#SamGabeHSAU --
Gabriel wakes up on Friday morning feeling like everything in the world is brand-new. He turns over, hugs his pillow, and closes his eyes again to better remember the feel of Sam's hands curled around his waist, the gentle and perfect press of his lips. God, it was so good, so much like flying, like they'd just sprouted wings and left the world reeling far below.
"You look very happy today, Gabriel," Raphael says at the breakfast table. Dad's still sleeping, and as usual, Michael has taken it upon himself to have breakfast ready for his brothers.
"My play opens tonight." Gabriel sounds a touch defensive. Raphael rarely says anything without it being an accusation of some kind. There's no way in he'll Gabriel's telling him, or any of his brothers, about him and Sam.
He's nervous about what happens when they meet in homeroom. He doubts Sam has come out to many people, so they'll have to play it like nothing has happened. How many people will they be able to fool, and for how long?
This is the first unfairness of liking someone of the same sex. A new couple gets together and normally it's the talk of the school. But the assumption on the gay end of the scale is that you start out closeted. You get none of the congratulations or the envious stares of your peers. It sucks.
Gabriel and Sam grin at each other stupidly for a few seconds when homeroom starts. Then they turn away and spend that ten minutes talking to other people.
In the hallway, later, they meet briefly. "This is very weird," Gabriel says to him.
"I know!" Sam cards his fingers through his hair, a motion Gabriel desperately wants to feel on his own scalp. He looks up enviously. "But it's cool. You have the play tonight."
"Yeah. I'd almost forgotten about that." Gabriel says. "Like I said, you're a distraction."
"Well, break a leg."
"Sam." Anxious fingers fly out to catch his shirtsleeve. "You're coming, right?"
Sam flushes. "Of course."
Gabriel isn't sure if that makes him more or less nervous.
--
The evening rolls around and Gabriel is definitely on the "more nervous" end of the scale. Jo is applying his makeup (she keeps telling him to sit still, which is hard when you have a pencil pointed smack at your eye) and he's having some real trouble with the concept that when he goes out there tonight, nobody's gonna stop him or give him a second chance. This is it.
And If he screws this up with Sam? There will be no second chances for him, ever.
He thumbs through the script absently while waiting for the auditorium to fill up. His eyes fall on the lyrics of Conrad Birdie's first song, the one he's been singing for two months now. It is written to be a kind of brainless, generic Elvis number, but today the lyrics jump out at him.
~When I sing about a tree,
I really feel that tree.
When I sing about a girl
I really feel that girl,
I mean, I really feel sincere.~
Well, sure, why not? Right from Conrad Birdie's lips. He just has to really feel it and it'll all be fine. And even if it's not, at least he can say he's been honestly sincere.
He goes on stage that night with slicked-back hair and a killer attitude and has an absolute blast. When they reach the final bows, the audience jumps up to applaud him. And when Sam greets him afterward, Gabriel gives him a huge bear hug and smears makeup all over his cheek.
"Thank you," he says.
Sam pulls back to look at him. "For what?"
"Everything," Gabriel answers. "Absolutely everything."
***End of Volume 2***
Next: Volume 3
Friendship Caught Fire