What I Don't Know Can't Hurt You

Chapter Twelve

The next morning was the longest few hours of my life. I hated the fact that my friends thought Ryan hated them. I also hated the fact that Ryan made them think he hated them. I had another test, which I probably did not do well on. I had had some very unfortunately timed tests so far this year.

When the lunch bell rang, I went up to Ryan's locker.

"Hey," I said quietly.

"Hey."

"Listen, could you just wait here for a couple minutes? I need to go talk to my friends, and then I'm gonna come get you so you can apologize."

Ryan nodded, and I headed towards the cafeteria.

"Hey!" Avery greeted me, arriving at the same time as me. "What's your important news?"

"Right! I'll tell you in a second, but I just have to get someone else to help me tell you."

"I'll bet 10 bucks that he's dating someone!" Leo exclaimed, pulling his wallet out of his backpack.

"No way! You're on!" Taryn replied.

I smiled and walked away.

When I came back with Ryan, everyone was a bit confused.

"Damn it," muttered Leo, sliding a 10 dollar bill to Taryn.

"Wait, wait!" I interrupted. "Taryn, you owe Leo ten dollars."

"Oh, oka - wait. What?"

"What's wrong?" asked Avery, who, like always, was drawing and hadn't been paying attention.

"Taryn owes me ten bucks?!"

"What's wrong with that?" Avery paused. "Wait."

I laughed.

"Are you fucking serious?!" they yelled.

"Oh my gosh," Taryn squeaked.

"Dude," said Leo, now in shock.

Ryan smiled.

"Well I'm guessing you figured it out," he said, "and I just want you guys to know that I am so sorry about how I treated you. Leo, you are one of the coolest guys I've ever met. Taryn, you are so nice and I love your hair. And Avery, you're really good at drawing, and I wanted to ask what your pronouns are today?"

"They/them," they said, smiling.

Just then, one of Ryan's "friends" came by, ruining the nice moment.

"Hey, Ryan, why are you always talking to these freaks? Come sit with us!"

"Oh, hey, Colton," Ryan said quickly.

"See ya later, faggots," Colton said.

"I'm straight," Leo and Taryn said in unison.

"Whatever," Colton replied. "Come on, Ryan."

"I am so sorry," Ryan whispered, and walked away.

My friends all stared at me.

"So he's - ?" Leo said, confused.

"Gay? Yeah," I answered.

"I knew it!" exclaimed Taryn. "Oh, Leo, here's your ten dollars."

"You guys are - ?" Avery stammered.

"Dating? Yes."

"I can't believe you got a boyfriend before me," joked Taryn.

"Yeah, but you can't tell anyone. His family is super homophobic and they'd probably kick him out of his house if they found out, and I don't want there to be any chance of that happening. Like, don't even tell your family."

"Why not?" asked Avery. "I mean, I'm not going to, but why not?"

"Have you ever heard of Six Degrees of Separation?"

They shook their head.

"Okay, say you tell your mom. And then she runs into someone else's mom at the store and says 'Oh, did you hear? Quinn Coleman and Ryan Patterson are dating' and then that person's mom knows my mom or Ryan's mom, and she tells them about it, and then I get in trouble or Ryan gets kicked out. If you tell someone in this city, there's a really high chance that 6 people or less will find out before one of our parents does."

"Oh, wow! I definitely won't tell anyone," Avery said.

I felt like a cheerleader, telling my friends about my new football-playing boyfriend at lunch. Leo actually passed me a note in class, asking if he was going to be invited to the wedding. I told him he could be the flower boy.

After school, I was heading towards the buses with my friends, when Ryan came up to me.

"Hey, Quinn, can I talk to you?" he asked.

"Sure," I replied.

Avery giggled and Leo made a heart with his hands. Ryan pulled me up against the side of the school.

"What's up?"

"Not much," he said. "I just wanted to say thanks for being so nice to me. I really thought you'd be angrier."

"Oh, you're welcome!"

"Um, I also wanted to do this."

He took my face in his hands and kissed me. His lips were soft, but the kiss itself was rougher than kissing a girl.

It was nice.

He pulled away, looking nervous.

The second time, it was me who leaned in.