Outstanding praise for Robin Reardon and
A SECRET EDGE!
“A sweet novel, but it’s laced with enough humor and teen angst and situations with no clear, easy answers, that it doesn’t cloy. In fact, much of it rings true enough to snap you right back to your high-school years like a giant rubber band. The teasing, the daydreaming in class, the lockers, the milling about at the mall or the library…it’s all here. There is tenderness, and admirably written joyful discoveries of falling in love (and lust) and its fragility, as well as the pain of loss. Lessons are learned in this page-turner where things sometimes take an unexpected turn.”
—Edge magazine
“Robin Reardon’s A Secret Edge is a fun, compelling story about one young man’s coming-of-age, but it’s also a book of interesting ideas, touching on (but not limited to) cross-cultural relationships, family dynamics, friendship, honesty, Hindu philosophy, and the morality of violence vs. non-violence in a complicated world. It’s well worth your time, and Reardon is an author to watch.”
—Bart Yates, author of The Brothers Bishop
“Fans of works like The Front Runner should log off Out-Sports.com long enough to try this addicting and refreshingly non-tragic tale about an athletic adolescent’s coming of age.”
—Next magazine
“Dealing frankly with the challenges of being an out gay teen, Robin’s tale of a cross-cultural romance between two young athletes is as sexy as it is surprising. Jason and Raj are two characters that stand out in young adult fiction for being so wonderfully nuanced and emotionally real. In the end, A Secret Edge is a refreshing spin on the coming out story as well as a memorable new love story for the new millennium.”
—Brian Sloan, author of A Tale of Two Summers
“This year’s must-read coming-of-age story.”
—H/X magazine
“A sweet tale of first love with an abundance of heart, guts and faith.”
—Brian Francis, author of Fruit
“Engaging…This is the kind of novel I would have loved to read as a teen. I hope that many gay teens find A Secret Edge and beg the author for more books as well.”
—AfterElton.com
“Charming.”
—We The People
Books by Robin Reardon
A SECRET EDGE
THINKING STRAIGHT
Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation
Thinking Straight
Robin Reardon
For my mother, who taught me to hate injustice and stupidity, and who urged me constantly to use the mind God gave me.
Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
—The Gospel According to Matthew, 22:37
Taylor Adams’s Favorite Scriptural Reference
If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? This commandment we have from him: he who loves God should also love his brother.
—John’s First Letter, 4:20
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
A READING GROUP GUIDE
Discussion Questions
Chapter 1
He strictly warned him, and immediately sent him out, and said to him, “See you say nothing to anybody, but go show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing the things which Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.”
—Mark 1:43
It’s the end of the second day. Almost. And there’s only…counting, counting…only forty more to go.
Only forty?
That’s going to seem as long to me as it must have to Noah. And for me it’ll be only forty if I’m lucky. If I behave.
I wish I knew the best approach to take. Should I play along and let them think I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid, or are they smarter than I am? They’ve done this before. I haven’t. Would it be a better plan to do my damnedest—oops, not supposed to use words like that!—to get expelled, or whatever the term is?
Maybe I should look that section up again. Where the hell—more demerits—is that booklet? I mean, Booklet? Ha. It’s not like it’ll get lost in my other stuff. I mean, there ain’t no “other stuff.” I can’t have any of it here. My cell phone, my iPod, even a wire-bound notebook is forbidden. No keeping of journals here. I remember that one. But what about getting expelled?
Here’s the stupid thing. Let’s see…. Temperance. Cleanliness. Program Rules…. Ah—Violation Consequences. According to this—and I’m not making these capital letters up—my punishments can go up on a scale from Public Apologies for what I’d done wrong, to some number of SafeZone days when I can’t talk, to having to Write a Three Thousand Word Paper About My Offences, to Expulsion, to Isolation from the Group.
Isolation is worse than Expulsion? Is that what they think? Don’t they know I’m used to isolation?
Expulsion. I could do that.
But then what? Dad said it would be military school for me if I don’t finish here. I didn’t even know they still had places like that, but Dr. Strickland had all the info Dad could want.
Back to the forty days, then. And all because I was honest.
That part really kills me, you know? I mean, if I hadn’t told them they’d never have known. But they kept bugging me, and I had to keep lying. Jesus hates lies.
It was, “Taylor, why don’t you want to go to your own junior prom?”
And then when I did, it was, “Taylor, why don’t you ever ask that nice girl Rhonda out any more?”
Then when I told them Rhonda was nice but she wasn’t my type after all, it was, “Taylor, the Russells are bringing Angela when they come over for dinner tonight. Why don’t the two of you plan to go for a walk afterward?”
Then, when they’d about given up, “Taylor, isn’t there anyone you’re interested in?”
Yeah. There is. His name is Will.
So I told them. I’d tried so hard not to, ’cause I knew they’d freak. And I was still working my way through the Bible concordance, looking for all the references to homosexuality, and men lying with men, stuff like that, so none of it would surprise me. So I could arm myself.
The Bible is one thing