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madnessisreal
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merlin_holidaysTitle: Some people are gay, but no one knows
Recipient:madnessisreal
Author:leviathans_moon
Rating:PG-13
Pairings: Bradley/Colin
Word Count: 5.436
Warnings: modern!AU
Summary: Colin is bold, open and gay. Bradley is just one of these things and he would actually like to keep that a secret, which means that this new teacher, Colin, or whatever his name is, needs to be avoided, because you know, the new guy is not even really that interesting.
Author's Notes: Thank you to F for beta-reading. Thank you to R and H for plotting help. I’m not British; therefore excuse any mistakes I might have made.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to Shine and BBC. I make no profit from this endeavour.
Some people are gay, but no one knows
Three days ago Colin Morgan came to the school as the new teacher for English and old languages. Three days ago Colin Morgan introduced himself in front of the entire staff and said that he was gay. Three days ago Bradley James’s life went from okay-ish to hellish.
When he had started at this school he had momentarily considered coming out, but the idea had seemed mad. His mother had even told him it was mad. Well, not as such. She’d said to him: “Honey, I don’t care about the other teachers, you can tell them to piss off and the keep out of their way, but the students, hon. Children are mean, children are even meaner when they can be mean to the teacher.” He’d thrown the idea into the bin along with the moldy cheese.
So he’d come into the school and done what he’d always done: said he was single and acted as manly as he was allowed to be without appearing to be too manly. Too much would make others wonder. A fine balance of hiding himself. To make his life easier. So he could keep his job. So that his mother didn’t have to worry that he’d break down under the pressure of the other teachers and the students.
Then this lanky, young, good-looking and funny Mr. Gorgeous-with-big-ears had stood up and said ‘hi,’ raising his hand right in the headmaster’s face which had gotten him laughs from all the teachers and a slightly reproachful but amused look from the headmaster himself. If ever there was an ideal icebreaker it was that one. And Bradley had been about to list Mr. Gorgeous-with-big-ears under ‘watch-and-dream-from-the-distance’ and then Mr. Gorgeous-with-big-ears had gone ahead and said:
“Oh, and I want to be, uhm, completely open. Uhm, I have already talked about this with Mr. Head so it’s not like I’m going behind his back, despite the little poke in the eye, really sorry about that, uhm, sorry, uhm yeah, right, so I just wanted to say that I’m gay, but I really hope that this will not, uhm, cause any problems. And well, uhm, if it does, I’d be really glad if we could, you know, talk about it before I get ‘fag’ written on my worksheets for classes, or something like that, you know.”
His voice had become quiet towards the end and his shoulders had dropped. Bradley could have sworn he could hear a collective ‘awwww’ from the entire female staff. He had certainly heard the slightly squeaky noises Katie had been making next to him, after which she had turned to glance meaningfully at Bradley and make encouraging noises. Well, at least until Bradley had stepped on her foot in response which had made her yowl rather too loudly. He had felt the anger and future revenge seeping from her every pore.
The payback hadn’t come yet, but he was expecting it. So, where was he? Right, there Mr. GWBE goes and does things like that and looks gorgeous while doing it and most definitely has a gaydar, because every gay guy has a gaydar and more precisely every gay man’s gaydar is ten times more potent than normal when it came to gay men hiding in the dark drawers of the darkest closet. The natural conclusion was for Bradley to call his mother that evening and cry into the phone that his secret was going to come out and that he would be bullied out of school and would have to leave the town and adopt a new identity. Some situations called for drama queen deluxe and he was giving it all he had.
The other natural conclusion was to avoid the cause of this disaster. And consequently to ignore Katie, because the second that meeting was over, she was onto him.
“Holy mother, is he cute or not? You should totally jump him. You need it.”
Bradley turned on her, stared her down and then glanced around to make sure that no one had heard.
“Could you not talk about this in front of the entire school, thank you very much?” Katie punched him in the shoulder.
“Alright, relax. Ooh, he’s coming over.”
“I’ve got to go, do… something.”
“Bradley!” Katie tried to grab his shirt but missed it in the mess of people. Besides she wanted to stay behind and check out the new guy. And most importantly get started on her new mission.
~
Ever since the new school year had started, Bradley had gone to work feeling more anxious than ever. And he’d gotten to school earlier than he usually did, simply because he wanted to avoid the big crowd of students and teachers all greeting each other and running around and talking about good mornings and late nights and plans for the day and plans for the weekend and the newest rumours circulating.
When he came to school now, the grounds were mostly empty, except for a few birds and squirrels and Mr. Wilson, the caretaker, who opened up all three buildings and put on the main lights while at the same time checking that no one had broken in at night and put graffiti on the walls. He was a bit paranoid when it came to that and Bradley could understand him, in a way. Beautiful Victorian buildings like these shouldn’t be ruined by stupid or offensive words written over them in blue and red and black. The students had the cubicle walls on the toilets to do that; they should be satisfied with what they got.
Bradley walked up the big stairs to the main building. Maths, physics, computer studies and geography were situated in this building along with administration. One thing Bradley had to be thankful for: All languages had their own building far enough away from him that he didn’t encounter Mr. GWBE too often and if he did, well, Bradley knew how to avoid a conversation.
He couldn’t avoid Katie though, because she had taken to coming into the Math lounge of the Maths teachers, not caring that she had to come across from another building. She always complained that the lounge for the music and art teachers was basically a storage room for all the different projects, and no teacher ever actually went in there to enjoy their break. The Math department had a much nicer lounge anyway and better coffee, and well, she could continue torture Bradley even at school that way. He only ever introduced her as ‘my lovely stepsister’ with a sarcastic emphasis on ‘lovely’.
“He thinks you don’t like him. You are totally heartless,” Katie said, before she’d even shut the door, before she’d even made herself some coffee. She actually cared.
“What?”
Until now Bradley had been quite successful in avoiding anything concerning the new guy, ‘cause, well, he was not really that important. What was his name again? Any time the new guy without a name had approached him he’d engaged in a conversation with another teacher, dragged some student to the headmaster’s office ready with one of the excuses from the list he had prepared the night after the first meeting, gone to the loo – one of those teacher ones with the single cubicle - or had simply run as fast as he could. His class hated him now, because apparently a lot of the students he’d dragged away were his own. A lot of the teachers thought him weirder than before and he had bruises on his knee and back from when he’d fallen down the last steps of the stairs while on the run the other day. But so far he had been very successful; he had even managed to avoid Katie and her annoying attempts at telling him that the new guy was interested in him.
