Drum roll, please! We're entering the last arc of the story!

Chapter 49

"You know you can tell me if you're gay."

Killer felt like he had gotten a punch in the gut. "Wh-what? What makes you say that?" How? How had he found out? "Do I look gay to you?"

Wire raised an eyebrow. "Are you serious? You think I would base that on the way you look?"

Killer had to admit: as far as gay looks went, Wire, who usually dressed pretty gender non-conforming, won this one. Even though he was straight, as far as Killer knew.

Wire pinched the bridge of his nose. "Is Penguin your boyfriend? And please, don't lie to me, or come up with some bullshit like 'she doesn't want anyone to know' again."

Killer swallowed hard. He didn't know how the hell Wire had found out, but he knew he had to make a hard choice right now. Either he told him the truth, risking the way he would look at him forever, or he denied everything, risking their friendship. If he didn't come clean now, he would probably never have a chance to do it again. It was now or never; this was his only chance.

Killer forced himself to look Wire in his eyes when he answered, even if he was terrified of his reaction. "Yes, Penguin is my boyfriend."

Wire's body visibly relaxed. "There you go. Why didn't you tell us? Since Penguin is open about his sexuality, I don't believe he's the one wanting to keep it a secret."

"I… well…" Killer hadn't expected his friend to react this way. As if it was nothing special. "I don't want you to look at me and think 'oh yeah, that's the gay guy' every time, before interacting with me."

Wire raised an eyebrow. "Seriously, Kill? How long have we known each other?" He shook his head. "This changes nothing! The only thing we would have done differently, is that we wouldn't have tried to set you up with girls."

Killer ran his hand through his hair, feeling slightly guilty. Had he been making this a bigger thing than it was? Should he have trusted his friends, at least? He sighed. "But how did you find out? I didn't even know you knew who Penguin was." Wire was in the year above him, after all, so he didn't know everyone from their year.

Wire snorted. "The whole school knows who Penguin is. Besides the fact that he walks around with his name on his hat, I heard the stories about your fights… The whole school did." He shrugged. "As to how I found out… You do know I have a photographic memory don't you?"

Killer nodded. He hadn't really given it a lot of thought, but he did remember Wire talking about it.

"So, I remembered the piece of paper with a phone number you dropped, weeks ago," he started explaining. "I wrote the number down back then, just in case I would get curious one day. Well, I did say I was going to find out who your girlfriend was… So, when I thought of the phone number, I called it and found out it belonged to Penguin. Not quite the chick I had expected to answer, I have to admit. Then I remembered the 'P heart K' that was written on the wall, and I could come to only one conclusion. I still had a hard time believing it, though, so I took yesterday to observe you and how you behaved around Penguin. Sure, you didn't interact much, but I saw the looks you gave him across the canteen and in the hallway." He shrugged.

Killer stared at him, not sure what to say. He had always seen himself as the smartest of their friend group, but maybe he had been wrong. This had been a pretty good deduction of Wire. He might actually make a good detective. Still, he wasn't sure how to feel about the fact that he knew his secret now. He said nothing changed, but…

"You need a hug?" Wire interrupted his thoughts. He walked towards him, and pulled Killer out of his chair. "You seem like you need a hug." He wrapped his arms around Killer without waiting for an answer. Being the giant that Wire was, Killer could just look over his shoulder.

Killer let the hug happen, though he was surprised. "Since when do you do hugs?" he asked. But secretly, he didn't mind at all. He was actually kind of glad Wire wasn't weirded out by the physical contact.

"Since you needed one," Wire answered. "Don't get used to it, though."

As Wire let go of him, Killer chuckled. "Thanks." It felt like a weight had lifted from his shoulders.

"No problem." Wire held on to his shoulder and looked him in the eyes – he had mastered the art of staring through his bangs by now. "You got to tell Heat, though."

Killer groaned. "I don't know, man."

"Well, I do," Wire replied. "Either you do it, or I tell him. He deserves to know the truth, and I don't want to lie to him." He took a step back and crossed his arms. "You know Heat won't care, same as me."

Killer looked at him doubtfully. "You can't be sure. I mean, I know he won't hate me for it," – he hoped at least – "but he might be weirded out. I don't know, treat me differently."

Wire stared at him. "He won't. Am I treating you differently?"

"Except hugging me?" Killer chuckled. "Not really, I guess."

"Well, he won't either." Wire sounded convinced.

But still, even if Killer wanted to believe him, it was hard for him. "How can you be sure?"

"Because I know him," Wire said, rolling his eyes. "Besides, would he have kissed a guy if he was weirded out by gay people?"

Killer blinked. "I'm sorry, what now?"

"You heard me."

"Heat kissed a guy?!" Killer couldn't believe that. "When? How do you know, and why didn't I know?"

He saw Wire think. "Some months ago, end of summer, I believe. I guess we should have told you, in hindsight."

