Chapter 2

I ran upstairs and dumped my school bag in my room then slipped my shoes off and went back downstairs. My parents were waiting in the kitchen and as soon as I walked in, they started asking where I'd been.

"I was down at the beach. Sorry, I'll call you next time." I said as I remembered I hadn't even texted to say I'd be home late.

"Were you on your own?" Mom asked.

"No, I was with a group from school." I wasn't sure if they'd call me a friend or if they were just being nice because I was new.

"What kind of group?" She looked concerned.

"Don't worry, they're really nice people. I was hanging out with them at school and they asked if I wanted to come with them."

"Well, that's great!" She said. Dad didn't really seem bothered.

"Okay, I'm gonna go shower." I went back upstairs to quickly shower and change. I was heading back to my room when I bumped into Austin on the landing.

"Hey," He said, "How was your first day?"

"Not as bad as I thought it was going to be," I said, and told him all about my day.

"Dylan who?" He asked as I told him about everyone. Why did it matter?"

"Er, I never heard his surname, sorry. Why, anyway?"

Something flashed across his face before he quickly recovered. "Oh er- nothing. It doesn't matter."

Why was he acting so weird? He paused for a second, looking like he was about to say something but then deciding against it.

"Can we go into your room please?" He said, then glanced around him, checking no-one was there.

"What-" He cut me off and pushed me backwards into my room. He checked the landing one more time then shut the door behind him as I sat down on the bed.

"What did you want to tell me?" I asked. I could tell it was something serious so I waited while he built up the courage to tell me.

"I erm... well... I think- no, I know-" He stuttered, playing with his hands and breathing heavily. Eventually, he paused, took a deep breath and carried on talking. "I'm bi."

"I, erm- congratulations?" What are you supposed to say when someone comes out to you? "Sorry, I mean, I'm happy for you. You know I'll always support you."

Austin let out the breath he'd been holding in and sank down onto my bed next to me.

"Thanks," He muttered, not sounding very happy.

"What's wrong?" I thought he'd be glad I supported him.

"I still need to tell mom and dad." He sat there miserably, clearly dreading it.

"Don't worry, I'll help you. I can be there with you when you tell them if you want, or I can just help you think of ways to tell them."

He perked up a bit after that but I had a horrible feeling that seemed to settle somewhere around my chest. Our dad had never said he had anything against the lgbt+ community but whenever he saw people of the same gender holding hands, he tensed up and turned away. He was following someone on Twitter once, but as soon as they came out as gay, he blocked them. So yeah, I was worried for Austin.

"-Or maybe make something with the flag colors?"

I hadn't been paying attention to anything Austin had just said.

"Er, sure," I said, hoping that would be enough. "So, when are you thinking of telling them?"

"You haven't been listening have you?"

"Sorry, I zoned out for a second."

"I wanna tell them tomorrow."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded with a sort of nervous smile. I hesitated for a second before smiling back and then he went back to looking at coming out ideas on his phone. He seemed excited but nervous and I felt bad for doubting that our dad would accept him. I couldn't tell him what I thought because it would just scare him even more and he'd probably back out of telling them altogether. I knew our mom wouldn't have a problem with it, she'd said before that she'll always support us no matter what.

"Have you found any good ideas yet?" He asked, looking up from his phone.

"What? Oh, right, sorry." I'd gotten distracted again. I picked up my phone and searched up 'ways to come out to your parents'. There were some pretty good ideas which I made a mental note of, but some were just crazy.

"What about this?" I turned my screen so Austin could see a picture of a rainbow cake. "You could change the colors and then write on top something like 'I'm bi'."

"Yeah, maybe. Do we have the ingredients for a cake?"

I tried to think what we had in the cupboards but I couldn't remember.

"Why don't we get up really early tomorrow and check what we have, then after school, if we need anything, we can go to a shop."

"Okay." He nodded. "Yeah, I'm gonna go try and get some sleep."

I turned to look out the window, thinking it was a bit early for bed, only to see the sky had turned pitch black while we'd been in my room.

"Okay, and Austin," I said as he opened the door. He turned around to face me. "I'll be there for you, don't worry."

"Thanks." He closed the door behind him and headed back to his room. Once he left, I pulled some books out of my backpack and sat at my desk, trying to get some studying done. I had a lot of catching up to do.

The next morning, I woke up to Austin knocking on my door at six a.m.

"Come in!" I called, not too loud so we didn't wake our parents. They were in the room just down the landing so we had to be really quiet.

"Sorry, I couldn't sleep." He said, closing the door behind him. "I was too nervous."

"That's okay, we can go and check what ingredients we have while mom and dad are still sleeping."

I got up and quickly threw on some clothes while Austin sat on his phone, waiting for me. We crept down the stairs and to the kitchen and he found the recipe. I searched the cupboards as he read out the list of ingredients to me.

"Hm, we don't have any baking powder or caster sugar," I said.

"What about pancakes?"

"Huh?"

"We have all the ingredients for pancaked so we could make those instead and I can tell them this morning. It'd get it out the way as well so I won't be worrying about it all day."

"Okay, but only if you're sure you wanna do it now."

He nodded so I grabbed the ingredients and we started making the batter. Half an hour later, we had a stack of pink, purple and blue pancakes layered like the flag. Austin was sat at the kitchen table going over what he was going to say. I was at the sink washing up when we heard movement and creaking floorboards coming from upstairs. Austin looked up with wide eyes.

"Don't worry, I'll be right next to you," I said, drying my hands.

Just then, there was a noise from the hallway and suddenly our parents were in the kitchen doorway.

"Morning, boys." Mom said.

"Hey, um... you might wanna sit down," Austin said, his voice shaking slightly.

"What's going on?" Dad asked, sounding concerned.

They sat down and Austin gave them the plate of pancakes.

"What's this, honey?" Mom asked.

"So er- I- um... I don't know- er- if you know what this means," He pointed to the colored pancakes, "But it's- erm- it's the bi pride flag. So, what- um- I'm trying to say is er- I'm bi."

He got there in the end.

"Thank you for telling us," Mom said. "I'll always love you." She got up and walked around the table so she could give him a huge hug.

I looked over to dad. He'd tensed up just as I'd predicted, and a vein was throbbing in his neck. I put my hand on Austin's shoulder, partly to comfort him a bit and partly to show my support.

"Dad?" He said nervously, He was playing with his hands just like when he told me last night.

"F*g." It was barely a whisper but everyone heard it.

Austin slipped out of my grasp and ran upstairs, his eyes red and watery. Mom looked furious. She turned and, for a moment, I thought she was going to hit him.

"He. Is. Your. Son!" She spat at him, glaring angrily. I'd never seen her so mad, it was kind of scary.

"He's no son of mine." I couldn't believe he was actually saying this.

I decided it was time for me to get out of there so I raced upstairs after Austin. I got to the top of the stairs right as his bedroom door slammed shut.

"Austin?" I knocked on his door but got no reply so I opened it slightly. He was curled up on his bed sobbing into his pillow. His body shook with every sound that escaped his mouth. I went over and sat next to him on his bed as he sat up and wiped the tears off his face.

"Hey, it's okay," I said, trying my best to comfort him. "He'll come around eventually, it might just take him a while.

Austin nodded but there were still tears falling down his face. He seemed to have calmed down a bit though.

"Thanks," He finally managed to say, "For staying with me."

"Of course."