I Like Girls Who... Never Mind, I Like Guys

Zayn and Payne

When Louis Tomlinson had first realized he was gay, at the age of 7, he'd announced it to his family without a care in the world, telling them that he wanted to marry Nick Carter whenever he saw Backstreet Boys on TV. His parents, however, were always quick to tell him that Nick was a boy, and that it was a sin to fall in love with someone of the same gender, and as Louis grew older, he kept his thoughts and feelings to himself. (Along with the collage he'd made of pictures of Nick: him shirtless, his face, him striking a dance pose, any picture he liked.) He got himself a (fake) girlfriend- who was also gay, and dating him so she wouldn't get outed, like he was- and built himself up to be as "straight" as he could possibly be. 

And now, he was the king of the school, mostly because of how stereotypically straight he was, but at least one good thing had come from pretending to like girls. It also helped that he was captain of the soccer team, and his "girlfriend" was a cheerleader.

"Zayn, mate, you've gotta stop staring. It's super obvious right now," he whispered to his best friend, Zayn, who was gazing longingly at his crush, Liam Payne. Zayn was bisexual, and preferred boys, but like Louis, pretended to be heterosexual for the sake of staying safe in their homophobic community. Zayn was also on the soccer team, and just as popular as Louis.

Zayn sighed, leaning back in his chair and stretching. The teacher was facing the whiteboard, writing down some formula, and the two friends were sat at the back of the room. "It's not that obvious, Lou. Besides, he sits next to Pez, so people will just think I'm staring at her. And she's my girlfriend, so I'm allowed to stare at her."

Like Louis, Zayn also had a fake girlfriend: Perrie Edwards. Perrie had a crush on a girl named Jade, and was dating Zayn for the same reason he was dating her: not getting outed. Honestly, it was kind of remarkable how they had built up their own small queer community, and it was the only place Louis really felt like he belonged. 

The bell rang, dismissing them, and Louis and Zayn left the room, heading to their lockers to put  away their textbooks, before heading to the cafeteria for lunch. 

"Louis?"

"Yeah, Zayn?" Louis responded, shoving his schoolwork into his locker.

"You know all about my crushes, but you've never told me if there's anyone here you like," Zayn said, looking at himself in the small, magnetic mirror he kept in his locker, raking a small comb through his hair. Zayn was a perfectionist, and absolutely loved styling his hair.

"I like Nick," Louis said, grabbing his lunch, then shutting his locker, turning to face Zayn.

Zayn rolled his eyes, continuing to comb his hair, "I know that, but other than him. Sorry, mate, but the chances of you dating him are kind of low."

Louis sighed, looking at the floor, then looking back at his friend, "I don't know then. But that's not important right now. C'mon, let's go eat lunch."

Zayn nodded, raking his hand through his dark hair one last time, before shutting his locker, and the two boys walked to the cafeteria.

"Hey Louis, mind if I sit with you guys?" Zayn and Louis turned to see Shahid- a boy who was chasing popularity- looking at the two of them hopefully.

"Um," Louis said, looking over at Zayn, then at the floor, "No."

"But why?" Shahid, who preferred going by Naughty Boy, asked.

"'Cause. You tried to break mine and Zayn's friendship, by lying to the both of us. That was mean and I really didn't appreciate it." Louis said. While he didn't like that Naughty Boy had done that, the main reason was that he didn't want someone he couldn't trust in his close circle of friends.