"You okay?" Grayson asks, rubbing my shoulders to... comfort me, relax me? I don't know, but nothing can ease the anxiousness firing up inside me.

I nod anyway, I don't need my boyfriend worrying about me all day. "I'm fine," I lie.

I slept over at his house last night (Took some major convincing of my parents and a few white lies). Though, we did drive separately, so that I could drive my car home later.

Now, we're standing outside of Austberg High School.

And I'm tweaking out!

Grayson turns me around to face him, hands firmly on my shoulders. "Reid, you'll be okay. I'll be with you the whole time... besides a few classes. I promise I won't let anything happen to you and the second anyone gives you shit, I'll-"

"No getting into a fight for me," I tell him, pointing a finger at him in a parental way.

"No promises," he shakes his head as firmly as his words.

"Grayson," I say pleading. The last thing I want are the assholes at this school putting my boyfriend in the hospital. Not that Grayson couldn't handle himself.

"I just don't like the thought of someone giving you shit for being who you are," he pouts.

"I know, and I love you for that, but you can't protect me if you're expelled."

"Okay fine," he sighs in defeat then pecks me on the lips.

I back away from him then immediately regret it when I see the hurt look on his face. "Sorry, I just... I don't know if I'm all for the PDA right now. I need a little time."

Grayson nods in understanding but still looks a little disappointed. "Come on, we have five minutes before class," he says then walks ahead towards the entrance of the building.

Frowning, I speed walk up to him. I grab his hand and yank him back. "Hey, I meant like no kissing, but you can hold my hand or wrap your arm around me in that possessive way you do."

Grayson's beautiful smile returns, but not fully. He nods once more then wraps his arm around my neck before we walk into school together.

As soon as we enter, all eyes are on us and the whispering starts. I stop for a second and contemplate walking out and hiding under a rock.

"You good?" Grayson asks, looking at me with worry in his eyes.

I swallow the lump in my throat and nod. "Sorry, I just-"

"I know, it's okay," he whispers to me as we continue our way down the hallway.

"I feel like Bella and Edward when they walk into school for the first time as a couple," I joke, trying to ease my anxiety.

Grayson laughs which helps, "See? They're just looking at us cause they want to be us."

I snort, "I doubt tha-" I freeze in my tracks when we turn the corner.

I break away from Grayson's hold and numbly walk up to my locker. My heartbeat speeds up as I get closer to my locker. In capital, black letters, the word 'Faggot' is poorly written in sharpie across my locker.

I just stare at it, stunned.

"Reid—" Grayson breathes sympathetically as he comes up behind me.

"I'm fine," I say quickly to him as my breathing speeds up. "It's fine, I'm fine," I repeat.

"Love your locker, Reid," Colton mocks in between fits of laughter. "Sorry I missed the show yesterday, heard it was quite the entertainment. Thought I'd show my support," he nods to my locker with a sadistic grin, "Hope you like it. Really suits you, don't ya' think?" At this point, people have gathered around to watch the commotion.

Grayson's jaw clenches and his hands form a fist. "You wanna know what would suit you? A black eye, you fucking asshole!" He exclaims and angerly steps towards him, his fist raised, but I yank his arm back to stop him.

"You promised me you wouldn't fight," I say sternly.

I hope Grayson sees the pleading in my eyes and I think he does as he groans in frustration and lowers his hand. I pay no mind to the people snickering at my boyfriend backing down. Grayson is not getting expelled at my expense.

"Yeah, listen to your queer boy-toy and keep your promise," Colton laughs along with a few others.

"He might've promised not to hit you, but I didn't!" Preston exclaims out of nowhere. He roughly grabs Colton's shoulder, turning the bully around to face him, then punches Colton, knocking him to the tiled floor. I gasp along with the crowd surrounding us. Phones have been pulled out and are currently filming while a few people cheer Preston on and others yell at Colton to beat Preston's ass.

Colton wipes the blood from his lip and chuckles, like the psycho prick he is. "Good hit," he says.

Preston scrunches his nose up in disgust. He opens his mouth to say something, but is interrupted.

