Thank You Oliver || Gay Short Story

Memory Two

There's no official date as to when Oliver and I started dating. Eating down at the diner became a regular thing for us, usually happening every other night. Sometimes we even got breakfast and studied together since we were both majoring to be the same thing. He even had a part time job at a hospital just maybe an hour away from his house.

It was over the summer that I began getting weird sensations: feelings, if you will. I felt my bond between Oliver strengthening and our connection being empowered. Over the spring of 2014 I began getting confused. I kept thinking to myself, 'Am I gay? No, don't be silly, Jake, you like girls.' It took me five months to finally realized that these doubts were going somewhere. The only source I could trace to them originated with Oliver.

One morning I chatted with Oliver, telling him my problem. I kept asking him 'Am I gay? Am I gay?' He simply replied, "That's something you have to figure out for yourself."

"I'm trying, Ol'. I really am. I just need some help, some direction, advice, anything!"

"I may be gay myself, but I can't really help you figure out who you are. Listen: self-discovery is something we all go through, not just us gays. Sometimes we become different people, others stay the same. You're incredibly brave going through this process and telling me about it," he comforted. "Take a deep breath and relax. You know some people are bisexual, Jake. You might be bi, or it's just a phase."

"But it's not a phase, I'm getting- I'm getting feelings. I feel like I'm attracted to guys, to men. What am I supposed to do? Is this even normal-"

"It's totally normal," he interrupted. "You're changing. Everyone changes. My freshman year of high school, I dated six girls and was a complete homophobe. Three years later I kissed a guy because I was attracted to him. It felt right. You'll know who you are, Jake. Don't worry. You'll know when the time comes. And if you need help, I’ll be right here. We all need a friend to help us through our tough times."

"Okay. Thank you, Oliver," I sighed. I looked down at my food with a lost appetite. Oliver's hand cupped mine and rested his fingers on my wrist.

"It's not normal to be normal anyway. Change is going from the stereotypical norm to being who you really are." Oliver then packaged up his burger and threw it into the trash can, leaving me to my thoughts.

At the time I just took his words as phrases that meant nothing. It was a pointless message I didn’t comprehend or even try to understand; in one ear and out the other. It took me three weeks to decode what he was trying to tell me, and it took until that September to figure out that I finally was gay.

I told him naturally and he accepted me easily. If there was one reaction that anyone could ever want when they come out, it would have been exactly like Oliver’s. “Jake, now you’re normal; you’re yourself. I’m proud of you for finding that out and telling me. Now stop crying and let’s go get something to eat to celebrate, not to mention I have been dying to explode all over you about my thoughts on Josh Hutcherson.”

After a few weeks, things started getting awkward between us. When we were walking back to our homes and apartments, he wrapped his arm around mine because he heard a scary noise. A week later his hand slipped down into mine and I wasn’t aware that our fingers were interlaced until I had to actually untwine them. Then it slowly began to become a natural thing where we held hands on our ways home. To be cliche, yet completely true, I started getting goosebumps and I felt just a tiniest bit fuller when our skin touched. Soon I developed a longing for his hand.

We sort of assumed that we were dating by early December. Neither of us ever spoke about it, but the late night texting began dragging on into the early hours of the morning, sometimes even pulling an allnighter just to FaceTime or Skype each other. Oliver and I began even acting like a couple, rarely slipping in the occasional nickname like honey and babe. I wasn’t even embarrassed to be around him anymore; I didn’t mind the strange looks we got when we were close together holding hands. To be honest, I enjoyed all of the attention, not just from other people, but from Oliver as well.

Usually while we were eating out, the occasional waitress said, "Enjoy your date," but I quickly retorted that we weren't a couple. It happened a lot after I talked to Oliver, or maybe it happened the same amount of times: I just noticed it more.

Then one time, at an extremely fancy restaruant that cost both of us nearly eighty dollars each, we were asked, "I'm sorry to intrude, but I could help but ask. Are you two a couple?" That time I didn't blurt out a rejection. Instead both Oliver and I exchanged glances and thoughts through a quick eye check and grin. "Yeah," I said. I remember she smiled and skipped off to her other waitress friends.

"So we're a couple?" Oliver asked me then. He began twirling around his food and I couldn't help but notice a distinct blush.

"Yeah, why not?"

"Well to be honest I didn't really think about us like that-"

"Well now you're going to have to think of us like that."

He grinned and returned to his food. We shared an awkward silence for a moment, causing me to say, "And just because we're dating doesn't mean anything should change between us."

Oliver looked up from his pasta and smiled. "So nothing's going to be different?"

"Nope."

"Sounds good to me," he agreed before adding, "babe."

That same night we went out and bought the Disney movie Frozen and went back home to watch it. We may have gotten the lyrics to “Let it Go” stuck in our head, but Oliver kept singing the reprise for “For the First Time in Forever,” specifically Elsa’s part of the duet.

I guess we somehow did start dating. I don’t know how, but we did.