Anonymous

Chapter 9

Gabriel rarely talks to Castiel in school. It's not so much an active avoidance, but more that there's really nothing to say, and what little they have to talk about can be said in the car to and from school.

That just makes it weirder when Castiel is walking to his second block class, and Gabriel and a few of his friends stop him in the hall.

"Hi?" Castiel says uncertainly.

"Heya, Cassie —" Gabriel begins.

"Do we have to do this now?" Castiel asks. "I kinda have a class to get to."

The group of friends seem to find that remark hilarious. It's probably just because they got the wrong impression from him turning Meg Masters down, and they now think he's some expert at roasting people. Spoiler alert: he's not.

"It'll just take a second," Gabriel says. "So, you know how you said you don't want to go to prom with Meg?"

Castiel nods slowly. They haven't mentioned that to each other before. Why is he bringing it up at school?

"Well, this guy —" Gabriel pats his friend in the shoulder, "keeps saying it's because you're gay and it's getting really annoying, so can you tell him you're straight so he'll move on?"

"I —" Castiel freezes, feeling all the blood drain from his face.

"Cassie?" Gabriel says uncertainly.

"I — I have to go," Castiel mutters, then quickly walks away, doing his best to ignore the laughing from behind him.

Why did he do that? No one there was actually suspicious. It was obvious that all of them — even the one making the gay jokes — assumed he was straight. He should have lied and moved on. There was no reason to panic. He's so fucking stupid.

He glances at the bathroom as he passes it. Could he just spend the class in there? He could hide in a stall, maybe text Smith and Wesson all class, just trying to regroup. Maybe they could formulate a game plan. Just the constant reassurance that things aren't going to change much after that would be nice.

But he can't skip class. He's a good kid, and that just fucking sucks.