and I can breathe again.
I didn’t realize
I hadn’t been breathing.
Matt smiles at me gently.
He waits for me.
Over his shoulder, a flow
of students enter the school gates.
Matt doesn’t seem to mind.
I dare to dream that,
in time,
Matt could be mine.
“I wanna come out to my granny,”
I say, finding the thread
of our conversation again.
“I’m not bothered about my dad,”
I lie, willing it to be true.
“I don’t think I’ll come out
to my family in Jamaica.
You know it’s illegal there.”
Matt gives my shoulders
a longer squeeze this time,
before he releases them,
like he didn’t wanna let go.
“You know it’s not illegal to be
a gay person in Jamaica.”
Matt corrects me unnecessarily,
as if I didn’t know this.
“It’s illegal to have gay sex.
That’s illegal in Nigeria as well.”
“I know,” I say, giving bombastic side-eye,
