Out Of The Closet - 2. Chapter 2: Winter

December 24 2018

It was a cold sunny Christmas Eve. I was still asleep at 10AM, when I heard my pear phone ring, waking me up. “Huh,” I answered sleepily and rubbed my narrow brown eyes.

“Oliver, did you just wake up?” Cody asked through the phone.

“Oh, hey, Cody,” I sat up, immediately feeling chilly without a shirt on. “Mhm. Your phone call woke me up.”

“Can you come over for the day? It’s kind of boring here. We can do our gift exchange too.”

“Yeah, I can ask my parents if I can hang out,” I stood up and put on a sweatshirt. “They still think we’re just friends by the way.”

“Of course. Also, my sister misses you,” Cody giggled. “I’m not the only one in this house that thinks you’re really cute.”

I blushed and tried not to laugh. “I’ll text you when I’m about to walk there.”

“Okie,” Cody hung up. Cody and I got a lot of negative attention from Garrett and his crew for being a gay couple, but they promised to keep quiet to minimize their bullying punishment for attacking us, so very few students knew about us.

I went to the kitchen to eat some oatmeal and some juice for breakfast. “Morning, Oliver,” Mom said to me.

“Hey, mom,” I smiled. “Cody asked if I wanted to hang out at his place this afternoon. So, can I go?”

“Sure,” she nodded. “After you put your dirty laundry in the washing machine and clean up your room.”

“Oh, okay mom.” I pulled my phone out of the pocket of my pajama pants and texted Cody.

“Where are you going?” Toby asked while grabbing a ginger ale from the fridge.

“Oh, I’m gonna go hang out with Cody.”

“Ok. Have fun, little bro.”

“Dude, we’re twins,” I rolled my eyes. “We’re, like, the same exact age. Sixteen years and eight months.” I said, putting a jacket on over my shirt. "And I'm bigger than you!"

“Yeah, but I was born like 10 minutes before you.” Toby chuckled as I rolled my eyes and left.

I made my way to Cody’s house at the edge of town, where Iris ran over and hugged me at the door.

“Iris, get off him,” Cody laughed. “Hey, Oliver,” he hugged me.

We went downstairs to Cody’s room and closed the door before Iris could intrude and we opened our gifts from each other. We’re only sixteen years old, so we could only afford one gift for each other.

We then went into the backyard and played in the snow. Building a snowman until it turned into a snowball fight. After that, we went inside to warm up and have some hot cocoa. “Hey, Oliver,” Samantha said. “How is your break going?”

“Been nice to get to sleep in,” I smiled.

“Mom, can Oliver stay for dinner?” Cody asked.

“Sure,” she said. “But, your dad’s parents want to video chat at around 8PM.”

“Uh, I actually can’t stay for dinner,” I blushed. “I have to be back at my house by 6PM. My dad’s parents are visiting from California.” My dad’s parents were 75 years old and had escaped North Korea somehow and settled down in America to live a quiet lifestyle with basic human freedoms. I don’t ask them too much about North Korea because it’s like super traumatic for them to talk about. Many people in my family live in America now, but I still have family over in both Koreas and the Philippines, but I haven’t been to North Korea for obvious reasons.

“Ah, ok,” Cody frowned. “I’ll miss you at dinner then.”

“I’m sorry,” I hugged him.

“It’s ok. I want you to hang out with your family too."

“I’ll stay right until 6. How about that?” I smiled. “I still have a couple hours left.”

We hung out and talked in Cody’s bedroom about basketball stuff and school and cute animals. When I had to leave, we kissed before I walked home.

Mom scolded me for being a bit late, but my grandparents were glad to see me. I haven’t seen them since I was 13. From a young age, Toby and I learned Korean from our dad’s side of the family, so we’re fluent in the language just like English. We had a nice dinner before my parents, brother, and I went to Christmas Eve Mass at our Catholic Church.

