We walked down the hall hand in hand. There was no inner turmoil about what others would think, no doubt in wondering if this was the wrong choice, and I was loving every moment of it.

It wasn’t just Blake who shined with confidence. Both of us held our heads high as we walked down the hall, ignoring any look of disdain that came our way. It took a lot of convincing on Blake’s part to come out as a couple in such a way, but I couldn’t be more happy with the decision.

With his hand tightly gripping mine, I could do just about anything. The warm tingles that went through my body whenever his skin touched mine made almost everything seem worth it. I never thought there would be a time where I’d be so happy that I wasn’t hiding behind my facade anymore.

At first it was meant to protect me, but now I have all the protection I need. Blake wouldn’t let anything happen to me, he made his feelings for me very clear. When I said yes, I didn’t know what to expect. I thought that maybe things would be different since we were dating, but besides the label, nothing changed.

That fact alone was more than I could ever ask for.

I was happy that he felt like he could act the same around me even though we were in a relationship. That was what made me scared when it came to putting labels on things. Once you put the name on the can, it’s easy to try to change the contents of it.

Blake wasn’t doing this, though. He was comfortable staying the way he was. He knew that he didn’t have to change anything for me to be happy with him. Only yesterday he had asked me to be his boyfriend, and after some deep thinking, I replied with a yes.

The way his eyes lit up at my answer made me smile brighter than I thought I could. Who knew seeing someone so happy could have such an effect?

Emotionally, everything was going well, until I spotted Rodney eyeing us while he leaned against his locker. He was in his usual threatening pose, as daunting as ever. His piercing gaze slashed through my reassurance that everything was still okay.

Simply ignoring Rodney wouldn’t do any good. He was relentless in his attempts to make my life a living hell. It didn’t used to bother me that Austin was such good friends with him, but I couldn’t say the same anymore. After everything he has done to me, it’s about time Austin stood up and said something.

I wasn’t going to be the person to tell him who not to hang out with, but I often wished that he’d realize that Rodney and I had more than a small feud.

Rodney was just about to make his way over, making my hand tense up in Blake’s, but two girls I knew only by name came up to us.

“Harry?” Sammie looked to me and then the person I was linked to, “and Blake, is it?”

Sammie's skin tone was a little darker since she was hispanic. Her brown hair was wavy and had a bounce to it, while her friend who stood next to her, Caroline, had pale skin and platinum blond hair. They both looked at us in a way no one had the whole entire day.

In admiration.

We both nodded and then she spoke again. Caroline stayed silent beside her, but still looked impressed with the two of us. “We just wanted to say that it’s really cool that you guys are coming out as a couple.”

“Yeah,” Caroline agreed, “Finally.”

Sammie jabbed her friend with her elbow and sent her a look. “Sorry about this one.” she nodded over to Caroline who, in turn, sent her a look back. “She can be a little intense.”

“Me, intense? What about you when you’re-” Sammie cut Caroline off before she could say any more by shoving her playfully, making her giggle.

I looked over the two of them for a second and then towards Blake who smirked down at the two of them like he knew something that I didn’t.

Rodney rolled his eyes in the distance, finally stopping with his constant glaring over here. This was mostly because Bradley and Charlette were walking hand in hand towards him. Finally when I thought I wasn’t going to be stared at anymore, Bradley started looking over this way.

After exchanging eye contact for a few seconds he sent me a small smile. I quickly looked away and tuned back into the conversation that was happening in front of me. Caroline was giggling at something that Sammie was saying, practically hanging all over her.

Even for girls they were a lot more touchy feely than usual. My thoughts were cut off when they asked if we wanted to sit with them at lunch. Blake usually wasn’t a people person, but he agreed without a second thought.

He tightened his hand around mine reassuringly, silently telling me that everything would be fine.

Following the two girls to the cafeteria, I was feeling out of place again. Usually I got Blake and I a seat at a table for two and tried to stay out of everyone’s way. I didn’t want a repeat of the... banana incident. If Rodney and Blake got into another fight because of me, I’m sure they’d get an even longer suspension than last time.

Sammie and Caroline lead us to a table that wasn’t too far from where Rodney was sitting. I silently hoped that no one would start something. A nice and quiet lunch was just the thing to brighten up the rest of the day.

