Outed (Jake & Zander's POV)

I look over at Drew with worried eyes. He looks scared to death, like he's going to explode in .2 seconds on the spot. Of course I'm scared as well, of course I'm losing my mind right now, but he has it worse. My mom doesn't have anything against being gay, she really couldn't care less, but Drew's dad is an abusive psycho who'll do stupid shit just to hurt him. 

I don't know how it happened, but somehow the whole school found out about our relationship, Drew told me he didn't mind coming out to people, that he would have to do it eventually so he didn't mind, but I know this isn't what he meant, he wanted to come out by himself, not being forced by someone else, which I understand now all too much. 

We're in the library just sitting in the corner huddled up together just sulking, but we both know we can't leave school no matter how much we want to because then we would have to explain the situation to our parents and neither of us would like to do that, so the safer bet is to stay at school and just skip our classes because we definitely were not attending them today no matter what. My arms are hugged tightly around Drew, trying my best to comfort him and nurture him. He sobs into my shoulder as I pat his back and run my other hand through his red grape hair. He smiles and tries his best to wipe the tears surrounding his face but they keep on pouring down like the morning rain.

~Flashback~

"C'mon Jake!" Drew yells at me while running down the hot sidewalk barefooted. I start running towards him down the sidewalk in my tennis shoes, soon running out of breath and stopping to catch my breath. How can he do this? How can he run so fast for so long? "Damn, Jake, you really are slow," he urges me, standing with his back to the sidewalk while looking me in the eye and smiling. "I swear,Drew,  when I catch up to you, I'm killing you and your stupid smirk!" I yell as I clamber myself up and begin running faster than I had been, before I knew it, I was tackling him to the ground, laying on top of him and smiling. "You said you'd kill me, this looks more like tackling, Jake." I roll my eyes and rush my hands through his purple hair and ruffle it up a little before laughing at him. He frowns at me and messes up my hair too before smiling once more

I climb up off of him and start running again, looking back to see Drew chasing after me desperately while pulling the hair out of his eyes and panting rapidly. I laugh as I stop when I arrived at his front porch. He rolls his eyes while catching his breath, holding his chest as if supplying air for himself. The fun ended soon when his dad walked out and smacked him straight in the face, I just watched, horrified at what I'd seen, I just couldn't leave him there. We silently walked to my house, tears streaming down his face, whimpering every few minutes. As soon as we got to my house, I wrapped him up in a blanket and hugged him. I tightened my arms around his waist as he buried his face into the crook of my neck. He sobbed into my shoulder as his tears seemed to lessen. That was the day I found out that Drew was abused by his dad. Ever since then, I've comforted him when he's crying and he's done the same for me ever since.

~Present Time~

Drew finally stopped crying, his whimpering going down slightly as he engulfed himself in my warmth and wiped his nose with a tissue before throwing it away. I rubbed the nape of his neck gently while caressing his hair, petting his head softly while smiling at him as he wraps his legs around my waist, falling asleep in my lap with his head rested on my shoulder.

The bell rings loudly, yet Drew sleeps through it, he's always been a heavy sleeper. Nobody is in the library during class except for skippers and of course the librarian, but I hear one of the big double doors creak open before slamming down. I can tell there's two sets of footsteps which makes me question things even more. I lay my head on Drew's shoulder, trying to fall asleep myself, but the hard bookshelves making it nearly impossible to go to sleep.

ten minutes pass by and the people still haven't left, why are they here anyway? first period started a little while ago and they're still here. I can hear them whispering and their voices don't sound like the regular skippers, which happens to mostly be Milly and Zoey who make sure to stay away from each other. I hear footsteps coming towards me and I freak out, what if it's adults trying to search for any skippers? I don't have any time to think about this because I can hear the footsteps approaching around the corner. I close me eyes tightly, burying my face into Drew's shoulder again until I hear a familiar voice. "Zander, I'm sure they're here," I hear Luke say, who are they looking for anyway? "Why are we looking for him anyway?"

"Zander, we have to talk to him."

"It's probably just some stupid rumor anyway, don't waste your time on them."

"Zander, please let's just talk to him, hear him out."

"Fine."

I hear them advance towards me, as soon as they see me they pause. I wipe my tears away from my eyes and look away from them. "Hey, Jake," Luke says calmly, analyzing my situation, Drew asleep in my arms, my eyes red from crying, Drew peaceful for once, his light snoring being heard. "Oh, uh hi , Luke, hi , Zander."

"Do you have a minute to talk?"

"Oh, uh sure Luke." He sits across from me, Zander scooting in next to him, laying his head on his shoulder while holding his hand. "So, I'm guessing it's true," Zander says out of nowhere, looking me straight in the eye and then at Drew. I blush, looking at the sleeping boy on my lap before looking back up at the two of them. "Yeah," I mumble as my eyes roam the room, reading the titles of the books around us. Luke chuckles quietly before looking at me. "You could've told us you like guys, us of all people know what that's like."

"I know, I just... I wasn't really sure that I... y'know-"

"Like guys," Zander finishes my sentence. I blush in embarrassment before looking down at Drew who was shuffling underneath me, his eyes fluttering rapidly before moving his head back and looking at me. He rubs his eyes before yawning, looking me in the eyes and giving me a quick peck on the lips. "Morning, Sleepyhead," I coo, shoving my finger in the side of his head. He looks at me in a sarcastic tone before answering me. "Morning," he bellowed groggily, turning when he heard someone laugh.

