Damien Carmichael leads a double life. By day he's a high school senior at an elite prep school, just trying to get through his last year without any trouble. He has a girlfriend and up until this year, he was the star player of the lacrosse team.
...
"Welp, he knows," Damien said sitting down to dinner with Carrie and Oliver several hours later, dumping his tray onto the table.
"Who knows what?" Oliver asked, looking up from his half-eaten sandwich.
"Tyler," Carrie guessed. Damien gave her a nod. "About..." she trailed off and Damien nodded again. "Oh shit. What are you going to do?" Damien sighed pushing his dinner away for a second, laying his head on the table.
"I'm so past the point of caring," he admitted exhaling a breath, scrubbing his face with his hands.
"I'm sorry what's going on now?" Oliver asked, looking totally confused.
"I write fan fiction," Damien said, more easily than he had ever said the words before in his life, though still in hushed tones, in case anyone might overhear.
"Okay," Oliver replied, clearly intoning for Damien to go on.
"Gay, fan fiction. Things my parents would not approve of hearing about, Frankly I'm not sure anyone would." Carrie gave him a look, but Damien merely ignored her. He wasn't particularly in the mood right now.
Oliver merely eyed him. "Okay?"
"Tyler knows. Which means he knows that I'm gay which means he's going to tell everyone."
"But he already suspected the two of us before, so what's different now?" Oliver asked.
"I..." Damien paused. He hadn't really thought about that.
"Look, either way, I'm here for you," Oliver said extending his hand towards Damien on the table. Damien looked around nervously. Now or never, he told himself. You have an opportunity to take back the narrative. Damien smiled taking his hand.
"Thank you," he said.
Oliver grinned, it felt so right holding his hand, Damien thought, "Of course babe," he said.
Damien blushed crimson at the nickname, he wasn't sure he would ever be able to admit how much he enjoyed it.
"Aww," Carrie smiled, wrapping her arms around Damien's shoulders. "You two are so cute. And believe me, if Tyler tries to out you he's only going to look like a hypocrite, I mean for God's sake he's gay! And anyway, why should people here give a shit? It's not as if most of us aren't some type of queer." she said with a shrug. "This table alone is a good portion of the letters in the acronym. L and T," she said pointing to herself. "B," she pointed to Oliver. "And G," she said pointing to Damien.
"I mean I've dated women," Damien argued.
"Do you identify as bi?"
"Not really," he admitted, though somewhat begrudgingly.
"My point," Carrie replied. "Between the three of us we're the entire LGBT," at this she chuckled.
Damien laughed. He supposed she was right. After all, why should anyone else care? "I'm going to have to tell my parents tonight," Damien said, quietly. If Tyler did intend to out him to the whole school he would at least tell his parents on his own terms.
Carrie nodded, and Oliver gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "I'll be right by your side the whole way," he said with a smile. Damien could have cried. Try though he might to push everyone else away, Carrie and Oliver had refused to go, and he was incredibly grateful for it.
"Me too," Carrie said. Damien sighed happily, as he tucked into his dinner.
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