Free The Way You Are by Matthew Lang Page A

everyone stopped staring at me.”
    “That’s not likely,” Leon said. “You’re sort of famous in this club, you know.”
    “I am?” Rook asked as a slim, fair-haired man rose and tapped on his bottle of Smirnoff Ice with a spoon.
    “Don’t look so surprised,” Leon murmured as the room slowly quieted down.
    “Who’s he?” Rook hissed.
    “Seth Francis. He’s the president of the Queer Collective.”
    “Cute,” Rook said.
    “What happened to you being straight?” Leon asked.
    “I can be straight and think a guy’s cute,” Rook said, and Leon would have responded, but Seth was already clearing his throat to speak.
    “Earlier this year, there was an attack on a student in town,” Seth began. “You all know him, and you know that he was injured defending the freedom of sexual expression—or perhaps even the existence of nonheterosexual people. You of course all know of whom I am speaking. So Travis Rookford, we thank you.”
    Here Seth paused until the applause died down.
    “Those of you who have been following the news will also know that the trial hasn’t seen much justice so far, with the perpetrators getting a reprieve. Of course, despite this, we still want to thank you all for coming along. I know we did originally plan to have the proceeds of the night go toward covering Rook’s medical costs—”
    “What?” Rook whispered.
    “It’s a fund-raiser,” Leon whispered back.
    “I got that bit,” Rook hissed. “Whose idea was this?”
    Leon shrugged. “It was sort of a group decision.”
    “—but I have it on good authority that Medicare is covering those, so instead we will be donating the funds to The Pinnacle Foundation in Rook’s name. And I’m happy to announce that we’ve raised just over two thousand dollars, which, to be fair, probably wouldn’t have gone too far in hospital,” Seth said, to the chuckles of more than a few guests.
    Rook glanced between Leon and Warrick, his mouth slack. “You guys did all this for me?”
    Warrick smiled. “Consider it a token of thanks for being awesome.”
    Seth looked poised to continue speaking, but a commotion at the door made everyone turn as a curvaceous woman barged into the room in a stunning dress of electric blue.
    “Put on the news!” the woman shouted, waving a matching blue silk clutch as she stormed through the tables.
    “What?” Seth asked, momentarily nonplussed.
    “The news. Turn on the TV. Now!”
    Shrugging, Seth turned and raised a remote from the lectern, turning on the screen that normally played music videos and sporting matches. It took mere moments to find the channel showing the news and a few more to find the mute button.
    “…appears to have been leaked onto the Internet and shows the mayor of Newcastle’s son and two unidentified men attacking a fourth man. Due to the graphic nature of the video, we can only show you these stills. We understand this video footage has been sent to the Attorney General’s office with a demand that the case be prosecuted as a hate crime, as well as accusations of corruption in the judicial system of regional New South Wales. The state government has pledged a full inquiry. So far, the mayor of Newcastle has been unavailable for comment.”
    As the room erupted into cheering, drowning out the rest of the news story, Leon glanced over at his friend. “I’m sorry…. I—”
    But Rook was grinning, his wide smile more than slightly vindictive and very relieved. “I’m not,” he said. “I could kiss whoever got hold of that footage.”
    “Present and available,” Krissy said, sauntering up to the table, and Leon noticed in passing the streaks in her hair now matched her dress.
    “And how did you get your hands on it exactly?” Leon asked.
    “It’s not my fault the evidence was on a laptop with no encryption and an open Wi-Fi connection.”
    “I thought those hearings were closed?”
    “Wi-Fi, Leon,” Krissy said. “It goes through walls.”
    “And who exactly