Ralph - Diary of a Gay Teen

Chris chose a small backstreet pub that other people don’t go to. There was a woman behind the bar, and just the two of us. My first time in a real pub. I didn’t know what to have. Chris suggested a lager and lime. We both had one. It came in tall glasses with stems and looked beautiful. I’d never had a more important drink.

We didn’t talk much. We were just being together. I looked into the elegant glass in front of me. A multitude of bubbles was rising from somewhere near the bottom. In that glass I seemed to see a whole world, and among the bubbles something like infinity. I was seeing inside myself and seeing something I hadn’t known was there. That was strange, because it was so big, this thing. Bigger than I was.

 Sex and sexuality, love and friendship are the mysteries that 16-year-old Ralph (Rafe) McKean finds himself stumblingly exploring - sometimes deliberately, sometimes by accident - as he embarks on the adventure of keeping a diary. The emergence from the currents and whirlpools of boarding-school life of a triangular relationship - the unholy trinity of Ralph, Chris and Steve - is the starting point for a voyage of discovery that will continue into adult life.

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