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It was prom night. Leon and Jared had been dating for the better part of a year. Finally it had come time for the dance that defined their high school experience.

Jared had chosen a cream colored suit with a black blouse underneath and sanguine tie. He sat in his room looking out his window waiting for Leon's dad's private limousine to roll up. And it did. Finally. That was Leon, though. Always running behind and yet somehow never being late.

Leon stepped out of the back, his sanguine tuxedo with sheer black lapels and black shirt and cream bow tie, looked good on his football player's frame. He was certainly going to make an entrance.

Jared hurriedly grabbed the boutonnière he'd gotten for Leon. Leon had a clear box in hand with the boutonnière for Jared. As Leon walked up to the door, Jared headed for the stairs.

Jared's mom answered the door, “Leon Kawalsky? Can I help you?" She asked, but then looked up at the top of the stairwell where Jared stood. “Oh." She deadpanned “You're going together? Wait, Jared? I thought you were helping him… with his…anatomy homework." She just shook her head as the realization struck her.

“Mom?"

“I've been stupid is all, Jared." Jared's mom turned into the house, inviting Leon in, “C'mon in, Leon."

Jared rushed into Leon's arms hugging him and pressing his lips to Leon's. Leon for his part encapsulated Jared and lifted him off his feet, swinging him in a circle. Once they broke the kiss, Jared leaned further into Leon and asked, “You ready for the big reveal, hun?"

Jared felt Leon's tension in his bones. Leon was still severely in the closet at school. He had continued to keep up appearances by flirting with the cheerleaders and broing it out with the rest of the football players at school, but Jared's tutoring sessions had become a place of sanctuary for him.

“I'm not happy about it, but it's time they knew." Leon whispered, “For you." He exhaled like it was the hardest task in the world and then, “For me. For us!"

Jared gave the merest hint of a smile at that and leaned in for another kiss. “You have no idea how proud I am of you, Leon. This is an incredibly public statement. And your mother is one of the chaperones."

Leon tensed and scratched the back of his neck, “Don't remind me. She knows. Or thinks she knows. This'll just confirm her suspicions."

***

The limo was immaculate. As Jared expected, Leon's mother was that type of neatfreak. It still smelled like a new car, despite being at least five years old. Jared often mused, though he'd never mentioned it to Leon, how on earth that was possible.

As they drove the highway approaching the city center, Leon watched the traffic and the city go by. Jared? Jared snuggled up to his linebacker like his life depended on it. His head rested on Leon's shoulder and their inside arms were entwined, Leon's monster mit squeezing the everliving daylights out of his near skeletal piano fingers. Jared shouldered the pain with grace.

As the limo left the highway for the city streets, the driver lowered the privacy wall, “You boys alright back there?"

“Fine, Miles." Leon sighed. “Just about to reveal a big part of who we are to the whole school and my mother in a rather public venue. No biggie."

Jared gave a huff instead of a laugh. The driver's kind eyes met his in the mirror for the briefest of moments before he rolled the privacy wall into place. They said, “You protect that boy with your life." Jared silently promised to do just that.

***

Trashy synthy pop blasted over blown out speakers and bodies gyrated in a barely appropriate cacophony of limbs and teenaged hormones. Angela watched with a mild but constrained distaste. She knew what she was getting into when she signed up for this. She remembered when she came to prom all those years ago. Gosh, how long had it been? Twenty, thirty years? She barely remembered.

As the next couple to enter the dance hall opened the doors, Leon entered her thoughts. That boy was hiding his sexuality from her and she couldn't quite understand why. What had she ever said or done to make him believe that her love was conditional?

Culture had changed since she was growing up. Back then, let's just say being gay came with black eyes and busted lips more often than it should have. She remembered the Giles boy. He was so kind and sweet. Never did a thing wrong, but that didn't matter to the basketball team; being different was enough. They jumped him the night before prom. Nearly killed the poor thing.

Ruminating on how the basketball team had almost completely been let off the hook for nearly ending another child's life, she almost missed the moment she'd been waiting for. She looked up when the door opened. And proceeded to drop her punch, nearly ruining her shoes.

***

Leon's hand could not have been more tight around Jared as they pushed the doors open together. Leon was pretty popular given his varsity football player status. So, even if he hadn't been using prom to come out to his entire school, he made an entrance.

The reaction was comical in its theatricality. The dj's music stopped with a record scratch despite using virtual turntables. The crowd stopped gyrating. Jared felt a couple hundred pairs of eyes on him and Leon. Then his mother stormed over to him. Grabbed both teens earlobes and drug them over to the punch table.

***

Angela glared at the two boys. Considering the path her thoughts had been on when the boys showed up, it wasn't particularly surprising that she started with, “Are you boys trying to get yourselves killed?!"

“Mom?" Leon said with quiet fear clear in his voice, “what do you mean? Killed?"

“Smooth Mrs. Kowalsky." Jared deadpanned. “Play into his fears of familial rejection. Real nice."

Her hands moved to cup each boy's shoulder and she shook her head. “This isn't that, boys. I promise. I'm just worried about your safety. The world isn't kind to people cut from your cloth. And it's Angela, dear. We're family now."

“Mom?" Leon repeated, more hopeful this time.

Angela brought the two boys in for a deeply needed hug. And as she released them, she saw Leon's teammate Will Iverson.

“Hey, uh…Leon?" Will started, scratching the back of his neck, “have you um…always been gay?"

***

Jared turned to Will with a look of scornful disgust. “Being gay isn't a choice, moron. Go hit on some cheerleaders. That's all your good for, anyway. When's the last time you caught a pass? Hmm? Put up six on the board? Run more than twenty yards a game with the ball?"

“Jared!" Leon's mom and Leon admonished Jared.

“S…Sorry, Will. Just, that question? Really?"

“No…no, fair. But did you have to bring up my poor performance this season? I…I don't think I'm playing next year at this rate."

Leon just chuckled, “Hey, Will it's alright. And to answer your question, yes. That's kind of how this works. Though not everyone figures themselves out in this way immediately. I had Jared here to help me figure myself out.

“And you know how the locker room is. Could you see me being open and you guys being supportive if I hadn't helped make us one of the best teams in the league?"

“Of course we would have! This ain't the nineties, bro." A new voice said just before bringing Leon in for a bro hug and using his other hand to ruffle Jared's carefully coiffed hair. The new voice had a name. It belonged to the Varsity Quarterback, DaVaughn Milton-Harris.

Jared swatted at Davis' hand “Yeah. I seem to remember a certain QB dunking my head in the toilet and flushing it last year. You say the nineties, Milton-Harris? The eighties called. They want their bullying technique back."

“Yeah…I can't say I didn't deserve that, Larue. I have been an ass. I can't say I'm perfect, but I am trying. And, now I know you and Leon are tight? I can promise I won't target you any more." Jared glared. Davis held up his hand, “I said I'm trying. But a bully doesn't become a saint overnight."

Leon chuckled. “Give him a w on that line, Larue. If he's last-naming you, it means progress." He then heard the music reset, a song he could dance to with a partner. “Care for a dance, my prince?"

Jared took the proffered hand and let his football player drag him to the dance floor. For as much as this secret being revealed changed everything, he was surprised how much stayed the same.