After debating with myself, I finally decided to go talk to Heather. She had gone through a lot in a single day and I wanted to make sure she was okay.
I pushed open the door of her room where she’d be staying for a few days. It was about five and I could see that she had only just taken a shower. Last night she couldn’t sleep because she was planning to reveal herself and she was so nervous, she couldn’t get any sleep so after the morning drama, she went to sleep and had only just woken up.
“Hey, come in.” She invited me in and so I went and sat on a chair. “What brings you here?”
“I just wanted to know if you were okay.”
“I’m fine now.” She said and attempted a tiny smile but evidently she was still sad.
We were quiet for a while and I scrambled my brain for what to say. “You surprised me with your reveal. I never imagined you’d be into girls. You were fake-dating Ethan all these days and you guys kissed on several occasions-” I stopped and cringed at what I just said.
Heather laughed softly. “God, that was terrible. Not that Ethan is a bad kisser. It’s just that every time I kissed him, all I could think of was how I felt like I was kissing my brother and you don’t know how I withheld my urge to puke every time after that.”
“Well then what made you suddenly decide to tell the truth to the world? As far as I know, you wanted to fake date him for a little longer.”
She hesitated and her cheeks turned pink. “It was you. You were the reason why I did this.”
“Me?” I was surprised. “Why?”
“Because you showed me how brave you were. You went against me and wanted to like Ethan and be with him and even after I threatened to reveal your secret, you still didn’t care about what could happen to you. You decided to chase after your feelings and not be a coward. You decided not to let others control your emotions and didn’t lie to yourself and I realized if you can, why can I not? Why was I being such a coward? It’s so unlike me. And so I decided to let the world know about me and my reasons for not telling it before. And now you get to date Ethan without feeling jealous of me.”
“I’m happy to hear I was your inspiration. So did Ethan know about you before anyone else?”
“Yes, and Amelia too. Juliet knows too. I talked to her last night and she gave me a talk about how strong I am and how what the world or my mother had to say shouldn’t matter to me and I should just be true to myself.”
“You have great friends.”
“Yeah. I’m so lucky to have them.”
“So are you dating anyone?”
“I’m not.” She blushed.
“What’s your ideal type of girl?”
She paused to think. “I don’t know. I just want someone who would love me genuinely.”
“I’m sure you’re going to find that lucky woman.”
“I hope so too.”
Not knowing what else to say and because it was starting to get awkward I left telling her that I’d see her at dinner.
Just as I closed her door behind me, I saw Ethan and he was about to go into Heather’s room.
“You’re back early.” I noted.
“Yeah, I wanted to make sure Heather is okay.”
“I just talked to her. She said she’s fine now.”
“Really? I’m going to talk to her.”
“Okay, you do that.” He was about to open the door. “Can we talk before dinner?”
“Sure. After I’m done talking to her, I’ll come to you.”
“I’ll be waiting in the garden.”
He nodded before going in.
I sat on the same bench that I always sat on in the garden, waiting for Ethan to finish talking with Heather.
If I hadn’t known that Heather was a lesbian I would’ve been so jealous of his concern for her.
My mind kept repeating the events of the morning over and over again and I felt sorry for her. I wished that she would meet a girl who would only give her love, something that she never got enough.
It was a few minutes later that Ethan sat next to me.
“She’s okay, isn’t she?”
“Yeah. She’s better now.”
I knew Heather trusted Ethan and I was happy that when she told me she was okay, she meant it.
“What did you want to talk about?” He turned to face me.
“Nothing really. I just wanted to know how your day was.”
“Why?”
“I want to know you better.”
“Like what?”
“Like your aspirations. Did you always wanted to be a businessman or were you required take over it from your dad?”
“I wasn’t actually interested in business and in my early days of college I absolutely loathed it. I had a creative streak in me and I used to write stories. I wasn’t confident enough to put it out there in front of the world. I was scared of criticism. I always felt like I wasn’t good enough but my friends told me otherwise. I had so many ideas at that time, so many stories in my head that I wanted to produce on paper but I never got around to doing it. Once I was finished with high school, dad sat with me and explained how it was important that I take over after him. It was mainly because I did not have a plan after high school. Although I was interested in writing, I didn’t want to make it my main profession. I didn’t want to put my future in jeopardy so I agreed and went ahead with his plan for me. Now I think that was the best decision I could’ve made at that time. I love my work and I don’t feel at ease when I don’t work.”
“Well do you write any stories now?”
He shook his head. “I don’t write any now. But I think… maybe when I get old and have a kid who can look after the business, I would utilize my time to do that.”
“I wish you would continue it some time in future.”
“Well what about you? What are your plans? When are you starting college?”
I almost told him that I was in a medical college and soon to be a third year student.
“I’m thinking about pursuing a career in medicine.” I didn’t elaborate because I really didn’t know what Juliet was interested in.
“Good thing you did well in high school.? Two years ago I was convinced that you cheated your way through the exams or pulled some strings but I know you enough to know that you didn’t do anything like that.”
“Of course not!” I denied, feeling defensive for Juliet.
He raised up his hands in surrender. “Sorry.”
We talked for a long time and between that I mustered up the courage to hold his hand. He didn’t pull away like I feared he would and our intertwined hands rested in between our thighs for the rest of the talk until we were called for dinner.