Pride

Chapter 15

"I like this shirt" Scooter mumbled as they stared down at the shirt they had stolen from Bay. It was white and covered in a collage of black spaceships, stars, planets, and aliens. It was the type of shirt they often found themselves taking home from a store... Scooter always liked shirts with collages of random things or earrings with cute animals on them. They always loved clothing that was just random enough to stand out but modern enough to blend in.

Bay had a very different style. He liked shirts with stripes and light jeans with patches sewn into them or characters painted on them. He liked wearing hooped earrings or gold jewelry since it complimented him so well. But there were a few clothing options both Bay and Scooter could agree on, like the shirt Scooter had just stollen.

"Me too" Bay chuckled. He smiled to himself as he looked over at the scrawny teen beside him. Scooter was sitting criss-cross on Bay's bed, engulfed in one of his t-shirts and happily tracing over the different stars and planets on the shirt. They were completely oblivious to Bay not so subtly checking them out which only made the whole thing more entertaining. "Serious question"

"Serious answer" Scooter hummed in response making a small smile appear on Bay's face.

"You really don't know when you're going back?" Bay carefully asked. He wasn't sure how he felt about the idea of them leaving. Things had just begun and Bay had already overcome a huge step that he had avoided in his past by allowing his parents to meet them... He had hated every moment of it, but at least he had gotten past it.

He knew his parents didn't really care for Scooter, as expected. Maybe he had always thought that if he found someone above extraordinary they would meet his parent's standards and they'd actually give Bay and whoever that was an ounce of attention. Now Bay realized that that person simply didn't exist. Nobody was good enough for Bay's parents, especially if Scooter wasn't. He'd just have to learn to be okay with that and accept that if Scooter was enough for him, it didn't matter what his parents thought.

"Nope" Scooter shrugged. "Could be a week, could be never"

"If they invited you back home tomorrow... Would you go?" Bay asked. Scooter was quiet for a few long moments after that. They weren't sure of the answer... They missed their friends, they missed the acceptance and the love they had there. But they also really liked the place they had found in Asper Hollows.

"I don't know" Scooter sighed. "Maryland has its ups... People are more accepting of me there and all of my friends are back home. But I also really like how quiet it is here and I like being with you, Arcadia, Zara, and May"

"Would you miss me?" Bay asked, receiving a dumbfounded look from Scooter.

"Obviously... But I'd probably ask you to come with me if I did leave... Or I'd finish school here... I'm not really sure what I'd do but I don't have to worry about it now" Scooter shrugged. And that was the truth... They were a year younger than Bay and still had another year of school left. Arcadia and Bay would graduate and although Zara was also a Junior, they weren't sure they'd be able to survive school with just her. If Asper Hollows somehow got better, they wouldn't hesitate to stay another year if it meant they could stay with Bay.

"You'd want me to go with you?" Bay chuckled.

"Yeah, it would be so cool" Scooter grinned as they laid back onto Bay's lap. "I could take you to pride, introduce you to all of my friends, work at my dad's sweet shop with you... There's this really cool mural on the back of one of my favorite shops I think you'd like"

"I used to go to Pride in Portland sometimes... I went with this girl... Lindsey. She ended up moving a few years back but she was one of the first openly trans people I ever met" Bay chuckled.