Hope.

• Chapter 32 •

• Luca •

I was overwhelmed, to say the least. I didn't expect Tyler to fucking tell me he likes me back after ignoring me for a week. It was a lot to take in, in a good way.

Of course, I still startled myself when I realized I was with a guy. Me, a guy, was with another guy. This would most definitely not go down well with anyone from my family, so I decided to not tell anyone. Maybe not the best thing to do but definitely the smartest, if I didn't want to get kicked out of the house.

It was weird when Tyler had pulled me aside during break to kiss me. Everything was very new to me. Dickson had been helping me work through things, he had told me to try and come out to the rest of friend group when I was ready. I knew their response would be alright. With Lily, nobody cared, however, Jess was a bit of a prick to them sometimes. She claimed to have forgotten their pronouns but it was obvious she did it on purpose. They had a lot of fights because of that, and I get it now. I never sided with Jess anyways, Dickson would have killed me if I had.

Dickson was intimidated by Jess, after all, she was twice as tall as him.

So when Dickson had called us to his house, I decided that I was going to tell them.

I was slightly worried about how Fatima would take it all. In between conversations, I would try to sneak the topic in to see her reaction. She seemed okay with it most of the time.  I just hope she would be this time as well.

Nervously I walked into Dickson's house. The door was wide open, no wonder Dickson had someone steal a whole lamp the other day. "Luca hi!" Fatima said, running up to me. "Lilly nearly died, they tried to do some TikTok dance with Dickson and Dickson dropped them onto the ground. Wallahi it was so funny," I could tell she had been laughing, her tan cheeks were completely flushed.

She adjusted her hijab before pulling me further into the living room where Lily was seemed to be whisper-shouting at Dickson.

I saw Dickson's eyes light up in relief when he saw me. He immediately ran up to me and slung his arm around my shoulder. "You ready," he whispered, in reassurance.

"I think," I mumbled, my stomach twisting uneasily. "Hi everyone," my eyes scanned all my friends who turned to face me, expectedly. "I need to tell you guys something," Dickson squeezed my shoulder comfortingly.

"I'm gay,"

The room fell silent. I frantically searched their faces. Jacob was beaming at me, Steve seemed to be in genuine shock, Lily had their lips upturned into a sympathetic smile, Fatima seemed confused but the worst part was the look of hatred on Jess' face.

"It's okay, my guy," Jacob said, walking over to be before ruffling my hair causing me to smile awkwardly.

"Yeah dude, it's okay," Steve chimed in from the back, the look of shock fading into a supportive grin.

"You are gay, Luca?" Fatima asked, her heading titling to the side slightly in an innocent gaze. 

I nodded with a weary smile. "I am," my voice wavered.

A small smile tugged at her lips. "Okay,"

"Okay?" I asked, a feeling of relief flooding through my body and I could see Lily's and Dickson's smile widening.