February 14 2019

Weeks passed, with Cody and I keeping our relationship secretive. You have no idea how hard it was to not kiss my amazing hot boyfriend in school. Seeing him shirtless in the locker room and during basketball practice continued to give me an embarrassing boner, which can be hard to hide when wearing basketball shorts. Anyways, enough about that. I was sitting in my Comp Sci class during third period, working on my web design project. We had to make a page about ourselves and our interests. I was keeping an eye on the clock, though. I had to leave at 10:15 for a basketball game against the Yellowjackets from LaGrange High School in the next county over. When the time arrived, I got up and showed my teacher the note from Coach Roberts and I got to leave class early. Yay! I went to my regular locker to put away my school stuff and found lots of notes from girls like I do every year on Valentine’s day. I guess straight girls find me attractive? Unfortunately for them, I’m taken by a cutie named Cody.

I then went to the boys locker room and changed into my uniform when Cody approached me. “Hey, cutie…” he whispered. “We still doing it today?”

“Doing what?” I asked, pulling on my Nike Elite socks. Cody gave me a glare and rolled his eyes. “What? You know I’m not that smart…”

“Being more open at school. Like holding hands, kissing, and stuff… but keeping it subtle. We’re still doing that later today, right?”

“Oh, yeah,” I smiled. “Not until after the game though.” I laced up my sneakers and pulled a hoodie on to head out to the bus. I sat next to Luke on the bus instead of Cody. The game started at 11, and we ended up losing to the Yellowjackets 67-65 in part because I was distracted by my feelings for Cody. I had missed a 3 point shot just before halftime, and then sat out for the second half.

“Oliver, you okay?” the coach asked me.

“Um, yessir,” I nodded with a blush. “Just a bit distracted. I’m sorry.”

Cody and I held hands on the bus ride back, but nobody seemed to notice. When we stopped at Subway for lunch, Cody gave me a kiss on the cheek when we returned to the bus with our subs.

“Yo… Cody… What was that? Did you just… kiss… Oliver?” Luke’s icy blue eyes widened.

“Mhm…” Cody answered with a shrug. “I see no reason to hide it.”

“So, y’all are like together together. Like if a girl and boy got together? But it’s two boys?”

Cody and I shot each other puzzled looks. “Um… sure?” I blushed.

“Well, do whatever y’all want. That ain’t none of my business,” Luke shrugged and took his seat.

Back at school, the team showered and changed back into normal clothes. Then, Cody and I got called into the coach’s office as the others headed to study hall for 7th period.

“Oliver, Cody, let me be plain with you boys. Is there something going on between you two?” We glanced at each other, with a blush creeping over my cheeks as I slowly nodded. “I’m not upset if something is going on, but Oliver has been distracted during games lately. And I want you two to be the best players you can be. And you’re not your best when you are distracted.”

“Yessir,” Cody and I nodded. Coach was right. I can’t be good at basketball or baseball if my mind is constantly filled with thoughts of my sexy boyfriend Cody. I have to focus better.

After school let out for the day, I walked home with Toby and Logan. Logan’s been ignoring me lately. Even on this walk home, he was paying more attention to my brother for some reason.

“Hey, Logan. What’s wrong?” I asked.

“What do you mean?’ Logan asked back, looking down at his shoes. Toby’s eyes widened.

“You’ve been ignoring me since December. We’ve hardly talked. You kind of ignore me. Did I say something or do something?”

“No,” Logan said absently.

“Dude come on…”

“Bro, knock it off,” Toby punched my shoulder. “Logan’s fine. He answered you.”

Toby definitely knows something…

“Fine,” I scoffed.

“Hey, Tobes, wanna come play Mario Odyssey?” Logan offered.

“Sure,” my twin smiled. “Can Oliver tag along too?”

“Um, I only have 2 joycons… sorry…” Logan frowned. “Besides, Oliver doesn’t even like the game…”

Fair point… “Fine… go ahead. I’ll be okay by myself,” I stuffed my hands in the pockets of my sweatpants and ran off to sulk on the swingset in the park. Stupid Logan…