(COMPLETE) Sanders Sides - Ghosts (analogical book)

Chapter 18 - Coming Out The Shadows

TW - Mention of coming out, mention of homophobia, and mention of Tom Nook's pyramid scheme.

Words: 1247 Published: 16/4/2021

Virgil's house was nice and quaint. It was small, Virgil was an only child so he only had a small apartment with his parents. And the group had planned to make this whole ambrosia thing when both his parents were at work. This meant the ghosts were finally free of their possession and could finally relax outside the school environment they'd been in for years. Janus and Remus were entertaining Patton and Roman with a Nintendo Switch – the latest Nintendo console they remembered with the 3DS.

Logan could hear Patton screaming about 'Tom Nook', the laughs comforting him as he was more entertained looking around his friend's house. The Church family seemed to have a lot of family photos – much like Logan's family had – of their boy growing through the years. So Logan was stood in the hallway admiring all of them; and Virgil lay on the sofa, on his phone, but they met eyes as soon as Virgil looked over.

"What peaks your interest?" Virgil hummed, swaying slightly as he walked over. Logan didn't realise he was holding a photo until he looked down – and the photo made him smile. It was a picture of a child Virgil and Janus, sitting together on a checked red and white cloth as some kind of make-shift picnic. Virgil chuckled looking over Logan's shoulder, a soft smile arriving. "That's Jan and I... That was also the day I came out to them."

Logan nodded to himself, not daring to respond just yet to disturb the silence between them. Plus, having Virgil close to him was a nice feeling - even if they had just shared a body a few minutes ago. "What was it like?" He eventually whispered, meeting eyes with Virgil. Virgil leant against the cabinet to get a better look at him. "Just for... empathy reasons. I want to know what it's like to be gay."

"Uh... Well honestly coming out is all new to me." Virgil looked away shyly, towards the stairs that lead to the rest of the house. Roman was screaming about someone 'stealing his bells', making Virgil chuckle and glance back to the living room for a second. "The only people that know are Janus... And Remus, but he guessed before we were friends. You guys also know but no-one else does."

"Is it scary to come out to your parents?" An image of Logan's dad came into his mind, stern and angry at him. He struggled to imagine it to be honest, his father was never angry for the 18 years Logan knew him. The only time he saw his angry face was when Patton was bullied in elementary school. But if he came out as gay... Would that change his whole idea of what his son should be?

Virgil could only shrug. He ruffled his hair, glancing at the photo of him with his parents – a picture that must have been taken recently. His parents looked happy with him, other people would say he had no reason to worry with two loving parents, but he supposed Logan understood the fear associated with everything. "I'll tell them once I get a boyfriend – if I get a boyfriend." The last part was added on quickly, as he looked down and swung his feet back and forth. Logan chuckled just to reassure him. "Anyway... What's your plan when you get out of your ghostly form? Get a girlfriend? Save the world?"

There was a shine in Virgil's eyes as they met eyes. The shine that made Logan almost smile like an idiot and want to hold him between his arms. At least he'll probably be able to hold him after the ambrosia – and the thought of that actually did cause him to smile stupidly.

"Ooh you're smiling!" Virgil cheered, punching his friend's shoulder but didn't shudder too much at the coldness. "Are you going to get back in contact with that Ashley girl? 25 and 18 isn't that big of an age gap when you think about it – I mean – it sort of is but you're also not 18..."

"There's actually someone else now." Logan said quickly and shyly, placing the photo back on the shelf. It's lucky he had no fingerprints to trace otherwise Virgil's family would find he had a habit of blocking Janus out the picture to purely focus on Virgil. There was nothing against Janus – Virgil just looked so cute both as a child and a 17 year old. "When I become alive again I hope to reintroduce myself to this – person – and hopefully they wouldn't mind going on a date with me..."

Virgil chuckled again, his expression softening watching Logan release his nervousness. "I'm sure she loves you back Lo, you're a great guy." Virgil's lips looked even softer now, Logan thought, had he been making them even softer just for this moment? Or just for someone else? There was probably someone else. Logan was just his weird ghost friend. "What about Berkeley? You going to move to California and live a new life there with your new girlfriend?"

This time Logan shrugged, trying to catch his breath and avoid staring at the boy's lips. "I don't know now." He said honestly. He used to be excited to go to Berkeley for the independence and the new atmosphere, and he was imagining that would be the point his brain would finally do what it was supposed to and fall in love with a girl. Instead, here was an amazing man in front of him that was kind and adorable and all around perfect. "This person has completely changed everything I thought about myself – I want to just spend time with him and truly discover myself."

Virgil's face paled and Logan froze in place, hearing the 'him' escape Logan's lips. Now 3 people knew about his sexuality – which made him shake like a leaf anyway – but now the third person to know about that was his crush. His first ever real crush knew about his sexuality and that there was someone he wanted to take on a date. They met eyes again, both had wide eyes, and Virgil was trying to spit out some of the many words floating around his head.

"Vergie can we have pancakes before the ambrosia?" Patton's cheer interrupted the two boys' staring contest as he stood in the archway almost bouncing just as he usually did. But his bouncing immediately stopped when he realised he was disrupting. "Oh... Should I come back later?"

"No... No, there's batter in the freezer." Virgil also tore the eye contact away from Logan, pointing towards the nearby kitchen that was almost as small as the hallway they were in. "I'll be there in a sec." Patton smiled and ran off calling Remus, Janus and Roman to the kitchen. Remus and Janus were complaining that they were mid-cuddle. Virgil hopped off the cabinet he was sitting on and didn't even dare to look at the ghost beside him. "Good luck Lo..." Then he walked away into the kitchen, leaving the ghost all alone in front of countless photos of him. There was one photo of Virgil and Janus at some sort of pride – Janus was covered in different rainbows and flags while Virgil stood beside him nervously and with the darkest outfit possible.

Maybe he wasn't safe even telling a gay guy he himself was also gay. Or maybe, just maybe, this was his chance to finally confess some more.