Page 14 of False Start

“He’s right though,” Vanessa says to Vaughn before looking at me. “I’m sorry. It’s not fair that you were outed before you were ready.”

Damn, she’s cool. I really hate it.

“Aw, so what, are you three a throuple now?” I really hate the jocks at this school. This time, it’s not Calvin but one of his friends—Robbie. Total meathead. Loves to follow the pack.

“Jealous, Robbie?” Vanessa asks, reaching one arm up around Vaughn’s neck and sliding the other around mine. “You want to be in the middle of this delicious man sandwich?”

She waggles her eyebrows suggestively at him, and he turns bright red, stuttering, “Shut up, Vanessa. You know I’m twice the man they are.”

“Not even close. Maybe you’re jealous of Austin because you really want Calvin all to yourself.”

I turn to Vanessa. “Thanks for that, Van.”

She laughs and kisses my cheek. “It was a burn on Robbie. Not you. You can do way better than Calvin.”

“Agreed,” Vaughn says, and I look over at him, a small smile forming on my lips because even though I wasn’t ready for this—maybe I never would have been—but if this is going to be the new normal for the last month of school, I know I’ll be okay.

Van and Vaughn have my back, and I should have known they would.

“So it’s true then?” Robbie looks at me, his face twisted in disgust. “You’re really a... a...”

“Watch the next word out of your mouth,” Vaughn says, stepping forward, and Vanessa’s arm drops off both of our shoulders.

Robbie pales a little when Vaughn approaches. Can’t really blame the guy. Vaughn has that look on his face. “Gay?”

“It’s really none of your fucking business,” Vaughn bites out, and I look over at Vanessa to see if she’s going to pull Vaughn back. But unfortunately, she just looks geared up for a fight also.

“I am,” I say, just having enough of it already. I look around at all the familiar faces that I’ve known since kindergarten and hold my arms out wide. “I’m gay. Always have been. Surprise!”

I feel Vaughn’s heavy hand fall on my shoulder and squeeze, smiling brightly at me before looking out at the small crowd around us. “If anyone has anything to say about it, you can talk to me. I love to talk.”

I shove him away. “Stop.”

Vanessa laughs and wraps her arms around his neck. “I think it’s pretty sexy when you get all macho.” She’s teasing him, but he kisses her anyway, and that’s my cue to get to class.

I appreciate both of them, but I cannot watch them suck face.

It feels pretty good having this one secret out though. I head to class, leaving Vaughn and Van to it, and it does feel lighter in a way—even though I can feel eyes on me.

It doesn’t matter.

There’s no worry about someone finding out about it anymore because everyone already knows.

I hate that in the back of my mind, I wonder where the hell Calvin is today. There’s no way he’s handling this well.

I was right.For sure. It’s been three days, and Calvin hasn’t been at school. It’s not that he loves school or anything, but he does love baseball and all the sports. So him missing practice and knowing he likely won’t get to play in the game on Friday—yeah, that’s a big deal.

Now I just need to convince Vaughn I can handle this part alone. Not an easy task. “Hey, you think Van can give you a ride today?” I ask him as we head out to the parking lot. He doesn’t have practice this evening because he had it this morning—sports are weird.

“What? Why?” Vaughn looks worried, and here we go.

“I just... uh, have something I need to do.”

He stops walking entirely now. “What? What’s wrong?”

“God, Vaughn, we don’t have to spend every minute together.” And when he winces, I feel like a total dick. “Sorry. I just want to go check on Calvin.”

His entire body stiffens now. “What? Why?”

---