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FINNEY SLUMPED INTO HIS SEAT!
The teacher rambled on about the importance of their last lab before they spent the rest of their time preparing for AP testing.
"You want a piece?" Chase offered the pack of gum to Cherry.
The girl grinned. "I love you. Yes, please."
Chase slid the pack over. The girl pulled out a stick, and Vivienne snatched one up, too, before everyone separated to go off their stations.
Finney set the supplies down on the counter.
"You know," Cherry began. "You could probably take lessons from Chase. He used to get bullied a lot."
Finney eyed the sociable guy across the room, who seemed like he'd never had anxiety a day in his life. It was so easy for him to fit in with his peers, he didn't understand how he could've been picked on.
"Why?" He questioned like he wasn't able to wrap his head around the idea.
"He came out." She informed, any entertained tone leaving her voice.
"That's fucked up. So why does he hang out with them?"
"I guess to not get bullied. He's on the same team as them for every sport he plays. Maybe it's easier for him to live a life that isn't true to him than be miserable."
Finney nodded at the depths of her words. He wasn't eager to start the VictimOlympics, but being bullied for something you couldn't ever change sounded a whole lot worse than being bullied for being a loser.
He was also pretty sure that Chase was miserable either way.
"Aren't you...?" Finney trailed off, trying to refer to the girl's sexuality.
"Yeah, but I stood up for myself. He never would." She shrugged. "And I'm sure it's way harder to be a gay guy on a football team than it is for me to have had a girlfriend once."
"They both seem hard." Finney said.
The pair sat in a tense silence. They hadn't ever gotten into a matter of discussion that was so deep.
Cherry hadn't ever really acknowledged bullying as a real problem, either, because she wasn't a victim. It seemed she knew a whole lot more than she let on.
Finney focused on the assignment below him but occasionally glanced up to stare at the other girl.
"Just ask for a picture." She grinned, cutting his train of thought off.
"Can I please get your autograph?" Finney asked, sarcasm lacing his tone.
"Of course you can." She said, picking up the pen that sat beside her blank sheet of paper.
