he didn’t want to tell her about this.

“Kat, I don’t need a babysitter. I’ll be fine. I’ve dealt with worse.”

“Yeah,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna let you deal with it by yourself.”

“What about work?” Jeff asked.

“I could use a break from all these rapists and murderers anyway,” Katherine said. “Besides, it seems like you could use a good lawyer.”