Hidden Secret

Chapter Five

(Sebastian)

"I'm so freaking stupid!" Sebastian groans into his hands, while Nova sits next to him, patting his back.

"I'm sure you're not. What happened anyways?" She asks.

"So, you know how Daniel, Lucas, and Steve tend to bully Julian? And how I always tag along so that I can see Julian?" He asks quietly.

Nova nods slowly in response, "Yeah?"

Sebastian takes a deep breath, "Well, this time, I kinda fricked up. They did the usual stuff, making transphobic comments, and dead-naming him, but then they began kicking him while he was down, which is like, so not cool. And then they asked me to join in, and-" He buries his face into his arms.

Nova places her hand on his shoulder, gesturing for him to continue.

Sebastian sniffles, "And– I almost did. I almost joined in, I was going up to him to start kicking him, and I only didn't because his friends came and stopped us in time." He chuckles, "I'm pretty sure that one of 'em broke Daniel's nose." He stops laughing, "But now I'm pretty sure I have no chance with Julian. His entire friend group– and probably Julian himself– hates me now. I have literally no chance."

Nova hugs Sebastian on her bed; school is over and now they are over at her house.

Sebastian's sniffling grows louder, and he wraps his arms around Nova's, burying his face into her bicep.

"I'm sure we can find a way– no, we will find a way to get Julian to not hate you. I swear." Nova says, wrapping her free arm around his head in comfort.

Sebastian cries into Nova, while she hugs him on her bed, calming him down.

The best friends were now sitting next to each other, snuggling together while doing their own things– Nova reading, and Sebastian on his phone– content in each other's presence.

"What the heck?" Sebastian mutters.

Nova glances over at him, "What happened?"

He turns his phone towards her, and the screen showcased an Instagram post of a picture of the two of them hugging with the caption:
I ship it!
Nova takes the blondie's phone from him, and begins scrolling through the comments, which were mostly filled with people agreeing, or saying that they should just get together already.

She spaces out, handing Sebastian's phone back to him, before shaking her head.

"That's messed up. Nobody should ship people in real life unless they're officially dating. It's just disrespectful and uncomfortable for the people who are being shipped; which in this case is you and me." She says, before trailing off.

"But..." She starts, and then stops again.

Sebastian raises his eyebrows, "But...?"

Nova sighs, "But, they seem really happy about the idea of us dating. And, I don't know, maybe we could like, fake date to make everyone happy?"

Sebastian shakes his head, "Nope. Not happening. We are not pretending to date just to make others happy."

She tries to reason with him, "Hear me out though, that's not all. It would also help to keep our secrets hidden. Because who would expect a lesbian girl and a gay guy to date each other?"

He opens his mouth to protest, before leaning back onto the headboard, "Fine. But not to make others happy. Just for us not to get outed like the freaks."

Nova leans back next to Sebastian, "We should probably refer to the freaks as something else when we're not at school. It seems kind of rude."

He nods, "Yeah sure, what do you have in mind?"

"Hmm, how about 'Fellow Queers'?" She suggests.

He nods, "Sounds alright. I can roll with that."

"Now, we need to make a plan." Nova says, jumping up from her bed.

"A plan for what?" Sebastian questions, sitting back up.

"A plan to make our Fellow Queers not hate us, and possibly get Naomi and Julian to like us, while not getting outed." She says, a grin on her face.