The Truth about Heather (gxg)

26 💕

After school, Drew drove Heather and I back to my house. I had originally planned to teach Heather how to ride a bike but then the dark clouds rolled in overhead and the rain started coming down on a colossal scale, so the two of us made our way inside to find Riley just leaving the kitchen with a bowl full of popcorn. He waved to us both as he walked down the hall. 

"Oh, hey Heather," he said, as a kind smile appeared on his face. He looked between the two of us with an expression of interest.

"Hey! Riley, right?" Heather asked him. 

Riley nodded his head. 

"I knew you would remember me," he said, as he began to  walk his way upstairs. "Anyway, I'm going to go and watch more Netflix now." 

That didn't surprise me in the slightest. 

"See you later!" I called after him, as I watched him walk up the stairs. 

I turned back to Heather to see that some amusement flickered in her eyes. 

"Do you want to go up to my room? We could watch a movie or a show," I suggested. 

Heather's eyes brightened at that. 

"Sure," she said with an enthusiastic tone of voice. 

The two of us made our way upstairs to my room and I closed my blinds on the rainy weather outside, so the two of us could settle comfortable into my room. 

We both sat down upon my bed, once I had grabbed my laptop and began to scroll through Netflix. 

"I'm one of the most indecisive people ever. Do you want to pick something?" I asked her. 

"Sure," Heather said, as she clicked on a new show I hadn't seen before. 

I moved in a little closer to her as we rested my laptop comfortably between the two of us. 

We watched for a while before Heather turned back to me again. 

"I needed to ask you something," she told me. 

"What did you want to ask me?" I replied. 

"Are you okay? I mean, after everything came out about your feelings for Drew, I wondered," she said. 

I gave a nod of my head. 

"I'm just peachy, Heather," I replied and I actually meant it. I didn't have this weight on my chest anymore. It was as though I could finally move on and I was glad for that fact.  

Heather smiled at that, seeming a little relieved that there was no awkwardness between the two of us. I was glad, too. Heather was one of my closest friends and I didn't want anything to change that. I didn't want a guy to get in the way of the bond that we shared, even if that guy was my best friend. There were no exceptions to the rule because I supposed that Heather was my best friend now, too.  

"Good," she said. 

"I guess now that we're on the subject- do you like anyone?" I asked her. 

Something flickered in Heather's eyes then, which told me a different answer to the one that she provided me with. 

"No," she said, as she turned her attention back to the screen in front of her. 

"You're a kind person, Heather. I already know that there are plenty of people out there that would look at you and like you," I said. 

"And you're a beautiful person, Zoe. So many people like you, more than you think," she said. She looked as though there was more on her mind but she became quieter for a few moments.

I kept my eyes trained on the screen in front of us but I found that I wasn't focused on the colourful characters. I was focused on Heather's presence beside me. 

"I mean, you spent all that time thinking that I was this perfect person and you were jealous of me when in reality, you have no clue," she said. 

"No clue?" I asked her. 

"Yeah, you have no clue about how beautiful you are; you have no clue about how much of an incredibly wonderful person you are and you  have no clue about how I feel about you," she said and then her eyes widened in her realisation of what she just said. "I shouldn't have said anything. I could ruin everything." 

"You're being dramatic. What do you mean?" I asked her. 

"You know that I only want to be friends with Drew but you don't know the true reason behind that," she said. 

"You can trust me, Heather. I trust you," I told her. 

Heather seemed to relax a little at my warm words, as she seemed to think over in her mind what she wanted to say next to me. 

"I never tell anyone about this. You promise you'll keep it our secret?" she asked. 

"I promise, Heather. Damn. Did you kill a guy?" I joked. 

Heather smirked. 

"No but my father seems to think it's just as bad," she said. 

I raised an eyebrow at her words. 

"I'm gay, Zoe," Heather told me. 

I felt my eyes widen then. 

"Oh," I said quietly. 

After I had caught the slight glint of worry in Heather's eyes, I realised that there was more I needed to say. 

"I'm glad you told me. It doesn't and shouldn't change anything though, Heather," I said. 

Heather exhaled in partial relief but her eyebrows soon creased together in worry. 

"I know that we're going to be here for each other no matter what," I said. 

"That's the thing though, Zoe, isn't it?" Heather asked. 

"What do you mean?" I asked her. 

Heather smirked in subtle amusement again. 

"You really have no idea, huh?" she asked me. 

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said. 

"Zoe, I like you," she said. 

"Oh," I said again. I wasn't sure what else to say but it was safe to say that I was considerably shocked. 

For someone who prided themselves on their good imagination, I had never imagined that Heather would have told me that.