I met Frankie within the first week of college at an orientation meeting for the theatre department. All older theatre majors were asked to choose a freshman “buddy” to help out for the first semester. Frank chose me. In fact, he had been staring at me for most of the meeting, making me blush. He wore a bright blue button down shirt that was only buttoned once in the center; the rest of the shirt was open revealing his chest and abs. Hugging his neck was a hemp necklace fastened in the center with a large bead.
Frank is probably cringing right now as he reads about his old fashion sense. If you can even call it that.
So, Frankie chose me as his freshman buddy. He told me that I was beautiful and he played with my hair in the hallways as he showed me around the various rehearsal rooms. He had these light brown eyes that sometimes, in certain light, looked green and a bellowing laugh that reverberated throughout the halls.
Frank was flirtatious and it seemed for the first couple of months of school that he was really interested in me. But I happened to meet Sean in that first week of college too and ultimately ended up in a monogamous relationship very soon. Frankie and I remained friends and eventually he and Sean became friends too. And soon enough Frank came out of the closet. Which apparently everyone else in the world saw coming except for me. I was floored. Everyone else was all, “Of course he’s gay!  We all had bets on when he would come out!”
I’m really not a dense person at all—I’ve been involved in theatre since I was 8 years old and I’ve gotten very used to being around people with varying sexual preferences.  But I think with Frank, I was just too close to the situation at hand. For a year I was keeping my distance thinking that he had an all-encompassing crush on me and that I had broken his heart. In actuality, he was harboring a crush for our English professor, Mr. Hayes.
So, Frank is gay. And to tell me so, he took me to this lovely dinner where he ordered us wine and Italian food and then spilled his guts about what living inside a closet for 20 years was like.  And after that, our friendship grew so much. We’re both living in New York now…and even though I live in Brooklyn and he lives in Harlem, we attempt to see each other more than just a couple times a year. Sometimes we’re not so successful with this.
I took these headshots for Frank a few weeks ago and just looking at them makes my heart melt. He is SO BEAUTIFUL. The perfect subject. He’s showing these to his agent this week, which makes me so incredibly nervous! Hopefully no refunds will be needed.