"Who? Why?" Killer had so many more questions. Heat wasn't gay, was he? No, Killer was pretty damn sure Heat was not gay, but maybe he was bi or pan?

Wire sighed. "Me, Kill. He kissed me. We kissed, just to try it out. To see what it was like, kissing a guy." He shrugged. "It wasn't for us, but we didn't know for sure until we tried it out."

Killer gaped at him. They kissed just to try it out?! He had been terrified to kiss a guy, because he knew he'd like it, and meanwhile his friends had kissed each other just to try it out? "What the fucking hell," Killer eventually said. And then he somehow felt a little hurt. "Why didn't you ask me? Why did you kiss Heat, but not me?"

Wire chuckled. "It wasn't really planned. It was more a spur of the moment thing, and you weren't there then." He shrugged. "Why, would you have wanted to kiss me? Or Heat?"

Killer suppressed the urge to immediately deny that. He wanted to be straight with his friend – well, not straight anymore, but honest at least. "Maybe. I mean, if you were doing it anyway, I wouldn't have minded trying it out with you either." He couldn't help but smirk. "And maybe it is for you, but Heat is just a bad kisser," he joked.

Wire snickered and then shrugged. "I'd be up for trying now, if you think you can do better."

Killer stared his friend in the eyes. Was he serious? Wire just learned he was gay and now suggested they should kiss, just for the fun of it? How different Killer had expected his reaction to be.

He shook his head. "You should have asked me that like… two months or something ago. I'm with Penguin now. I won't cheat on him, not even with my friends."

Wire looked amused at him. "Well, if you ever break up with Penguin, and I feel the need to experiment with guys again, I'll come to you."

Killer chuckled. "Good. 'Cause you know, I have the most experience in that field now anyway." He smirked. "I think. Unless you need to tell me more."

Wire laughed. "Nope, we stopped at kissing. But I take it you're not a virgin anymore then."

"Well, we didn't go all the way yet, but that's honestly a matter of days now. Or… day. It's probably gonna happen tomorrow, with a bit of luck." Killer's smirk grew wider. Somehow, he felt like telling his friend about his sex life in detail now. He tried to hold back at least a little. "And, I mean, we've done lots of other stuff… Not to boast, but I've gotten pretty good at giving blowjobs."

Wire snorted. "Well, good for you. And Penguin, I guess." He shook his head, amused. "And I hope you get lucky tomorrow." Then his face turned serious again. "You're gonna tell Heat now, though, right?"

Killer took a deep breath and nodded, already feeling a lot better than a few minutes ago. "Yeah, let's tell Heat."

"You want me to be there, or do you want to do it alone?" his friend asked.

Killer thought about it for a moment. "I'd like you to be there." He sighed. "If only to make sure I don't chicken out."

Wire nodded and opened the classroom door. "Let's go." At that moment the bell rang, signaling the end of their break, but Wire shrugged. "Heat's got a free period," he said, giving Killer no reason to get out of it.

"Well, I don't," Killer brought in.

Again, Wire shrugged. "You can skip the beginning of class for this."

Pursing his lips together, Killer followed him. He'd skipped class before, he couldn't in good consciousness say he couldn't do it now. Especially not after his friends skipped school to see him just last week.

They walked towards the canteen, pushing through a wave of kids trying to leave it to get to class. When they managed to get inside, there were only a handful of students sitting at the tables, Heat being one of them, sitting alone at their table in the corner. As the duo made their way towards him, Killer thought of how he would bring the news to his friend. He came up blank. He had no idea how to casually say this.

When they'd reached Heat, he looked up at them. "Where the hell have you been? Break's already over."

"We know." Killer flopped down on a chair. "We've been talking." He sighed and looked from Wire, who kept standing, to Heat, not sure how to proceed.

"What, I'm not good enough company, so you moved somewhere else to talk?" Heat said, sounding a little hurt. "Have you been talking about me behind my back?"

"That's not it," Killer said. "Well, a little," he admitted. "You should have told me you two kissed."

Heat looked at Wire and laughed sheepishly. "I thought that was our little secret."

Wire shrugged. "I felt like he should know."

"You shouldn't keep secrets from me," Killer said accusingly, and immediately realized how hypocritical it was for him to say that. He swallowed hard. "Just like I shouldn't keep secrets from you," he added, barely audible. He looked at Heat, hoping he would somehow fill in the details himself.

Heat looked calmly at him. "No, you shouldn't, we already told you. But just so you know, that kiss meant nothing. We were just curious. We're not gay or anything."

Killer averted his eyes. "I know." Come on, this was it, Killer told himself. This was the perfect moment to say it. Heat had given him a great opening. Killer's heart was pounding loudly, as he sat there, frozen in place. He had to say something. He felt Wire's eyes burning holes in him. He took a deep breath. "But I am."

His chest had tightened almost painfully when he carefully looked up at Heat.

