COMING OUT IS HARD!

Chapter 3

Brendan heard the bell, his year nine woodwork teacher stood up and told them they were excused and free to leave. Brendan had a weird sensation overtake him making him stop for a second (he and Ariel both had this 'friend sense' with each other. When one of them was sad the other knew where they were so that they could comfort them.). He left where he stood, paced his walk to get to his locker and paced back to the library (that's where the 'friend sense' came in handy.)

He went up to the same lady at the library desk as Ariel did (coincidently) and asked,

"Hey, excuse me Ms. do you know where my friend is? Her name's Ariel."

He started to look around just in case she didn't hear him, she did hear him and turned around, she was more than happy to help. The librarian pointed to the far-left corner of the building, Brendan said his thanks and byes to the librarians and went for a search, but he didn't have to look far.

Ariel crying on the stool looks up at Brendan the slightest, wet new tears rolling down and covering her face and older tears having marks on her face the rim of the tears looking like salt, eyes puffy and red and her posture was getting worse. Brendan rushes over and trying to comfort her.

"Ariel look at me and tell me what happened to you, and don't you say, 'Oh it's nothing don't worry' because you look like a mess, so tell me now!" Brendan instructed looking firm and very worried

Ariel's face softened but the words wouldn't come out, they all kept on piling up in her throat instead of an emotional speech it was an overhaul of words turning into stutters then nonsense words.

Ariel whispered to Brendan and said "I...I...I like a girl!"

Knowing the day her brother walked out on her family (they've been friends since Brendan was 5) and knowing her worry about her dad yelling and telling her off, Brendan, with all his heart, hugged Ariel. She cried into his shoulder for a quarter of recess.

***

The library door starts to creak, and everyone rises from their seats and claps, Ariel and Brendan both move in the same manner but very rushed and unplanned, Ariel backs away sits on the stool again covers her face and cries, Brendan turns his head the other way and there she was sitting and crying into her arms and slouched over until they hit the kneecaps again.

Brendan starts to put two and two together and constructs his theory about everything that is going on.

"You like... the new girl... don't you." He asks looking at Ariel softly.

She looks up and cries more raw tears, but her words tumble out making it easier to talk and breathe.

"Y...y...yes.," She stutters "I do, but how do you know?"

He looks at her and smirks answering.

"I just put two and two together," he leans back and lowers his head "But if I were to be completely honest, I just got the hint then."

She begins to giggle about the reasoning which fires off Brendan to laugh after a good minute the both of them become a roar of laughs and giggles. Quite obviously the head librarian was not impressed and told them to "Shhhhhh." The classic stereotypical librarian.