Spring

Sage Gibson

Marc picks me up the first day back at school, no matter how many times I told him he didn't have to. I appreciate it, and I give him a kiss to show my appreciation as soon as I climb into the truck.

"Is Aria not here?" I glance at the empty backseat.

"She's sick." He shakes his head. "Being a big baby about it too."

I smile. "Thanks for the ride."

"Of course."

"You really didn't have to do this," I say, just to be sure.

"Yes, I did." He leans back towards me. "So that I can do this."

We kiss for what's probably way too long. When we finally pull away, I'm grinning, and his eyes are heavy.

"I forgot about that. Nice perk, isn't it?"

"Very nice." He hums. "But we'll have to stop now if we don't want to be late."

I sigh. "Yeah, let's go."

He drives, and I listen to his music. I don't know any of the songs, but even so, I like them. I even add two to my Spotify library. Mostly because they're Marc's favorites, but also because I think they're okay.

"Are you going to tell anyone in school?" Marc asks, turning his music down as we get closer.

"Probably just Jamie. Maybe Zayn, and Zayn means Mia will probably know. No one other than them, though. I mean, I don't care if they know, but I'm just gonna let them figure it out themselves."

He shrugs as we pull into the student parking lot. "Yeah. None of their business anyway."

"Exactly." I smile, although I understand people being curious. I like being able to just say it's none of their business. Maybe some of Marc's indifference to people can rub off on me. I wouldn't complain.

We get out and walk in together. We don't hold hands or anything, just walk side by side. It feels normal but different somehow. Maybe it's because every time our arms brush, I get a new feeling in my stomach, and my smile feels wider.

We separate once we make it to the lockers, and I beat him out onto the court. I talk to Zayn until Jamie joins us.

"You got here earlier than usual. What's up with that?" Jamie asks.

Perfect. The perfect opening to tell them, and he just handed it to me.

"Marc drove me."

"Oh?" Jamie smirks. I smile.

"We're kinda dating now."

Even Zayn smiles. "Let's go, dude, that's great."

"Yeah." Jamie pats my back like a proud dad. "Good job. Took you two long enough to figure yourselves out or whatever you were doing."

I roll my eyes, but a smile is persistent on my face. "Yeah, whatever."

Practice rolls on as it normally would, except maybe Marc and I stand a little closer than normal. It's hard to tell. Although every time we're near each other at all, Jamie wiggles his eyebrows at me, which may make me think we're closer than we actually are.

No one shoots me any weird looks as I walk into the locker room, so I assume we acted normal.

I don't know why I'm stressing about it so much. Marc said he doesn't care who knows, and I've been out and proud for a long while. But here it's different. I know they're homophobic here, and I'm scared for Marc.