Being gay is a curse when the homophobia you grew up with was so bad that you're homophobic yourself. Especially when you're into unavailable guys like your roommate, whose girlfriend is everything you're not (though appearances can be deceiving). S...
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Parties were hit-or-miss for me.
Of course, I appreciated that I'd been invited along with Jamie to this one, but I won't lie and say that I didn't consider not going. I was not in the mood. I was tired. I didn't even know Kenny and Mason that well. But I didn't want to disappoint Jamie, so I slapped on a smile and let him drag me through campus.
All I could do was hope that this party wouldn't be a miss. When we got to the place, it was already full of people. Jamie let go of my arm and walked over to Jackson, so I wandered off and started looking for people I knew. There were... some. People I shared classes with, mostly, but no one I was close with. There was one person I was really surprised to see, though. I walked over and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey, Carl."
He turned around with wide eyes. "Hi! Emmett?"
He looked just as surprised to see me here. I couldn't blame him. Literally the only reason why we knew each other was because of that bar, and I hadn't been there in a long while. After Carl had turned down my offer, we hadn't talked much, and then I'd started dating Jamie. And that boy sucked up all my time. It'd been months.
"Why are you here?" I asked. "You don't go here, right?"
"Ah, well..." He rubbed the back of his neck with a soft smile. "I'm here with my boyfriend."
"Your boyfriend?"
"Yeah, he left me to go to the bathroom," he said, chuckling.
I automatically looked around anyway. "Who?"
"Nate."
"Nate? You're dating Nate? As in, Jackson's roommate?"
"Yup," he said, nodding. "That one."
"Wow. I can't believe two guys who turned me down are now dating each other."
He laughed and sighed, "I just can't believe I finally get to say it."
"Why?"
He gave me a small smile. "Long story."
Before I could respond, Jamie had found me again and interrupted our conversation to say, "Kenny and Mason are gonna be here in, like, ten minutes."
I nodded. "Alright."
Jamie pointed at Carl. "Hey. You're the guy from the bar. Sorry, I forgot your name."
"Am I the guy from the bar now?" he laughed, shaking his head. "I'm Carl."
"Right, Carl," Jamie replied with a smile, offering him a hand and introducing himself. They started talking and I looked around again. I didn't see any other familiar faces other than the ones I'd already spotted, but I wasn't looking around for that reason anymore. I was looking for Nate. I hadn't seen him since that one night either, and it was strange to think that two people I knew so little who had literally met each other that night had come to know each other so well in the meantime, but it brought a smile to my face. Nate had seemed so uncomfortable at the time. I was happy for him for finding someone he could be comfortable with.
