Ethan was not gay.

He'd done a lot of stupid things in his life, but, as it turned out, spray painting God Hates Fags on the school wall had, by far, been the stupidest.

Ethan was not homophobic. For fuck's sake, he didn't even believe in God. The reason he did it, though, was because of an old grudge.

Last year, he'd had to work on a Physics project with Collin Bennet, the valedictorian with the 4.0 GPA.

Being quiet the opportunist,—that, and being a lazy piece of shit—Ethan let him do all the work.

What he hadn't know at the time was that bookworm-Collin was a snitch.

So, like the little bitch he was, Collin ratted Ethan out the day they had to turn their projects in. It cost the poor boy 35% of his grade, and he'd had to attend summer school because of the snobby brat.

Ever since then, he'd hated his guts. That was why, when Collin had come out as gay in the summer, Ethan—again, an opportunist—had taken it as a chance to mess with him for a bit.

Only somehow, he managed to forget that their campus had about seven hundred cameras literally everywhere, even the fucking classrooms.

So, to protect her son's—lack of—academic future, Ethan's mother decided that she would rather have had everyone think that her only son was gay, than to risk him missing his exams. She said that the reason he did what he'd done was to protest homophobia, that using the phrases bible-thumping idiots use to belittle gay people would be some sort of reclamation.

The principle decided she would not suspend him, but he did have detention every day of the week for two weeks, because, apparently, spray painting a school wall was still considered vandalism.

To add onto the pile of unfortunate events, his mother was so furious, that she grounded her son for the rest of the month. It was the first time she'd ever punished her boy—in all the seventeen years of his life.

Talk about a spoilt brat.

So now he was gay, grounded, and he had to endure two extra hours of school everyday for two weeks.

This was definitely going to take a toll on his throne at the very top of the social ladder.

But it didn't end there.

After Mrs. Longwood found out about his gayness, she suggested a public outing at the school because, according to her, coming to terms with sexuality was something to celebrate. She used 'LGBT representation' as an excuse, saying the school board was already looking for some way to embrace the 'differences' of their 'eccentric' students, and this would be just perfect.

What a load of horse-shit.

When he tried to refuse, his mother smiled devilishly, told Mrs. Longwood it was a great idea, and even signed the fucking form.

***

When Monday rolled around far too quickly, Ethan couldn't help but notice the feeling of dread that usually accompanied the start of the week had been amplified.

Today was the day of his public "outing."

He was not worried about the homophobes; it was 2018, so he doubted there were that many. And he could probably beat all their asses, anyway.

He was just worried about how much this was going to change his life.

Would any girl ever want to hook up with him again? Would he get hit on by other guys? Would this haunt him after he graduated?

He'd already called his best friend, Mason Cooper, and told him all about what was going to happen. He was pissed at first, but then had his fair share of laughing at his friend's misfortune.

Lately, it just seemed like everyone was waiting for the chance to make Ethan's life a living hell.

"How's my favorite homo?!" Mason shouted, slinging an arm around Ethan's shoulder. His caramel brown hair sat in its usual curly lump at the top of his head, his dark brown eyes alive with shameless amusement.

Ethan shrugged his arm off with a scowl. "Would you shut the hell up? I'm still trying to figure out a way to the get the principle off my dick."

Mason chuckled behind him. "Come on, dude. It's senior year. Not like anyone's going to remember you in a few months," he explained matter-of-factly.

"But this is senior year, Mason! This should've been my time to thrive by screwing girls whose names I won't remember the next morning, but now everyone's going to think I'm gay."

"You can still have sex. I know a few guys that'd wanna hit that," he joked, nudging the boy with his shoulder. In turn, Ethan smacked the back of his head, feeling a sense of satisfaction when he heard Mason wince.

"Fuck off, Mason."

They walked into the cafeteria, and there was this projector set up in the middle of the room, and Ethan felt like gauging his eyes out because what the fuck had he signed himself up for?

Mason laughed beside his mortified friend, and the latter almost knocked his front teeth out, but then, a loud screech echoed through the room. Almost immediately, everybody grew silent.

"Hi, everyone!" Mrs. Longwood squeaked, attempting to wave a rainbow flag while balancing the mic between her hands. She failed miserably; the flag and the mic both went crashing down.

Everybody snickered as a now-flustered principle leaned down and grabbed them with shaking hands. Blushing a beetroot red, she mumbled an inaudible apology.

Ethan relaxed, wishing this could've went on forever. She would've just kept messing up until lunch was over, and she would've forget all about their agreement, and everything would've been right in the world.

But of course, that didn't happen.

"In this school, we believe love, in all its forms, should be celebrated," she began, causing a series of excited murmurs to erupt among the now-smiling teenagers.

"Homophobia is irrational, anyways. Why would anyone be afraid of homes?" was her feeble attempt at a joke. Nobody batted an eye, and Ethan found himself biting back a cringe as the only reaction to her not-so-punny pun was the sound of laughter bubbling from her own throat.

When realization dawned on her, she covered up her chuckles with an awkward cough, cheeks glowing a bright red.

Radiating embarrassment, she opted for a change of topic, "We will now be hearing from our friend Ethan Gray," she spoke with her annoyingly high-pitched voice. Said boy's heart dropped to his stomach as everyone grew dead silent yet again.

All of a sudden, his hands grew clammy, his knees started to shake, and his pulse accelerated. Ethan couldn't help the way he began to imagine himself up on that stage, in poor Mrs. Longwood's place, and how, in that scenario, everyone would be laughing at him, not with him.

Mason patted him on the back reassuringly, trying—and failing—to mask the tormenting smirk threatening to weasel its way into his lips.

"Any time now, Ethan," he mused.

Hesitantly, Ethan walked up to the stage and took the microphone into his sweaty hands. It almost slipped, and, for a second, he hoped it had.

"Um, hey, guys," he started nervously, his voice strained.

"WHAT'S UP, ETHAN?" Luke, a guy on the football team, shouted. Everybody cheered. Ethan smiled, but then he was immediately struck with the realization that, in a matter of minutes, he might lose all that support.

"So, um, yeah, it's 2018. Wow. Gay people exist. Pretty cool, isn't it? I mean, they have existed for a while now, but now it's like, different, because they have, like, rights and shi-and stuff, you know? My advice to the homophobes would be, don't knock it till you try it, if you know what I mean. Thank you," he rambled, not stopping to take a breath, as he rushed to get off the stage. Mrs. Longwood stopped him.

"Ah, ah, ah, Mr. Gray," she scolded. "I'm sure your friends are curious as to why you were chosen to speak today, aren't they?" she asked, turning to the crowd with malice shining in her cold, dead eyes. She was enjoying this way too much.

That bitch.

Nobody granted verbal approval, but from the way their eyebrows were furrowed and their eyes were wide, Ethan could tell the faces staring back at him were growing impatient. Hell, so was he.

"Um, yeah, well, I-I've recently come to the realization th-that, um,"

Just spit it out, Ethan. You can do it. Come on!

The boy shut his eyes tightly, clenching his fists as his breathing grew shallow with nerves.

"I'm gay."