The Navy Pier Lights

Prologue

Being gay in high school is a fucking shit show. The first thing you need to know about me is that I am a very shy person when I'm around new people and only talk when talked to. The not talking saved my life halfway through high school. I haven't come out to anyone then since people didn't like me for no reason other then I kept to myself, and because of that I never had any real friends besides all the books I've read.
I love Teen and Young adult novels. The last book I read was They Both Die at the End and it really hit me. It made me think of my place in the world. If I die right now, I doubt 90% of the school's student body would remember who I was if I went missing or died. I'm in the middle of the 11th grade with no friends at all besides some of the Tumblr pages I follow. How stereotypical of me, a closeted, quiet, high school boy named Clay who does nothing but read books about tragic gay love stories and follow hard and soft Yaoi pages on Tumblr with photos of anime boys doing who knows what to each other that make me really jealous of how good those fictional boys have it. Jealous because I don't talk to anyone and have never had a boyfriend, never had my first kiss, never even held the warm hand of a boy who sweeps me off my feet. But I choose not to because this fucking school is the worst place for the so-called "fags". This is where the shit show comes in. A boy named Oliver in the thin-walled room next to the office called "Student Services" was overheard by a really homophobic rugby player named Hunter with four teeth missing and hides a bong in his locker that got him thrown out of school three other times and in the office the same day for the same reason, overheard Oliver come out to the guidance concealer. That was all Hunter needed to text his other rugby friends to plan a huge fucking beat down to cure this small tenth-grade boy of something he can't control. After that day, Oliver was in the hospital for two days and changed schools. Hunter was arrested and Oliver's mother pressed charges for child abuse because he was nineteen and held back. But Hunter was the only guy who was punished for this whole thing. Hunter's rugby friends were like a pack of wolfs with no alpha. Levi was the new pack leader I think. He pushed people out of the way and was always on all the teacher's good sides so when kids go to report him about something he did to them, they shrugged them off saying "I'm sure he didn't do that, he's a great kid." Teachers that teach us about math and World War Two can be so oblivious and stupid sometimes. Leon was, as you can say the more neutral out of the group. He didn't pick fights like the other two but still did give a good punch when someone needed it. But the last one, Arlo was I think the punching bag of the group. He comes to school with black eyes and when people ask where he got them he always said he fell or some dumb shit like that. But I think he's forced to be in that group. Like if he wasn't then he would end up like Oliver with his face almost caved in. I've known Arlo since middle school before the whole punching bag of the group thing. He was kinda cute before the countless black eyes. They really messed him up good, but he chooses to hang out with them. So that's why I don't want to come out in high school. I'm scared I'll get all of my bones broken for wanting to be myself and wanting another boy who shares my love of books and anime. But nowadays in 2019, both of those are made fun of. I could be called a bookworm or a weeb, or a word of my own making, a "weebaworm". Like a mix between the two things I'll be made fun of for. I guess it's good I don't really talk to anyone or getting made fun of or rejected. It's was going well till I met a girl named Nova.