Red, White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston Page 0,71
bigotry comes from?”
“Look, man, I’m just saying.”
“You know what?” Alex says. “You think y’all are off the hook for institutional bigotry because you come from a blue state. Not every white supremacist is a meth-head in Bumfuck, Mississippi—there are plenty of them at Duke or UPenn on Daddy’s money.”
WASPy Hunter looks startled but not convinced. “None of that changes that red states have been red forever,” he says, laughing, like it’s something to joke about, “and none of those populations seem to care enough about what’s good for them to vote.”
“Maybe those populations might be more motivated to vote if we made an actual effort to campaign to them and showed them that we care, and how our platform is designed to help them, not leave them behind,” Alex says hotly. “Imagine if nobody who claims to have your interests at heart ever came to your state and tried to talk to you, man. Or if you were a felon, or—fucking voter ID laws, people who can’t access polls, who can’t leave work to get to one?”
“Yeah, I mean, it’d be great if we could magically mobilize every eligible marginalized voter in red states, but political campaigns have a finite amount of time and resources, and we have to prioritize based on projections,” WASPy Hunter says, as if Alex, the First Son of the United States, is unfamiliar with how campaigns work. “There just aren’t the same number of bigots in blue states. If they don’t want to be left behind, maybe people in red states should do something about it.”
And Alex has, quite frankly, had it.
“Did you forget that you’re working on the campaign of someone Texas fucking created?” he says, and his voice has officially risen to the point where staffers in the neighboring cubicles are staring, but he doesn’t care. “Why don’t we talk about how there’s a chapter of the Klan in every state? You think there aren’t racists and homophobes growing up in Vermont? Man, I appreciate that you’re doing the work here, but you’re not special. You don’t get to sit up here and pretend like it’s someone else’s problem. None of us do.”
He takes his bag and his binder and storms out.
The minute he’s outside the building, he pulls out his phone on impulse, opens up Google. There are test dates this month. He knows there are.
LSAT washington dc area test center, he types.
3 Geniuses and Alex
June 23, 2020, 12:34 PM
juniper
BUG
Not my name, not anyone’s name, stop
leading member of korean pop band bts kim nam-june
BUG
I’m blocking your number
HRH Prince Dickhead
Alex, please don’t tell me Pez has indoctrinated you with K-pop.
well you let nora get you into drag race so
irl chaos demon
[latrice royale eat it.gif]
BUG
What did you want Alex????
where’s my speech for milwaukee? i know you took it
HRH Prince Dickhead
Must you have this conversation in the group chat?
BUG
Part of it needed to be rewritten!!! I put it back with edits in the outside pocket of your messenger bag
davis is gonna kill you if you keep doing this
BUG
Davis saw how well my tweaks to the talking points went over on Seth Meyers last week so he knows better
why is there a rock in here too
BUG
That is a clear quartz crystal for clarity and good vibes do not me. We need all the help we can get right now
stop putting SPELLS on my STUFF
irl chaos demon
BURN THE WITCH
irl chaos demon
hey what do we think of this #look for the college voter thing tomorrow
irl chaos demon
[Attached Image]
irl chaos demon
i’m going for, like, depressed lesbian poet who met a hot yoga instructor at a speakeasy who got her super into meditation and pottery, and now she’s starting a new life as a high-powered businesswoman selling her own line of hand-thrown fruit bowls
…
HRH Prince Dickhead
Bitch, you took me there.
alskdjfadslfjad
NORA YOU BROKE HIM
irl chaos demon
lmaoooooo
* * *
The invitation comes certified airmail straight from Buckingham Palace. Gilded edges, spindly calligraphy: THE CHAIRMAN AND COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT OF THE CHAMPIONSHIPS REQUEST THE PLEASURE OF THE COMPANY OF ALEXANDER CLAREMONT-DIAZ IN THE ROYAL BOX ON THE 6TH OF JULY, 2020.
Alex takes a picture and texts it to Henry.
1. tf is this? aren’t there poor people in your country?
2. i’ve already been in the royal box
Henry sends back, You are a delinquent and a plague, and then, Please come?
And here Alex is, spending his one day off from the campaign at Wimbledon, only to get his body next to Henry’s again.
“So, as I’ve warned you,” Henry says as they approach the doors to