Back Then (An LGBT Story)

1. Seth's Struggle

"Do you want to hang out sometime?" Taylor turned around and asked him, his expression as neutral as usual. "Is that what you wanted to ask?"

"Y-yes..." Seth stuttered, hiding his face. "I feel like we've not yet dropped formalities, so I'd like to go out as friends."

"Sure. If I get time on Sunday." Taylor turned back to his work and continued.

Seth breathed out heavily in relief. "Thanks." He said, then bolted from the room.

Taylor sat by himself for a few minutes, not doing anything, just staring at his work.
"... Go out as friends..." He repeated Seth's words before sighing and beginning to pack everything away in his black bag.
Pulling his shoes on, Taylor made his way to the door and left the room.

***

"Hey Seth!" A females voice called out to him.

Seth turned around to see one of his friends from the class that he was now due to attend.

"Hey Lilith." He smiled, shyly.

"How's everything going? Have you been okay?" Lilith slapped him on the back, laughing.

"I've been... well."

"Just well? Not extremely great or horrifically bad?"

"No. Nothing like that."

"Does anything interesting happen in your life?"

Seth though for a moment before answering with a question. "What would you say is interesting?"

"I dunno! Maybe you finally found somebody? Maybe you've recently been in contact with someone that you haven't seen in many years? Maybe you've been in a desperate struggle with your mortal enemy?"

"You watch too much TV Lil'..."

"No I don't! So what is it? Anything like that?"

"No."

"Oh! Perhaps you've been in a huge argument with your parents over something and you can't contact them anymore!" Lilith spoke with optimism, not noticing Seth smirk slightly.
Seth found himself holding back giggles at the random idea. Though, in truth, he didn't have the most stable relationship with his parents, but they were never the kind to shut him out completely.
Lilith's head is alway filled with so many scenarios, he thought to himself.

"Ugh! It's none of those, is it?" Lilith sighed, her face going from happy to miserable in a matter of milliseconds.

"Oh. No. Nothing like that." Seth held his bag closer to his chest as he walked alongside Lilith.

Lilith and Seth got to their classroom and sat in their usual spaces, beside one another. The room was filled with the same old muttering as they were used to. The same voices and the same scenario... until their teacher walked in.

"Right! Sit down, listen up!" The voice was unfamiliar to everyone. "I'm Mr Firch and I'm going to be teaching you from now on. It seems as though Mrs Hobson had to leave in a hurry, so I was her last resort."

Seth was instantly uncomfortable. He already despised this new teacher already. Mr Firch seemed loud and demanding, whereas Mrs Hobson gave everybody a fair chance to answer and ask questions whenever. Mr Firch didn't seem like that kind of teacher.

"So, everybody's at the same stage in this book, right?" Mr Firch held up the book that the class was analysing.
A loud 'yes' filled the room as almost everybody said it in unison.

"Alright then. Top of page 48 and uhm..." He looked at a piece of paper on the desk beside him and then looked up at the class. "Seth Martins, could you fill us all in, in case anyone's forgotten."

Seth felt all the blood in his body rush to his head. His face went red and his heart pounded against the inside of his chest.

"W...well." He began, standing up and looking around, seeing all the eyes on him. "We got to... uhm..." Seth's breathing became shaky as he saw people staring at him, looking bored and people getting so bored that they looked elsewhere and even spoke to others. He felt sweat forming in the palms of his hands and his eyes began to sting, the lights in the classroom suddenly becoming too much for him to handle. Glancing down, a drop of water landed on his page as he realised that he had began crying. His hand covered his face as he realised how long he'd just been standing there. Seth's legs felt wobbly and he felt as though he couldn't even support his own weight.

"Mr Martins?" Mr Firch said his name, as if to remind him that they were waiting.

Seth couldn't say anything as he felt his hands begin to shake.

"Seth Martins, we're waiting..."

"Seth..." Lilith pulled on his sleeve slightly.

He couldn't cope anymore. Seth grabbed the book and held it up to his face to hide his uncontrollable tears. But it wasn't enough.
He heard a girl beside Lilith ask what was wrong, followed by Lilith saying, "he's crying." In a whispering voice.
He then heard laughter. He glanced over and saw the girl giggling at him, shaking her head, as if she was shooting mental insults.

"MR MARTINS!" Mr Firch yelled.

Seth slammed the book down on the desk, picked up his things and ran for the door as fast as he could.

As he sprinted through the halls, he made his way towards the boys restroom. Once there, he leant against the wall and slid down, curling up in a ball in the corner of the room, hugging his knees close to his chest. Seth's breaths were still shaky and he couldn't stop crying as the scene replayed inside his mind. The voices of those around him, the voice of his teacher, the laughter of that girl... all piled together, leading Seth to something that hasn't happened in a long time.

Seth was having a panic attack.