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Isaac was sitting in Charlie’s living room, reading. Their friend group was originally just going to have a regular movie night, but everyone had decided that they first needed to have a water fight in Charlie’s garden. Isaac wasn’t particularly interested in joining them.
Besides, he was almost done with Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen, and he wanted to finish it as soon as possible. The book had already taught him so much about asexuality — and thereby about himself. Isaac hadn’t told any of his friends yet, but he was at this point absolutely certain that he was asexual and aromantic.
He still wasn’t completely sure how he felt about that — it was hard to like something that excluded him from things he’d been told all his life that he needed in order to be happy. It was hard to like the fact that he would never be attracted to other people, never fall in love, never … never do any of the things he’d imagined he would eventually start doing.
But Ace had helped him. Helped him feel seen, helped him understand himself better. Isaac was pretty sure that he would be able to like this part of himself eventually. Maybe even love it.
A voice coming from the doorway interrupted his thoughts. “What’re you reading?”
Isaac, a little startled, looked up at Tori. She was holding a cup in her hand, and she took a loud sip out of the straw as she waited for a response. Isaac hadn’t really talked to her before. Much like himself, she seemed like the quiet type, so he was surprised that she’d initiated a conversation with him. Maybe she’d been bored or something.
Isaac held up the book so Tori could read the title on the cover. Her eyebrows rose immediately — likely as she read the word “Ace”. Then she stepped closer, into the living room, so she could read the rest of the title.
“Huh,” she said. “Cool.” Then she took another loud sip.
Isaac smiled. “Yeah. It’s really good.”
“So you’d recommend it?”
Isaac considered that. “Yeah. But … Would you be interested in reading about …?” He trailed off, not entirely sure how to finish the question.
Tori shrugged. “I might be interested.” She paused, taking yet another loud sip. “I’m…” She paused again, this time just staring blankly ahead of her, like she was weighing something over in her mind. “I’m on the asexual spectrum. And the aromantic one. So yeah. Might be interested.”
“Oh.” Truly nothing could’ve prepared Isaac for this. He honestly wasn’t sure what to say, except for, “Me too. I’m … I’m aroace.”
A small smile appeared on Tori’s face. “Cool.”
Isaac smiled too. It was kind of weird that the first person he had officially come out to was Charlie’s big sister, but it also felt kind of nice. It was really nice, honestly, to know that he wasn’t alone. To know that he knew someone else who was aroace, regardless of the fact that they weren’t close friends or anything like that.
“I’ll leave you to it, then,” Tori said, gesturing to the book in Isaac’s hand. Then she turned around and left, sipping loudly on her drink the whole time.
Isaac kept smiling even after she’d left, feeling almost giddy about the fact that his first proper coming out had been so nice.
Then he returned his attention to the book, his smile refusing to leave his lips.