Chapter Text
Garrett was furious. He had walked into school the first day back from winter break expecting Simon’s friends to be gathered around him, scaring off anyone who so much as looked at Simon funny. Instead he saw them all get out of Nick’s car, not even glancing as Simon parked his car and walked to the school, lonely and terrified.
Garrett grabbed his books for his first class quickly before heading to Nick’s locker, where Abby and Leah were waiting for Nick to get his stuff. “What’s up dude? Why is Spier hanging out by himself? Shouldn’t you three be looking out for him? You know, after everything that’s happened?”
“You don’t know the half of it, Laughlin,” Nick replied, shaking his head before slamming his locker door.
“What happened?”
“Simon lied to us. To all of us,” Leah chimed in.
“About being gay?” Garrett asked hesitantly. “I don’t really think that counts as a lie.”
“No. That’s not what we’re talking about. He tried to pawn me on Martin Addison like I was a piece of meat!” Abby started.
“And lied to me about Abby having a boyfriend,” Nick continued.
“And then he told Nick that I had a crush on him and told me that I should date Nick so that he wouldn’t date Abby,” Leah finished.
“What?” Garrett was totally lost. “None of that makes any sense.”
Nick took a deep breath and tried again. “Apparently Martin Addison had a crush on Abby. Has a crush, maybe, still. Anyway, he found out that Simon was gay somehow. And then he told Simon that unless Simon helped him win over Abby, he would out Simon to the school. So Simon helped him by lying to us. Since like Halloween.”
“So…you’re mad at him for being blackmailed?” Garrett raised his eyebrows.
“No, we’re mad at him for lying to us!” Nick was exasperated. “We’re his best friends, he shouldn’t have lied.”
“Really? Because from where I’m standing it seems like he didn’t have much of a choice. Lie to his friends or get outed to the whole school when he’s not ready? I’d probably choose lie to my friends too.”
“Ugh. Garrett, you can’t possibly understand what we’re going through,” Abby replied, getting ready to walk away.
“I’m sorry, I can’t understand what you’re going through? What about what Spier’s going through? He was blackmailed for what I assume must have been months by some asshole, got outed to the whole school in conservative Georgia, and now his friends won’t even look at him, much less stand up for him against the bullies he’s sure to have. And I’m supposed to have sympathy for you?” Garrett scoffed. “Some best friends you are.”
Garrett ignored the shocked expressions on their faces and stalked off to English. He found the desk next to Simon, slammed his books down and huffed, “Hey, Spier.”
Simon looked slightly terrified, warily responding, “Hey, Laughlin.”
Garrett softened, realizing that his anger may have been taken the wrong way. “Heard about what happened this weekend. You have my personal protection for as long as you need it.”
Simon stared at Garrett like he’d grown an extra head.
“You know, until Nick and Abby and Leah get it together and realize they’re being dumb. And, like, I guess after that if you still need it.”
Simon looked down at his desk sadly. “Thanks. That means a lot.” There was an awkward pause and then, “So where’s Bram?”
“He’s still in Savannah with his dad and step mom for today. He’ll be back tomorrow.”
Simon didn’t seem to know what to say to that, and then he looked so dejected when Nick, Leah, and Abby walked in without so much as a glance in his direction that Garrett decided not to push the conversation any further.
Garrett spent the rest of the day being Simon’s personal bodyguard, taking him from class to class, and he was pleased to know he wasn’t the only one. Taylor Metternich and a few others from Simon’s theater group also had the same idea. Simon was not to be left alone at all.
Lunch was particularly awful, with Spencer and Aaron and their skit, but luckily Ms. Albright was there to shut that down.
It wasn’t until Garrett had safely dropped Simon off with the theater kids and walked to the locker rooms to change for soccer practice that he saw Nick again.
Garrett wasn’t sure whether to acknowledge him or not. He was leaning towards saying hi, but then he thought about Bram. Bram, who had just come out to him last week. Who saw what was happening to Ethan, was going to see what was happening to Simon now, and who was so afraid to come out, even to his best friend. And Garrett knew he couldn’t talk to Nick. Nick needed to know that what Simon was going through right now was so much more important than Simon’s mistake. Garrett needed to stand up for Simon to show Bram that Garrett would be there for him too.
So Garrett ignored Nick.
Well, he ignored Nick until they got to the soccer field. Because suddenly Nick wasn’t his biggest problem.
Some of the sophomores on the junior varsity team were laughing.
“Did you hear about that gay kid Spier?”
“Yeah, I heard he tried to hit on one of the kids on the football team. Seems like he deserved that skit at lunch.”
“He smiled at me one time, I thought he was just being friendly, but like, what if he was into me? Gross.”
“Hey! You got a problem with Spier?” Garrett asked angrily.
They looked frightened. The underclassmen knew better than to piss of the seniors.
“Listen up, y’all. I will not tolerate any of this shit-talking about our gay classmates.”
“What, are you gay too or something?” One of the kids asked.
“No. But I don’t care if you think I am. You don’t get to talk badly about people like this. Not for something that they can’t change, not for something that doesn’t affect you at all even a little bit. Not when you have no idea who around you could also be gay. It makes it so much harder for people to be themselves and that’s not fair. So you have a problem with Spier? Or any other gay kid at this school? You go through me.”
“Me too. You’ll have to go through me too.”
Garrett turned to see Nick standing next to him and felt some relief. He wasn’t alone in this. Nick had grown a brain sometime between this morning and now and was standing up for Simon.
“I won’t let you talk about my best friend like he’s not human, like he doesn’t deserve to be treated with respect. So from now on, you say anything bad about gay people, consider yourself kicked off the team,” Nick said, firmly.
“You can’t do that!” someone exclaimed.
“No. He technically can’t, but I can,” Coach Miller said. No one had noticed him, standing off to the side. “And I will. I don’t allow any sort of bullying on this team, and considering what happened at lunch today, the staff has agreed that any homophobic language is grounds for dismissal from any extracurricular activity. Is that understood?”
There was a pause as the students started at their coach incredulously.
“I said, is that understood?” Coach Miller asked again, sounding a little angry.
“Understood,” They responded in unison.
“Great. Everyone 3 laps around the field.”
And that was that.