“Dude, really?” I asked, wiping a tear out of my eye. “Goddamn.”
“We were all in tears,” Grant said with a sniffle.
Luis passed the papers to Austin, who was also now bright red. He cleared his throat and scratched his nose, and finally started reading.
“Everything that is UDLR has allowed me to become more than I ever dreamed,” Austin said. “I was just a kid with a good voice until the audition, and the fans all gave me confidence to believe that it was a great voice. More than that, they gave me the means to finally learn how to play the guitar and write music. And I’m unbelievably grateful for that.
“With the release of this album, our break with our old producer, and the chance to work on my voice, I was so, so grateful to be given the chance to work on Broadway and really let loose when I sing I owe that chance to the fans, and my bandmates.
“There was more. Backstage, I met someone. Someone who has changed my life completely and only for the better. They challenge me, they push me, they make me more me than I have ever been. But I couldn’t share that with the world because I was so, so scared. The feelings I had were bigger than anything I’d known before.
“I decided it was safer to just keep it quiet. But…Nelson Powers and my best friends—my bandmates—reminded me time and time again that we are role models and there are thousands of fans out there who want…who need to see authenticity.
“So, when I tell you that the best thing to ever happen to me was UDLR, I’m not kidding. Because the band led me to learning what I could do with my voice, my voice led me to Broadway, and Broadway led me to him.”
“At this point,” Taylor said, “the interviewer’s mouth dropped to the floor.”
“It took her a good minute, minute and a half to get her shit back together.” Grant mimicked holding a notepad. “Excuse me, could you say that again?”
Austin looked back to the magazine, and started reading again. “Ferguson: Excuse me, but could you say that again? Lowell:laughing. Yeah sure. Broadway led me to my boyfriend. Ferguson: Are you telling us that you’re gay? Lowell:nodding. I am gay. Ferguson: Is this a recent development? Lowell: Only the boyfriend part of it. I’ve known I was gay since I was sixteen. I just didn’t do anything about it. I stayed in the closet. But I don’t want to anymore. He makes me happy, and I want to do things like going to the movies together, have a quiet dinner, go on vacation. Just be seen holding his hand.
“And I want to show the world that it’s okay. That it’s fine to be who you are, for real. To live life out loud and not be scared by the small-minded bigots who aren’t part of the real world. No more secrets, no more NDAs, no more hiding in the closet looking out at what could be. I’m gay. And that’s that.”
I just stared at him for a long few seconds before I could find my voice. He had announced he was gay. Not just gay, but had mentioned a boyfriend, and called me the best thing that had happened to him.
This was the absolute last thing I thought he was ever going to do.
Finally, my voice came back. “You came out.”
Austin nodded.
“In a fuckingRolling Stone interview?”
He nodded again. “I was going to call you and ask you out to dinner, but you went and got kidnapped.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You swan-dove out of the closet inRolling Stone.”
“I did.”
I still stared at him. “You’re absolutely batshit, you know that?”
Hailey stood up and pitched her can in the recycle. “Let’s go. Everyone out. Time to go.”
“But—” Taylor started.
“Out, everyone. Grant, take your girlfriend and her kids with you,” Hailey directed. “Let’s go. Hurry up! March.”
Bryce grabbed Taylor who seemed like he wanted to stay in the worst way. In just a few short minutes we were alone in the kitchen and I was still staring at Austin.
“You really came out?”
“I had to. How couldn’t I? Between you, your friends, Nelson… You were all right. And I was doing myself and millions of terrified gay children a disservice.”
“But…” I was confused. “When did you…”
“I decided last week and let Angela and Nelson set everything up. The interview was on Friday, when I sent you to get kidnapped…”
I heard tons of guilt in his voice and slid my chair up against his. “You are not responsible for that. At all. Whoever would have gone to get the kids would have been the one who either got kidnapped, or shot. You know that he would have killed anyone who wasn’t marketable to him.”
