Chapter 28

“Anything wrong, mate?” Mark asked him.

“I wish he was my boyfriend.”

I didn’t know what to say, and judging by the silence, Mark didn’t either.

Finally Mark said, “Do you know if he feels the same way about you?”

“I’m not sure,” Sam said quietly.

“Has he ever mentioned that he has a girlfriend?”

“No.”

“Has he ever said anything bad about gays?” Mark asked.

“It’s never come up.”

“It isn’t easy to bring any conversation around to being gay,” I put in.

“True,” Mark said.

“Could you talk about your family, then say that you wish you saw more of your uncle Steve, and bring up his sexuality somehow?” It wasn’t a very satisfactory way of bringing up the subject, but I had little experience of teenage matchmaking. I was always too terrified to approach anyone when I was Sam’s age.

“That might work,” Sam said.