Really, Andrew hadn’t been lying when he’d told Cassie people had come out to him before. Kai, Aaron in college, a couple of others in the frat. Mostly, though, it was just the people he was close to. Everyone else would just show up one day with their partner and announce themselves and he’d roll with it. This was like— This was like Cassie coming out to herself. Like the way she talked herself through it, he could almost see the different stops on her train of thought. So he was just here, basically, hugging her and rubbing her arm and trying to be comforting when maybe his presence made her feel more awkward.
“Logistically I feel like it should just come up the way, like, it comes up I have a girlfriend? I mean— way different things, totally different, uh, experiences, although I guess you’re telling people you want a girlfriend so like, we do… have that… in common.” He stopped, awkwardly, before clearing his throat and pushing on full force. “My point is, I told West and Ryan and Kaleigh off the bat and then everyone else I just told them when it came up, y’know? So like you don’t owe anyone anything. It’s not like you have to say it. I know I’m just. The straight white guy you just came out to and all, so, uh, what I have to say doesn’t really matter. But I just think you should do what makes you comfortable.”
The end of her spiel though was kind of awkward. Even if he didn’t think they were that close, and Cassie knew it, and they both knew that the other knew it, Andrew didn’t like they were verbalizing it. “You’re my friend,” Andrew said firmly. “You need me, I’m there. You don’t have to apologize. And your dignity is fine, I promise.”
"We have that in common,” Cassie agreed, smiling. She knew it was kinda awkward to keep complimenting him during her literal coming out, but it was just... he didn’t have to hold her hand through it and he was. He was just that kind of guy. She felt like she might be taking advantage of his kindness, just a little.
His advice was good. About telling people who mattered most and letting it trickle down, but that was the problem with Cassie. That was always the problem with Cassie. She didn’t have people that mattered most. She had friends, but not in the same way Andrew did. Cassie had people she knew; Andrew had roots in the town he grew up in. Even if he had weird feelings about Kai right now, she knew he would push through it because it would be so much harder to cut themselves loose from each other. People didn’t let go of Cassie because they never really held onto her in the first place.
“I guess we kinda have to be friends now, huh? Doesn’t really seem like there’s any movin’ on from this without bein’ friends or just never talkin’ again. Way too serious,” She laughed, still a little weak, rubbing one of her eyes.
Her stomach flipped and sunk. Everything felt so hollow. She wanted to cry again, suddenly, because this mattered so much but it also just kind of didn’t? If something important happened to Cassie but she wasn’t important enough to anyone for it to be important to them, was it really important? Like one of those if a tree falls in the forest kinda thing. It was just... life-changing for her and nothing for everyone else and god if that didn’t sting. God if it didn’t hurt. God if it didn’t...
Well. It didn’t matter what it did. Because the bell above the door rang and there were their friends, finally, and she couldn’t have straightened up and out from under Andrew’s arm if it was burning her.
She stood up and cheerily waved them over, grinning. “Hey, y’all! Come sit!” It didn’t even occur to her that it might be an option, to sit down and cry and let them all help her through this. It was bad enough that Andrew had had to. She couldn’t imagine burdening anyone else. “Hope y’all’re ready to order ‘cause me and Andrew’re just ‘bout starved. Haven’t been able to stop talkin’ ‘bout it.”