No Longer on the Outside
Gus descended the stairs leading out of Hexside's entrance, finding his friends already there.
"So, if they don't have as many arms and don't spit silk, why do they call them spider monkeys?" Viney was asking Luz, the others listening to the conversation curiously as well.
Luz blinked, trying to think. "I don't actually know. Blame some animal scientist from a long time ago, they came up with the name."
Finding it a good time to interrupt, Gus spoke up as he got down the last step. "Hey, guys! Edric, can I borrow you for a minute? Need to ask you something."
The younger Blight twin blinked before shrugging. "Okay, sure." He turned towards Jerbo. "Save me a slice of pizza?"
Jerbo looked at his boyfriend with a wry grin. "The pizza's not going to be ready by the time you catch up with us." He kissed Edric on the cheek, and then Edric did the same to him. "But sure."
As the rest of the group walked off to get an afterschool bite to eat, Gus and Edric could hear Luz gushing, "Ah, pizza. Nice to know that's a universal food… what kinds of toppings do you guys have here?"
"So, what's up?" Edric asked, addressing Gus.
Gus played with one of his ears, looking around. "It's kinda personal. Can we take this somewhere more private?"
"Oh yeah. Come on, I think there's a door to the Room of Shortcuts out here."
It took a few minutes, but after asking Jerbo over a text, they found one hidden behind some bushes by the front doors. Gus was still trying to figure out how to connect the room to his tunnels under the school, but that was a task for another day.
"It should be safe to talk here. What'd you want to ask me?" Ed sat down in the middle of the room with his fellow illusion track student.
Gus nibbled at his lip a bit. "How did you know you like guys?"
"Wait, what?"
"How did you know you were into boys instead of girls?" Gus repeated his question.
Edric raised a brow. "Why do you want to know?"
"Just answer the question. Please?"
"Gus, do you like someone?" A grin started to form on the twin's face.
"Ed!"
He held up his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright." Taking a moment to gather his thoughts, Edric began to explain. "It all started a few years ago when my parents, mostly my mom, started to try arranging marriages for me and Em. They and some of their buddies agreed to set us up with some of their kids so they could have a stronger influence across the Boiling Isles.
"I was set up with this girl whose parents had a strong grip on St. Epiderm. I don't even remember her name anymore. Mom tried to force us to spend time together at functions each other's families were hosting, insisting feelings would grow the more we were in each other's company. That didn't go how they wanted it to go. The thing was I never could find myself interested in her; sure, she was pretty, but she was also vain, shallow, dumb, not at all like this smart, handsome, complex guy right here." Edric pointed at himself smugly.
Gus snorted at his joking tone.
"It honestly went both ways. I wasn't interested in her, and she wasn't interested in me. When her parents and Mom found out it wasn't working, Mom tried pairing me with another girl. Same results, she tried again. I just wasn't falling in love with anybody she tried to set me up with.
At first, I thought maybe something was wrong with me," Edric frowned at the idea of being considered broken. "But then, I started to notice things. You remember how Amity was forced to break off her friendship with Willow and be friends with Boscha and Skara instead? Before Luz showed up, I had the same kind of friend group, a bunch of boys from families my parents worked with." He then ran down a quick list of boys that Gus vaguely recognized from around school, like the boy Skara went to the previous Grom with. "The feelings my parents were trying to make me feel with those girls, I realized I started feeling them with my guy friends. The warm fuzziness in my chest when I would listen to them talk, the static touch from when we would touch each other even if it was only a fist bump, just the overall feeling of not wanting to be anywhere else." A wistful smile formed on his lips.
It was Gus's turn to raise an eyebrow. "If you liked them, how'd you end up with Jerbo? Did something happen?"
"Well, once I figured out that I liked boys, the next step was figuring out what my type was. I tried hanging out one on one with each of my friends like I did with those girls, and quickly discovered that they weren't my type." Ed spun two spell circles, conjuring an image of a tiny Jerbo and a tiny image of Skara's Grom date. The tiny Jerbo was showing off a potted plant while the other boy was in a Grudgby shirt, seemingly hollering wildly for his favorite team. "I like guys who are soft and sensitive," he stared fondly at the illusion of his boyfriend then wrinkled his nose at the illusion of the other one, "not toxically masculine meathead jocks." Feeling his point had been made, Ed dispelled the conjurations. "Finding someone like Jerbo was difficult. Titan, I didn't even know Jerbo existed until he started dual tracking."
That last sentence made something click for Gus. "Is that when?"
Edric nodded. "That's when I fell for him. After the basilisk was defeated, Em and I went to go make sure Amity was okay. We found her in the auditorium, and there he was on the stage, getting his dual track colors from Bump as a reward for helping save the school." Gus could see the love in his eyes as he thought back to that day. "It was like someone turned a spotlight on him. Luz, Viney, and Barcus may have been on that stage too, but I only had eyes for him. That was when I knew he was the one I was looking for."
