Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks

Bryson Wills stays home from school today because his mother “figured it was a good idea to let things cool off” (79). Bryson was in a fight the day before and his face is in pain from “the black eye, the busted lip, the swollen jaw, the scrapes” (79). His mother and father say goodbye to him for the day and tell him that they love him. His mother tells him “that he shouldn’t play video games all day” (79).

Later, Bryson eats breakfast and prepares to play video games, despite his mother’s warning. He tries not to think about school and his walk home but “the thoughts were there like the smell of coffee that seemed to linger in the house long after it had been brewed” (80). He replays the scene in his mind and recalls how “he’d seen the clips all over social media the night before” (80). At his mother’s request, he deleted the apps completely from his phone. Bryson begins to play Call of Duty to escape.

At school, Ty Carson feels paranoid about his classmates “looking away whenever he’d catch their eyes. Or cutting conversations whenever he walked by, like he was some kind of human mute button” (81). The paranoia affects Ty and he wishes he could “turn himself into a speck. Into a black streak swiped across the floor from a sneaker sole” (82). Ty is confused over the events of yesterday and wonders if what he did was wrong.

Ty is known at the school for being “one of the best gamers around,” and “most people looked at him like a human video game” (82-83). Ty reveals that the second-best gamer at the school is Bryson Wills, whom Ty describes as “a boy whose father made him grow out his hair, and instead of letting him get it braided or cornrowed, convinced him that an Afro was the best way to go. And Bryson owned it” (83). Ty and Bryson often visit each other’s houses to play each other in video games.

Ty’s parents disapprove of Ty’s violent video games, particularly his preferred game, Call of Duty, World War II. Ty’s mother scolds Ty and tells him that “There is no way you can know war, son” (84). Ty disagrees and silently feels like he “knew the anxiety of a kind of war” as he struggles to understand his sexual orientation (85). He reveals how yesterday, the day of Bryson’s fight, “Ty had been kissed. By a boy. Slim” (85) as they fought over water. A witness to this scene spread the rumor throughout the school. Out of fear, Slim changed the story and “told everyone Ty kissed him” (86).

Bryson hears about the rumor from another boy and defends Ty. He asks the other boy, “‘Why you care so much?’” (86). Bryson heads to the cafeteria and sees a crowd of students have joined Ty at a lunch table and “were calling Ty all kinds of names. Names that bite. Names that stick and mark. Names that catch fire and leave a burnt smell in the air” (87). Bryson claims a seat next to Ty and begins to defend him against Slim and the other students. As he defends Ty, he kisses Ty on the cheek to demonstrate the ridiculous nature of the bullying. The rumor, “going from a harmless garter to a venomous python” (89), continues to spread now with Bryson and Ty at the center of it. Bryson ignores the rumors and heads home after school when he notices “that Slim and some of the other boys were following him down Portal Avenue” (90). He does his best to fight them off.

The next day, Ty attempts to navigate the unrelenting gossip as “the python had become a boa, strangling him. Wrapped all around his body, squeezing him, squeezing. Crushing his lungs and heart” (90). Ty learns of Bryson getting jumped the day before by four boys and runs to Bryson’s house, only stopping to grab “a fistful of roses, the thorns needling into his fingers and palm” (91). Taking a break from his video games, Bryson makes himself a sandwich when he hears Ty ring his doorbell. Surprised, Bryson invites a nervous Ty inside.