Comfy Closets

43|| Suggestions and Actions

She canted her head and grinned. “It’s my superpower.”

I playfully rolled my eyes. “I wish I had an older sibling that could come out before me.”

“Why would you want that?”

I heard a voice say behind me, making me jump at the suddenness. I forgot we were in the hallways at school, waiting for class to start. Turning around, I found my red-headed best friend standing there with that usual mischievous smile on her face. Zach stood beside her with his boyish smile. A brow of mine rose higher than the other.

“Dude, a little warning next time?”

“Nah,” Gia said simply, pushing in to stand by us to form a little circle as Zach joined too. “So, what’s this about Aly wanting a gay older sibling?”

I shushed her and tipped my head back in feigned annoyance as Leah giggled. “She wants someone in her family to have gone through coming out, so she’d have an idea of how they’d react, like I did.” Gia’s mouth formed an ‘o’ shape.

“I want that,” Zach muttered with a pout.

Gia rubbed her chin in a way that made it seem like she was stroking an imaginary beard. “I see. Sorry that you don’t have an older gay sibling, Aly. But if you really want to see how they might react, you can play that song from that artist you told me about - what’s her name? Ah! Girl in red. Yeah, play one of her songs in the living room and see how it goes.”

“No way in hell,” I dismissed straight away and groaned helplessly. “Anything else?”

“Make a video of you coming out and show it to your parents like you see those Youtubers do.”

“No.”

Gia threw up her hands as if to say, ‘I give up’. Zach, on the other hand, seemed hard in thought.

“If I were to come out, I’d say it to the parent I felt most comfortable with first. The one that’s more likely to be okay with it – aka, my mom. Then I could go to the other, knowing I had her support. Start with just one first, y’ know?”

There was a pause as all of us were surprised by the genuinely helpful and practical suggestion. “I think that was the best one,” I mumbled. Zach grinned proudly.

“Hello, peeps.” Ashton made his presence known just then, greeting everyone. “What are y’all talking about?”

“Nothing!” Zach blurted out, his voice cracking at the end. I cocked a brow at that.

“O-okay…” Ash trailed off, confused.

Leah came to the sandy-blonde’s rescue. “Class is gonna start soon, so we should all head off.”

“You heard the president of the student council. Hurry up or she’ll bring us to the principal’s office for being late,” Gia teased, snickering as she avoided the light punch Leah sent her way. The two of them started their way down the hall, bickering.

Ashton narrowed those sea-green eyes of his but ended up following their lead. He soon grew out of earshot.

I fell back to match Zach’s pace. “What was that?” He shrugged with forced nonchalance in response.

“It’s nothing.”

I gave him a flat look, not buying his crap for a second. “Zach.”

The boy sighed. “I’ve just never found a time to tell him about me. I don’t want him finding out like that.”

“Zach, you’re making this a bigger deal than it is. He’ll be just fine with it, I swear. I doubt even the crush you had on him would change things…”