In Real Life ✓

3. Relationship Goals

Since we were 'almost grown-ups', the school board decided it'd be fun to send us off to some remote place with nothing but trees and animal shit to learn about nature. Fucking nature. If there was anything I hated more than humans, it was nature.

What's even worse, we had to go camping.

When I told Hugo, he wouldn't stop laughing for ten minutes, because he went to a theme park with his classmates back when the school board still had fun people. Lucky son of a bitch.

However, it was my turn to burst out laughing when he told me that his roommate, Mason, had caught him making out with Floyd in the hallway. No need for him to come out of the closet to Mason anymore, I guess.

Fortunately for Hugo, he didn't mind.

"Does Floyd have a roommate, too?" I asked him.

"Yeah, some guy named Kenny. I wish we could switch..." He sighed. "I could share the room with Floyd."

"I guess you could try asking, but where does that leave Dylan? Doesn't he live, like, hours away?"

"No, it's not that far away. It's on the other side of town. He can come over whenever he wants. Or we can go over to him, I guess. Besides, he doesn't mind if Floyd and I spend time together without him. That's kind of the point of this whole... relationship thing."

I sighed to myself. "Relationships sound tiring."

All the effort Hugo went through to spend time with his boyfriends—and I don't mean just visiting one another in their dorm rooms—was plain incredible. There had been a time when they literally couldn't be together, because Dylan's father was a bigoted asshole. I'll never forget the miserable look on his face when he showed up at our doorstep after getting kicked out of his house just for being in a relationship with the two boys he loved. It was fucking bullshit.

The drama with these three was just... damn.

"They are, but they're worth it," he said confidently.

"Hm, I do wonder..." I murmured. "Do you think anyone would want a relationship with me, even though I'm asexual?"

From what I'd gathered from friends and family, everyone always needed things from their significant others that I knew I'd never be able to give to anyone. No kissing, no cuddling, no touching, and especially not sex. I barely liked any kind of physical contact to begin with. And I knew there was no obligation—nor would I ever do things I didn't want to do—but I just couldn't help but worry about never finding someone who could do without those things.

"Uh... I don't know," Hugo replied. "I think so. In fact, they should. There's more to a relationship than sex."

"Says the guy who's constantly trying to suck his boyfriends' dicks."

"Shush, that's not true," he said defensively. Liar. The walls were thin. "Why are you asking anyway? Is there someone?"

"Oh, no," I scoffed. "It's way too early to tell."

"Ooh! What's his name?"

"You're so gay."

"What's his name?" he repeated.

"Hugo, I literally just started school. How could there already be someone?"

"Because you wouldn't have asked that question if there wasn't. You've been thinking about him."

"I hate how observant you are."

"Thank you. Love you too. Now what's his name?"

"Gilbert."

"What a dorky name. I love it."

I rolled my eyes, and before Hugo could ask me more about my potential love interest, I quickly ended the conversation. I knew he'd never shut up if I didn't and I still needed to pack my bags for this stupid trip, which was only two days away.

For some reason, the trip was during the weekend. The new school board must be fucking stupid. Monday to Friday were school days. Not Saturday and Sunday. And what made it even worse was the goddamn temperature. Summer had barely ended... I was gonna bring so many warm clothes I'd need at least two bags—the really big ones with extra compartments on all sides—because freezing to death had never been and would never be on my bucket list.

Okay, I was exaggerating, but it wasn't going to be warm. Let's keep it at that.

On my phone, judging by the constant pinging that came from it, Tamara and Leslie were still going crazy in our group chat because of the animals that were supposedly going to come into their tents and kill them in their sleep. I hoped they would.

When I picked up my phone, they had become even more enraged because we were leaving for our trip at the same time that Tamara was supposed to go out with Darren. He'd said it was fine, which I'm sure it was, but Tamara just had to make a big deal out of it. As usual. She was fully convinced that Darren didn't want to go out with her anymore after this.

One text to Darren's number, which I'd secretly obtained by nicking Tamara's phone earlier that day, convinced my suspicions. Of course he still wanted to go out with her. I cracked a smile and opened up Twitter.