𝙎𝙪𝙧𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙚

Today is the day Alex decides to break his silent streak.

Alex and I had an mutual agreement. In order to not look suspicious and give away our relationship, if his friends were to pick on me, we would let them. Alex wouldn't join in, yet he would stay quiet.

I don't necessarily need to be stuck up for as it's always been me and Cami dealing with it on our own all this time, so it's not like anything has really changed. The only difference is that the worst person is no longer the worst person. He's the silent person. And because Alex isn't joining in, it has definitely died down a bit, especially with the homophobic comments.

Since Alex's coming out, I don't think I've actually heard anything homophobic been said. It's either because they're afraid of Alex's reaction if he finds out, or they've changed their ways as now the personally know someone who is non-straight.

Today, after almost three months of dating, Alex seems to rip our agreement to shreds and toss it into the bin before setting said bin alight, and in all honestly, I wasn't going to complain about it. It was relieving.

"Oh, look. The queer one." Luke Maddison sneers at me as he walks past me at my locker with Mason Anderson by his side and two other friends, Shawn Jones and William Hunter, behind them.

I note that none of his friends laugh this time when the word queer is said in malice. The last time I got called such thing, in class before Alex and I started dating, when that teacher stood up for me, they all found it quite humorous, leading to them getting detention. Now, no evidence of humour is upon them.

"So are you just going to ignore the fact that your best friend is bisexual or—?" I reply, making Luke halt. He holds a hand up as a way of telling his friends to stop too. He then turns to me with a grimace.

Since dating Alex, I've become more confident in the sticking up for myself area. I think because he's so outwardly self-assured, this assertiveness has kind of leaked onto me. I used to brush him and his friends off and walk away without a word, or utter out something in retaliation before fleeing the scene. I never used to stick around for more than one or two sentences. That has since changed. He's made me stronger.

Luke licks his teeth before responding. "What's this got to do with Alex?"

I narrow my eyes at his thickheadedness, the next words rolling on my tongue and falling out my mouth without even thinking, laced with all the confidence I had, "I mean, you're insulting one of his own."

My heart completely constricts in my chest. I just told him that I'm gay. I spoke without thinking about what I was going to say first, and essentially just came out. I praise the Lord that no one is in earshot of this conversation, or I would be flat out panicking right now.

I just told Luke Maddison and three of his friends that I am gay.

Weirdly, I don't panic. The sudden revelation of my sexuality has made me quite nervous, sure, as now, if Luke catches on to what I said, he can go about telling everyone. But I don't panic. I thank my borrowed confidence from Alex for that. I suck in a breath, and don't let my inside shock show on the outside.

I have no plans to take back my words. I've said them now. They're out in the open and I'm not going to take back my progress by claiming that what I said was false. I don't see any point in that, especially given how far I've come.

"One of his own?" Luke is on the brink of laughing, and I'm sure he's about to taunt me for finally admitting my sexuality. Much to my surprise, he doesn't. "He still likes pussy, dude. He's doesn't have to act on the gay part of him. But you, however—you're fully gay, aren't you? You and him aren't the same. He can present as straight, and he does. You can't."

I shut my open locker door closed, stand up straight, and look the dickhead right in the eyes. "One of the most disrespectful thing you can do to a bisexual person is ignore the non-straight side of them. Alex isn't straight in any way just because he still likes pussy. Another half of him likes dick. You have got to stop ignoring that."

"So what if I don't stop ignoring that?" Luke responds. His friends still have yet to say anything. They're still stood here, although they seem to want to look anywhere but at us, as though they're uncomfortable.

"Then you're a terrible friend to him." I shrug, like it's common knowledge. "Why are you so uptight about it? It's just a sexuality. Are you scared he's going to act on the non-straight side of him towards you? Is that it? Look at yourself, no one who likes guys would act on that side of them towards you."

Before I know it, he's use both hands to push me back into the lockers behind me. The loud crashing sound causes a ringing in my ears, though not loud enough to prevent me from hearing him say, "Shut the fuck up, faggot."

