Free Another Kind of Cowboy by Susan Juby

that he could keep them under wraps until he was out of high school. Alex didn’t exactly deny who he was. He just tried to ignore it in the hopes that it might die of oxygen deprivation.
    The few openly gay guys he’d met, mostly his aunt’s friends, seemed to him to belong more to the girl world, the world of hair and clothes and makeup. Alex’s heart was in the world of men—mighty steeds and fireman hats—the land of cowboys. That didn’t mean, however, that he wanted to be a cowboy. What Alex wanted, more than anything, was to be like everybody else.
    He wasn’t certain what to make of his new coaches, two men who apparently lived together. His solution, as usual, was not to think about it.
    Ever since he was little, his interest in things male had been, well, exclusive, but he still told himself that he might develop a desire for or interest in girls. When he was being honest with himself he knew that since “it” was as deep in him as his heart, he wouldn’t.
    Everyone seemed to understand the situation, at least on some level. Everyone, that is, except Cleo O’Shea, who was still the only other student at Limestone Farm. Cleo made him nervous, so he was constantly flustered around her. For some reason, she interpreted this as some kind of pathetic attempt at flirtation on his part.
    At first Alex had been intrigued by Cleo. She was the first truly wealthy person he’d ever met. He’d always assumed that someone who’d grown up wealthy would be cultured and sophisticated. Instead Cleo was profoundly shallow and spoiled in a way he’d never seen outside of television. She not only looked thirteen, she acted it.
    Cleo O’Shea was quickly becoming the one thing he didn’t like about dressage lessons. She was always talking to him—talking at him. Telling him private things about herself. She came early and watched his lessons and followed him around as he worked, talking the entire time. Talking, talking, talking. But never, ever working. She talked more than both his sisters and his aunt put together, and incredibly, she worked even less.
    That voice of hers was like a squeaky windshield wiper.
    â€œAre you hanging out with anyone special, Alex?”
    He’d evaded her questions, but later the same day as his aunt caught him changing by the side of the road Cleo tried a new tactic.
    As Alex switched Turnip’s tack back from English to Western for the ride home after his lesson, Cleo came and stood in the doorway of the barn.
    â€œOh, hi, Alex. You heading out now?”
    He muttered something unintelligible as he tightened the girth. Cleo fidgeted, shifting her weight from foot to foot, and picked at her riding gloves.
    â€œMrs. Mudd isn’t here yet to drive me back to school. So I’m just waiting around. Anyway, I was thinking maybe we could hang out this weekend.”
    Was this lunatic female asking him out?
    â€œMaybe we could go to a movie or something,” she continued.
    Excuses flapped through his mind. Sick…aunt visiting…terminally ill…don’t date…don’t date girls…
    It was time to bring out the big guns. He should have done it sooner. Time to unleash his Secret Imaginary Girlfriend, also known as the Certain Special Someone.
    â€œWell, I might be seeing my, uh, girlfriend. Theone I’m, you know, dating.”
    Alex used a white-haired girl he’d met at Pentecostal Bible camp as the model for his Secret Imaginary Girlfriend. All he remembered about her is that she’d smelled of wet bathing suit and of the LePage’s glue she consumed in large quantities, and he’d envied her terribly because at home she had an Appaloosa named Spot.
    â€œYou have a girlfriend ?” asked Cleo.
    He nodded quickly. “Yeah. She’s got an Appaloosa. Its name is Spot. You know, because it’s an Appaloosa.”
    No need to mention that he hadn’t seen or spoken