Moving Forward

Chapter Ten

It's been one week since my confession to my housemate. This past week nobody said anything to me. It's as if my little outburst was powerful enough to silence everyone. The party went on as scheduled from what I've heard and Kaleb still throws scowls my way every now and then, seemingly having heard about that days events from one of his friends. Kup-- Kade hasn't shown much reaction whenever I sit at their table. Though sometimes he tries to excuse himself only to be followed by a smug Kaleb.

Back to now, I am currently sitting in my Home Ec class waiting for instructions from the teacher. I'm sitting by myself, as usual, reading the recipe book. I'm humming a tune I had heard on Sandy's speaker. I don't know the name of the song but I like it.

"'Get Scared'?" I heard someone say. I lifted my gaze to see a guy about my age hovering over me. I only shrugged and continued reading. He pulled up a seat and situated himself next to me, the back of the chair facing me as he leaned on it. "I listen to that band. They're pretty cool."

I slightly nodded in response. I kept my attention to the book as the guy tried to make small talk. "Unless you want to get bullied for hanging out with the dike, I'd advise you to go somewhere else."

"My name is Tyler," he said ignoring my comment. "You probably already knew since we've been in this class from the beginning."

I looked up from the page to see him chuckling nervously. I then shook my head. "No, I don't remember. I was gone for awhile enough to forget mostly everyone's names."

His expression fell before he nodded in understanding. "I see. Um, I just wanted to say I admire you." There was a light dust of pink across his face. Not too much but still slightly visible. He scratched the back of his neck nervously.

"Why?" I decided to ask. Everyone in school should have heard about my confirming the rumors so what does he admire about me?

"Well, that day in the cafeteria," he started, obviously clueless as to what to say. "How you stood up against those people about your sexuality... Thanks. For having so much courage to face the others."

"I still don't get it," I told him honestly. I placed a finger to hold my place in the book and closed it, leaning forward in my chair.

"What I'm trying to say is if you hadn't done that, some of us wouldn't have gotten your courage as well." He took a deep breath and let it out, ending with a smile. "I'm gay."

I blinked in confusion until it finally registered in my head what he just confessed. "Oh." Was all I could think of to say. I glanced at the others in the room who were eyeing us, curious as to what we were talking about. Apparently, he didn't say it loud enough. Good. I don't want somebody else to get bullied for the same thing as me.

"You mentioned 'some of us'. How many others hold this same secret?"

Tyler shrugged. "Beats me. I just know there are more of us than they let know."

"I see," I said. So he's basing off of intuition. Interesting. "Um, earlier you mentioned you listen to this band. Can you tell me the name of the song I was humming?"

Tyler gave me a confused gaze until I motioned with my head at the peekers. He seemed to understand and slightly frowned. "'Stumbling In Your Footsteps'. I thought you listened to them."

"My housemate does," I admitted. "She was blasting her music on the speakers yesterday. It's not really music I like but this one grew on me."

"Your housemate, huh," he said thoughtfully. "Is she--"

"Yes. She is my girlfriend." The look of glee in his eyes did not go unnoticed by me. I still don't get how this is such great news. I'm having to hide our relationship from everybody else for the sake of Sandy's life. Well, I don't know if she is really hiding it. I, for the most part, am going to conceal the fact she is my girlfriend. Everyone by now should know about my relationship status and unless Sandy says anything, nobody knows it's her. I want to do my best to protect my very first girlfriend.

_________

"Well, I might have a slight crush on you, so... wanna go out?"

My eyes widened at those words. My gaze lifted to see that Sandy was looking off to the side, no longer hiding her growing blush. It's nearly impossible to say she's only messing around.

"Well?" Her voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I gulped.

"Um, I... don't know..."

"You like me," she said. I nodded. "But you don't know?" I nodded again, earning a sigh from the individual. "I don't get you. It's either you want to or you don't. Not that hard."

"Well, yeah, but--"

"I already said I like you. We made out last night. I'm asking you out. What more do you want? Sex?" My eyes went wide as saucers and I blushed furiously.

"T-there's no need for that!" I tried to say. The expressionless face of Sandy made it difficult to know if she was serious or not. I closed my eyes and sighed. "I do want to go out with you, but doing it with a girl isn't something I'm prepared for. If I've never done it with a guy then I can't imagine with a girl."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Sandy replied boredly. "That means we're going out now, right? Okay." She turned and opened the door for Zach. "We're finished. Let's go to our next class."

"Alright," Zach responded. Then he looked at us curiously. "What exactly were the two of you talking about?"

"Nothing," I said at the same time as Sandy said, "Asking her out."

Silence fell on us. Zach simply blinked in confusion until, "Huh?"

"Sandy!"

"It is only the truth. Friends don't lie to friends."

"Still!"

"I'm cool with it."

"What?!"

"What?"

"Wut?"

"Sandy--!"

"My only question is: the rumors were about Sandy?"

"No! Those were false."

"But you said--"

"I made them true last night."

"Ooookay then. Thanks for the details."

"Just kill me now..."

"I would if I didn't ask you out three minutes ago."

"You know what? Sandy, you are forbidden to tell anyone about our relationship."

"... why?"

"You know--..."

"No, I don't know. What if you tell people about our relationship, huh?"

"Argh-- just forget it."

"Maybe settle on a compromise?"

And that is how the three friends (us) argued the rest of the lunch period and thus almost became late for their English class.

_________

I silently snickered at the memory. That sure was hectic. Nobody ever questioned what we were arguing about and Zach hasn't mentioned it since then. Sometimes I wonder if he really is okay with it. I mean, ever since then, he seemed a little distant during lunch when the three of us would get together. He would avert his gaze and sometimes zone out to the point he would jump in shock whenever we had to yell his name. Thinking about it, I should ask him tomorrow during first period. I don't want to feel uneasy around my best friend and I don't want him to be uncomfortable because of us.