“You: heartless, he: heartbroken before you’ve even had sex. Man, are you bad at this whole dating thing or what? Tell me again, what’s so bad about getting to know him?”
“Because…” Why didn’t she already know? Why did he have to spell it... oh, shit.
Colin had just entered the teacher’s lounge and waved at Katie. Bradley rounded on her and to glare a glare that said: “What the hell is he doing here? This is the lounge for math and computer studies and nothing else, certainly not languages. What the hell is he doing here? You are evil.”
She raised an eyebrow in mockery, clearly saying that he should play nice and that he had it coming. Bradley suspected that this was the revenge for his stepping on her foot.
“Hey.” Colin was awkwardly standing by the door, fumbling with the hem of his plain black shirt that hung not too loosely from his thin frame, emphasizing the line from his broad shoulders to his narrow hips, and why the hell was Bradley noticing this? Bradley waved quickly and then preoccupied himself with his coffee.
“Come on, sit down and tell me that this lounge is much nicer than your own.” God, Katie was flirting with him. She was trying to get them together. Bradley would have loved to drop his head on the desk and just disappear into a black hole.
“Well, the company is certainly better.”
Bradley stared at Colin wide-eyed. Was he flirting too? Damn, she told him he’s exactly Bradley’s type.
“Well, you certainly made the average age of the language department go down by about 20 years. Do they talk about aging creams or Viagra?”
“Oh, both.” Colin kept a straight face. Dark humour. Another thing Bradley liked.
The door opened again and Angel came in. Another person who wasn’t supposed to be here. Well, technically he was the only person who was supposed to be here, seeing as he was the only of these four who actually taught Math. Angel looked at Katie gleefully and Bradley just rolled his eyes. She’d apparently been invited to watch the horror-show. Great.
“Hey, beautiful people. Colin? You doing alright so far?” She touched his shoulder and he smiled at her. Bradley looked away, cursing the fact that he couldn’t very well do anything to wipe the smug look off Katie’s face.
“Great. I really like this school.”
“But not the students.”
“Of course not. Are teachers even allowed to like their students?” he asked Katie.
“I believe it has happened.”
“Weird.”
Angel opened a box of biscuits and placed it in the middle of the table. “Go ahead. So what made you
leave your old school?”
Bradley rolled his eyes. He thought it was obvious.
“Things got a bit nasty once they found out I was gay.” Colin glanced over to Bradley as if he was waiting for a reaction. Bradley had been right, of course. It was obvious. He averted his eyes and looked at his greyish tea.
“Children can be mean,” said Angel sitting down at the table with a fresh cup of coffee.
“Not the children.” Colin fumbled with one of the biscuits, breaking it up into several small pieces and leaving crumbs all over the table. When he looked up all three were staring at him with pity in their eyes, or in Bradley’s face something that looked a lot like ‘I told you so’.
Colin decided to be blunt. “Is that why you’re avoiding me?”
Angel and Katie giggled, Bradley turned over his, fortunately empty, cup. He bent down to retrieve it from where it had fallen off the table and didn’t catch the thumbs-up Katie sent Colin. Colin had to bite down a grin once Bradley resurfaced.
“Anyway, no, the children were cool with it. They teased a bit, but all in good fun. They gave me a glorious farewell. And I got flowers and cards and loads of buttons and a best...”
“Buttons? Like rainbow flag buttons?” interrupted Angel.
“No, only one of them was with a rainbow flag, the other 53 all have boats or water or anchors or something like that on them.”
“That sounds like a story I want to hear about,” said Katie.
“It’s a longish story.”
“We’re the teachers, we’re allowed to be late to class.” Katie grinned mischievously, Bradley rolled his eyes, Angel pulled her chair closer to the table and leaned on it, eager to hear the story.
“Okay, we went on a class trip to the Isle of Man, just for a day. When we boarded the ferry, the weather was actually pretty great. But it was like the minute we left the harbour the weather changed and we were stuck in rather more stormy weather. So, three teachers, the one couldn’t come, I don’t remember why, we were supposed to be four, anyway three teachers, fifty-three children, two classes. It started out small, one of the children came to me and said she had to go to the loo because she was going to be sick, and I said ok, go ahead, come back to me and tell me how you feel afterwards. So she went off, and I turn around and then one of our boys leans over the banister and is sick into the water, and I’m already thinking, great, this is going to be fun. Then one of the other teachers comes up to me to tell me that she’s not feeling well herself and that one of the other children was just sick on the top deck and could I please take care of it. I go do that, come back and half the class is leaning over the banister, including both the other teachers.”
“Oh my god.” Katie looked like she could barely hold back her laughter.
“And it starts raining, which doesn’t help the situation. And there’s only so much vomiting noise and smell I can take before I go ahead, so I grab a few paper bags and hand them out and keep a couple for myself. Well, basically, out of 56 people in total I think only four weren’t sick and those four were all students. Trust me it’s really not a nice situation if you’ve got children left and right, crying, being sick and swearing that they will never enter a boat again and that their parents can pick them up from the island with a helicopter or something and you’re trying to comfort them while hanging over a bag yourself. ‘No, Thomas, it’s going to be fine, burgh, everything will be alright, burgh, the way back will not be as bad, burgh.’ “
Katie and Angel were holding onto each other trying hard not to topple over with laughter, but Bradley just looked at Colin silently.
“At the time it was pretty disgusting and horrific, but it’s actually quite funny, if you think about it.” Colin was playing with his shirt hem again. “And the students found it very memorable.”
“I bet they did,” Katie agreed.
“We should get to class, the break’s almost over.” Bradley collected some papers into a pile and left the room without another word.
~
“Why did you do that?” Bradley said the minute he entered the teachers’ lounge the next day.
“Because he was depressed that you of all people didn’t talk to him.”
“Why me of all people?”
“Well, Mr. Oblivious, might it be because you’re gay?”
“And how does he know that?”
“First of all, it’s obvious, second, everyone in this school knows it, and third, I told him.”
“You told him. Great! Thank you!”
There was a knock on the door. Bradley growled. A noise of annoyance that Katie only knew too well but which students hadn’t had the bad luck to come across yet.
“What?” he said a bit too disgruntled as he opened the door.
“Uhm, sorry Sir, but I found these two fighting in the hallway.” It was one of his older math students. Two first-years were standing behind him rather sheepishly.
“What was the reason for the fight, boys?” Bradley frowned at them; they looked like they still belonged in primary school. These kids looked younger every year. “Well?”
