is that nick jonas? no, it’s just drew de beers, a sophomore student at lakeridge university who studies business. they are twenty-one years old, and identify as cisgender male. as with everyone else, they have secrets to keep. still, they are known to be fun-loving, but also obnoxious. ( drea, nineteen, est, she/her ). psd by ikilledtherp.
as the only son of a family who had large expectations, it was easy for drew to feel like he was letting them down. after all, he had never been any sort of prodigy - instead he was just a regular boy who cried when he fell down. and while his mom encouraged him to express his emotions ( perhaps she had seen a potential for him in the arts, we’ll never know ), his dad did everything he could to teach him to repress it. and given the boys instinctual need to make his dad proud, it didn’t take much for his dad to convince him to hide himself from the world.
he met kyle, and it felt like everything changed because suddenly there was someone who would let him just be himself without judgment. goofy young andrew, who preferred to be called drew and liked to goof around with his friends. and he started to grow into that personality, finally feeling as though he had found his place in the world, and with kyle by his side - his best friend, his ride or die - it felt nothing was impossible. like the stars could be their’s if they only tried.
and it was fun partying with kyle, and goofing off in class. but he knew deep down that his parents wanted more from him, and it wasn’t hard to see that he was disappointing them. so he tried to show an interest in the family business which lead to his father finally taking him seriously. they spent long days and nights together slowly bonding over the company which had been in the family for so long. it wasn’t all pleasant though for john de beers was a conservative man, and at times conversation would turn to drew eventually finding a wife and settling down.
it was during one of these talks that drew quietly asked what would happen if he didn’t want to marry a woman - a quiet, gentle love for kyle had been developing in ways that perhaps it shouldn’t have. the idea was immediately shut down and it was made expressly clear to him that being gay wasn’t an option, and whether his father meant to do so or not is irrelevant but drew began to distance himself from the family again. a storm of emotions seemed to revel in his brain, as he started to tear himself apart.
for kyle and drew were already dating albeit secretly, and drew couldn’t imagine his life without the other by his side. couldn’t imagine a future waking up in bed with anyone else even though it was obvious that he might have to if he wanted to keep his family in his life. he wasn’t ready to make that choice, so he just didn’t. he kissed kyle with butterflies on his stomach, and escorted various girls to banquets. and that worked fine for a while.
until his senior year of high school, his parents weren’t overly interested in his dating life but when it became obvious that he wasn’t going to find anyone himself - they intervened. and he tried to push the girl that they chose away, tried to give her a million reasons to leave but none of them seemed to work so he merely sighed and accepted his fate. perhaps, he should have spoken up but kyle has never been a fan of confrontation.
and so instead, he stayed with her and saw kyle on the side, gladly clinging to the one person in his life that seemed to love him for him. six months later, his parents handed him an engagement and ring with clear if unspoken instructions. an awkward proposal ensued and for unknown reasons she accepted. breaking that news to kyle was one of the hardest things that drew ever had to do, and he still wishes that he would have spoken up sooner.
he went to his friend, his lover, his confidant and told him the truth - breaking down in silent tears in a rare but potent show of emotion. surprisingly, kyle didn’t run like drew had expected, had mentally prepared for. and drew was relieved and kept telling himself that he would tell her. but four years seemed to fly by, with them both taking two years off of school to travel the world before heading back to classes. and he still hasn’t said anything - and he’s not sure he ever will.
they live together now, with the wedding date seemingly looming in the distance - and he knows that he has to do something. he just isn’t sure what or how. but with the ghosts taking over campus, it is beginning to look like he might not have a choice.