He crawled off of my lap and instead sat next to me, resting his head on my shoulder as Zander was to Luke. He looked at me for reassurance as if to ask if it's okay for him to do this with Luke and Zander there. I nodded in approval as he moved his head back down on my shoulder, his hands slinked around his knees. Luke chuckled once more before speaking. "Well, I see it's only fair if I greet you as well, Drew. Hello, Drew," He said calmly, looking Drew in the eyes, nudging Zander's arm. He rolled his eyes before staring daggers into Drew. "Hello...Drew," Zander said bitterly, before looking back at me, Luke almost full-blown laughing at Zander's remark.

"Hey, Zander, hey Luke," Drew tried to sound inviting, I know he's trying to get along with them for my sake, which I appreciate, but I know that he's not exactly fond of them. "We wanted to talk to the both of you."

"Oh, um what about?" Drew says, actually interested in what they had to say. "I'm sorry what happened to you guys, the whole outing thing." Luke was speaking in such a calm voice, it was agonizing, patronizing. Zander chimed in, looking between the both of us, "As much as I'm trying to hate the both of you... nobody should have to go through this." Was Zander actually being nice? This was definitely a first.

"Thank you, guys." I lift my right hand and smother it in Drew's violet hair while laughing softly. "I spent all morning on this!" He whines, turning to look at me while pouting. Luke and I both laugh a little while Drew rests his now messy head on my shoulder once more. How could I have gotten this lucky? I'm dating the person I've loved for years, Luke and Zander aren't super pissed at me for once, and I actually feel sorta happy, wow, I never would've thought that being here with Zander and Drew in the same room next to me would make me happy. 

We catch up a little more before Zander and Luke leave to make it to lunch. Drew had already moved to sit in between my legs, leaning his back on me, my arms wrapped around his waist with his hands on mine. "Are they both usually like this?" Drew asks, turning his head to face me with a questioned look. "Yeah, well, Zander and Luke at least. They're both pretty chill people," I say to him out of curiosity as to why he's asking in the first place. I smiled as I realized why he asked, he actually likes them, my boyfriend, who doesn't like really anyone, actually likes my friends. 

I laugh a little, looking down into his chocolate eyes before kissing him on the forehead. We decide that we're going to go to lunch and after that we'll decide if we are going to our other classes. We walk down the hallway, hand in hand, maybe, just maybe, when being together like this, maybe being out to the world isn't so bad after all.

~Later~

"Liam, give me my water back!" Henry yells at Liam from across the lunch table, bickering to Lia and Zoey about the situation. I chuckle at my ridiculous friends while looking over at Drew, he looks back at me and our eyes gaze into the other's with passion. I smile at him and he does the same, grabbing my hand and giving me a quick peck on the lips before going to back to eating, our fingers no longer intertwined. I see Zander and Luke across the lunchroom, sitting with the others, none of them looked very happy. I frown, Zander told me that we have to keep this whole 'rekindled relationship' secret until he's ready to tell the rest of them. I understand why though, so I'm not angry.

(Zander's pov)

Everything was a little hectic today. Luke made me go talk to Jake and Drew about what happened today and I'm not gonna lie, when you get to know Drew, he's not so bad. He seems to enjoy being in the company of other queer people, which I understand all too much. I see Jake from across the room, he's next to Drew, loving on him and holding his hand affectionately, rubbing his thumb over the top of his hand. I'm glad that they're accepting the fact that they're out to the world, it makes me happy that they're adapting to it, but I wish it never happened. It's not that I don't like their relationship, I've always thought that they'd be a good match, but I've never seen Drew cry, but today I did, and that thought honestly scares me. Jake was crying as well and I've never seen him cry either, I have no idea how they're so happy right now, how they're laughing and smiling the way they are, they're better than me, that's for sure.

Im awoken from my thoughts by Sean, he seemed to notice me spacing out and shook me lightly, causing me to snap out of it, leaving my trance. "Zander, are you okay?" Sean asks, face a sour expression. "Oh, uh, yeah, Sean, I'm okay." I look at him to reassure him, but it doesn't work very well. Gosh, could this day have gone any worse?

~Later~

(Jake's pov)

I wrap Drew in my arms, my left arm draped over his shoulder, my right one holding the underside of his legs, a sleeping Drew on my lap as the first Spiderman movie plays in the background. As much as I'd like to drown myself in this affectionate moment with my boyfriend, I really can't. I know I can't reverse time and quite frankly, I don't want to, but sometimes I wish I could. I love Drew, I really do, but I really wish that this whole school thing didn't happen. I told him that I'm fine, but truth is I'm not. I know that with him things will be much much easier, but it still takes so much effort right now.

I know it'll get better over time, but I wish it was better right now.

Drew shifts in my lap, his eyes slowly fluttering open. I didn't even notice the warm tears streaming down my rosy cheeks as I watched my boyfriend wake up in my arms. "Jake, what's wrong?" he says groggily, wiping his eyes before looking intensely into mine.

I noticed the tears in my lashes and my sweaty messy face along with my bloodshot eyes and the extreme red heat on my cheeks. I slowly shook my head before breaking down, slinking my arms around his back and crying into his shoulder. Drew flinched before wrapping his arms around me, embracing me warmly. I guess I can't take bottling up my emotions for so long and being the supportive withstanding boyfriend.

"Jake, Jake, it's okay, Babe, look at me," he said, using both of his soft tan hands to turn my head slightly to look at him. I open my now puffy eyes a little bit, his hand still rested by my cheekbone. I lifted my arm, placing my hand on his and smiling a sad smile. "I know it's hard on you too Jake, you don't have to pretend for me," he said, looking me in the eyes before pulling me into a long passionate kiss. I smiled at him once again, fully knowing that with him, I'll always be happy, no matter the troubles we have, the ups and downs, the days and nights, we'll make it through it.