The older boy stepped in, because the two young ones weren’t opening their mouths. “This one, Thomas, hit Michael.”
“Yeah, but I wanted him to hit me,” said Michael. Bradley was sure he could hear Katie giggle.
“Uhm, right. I mean, uhm, what?”
“Hi!” Bradley looked up to find Colin approaching. “Hey Thomas; Michael.” Colin nodded at the boys.
“Hello, Mr. Morgan.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing. Michael asked me to hit him, so I did.”
“Just not too hard, I hope.”
“No,” grinned Thomas. “But I could do it harder.”
“Best not. Off you go, enjoy the break.”
George, the older student, deflated next to Colin and if possible, he looked even more astonished than Bradley. Unsure what to do with himself now, he just sort of waved and turned around. Bradley stared at Colin.
“They’ve been doing that from the beginning. I’ve only been here a month and they’ve done things to each other I wouldn’t have dreamed of. All in good fun though. They’re best friends. Just a bit weird. Quite the match, those two. I brought more biscuits. You want some?”
“You know, your classroom’s in another building.”
“But hanging out with dusty old guys is not so much fun.”
“You teach Latin, I thought hanging out with dusty old guys was your life,” Bradley sneered.
“Oh my, sarcasm. I’m surprised.”
“Boys, be nice. You’re the only members of the LGBT club in this school, you should get along.” Katie had put an arm around each one, drawing them. Colin grinned at her, but Bradley extracted himself angrily from under her arm and stalked into the room.
Bradley certainly did not notice how Colin’s arm had snaked around Katie’s waist to place itself on his own arm, and he certainly didn’t feel a shiver go up his arm at the touch, and he most definitely did not want this contact to go on forever and ever, no, he did not. Oh God, he was doomed. Why did Colin have to be his type? Why? Why? Why? This would all not matter and be so much easier if he were ugly or too feminine or too hairy or a macho or an arrogant arse. But no, Mr. GWBE had to go and be none of these things. And have cute big ears while doing it. If he had now decided to spend every break here, he was most definitely doomed.
Something passed surreptitiously through his mind, made a small ‘bling’ and then grew rapidly.
“Wait, Katie, hang on, what do you mean, it’s obvious?”
~
He had to bring his mp3-player to school now, because he couldn’t stand listening to Katie, Angel and Colin giggling the entire time. In the Math lounge, basically his lounge since no other Math teacher spent their break outside their classroom. He knew that Katie had dragged Colin here to make Bradley see what a great guy he is, how funny and cute and gorgeous and sexy and intelligent and adorable and funny, no wait, he had funny already, can’t have things twice. Hah, he was running out of adjectives, Colin wasn’t so great after all.
“Favourite sport? And don’t say football, I don’t need another madman like Bradley.” Katie rolled her eyes while saying it and Bradley just glared daggers into the back of her head and then continued rummaging in his bag for his mp3-player. The damn thing was so small it always got lost in the depths of his bag.
“I really like swimming, but football’s alright. I like watching it. But I’m not totally hardcore.”
“The school’s team’s playing on Saturday, you should come. Bradley’s the coach,” Angel said before Bradley could even see this coming. He’d have hoped Colin would be like any other gay guy he’d ever met and despise football, but of course, he likes it. Colin was back to being a great guy and Bradley was once again totally and utterly doomed.
“Ok, favourite band?”
“Death Cab for Cutie.” Damn, he was into indie. Bradley stowed way his mp3-player again, having just found it. He couldn’t risk Colin trying to start a conversation about indie music because he happens to hear some indie music from Bradley’s rather cheap earphones. He needed to get some electro music on his player.
“Oh, Bradley likes them too.” And take out Katie and her too big mouth.
“Does he?” Colin looked at him with one eyebrow raised and it looked like a challenge. Bradley had to look away. He shifted in his seat and coughed and dragged a hand through his hair and oh my god, now Colin knew that that look turned him on.
There was a knock on the door.
“You know we should put up a sign saying that students have to pay 20 quid for every knock and another 50 if the question they’re asking is stupid. We’d be rich,” Katie said. Colin simply nodded and Angel gave a thumbs-up, but no one cared to get up to open the door. Perfect excuse for Bradley, he prayed it was something for which he needed to leave the room.
He found Sarah standing in front of the door. “What is it?”
“Tommy just ate a bit of chalk and now he’s being sick into the bin in your classroom trying to get it back out.” Bradley could hear the retching noises coming from the end of the hallway. And so could Colin, Katie and Angel which sent them off into fits of laughter. He heard chairs scraping.
“I’ve got to see that.” Katie pushed past Bradley.
“The loo’s like ten feet away, he didn’t manage to make it there?” he asked Sarah. She just shrugged.
“Attention-seeking kid?” Colin stood in the doorframe, one hand placed on Bradley’s back.
Bradley turned to him. “Well, he’s got that label now.”
And then he realized where Colin’s hand once, felt a hot shiver go up his spine, glared at Colin and stalked away. Colin had just earned another two weeks of being completely and utterly ignored. And no, he was not being childish, no matter what Katie would say. One Mr. Bradley James was never childish and his actions were always justified.
~
Bradley stood on the sidelines watching the very slow and cruel car accident happening right in front of him. Nothing he’d told his team during any of their practices had been employed in the actual game and instead of actually fighting for the ball they were all simply running after it. The visitors were cheering because goal number 342 had just been made. Bradley groaned. This is not what he needed. He didn’t dare look back at the undoubtedly disappointed crowd: parents, siblings, teachers, students.
He really would have liked a victory, simply to reinforce his position as coach of the school’s football team. To counteract any rumours that might appear. A football coach couldn’t be gay and that was that. For people, homosexuality was not part of the game, and who knew if it was ever going to be different. So Bradley had to succeed; simply to counteract the rumours.
The referee blew the final whistle and there was some mild clapping from the home part of the crowd, but nothing anywhere near as enthusiastic as Bradley would have wished. First game of the year and it had not gone well. The team walked off the field with drooping shoulders. He patted all of them on the shoulder or ruffled their hair, but that was all the touching he allowed himself. That was all he’d ever done whereas the coach of the other team hugged his players one by one. But he was probably as hetero as they came. Bradley was never sure whether he appeared straight enough, so it was better not to risk anything. He loved managing the football team, overseeing practise twice a week and playing with the students. He loved football and he didn’t want to give that up.
“You need to tell them to be less nice. They were too respectful.” Colin stood a few feet away, hands in pockets, and smiled at him.
