“Bo, you have to do something.” Angel’s voice crackles desperately over the phone, and I sigh, setting my cell down to rub shaky hands down my face. I pick up the phone again.
“I can’t, Angel.”
“Please, Bo.” Angelica begs. “I’ve never seen him this…empty before. He’s just sitting there, this little lost and confused look on his face. It’s pathetic, and I want it to stop!” This time a hint of whining enters her voice. I groan.
“What makes you think I have anything to do with this anyway?” I demand, feeling myself cracking and trying desperately to stay aloof. Angel, however, smells my weakness.
“You know what this is about as well as I do, Bo.” Angel states. I feel a ping of fear in my stomach, but push it aside. She can’t possibly know how I feel about Noel, she can’t. Can she?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Angel.”
“Oh, save the act Bo. We all know how you feel about my brother, and if you haven’t noticed by now, I don’t care! God, if you two would have just told each other how you feel already, this wouldn’t have happened! Now get over here and fix this!” And with that, Angel hangs up the phone.
I sit there, phone still against my ear, and listen to the dial tone in my ear. What just happened? My heart races and my face is stuck in a frozen mask of wide eyes and slacked jaw.
After all this time of fighting my feelings for Angel’s benefit, she had known the entire time? I try to find some anger at this thought, but there’s nothing. Slowly my hand falls, cell phone slipping out of my slackened grip and bouncing on my bed.
And she had said “told each other”…as if Noel had feelings for me as well. Could she have known something all along?
Hardly daring to hope, I grab my keys and race for the car.
Noel is sitting under the big tree in their back yard, knees drawn up with his arms draped over them. His head is leaning back on the big trunk as he stares up at the sky, his face distant.
Angel gives me a little shove to get me out the door and shuts it behind me. Hearing the lock click, I whip my head around. She jabs a finger at Noel, scowling at me. After narrowing my eyes at her, I turn back to Noel, who doesn’t seem to have noticed me. Walking slowly, I head down the steps towards the tree. Noel is either ignoring me or too caught up in his own thoughts to even notice my approach until I sit down cross legged across from him.
His head lolls to the side so that he can see me, and his eyes are dull. He raises a bored eyebrow at me. “So, did my sister call you or something?”
“Obviously.” I say, raising my eyebrow as well. I wait for him to say something else, but he just turns his head back and continues staring up at the sky. Eventually I scoot over so that I’m sitting next to him, with my back against the tree as well. The conversation I’m about to start will be much easier if I can’t actually see him. I stare up at the cloudy sky, looking for shapes as I try to gather my thoughts.
“So.” We say at the same time. Noel offers a snort of laughter, and I smile softly.
“You first,” I say, backing down.
“Why are you here?” He asks. So much for that idea.
“We just established that your sister called me.”
“But that still doesn’t explain why you’re here.”
I sigh and press my head back into the tree, squeezing my eyes shut. Here goes nothing. “Well, she said something that didn’t really make sense to me.” I start, and pause, waiting for his reaction. He seems tense, but tries to hide it.
“And that was?” He asks.
“Well, she may have alluded to the possibility that you had feelings for me.” I hold my breath.
“And?”
“Well, that didn’t make any sense to me, considering you’re straight.”
Noel snorts. “What is with you people? You all assume that someone is either straight or gay, when in fact there are many, many more sexual orientations than just those two. God, and you call yourselves a GSA, yet you’re almost as uneducated as the homophobes at our school.”
I raise my eyebrows, not expecting that answer. “I’ll try not to be offended by that.” I say dryly.
He shrugs. “It’s true though. You have completely overlooked the fact that there are more than two sexual orientations, assuming that since I have dated girls means that I am not gay and therefore must be heterosexual. Did you ever even consider the fact that I might be bi?”
I realize with discomfort that I hadn’t. I feel a pang of shame even as my hope rises. I feel a small smile begin to spread across my face. “No, I didn’t.” I admit.
Noel snorts. “Of course you didn’t.” He mutters, staring up at the sky as if it held all the answers he’d ever sought.
I raise my eyebrow. “So, going back to Angie implying that you have feelings for me.” Noel tenses. I can’t believe this is happening. “Do you?” I hold my breath.
Noel hesitates before looking over at him. My breath catches when I see his eyes are wide and vulnerable. His face is open and honest, his eyes watery and almost frightened. “Yes.” He whispers. “Yes, I have feelings for you.”
Without my control, a wide grin stretches across my face, so wide my cheeks ache. “Good.” I say. “I have feelings for you too.”
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A/N
So, here's an alternate ending. Which one do you like better? Which one do you believe is the real ending? Let me know what you think!
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Backstage Kisses (BoyxBoy)
Short Story(This story contains gay characters. If you have a problem with gay content, please do not read.) Beauregard Dubois, otherwise known as Bo, has been in love with his best friend's older brother for years. However, he'd never do anything to hurt Ange...