After a whole day of being looked down upon it would be nice to have a break. These girls seemed nice, but I was confused why they were so nice to me. No one ever asked Blake and I to sit with them, let alone me. People didn’t like me before I was ‘out’, and more people disliked me afterwards, but these two didn’t seem to mind.

I looked around the lunchroom and noticed that Austin was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t sitting with Sabrina, who was talking Amber. That was his normal spot, and that’s not where he was. My mind brought me back to Dax, and that Eddie guy who came to see Austin a while ago.

Could he finally have given into their demands and cut out of school?

“Where’s Austin?” I didn’t even realize I said it until after I sat down at the table with Blake and the girls after getting our food.

Blake visibly tensed when I mentioned him, which made me feel bad, but this was important. If he was doing what I thought he was than he could be in trouble. My hero complex needed to learn how to turn itself off sometimes.

“Who cares?” Blake huffed, stuffing a chicken nugget in his mouth. I couldn’t hold his attitude against him, his intentions were good. His attitude towards the first person I ever loved was just out of jealousy, and a protective nature over me since Austin broke my heart just a month ago.

Noticing I dropped the subject, Blake smiled and turned his attention to Sammie. “So, when did you two start dating?”

I choked on my chocolate milk a little and looked at Sammie and Caroline with a new set of eyes. “You’re lesbians?”

Sammie stared at me surprised while Caroline just sat there laughing her ass off. “You didn’t know?”

Now I was embarrassed. Was this not news?

Caroline continued laughing as she said, “We’ve been dating ever since Homecoming! I can’t believe you didn’t know. Oh, this is great!”

“Will you stop laughing at the poor kid, Carrie?” Sammie groaned as she sent me an apologetic look after. “Half the school hasn’t caught on yet.”

“That’s because this school is filled with idiots.”

“Says the person whose school president!” Sammie then let out a snort. “You pretty much just called yourself president of the idiots.”

This made Blake snort. His laugh was always contagious to me, so I found myself laughing as well. It had become clear to me that I hadn’t laughed as much as I had for the past couple of weeks. He didn’t only show me how to move on from a hopeless fantasy, but he also made me realize that I could still have a good time.

My life compared to others wasn’t as bad as I always had thought. Yes, it could be better, but it wasn’t as hopeless as it used to seem.

A couple more people took seats around us. At first they looked at Blake and me funny, but after just a little bit they didn’t seem to care. They greeted us with kind smiles that I hadn’t seen directed at me ever since people found out.

“Guys,” Sammie said to the group of two girls and one guy, “I’m sure you all know who Harry is since his supposed best friend outed him to the whole school.”

“That was a dick move,” the guy said, who I believed his name was Trevor. He was the girlfriend of Madison, who was also one of Austin’s closest girl friends.

Madison nodded in agreement and looked over at me. “You don’t have to worry about us treating you differently, okay?” She smiled kindly at Blake and me. Her smile was the kind that could brighten up your day just by having seen it.

I didn’t know what to say, so I just nodded gratefully. Blake wrapped his arm around me and pulled me closer. Everyone at the table didn’t even seem bothered by it, which made my smile widen.

“Yeah, we are the only rational people left in this shit hole.” That came from Kady, the school’s most outspoken girl. Some people didn’t like her since she had a big mouth, but I always appreciated her Candor. “People are treating you like you have something wrong with you, and that’s not true.”

“Exactly!” Caroline rang in, “We’re gay, we don’t have Herpes!”

“At least, not all of you,” Trevor pointed out, laughing at his own joke.

Blake almost burst out laughing. I didn’t think it was that funny, but I chuckled anyways. This was the first actual group of people that hasn’t turned me down while still knowing what I was. That was something I wasn’t going to take for granted.

Things were almost looking up, but of course, what comes up must come down.

I leaned against Austin’s car as I waited for him to leave the the building. Ever since I got out of school I had been waiting for the chance to talk to him. By the looks of how fast he was walking over here, he had somewhere to be.

“And where are you going?” I asked once he saw me.

Once he saw me he let out a long sigh. “What are you, my mother now?” I didn’t know what to make of his tone, but it almost sounded like he was mad at me. “Look Harry, I’m sorry. It’s just-. I think it’s best if you stay away from me for a little while.”