“And what would you know about football?” Bradley didn’t know why he was so mean. To repel him? ‘Avoiding him didn’t work, getting him to hate me might.’
“What? Just because I’m gay I’m not allowed to know anything about sports?”
It seemed to work. Colin was anything but happy. He advanced on him slowly, drawing close enough so that only Bradley could hear what he had to say.
“Hypocrite.”
“It felt like a punch in the gut. But Bradley regained his control and was ready to fight back.
“Oh yeah? And what about you? The way it sounds to me you took your precious time to tell people at your old school,” Bradley hissed at Colin. He was standing a bit too close, his body heat radiating from him and making Bradley’s skin tingle. Bradley’ nose caught hints of spearmint gum, aftershave and fabric softener.
Colin stepped even closer, locking his eyes with Bradley’s. “I never hid it. I simply wasn’t asked so I didn’t tell, but I never ever hid it deliberately and like a coward.” He drew back a bit. “And then one day I was asked and I told the truth.”
“Well, good for you. Don’t you wish it were that simple for everyone?” Bradley turned around and stormed away feeling even worse than before and he still had to face the kids’ parents. This was a day that called for drinking himself into a stupor once he got home.
~
“Because I know you and because Colin told me about the game and about your nice little chat afterwards.” Katie and Angel stood in his doorway; both holding a bottle of wine each and Katie probably had a bottle of tequila in her bag in addition to that. But she would only get it out once she’d decided how grave the situation was. Bradley sighed and stepped out of the way to let them enter.
“Sorry, I couldn’t come to the match, my mother is insufferable when she’s redecorating the house and my father can’t deal with it, so I have to,” Angel said as she took off her jacket.
“So I’m not the only one who needs alcohol.”
“Definitely not.”
“What about you? What’s your excuse?” Bradley folded his arm in the stern I’m-the-teacher-you-do-as-I-say-way that worked wonders in class, but did rather little to impress Katie.
“It’s football.” She looked at him as if it was obvious that there’s no way that football could be interesting enough to get up at eight on a Saturday.
“You suck.”
“No, actually, today it’s you who sucks. Big time. Big, big time.” She pushed the bottle into his chest a little too forcefully and went into Bradley’s messy living room. He followed her sheepishly. His football gear was thrown into the corner. His desk in the corner was overcrowded with empty tea cups and quite a few of the couch pillows were not on the couch. Well, it wasn’t like Katie and Angel really cared, so neither did he.
“If this is about Colin-“
“Of course it’s about Colin. Okay, you know what, I get it. It’s fucking scary. You didn’t even out yourself to your parents and I found out by accident and Angel knows because I told her. You never had to stand up and say ‘hey everyone, I’m gay, I like cock’. And I get why you don’t want to. Because you think people will treat you differently, because you think they will be mean to you, because you think you will lose responsibility for the football team, because gay coach, no way, we can’t have that, it’s football, the stronghold against homosexuality, the manly sport, too tough for puffs, because you think you will lose your job.”
“Which is ridiculous by the way or else Colin wouldn’t have gotten a job in the first place,” Angel chimed in.
Bradley sank down onto the couch, clutching the bottle between his hands, making it a shield to protect him.
“I know.”
“Colin’s story is different. The school he was at before was a small town school, everyone was a bit more conservative and a bit less tolerant. This is Cardiff. I’d say it’s quite liberal.”
“Just go to Anthony and tell him and then you’ll stop worrying about it. It’s no big deal.” Angel’s soft voice calmed him down. He always wondered how she did that. Katie aggravated him constantly, but Angel, Angel calmed him down with her presence alone. Why were her and Katie friends again? They never actually seemed to fit together.
“But-“
“Anthony is not going to kick you off the team because you’re gay. For lack of skills maybe, but not because of your sexuality, trust me.” Katie practically glared at him, forcing him to trust her, whether he wanted to or not.
“And now open the goddamn bottle. We’ve got to celebrate your upcoming coming-out.”
~
He was freezing. In his distress he had forgotten to put on a thicker jacket, this one was not meant for November, end of November, so practically December. He had also forgotten the corrected tests that he had promised to give back today. He’d find some excuse. His non-existent dog had eaten them or something. Whatever, he was the teacher and there were more important things. He wanted to catch Anthony before he entered his office. He wanted to speak to him in something other than his intimidating and terrifying and unnatural office. Well, basically, that way he had more time to talk Anthony into not firing him than in the office where Anthony would be able to take out the paperwork in a second, sign it and kick him out. This way he had at least about five minutes to clear things up and possibly keep his job. Or so he told himself.
He saw the small yellow rusty car approach. Unlike other headmasters Bradley had known Anthony loved his old battered car and would only give it up when it gave up on him, which, by the sounds of it, it might do quite soon. Bradley noticed a woeful look in Anthony’s eyes when he got out of the car. He seemed to sense too that his car’s time had run out. He locked it and patted the roof before turning towards the building and spotting Bradley.
“It better be important or else there is no justification for bothering me before my morning coffee.”
“I’m gay.” Of course Bradley, completely forget the speech you had so thoroughly planned out while you should have been sleeping.
Anthony simply smiled. “You know I’m fairly sure that Colin is quite interested in you. You should ask him out.” And with a pat on the shoulder and a wink Anthony walked past him and into the building. Bradley didn’t even have time to collect himself, before Anthony came back out.
“If it’s alright with you I’m just going to tell my secretary what you just told me and it will have made its way around the school by the end of the day. That way you save yourself from telling everyone separately what they already know anyway.”
All Bradley was capable of was nodding, but Anthony understood and retreated back into the building, leaving Bradley alone in the cold for good. It took numb toes and teeth chattering before Bradley was pulled out of his reverie and he walked up the stairs and into the warmth. Now he was probably going to get sick. Just great!
~
When Colin stepped into the room Bradley was sitting at the table, both hands wrapped around a steaming cup of coffee, staring at the wall opposite him. He hadn’t heard Colin come in, too lost in thoughts. Only when Colin pulled back a chair and it scraped along the floor did Bradley look up.
“Hi,” Colin greeted. Bradley simply nodded.
“You ok?”
“Yeah.” Bradley’s voice sounded a bit unsure, as if he hadn’t decided yet.
“Nothing changed.”
“You don’t know that yet.”
“Nothing changed. The entire school knew already anyway.”
Bradley looked at him questioningly.
“Katie. She told me on my first day that you were gay. She told everyone else years ago.”
He should have known. Bradley shook his head, trying to clear it. He really should have known. It was Katie after all.
