Northern Lights

15. Cielo

The crowds that occupied the surrounding hills for the viewing of the Northern Lights were thicker than I had anticipated. Families sat around on blankets spread out with food and drink, mingling with groups of childless adults. Even with all the energy and noise, I was sure my friends and I still managed to stand out.

It didn’t help that both Erin and Russ were more drunk than I had seen them in quite some time. Apparently they’d been drinking for a while. As a matter of fact, I learned they’d started drinking from the moment they’d been waylaid before coming to meet me. There had been some breaks in between, but not very many. As it was, the only one who seemed even remotely sober was Izzy, but then again, I always had a hard time telling if she was sober or not.

I was happy to see my friends again, having been waiting over a week for them to show up. Yet, every time they turned their attention away from me, a wash of sadness and guilt passed over me. No matter how much I tried to engross myself in the conversation around me, I couldn’t shake the image of Dominic’s angry and scared expression.

He had been willing to tolerate that loud man coming onto his property and insulting him. He’d been willing to endure the casual bigoted opinions of others around him. I now knew he had even seen the worst the town had to offer, having rescued the owner of the bakery from an attack on the street. Dominic endured all he did to not only maintain his comfortable way of life, but to keep himself safe and secure.

I plucked a handful of grass, feeling miserable as I thought he had been right to be angry with me. He’d built this life around himself, and I had come along and threatened to knock it all down like a house of cards. Sure, maybe it wasn’t the sort of life I would have chosen, particularly the part where Dominic was still in the closet. Still, I envied it. The sense of community and almost family, a place to call your own, and something to point at to show your hard work had paid off.

Dominic had every right to be scared of losing it. As I watched Erin nuzzle close to Izzy, drunk and flirting heavily, I could see the uncomfortable glances of those around us. It was one thing for me to live my life out in the open, when I was surrounded by people like Erin, Izzy, and Russ, who didn’t care. Especially when we’d be leaving all these people behind, never to see them again. Dominic didn’t have that option. He was stuck in the town, for good or ill.

When I’d come out in high school, it had been met with little to no fanfare from people. Only my friends had been outright encouraging, glad I had finally come into my own. Others couldn’t have cared less, shrugging it off and marking me as one more different thing in a sea of difference. When someone in Hilsbury had come out of the closet, they’d been jumped in the streets.

I still thought that if the people of this town loved and respected Dominic so much, they wouldn’t turn him away. Even if that was the case, I couldn’t bully him out of the closet, or drag him out. If it was something he was ever going to do, it would be something he did on his own. I hadn’t been paying attention, and I’d gone too far.

“You look sad,” Izzy said from under Erin’s grip.

I looked up, shaking my head. “No, I’m not sad.”

“We didn’t pull you away from a new lover, did we?” Erin crooned with a wicked grin.

“No,” I said.

“I bet you wished you could, he was a fine piece of ass,” she laughed.

I winced at the scandalous looks from nearby people. “He was a nice guy who let me stay on his couch after I managed to set the tent on fire. He wasn’t a—he wasn’t that.”

She snickered. “Did your time in the boonies make you a prude now?”

“There are kids nearby, Erin,” I reminded her.