Medicine

Chapter 7

"Mum, I'm home!" John called out as he and Sherlock walked through the threshold. 

"Okay, sweetie!" she called back from the laundry room. 

"And I brought my friend over! I hope that's alright!"

There was a pause, and they heard a laundry basket fall on the ground and her small footsteps racing to see who was with John. Obviously, she had been expecting the made up girl John had told her about the day before. "Oh, hello. I'm Carol," she said politely. "Tell me if you need anything, John. I'll just be folding laundry down here."

John nodded, glad she hadn't started asking questions. "Sorry about that," John said to Sherlock as they walked up the steps to his room. "She would have been thrilled to see me bringing a friend over if she wasn't expecting that 'friend' to be a made up girl."

"A made up girl?" Sherlock asked, following John down the long hall. 

"Mary," John replied with exaggeration. 

"How do you know Mary? She was absent today."

John stopped, but then continued, opening his door to reveal his simple room. "What?" he asked. In his mind, he was thinking, What? There is a Mary? She was absent today?

"Yes. Did you meet before school?"

"No...I didn't know there was a Mary..."

Sherlock looked confused, an emotion that John hadn't seen before. 

"You look confused," he said, amused.

"Well, yes...If you told your mum about Mary, that would mean you knew her," Sherlock said slowly. "Right?"

"I told her about a Mary. I don't actually know a girl named Mary, but I am glad there's one that goes to our school. That'll make my life easier."

Sherlock furrowed his eyebrows again, so John thought it'd be best if he explained further. 

"I told my mum that I actually found a friend and she asked what her name was. I couldn't tell her that it was actually a male, so I just made up a generic name and hoped that I'd be able to find a girl with the name Mary that I actually could know so that I technically wouldn't be lying to my mum."

"But why did you lie to her in the first place?" Sherlock asked. They were now seated on John's bed, John sitting cross-legged and Sherlock sitting with his feet hanging off the bed but both facing each other. 

"Well..." John started, not sure how he was going to get out of this conversation. "Because I didn't want to have to explain myself," he said quietly, looking at his hands resting in his lap. 

"Does she not know?" Sherlock asked in the same quiet tone. 

John looked up him, furrowing his eyebrows. "Not know what?"

"That you..." Sherlock obviously didn't want to say what he was about to say, but he proceeded. "That you're gay."

John looked stunned, not saying anything for a couple of moments. "How did you...-"

"Oh, come on, John. I knew that your father works for a paper-making company just by looking at your fingers. Of course I know that you're gay."

John stayed silent for another moment. He didn't know whether to apologize, run away, or skip around in happiness, so he just froze, embarrassment growing in him and turning his face red. 

"It's okay, John. I didn't mean to say it out loud, I...I just wanted you to know that it's okay. It's-...good. Everything is just...good..." Sherlock stuttered, blinking rapidly as he fumbled upon his words.