Heat looked slightly confused at him. "You are? You are what?"

"Gay, Heat," Killer said through gritted teeth. "I'm gay." He wanted to die. Why was this so fucking hard?

If possible, Heat looked even more confused at him now. "You? Really?"

Killer stared at his friend, feeling anger rising in his gut. "You think I'd joke about this?!"

Heat seemed a little taken aback by the venom in his voice. "Well, I don't know, but… You don't look gay. I've known you for years, you've always seemed straight to me… You dated Bonney! Are you sure?"

"Yes! I'm sure!" Killer all but yelled. He took a deep breath and calmed down a little. He lowered his voice. "There's a reason why things with Bonney didn't last very long… Reason being I'm gay, and I didn't want to have sex with her."

Heat smiled playfully at him. "Yeah okay, if you don't want to have sex with her, you must be gay."

Killer rolled his eyes. "That's… you know what, never mind."

"But then who is your girlfriend?" Heat asked, remembering that TikTok account Killer had said was from his secret girlfriend. He cocked his head thoughtfully. "Boyfriend?"

Killer chuckled, his anger fading away as Heat seemed to accept the fact that he was gay. "Penguin is my boyfriend."

"Oh," Heat said. He seemed to think about it. "Oh! That explains so much, actually."

"It does?" Killer and Wire said in union.

Heat nodded and looked at Wire. "You're not in the same math class as the both of them, but now everything makes sense." He crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked back at Killer. "Why didn't you tell me before? And why did you tell Wire first?"

"I didn't tell him, he figured it out," Killer said. "And then forced me to tell you." He shrugged. "I dunno, I was afraid you would treat me differently, that you'd judge me for being gay maybe."

"Oh, we're judging you," Wire said, he went to stand next to Heat to look at Killer.

Heat nodded. "We are. We're judging you hard – for not being yourself. What kind of metalhead are you if you're even afraid to be yourself around your friends? What happened to fuck all, and be who you wanna be?"

"Do you even consider us your friends?" Wire added.

Killer stared at them. "Of course!" he exclaimed. "You are my best friends! That was why I was afraid to tell you… I just didn't want anything to change between us."

Heat huffed. "Why would anything change? You wanna date us?"

"No!" Killer said. "Of course not!"

"He wants to kiss us, though." Wire grinned.

"Fuck you, that's not what I said!" Killer defended himself.

"It's pretty much what you said." Wire looked amused at him. "If you weren't with Penguin, you'd kiss us."

"Is that so?" Heat sounded amused too.

Killer hid his face in his hands and groaned. "I only said that if you wanted to experiment, you could have asked me, that's all. You know, instead of kissing each other. Or besides kissing each other, whatever." He removed his hands and glared at them. "I definitely don't want to kiss you now."

"Aww, he just wants to be included," Heat said.

Killer's glare intensified. "Well, it does sound kinda unfair that you kissed a guy before I kissed a guy, while I'm the only one actually attracted to guys."

Heat snorted, and Wire leaned down to whisper something into Heat's ear. The latter nodded and stood up. Killer watched how the two of them came towards him with a predatory smile on their face. Before he knew what was happening, they bent down and hugged him.

"What the… what's with the hugs today?" Killer asked, but somehow, the group hug calmed him down immensely, and he felt really accepted.

"Don't ever keep something like that from us again," Wire said on his left side.

On his right, he heard Heat hum in agreement. "We're your friends and we accept you no matter what."

Fuck. Killer's vision got blurry, and he blinked a few times to clear it up, which didn't much help and only moistened the corners of his eyes. He swallowed multiple times before he trusted his voice again. "Thanks guys."

His friends let go of him. "But if you ask me, you shouldn't hide it at all," Heat said. "I thought you gave jack shit about what other people thought."

"Yeah, and beat up people who talk bullshit," Wire added. "Isn't that why you got suspended in the first place?"

"Yeah. This was pretty much my last chance, though." Killer resisted the urge to wipe his tears from his eyes. He would not let his friends know their acceptance had touched him that much. "My father will kill me if I get kicked out of school." He sucked his lip for a moment. "He might also kill me if he finds out I'm gay."

"Hm, really? I didn't think your father was that narrow minded," Wire voiced his thoughts.

"I'm just afraid to disappoint him." Killer shrugged. "He doesn't say it specifically, but I feel in everything that he expects me to find a nice girl one day to start my own family with. And you know, he's the kind of guy who brags about how many girls he slept with and such. At least he did when he was our age, he told me so himself. So, I feel like he's not the type of guy who'd just accept it if his son came out."

"Hm, okay, I get hiding it for your dad," Heat said. "But at school you can be yourself. And if anyone speaks ill of you, we'll just beat them up for you, so you won't get kicked out." Wire nodded in agreement.

Killer chuckled and took a deep breath. "You know what? That sounds like a plan."

TBC~!

Thanks so much Cleokitty20 for your review! ❤