If We Have Each Other

Chapter 30

CW and TW f slur, homophobia, and verbal assault

Someone noticed them, and shouted, "OH MY GOD THE FAGS ARE DANCING!" Not only did Paul and Ashton find and record them, they had an unintentional audience of about 300 people.

"Oh no no no no no," Logan whispered, frozen in shock. Dallas was also frozen.

"Get out, faggots! I don't want your filthy AIDS!" Someone else shouted.

"Yeah, go somewhere else and do your disgusting shit, no one wants to see that!"

"Burn in hell, and take the rest of your kind with you!"

Dallas grabbed Logan's arm, and ran out of the gym. Logan didn't hesitate to run with him. They ran past barriers, and ended up upstairs by the English classrooms. The hallway was dark, only dimly lit by the outside streetlights and the exit signs.

Dallas collapsed on the floor, and broke into sobs. "It's my fault, it's my fault, it's my fault," he whispered between gasps of air.

"Dallas..." Logan started, his voice cracking. 

"Logan...I.." Dallas choked out between sobs. "It's my fault. It's all my fault. I did the stupid dip at the end without asking you," he sobbed.

"Dallas, it's not your fault. I was the one who yelped. I drew attention to us," Logan said, tears falling down his cheek.

"You did that as an involuntary reaction, I chose to do the dip," Dallas said, his voice turning angry.

"It wasn't your fault, it was those people who said those things! Not you!" Logan reasoned.

"And I caused them to say those things! How was it not my fault?" Dallas shouted.

"You did nothing wrong! We were minding our own business, then some asshole ruined it! It was not you!" Logan shouted back.

"How can you say that it's not my fault? I outed us to the whole god damn school! And it's all because of me!" Dallas retaliated.

"I agreed to dance! I knew there would be other people watching, and I knew the possible consequences. I'm just as much to blame as you are! You can't blame yourself for this!" Logan shouted back.

"It's literally my fault! I did the dip, and people saw because of it. Why aren't you seeing that?!" Dallas angrily shouted.

"BECAUSE I LIKED IT!" Logan screamed. "Okay? I said it. I loved every moment. I don't care who saw us dance, because it doesn't matter! The only thing that matters is being with you!" Logan shouted. He turned his face to the floor and started to sob just as hard as Dallas.

"What?" Dallas asked, calming down.

"I loved dancing with you," Logan repeated, also calming down. "I don't care that we were outed. It doesn't matter right now. I'm not mad, I accepted the possibility and I knew what the risks were. What about you, did you worry about it?" Logan asked, his voice turning caring.

"I was worried about it, but at that moment it wasn't on my mind. But now that it happened, I feel so stupid for taking that risk. I don't regret dancing, I just wish people could mind their own damn business," Dallas said.

"I also wish we weren't outed, but what can we do?" Logan replied, pulling Dallas into an embrace. Dallas broke into more sobs, resting his head on Logan's shoulder. Logan rested his hand on Dallas's shoulder and wiped away his tears when he lifted his head.

"It's gonna be okay," Logan reassured.

"I'm sorry.." Dallas said once again.

"Stop apologizing, it's not your fault. Do you understand?" Logan said.

"Okay, fine, I'll stop. But that doesn't mean I won't feel bad about it," Dallas replied.

"It's not something to feel bad about. We were both put through this," Logan said.

"It's still so early. We've only confessed to each other not even a week ago, and this is what happens? We aren't mentally prepared for this," Dallas said.

"True, but we can still recover from it. Do you want to have another sleepover tonight?" Logan asked.

"If we can, yeah. We definitely need it. I'll text my parents explaining what happened, since I'm already out to them. I won't mention you, and I'm sure they'll let me. Besides, I won't wake them up trying to get back inside tonight," Dallas replied.

"Wait, you're out to your parents?" Logan asked.

"Yeah, I came out about 9 months ago, last winter. My dad wasn't too fond of it at first, but he's gotten used to it," Dallas explained.

"So I'm guessing it was pretty awkward when he was teaching you how to dance, hoping you would use it on a girl," Logan laughed.

"Yeah, but don't worry, I reassured him that I would use them someday," Dallas said, his smile returning. "What time is it? I hope we don't have much time left."

Logan checked his phone, and his eyes widened. There were 14 messages and 5 missed calls from Greyson. He was worried for them, and asked where they went.

"It's 9:45," Logan answered.

"Dammit, we still have 45 minutes left," Dallas said, the happiness dropping from his voice.

"It's over halfway over. Also, Greyson wants to know where we are," Logan said.

Dallas looked up at him, puzzled. "Why?" he asked.

"Probably to check on us. Now that I think of it he's probably losing his mind, but it's up to you if you want to talk to him," Logan replied.

"Sure, tell him we're in the hallway by the English rooms," Dallas said.

A few minutes later, Greyson came rushing up the stairs.

"Oh my god, I've been looking everywhere for you guys!" Greyson said in a panicked voice. "Are you guys alright? That was beyond horrible, I saw all of it. Well, everything after the first person shouted."

"We're alright. We are now," Dallas replied.

"I talked to some people, and they're sympathetic for you guys. A good portion of the gym is, just know that," Greyson said.

"It's good to know that not everyone is a bigot," Logan said.

"I'm so so sorry, I really don't know what else to say, this kind of thing has never happened to me before. I haven't experienced it, but I'm scared of it happening to me," Greyson said.

"It's hard, you never think it will happen to you, but here we are," Dallas agreed. Greyson could sense they needed to be left alone.

"Well, I'm going to leave you guys alone for now, call or text me if you need anything, alright?" Greyson said.

Logan nodded. Greyson stood up, took one last look at them, and went back downstairs, careful not to be seen.

"We should probably get off the floor," Logan said.

"Where would we go?" Dallas asked.

"Outside," Logan answered.

"How? We would be seen. The only door that's unlocked is the main door," Dallas said. "Who said we were going back inside? It's 60 degrees, we won't freeze," Logan said, standing up.

"Let's go out the door by the science rooms," Dallas said.

"That's the spirit," Logan said, laughing a little. They started to walk down the hall.

"What if we need to go inside? We need some sort of way back inside in case something happens," Dallas said.

"We could just prop the door open. We could steal a chair from the pod," Logan said. So they did.