"Then you two talked at Grom after your date canceled, and the rest is history?" Gus summarized.
"That's it," Edric confirmed. His grin from before came back as he leaned closer to the younger boy. "So, who's the lucky guy? If you're comfortable sharing, that is."
Gus looked down at his hands for a moment, going over the story Ed had shared. "…His name is Mattholomule, but sometimes I call him Matty."
"Mattholomule… never heard of him." Ed shook his head, going through his mental catalogue of Hexside students.
"He just transferred from Glandus this year; he's in the Construction track."
"Ouch, from Glandus? I heard that school is rough." Ed scooted around so he was sitting next to Gus instead of across from him. "Wanna tell me about him?"
"…We didn't get off to a good start. He showed up at a few HAS meetings before he challenged me for the title of club president. I had to sneak Luz into school when she was still banned just to prove his collectibles were fake. He got her sent to the Detention pit, so I had to force him to go in with me to bust her out."
Edric blinked, remembering something. "Wait, the Detention pit was out of order for most of the semester. That was you?!"
"I took the blame so Luz could come to school with us, and Matty got to become president of the HAS as part of my punishment." Gus curled his legs against himself. "I avoided him for a while after that, mostly because I was focused on helping Willow and Luz. Then witch puberty happened, and I was suddenly having all sorts of new feelings that I couldn't make heads or tails of, and it was really confusing."
"Been there, buddy, been there," Ed patted him on the shoulder. Witch puberty was not fun, growing several inches practically overnight and gaining a deeper voice was only the tip of it.
"Not that long ago after the pixie incident, I was really struggling to figure myself out and what I wanted to do. I was beginning to doubt my talent with illusions. Then I met some of Matty's old classmates from Glandus, and found out they and Matty were searching for the Looking Glass Ruins."
Ed's jaw dropped. "Shut up! The Looking Glass Ruins?! Those are an Illusion Coven legend!"
"Not really a legend anymore. They invited me to go along with them, and we actually found the ruins. They wanted to steal the Galdorstones kept there, and I figured out it's actually a graveyard for notable illusionists. Matty realized stealing the stones was wrong, and helped me get rid of his classmates. We've been helping the graveyard's guardian fix the place up and construct better defenses since then."
"I'm actually kind of jealous. Em and I have always wanted to see those ruins, and you found them in a day and have been apparently visiting them regularly." Ed nudged him playfully, letting Gus know he wasn't as jealous as he claimed.
"Focus, please?" Gus chuckled at the nudge, returning to his story. He uncurled his legs and his expression turned tender as he cast a tiny illusion of his crush. "A few visits later, I started to feel stuff around him. My face warms up whenever he cracks a joke, my heart beats faster when we touch the same thing, and other little things like that." He looked up at the older boy. "I had never felt that way about anyone before, and I figured since you were dating Jerbo, you might have an idea if I was feeling what you two do."
"Sure sounds like it," Ed said, draping an arm around Gus's shoulders. "Have you talked to him about it?"
"Not yet. I wanted to know for sure what I was feeling before I said anything, and I don't know if he feels the same way."
"Yeah, that's a scary feeling. The not knowing." Ed smiled down at him. He pulled his arm away and started standing up. "Come on, we should probably catch up with Jerbo and the others. With how long we've been gone, who knows if he'll actually save me a slice like he promised."
Nodding, Gus got to his feet and the two illusion students began making their way out of the Room of Shortcuts.
"If you need any help finding out if your friend likes you the same way, let me know. I have a few tricks for gathering information," Edric offered with a wink.
"No stealing diaries!" Gus immediately chided.
Ed laughed at the reprimand, and Gus couldn't help joining him.
Some time later, it was another day on the Boiling Isles. The carnival was back in Bonesborough, and it was a weekend so there was no school preventing everyone from going.
Emira and Viney went on the molar coaster, Edric and Jerbo visited the hall of enchanted mirrors, Luz and Amity fought with a claw game for a prize they desperately wanted, and Gus and Mattholomule tried their luck at the ring toss. Apparently Mattholomule knew how rigged the games were, and had tricks for winning them.
Willow and Hunter strolled through the carnival, eating fried orbs while watching their friends have fun together as couples.
"Should have figured we were the only straight ones in this friend group," Willow remarked, stopping to witness Gus and Mattholomule get chased away from another game they had beaten.
"Yeah, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Isn't that right, Captain?" Hunter asked, using his nickname for her from the day they met.
"Right," Willow agreed, casually slipping the fingers of her free hand into his.
The End