"What the Hell is going on here!" A teacher, Mr. Zepada exclaims as he pushes through the crowd. He looks appalled at Colton on the ground then looks even more shocked when he spots my locker, Mr. Zepada glares at Colton then at Preston. "Rivers, Anders, in the dean's office. Now! Everyone else, get the hell to class!"

Everyone disperses as quickly as possible and soon only Preston, Colton, Grayson, and I are the only students in the hallway.

"Boys, get to class," the teacher tells me and Grayson.

"Sir, his locker..." Grayson points to the crass lettering.

Mr. Zepada sighs in frustration then says, "Alright, go to the front office and tell them what happened, they'll get you a janitor. Now you two," he glares at Colton (who is now standing up) and Preston. "Follow me," he turns around heading towards the dean's office. Colton flips us off then follows the teacher, but before Preston can leave, I stop him.

I place a hand on his shoulder, "Preston wait. Thank you for—"

My hand is shrugged off "Just because I defended you doesn't mean we're friends," Preston says bitterly.

My heart squeezes in pain. "Got it," I mutter and watch my best friend walk off.

"Holy Shit," Grayson breathes out, leaning his head against my locker. "What a morning."

"You're telling me."

Grayson grabs my hand then pulls me into a hug. "I'm sorry."

I wrap my arm tightly around his waist. "Let's just get this shit off my locker, I don't ever want to see it again. We should probably go check your locker," I suggest, my voice dejected against his chest, but I don't make any attempt to leave Grayson's arms.

"You can cry, you know. I mean, if you feel like crying, it's okay and I'm here for you," Grayson tells me supportively.

I smile, "Thanks," I chuckle softly and squeeze his body. "I oddly don't have the urge to cry. Hell, I should be in the midst of a panic attack right now, but I don't know," I shrug, "I think watching Preston stick up for me gave me hope that we could go back to being friends and that eased my mind a bit. Though I'm not too sure that's true anymore," I say sadly.

"No one risks getting expelled for someone they don't care about. And he got so angry, I thought he was going to murder Colton. I wish he had."

"I don't." I'd feel guilty for the rest of my life if Preston went to prison for me.

Grayson pulled away but kept his arms on my waist. "Why'd you let Preston defend you, but not me?" he pouts.

I roll my eyes at him, but am smiling "I couldn't really stop him, and he didn't make a promise to me," I explain.

Grayson mutters something under his breath like "I'm never promising that again," as he grabs my hand and leads me to the front office.

Grayson's locker, we found out after getting a janitor, was also vandalized. The janitor (whose name I learned is Billy), got both of the crass words off our lockers the best he could.

We also found out that Preston is only suspended for a week, Colton two weeks for vandalism as well as being involved in the fight. I heard this from Grayson on our way to lunch. Supposedly someone in his class was in the dean's office when Preston and Colton were told about their suspension.

"I feel so bad," I say as we walk down the hallway, hand in hand.

"At least he's only suspended," Grayson points out in hope to cheer me up.

"Yeah, but it's my fault he's in trouble in the first place."

Grayson stops me right before we enter the lunchroom and makes me face him. "In no way was any of this your fault. Colton vandalized our lockers and Preston made the decision to punch him the face for it. I'm thankful he did, but that wasn't your fault. You didn't tell him to do that, or force him to do that."

"I didn't stop him either," I say looking down at the ground.

"This wasn't your fault," Grayson repeats. "Let's go eat."

When we go to sit at our lunch table, MaKenna glares at me and Grayson, Alyssa avoids eye contact with me, and Alex is nowhere in sight.

"Fuck them," Grayson tells me then pulls me to a different table.

"This sucks," I sigh as I sit down next to Grayson at some random table. The Seven other students sitting at the table, stare at me and Grayson until Grayson gives them a deadly glare and they all look away.

I groan in frustration, "Grayson, you can't glare at everyone that looks at us."

"I sure as Hell can."

I chuckle and lean my head on his shoulder, "I love you," I whisper to him. The memory of last night— Grayson's naked body against mine— pops up in my mind and I immediately feel my cheeks heating up.

Grayson gently lifts my head up and looks into my eyes intensely before glancing at my lips causing my heart rate to skyrocket. "Can we say 'fuck it' to the no PDA rule so I can kiss you?" he asks me in a hushed voice, so only I'm able to hear.

