Allison's POV
I had woken up a few minutes earlier than Johnson that morning. He woke up when his alarm went off. He turned it off immediately and rubbed in his eyes.
"What is this headache?" He groaned.
"Here, drink this." I handed him a glass of water and aspirin. He swallowed it. "You were pretty drunk last night, more than usual. How come?"
"Hell, I don't know. It just happened."
"Do you remember anything from last night?" I tried to get to the coming out subject as smooth as possible.
"Not yet. Did anything happen?"
I sat closer to him. I couldn't see my own face but I hope I looked as serious as I was trying to be. "Johnson, is there something you haven't told me yet?"
He sighed and looked infront of him. "I knew this was coming. Listen Allison, I'm sorry. It's just that I didn't know how to deal with it myself yet. I wanted to tell you, I really did. But it wasn't until yesterday it had gotten to me that Gilinsky isn't coming back. I should've told you the minute I found out."
"Wait, Gilinsky?" He was clearly talking about a whole different situation than I was. "No, I didn't mean that. I found that out myself already."
"Oh." He said dryly. "What were you talking about then?"
I had no idea how I was going to explain that to him. For a moment I thought it might be the best for him if he didn't know but he would find out. And he deserves to know what everyone else knows. I sighed deeply and then started to talk. "Last night you turned off the music and started ranting to everyone. At some point it got personal. Johnson, I tried to stop you but..." I paused and looked at him. He looked afraid of the things I was about to say and something in me thought he already knew. "You told everyone that you are gay." His face fell on the moment of determination. He stood up quietly without looking at me. "I don't know if what you told was the truth and I honestly don't care. I just thought you should know what you said about yourself."
He remained quiet for a long time and I knew it was the truth. I didn't him to confess it. After a lot of sighing and staring out of the window he sat back next to me again. "I can't go to school today." Was all he said.
"I understand but remember you skipped a lot last year and you need to catch up with that." I reminded him.
"Fuck, I hate junior year me. Now I'm going to be tortured all day."
"Tortured by who?"
"By everyone who knows about it. And you know how fast rumors spread, probably the whole school knows about it now. And I can't go back to my old school, I need to move out of town. Fuck, I'm going to live with Gilinsky and his crazy aunt in San Francisco."
"Johnson, calm down." I told him. "I know it's hard for you and you're scared but as you said last night, which you probably don't remember saying, those people are not your friends. Their opinion about you doesn't matter and shouldn't bother you."
It was the last thing I said before we got ready to go to school.
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"Johnson, I think that the hoodie that's covering your face will draw even more attention." I told him. "There's nothing to be ashamed of."
"Try telling everyone else that." He responded with his head low.
