All I could do was answer with a moan, incapable of saying anything coherent at all at that point.
I opened my eyes wide when I heard a voice right outside the closet.
“Yes, it was coming from in here,” the voice said. It took me a second to place it. Wasn’t that… one of the other students from film class…?
“Let’s see,” the professor replied, and I heard the unmistakable beeps of the code being entered on the keypad.
I froze. I simply didn’t know what to do. As the door opened, the last thing I heard was the sound of my zipper sliding back up, and then –
The professor was standing there outside the door with a group of my classmates, peering in at us curiously.
“Ah,” she said. “We had some reports of noise coming from this closet. A student was concerned that someone was stealing or damaging the equipment.”
“Um,” I said, desperately trying to think through my panic. “Nope. No, I was just showing Olly the camera I used. And, um. Putting a cable back. That’s probably the noise they heard.”
“Really?” one of the students outside asked, with a raised skeptical eyebrow.
Olly sighed and folded his arms over his chest. “We were making out in here,” he said.
I gaped at him.
I didn’t just hear that, did I?
He looked back at me and shrugged. “There’s no point in denying it. We got caught, and it’s pretty obvious. The rumor mill was going to go wild, anyway.”
“Wh- but,” I started, unable to find the words to finish my sentence. He was fine with it being open? But… wasn’t he worried about other people knowing? I thought he wanted me to keep it quiet. I hadn’t told anyone – not even Clara.
“Alright, that’s enough, everyone,” the professor said smartly. “Back to class. And you two, out of the closet so I can lock it back up.”
Out of the closet.
What a metaphor.
I stumbled dazed into the hall, then looked around at Olly awkwardly as the professor shut the door.
“I’m heading back to class,” she said, giving me a meaningful look. “Maybe you two want to go cool off instead of disrupting the other students any further.”
I nodded gratefully. She turned sharply away and started walking, which was as good a permission as I was going to get for not going back to the rest of the class. If we went in, I was sure it would be full of people whispering and gossiping about us, anyway.
“We should go back in,” Olly said, taking me by surprise. He started to walk by me and I reached out to grab his arm.
“Wait,” I said. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I sighed. “We need to talk.”
Olly
I sat down on the edge of my bed, resting my arms on my legs. I expected Keaton to come and sit with me like normal, but instead, he sat down on his own. We were facing each other, the way we always seemed to when something serious needed to be said.
“What?” I asked. I couldn’t understand why he was looking so serious.
“You just came out to the whole college,” Keaton said.
I made a face. “I came out to like four people,” I said. “And not even then. I didn’t tell them my sexuality.”
“Which, um, is what, anyway?” Keaton asked, blushing suddenly.
I tilted my head. “I’ve been figuring it out. I don’t know whether I’m gay or bi.”
“O-okay.” Keaton nodded, his face red. “You don’t have to figure out an answer right away, of course.”
