by Javier J.
Clarence “Horseshoe” Gooding came out of the closet on October 12th, when he was a soph*more in high school, and fresh out of his awkward freshman year, where he had gone through a growth spurt and gone form a cute, skinny blonde boy to a very attractive young man. He was taller, the size of most juniors and seniors, now, with the muscles of a football player…because, well, he was a football player. Only now he was no longer a scrawny running back, as at the beginning of the year, he had gone for and gotten the position of quarterback. He even dated the head cheerleader, Laura Mereno.
Clarence always knew there was something odd about him, ever since he was little, because he wasn't interested in girls. Sure he thought they were pretty but they didn't…attract him. While other boys were getting their first girlfriends, he was avoiding them because they made him feel awkward. He finally eventually got his first girlfriend, Isabella, she was a beauty. But they hadn't lasted a week, his friends were stunned that he had dumped someone that hot. She was perfect, but he wasn't attracted to her like his other friends to their girlfriends.
However, Horseshoe did notice that he was attracted to guys. He tried to reject it but their perfects abs and strong jawlines attracted him more than any hips or breasts on a girl. But he wasn't gay, he almost did forget, until he was invited to his first high school party.
It was the summer after ninth grade. Once everyone had drunk enough to make them think it was a good idea to play Spin the Bottle with a strict “must kiss whoever you land on, despite gender” rule. Horseshoe hadn't really had more than a sip or two to drink, but was more than happy to have something to get away from the drunk girls that were hitting on him. After a girl landed on him and he'd kissed her quickly and unenthusiastically, Horseshoe had spun the bottle and watched it land on a senior. His name was Donald Johnson, he had ruffled and messy brown hair and stunning emerald eyes. He was on the school's swim team, so he had the perfectly desirable body of a swimmer. Horseshoe instantly felt happy that it'd landed on someone so s**y. The kiss was sloppy and tasted like booze, but it was nice and different than kissing girls.
That night Horseshoe came to terms with the fact he was gay, however coming out wasn't that easy. His family took it better than he had excepted, his aunt shrugged with an “I love you” and his older sister, Madeline, said she had seen it coming.
School, on the other hand, wasn't that easy or accepting of their school's quarterback being h*mos**ual and this obviously meant that he had to break up with Laura. She hasn't that happy but left it as “I'm ok being friends.” His coach demanded him to be kicked off the team, but his aunt immediately jumped in, threating to sue the school if they kicked her very capable nephew off the team for liking boys. After a very long and heated argument, he was allowed to stay but he had to use the locker rooms after the rest of the boys to avoid them feeling uncomfortable.
He was happily single for a long time, until the end of the year when Zyan Mazari came into his life. Zyan was a foreign exchange student from somewhere in England. He was a relatively skinny boy for someone of his age. And from that moment when Zayn was put into his Calculus cla**, Horseshoe was captivated by his black coffee eyes and creamy, mocha skin. He had the most adorable British accent, and Horseshoe, who's usually confident, felt his tongue tie into knots for the very first time. Horseshoe always felt excited for Calculus, eager to see Zayn's face. There were times where Zayn would look back and catch Horseshoe staring at him, Horseshoe would tear his eyes away as quickly as possible and refuse to look at his face for the rest of cla**.
Then Horseshoe started daydreaming about Zayn, about holding him, kissing him. Zayn would snuggle up close to him with a quiet “I love you.” About kissing pa**ionately in a dimmed movie theater, but this was probably never going to happen ever.
But then a miracle happened, Mr. Westford was a**igning partners for the big end-of-the-year project. He was half-listening to the teacher and staring at Zayn again. “Clarence Gooding and Zayn Mazari,” Called Mr. Westford, pointing a wrinkly at Horseshoe then to Zayn, his heart stopped for a few seconds then came back painfully beating in his chest. He watched, wide-eyed, as Zayn got up and came over to his desk. To him.
“Ello.” Zayn greeted Horseshoe with a bright, flawless smile, he sat down next to his desk.
“I'm Zayn, but a lot of people call me Shemp.”
“I'm, I'm…umm.” Horseshoe stuttered, trying to work past the lump in his throat. “I'm Clarence, please call me Horse or Horseshoe.”
“What a cute nickname,” Shemp chuckled, smiling up at Clarence. Oh, God. He was talking to Zayn Mazari, the boy he had been dreaming about for the past few months. He was sure he was going to die in that moment. “Nice to meet you Horseshoe.”
“Yea…” Clarence was still lost for words, he didn't notice Shemp scribbling something down on a piece of paper until he held it out.
“Clarence, here's my address. Why don't you come over Friday and we'll get to work?” He held out the paper for Horseshoe and smiled. Horseshoe eagerly took the small scrap of paper in his hands and grinned.
“Ok, sounds good.” He said as coolly as possible, hoping Shemp hadn't noticed that his hands were shaking ever-so-slightly. Zayn smiled again, before strolling out of cla** casually. Horse stood, smiling to himself before finally leaving to go to his next cla**.