Rebel Hearts is sure to be your new queer fave
Riley calls it the TICK TICK before the BOOM, but for me, it feels more like a wave that’s building and all I can do is stand there and wait for it hit me. Today, I feel it as soon as Riley and I get off the bus, this buzz in the distance punctuated by the steady beat of Sasha’s drum that we walk in time with.
As we approach The Dorchester, I see the Out of Time crew. They’re outnumbered by a wall of police officers on the other side of the road guarding the entrance to the hotel, which is overkill for thirty teenagers sitting cross-legged on the pavement holding a sign. I mean, most of them have such chronic anxiety that they’re unlikely to make direct eye contact with you, let alone storm a hotel, but whatever.
Roll out the tanks, I guess.
Tab is on Live as she paces back and forth with a megaphone leading a call of, ‘Earth before . . .’ that everyone to responds with, ‘Profit!’ They chant it over and over, each pause filled by Sasha’s drum as people stop to take photos. As soon as they do, Tab approaches them why we’re there and while most recoil (rightly so given they’ve just been charged at by someone with a megaphone) some lean in and listen.
When everyone sees Riley and I they cheer and Sasha bangs her drum with renewed purpose. With that, the call and response gets louder, which is enough to make the row of police officers look across the road at us. As soon as they see me, it prompts a domino line of turned heads as they step forward just enough to let me know they’re there, but not enough to discourage me from doing something that will give them an excuse to close the distance between us.
I just smile sweetly, making sure to wave at them as Tab laughs, then lowers the megaphone.
‘Here she is, guys,’ she announces on Live, ‘our fearless leader!’
Tab knows I hate it when she calls me that, but before I can object, she slings her arm around my waist and pulls me into her so my face appears on the screen as well. Given that we haven’t spoken for the last two weeks, I can’t help but tense at the unexpected contact, her warm cheek pressing into mine. My head swims as I’m forced to remember the smell of her, that lavender and geranium shampoo I’ve used so many times and the perfume I bought her for her birthday.
With that, any self-control I thought I had immediately abandons me as she smiles. I was worried that it would be weird seeing her again, but Tab’s so normal– so brazenly, painfully normal – that when I see my smile slip on the screen, I catch myself and beam brightly before she – or anyone else– notices.
Hey, guys!’ I salute everyone on Live with two fingers. ‘Who’s ready to raise hell?’
Tab squeezes her eyes shut, throws her head back and screams, ‘Yes!’
It’s echoed by the Out of Time crew sitting at our feet as Riley jumps in behind Tab and I and sticks his tongue out, then points at the screen and says, ‘Let’s fucking go!’
There’s a flurry of cheers as I crouch down on the pavement.
Riley and Tab do the same – him to my left, her to my right – her phone on me now as I check in with the others.
‘Have they gone in?’
Tab nods. ‘Twenty minutes ago.’
I’m pissed I missed it but at least the others were here.
‘Have the police said anything?’
All at once, their gaze flicks over my shoulder to the wall of officers on the other side of the road.
When they look back at me, everyone shakes their heads.
‘So they haven’t put up any notices or given anyone a leaflet or anything?’ I ask.
Tab shakes her head this time. ‘No, nothing.’
‘Good.’ I nod. ‘OK let’s go.’ I clap my hands and they cheer again. ‘You know the drill, guys, stay on the pavement. Make sure everyone can get past. If they can’t or if we go into the road, they’ll bust us for Obstruction of the Highway. Remember, keep it peaceful. We can’t do anything that can be construed as,’ I count off each one on my fingers, ‘disorder, damage, disruption, impact or intimidation.’
‘What about Sash’s drum? someone asks.
‘I doubt anyone paying a grand a night to stay here is going to be thrilled, but for the police to intervene it has to be significant and prolonged,’ I use air quotes. ‘We’ll only be here for a couple more hours, so they’ll leave us alone if we stay across the road, say our bit and go. Which is fine. We’re not here to confront anyone, are we?’
Everyone nods.
‘We’re just making Jeremy Casey aware that we know that he’s in there,’ I thumb over my shoulder, ‘schmoozing BP execs and helping them make even more money, and that’s not OK. It’s not OK that our Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is sucking up to a company directly responsible for the climate crisis while we’re out here in hoodies because it’s the warmest February on record.’
Everyone claps and Tab turns her phone to say, ‘Fuck yeah!’
‘So when Casey and those execs walk out later, let’s make sure they know that we’re not going to let them get away with it.’
‘Earth before . . .’ Tab shouts.
Everyone responds with, ‘Profit!’
When Sasha starts banging her drum again, Tab gestures at Riley and I to get up, then gives someone her phone and tells them to keep going.
As soon as they start chanting, she tugs us away. ‘Ren, don’t look now but the BBC are here.’
She grins, but I frown. ‘Why? We’re protesting a lunch.’
Tab and Riley raise their eyebrows at each other as I glance across the road.
‘I don’t like this, guys. Maybe we should call it a day.’
‘You’re kidding?’ Tab says, appalled. ‘We want the BBC here, Ren.’
‘But there’s nothing to film. We’re not climbing a crane, or anything.’
‘They don’t know that.’ She holds the megaphone out to me.
‘So now’s the time to say something, Ren. Before they realise that this isn’t worth their time and leave.’
I look around to discover that as well as the BBC News crew, there are half a dozen photographers in the crowd gathering in Hyde Park behind us. When I spot a cluster of people in Out of Time hoodies, I wave them over then stop to take photos before Riley helps them over the low fence so they can join us. But as the crowd gets bigger, it’s clear that most of them have no idea who we are. I guess they heard us chanting and are now looking between us and the police across the road, phones poised for whatever is about to happen, which is exactly what we want. For people to stop. To ask questions. To google Out of Time and tag us on their social media.
So I don’t know why I suddenly feel so uneasy.
‘Come on, Ren,’ Tab says, pupils swelling. ‘Give them something worth filming.’
Rebel Hearts by Tanya Byrne, out 17 July 2025, £9.99, Hodder Children’s Books
DIVA magazine celebrates 31 years in print in 2025. If you like what we do, then get behind LGBTQIA+ media and keep us going for another generation. Your support is invaluable.
✨linkin.bio/ig-divamagazine ✨