... and it all started with a tattoo (COMPLETED)

Coming out or "TO DERPCON!"

October 2014

I was at home for half-term break, chilled with Hannah on the sofa while Mum looked at me disapprovingly. I'd only recently showed her the tattoo I'd gotten more than half a year ago and she was horrified by the design and the size. She paled even further when I told her I was getting another one but didn't say anything.

I guess she doesn't want a 'rebel' daughter, but I want to dye my hair all these wacky colours, because it makes me feel unique to be the only one in school with hot pink hair dip-dyed red, for example.

Hannah and I still hadn't told our family who our boyfriends are, simply because we weren't public yet. When they were happy to become public, so were we. All Dad knew is that we were in long-distance relationships and we don't see them often. Mum knew even less.

I was trying to watch 'How I met your Mother', but I kept getting distracted by Hannah watching YouTube. She's up to date almost with all of the interviews that our baes have done and she's proud of that fact. She'd tell me stuff that she'd heard and I'd laugh because it'd usually be absurd, but I don't care. As long as they're having fun, then the daily FaceTime and texts I get are enough for me.

Hannah brought up their then latest interview that they'd done yesterday and, after a stunning silent minute, continuously slapped me on the arm, screaming "OMG! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!"

"What's up with y-?" The title of the interview was '5SOS' GIRLFRIENDS REVEALED'. Now I understood the reaction. "Well, don't just sit here. Play the video!" She hit play and we waited for the carnage to start.

An American radio host is talking to them about their tour that they're halfway through, then just slipped in, "It must be hard to be away from your family for such a long time!" The boys physically stopped themselves from answering, then looked at each other for some psychic conversational reason. Then they nodded and looked at the interviewer. Ashton's the one that spoke.

"We do miss our families a lot so we call them whenever we can and they came to our concert the last time we were in Australia so we saw them then..." There was a pause, he seemed to be thinking of the right words to say, then he decided on, "But the people we miss the most are our other halves..."

There's a chorus of gasps and screams as the American audience digest this piece of information. Just to stir the shit, even more, they all look at the camera and shout, "Hey baby/gorgeous/sexy/princess, LOVE YOU!"

"OH, MY GOD! Spill those beans! Tell us about these lovely ladies"

"Well, technically, they don't know we've done this." Luke cautions, "But we were talking about this last night, and we decided that we've been with them for a while now, so it was about time that we told everyone because... we're in love and we want to share our happiness with the world!"

We were stunned. Luke and Ash are crap at keeping secrets, so how had they kept this from us? Hannah texted Ellie and Annalea to let them know and sent them a link so they could watch it themselves. "Our girlfriends are all English and they're around our age-"

"Speak for yourself! Your girlfriend's more than three years younger than you! Mine's the only one our age!"

"Oh, shut up you! I'm pretty sure it's your girlfriend that likes her private life to stay private, so you shouldn't be saying anything!"

"Okay, okay boys! One at a time, tell the lovely audience something you're allowed to say about your other halves." There's a pause for thought and Luke started first. "My girlfriend's name is Hannah, and she's obsessed with rainbows and unicorns."

"My girlfriend's name is Ellie. She's 16 and she's a complete nerd but that's why I love her."

"My girlfriend's name is also Ellie, and she's at university at the moment, working hard for me." He winks at the camera as if he can see me through the screen and I can't help but blush and smile. I send Mikey a text saying, 'nice paedo wink right back at u handsome ;)'  hoping he'd know what I was on about. 

"Liking the older women, are you Michael?"

"Oh yeah. What can I say? She's gorgeous and she had me from day one." That gets a massive 'AWW' from all the backstage crew. "STOP STEALING THE LIMELIGHT WITH YOUR CUTENESS! My girlfriend is called Anna. She wouldn't want me to say anything else so I'm gonna leave it there..." The American host didn't seem to like that cop-out answer but didn't say anything. "So, when/where did you meet them?"

"Well," Calum decided that he was going to tell the story in a way that wasn't going to make him look like an asshole. "I met Michael's Ellie in Nottingham earlier this year because we got a tattoo at the same time. She then asked if we could arrange a meet up before our gig and it carried on from there. The rest is history and any other time phrases you can think of."

The interview veered off in another direction, something I was grateful for. I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders because now that had been done, we could be honest with everyone. I could now run into the middle of our nearest shopping centre and yell, "MICHAEL CLIFFORD FROM FIVE SECONDS OF SUMMER IS MY BOYFRIEND!"

I decided to get this over with, looked over at Mum, who had just come into the room, and held up the laptop to point at the screen. "Mum, this is my boyfriend, and this is Hannah's. Ellie and Annalea go out with the other two."

"Of course you do. Well, next time they're in England, bring them home so we can meet them."

Sarcastic scrotum.

Hannah looked up at Mum innocently and quipped, "Do you want to meet all four or just these? Is Tuesday good enough for you?"

Mum smiled at us while shaking her head, then left us to our madness. The next thing we see is a link that Ellie had sent us. Derpcon? We watch it and smile, both of us having the same idea.

This is gonna be awesome!

We rang up Ellie, Annalea, and Lauren, told them our idea (which they agreed was awesome and that they're super up for it), booked time off university, work and sixth form/college for the girls, and got on the internet.

Oh, the boys won't know what's hit them... TO DERPCON!