Dean Atta’s second YA verse novel follows Mack, a hopeless romantic, as he tries to decide between two boyfriends, Karim, his long-distance boyfriend or Findlay, who he has connected with in Scotland. In this extract Mack gets ready to leave Karim behind to return to Glasgow.

Extract from Only on the Weekends
By Dean Atta
Published by Hodder Children’s Books

MAY

SUNDAY MORNING

‘Mayday! Mayday!

Euston, we have a problem!’

I say, to fill the silence.

‘That’s funny,’ says K.

Maybe

But he doesn’t laugh.

Dad and Gem chat to Maz and Uncle O,

To give us some privacy.

The station concourse is full of people

Heading wherever they’re heading:

Watford Junction.

Birmingham New Street.

Manchester Piccadilly.

Glasgow Central, like us.

‘I know it’s meant to be Houston, like Whitney.

But it feels like I’m going into space today,’ I say.

K groans, ‘I got the joke, Cupcake.

You want me to kiss you, don’t you?

Here in front of all these strangers

And your dad and Gem and Maz and Uncle O.’

I think:

That would be nice

But I don’t expect it.

I say:

‘I don’t want that,

If it’s not what you want?’

‘I want to but I can’t.’

‘That’s okay.’ I mean it.

K leans in toward me.

I’m so confused.

I back away.

K stumbles forward,

Then rights himself,

Arms spread.

He looks like he’s been fouled in a basketball game

And looks round for the referee.

‘What the fuck?’ K loud-whispers.

‘I don’t understand you.

You said you couldn’t.’

‘I thought I couldn’t.

But when you said it was okay,

I felt like maybe I could.’

‘Then tell me

You’ve changed your mind.’

‘Doesn’t leaning in for a kiss tell you that?’

‘I’m sorry,’ I say,

Even though I don’t think I should be sorry.

‘I’m sorry, too,’ says K.

‘Can I kiss you now?’

‘You may,’ I say.

Relief, nerves, and excitement

Fill the air between us like a mist.

K reaches through it to grips my shoulders.

He leans in with an expectant smile.

As our lips touch,

We have liftoff!

I imagine

An LGBTQ Mission Control:

They

Appear

Before my eyes.

A dozen names

We learned in school

And a dozen more

I’d searched for: Alan Turing,

Billy Porter, Danez Smith,

Derek Jarman, Elton John,

Francis Lee, Frank Ocean,

Harvey Milk, Ian McKellen,

James Baldwin, Janelle Monáe,

John Waters, Josephine Baker,

Lady Gaga, Lady Phyll,

Laverne Cox, Lil Nas X,

Marsha P. Johnson, Oscar Wilde,

Peter Tatchell, RuPaul,

Russell T Davies, Sue Sanders,

Whitney Houston.

Like rocket fuel,

They lift us up and away!

I can hear them all

Cheering for us,

Proud of our achievement,

As if it were theirs.

Because it is theirs.

We didn’t get here on our own.

Only on the Weekends by Dean Atta is published by Hodder Children’s Books, priced £8.99.