Together (Book 1)

Chapter 12

Roman walked into the room as if on cue.

I looked down before he could catch me staring, and pretended to be as deep in thought as Logan.

"Roman!" Patton squealed.  "Yay; everyone's here!"

"'Everyone,' sure..." I whispered.

Patton shot me a warning glance before continuing, "So, as you all know, Thomas is having a boy over tonight."

Roman and Logan nodded.

"Thomas is beginning to feel feelings for this man, so we need to be on our best behavior."

"There's just one problem," I interjected, kind of surprising myself.  "We don't know if he's interested in guys."

Patton smiled.  "But, we're going to find out.  I've been working with Roman, and we came up with a few ideas that'll bring up the subject."

Roman took the floor.  "The first idea that we came up with was to be upfront with him."

I tucked my knees against my chest.

He kept going.  "We're aware that that might be a little difficult, so we do have another idea.  We thought that, since he's coming over for a movie night, we could put on some sort of romance movie that has some cheesy breakup.  That might prompt a conversation where we ask him if he's ever had a stupid breakup with a girlfriend, and then we'll quickly add that it's okay if it was a boyfriend, too."

Logan said, "Someone once attempted something similar with us, and the action did allow us to be comfortable announcing our sexuality to him."

"Exactly!" Patton cheered.

"So, just the two?" I asked.  Neither of them sat well with me.

"Did—Did you have any?" Patt questioned.

No.  I shook my head.  "But which idea are we going with?  You know, so I can be prepared?"

"Well," Logan offered, "which would the four of us prefer?  It's only logical that the majority is comfortable with the plan before we execute it."  It was almost comforting, as though it was his way of saying that he, too, was a little nervous.

Everyone looked around, no one willing to offer up their opinion first.

"Being the logical side, I have deduced that the upfront option would provide the best results."

I knew what happened when Thomas tried being upfront...  It never ended well.

Roman went next.  "I suggested that we just kiss him and see what happens, but that, as well as my large romantic gesture, was shot down."

Patton sighed.  "Roman, we went over this: there is no such thing as a dragon-witch."

His eyes drifted to mine before snapping back to Patton.  "Then I choose the second option."

He caught me off guard, and my eyes shot up.  He held my gaze.  "I—I—I agree with Roman," I mumbled as I stared into his eyes.

"And that leaves me."  Patton looked around to room, causing Roman and me to look away from each other.  He seemed to be reading the room, gauging whether to tie up the vote or make it easier by just siding with the majority.

"Patt, you don't have to—" I tried.

"I agree with Logan."

We all sighed.  Dammit. Now what?  "What if we flip a coin?"

Logan shook his head.  "That is not a viable option.  Obviously, any one of us could affect the outcome of something so simple from within Thomas's mind."

"That's why we get Thomas to do it in the real world.  We can't change it out there."

———

Thomas had flipped a coin.  We were going with the second idea—the one that made me the most comfortable, though it wasn't by much.

And then there he was—Noah—watching the second movie of the night, a corny romance movie that made me roll my eyes at pretty much every line.

The scene in the movie was coming up where we had planned to bring up the conversation.

And I was terrified.

I was the reason he had struggled to come out to anyone...  I couldn't help but worry.

"Alright, is everyone ready?" Roman asked.

The other two gave affirmative gestures or phrases while I just groaned quietly in an attempt to not have a panic attack.  No going back now...

Thomas's POV

I looked away from the movie, directing my attention to Noah.  I scoffed, pretending to be annoyed by how cliche it was.  "I've never gotten that worked up about someone breaking up with me before," I laughed.  It was a lie, but if this worked, I could tell him the truth later.

A smirk grew on his face.

"Have you ever gotten that worked up over a girl?  Or—Or a guy.  There's nothing wrong with that," I quickly corrected, feigning awkwardness.

He laughed.  "A guy?  No; God no!  That's disgusting!"

I froze.  Disgusting?