(continue from previous chapter)....

"Enough of that girlfriend shit! Just come out, Scott. Or I'll do it for you! Sophomore year, remember? That shit will spread around the entire school if you keep this shit up!"

The air felt thick with tension. Avi and Kevin were silent with confusion written on their face. Alex was fuming, Scott just looked shocked, his eyes wide with fear and embarrassment. For me, I was looking back and forth between and Scott and Alex for an explanation.

"Sophomore year?" Avi asks. Scott looked at him, and for once, Scott was speechless. Something had obviously happened that Avi, Kevin, and I weren't aware of. "Dude, what happened?" Avi continues.

"Shut the fuck up, Kaplan," Scott threatens. His face was red in embarrassment. Alex even had a hint of regret in his face as he avoided eye contact with everyone. Scott warily looked around, his eyes finding mine, and than Alex's. Without another word, Scott took off towards the exit, leaving everyone else confused.

"What just happened?" Kevin asks, looking to Alex for an explanation. Alex shook his head and looked down.

"Can one of you take Mitch home?" Alex asks. I looked to him quickly.

"What?" I ask. "Were supposed to be on a date, Al-"

"Mitch, stop," he says. He looked back to the other for an answer. After a moment of silence, Avi spoke up.

"Come on, Mitch, I'll take you," he says. Alex left shortly afterwards. Avi and Kevin said their farewells. And now I sat in Avi's car, awkwardly staring out of the window.

We drove in silence for a while after I gave Avi my address and he plugged it into the GPS.

"You're friends with Esther, right?" He asks, completely avoiding the subject of what had happened at the fair. I look to him and nod. "Oh, cool," he says. "Does she, uh, ever say anything about me?"

"Not much," I answer bluntly. "You called her that once," I say in remembrance. He nods. "Did she call back?" He nods again. "How are you guys?"

"We're...workin' on it," he says. Silence filled the air again. It was shorter this time, as Avi spoke again. "So tonight was a little crazy," he says with a chuckle. "Scott's an asshole," he laughs. I wasn't laughing, though. I simply nodded quietly. "Come on, little guy, don't let it bother ya," he says, nudging my shoulder. I didn't say anything. "Scott starts things he doesn't necessarily intend to, he's just always gotta have the last words."

"This is all his fault," I say quickly and sharply. "He ruined my night with Alex," I shake my head. Avi nods in agreement. "He just wouldn't leave us alone. A quick little hello would've been fine, but he had to fuck with Alex."

"I know," Avi says. "I'll rip em' to shreds about it if it makes you feel any better," I chuckle a little. "See, there's that smile!" He says. I shake my head.

"Any idea what that whole 'sophomore year' thing is about?" I ask. Avi shakes his head. "I mean, Alex literally said 'just come out already'," I say.

"Scott has always been defensive about his sexuality. I don't know if Alex just said that to piss em' off, or if somethin' actually happened. If I were you, I wouldn't bring it up because he gets real upset." I nod. A short five minutes later, Avi appeared at my house. "This is you," he says. I nod, opening the door. Before I shut it, I turned back to Avi.

"Thanks for driving me," I say. He tilts his head down for a slow nod. "You're not as bad as Esther claims," he smiles softly at me.

I entered my house slowly. I had left at nearly seven and it was only 9:30, my dad and Stephanie would obviously know something is up. I stepped closer awkwardly, both of them eyeing me down.

"You're back early?" My dad questions. I nod.

"Yeah," I say. "I got tired," I continue. My dad nods, one eyebrow raised.

"Okay. Get some sleep, boy," he says. "I'll see you in the morning," I nod and head towards the stairs.

"Night, dad," I say, taking a few steps up. Before I continue, I looked back down the stairs. "Night, Steph," I say, earning a wide grin from Stephanie. I heard her excitedly boast to my dad about me having even a slight interaction with her. I chuckle at the thought as I wiped the little bit of makeup off my face from the night.

I quickly got into bed, still a little shaken up at the whole situation. I had nearly fallen asleep when I was awoken by a text message.

Scott: pls meet me at starbucks tmw morning, I gotta lot of explaining to do, huh?

--

I arrived at Starbucks the next morning extremely tired, but eager for information. I saw Scott sitting alone at a table, his head in his hands as he sipped a coffee tiredly.

I sat across from him silently as he looked up to me. He had giant bags under his eyes as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

"Did you sleep at all last night?" I ask him. His face was expressionless.

"Honestly? Not even a little," he says. "Worried outta my fuckin' mind, Mitch," he continues. I tilt my head and watch him. "Guess I should do my explainin' now," he says. I nod quickly. "I wanted to start with an apology."

"Good," I say. "Because I think I really deserve one." He nods.

"You do. I ruined your night. Avi told me that Alex didn't even take ya home," I shake my head softly.

"He didn't, Avi did," I explain. Scott nods.

"So, uh, I'm sorry," he spits out. "I'm not usually one to apologize, but for some reason you always seem to get em' from me." I nod. "You always seem to deserve em', anyway. But, last night was a reck and I'm really, really sorry." He says. He was silent for a good thirty seconds before he looked me in the eye. In a whisper, he spoke. "Mitch, I'm gay."

I don't know why I was, but I was frozen in shock. I didn't say anything for a moment before deciding it would be best to reply.