“So?” Colin leaned forward. “Are you ready to ask me out now, or should I wait another two months?”
The End
Recipient:
madnessisrealAuthor:
leviathans_moonRating:PG-13
Pairings: Bradley/Colin
Word Count: 5.436
Warnings: modern!AU
Summary: Colin is bold, open and gay. Bradley is just one of these things and he would actually like to keep that a secret, which means that this new teacher, Colin, or whatever his name is, needs to be avoided, because you know, the new guy is not even really that interesting.
Author's Notes: Thank you to F for beta-reading. Thank you to R and H for plotting help. I’m not British; therefore excuse any mistakes I might have made.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to Shine and BBC. I make no profit from this endeavour.
Some people are gay, but no one knows
Three days ago Colin Morgan came to the school as the new teacher for English and old languages. Three days ago Colin Morgan introduced himself in front of the entire staff and said that he was gay. Three days ago Bradley James’s life went from okay-ish to hellish.
When he had started at this school he had momentarily considered coming out, but the idea had seemed mad. His mother had even told him it was mad. Well, not as such. She’d said to him: “Honey, I don’t care about the other teachers, you can tell them to piss off and the keep out of their way, but the students, hon. Children are mean, children are even meaner when they can be mean to the teacher.” He’d thrown the idea into the bin along with the moldy cheese.
So he’d come into the school and done what he’d always done: said he was single and acted as manly as he was allowed to be without appearing to be too manly. Too much would make others wonder. A fine balance of hiding himself. To make his life easier. So he could keep his job. So that his mother didn’t have to worry that he’d break down under the pressure of the other teachers and the students.
Then this lanky, young, good-looking and funny Mr. Gorgeous-with-big-ears had stood up and said ‘hi,’ raising his hand right in the headmaster’s face which had gotten him laughs from all the teachers and a slightly reproachful but amused look from the headmaster himself. If ever there was an ideal icebreaker it was that one. And Bradley had been about to list Mr. Gorgeous-with-big-ears under ‘watch-and-dream-from-the-distance’ and then Mr. Gorgeous-with-big-ears had gone ahead and said:
“Oh, and I want to be, uhm, completely open. Uhm, I have already talked about this with Mr. Head so it’s not like I’m going behind his back, despite the little poke in the eye, really sorry about that, uhm, sorry, uhm yeah, right, so I just wanted to say that I’m gay, but I really hope that this will not, uhm, cause any problems. And well, uhm, if it does, I’d be really glad if we could, you know, talk about it before I get ‘fag’ written on my worksheets for classes, or something like that, you know.”
His voice had become quiet towards the end and his shoulders had dropped. Bradley could have sworn he could hear a collective ‘awwww’ from the entire female staff. He had certainly heard the slightly squeaky noises Katie had been making next to him, after which she had turned to glance meaningfully at Bradley and make encouraging noises. Well, at least until Bradley had stepped on her foot in response which had made her yowl rather too loudly. He had felt the anger and future revenge seeping from her every pore.
The payback hadn’t come yet, but he was expecting it. So, where was he? Right, there Mr. GWBE goes and does things like that and looks gorgeous while doing it and most definitely has a gaydar, because every gay guy has a gaydar and more precisely every gay man’s gaydar is ten times more potent than normal when it came to gay men hiding in the dark drawers of the darkest closet. The natural conclusion was for Bradley to call his mother that evening and cry into the phone that his secret was going to come out and that he would be bullied out of school and would have to leave the town and adopt a new identity. Some situations called for drama queen deluxe and he was giving it all he had.
The other natural conclusion was to avoid the cause of this disaster. And consequently to ignore Katie, because the second that meeting was over, she was onto him.
“Holy mother, is he cute or not? You should totally jump him. You need it.”
Bradley turned on her, stared her down and then glanced around to make sure that no one had heard.
“Could you not talk about this in front of the entire school, thank you very much?” Katie punched him in the shoulder.
“Alright, relax. Ooh, he’s coming over.”
“I’ve got to go, do… something.”
“Bradley!” Katie tried to grab his shirt but missed it in the mess of people. Besides she wanted to stay behind and check out the new guy. And most importantly get started on her new mission.
Ever since the new school year had started, Bradley had gone to work feeling more anxious than ever. And he’d gotten to school earlier than he usually did, simply because he wanted to avoid the big crowd of students and teachers all greeting each other and running around and talking about good mornings and late nights and plans for the day and plans for the weekend and the newest rumours circulating.
When he came to school now, the grounds were mostly empty, except for a few birds and squirrels and Mr. Wilson, the caretaker, who opened up all three buildings and put on the main lights while at the same time checking that no one had broken in at night and put graffiti on the walls. He was a bit paranoid when it came to that and Bradley could understand him, in a way. Beautiful Victorian buildings like these shouldn’t be ruined by stupid or offensive words written over them in blue and red and black. The students had the cubicle walls on the toilets to do that; they should be satisfied with what they got.
Bradley walked up the big stairs to the main building. Maths, physics, computer studies and geography were situated in this building along with administration. One thing Bradley had to be thankful for: All languages had their own building far enough away from him that he didn’t encounter Mr. GWBE too often and if he did, well, Bradley knew how to avoid a conversation.
He couldn’t avoid Katie though, because she had taken to coming into the Math lounge of the Maths teachers, not caring that she had to come across from another building. She always complained that the lounge for the music and art teachers was basically a storage room for all the different projects, and no teacher ever actually went in there to enjoy their break. The Math department had a much nicer lounge anyway and better coffee, and well, she could continue torture Bradley even at school that way. He only ever introduced her as ‘my lovely stepsister’ with a sarcastic emphasis on ‘lovely’.
“He thinks you don’t like him. You are totally heartless,” Katie said, before she’d even shut the door, before she’d even made herself some coffee. She actually cared.
“What?”
Until now Bradley had been quite successful in avoiding anything concerning the new guy, ‘cause, well, he was not really that important. What was his name again? Any time the new guy without a name had approached him he’d engaged in a conversation with another teacher, dragged some student to the headmaster’s office ready with one of the excuses from the list he had prepared the night after the first meeting, gone to the loo – one of those teacher ones with the single cubicle - or had simply run as fast as he could. His class hated him now, because apparently a lot of the students he’d dragged away were his own. A lot of the teachers thought him weirder than before and he had bruises on his knee and back from when he’d fallen down the last steps of the stairs while on the run the other day. But so far he had been very successful; he had even managed to avoid Katie and her annoying attempts at telling him that the new guy was interested in him.
