I Don't Do Sadness // Jyrus

distress

Andi was in the bathroom, crying. After realizing she had disappeared for a while, Bex went to look for her and found her standing at the counter with Buffy.

"What are guys doing?" She asked when she walked in.

The two girls looked down at their feet while Bex approached them, awaiting a lecture. "It's Cyrus' Bar Mitzvah for Pete's sake and you two are in here, completely ignoring him and the party," Bex went on as she grabbed paper towels to clean Andi's face. "You never even said anything to him after the service."

Andi whined, "But Jonah-" when Bex cut her off, saying, "I don't care. Suck it up. There are plenty of other guys out there. Like Cyrus!"

She started pushing Andi towards the door, with Buffy following behind. "But I don't like Cyrus!"

"I don't care," Bex said as they exited. "You can cry about Jonah at home, not here, and especially not now." Bex went back into the ballroom and Andi sighed and watched her go.

Buffy came up from behind Andi and said, "She's right."

Andi looked up at Buffy who smiled down at her, saying, "Let's go find him."

Cyrus was on the dance floor with TJ, jumping around. The sight made the girls laugh, until Buffy realized it was TJ he was dancing with. She groaned and said, "Are you kidding me!"

"Hey," Andi said. "If I have to ignore Jonah then you have to be nice to TJ."

Buffy rolled her eyes and they went over to dance with them, the four of them jumping around and dancing in a circle. TJ was right, it did make them feel better. Jonah was by himself with a bunch of the girls following him around. He slipped away for long enough to see Cyrus, Andi and Buffy dancing around with TJ. He figured that there was no point in going over with them since they were having so much fun with TJ so he just went back to torture himself with all of the girls.

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Cyrus told his mother that he wanted to go up and say something to the crowd and she assumed it was just another speech. He was trembling while he went up to the front of the ballroom, his hands sweating around the microphone he was holding. Once his mother announced he was going to say something, Andi and Buffy shot each other a glance.

They were sitting at a table with Bex and TJ, the rest of Andi's family and Jonah near the back of the room. TJ started playing with his hands in his lap and the girls grabbed each other's hands. Bex sensed the tension within the three and focused her attention on Cyrus, knowing something important was about to happen.

Cyrus raised the microphone to his lips and said, "Hello," into it, with a voice crack and all.

Hearing Cyrus' loud vice echoing throughout the room, Jonah's head snapped over in his direction, breaking the conversation between him and Bowie.

"So, um, I'd like to thank you all for coming," Cyrus continued.

Buffy was nodding along with every word he said and squeezing Andi's hand like crazy. Andi had her free hand to her heart, trying to calm it, and tears in her eyes.

"And I'd like to thank my parents for putting this all together."

This would be the time when Cyrus looks over and smiles at his parents, but he just couldn't. He was staring at the ground in front of him.

"And for always being there for me, as well as my friends."

Then he looked up, and right over to Andi and Buffy, seeing them in tears.

His eyes scanned the room, looking for Jonah, as he said, "And I hope everyone will still continue to be there for me."

Once he saw Jonah's smiling face back at him he stuttered on his last few words. His eyes quickly glanced back to the ground and he closed them, taking a breath. The mood in the room shifted. Cece and Ham looked at each other with worry in their eyes.

"And I just had something that, um, I wanted to say. To let everyone know."

He closed his eyes again.

"I'm gay."

An odd silence fell over the crowd for a moment. Buffy and Andi were crying and stood up, applauding, with TJ.

Bex had to take a second to process. She wasn't surprised or anything, she had known the second she met him, she was just shocked that he'd say anything, especially to his parents. Cece and Ham ultimately felt the same way. Cece had known all along and she was in tears applauding. Ham really had no idea, but was proud nonetheless.

Bowie had slammed his hand on the table and laughed, saying, "I knew it!"

He stood up and cheered loudly, saying how great it was to Jonah. Jonah was nodding absentmindedly, but just staring at Cyrus with his mouth dropped open.

Cyrus was beaming. When he opened his eyes, he saw everyone smiling and clapping for him. He hadn't even looked over at his parents' table, he didn't want to. If he had looked over, he would have seen his step-mother smiling and clapping, saying to his father that she was so proud. He would have seen his father's confused face, not sure of what to do. He would have seen his step-father rubbing his head and then clapping anyways, trying to look happy. And he would have seen his mother glare at her wine glass before she plastered on the fake smile that Cyrus knew so well and clapped with the audience.