Christopher Bruhn Horan

People like my father, who should have known better.

And...

Junior high was the worst.

I mean, it truly got dangerous.

People started calling me faggot in the hallway.

I was taking shit wherever I went.

At the time, my thinking was that if I just became very small and I didn't say anything about it, that maybe it would go away.

I might handle that differently today, but then I just thought, if I start fighting with people, I'm going to be bloody every day of my life.

And so...

Around the same time, my best buddy Agnes and I, we started sneaking down to New York City on the bus.

She was an underdog as well.

She was Polish with the unfortunate last name of Spakowitz, Agnes Spakowitz.

And kids were cruel to her as well.

And we loved the movie Fame.

We loved the soundtrack.

We used to sing it in the streets.

We felt so very free in New York City.

We would sit on the steps of the School of Performing Arts pretending to be students.

And that was when I saw the Gaiety Theater again.

And my heart started to race and I steered Agnes over by the entrance, carefully noting that shows began on the hour beginning at 1 p.m.