“You: heartless, he: heartbroken before you’ve even had sex. Man, are you bad at this whole dating thing or what? Tell me again, what’s so bad about getting to know him?”
“Because…” Why didn’t she already know? Why did he have to spell it... oh, shit.
Colin had just entered the teacher’s lounge and waved at Katie. Bradley rounded on her and to glare a glare that said: “What the hell is he doing here? This is the lounge for math and computer studies and nothing else, certainly not languages. What the hell is he doing here? You are evil.”
She raised an eyebrow in mockery, clearly saying that he should play nice and that he had it coming. Bradley suspected that this was the revenge for his stepping on her foot.
“Hey.” Colin was awkwardly standing by the door, fumbling with the hem of his plain black shirt that hung not too loosely from his thin frame, emphasizing the line from his broad shoulders to his narrow hips, and why the hell was Bradley noticing this? Bradley waved quickly and then preoccupied himself with his coffee.
“Come on, sit down and tell me that this lounge is much nicer than your own.” God, Katie was flirting with him. She was trying to get them together. Bradley would have loved to drop his head on the desk and just disappear into a black hole.
“Well, the company is certainly better.”
Bradley stared at Colin wide-eyed. Was he flirting too? Damn, she told him he’s exactly Bradley’s type.
“Well, you certainly made the average age of the language department go down by about 20 years. Do they talk about aging creams or Viagra?”
“Oh, both.” Colin kept a straight face. Dark humour. Another thing Bradley liked.
The door opened again and Angel came in. Another person who wasn’t supposed to be here. Well, technically he was the only person who was supposed to be here, seeing as he was the only of these four who actually taught Math. Angel looked at Katie gleefully and Bradley just rolled his eyes. She’d apparently been invited to watch the horror-show. Great.
“Hey, beautiful people. Colin? You doing alright so far?” She touched his shoulder and he smiled at her. Bradley looked away, cursing the fact that he couldn’t very well do anything to wipe the smug look off Katie’s face.
“Great. I really like this school.”
“But not the students.”
“Of course not. Are teachers even allowed to like their students?” he asked Katie.
“I believe it has happened.”
“Weird.”
Angel opened a box of biscuits and placed it in the middle of the table. “Go ahead. So what made you
leave your old school?”
Bradley rolled his eyes. He thought it was obvious.
“Things got a bit nasty once they found out I was gay.” Colin glanced over to Bradley as if he was waiting for a reaction. Bradley had been right, of course. It was obvious. He averted his eyes and looked at his greyish tea.
“Children can be mean,” said Angel sitting down at the table with a fresh cup of coffee.
“Not the children.” Colin fumbled with one of the biscuits, breaking it up into several small pieces and leaving crumbs all over the table. When he looked up all three were staring at him with pity in their eyes, or in Bradley’s face something that looked a lot like ‘I told you so’.
Colin decided to be blunt. “Is that why you’re avoiding me?”
Angel and Katie giggled, Bradley turned over his, fortunately empty, cup. He bent down to retrieve it from where it had fallen off the table and didn’t catch the thumbs-up Katie sent Colin. Colin had to bite down a grin once Bradley resurfaced.
“Anyway, no, the children were cool with it. They teased a bit, but all in good fun. They gave me a glorious farewell. And I got flowers and cards and loads of buttons and a best...”
“Buttons? Like rainbow flag buttons?” interrupted Angel.
“No, only one of them was with a rainbow flag, the other 53 all have boats or water or anchors or something like that on them.”
“That sounds like a story I want to hear about,” said Katie.
“It’s a longish story.”
“We’re the teachers, we’re allowed to be late to class.” Katie grinned mischievously, Bradley rolled his eyes, Angel pulled her chair closer to the table and leaned on it, eager to hear the story.
“Okay, we went on a class trip to the Isle of Man, just for a day. When we boarded the ferry, the weather was actually pretty great. But it was like the minute we left the harbour the weather changed and we were stuck in rather more stormy weather. So, three teachers, the one couldn’t come, I don’t remember why, we were supposed to be four, anyway three teachers, fifty-three children, two classes. It started out small, one of the children came to me and said she had to go to the loo because she was going to be sick, and I said ok, go ahead, come back to me and tell me how you feel afterwards. So she went off, and I turn around and then one of our boys leans over the banister and is sick into the water, and I’m already thinking, great, this is going to be fun. Then one of the other teachers comes up to me to tell me that she’s not feeling well herself and that one of the other children was just sick on the top deck and could I please take care of it. I go do that, come back and half the class is leaning over the banister, including both the other teachers.”
“Oh my god.” Katie looked like she could barely hold back her laughter.
“And it starts raining, which doesn’t help the situation. And there’s only so much vomiting noise and smell I can take before I go ahead, so I grab a few paper bags and hand them out and keep a couple for myself. Well, basically, out of 56 people in total I think only four weren’t sick and those four were all students. Trust me it’s really not a nice situation if you’ve got children left and right, crying, being sick and swearing that they will never enter a boat again and that their parents can pick them up from the island with a helicopter or something and you’re trying to comfort them while hanging over a bag yourself. ‘No, Thomas, it’s going to be fine, burgh, everything will be alright, burgh, the way back will not be as bad, burgh.’ “
Katie and Angel were holding onto each other trying hard not to topple over with laughter, but Bradley just looked at Colin silently.
“At the time it was pretty disgusting and horrific, but it’s actually quite funny, if you think about it.” Colin was playing with his shirt hem again. “And the students found it very memorable.”
“I bet they did,” Katie agreed.
“We should get to class, the break’s almost over.” Bradley collected some papers into a pile and left the room without another word.
“Why did you do that?” Bradley said the minute he entered the teachers’ lounge the next day.
“Because he was depressed that you of all people didn’t talk to him.”
“Why me of all people?”
“Well, Mr. Oblivious, might it be because you’re gay?”
“And how does he know that?”
“First of all, it’s obvious, second, everyone in this school knows it, and third, I told him.”
“You told him. Great! Thank you!”
There was a knock on the door. Bradley growled. A noise of annoyance that Katie only knew too well but which students hadn’t had the bad luck to come across yet.
“What?” he said a bit too disgruntled as he opened the door.
“Uhm, sorry Sir, but I found these two fighting in the hallway.” It was one of his older math students. Two first-years were standing behind him rather sheepishly.
“What was the reason for the fight, boys?” Bradley frowned at them; they looked like they still belonged in primary school. These kids looked younger every year. “Well?”
The older boy stepped in, because the two young ones weren’t opening their mouths. “This one, Thomas, hit Michael.”
