"Evan Trevorrow is gay."
Afraid that it was probably a trick of my eye, I read the line again, and again, and again. The words didn't change. I looked up only to see Sam looking to me with a look of equal shock on her face. Somehow it took that long for my brain to finally piece together what I had just read and the implications of it. Evan had just been outed.
"What?" Brian voiced from the driver's seat, eyes still focused on the road although getting slightly antsy at our silence.
"Someone outed Evan," Sam said, her tone conveying that she was still having difficulty understanding the situation.
"Not someone. Kirstie," Tim clarified.
"Well, technically she only spread the text she received," Sam countered before realizing what she had just said made little sense. "Which, I guess, meant she outed Evan."
I ignored them, shaking my head as I turned back to my phone looking to the screenshot once again. Kirstie may have had a part to play in this but I was more interested in finding out who sent the initial text to her. Typing the unknown number into my search bar, it came back empty, which meant I didn't know who sent the first text to begin with.
"Either of you know whose number it is?" I asked. They both did the same search I just completed before looking up at me with apologetic faces.
Sighing, I dropped my head. "Let's just get to school, I need to think for a minute."
"We're almost there," Brian added.
Sure enough, it wasn't five minutes later that we were pulling into the school parking lot, a small crowd gathered near the entrance. Even from my spot in the car, I could recognize a few of the kids from the GSA, and a distraught looking Kirstie.
Oh, great. What now?"
The second Brian brought the vehicle to a stop, I grabbed my bag and swiftly made my way over to the congregation of students.
"Just calm down, Kirstie," I heard one of the girls from GSA, Michelle, saying as she patted Kirstie on the back.
"Hey," I said, drawing the attention of everyone to my arrival.
"Brad," Kirstie cried, pushing past the other students to cling to my arm. "I didn't mean to out him. I wasn't thinking when I forwarded that message. Oh, god. I'm a horrible person."
"Whoa, whoa, calm down," I said, grabbing her shoulder and giving her a light shake, probably hoping that it would snap some composure back into her. "Just explain to me what happened."
"Um...I uh..." she stuttered as she took breaths to try regaining some of her composure. "I was on my way to school when I received a text from an unknown number. I don't know, when I saw the text, my first thought was to send it out to everyone. Shit, I'm such an idiot."
I couldn't disagree, though I didn't voice this, instead opting of patting her on the shoulder. "So, you have no idea who it is?"
She shook her head. "I texted back asking who it was but I didn't get a reply. It wasn't until Michelle texted me saying that I had outed Evan that I realized what I had done. I didn't mean to do it. Just because this is Cornway doesn't mean that I could have just outed someone like that."
As much as I wanted someone to blame, I could tell that Kirstie was telling the truth. Kirstie was a gossip, yes, but she was no liar. "It's fine. Just...try asking around if anyone knows who the number belongs to. If anyone can find it, it would be you."
She swallowed like she was on the verge of tears but nodded anyway. I gave her a weak smile but waved her away, leaving me alone with the other GSA kids. I could sense Brian, Sam, and Tim nearby, listening in, partly to satiate their curiosity but also to find out the truth.
"What are we going to do about this? Shouldn't we be doing something about this? We're the GSA for crying out loud. If kids can't feel like we're people who they can count on, we're as good as useless." Michelle said, pacing back and forth. Michelle was a very...spirited member of the GSA, if you couldn't tell.
"Michelle, calm down. Breathe," I said, stopping her pacing which was making me more tense than I needed to be, which was already pretty fucking tense. I was the president of the group and it felt like it was my responsibility to get to the root of this, especially seeing that I cared for Evan on a personal level. "For now, we just need to remain calm. Until we can find out who started the rumor, there's nothing we can do." I stood there watching the rest of them, waiting for some argument, but they all just slumped their shoulders in defeat. "Anyone seen Evan today?"
I saw shaking heads in every direction and I sighed. "Okay guys, there's nothing you can do so just get to class for now," Brian chimed in. Vice-president to the rescue, I guess. Nods of approval followed as the group dispersed, leaving me alone with the trio again.
"So, if nobody knows who sent that first text, do we have any suspects in mind?" Sam asked.
"No one other than us know about Evan's sexuality and I seriously doubt that either the twins or Jake sent it," I muttered, lifting my gaze to the other three. "It's none of you, right?" Brian decked me in the shoulder at that, probably offended that I had even thought to ask. "Just making sure. Geez," I said, rubbing the sore spot he had left.
