It's Too Cliché...Right? Ch. 11

"No," I immediately muttered.

"No?" Mitch repeated, an eyebrow raised at my peculiar answer.

"I'm no longer dating him, but that doesn't automatically mean you aren't his friends anymore."

"Wait. You want us to stay friends with him?" Brian asked, clearly confused. His confusion wasn't unique to him either, the others sharing equally baffled expressions.

"But he broke your heart. Shouldn't the bro code or whatever mean we sever ties with him?" Melissa asked.

I sighed. "Look, I'm extremely fortunate to have you guys support me in this time of need, but Evan doesn't have close friends. He's probably feeling something because of the breakup too and he doesn't have anyone to fall back on. I'm not saying you have to be chummy with him or anything, but don't ignore him. That's all I'm asking."

"Geez, if anyone ever doubted that you were a good guy, they wouldn't now," Jake said. I gave him a small smile but what he said wasn't completely true. If I hadn't learned the truth about Evan from Eric that afternoon, I would have asked my friends to give him the cold shoulder. However, I knew that Evan had a problem with friends abandoning him in the past and I didn't want him to experience a repeat of that.

"You guys are awesome, you know that, right?" I instinctively said, feeling immense gratitude for this group of people that I was lucky to call my friends.

"So, no one told you life was gonna be this way," Brian sang to the tune of the 'Friends' theme song.

The rest jumped in without a stutter. "Your job's a joke, you're broke, you're love life's DOA. It's like you're always stuck in second gear, well, it hasn't been your day, your week, your month, or even your year."

By this time, I couldn't fight the smile that was forming on my lips even if I tried. Watching my friends belt out the TV show tune without a care in the world was strangely uplifting.

"But, I'll be there for you, when the rain starts to pour. I'll be there for you, like I've been there before. I'll be there for you, cause you're there for me too."

Everyone was giggling by the time they were done, laughing and falling over each other. "You guys are crazy," I said, shaking my head as I too laughed at their antics.

"But you love us," Mitch called.

"That I do."

——————

Three weeks. That's how long it's been since the breakup and I can't tell you if I'm feeling better or worse. As I told the gang, Evan was in the driver's seat, in control of everything that could happen. Of course, the gang, Brian especially, has been egging me to, at least, make it seem more obvious that I would gladly take Evan back.

In the weeks that we've been apart, communication between us has been nothing more than a nod here and there, not even a single word spoken between us. Brian says that my indifference may be scaring Evan off more than actually giving him space, which was what I thought I was doing, but Brian being Brian, I knew to take everything he said with a pinch of salt.

As I had asked, the gang still talked to Evan every now and then. No, the friendship wasn't the way it was back when we were still dating, but it hadn't returned to the way it was before we had gotten together. Of course, they limited their conversations to times that I was not around, I guess out of respect for me or whatever. I didn't understand that, though, seeing that I was the one who asked them not to give Evan the cold shoulder.

From what I could tell, Jake was the one Evan seemed most comfortable talking to, although nobody could tell me why that was the case. Jake thinks it's because of their shared interest in swimming, but I think that's just a bunch of crap because, as much swimming as Evan did, he hardly talked about it. It was more likely that Jake was just a laid-back kind of guy which meant Evan was less pressured when speaking with him.

A honk pulled me from my thoughts, looking up to see Brian in his black Ford, Sam in the passenger seat waving like she hadn't just seen me the day before. I stood from my place on the front porch step, turning around and shouting into the house through the parted door.

"Tim, Brian's here!"

"Be right there," came the soft reply of my younger brother.

Picking up my backpack, I turned and jogged up to the vehicle, quickly jumping into the backseat. "Hey," I called, getting comfortable. "Tim's on the way."

"He better hurry, we're almost late as it is," Brian said.

"And whose fault is that?" Sam remarked, raising an eyebrow at her boyfriend.

"I overslept, okay? So, sue me," Brian grumbled, pouting at Sam like a little child. I couldn't help but shake my head at my friends. They were the epitome of a bickering married couple sans the married part.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," Tim exclaimed, clambering into the car, his backpack unzipped and books on the brink of overflowing.

"Why are you so frazzled?" Brian asked.

"I forgot I had an assignment due today and I've been working on it since 5am this morning," Tim explained as he attempted to right the mess that was his backpack.

"Some things never change," I muttered.

"Well, I'd been relying on Evan to help me keep track of assignment deadlines," Tim shot back. I rolled my eyes in response but didn't reply to him with a snappy comeback of my own.

"Wait, so you woke up at 5 in the morning and suddenly just remembered you had an assignment due?" Sam asked?

"My brain works in mysterious ways," Tim said, adding a wave of his hand in a mystifying manner.

"Are you sure you're a genius?" I shot back to which Tim stuck his tongue out at me.

The ride to school should have been like any other. There was nothing significant about the day and it was the beginning of the week, meaning that most people were still suffering from a serious case of Monday blues to be actively texting fellow students. So, imagine our surprise when all our phones started chiming at the same time, almost in a twilight zone kind of thing.

"That was freaky," Sam said, pulling out her phone while I did the same with mine. Tim too retrieved his cell while Brian concentrated on the road.

I frowned when I saw the text from Kirstie Donovan. I didn't really know Kirstie, but she was notorious for being the school gossip, which was why she practically had everyone's number and everyone had hers. The last time I got a text from her, she had broken the news that a new teacher was in school, even before Kirstie had stepped foot into school parking lot. How she found out, I'll never know.

"Kirstie?" Sam asked from the front seat, turning to look at us. I nodded, answering her question if we'd received the same text. "I guess there's new gossip today."

Not thinking too much about it, I opened the text to see that it was a picture, a screenshot to be precise. In it, there was only a single text message but it was this message that made my eyes go wide with shock. I guess it was the same time that Sam and Tim read it, because they sat up straighter in their seat, bringing their phones closer to their faces as if what was written could have been wrong.

Written in the little speech bubble were the words, "Evan Trevorrow is gay."