Waiting For You

Chapter Nine

"After all, soulmates always end up together".

~Cecelia Ahern

Hunter

I did occasionally see Seb's friends around town, but I hadn't joined them at a party for a long time. About a year to be exact. After I came out of the closet I hadn't spent much time with them. It wasn't that I didn't like them -they were amazing and supportive- I just had to deal with it on my own. Truth be told, I was never in the closet. I didn't hide the fact that I wasn't attracted to women. I never had a girlfriend; I never hooked up with any girl. People just assumed that I was straight.

I had told my parents I was gay a lot before that party. Both of my parents' extended families were very open and accepting of LGBTQ people. I had realized my family was one in a million when I had learned most people's grandparents didn't wear rainbow patterned clothes.

Coming out to my school... that had not been planned. Calla and Noah knew I liked guys, but the rest of my classmates didn't. During that party last year, Seb had hooked me up with one of his friends and after around three hours of talking we ended up dancing. And then kissing. Right on the dance floor.

Calla had invited her softball team to the party, meaning Bethany and her friends were there. So they had seen us making out and Matt had interfered, which ended up into a fight between my new friend, Caleb, and Matt. Little did Matt know, Caleb had been doing Krav Maga for over a decade. He hadn't hurt Matt too much, Sebastian had interfered as he hadn't wanted the police to show up at his place. After that, Matt and his posse had been giving me a hard time. And not the kind of hard time I would have liked to get.

And here I was again, around a year later, right outside Calla's house, in my car, getting ready to see all of them again. The only difference was that today there wouldn't be any high school students besides Calla, Noah and me.

Calla lived in the suburbs, her house being a traditional two-story building. I got inside and almost immediately found Calla and Noah. They were sitting in the living room, chatting away with two of Seb's friends, who were the cutest couple ever. Arianna was clad in a floral dress and high heels, with bright pink lipstick and make-up, as she said 'on point'. Luna, one the other hand, wore a pair of skinny, ripped jeans, a band T-shirt and converse shoes. And as usual, they clung on each other as if their lives depended on it.

After chatting with them for a while, Arianna pulled Luna to the dance floor, as a salsa song started playing. Soon enough, Noah went to get another drink and Calla grabbed me and we started to dance. I didn't really look like I liked dancing -and it definitely wasn't my favorite past time- but I didn't mind it at a party or two.

I wasn't aware of how long I had been dancing, but at some point, my throat went dry so I left Calla to go grab some water. I ended up in the back yard, resting against a wall gulping a cold bottle of water and breathing heavily.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite artist in the state," someone to my left said and I turned to see Caleb.

He walked up to me, giving me a dimpled smile. His hair was short, shaved at the sides, and he carried himself with a kind of confidence that drew eyes to him. The lights Seb had put up danced on his sepia skin, and I was reminded why I had made out with him. He was attractive, to say the least.

"Caleb, how're doing?" I asked, smiling back at him and I unpeeled myself from the wall.

"Oh, you know, fine but busy. With classes and everything..." he replied. Caleb was studying Biology and during the summer break, he had given me some lessons on human anatomy. "How about you?"