Coming Out

[Jory Addison]

"Well...my family knows, and a few of my friends back home know," Jory answered. "But at school I never made friends, I never hid it or anything. It wasn't so much coming out as telling mum and dad they're right. At MI....Lyric got an owl from the Headmistress about his hair....and it said something about us looking at each other too much..." His eyes fell at that idea and it took him a few moments to realize he had just told Markise. His eyes widened and he looked up, "You can't tell him I said that, if you see him!"

[Markise Sterling]

Markise blinked wide, pale-blue eyes innocently. "I don't even know what you're talking about," he claimed. "But seriously—the Headmistress?" Sadly, it was too easy to imagine. Markise looked out at the water again. "No one at home ever minded. No one at my old school ever really said anything except like, teasing sometimes, but they didn't know and nothing happened. But the sh~ hit the fan when I came out. And I'm crazy enough to do it again here." He rolled his eyes and shrugged.

[Jory Addison]

Jory couldn't help but smile a little at that and he relaxed again. "It's pretty brave," he said. "Why did you decide to come out again? I mean, you said you didn't want to hide but..." But if Markise had had such a hard time trying to do it last time, then why would he risk it all over again at a different school?

[Markise Sterling]

Markise pressed his lips together, debating his answer. He couldn't find a way to twist it, though. All he could think of was the truth. "I did it for a guy," he said. "We weren't gonna make it if we kept hiding." And god, he wanted to make it. He didn't even know what it was, or why it was so damned important, but life would be so boring without Ariel.

[Jory Addison]

"So you're out, and with someone? And it was your own choice?" Markise said they wouldn't work if they hadn't come out. "Did it work?" he asked. When Jory had talked to Dare, he had been sad to know that it hadn't been their choice to come out. Maybe this story, the one of Markise and the guy he was with, would be more pleasant, maybe it would work out better than the horrible time Dare and Michael had had.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise gave a wry smile that couldn't help looking hopeful. "I don't know yet," he admitted. He looked aside at Jory again. "This is my first day at school like this," he said, tugging lightly at a blue-tipped lavender curl. "We started by moving to my shop in Hogsmeade so we wouldn't have to deal with the dorms. That part's working."

[Jory Addison]

"Really? You're not even living in the castle?" Jory sighed heavily and looked out over the lake. How could he survive when even the ones with a significant other coming out with them couldn't stay in the dorms? "Well...it's hard being in the dorms..." He had taken to keeping his curtains drawn as much as he could, just to be sure. He still heard the guys talk sometimes, but at least they couldn't know for sure he was in there.

[Markise Sterling]

"I didn't even try it this time," Markise said definitively. "Hogwarts isn't SWIM or anything, but we're in different houses and I only know one defense spell. It was bad enough at a school where they didn't teach us that stuff. I didn't want to deal with it, so I moved out."

[Jory Addison]

"You're doing a very good job of making me want to go bury all of my pride stuff," Jory said, raising an eyebrow at Markise. Maybe it was just safer to deny he had ever said anything about it. Maybe, maybe if he played dumb long enough all of the guys would start to believe him and they could all move on like it had never even been mentioned.

[Markise Sterling]

Markise's brows drew together, and his lips formed a pout. That wasn't what he'd meant to do. He'd just been trying to tell Jory to be careful and not let anyone make a victim out of him. He thought for a moment of telling Jory what had happened to him at SWIM, but he didn't want to. He didn't want to relive it, even in the bare bones of a story. "I'm not saying don't do it," he said after a time. "I'm just saying to be careful."

[Jory Addison]

Jory sighed heavily, "I know. It's just that every time I mention coming out it seems like it's a really bad reaction." Now that he thought about it, it even felt like Layne had been a little less supportive of the idea than he had originally thought. "Seems like it's just smarter not to do it." But he knew he wouldn't be able to live his life hiding every little part of him that gave it away.

[Markise Sterling]

"It's really hard," Markise affirmed. "It's not easy. When it's worth the trouble you'll know. It wasn't worth it to me last year, so I didn't, and it was hard keeping everything in, but it was easier than coming out. My friends knew, and that helped a little." Not enough to keep him from needing the outlet of Friday nights. Not enough to keep him from feeling insane with the need to do something, to get out everything he held in. But then, he hadn't seen much of anyone. Dare had been attached at the hand to his Michael, Ariel had been in the gutter giving *~ for drugs, and he hadn't been about to beg his sister for company.

[Jory Addison]

"I'm not sure if it's worth it or if it's just that I really want to be out," Jory said, shrugging. Whatever it was, it was too late to turn back now. "I think I'll be okay, I'll just lay low and stay away from everyone." As long as he was away from the guys, he should be fine, he couldn't imagine that they would hunt him down or something because of it.

[Markise Sterling]

"And you'll be happy just hiding from everyone?" Markise asked skeptically. He knew there were people like that—Silver was a prime example—but it didn't seem right. Even Ariel took company in small doses. It was the inability to have any social contact, even just between each other when someone else might see, that had pushed them to the decision to come out.

[Jory Addison]

"I'd rather hide than get picked on," Jory answered, though he didn't truly like the idea of locking himself away in his bed whenever any of the other guys were in the room. It would get so...tight, when he was so used to open spaces. "I mean...I'm used to it, anyway. I never made friends at my old school, so I was by myself all the time. I barely even talked to anyone."