Being so close to Grayson always makes my mind cloudy so "Fuck it" escapes my mouth before I can stop it.

Immediately, Grayson's lips are on mine, moving slowly and sensually with his hand cupping the side of my face. I'm suddenly lost in a world that is Grayson Clarke.

The kiss doesn't last long as an awkward cough erupts from behind us. I break away from my boyfriend's soft lips and glance up to find Alex flushing while rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Sorry, I uh, interrupted," he chuckles uncomfortably. "Can we, uh talk... alone?" he asks me.

Grayson looks at Alex with threatening eyes before I send Grayson a warning glance and he softens his gaze. I give my boyfriend a small smile for behaving and rub his thigh. "It's okay," I tell him quietly then look up at Alex. "Sure, we can talk," I agree as I stand up.

"Cool," he says and I follow him until we're alone in the boys' restroom.

"What's up?" I ask feeling slightly nervous. Is this when Alex will tell me he's disgusted by me and will never speak to me again? God, I hope not.

"I'm sorry," he blurts out, looking at me like he ran over my dog.

That took me by surprise. "Sorry? For what?"

"I'm sorry if I ever said anything or did anything that made you think you couldn't tell me about you and Grayson," he explains making my heart warm. Then he adds quickly, "not that you had to tell me."

"Alex, you didn't do anything wrong. If anything, I should be the one apologizing for lying to you guys for so long. You guys are my friends, I should've told you."

Alex shakes his head, "You have nothing to apologize for. Your relationship with Grayson is your business, I just want you to know that you can talk to me about any of this. I don't want you to feel like you have to keep secrets in fear of me judging you 'cause I would never." I almost want to cry in relief from hearing Alex's words.

"I know, it's just that our school— well, this whole town is so close-minded, and I was so scared I'd lose all my friends because of this."

"I get it. Actually, my uh, my sister came out to my family over break," Alex tells me sheepishly.

To say I'm shocked is an understatement, "Carly?" I've met Alex's sister a number of times, I remember her constantly talking about boys.

"Yeah," he smiles, "Apparently she met this girl in college, Zoe. They've been dating for over four months now. I guess she tried being with a guy and hated it."

"Shit," I say.

"Yeah."

"Can't relate," I joke, which gets Alex to chuckle.

"How'd your parents take it? How'd you take it?" I ask.

Alex shrugs, "My parents were definitely surprised and I don't think they quite understand it, but for the most part they're okay with it. So am I. I just want her to be happy, ya' know? And hearing Carly talk about Zoe is like the way you look at Grayson; like he's your whole world." I smile at that. "I honestly don't know how no one noticed it before. So if Grayson truly makes you happy, then that's all that should matter."

I pull Alex into a hug, amazed that I'm not sobbing my eyes out. Alex chuckles again but returns the hug. Then he says seriously, "I heard about what happened this morning," he pulls back to look at me. "I'm sorry," he says, referring to the harsh lettering on my locker I suppose.

I wipe my eyes (I might not be sobbing, but I'm teary-eyed, I can't help it), "It's okay. The Janitor managed to get most of it off."

"Most of it?"

"It's fine, really," I shrug, though it's not fine.

He sighs, "I can't believe Preston punched Colton in the face and I only get to see it from everyone's poorly filmed stories," he shakes his head.

"Yeah, well I'm sure Preston hates me even more now."

"He doesn't hate you. Never has. He's just... upset that you lied to him. Trust me, Preston doesn't give a shit rather or not you're into guys, and once he's done PMS-ing, your bromance with each other will restore."

I chuckle then say seriously, "I hope you're right."

"I'm always right," he says with a cocky smile, then in a serious tone says, "why aren't you sitting at our table."

"Ask MaKenna and Alyssa," I say bitterly.

Alex gave an oh no look. "What'd they do?"

"It's not what they did, but how they looked at us; like they were disgusted by us," I sigh and lean against the cold bathroom wall.

"Shit, Reid, I'm sorry. They'll come around."

"I've been hearing that a lot lately," I mutter.

A moment of silence passes before Alex says, "Let's go back to lunch before Grayson kicks my ass. I have a feeling he's the 'no one touches what's mine' type."

I laugh knowing how true that is and we walk back out to our table.

😏