“Yeah, but I wanted him to hit me,” said Michael. Bradley was sure he could hear Katie giggle.
“Uhm, right. I mean, uhm, what?”
“Hi!” Bradley looked up to find Colin approaching. “Hey Thomas; Michael.” Colin nodded at the boys.
“Hello, Mr. Morgan.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing. Michael asked me to hit him, so I did.”
“Just not too hard, I hope.”
“No,” grinned Thomas. “But I could do it harder.”
“Best not. Off you go, enjoy the break.”
George, the older student, deflated next to Colin and if possible, he looked even more astonished than Bradley. Unsure what to do with himself now, he just sort of waved and turned around. Bradley stared at Colin.
“They’ve been doing that from the beginning. I’ve only been here a month and they’ve done things to each other I wouldn’t have dreamed of. All in good fun though. They’re best friends. Just a bit weird. Quite the match, those two. I brought more biscuits. You want some?”
“You know, your classroom’s in another building.”
“But hanging out with dusty old guys is not so much fun.”
“You teach Latin, I thought hanging out with dusty old guys was your life,” Bradley sneered.
“Oh my, sarcasm. I’m surprised.”
“Boys, be nice. You’re the only members of the LGBT club in this school, you should get along.” Katie had put an arm around each one, drawing them. Colin grinned at her, but Bradley extracted himself angrily from under her arm and stalked into the room.
Bradley certainly did not notice how Colin’s arm had snaked around Katie’s waist to place itself on his own arm, and he certainly didn’t feel a shiver go up his arm at the touch, and he most definitely did not want this contact to go on forever and ever, no, he did not. Oh God, he was doomed. Why did Colin have to be his type? Why? Why? Why? This would all not matter and be so much easier if he were ugly or too feminine or too hairy or a macho or an arrogant arse. But no, Mr. GWBE had to go and be none of these things. And have cute big ears while doing it. If he had now decided to spend every break here, he was most definitely doomed.
Something passed surreptitiously through his mind, made a small ‘bling’ and then grew rapidly.
“Wait, Katie, hang on, what do you mean, it’s obvious?”
He had to bring his mp3-player to school now, because he couldn’t stand listening to Katie, Angel and Colin giggling the entire time. In the Math lounge, basically his lounge since no other Math teacher spent their break outside their classroom. He knew that Katie had dragged Colin here to make Bradley see what a great guy he is, how funny and cute and gorgeous and sexy and intelligent and adorable and funny, no wait, he had funny already, can’t have things twice. Hah, he was running out of adjectives, Colin wasn’t so great after all.
“Favourite sport? And don’t say football, I don’t need another madman like Bradley.” Katie rolled her eyes while saying it and Bradley just glared daggers into the back of her head and then continued rummaging in his bag for his mp3-player. The damn thing was so small it always got lost in the depths of his bag.
“I really like swimming, but football’s alright. I like watching it. But I’m not totally hardcore.”
“The school’s team’s playing on Saturday, you should come. Bradley’s the coach,” Angel said before Bradley could even see this coming. He’d have hoped Colin would be like any other gay guy he’d ever met and despise football, but of course, he likes it. Colin was back to being a great guy and Bradley was once again totally and utterly doomed.
“Ok, favourite band?”
“Death Cab for Cutie.” Damn, he was into indie. Bradley stowed way his mp3-player again, having just found it. He couldn’t risk Colin trying to start a conversation about indie music because he happens to hear some indie music from Bradley’s rather cheap earphones. He needed to get some electro music on his player.
“Oh, Bradley likes them too.” And take out Katie and her too big mouth.
“Does he?” Colin looked at him with one eyebrow raised and it looked like a challenge. Bradley had to look away. He shifted in his seat and coughed and dragged a hand through his hair and oh my god, now Colin knew that that look turned him on.
There was a knock on the door.
“You know we should put up a sign saying that students have to pay 20 quid for every knock and another 50 if the question they’re asking is stupid. We’d be rich,” Katie said. Colin simply nodded and Angel gave a thumbs-up, but no one cared to get up to open the door. Perfect excuse for Bradley, he prayed it was something for which he needed to leave the room.
He found Sarah standing in front of the door. “What is it?”
“Tommy just ate a bit of chalk and now he’s being sick into the bin in your classroom trying to get it back out.” Bradley could hear the retching noises coming from the end of the hallway. And so could Colin, Katie and Angel which sent them off into fits of laughter. He heard chairs scraping.
“I’ve got to see that.” Katie pushed past Bradley.
“The loo’s like ten feet away, he didn’t manage to make it there?” he asked Sarah. She just shrugged.
“Attention-seeking kid?” Colin stood in the doorframe, one hand placed on Bradley’s back.
Bradley turned to him. “Well, he’s got that label now.”
And then he realized where Colin’s hand once, felt a hot shiver go up his spine, glared at Colin and stalked away. Colin had just earned another two weeks of being completely and utterly ignored. And no, he was not being childish, no matter what Katie would say. One Mr. Bradley James was never childish and his actions were always justified.
Bradley stood on the sidelines watching the very slow and cruel car accident happening right in front of him. Nothing he’d told his team during any of their practices had been employed in the actual game and instead of actually fighting for the ball they were all simply running after it. The visitors were cheering because goal number 342 had just been made. Bradley groaned. This is not what he needed. He didn’t dare look back at the undoubtedly disappointed crowd: parents, siblings, teachers, students.
He really would have liked a victory, simply to reinforce his position as coach of the school’s football team. To counteract any rumours that might appear. A football coach couldn’t be gay and that was that. For people, homosexuality was not part of the game, and who knew if it was ever going to be different. So Bradley had to succeed; simply to counteract the rumours.
The referee blew the final whistle and there was some mild clapping from the home part of the crowd, but nothing anywhere near as enthusiastic as Bradley would have wished. First game of the year and it had not gone well. The team walked off the field with drooping shoulders. He patted all of them on the shoulder or ruffled their hair, but that was all the touching he allowed himself. That was all he’d ever done whereas the coach of the other team hugged his players one by one. But he was probably as hetero as they came. Bradley was never sure whether he appeared straight enough, so it was better not to risk anything. He loved managing the football team, overseeing practise twice a week and playing with the students. He loved football and he didn’t want to give that up.
“You need to tell them to be less nice. They were too respectful.” Colin stood a few feet away, hands in pockets, and smiled at him.
“And what would you know about football?” Bradley didn’t know why he was so mean. To repel him? ‘Avoiding him didn’t work, getting him to hate me might.’
