Chapter 5
Crystal tried desperately to keep from crying once more as Matthew lead her through his house into his bedroom at the end of the hallway. His mom was making dinner in the kitchen on the other side of the house so they wouldn’t have to worry about being overheard.
“Crys, I love you, I hope you know that, but I need you to tell me what is going on here.” Matthew plopped unceremoniously onto his giant beanbag in the corner of his room and stared intently at his best friend.
“Okay. First off, I’m really sorry for what happened at lunch today. It’s just that-“ Crystal looked away, unable to meet Matthew’s eyes as she desperately tried to verbalize the secret she had forced herself to keep inside of herself for nearly a decade. “Matthew, I think I’m a lesbian.”
Matthew was quiet for several minutes. Crystal wrapped her arms around herself and all but fell onto her friend’s twin sized bed, letting the tears fall yet trying to silence her gasps as the relief flooded her heart.
Matthew’s eyes bored into his friend, even as his heart shattered to see her like this. In all the years they had known each other, he had always made it his job to protect her from harm. And yet, here she was; crying just across the room.
Immediately, he jumped up and rushed over to her side, wrapping her slender frame into a tight embrace, gently rocking back and forth and mumbling comforting words to her.
“Crys, listen to me honey. It is okay. You are gonna be okay. I love you so much and I will always be here for you. I got you, honey, I am here for you. Always, Crystal, always.”
Eventually, the tears stopped falling. Crystal slowly lifted herself up and wiped her face. She looked around Matthew’s room as she tried to collect herself, focusing on her friend’s dark grey walls and large bookshelves overflowing with books of every kind. After a couple minutes, she sniffled one last time and looked over at him.
“Matthew, it’s such a long story.”
Matthew smiled. “I’ve got no where else to be, bud”
And so Crystal told him everything. She told him about how when she started puberty and all the other girls were obsessing over the boys on tv, she would ogle over the women in their skimpy dresses. She told him about all the times she would develop crushes on the girls in her friend group. She told him about Wanda and their first interaction in the girls’ bathroom that day. She told him that she was afraid she would be unable to form a friendship with Wanda because all she could focus on was how pretty she was, and how much she wanted to kiss her. She even told him about the horrible argument she’d had with her mother just before calling him and how scared she was now that her mother finally new the truth.
Through it all, Matthew sat silently. Absorbing all the information Crystal was flushing out of her system after years and years of hiding.
Eventually, Crystal ran out of things to tell Matthew and she fell silent. After a moment to collect himself, Matthew looked at his friend with nothing but pure love and said simply “Thank you for telling me, Crys.”
Crystal smiled shakily and lurched forward to give her best friend another hug, this time out of pure relief and gratefulness.
Just then, Matthew’s mother called from down the hall “dinner’s ready!”
The pair laughed and stood up. Matthew gently draped his arm over Crystal’s shoulder and leaned in to softly kiss her temple.
“Let’s see what mom made, huh? I may not be the smartest person in the world, but if that’s not homemade pizza I smell, I’ll be a yeti’s uncle!”