It Only Takes One ✔️ (#riseabove)

It Only Takes One

How many boys did you have to kiss before you could tell you were gay? 

Ever since Friday's party, that's all they could talk about, and all that I could hear. At school and online, the word spread like wildfire.

Yes, I was gay but that didn't mean I was ready to come out. They didn't know it was an accident. They didn't know I was intoxicated. They didn't know that I didn't want to come out like this. The party was a mistake, and playing Spin the Bottle was a mistake. I was a mistake.

The boy I had kissed, because my spin had landed on him, was the quarterback of the football team. Cliché and all, but he had a bright future. And I had tore it to ruins. I couldn't blame the people around me, in real life and virtually. I had started this. I deserved to die. 

I already had no future; I decided that when my brother passed two months ago. He was my idol and on his way to becoming an engineer. They taunted him, because he was autistic, but they didn't know he was probably smarter than any of them could be. He killed himself: hung himself from his dorm ceiling. 

Nobody spoke about him after that. I don't even know if the people that pushed him had to deal with the consequences, the guilt. Hell, I feel guilty I wasn't there for him.

I'll miss you, Mikey, I remember telling him.

I'll miss you too, Jake. Call me, okay? I don't want you to be... bullied if you come out. He promised.

If people get too rough with you, you have to tell me. I don't like you going to college and leaving me here. I promised.

Don't worry, I managed high school so I can manage this. Now, it's only you who has to get through high school. Two years to go, little brother. I love you. He promised.

I'm here for you. I love you, too. I promised.

We both broke our promises, but I was one to suffer. My phone beeped again. I clicked the notification as I leaned against the stall door. This was the most privacy I could get away from the jeers thrown my way everyday.

You're just as fucked up as your brother. Your parents sure did breed misfits. Go fucking kill yourself, freak.

Freak, that's what they called my brother. Now I was one. Tears rolled down my face. I didn't know how much more of this I could take.

They should know. 

It only takes one to start a chain.

One click, one insult.

One bully, one victim.

One tear, one thought.

One death.

But it also takes one to stop this.

It takes one to be strong, one to keep on going.

It takes one to raise awareness, one to speak up.

It takes one to build as it takes one to destroy.

It only takes one to rise above this mess.