HOPE

Chapter 23

Okay, so right now, my favorite thing to do is to kiss Seth. It's amazing. 

After my experience with Veron, I hated all kinds of intimate stuff. My first time was a nightmare so it was reasonable that I hated it. 

Until Seth. 

He made it feel special. I love kissing him. He gives me hope that maybe my life won't be miserable anymore. I can hope all over again for a better future. 

And kissing Seth? I could do that all day. 

After work on Monday, we all went to hang out in the restaurant again. It's wasn't to celebrate anything. Just for fun. This time at the restaurant Seth sat right next to me. Jake sat on the other side of me. I know Seth was a little worried about Jake being a little too protective of me. Honestly, I was worried as well. I don't wanna break his heart but there isn't anything else I can do as well, if it comes to that. I really hope it doesn't.

We all had so much fun that day. The entire table was filled with laughter. Seth was holding my hand the whole time and he was stroking, in a soothing way with him thumb. It was really sweet. I don't think he was even aware that he was doing that. 

"Why don't we all cheer for "The couple" to kiss?" Drew says, clapping his hands and the entire table cheer and shout in agreement. 

My cheeks heat up and I look down at the table, embarrassed. 

"The couple?" Seth asks. 

"Yea! You guys are pretty cute, by the way. And you two are the only couple there is from the working crowd." Jacob explains. "So everyone calls you that." 

Seth chuckles and I can help but giggle as well. 

"Okay, love birds. Now kiss." Jake pushes us. I guess he doesn't have any bad feeling towards us anyway.

We did have to kiss in front of everyone for 1 minute. They said it was a challenge that we have to face as a couple. 

Well.. It's not like we didn't enjoy doing it anyway. 

The next day, I was in the changing room after I came to work. I can hear someone talking rather loudly on the phone. He was standing right outside the girls locker room and I can hear every word very clearly, even though I tried not to hear. I recognize from the voice that it's Jake. 

"Oh Peter, I missed you last night." Jake says. He dirty talked for like 10 mins and I tried to cover my ears so that I won't hear them. It's not like I can go out cause he is standing right near the door.

So when I can't hear his voice anymore, I thought maybe he ended the call and went so I went outside. Only to find him leaning against the wall, staring at his phone, smiling. He sees me and I can visibly see all color draining from his face. I actually got concerned about him and made him sit down on the bench in the middle. 

He looks at me with guilty eyes. "Did you hear everything?" 

"No. I covered my ears. I thought maybe you wouldn't want anyone to hear that." I smile. 

He groans and put his head in his hands. "I'm sorry you had to do that." 

"It's okay." I stroke his back reassuringly. "You didn't know I was in there."

He doesn't move but just stays there like that. "No one knows yet."

"What?" I ask. 

"That I'm gay. No one knows. I didn't come out yet." 

He looks at me with eyes filled with sadness. 

I smile at him politely. "I won't tell anyone. I promise."