A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) Navigating through an intolerant world and their own insecurities, three teenage boys find each other and the confidence to come out of the closet. Three teenage boys, coming of age and out of the closet. Jason Carrillo is a jock with a steady girlfriend, but he can't stop dreaming about sex...with other guys. Kyle Meeks doesn't look gay, but he is. And he hopes he never has to tell anyone—especially his parents. Nelson Glassman is "out" to the entire world, but he can't tell the boy he loves that he wants to be more than just friends... In a revealing debut novel that percolates with passion and wit, Alex Sanchez follows these very different high-school seniors as their struggles with sexuality and intolerance draw them into a triangle of love, betrayal, and ultimately, friendship. Nancy Garden author of Annie on My Mind and Good Moon Rising There are still woefully few books for young adults that explore in depth the coming-out process of young gay men. Alex Sanchez touches on nearly all the issues involved, taking his readers on a journey through the world of three gay teenagers as they struggle with virginity, sex, body image, denial, support groups, homophobia, activism, gay bashing, parental and peer reactions, Internet predators, HIV -- and love. Patricia Nell Warren author of The Front Runner Rainbow Boys may do for high-schoolers what Heather Has Two Mommies did for grade-schoolers -- inspire acceptance of gayness in both straight students and about-to-come-out students. James Howe author of The Watcher An important, groundbreaking book, Rainbow Boys takes an honest look at gay teen life today. The characters are enormously appealing and the situations as contemporary as the evening news. This is a book that could change thinking -- and could very well change lives. Alex Sanchez spent almost fifteen years working with youth. He is the author of the teen novels Boyfriends with Girlfriends , Bait , The God Box , Getting It , Rainbow Boys , Rainbow High , and Rainbow Road , as well as the Lambda Award–winning middle grade novel So Hard to Say . Lambda Literary honored Alex with a Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists’ Prize. He lives in Thailand and Hollywood, Florida. Visit him at AlexSanchez.com. Rainbow Boys By Alex Sanchez Simon Pulse Copyright ©2003 Alex Sanchez All right reserved. ISBN: 0689857705 Chapter One Jason Carrillo walked around the block a third time, working up his courage to go into the brownstone. When he finally stepped off the curb to cross the street, a car swerved past him, blaring its horn. Jason leapt back and caught his breath. Shit. All he needed was to get hit and end up in the emergency room. His parents would discover he'd lied about going to the park to shoot baskets. He shielded his eyes from the warm afternoon sun and watched a group of teenagers enter the building. He glanced at his watch. If he walked in late, maybe nobody would notice him. Then again, everyone might notice him. Maybe he shouldn't go in at all. He'd read about the group for teens in his school newspaper the previous spring. He'd torn out the phone number and carried it in his wallet for weeks. Every so often he would unfold it, stare at the numbers, then fold it up again -- until one evening, when his parents and sister were out and he was home alone, he uncreased the scrap of paper and dialed the number. A man answered: "Rainbow Youth Hot Line." Jason slammed the receiver back into its cradle and jumped up. He couldn't believe he was actually going through with this. After a while, his breathing slowed and he called again. This time he stayed on the phone. The voice on the other end of the line was friendly and warm, not at all what he expected. "Are you gay?" Jason asked, just to be sure. The man laughed. "Of course." Jason never imagined that someone could be gay and laugh about it. He asked questions for more than an hour and phoned the hot line three more times during the summer, speaking with different men and women. Each of them invited him to a Saturday meeting. No way, he thought. He wasn't about to sit in a room full of queers. He pictured them all looking like the school fag, Nelson Glassman -- or Nelly, as everyone called him. Even though a lot of people liked him, Jason couldn't stand the freak -- his million earrings, his snapping fingers, his weird haircuts. Why didn't he just announce he was a homo over the school loudspeaker? No, Jason was not like Nelson. That was for sure. He had a girlfriend. They'd gone out for two years, since they were sophomores. He loved Debra. He'd given her a ring. They had sex. How could he possibly be gay? He remembered the first night he borrowed his best friend Corey's van and he and Debra drove to the secluded lane by the golf course. A little shy at first, they awkwardly clambered in back and lay side by side. The swe