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Alex stares at the wall, practically catatonic. Behind him, his friends whisper loudly.
“What are the flag colors again?”
“Dark grey, light grey, and dark blue.”
“Makes sense.”
“That might be a little hard to tie-dye…”
“Come on, Wills, you’re an expert! You can totally do it.”
“Thanks, Reg.”
Silence. Curious footsteps creep closer.
“He’s not snapping out of it… What did you say to him, Jules?”
“It wasn’t my fault! All I did was tell him about gender and sexuality stuff! Willie was the one who made the joke!”
“This is all because of a joke?”
“Seems like it wasn’t a joke to him.” A pause. “Them?”
“Alex hasn’t said anything about pronouns yet.”
“Alright, cool.”
“...”
“So… what was the joke?”
“I didn’t think it would get him this bad, I swear!”
“You still haven’t said what it was…”
A sigh. “‘So you’re grey all across the board? Good thing you’re already the silver candy!’”
“...Oh.”
“And then I said something about it being fate, and that’s when he zoned out.”
“...Okay.”
“You’re thinking this is an overreaction, aren’t you?”
“I mean. Maybe a little.”
“Well, hey, if I learned three whole new and connected things about myself that completely turned my sense of identity and worldview upside down, and then learned that my Carrie-assigned uniform already matched it, as if it were destiny, I would be pretty shook too.”
“Why couldn’t she have given him gold? Then maybe we could get on with practice!”
“Because they already have a Yellow Candy! Don’t you have eyes?”
“Is there a gold pride flag? That’d be pretty cool.”
“Not the point, bro.”
“Right. Alex’s gender crisis. Sexuality crisis?”
“...”
“Color crisis?”
“I think it’s just… a crisis.”
“Catchall. I like it.”
“Alright, I’m gonna try to snap him out of it.”
“Go for it, boss.”
Footsteps come even closer. A hand lands on his shoulder.
“Alex?” The voice is soft but firm. “Lexi?”
He doesn’t respond. A second set of footsteps approach, and a hand lands on his other shoulder.
“Hotdog. Babe.” He still doesn’t respond. The second voice takes hold of both his shoulders and swings him around to face them. “Alex!”
He blinks, the movement combined with his name snapping him out of whatever trance he’d been in. “Willie?”
His boyfriend smiles in relief. “There you are.” They raise a hand to Alex’s cheek. “Where’d you go? Did I freak you out that much?”
“Only a little,” Alex says. Willie snorts.
“Looked like more than a little to me.”
“Alex,” Julie says from behind him. He turns to face her. “It’s okay if you’re worried about being nonbinary or ace or aro. I’m worried about those things too, but we can face it together, okay?”
Alex smiles, finally coming fully back to himself. “Okay. That sounds great, Juliebean.” He wraps her in a hug, and she happily embraces him. “Thanks.”
“Hey, where’s our hug?”
Reggie and Luke barrel into them, but it doesn’t faze them, too used to their rowdy bandmates’ reckless affection. They just bring them into the hug, arms and bodies tangled, and Alex takes a moment to breathe and be thankful for the family that he has.
He’s still scared to face the new parts of his identity — there are so many new terms and so much pressure and what is he supposed to do with it all? — but with his family by his side, he knows that he won’t have to worry about dealing with any of it alone.
He nestles deeper into the hug, surrounded by his best friends and boyfriend, ready to weather anything the world can throw at them.
Even the color grey.
…
…
…
“I don’t get it,” Reggie whispers after a while. “Grey… isn’t silver?”
“It’s just shinier grey,” Willie explains.
“But he’s not silvergender! Or the grey candy! What’s the big deal?”
Alex rolls his eyes and hooks an arm around Reggie’s neck, pulling him closer. “Love you, buddy,” he tells him with a fond eye roll.
“Love you too,” Reggie responds, happy to drop all arguments when offered hugs and affection.
“When you have your own color-based gender crisis, you can make sure it makes perfect sense,” Alex tells him.
“When I have my own gender crisis? Do you know something I don’t?”
Alex shrugs, a teasing glint in his eyes. “Well…”
“Alex!” Reggie shrieks. Alex ducks out of the way of being tackled, running to take cover behind Luke.
“Julie, quick, explain the entire spectrum of gender to him!”
“I’m not doing that again without a powerpoint,” she declares, watching the chaos with folded arms. “And Flynn.”
“Well then make one!” Alex retorts. “Quick! He’s not gonna sit still for long.”
“Hey!”
Julie snorts. “I’ll give you all the presentation tomorrow. But for now…” She grins… and runs at Alex, attempting to tackle him. His attempt at using Luke as a shield proves useless when Luke just steps out of the way and lets Julie at him.
“Luke!” Alex cries, betrayed, but his friend just laughs at him and piles on. Then Reggie joins, then Willie, and they’re all just a pile of teenagers laughing hysterically on the ground. It doesn’t even matter that the weight of them all is kind of crushing Alex. He wouldn’t have it any other way.
“So… does this mean you’re getting second place in gender?”
“What?”
“You know… a silver medal.”
“...Willie.”