My angered look deepened as I figured out what his plan was. “You’re going to them right now, aren’t you?” His look said it all.

After a moment of silence he nodded. "There's no other way. I don't have some witty plan to get out of this. The only thing I can do is survive and make sure my friends do too, so please, leave. Let me do this."

There was no way in Hell! If he thought that I was going to just step aside and let him do this, than he was gravely-

If I just didn’t look him in those pleading eyes, I knew I wouldn’t have broken, but of course I wasn’t that strong. Even though my feelings for Austin were numbed a big from my growing feelings for Blake, they weren’t gone. I didn’t know if they would ever leave.

When I stayed quiet, he continued, "I promised myself that no one would get hurt because of me, and I intend to keep it. You are my best friend, dude. I don't want you to get hurt. Stay away from me, stay out of my way, make sure they have no reason to use you against me."

There was obviously no time to question him. His pleads were so strong that I feared what would happen if he didn’t go.

Right when I caved in with a nod, he pulled me into a tight hug. I wrapped my hands around him as well, but considering how fast he pulled away, he felt uncomfortable really fast. It could have been the fact that he was in a hurry, but I doubted it.

He got in the car and closed the door. I was about to turn back to the school to wait for Charlette, but stayed when the window started rolling down.

“Could you tell Sabrina-” his voice cracked as he thought about what he wanted to say. “Tell her, I’m sorry.”

For a second I thought it looked like his eyes were watering, but he quickly rolled up the window and pulled out of the school parking lot. He was going way over the speed limit, but that was the least of his problems right now.

Every bone in my body was telling me that I was going to regret letting him go, but what was the alternative? I couldn’t help but imagine it being so much worse. There was still so much I didn’t know about what was going on with the person I wish I knew enough to call my best friend.

He was my best friend, but just not a very good one.

It pained me to think this, but it was sadly true. Austin wasn’t a good friend, he wasn’t the nicest of people out there, but he sure as hell was something. He was the most strong person I knew, and I wasn’t going to give up on him.

No matter how many people told me different.

“What was that about?” I was surprised to hear his voice from behind me, but I wasn’t as disappointed as I thought I’d be.

I smiled, but it faded when I turned and saw the state he was in. The bags under his eyes had bags of their own, and his eyes were covered in rivers of red veins. Whittney’s hair was a disheveled mess under his beanie. A cigarette hung from his mouth as he sucked a deep breath of air into his lungs, then let it out through his nose.

“Fuck, Whitt.” I didn’t know what else to say as I looked at the state of someone I used to called friend. After he left my house the day he tried to apologize to Austin, he hadn’t been the same. He was barely at school, and when he was it was just for a couple hours.

“I look like shit, I know.” Whittney removed the cig from his mouth and let out another blow. “I feel like it too.”

“What are you doing here?” I wished it didn’t sound like such an accusation, but that’s kind of what it was. There was a time where everything he did had reason. Right now it was hard to see what that was, but no doubt it was still there. “You were trying to talk to Austin, weren’t you?”

His face fell as he nodded. “I was too late.” The cigarette dropped to the concrete and he smashed it under his shoe and scuffed the bottom of his shoe as he tried kicking it away. “He’s going to Dax, isn’t he?”

I nodded, my face suddenly falling as well. Even though we both didn’t know much about Dax, we did know that he had something to do with Austin being in critical condition Freshman year, but other than that, we were clueless.

Now since he was going back, that memory was all I could think about. It was a time where I didn’t know that I was gay. In fact, I was so into girls that I never even considered the fact I could like guys instead.

There were those who believe that you were born with some kind of gay gene. I didn’t know if I completely bought that. Sometimes I just thought it was an easy way out so people could say, well I was born this way, so there’s nothing I can do about it.

But really, who knows? Who cares how people were attracted to a certain person or gender. That wasn’t important. What was important, what will always be important, is the fact that love is such a powerful feeling, there’s no point in fighting it.

Once it takes a hold of you, you might as well enjoy the ride, because there’s no getting out of it.

“Is he going to be okay?” For the first time in years, Whittney seemed genuinely worried about someone other than himself. He looked different this way. He looked vulnerable, and that was a state that he never let anyone see.

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “The only thing we can do now is sit back and hope for the best.”