It was a hassle to get ready in the morning, as Sebastian was trying very hard to wear regular clothes that you would wear to a regular person's house. The problem with this was that Sebastian did not have regular clothes. He didn't have regular, plain t-shirts or Chuck Taylor's or just a regular pair of jeans, so instead, he wore his favorite button up, his tackiest pair of jeans and the most worn down pair of shoes he owned. He didn't want to come off as the snobby rich kid everyone thought he was.
Sebastian was unsure of how to talk to Phillip about driving arrangements, and the exchange of phone numbers that did not happen yesterday, so he hoped and prayed that Phillip would talk to him about it instead.
He heard another homophobic slur from all the way down the hall. He kept his head down, asking himself if people ever got tired of the saying the same things over and over again, because Sebastian sure was.
Phillip leaned against the locker next to Sebastian's as he slammed it shut. Phillip had surprised him, as he had not seen him walk over.
"Oh, Phillip, hi." Sebastian's said, a small smile on his face. There was a wide grin on Phillip's face as he spoke.
"Need a ride over to my house after school today? Or do you got your own?"
"Oh, no, I don't have a car." He replied.
"Great! I'll take you then. Just wait for me out front."
"See you then." Phillip waved and walked away. Sebastian thought about saying something back. Maybe he would wave or say, "yeah, see you then." But he realized that it would be creepy and gay to do that when Phillip was already so far away.
"Why are you talking to that gay kid?" Freddie asked as Phillip approached his friends. Phillip looked over his shoulder at Sebastian, who was leaning inside of his locker with his head in his hands. Phillip bit his lip to refrain from smiling.
"Why not?" He shrugged.
"Um, hello?" Natalia waved her hand in front of his face. "People are going to think that you're a fucking faggot if you hang out with them, Phillip." She retorted. Haley and Toby would be tearing their hair out if they were there at that moment.
Phillip glanced back over at him and then at his friends."you're right." Phillip shrugged. He couldn't have people thinking that, especially not after clearing up the rumors form his last school.
After school that day, Phillip lied and told Sebastian that he had to do something before picking him up, so Sebastian sat there until every car was gone, and Phillip lurked behind bushes. Sebastian could see him as clear as day, but he didn't say anything. When Phillip picked him up, he said an apology, which Sebastian accepted.
"Hey, Phillip," Sebastian said after a while of thinking over what he was going to say.
"Yeah?" Phillip replied. Sebastian sighed and cleared his throat.
"Um...you don't have to be seen with me, you know that, right?" He said, but he felt like he hadn't gotten his point across. "I mean...you can tell me that you don't want people thinking you're gay, it's fine." He said. He was used to it, and he knew that that was what was going on.
"What?" Phillip acted surprised by his comment, but he knew that he had been caught.
"I mean that you don't have to hide in the bushes to come and get me. You can just tell me, I'm not going to get offended or anything." That wasn't a lie. Sebastian wasn't bothered by things like that, because he understood. He used to do it with Tyler all of the time.
