1 An Introduction

June 8, 2017

I came out last year on my birthday. I remember like it was yesterday: my mother in the kitchen baking my cake for the family birthday dinner and I sat out the counter watching her, lost in thought. I took a deep breath and recited the words I'd been practicing in my head, "Mom, I'm gay." There it was, blunt, and straight to the point. I held my breath, nervous to hear her response.

"Does that mean you want a rainbow on your cake?"

I shouldn't have been so shocked about how nonchalant her response was, she always knew these things before anyone else did. "Nah, I'm ok, that's a little too obvious don't you think?"

She smiled, "I figured, I just wanted to ask and make sure."

That night, I told my father and my little sister, and neither of them were surprised. My dad just told me as long as I met someone who treated me right that would be fine. My sister had a lot more questions: wereyoubornthiswayhowdidyouknowdoyouhaveaboyfriendalreadydoesanyoneelseknoworwerewethefirsttoknowihopewewerethefirsttoknowit'ssocoolthatyou'regaywhatifi'mgay?

"Yes, I just knew, not yet, nobody else knows, and your obsession with Noah Centineo would say otherwise."

She blushed and turned her attention to her cake. Overall, my family took it pretty well.

My friends took it well too. Asher just smiled and told me not to crush on him. Kira told me she's pretty sure she's ace, but she wanted to do more research before calling it, and Q confided in me their personal pronouns.

A year later, the school was well aware of my sexuality. Kira discovered she was demisexual, and Q is out and fully proud of their identity. Asher remained the only straight in the friend group, but we accepted him.

My point in even bringing this up is just to say that this story isn't about coming out. I didn't want to tell the story of another gay teen in the closet that had to face coming out. Especially since that isn't my story.

I did break one promise though. I fell head over heels in love with my best friend: Asher.