"Sophomore year," I sat silently, quoting Alex. Scott nods sadly.

"Yeah," he says softly. "That's when I found out," he continues. "And I've been lyin' to myself ever since."

"Why?" I ask. "I don't get it. As soon as I figured out, I just knew." I say.

"Some people take longer to process it, Mitch," he says. "Obviously, took me two years."

"What does Alex have to do with this?" I ask. "Why is this relevant to the way you acted last night?" He shakes his head.

"Did it ever occur to you that I was jealous, huh?" He asks. I raised an eyebrow. After a moment, he continues. "When I was a sophomore and first started exploring my options, there was a boy." He says softly. "His name was Alexander Kirk," my mouth parted silently. "Mitch, I swear to you I thought I was in love with em'," he chuckles. "I was so wrong." He laughs again. "We were friends that year, and one day I had invited him over to hang out. It was a big step for me, askin' an openly gay boy to come over as I was hidin' everything from myself." He shakes his head. "I kissed em' that night. I shared everything with em', too. I told him about how I was questionin' my sexuality and I told him it was because of him. And then I kissed em'." He shakes his head again. "That was my first mistake."

"First?" I question. He looks at me and nods quickly.

"Let me finish, please," I nod and he opens his mouth to continue. "So we secretly became a thing. He begged me to let people know 'bout us, but I would not let em'. I was too afraid of outin' myself." I nod. "It was a Friday when I lost my virginity in the comfort of my own home. I gave my fuckin' virginity to em', Mitch." He looked like he wanted to cry. "That was the second mistake," he says. "Ever since that day, I had become distant with him. I felt awkward and gross, like I had done somethin' wrong, but I was still obsessed with Alex. Then one day, he pinned me in the bathroom and confronted me about it. So being the idiot I was, I told him I ain't even like him anymore and that I didn't think I was gay," Scott awkwardly bit his cheek. "Alex knew I was lyin', he told me right then and there. But still, I told em' to drop it and to not tell anybody." He says. "He respected the fact that I didn't want to be outed by him, I think anyone would." He continues. "Anyways, after that, I still hooked up with Alex," he chuckles. "Mistake number three. In the janitors closet, at either of our houses, even under the fuckin' bleachers. How cliche?" He questions sarcastically. "Well then he told someone." Scott's tone changed slightly. "Jake Updegraff, his best friend. He told him every single detail. I was so mad at him. I yelled at him and told him this couldn't be a thing anymore. So that's when he threatened to out me to the school. I don't think I had ever hated someone more than I did in that very second. It was easy for him, because everyone knew that Alex was gay and he was known for it. Me? I wasn't. I was the tough guy that didn't put up with anyone's bullshit."

"But you put up with this?" I ask. He nods.

"I did," he answers. "I kept seeing him simply because I didn't want him to out me. I had completely lost all feelings for him and now he was just a mere fuck buddy," Scott says. "Well one day at my house, that happened to slip. I told him I didn't like him and that I felt that he was using me now. So we stopped. That same night, we both agreed that we'd stopping seeing each other. He said that he wouldn't tell anybody anything, except Jake obviously, if I would handle him hating me. I agreed, obviously. So his version of "hating me" was being a jackass and expecting me not to do anything about it. That's when the feuds started at the beginning of junior year. He argued with me and I argued back. Then he got Esther. Believe it or not, Esther and I were really close. He pulled her away from me. I could've dealed with that, but he pulled her away from her own brother. They had already been rocky with each other, and he just sealed their fate." He says. "So that's when Taylor entered the story. She was practically a ploy to make Alex jealous, and boy, did that work well. He couldn't deal with us. Of course I didn't like her, I never did, not even now," he says. "That's when I got in over my head with her. We were known as the "on again, off again" couple of the school. She was obsessed with me. If you think this year was bad, you should've seen last year. She tried to literally sleep with me in the hallways with everybody around us. I mean, she's an idiot." He spit out. "I only kissed her around Alex purely to piss him off." He continues. "I guess that brings us to this year. Everything had really calmed down. I was with Taylor, Alex had his little group of friends with Jake, Esther, and Kirstie, and I had Taylor, Avi, and Kevin. We were fine. Well, this one boy came around and decided to make friends with Alex and me."

"So that's me?" I question. He nods.

"You are like key that fits in two different locks, and Alex and I are the two locks. We both adore you, and clearly Alex likes you, so," he says. "As soon as I figured out you two were close, I just had to get even closer, but then you started sitting with him at lunch and I saw you at the mall with him. The second you and Kirstie became best friends, I had thought I'd lost you. Kirstie has been by Alex's side since freshman year, I thought for sure that Alex had won. Well, I had worked my way into being a good friend of yours, but then somehow sexuality would be brought up, and damn I can't handle that well. I pushed you away so many times with that, which I'm still sorry for, by the way. Anyways, everything was perfect until I figured out about that date. I wasn't going to let that happen. Looking back, I should've just let you go, but I was so damn jealous, Mitch."

"You should've told me you still have feelings for Alex, Scott," I tell him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "If you would've told me, I wouldn't of gone and I would've backed off for you." He looked at me and blinked a few times.

"Are you being serious?" He asks. I nod awkwardly. "I wasn't jealous of you being with Alex, dumby, I was jealous of alex being with you."

:O