undeniable feelings | a stephchelle story

Chapter 7 - just a supporter

- MICHELLES POV - 

I lead Stephanie straight through the house and into my tiny bedroom. I tiredly sit on my bed, forcefully throwing my bag to the corner of the room. 

"Shall we go to the cinema tonight?" I ask hopefully.

"Sure I'd love too." Stephanie beams. "What should we watch?" 

"We can find something when we're there."

Stephanie pulls out her bright pink laptop, quickly typing in the password, exposing her home screen. It's the LGBT flag! She tries to discreetly hide it from me by clicking onto google, but it's blatantly obvious what it was.

"Do you support LGBT?" I ask in hope.

"Uhm yeah I do." She quickly replies, giving me a side smile. My face fills up with elation as she says it.

She searches up movies we could go and watch and settle on "me before you." Our screening isn't for another 3 hours. Stephanie pulls out her phone and quickly texts her mom.

"Staying at my friends house for a while, be home by 8:00pm" She switches her phone off, ramming it into her bag. I stand up and pull her up at the same time.

"Wanna go on the little boat on the lake with me?" I grin. Her face lights up as I say it, she instantly shuts off her laptop and pulls me downstairs, running straight for the lake.

My face touches against the breezy air as the sunlight blinds my eyes. I haul the small boat from the shore and gently push it into the lake, scrambling on with the rusty ores in my palms. Stephanie is reluctant to stepping on the boat, but I reassuringly grab her hand and pull her on, so that she's seated right beside me.

I push off with the ores, leaving ripples in our trail. The silence calms her as she clings onto me, in fear that she might fall in. As we drift further into the lake, the pressure on my arm releases slowly, Stephanie eventually finds the courage to completely let go of me, now free armed, she looks down at the clear ripples in the deep lake, dipping her hand in the cold water as her hair blows in the wind.

She looks so gorgeous, she smiles down at the clear water as I continue to row in circles. Large fish gather around us, following the boat and Stephanie is so drawn to their sparking finns. She reaches out to touch them, they all swim up to her tanned arm and stay beside it, like a moth to a flame.

I can't help but to smile at how perfect she looks. I know she's just a supporter, but she's shown me who I truly am, and now I know that Stephanie will always be there for me when I need her no matter what. Words repeat in my head. Everything will be fine, they reassure me, and make me realise that one day, I will be able to come out, whether that's in 10 days or 10 years, I'm not keeping these thoughts bottled up inside forever, I just can't.