This doesn't scare me away like he expect it to. Usually, I would spit 'fuck you' and rush away. This time, I simply push myself off of the lockers and grit my teeth. "God, you're such a prick. Get over it."

I can see Luke pull his fist back in preparation to punch me, so I quickly duck down. However, the sound of his fist colliding with the metal of the lockers never comes. I look up to see Alex gripping Luke's wrist, preventing it from going anywhere near me, his temper on full display.

"Don't." Alex snarls, breathless.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Luke snaps in bemusement, yanking his wrist from Alex's grasp. His friends are looking at the ceiling at this point to prevent themselves from catching anyone's eyes.

Alex's glare is so hard and cold that I almost expect to see a fiery hole being burnt into Luke's head. "Preventing you from hurting an innocent person. I've literally told you to back off countless times."

Luke stares up at him in bewilderment.

The rest of the friends did back off the first time they were told to three months ago, making Luke the only one who didn't take aboard Alex's words. Everyone else sits in silence while Luke tries to offend me, except Jake, who went so far as to befriend me. I don't expect them to do anything, and I am know that they're too scared of Alex to join in with Luke, so I'm OK with this.

I put this all down to Luke being the only one who isn't fearful of what Alex would do if he did continue to try to treat me like crap.

Luke lets out a soft scoff, "I genuinely thought you hated Jenkins. What the Hell is gotten into you?" He says, as though I'm not right here.

"Jenkins," Alex says, ignoring Luke and reaching out his arm to wrap it around my shoulders. My eyebrows crease with absolute confusion as he pulls me away from Luke and his friends. "Walk with me. Talk with me."

When we're far enough away, I shrug his arm off my shoulders, with almost the same expression of bewilderment Luke had. "In the words of Maddison: dude, what are you doing?" I whisper, making sure that I'm quiet enough so that the others can't hear me.

"Here me out. I think we should just tell them that we're civil." Alex begins, just as quietly as I was. My eyes widen.

"Wait, what?"

"They'll back off in that case and I cannot sit on the sidelines and watch them continue with this shit. I know we don't want to seem suspicious, but I think we should have made it publicly known from the beginning. Like, some people have used their common sense and just assumed we're civil now but, those dudes, they really haven't. They're dim."

"Made what known from the beginning? Us dating or us being civil?" I question, just to make sure. I don't think I have the guts to tell everyone that I'm dating Alex yet. Definitely not until Cami knows. I don't want her to find out from someone who isn't me.

"Us being civil. I wouldn't say this about dating because I know that takes time for you. It's your call for when we'll tell them."

"Wait," I pause, "does that mean you want them to know about us dating?"

"I've wanted them to know the whole time. You know, I wanna show off that you're mine. I've just been waiting for when you're comfortable enough for everyone to know."

I've always known that he cares about me and our situation, and he's done nothing to show otherwise, but hearing him say things like this makes my heart flutter. It's so relieving to have a non-pressuring boyfriend who understand that I need to take my time when it comes to big things. If he didn't then I'm not sure I'd be able to be in this relationship.

"Oh. Like sex." I blurt out.

"Yeah."

"Sorry for making you wait so long, by the way."

"Whenever you're ready, baby." He responds, making sure he's extra quiet when he calls me baby. Because we can't hug or kiss right now with Alex's friends like fifteen feet behind us, he ever so slightly bumps my shoulder with his. "Should we tell them we're civil? It's cool if you don't want to."

"Yeah, I do want to, but we should make it look like we've only now come to the agreement or they might get pissed that we kept it from them, or it might make them suspicious that we didn't want to tell them." I say, feeling just a tad bit smarter.

I look over my shoulder to see Luke, Mason, and the two other guys staring at us. Mason, Shawn and William all have blank expressions on their faces, whereas Luke looks as though his head is about to explode.

"OK." Alex replies quickly, and before I know it, he's walking away from me. I stay where I am. "Yeah, by the way, Jenkins and I have decided to be civil. We can't give a fuck about this rivalry thing any longer. Surprise surprise." He tells his friends, his voice now at normal level.

