Fall For You ~Muke Clemmings~

Chapter 15

It was lunch the next day at school and nothing out of the ordinary had happened that day, until now. The principal was on the stage. "I expect you to give him your full attention during his brief speech. Michael." He calls.

Confused I keep my eyes glued on the stage, and away from my picked apart burger. Michael, with a new hair color from last night, gets on the stage. His hair was now a light purple, and it looked nice on him.

He looks at me and smiles.

"I came to a realisation last night." He starts.

"I came to the realisation that popularity doesn't matter. That the way people see you does not matter, not here. High school is conforming to what can be counted as the 'norm'. I have done that. Now, I am prepared for the bullying that follows this."

"I am prepared for what people will say to me, and I am prepared to lose all the people I have thought of as my friends for years. I hope I at least have three at the end of this speech. I am completely prepared to have people hate me and for them to judge me."

"Weeks ago, I made a bet. A bet I both regret, and that I am proud of. I was bet money I could or could not get Luke Hemmings to date me. Of course, I thought it'd be easy. I thought I would spend a couple days pretending to care about him then win the bet. Then he knew that it probably would be a joke. I bullied him daily. Most of you probably see the bruises on his face, and yes, those are from me."

"But... Through it all I have realised that I like him. He may be gay, he may have anxiety and a bit of depression, and I know he is shy. My friends and I have been ruthless with our hatred for homosexuals. Then I began to have feelings for Luke I never thought I should have. Something I have never felt before. Romantic feelings. I kissed him many times willingly. I enjoyed it as well. Call me a fag, make fun of me. But I am going to stand by this."

"Most of you will look back on this one day and feel guilty for abandoning people for their sexuality. Luke Hemmings is a good person. A far better person than most of you, and a better person than I am. He is nice, and forgiving. I have beat him and bullied him for a while because of my ego being brought down a peg in a class. For him correcting me. Then everyone abandoned him when I started bullying him, in the fear of being bullied yourselves. My friends and I knew he was gay, or at least we assumed a lot about him. We called him a faggot, we called him a homo, and we called him gay boy. We took his things, and we got violent with him."

"And I regret it. I regret how rude I was to him. But I do not regret one of those actions, taking that bet. I would have never met Luke in the way I did, and I would have continued bullying him. I would have never come to terms with the person I am. I have never liked girls, but I have been conformed to think I should. But I like Luke. If you hate me I'm okay with that. Thank you." He finishes.

I didn't know what to feel as he jumps off the stage and walks over to me. Without hesitation he bends down and kisses me on the lips. In front of everybody. "Fags!" Somebody yells.

But Michael just flips the random person off. He pulls away and kisses my forehead gently. "I want to be with you. I hope that was proof enough." He whispers.

I lightly grab his hand as he takes a seat next to me. Everybody was silent. The principal was standing off to the side, shocked. I lean my head on his shoulder, smiling. I see Calum and Ashton come into view. I was expecting something different from what they did, they just sat down. "We accept you... Michael." Calum forces out.

"Yeah I was thinking... Luke you're invited too. Calum and I wanted to go bowling then back to my place tonight. If you both would like to come." Ashton says awkwardly.

"Really?" I ask them, surprised at the sudden acceptance. Not just of homosexuals, of me as well.

"Michael is our friend. He may be gay, but we'd be horrible people to hate him for it. The three of us have been friends since we were kids." Ashton responds.

"Thank you guys." Michael says. Michael gets up once again from the table and gets on the stage and stands in front of the microphone once again.

"Also, Luke is my boyfriend." Michael says and gets off the stage once more.

The chatting picks up throughout the cafeteria, not bothering with us anymore. "We're official and public?" I ask Michael as he sits down.

"Yes, we are." He replies, kissing my cheek.