When In Doubt - Freshman Year

Chapter 17

"Excuse me, everyone! Um...Excuse me?" Lindsay had tried to get everyone's attention, but the poor little blonde was drowned out by all the chatter of everyone who wanted to catch up.

"Hey! EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Ali yelled, and Luke amusedly watched everyone actually stop and turned towards her. Ali cleared her throat. "So listen up, we need to split into smaller groups, or else they're not going to let us inside because they hate big groups of freshman, got it?"

"But we are a big group of freshman," Brayden pointed out.

"Yes Brayden...We are a large group of freshman, so like I said, we need to split or we're not getting in," Mandy spoke slowly to him.

Mandy's group became her, Ali, Lindsay, Brayden, and the Bryan's as they'd started walking together to cut through the field house parking lot towards the frat house. Luke double-checked to make sure his water bottle full of Rumple-Minze was still tucked into his coat pocket as he began to walk with the others, but kept a short distance from behind, and couldn't help but overhear Heather and Matt as they'd had a little chat.

Heather

"So, are you planning on telling anyone tonight?" Heather asked Matt as they'd parted slightly from their group.

It'd been so great to hear from Matt on their drive back to school that he'd come out to his family. He'd had a gleam in his eye as he told her his mom cried tears of joy and told him that she'd known since he was a little boy, and how she was so proud of him and loved him no matter what; it was like a Becky Albertalli novel. After, they'd laughed about how he never got the chance to tell the rest of his family because his mom had blabbed to them all out of sheer excitement.

Matt had so much to talk about that the one-hour drive back was over before he even remembered to ask more about her break, much to her relief.

Matt looked around before he'd lowered his voice. "Honestly, I don't know...I don't want to just blurt it out randomly at people. I want the timing to be right, and for it to be natural. Like, I don't want to come out to Eden or Jenna after they just took a keg stand or legs out grinding down the stripper pole, you know?"

Heather grinned. "Yeah, that would be awkward."

"Exactly, so when it feels right, then I'll do it...maybe after a few shots, though."

"If you don't feel comfortable telling anyone, that's fine," Heather reassured him. "Remember, this is about you and your happiness. Don't feel pressured to say it to someone when you aren't absolutely sure about it."

Matt let out a deep breath. "It'll happen, I know that. I'm just happy I was finally able to accept it and be okay with it, I feel weightless half the time because it's been weighing me down for so long now, you know?"

"You can finally be yourself," Heather said with a smile. She was so happy for him and how brave he'd been the last month or so. She knew it couldn't have been easy, but Matt started to become himself again after he'd finally confided in her before break.

Matt smiled bashfully at her. "Thanks again for everything, Heather."

"Anytime, bud." She threw her arm around him.

"Hey, I've been meaning to say, but I never got to ask you about your deal with Ryan. How has that been going?"

Heather tensed at the mere mention of Ryan's name. No, nothing had gone right with him over break, only more fighting about their issue on marriage since he'd continued brought it up. She'd eventually snapped at him because he'd said he was fine with waiting, but of course, he lied about that. After their fight, he'd disappeared, and she barely heard from him since almost a week prior.