"What, you're just gonna ignore each other?" responds Luke, the confusion on his features deepening. I can practically see the clogs whirring in his brain as he tries to grab ahold of any sort of sense about this.

I can understand why it's so difficult for him to grasp—the other guys looks like they don't care, although that may be because they've already come to terms with it as they've used the little amount of brain cells they have to work it out when Alex and I first became civil. With Luke, we've basically gone from straight hating each other to being civil.

If I were in his shoes right now, it wouldn't make sense to me either. He hasn't seen any of the things that have happened behind closed doors; Alex already being in love with me, him living with me and meeting my family, me falling in love with him, and everything else that has happened I am so grateful for.

"Pretty much." Alex states, striding past him.

He doesn't make any move to stop to converse with Luke about this, so the smaller guy hurries after him. The other three friends shrug and walk off. I begin walking the same way at a safe distance so I'm able to hear what is said without looking inquisitive.

Alex continues talking when he sees that Luke is following. He sees me too, flashing me a quick smirk. "We've already been doing it. We just thought we'd make the civility official as we've recently been avoiding each other this easily anyway."

"In a short conversation?"

"You learn, you grow, you mature. You agree on things in short conversations. I'm hungry."

Luke grabs his arm, to which Alex yanks away almost as quickly, "You know Jenkins is gay? He might come onto you cause you like guys or whatever."

I try not to laugh and make it obvious that I'm listening, but the fact that Luke constantly fixates on sexuality, whether that's mine or Alex's, is quite laughable to me. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he's obsessed with the subject. It's always, 'Jenkins...gay...blah blah blah' or 'Alex...bisexual...still likes women...blah blah blah'.

"Maybe if we go outside, a fuck may fall into my hand, and I can give it to you." Alex answers sardonically, offering Luke his hand as if there is already a fuck there. This makes me sort with amusement, but I cover it with a cough. Neither of them takes any notice. "I want a sandwich." Alex announces, and he quickens his pace into the cafeteria.

The subject seems to have been dropped as they make their way inside.

It doesn't take me long to spot my friends as soon as I walk into the cafeteria myself.

"One time when we were in elementary school and had to get changed in the same classroom, while getting changed for PE, Jones accidentally pulled down his underwear and now every time his name is mentioned, that image pops up in my head and all I can think about is his tiny fucking penis. I think that is the moment I turned lesbian." Kenzie says, just as I sit down. I don't need to ask. She already told me this story this morning.

Everyone apart from Cami chuckles at this. The moody girl is instead forcefully piercing a piece of chicken with her fork, her chin resting in her hand. She lets out sigh and looks up. Once she seems that I'm there, her mood seems to alleviate. I smile at her, eyebrows furrowed as a way of silently asking if she's OK. She shakes her head dismissively.

"Hey, what took you so long?" Jake asks me, clapping me on the back; it's his way of greeting guys. He tried to do it to Kenzie, but she ended up pushing him into a nearby bin in response. He hasn't done it to her since. He doesn't dare do it to Lucy, who both Kenzie and I have come to the conclusion that he definitely has feelings for. He hardly speaks to Cami, even though she's always hanging out with us, so he hasn't tried it on her either.

I've actually noticed that I'm the only one Cami properly speaks to out of the whole group. If she does speak to the others, it's with a clipped and somewhat cold expression. I don't understand why she doesn't like them, they only ever been nice to her. She especially seems to have some problem with Kenzie.

"I had a run in with Maddison and his friends." I respond. Although I am hungry, the anxiety of what happened creeps in on me and I don't think I would be able to stomach food, so I don't buy any lunch.

"Oh Hell no." Jake is quick to say, and he's on his feet in an instant.

"Jake, don't. It's OK. Sit down." I say, grabbing his arm and gently pull him down. He hesitates, and I see that his fists are already balled up, but then he relaxes and sits back down.

