When He Sees Me [Draft]

[1]

Walking down the hall by himself, earbuds in ears and hands in his pockets was the usual way to spot Ben. He never tried to talk or cause trouble in the hallways; the most dangerous place in school. If he didn't create attention to himself, then nobody would call him gay.
Ben opened his locker and took his headphones out of his ears to put them into his backpack. While he was putting his first period chemistry textbook into his messenger bag, he caught a quick glance of Andrew walking hand in hand with his girlfriend, Ella down the hallway.
With a quiet sigh, he put his bag over his shoulders and shut his locker, walking down the hall to the boys restroom. Walking in, he was confronted by a smaller football player, the kicker, Danny Gordon.
"Hey, homo, the girls bathroom is on the other side of the hall." said Danny, blocking Ben's way into the actual urinal area.
"C'mon man, I just need to pee." said Ben in his higher pitched voice than the other boy.
"Come back later when there's no guys you can stare at." Chimes in Henry Samson, another football player from behind Danny.
Ben rolled his eyes and walked back out of the bathroom. There was really no point in trying to take a piss with those guys in there anyways.
On his way to chemistry, Ben was stopped by his step siblings, the twins, Tristan and Addy. The two were sophomores, and only two years younger than Ben, but they always seemed to be in the senior hallway whenever Ben seemed lonely.
"Hey, Ben. What's the matter? You don't look too good." Addy asked, pushing a piece of her dark brown hair behind her ear.
"I'm fine Addy. Shouldn't you be in class anyways?" Ben said, slightly annoyed.
"We have plenty of time before first period even starts, Ben. You know that." Tristan said back without moving his eyes from his phone.
Ben nods "Yeah, okay." he said and sat down in one of the common area chairs to wait for the bell to ring to go to class. "Why are you guys down here anyways?"
"We have nowhere else to go. Well, I have nowhere else to go. Tristan's nose deep in some nasty sexting with his fancy lacrosse playing girlfriend over there." Addy replies, giving Tristan a playful nudge on his arm.
"Okay listen, that's not what i'm doing, and if it was, it's none of your business." Tristan said back, finally putting away his phone.
The twins kept going back and forth in their bickering, but Ben wasn't paying them any attention. He was secretly admiring Andrew, who happened to be talking with his friend group about something related to football he assumed, with of course, his girlfriend at his side.
Addy noticed her step brothers constant staring and smirked a little bit "does someone have a crush? On a boy!?" she asked. "That'd be so amazing i've always wanted a gay best friend, but a gay brother!?" she rambled on excitedly.
Ben finally looked back over to Addy. "I'm not- what? That doesn't make any sense. If I was gay, i'd be the same Ben. It's not like i'd start spitting rainbows and making you beautiful like some weird fairy gay mother." he said, slowly getting annoyed.
"So when are you gonna come out?" Addy asked.
"I didn't say I was-" He starts, but was then cut off by Addy once again.
"Ben i've known since I met you."
"But you were 8 when I met you!"
"Exactly. That's how obvious it is." Addy said back.
"Oh my God I can't believe we're doing this right now. Fine, i'm gay. but if you tell anyone, especially my dad or your mom, I will actually kill you. Oh wait, I won't be able to because my dad will have already killed me." Ben said, all too quickly.
"Okay, I promise!" Addy whispered harshly, getting up and putting her bag back on her shoulders. "C'mon Tristan, we need to actually get to class." she said to her brother, who was already nose deep back into his phone.

***

Andrew, holding hands with his hell of a catch girlfriend, walked boldly down the hallway of Barnum high school as girls stopped to get a good look at that fine boy. Well, girls and a certain Ben, of course.
When Andy passed by Ben, he made sure to give him a comforting smile. One that seemed to say "I'm here for you, I don't care what you are. You're still a person."
When he noticed Ben walk into the bathroom, he of course didn't think about it. He didn't know that the poor guy couldn't even go to the bathroom without being confronted. Rest assured that if Andrew knew this, he'd make the guys stop so the kid could at least do his business and carry on with his day.
Unfortunately, Andrew didn't think about it and continued on with his own business. He walked his girlfriend upstairs and talked with a few other guys from the football team about the first game coming up in a few weeks.
"Hey, dude, don't look now but the queer behind you is staring at your ass." Snickered one of the players, a huge 6 foot dude named Tyson Crooks.
"Just leave him alone guys. He's not bothering anyone." Andrew shrugged.
Ella gasped dreamily, totally under a lovesick spell when it came to Andy. "You're so compassionate, Andy." she gushed.
Andy smiled at his short girlfriend and then turned back to the guys.
Danny and Henry soon joined the group, laughing about what happened in the bathroom. "What's up with y'all boys? Y'all excited about the big game comin' up?" Henry said, clapping his hands together once.
"We already talked about that, dumbass." Sneered Tyson, hitting Henry's back like bros do.
"Whatever. I'm leaving you queers. Not gonna be late on my first day. Gotta make a good impression on the hot English teacher." Danny said, walking away as the group slowly diminished and went their own ways to their classes. Soon, just Ella and Andy were left. They too started the walk to their first period Chemistry class, when Andrew overheard "I'm gay" come from Ben's mouth.
Andy always had his suspicions, but now he knew it was true. He pretended to not hear him, and walked to his class and took his seat, but the words "I'm gay" rang in his head over and over throughout the day.