“What? Just because I’m gay I’m not allowed to know anything about sports?”
It seemed to work. Colin was anything but happy. He advanced on him slowly, drawing close enough so that only Bradley could hear what he had to say.
“Hypocrite.”
“It felt like a punch in the gut. But Bradley regained his control and was ready to fight back.
“Oh yeah? And what about you? The way it sounds to me you took your precious time to tell people at your old school,” Bradley hissed at Colin. He was standing a bit too close, his body heat radiating from him and making Bradley’s skin tingle. Bradley’ nose caught hints of spearmint gum, aftershave and fabric softener.
Colin stepped even closer, locking his eyes with Bradley’s. “I never hid it. I simply wasn’t asked so I didn’t tell, but I never ever hid it deliberately and like a coward.” He drew back a bit. “And then one day I was asked and I told the truth.”
“Well, good for you. Don’t you wish it were that simple for everyone?” Bradley turned around and stormed away feeling even worse than before and he still had to face the kids’ parents. This was a day that called for drinking himself into a stupor once he got home.
“Because I know you and because Colin told me about the game and about your nice little chat afterwards.” Katie and Angel stood in his doorway; both holding a bottle of wine each and Katie probably had a bottle of tequila in her bag in addition to that. But she would only get it out once she’d decided how grave the situation was. Bradley sighed and stepped out of the way to let them enter.
“Sorry, I couldn’t come to the match, my mother is insufferable when she’s redecorating the house and my father can’t deal with it, so I have to,” Angel said as she took off her jacket.
“So I’m not the only one who needs alcohol.”
“Definitely not.”
“What about you? What’s your excuse?” Bradley folded his arm in the stern I’m-the-teacher-you-do-as-I-say-way that worked wonders in class, but did rather little to impress Katie.
“It’s football.” She looked at him as if it was obvious that there’s no way that football could be interesting enough to get up at eight on a Saturday.
“You suck.”
“No, actually, today it’s you who sucks. Big time. Big, big time.” She pushed the bottle into his chest a little too forcefully and went into Bradley’s messy living room. He followed her sheepishly. His football gear was thrown into the corner. His desk in the corner was overcrowded with empty tea cups and quite a few of the couch pillows were not on the couch. Well, it wasn’t like Katie and Angel really cared, so neither did he.
“If this is about Colin-“
“Of course it’s about Colin. Okay, you know what, I get it. It’s fucking scary. You didn’t even out yourself to your parents and I found out by accident and Angel knows because I told her. You never had to stand up and say ‘hey everyone, I’m gay, I like cock’. And I get why you don’t want to. Because you think people will treat you differently, because you think they will be mean to you, because you think you will lose responsibility for the football team, because gay coach, no way, we can’t have that, it’s football, the stronghold against homosexuality, the manly sport, too tough for puffs, because you think you will lose your job.”
“Which is ridiculous by the way or else Colin wouldn’t have gotten a job in the first place,” Angel chimed in.
Bradley sank down onto the couch, clutching the bottle between his hands, making it a shield to protect him.
“I know.”
“Colin’s story is different. The school he was at before was a small town school, everyone was a bit more conservative and a bit less tolerant. This is Cardiff. I’d say it’s quite liberal.”
“Just go to Anthony and tell him and then you’ll stop worrying about it. It’s no big deal.” Angel’s soft voice calmed him down. He always wondered how she did that. Katie aggravated him constantly, but Angel, Angel calmed him down with her presence alone. Why were her and Katie friends again? They never actually seemed to fit together.
“But-“
“Anthony is not going to kick you off the team because you’re gay. For lack of skills maybe, but not because of your sexuality, trust me.” Katie practically glared at him, forcing him to trust her, whether he wanted to or not.
“And now open the goddamn bottle. We’ve got to celebrate your upcoming coming-out.”
He was freezing. In his distress he had forgotten to put on a thicker jacket, this one was not meant for November, end of November, so practically December. He had also forgotten the corrected tests that he had promised to give back today. He’d find some excuse. His non-existent dog had eaten them or something. Whatever, he was the teacher and there were more important things. He wanted to catch Anthony before he entered his office. He wanted to speak to him in something other than his intimidating and terrifying and unnatural office. Well, basically, that way he had more time to talk Anthony into not firing him than in the office where Anthony would be able to take out the paperwork in a second, sign it and kick him out. This way he had at least about five minutes to clear things up and possibly keep his job. Or so he told himself.
He saw the small yellow rusty car approach. Unlike other headmasters Bradley had known Anthony loved his old battered car and would only give it up when it gave up on him, which, by the sounds of it, it might do quite soon. Bradley noticed a woeful look in Anthony’s eyes when he got out of the car. He seemed to sense too that his car’s time had run out. He locked it and patted the roof before turning towards the building and spotting Bradley.
“It better be important or else there is no justification for bothering me before my morning coffee.”
“I’m gay.” Of course Bradley, completely forget the speech you had so thoroughly planned out while you should have been sleeping.
Anthony simply smiled. “You know I’m fairly sure that Colin is quite interested in you. You should ask him out.” And with a pat on the shoulder and a wink Anthony walked past him and into the building. Bradley didn’t even have time to collect himself, before Anthony came back out.
“If it’s alright with you I’m just going to tell my secretary what you just told me and it will have made its way around the school by the end of the day. That way you save yourself from telling everyone separately what they already know anyway.”
All Bradley was capable of was nodding, but Anthony understood and retreated back into the building, leaving Bradley alone in the cold for good. It took numb toes and teeth chattering before Bradley was pulled out of his reverie and he walked up the stairs and into the warmth. Now he was probably going to get sick. Just great!
When Colin stepped into the room Bradley was sitting at the table, both hands wrapped around a steaming cup of coffee, staring at the wall opposite him. He hadn’t heard Colin come in, too lost in thoughts. Only when Colin pulled back a chair and it scraped along the floor did Bradley look up.
“Hi,” Colin greeted. Bradley simply nodded.
“You ok?”
“Yeah.” Bradley’s voice sounded a bit unsure, as if he hadn’t decided yet.
“Nothing changed.”
“You don’t know that yet.”
“Nothing changed. The entire school knew already anyway.”
Bradley looked at him questioningly.
“Katie. She told me on my first day that you were gay. She told everyone else years ago.”
He should have known. Bradley shook his head, trying to clear it. He really should have known. It was Katie after all.
“So?” Colin leaned forward. “Are you ready to ask me out now, or should I wait another two months?”
The End
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