"What happened? Are you OK?" Lucy asks. She, Kenzie and Jake all look concerned. Cami, on the other hand, doesn't even look up from her food. I'm used to this looming quietness surrounding her each time these issues are brought up. The first time I noticed was the class where Kenzie and Jake stood up for me. It's like Cami doesn't care anymore, and I don't know what changed. It's incredibly unsettling.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Basically, Maddison said some homophobic stuff, so I mentioned Alex being bisexual and how he shouldn't be saying that sort of thing when his best friend isn't straight himself. I guess Maddison wasn't happy with me standing up for myself and tried to punch me. Alex stopped him. He got confused, as expected, 'cause they all think that we hate each other—"

"—but you do hate each other." Kenzie butts in.

"That's the thing. We don't."

She visibly does a double take, blinking and shaking her head as though she's been blinded, "Come again?"

"You know how Alex tutors me. Well, at the start we agreed to become civil because we thought that was the only way the tutoring would work. I suppose we didn't tell anyone because we expected people to catch on. Some did, but now it's obvious that others didn't. To be honest, I thought you knew."

The only person at the table who knows the whole truth is Lucy. As Cami is sat here too and I haven't even come out to her yet, I can't say what's really up between me and Alex. As a matter of fact, I'm planning on telling Kenzie and Jake about our relationship once I have my boyfriend's blessing. They know I'm gay, and now they know that Alex and I are at least cool with each other. No harm done. Cami is another story.

"God, I hate those idiots. They claimed to be my friends yet had the audacity to ask for the n-word pass and were racist towards me, then tellin' me things like 'oh, it was only a joke. I have nothing against you'. I don't mean to make this about me, but what I'm tryna say is that I understand what it's like to be picked on for something you can't help." Jake says. After about a second, his eyes widen slightly when he realises that Cami is at the table. "Not that I'm saying you're gay—you know what I mean."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Jake," I answer, and my heart lurches like it does every time I hear about issues like this. It's so not fair, the way people are treated like crap for something they can't help. It's not difficult to not be a dick yet people still are.

"I'm sorry too, Jake," Lucy pipes up, reaching across to grab Jake's hand which he's rested on the table. "And you too, Matty. I'm sorry you both have to go through things like that. Oh, and also you, Kenzie, if anything like this has happened to you. I feel so bad."

I smile at how sweet she is. Jake practically melts as soon as her hand touches his.

"You would never think that Montgomery is into guys, he's so straight looking." Cami says and it's the first thing she's said since I sat down. The rest of us pause and turn to her. " I would say that he's pretending to be bi for a scheme or something, but he always has gum in his mouth and I put that down to him sucking so much dick."

I try not to lose my shit. As she's someone I consider a best friend, I'm extremely disappointed that this is what she has to say. No words of support towards either me or Jake, no signs of even caring about whether we're alright. She chooses to say something like this. Something downright homophobic. I'm not sure she realises it.

"Cami, you do realise that I'm a lesbian?" Kenzie speaks up. She, too, looks like she's on the verge of yelling her ass off.

"Yeah, so? I didn't say anything about you."

Seriously, read a room, Cami.

Kenzie takes a deep breath, a slightly shaky hand running through her long dark hair, "You looked at me like you expected me to laugh. What you said wasn't funny. It was offensive."

"Come on, it was just a joke," Cami responds. You would expect some sort of apologetic look on her face, but no. She's actually amused by this. The corners of her mouth poke up into a smile. She's almost laughing. Then she turns to me. "Matty?"

I can feel a lump in my throat as I shrug, "I'm with Kenzie on this one."

The girl clamps her mouth shut and crosses her arms over her chest. She does not look impressed by our responses, but I can't feel sorry for her, regardless of how close we are.

"I'm hungry, but I don't know what to eat," Jake announces, breaking the awkward silence which has fallen upon the table.

"Penis," Kenzie says before she beams extra wide at him.

Jake gives her a mock smile. "Thank you, Kenz. I'll go get that from the