The Waiter Boy - A Ziam AU Mini-Fic

Chapter 2 - They Are All The Talk

“Maybe,” I agreed, not really understanding what he truly meant.

Another brief silence.

“Do you think my mum will hate me?” Harry suddenly asked. The change of topic threw me for a loop, but I knew what he was talking about. Harry has known he was gay since he was thirteen, and has yet to tell his mum. He’s always worrying about it. It was pretty obvious that Harry was gay though. An older boy at school had found nude pictures of girls and guys, and brought them to school to show them off. I refused to look, but Harry did.

“You looked?” I asked him, more surprised than anything else. Harry nodded, biting on his lower lip that was chapped and bleeding already. He had that terrible habit since he was young.

“Yeah,” He shifted uncomfortably.

“Well?” I asked as if I expected him to say something about them.

“I didn’t look at the girls,” He said.

“What? I thought you said you looked?” I was starting to get confused.

“I did look,” He said. He suddenly broke down into tears, “I didn’t look at the girls though,”

“Oh,” Was all I could say when I realized what he was talking about.

“Is there something wrong with me?” He asked. I shook my head vigorously. Even though our town was very Christian, my grandmum had always raised me to love people for who they were, no matter what.

“No,” I said, “It’s just who you are.”

“Okay,” He agreed. And then I hugged him, because I wanted him to know everything was going to be okay.

Ever since then, I haven’t really thought much into Harry’s sexuality. He was still just Harry to me, one of my closest friends.

“Are you going to tell her?” I asked.

Harry had been talking about telling his mum for quite some time now, but every time he told me he was going to do it, he would call me late at night sobbing. He was very insecure about himself and his feelings.

“I want to,” He answered. In other words, he still wasn’t strong enough to do it quite yet.

“Take your time,” I said, “I mean, you don’t like, have a boyfriend or anything,”

“You’re right,” Harry said, “Maybe I’ll just tell her when it matters,”

“Okay,” I agreed. I glanced at my watch. It was almost midnight. “I have to get home,” I said.

“Alright, Li,” He smiled, giving me a huge hug, “See you tomorrow?”