Facing The Reaper

XIX

"You're kidding me, right?" Terra said, her eyes wide open in shock as she looked around our small group as we sat in the clearing.

The others sat there with smug smirks on their faces as I sat there glaring at them. My face had gone red with equal rage and embarrassment and as I looked towards each of them, they all cast their eyes away, unable to meet my gaze without bursting into laughter.

The girls had been going on about setting up Scott with one of the girls in our year so that he would no longer be the off wheel in our group. As he sat there growing more and more uncomfortable under their scrutiny, Dylan decided to try and put him out of his misery by stating the fact Scott preferred the male gender over the female one. Though he wasn't completely gay, he did have his preferences. However, this brought on more attention from the girls as they bombarded him with questions about his preference of the boys in our year.

"There aren't any guys in our school that I am attracted to, and even if there were there aren't any that openly sway my way."

"Have you ever had a crush on one of your friends?" Morgan had asked, leaning forwards in awe and open curiosity as she leaned forwards to listen to his answer.

"No, that would be weird and awkward. Iv known then so long now they are more like family anyway." He replied, shifting uncomfortably with the thought from where he sat.

"And you guys were alright with it when he told you? You went dicks to him, right?" Lucy asked, giving us all stern looks as her gaze swept over us.

"We were all drunk when he told us. Of course, we were dicks about it, but only in a harmless friendly way. None of us are homophobic, if he likes men then good for him, were all quite happy with woman and tits." Conner replied looking smug. However, his smugness only earned him a harsh slap on his arm from Lucy. He sent a glare her way which she responded to with a stern scowl of her own.

"Who were you most scared of telling?" Terra asked, her question lower key and sweet then the others.

"Honestly, I knew my parents would be fine with it, they had already guessed even before I knew myself. I think Jude was the scariest person to tell out of everyone."

The girls sent a curious and almost disapproving look my way before Morgan asked "Why?"

"Because he is so introverted. The others are quite outspoken and honest with their thoughts, I knew that if there was something that made them uncomfortable they would just come out and say it. Jude, however, is the type to keep his thoughts to himself if he thinks t=it would hurt someone else's feelings. I was worried that's what he would do and that would mean he would just bottle everything up and that would then drive him to the point of eventually not talking to me again."

The girls all gave him sympathetic nods as Dylan started to snicker to himself.

"He didn't have to worry about that for to long though." Dylan replied sending a knowing look the other twos way. Conner started to grin as I sat there silently shaking my head. Mentally pleading with him not to continue.

"Why is that?" Terra asked. She was giving me curious looks as she waited for his reply. A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"Well," Dylan began. Adjusting his position so he could sit up more comfortably whilst he replayed the story back for everyone. "When he came out, he instantly burst into tears. He was bat shit terrified. Me and Conner just shrugged it off like 'whatever man, no one cares.' Then he stopped for a minute whilst we teased him. He then looked over at Jude, who as you can imagine just sat there saying nothing, before he then burst into tears again. He then started to shout and Jude saying that if he didn't like it, he should just there and then and get it over with. That he should just 'rip the bandage off and he would just accept the consequences' and blah, blah, blah, because he couldn't handle the silent treatment and so on so forth. The girls all turned to glare at me then and I could feel my face grow warmer and warmer like a boiling kettle, knowing all to well what came next as I subconsciously relived the memory.