"So, if it's not us, then who? No one else in the school knows, right?" Tim voiced. I thought about it, thinking that maybe someone had seen us together or something, even with how careful Evan had been when we were together. That was always a possibility. But of course, that didn't explain why that person would have wanted to reveal this only now, seeing that whatever evidence he or she had gotten, had to be at least three weeks old. So, why now? Blackmail?
Then I realized what Tim had said. 'No one else in school knows'. While that may be true, there were other people in the world that knew of Evan's supposed sexuality. He had, after all, come out all those years back in Florida. Had one of his old 'friends' come to Bakersfield, only to find out his old gay friend was here and decided to just ruin his life one more time?
I wanted to dismiss the idea because I really didn't want Evan's past to catch up with him, but it seemed the most logical thing and at that point, the only lead I had. With that said, however, I couldn't voice any of this to the guys because, of course, they still didn't know about Evan's baggage.
"Uh-oh," I heard Sam murmur, bringing my attention to her. I saw her looking toward the school entrance so I darted my eyes in that direction, only to see a clearly pissed off Evan trudging towards me, fire in his eyes which were focused directly on me.
I got why he could be angry. Heck, if I had been outed to the entire school before I was ready, I would have been angry too, but his anger seemed to be directed at me. Why, though?
Then it hit me. From Evan's point of view, only a select few people in school knew about his sexual preference and out of all of them, I was the one with the biggest motive to out him. After all, what better suspect than the ex-boyfriend who broke up with him because he wasn't out. That anger was directed at me because he thought that I had been the one to out him. Fuck.
"Evan," I said when he was at arm's length but my sentence was cut short when strong fingers wrapped around my bicep, pulling me back as he made our way to a secluded corner of school. I looked up to the worried eyes of Brian, Sam, and Tim, trying my best to wordlessly tell them to stay back. If Evan was angry with me, I'll deal with him on my own.
Of course, those weren't the only eyes on us. Being the hottest new gossip in school, Evan's appearance would have drawn some form of a crowd, many of whom were now watching as I was dragged off. I could already see the assumptions people were coming up with, thinking that I was indeed the person that had leaked the news.
It was no secret that Evan had gotten close to me over the past few months and then one day, we just acted like we didn't know each other. To us, we knew the reason for that, obviously, but to the rest of the school, it could have seemed like any other fall out between friends. Again, motive for me to out Evan out of spite.
The sound of hushed whispers slowly faded as we rounded the corner of the school. The area wasn't exactly the most private of places, but it was far enough from the general school population that we couldn't be seen or heard.
Before I could even get the chance to say a word, perhaps in an attempt to defend myself from something that I didn't do, I felt Evan's grip on my arm relax. For a split second, I thought I was going to get the chance to explain before his hand moved to my chest, bunching my t-shirt in his fist. I was forcefully pushed against the brick wall of the school behind me, seeing Evan's eyes staring intently into mine, that same fire still burning behind them.
The five seconds that he stared at me felt like hours, the intensity in his eyes making me feel the need to curl in on myself. "Evan, I swear I didn't send the text," I said, his unwavering gaze making me involuntarily spew words without thought, like some fight-or-flight response.
Before I could continue with my babbling, I was cut short by the pressed of lips against my own. His lips were the same softness that I remembered, though the hard pressure of his mouth on mine was something I hadn't gotten to experience often. Memories flooded me, reminding me of the countless afternoons we had spent together, the feelings I had for this man bubbling to the surface once again after trying to bury them these past three weeks.
Involuntarily, my eyelids fell shut as I savored the feel of his lips on mine, my hands instinctively traveling up to wrap around his shoulders. I've missed this, so much. I've missed him. The fist that was gripping my shirt slowly relaxed, now a palm pressed against my chest, pinning me to the wall. His lips moved quickly against mine, a sense of urgency to his actions that made me feel wanted. Something I hadn't felt in a long time, especially coming from Evan. So caught up in the kiss, was I, that I had almost forgotten how we'd gotten to be in that position.
Almost.
Summoning all the strength in me, I pushed him away, breaking the kiss even though my body wanted to do anything but. Panting, I searched his eyes, his gaze still locked intensely on mine, though I could now see that the intensity wasn't anger, as I had previously thought, but determination. The same determination that I had seen in him countless times before.
