The Boy in the Corner

23

"Good morning," I whisper, kissing Mitch on the cheek. He ended up staying at my house all of Sunday too, so now we have to get up for school. "Baby, we gotta get ready to go." He sighs and sits up.

"Ugh." I kiss his cheek again and start to get dressed

When we're both dressed, we walk downstairs, hand in hand, to get some breakfast. I want to cook for Mitch, but with my cooking "skills," I'd probably just end up burning the house down instead.

---

"Can we do 'Say Something' as our next song?" All our eyes turn to Kirstie as she stares sadly at the ground.

"That sounds fine to me," I say, looking around to everyone else to make sure that they're okay with it. "Since our next performance is on Valentine's Day, I think it would be cool to do a cover of 'Valentine.'" Mitch nods.

"I loooove that song."

"I've been writing a song," Avi mumbles. "It's called 'Love Again.' I'd like to see if we could work it into our set list. We'll need more songs than usual, since this is our show."

"That's a great idea! I'll start working on a song too. I've had a few ideas, so-"

"I wrote a song too," Mitch says quietly.

"Great! Well, we're off to a good start with our ideas. Let's start arranging."

---

"Hey look, it's the fags!"

"Ew, that Scott guy is so ugly. Who the hell would even want to date him?" I try to ignore the passing remarks. I really do. But I just can't. I speed walk into the bathroom, locking myself in one of the stalls to cry. Do people really hate me that much?

"Scotty?" It's Mitch. "Scotty, Baby, I know you're in here. I saw you go in." He knocks on the stall door. "Please, let me in. You don't have to be alone, and believe me, being alone is shitty." I sniffle, standing up to let him in.

The first thing he does is hug me.

"Aw, Scotty, it's okay. They just don't like people to be different. They hate you because you're a beautiful, talented, kind person. Don't let yourself think otherwise for even a second."

"They hate me because I'm gay, and they'll never stop hating me. It's... it's not fair."

"I know. I know. But you know what I have to say to that?"

"What?" He pulls away and looks me in the eye.

"It doesn't matter, because I'm homophobephobic." I laugh through my tears as he wraps his arms back around me. "And one day, maybe they will realize what they're missing out on." I smile and press my lips to the top of his head.

"Thank you."

"It wasn't anything you haven't done for me," he whispers back. I have nothing to say to that. So I don't. I just press my lips to his. I kiss him passionately. I don't care that the stall door is open. I'm proud to kiss my beautiful, sexy, boyfriend.

After a few seconds, he pulls away and takes my hand, leading me back out into the hallway.

"We need to get to our classes," he says. "I really don't want to repeat my last year of high school, and I don't want to graduate without you." I smile. Then, he's suddenly being flung away from me and slammed into the wall.

"Stupid fag." Someone else tries to shove me, apparently not realizing that I tower over them like a giant, and could beat them to a pulp if I wanted to. I shove them away and hurry to Mitch's attacker, grabbing the back of his shirt. It's Gabe, the same boy who picked on Mitch the first time he sat with me in the cafeteria.

"Leave him alone, asshole." I throw him to the ground. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you, you disgusting faggots?" I glare down at him.

"Nothing is wrong with me or my beautiful boyfriend. Just because we're different doesn't mean there's something wrong with us," I state firmly, thinking back to what Mitch said only moments ago. "You don't have to like that we're gay, but you do have to leave us the fuck alone, because if you hurt my boyfriend one more time, you'll regret it."

I turn my back on Gabe, pulling Mitch to his feet.

"Are you okay, Baby?" He nods.

"Just a couple bruises. I've had worse." I flinch, knowing how true his words are. He realizes that his words brought back memories. Memories of Mitch hurting himself, and of Ben hurting Mitch. He places a hand on my bicep. "It's okay. It's in the past now. I'm over it." I nod.

"I know." Gabe and his friends look slightly curious, but pretend not to care.

"Whatever," he mumbles, trudging away. I look down at Mitch.

"I love you." He stares right back up at me.

"I love you too," he whispers.