As she waited, Mabel almost spoke up, wanting to say they didnât have to talk about it, never wanting to make otherâs feel like they have to share anything with her if it made them uncomfortable or they just werenât ready to talk about it yet, but once Fred began to explain himself, the brunette let out a small squeal, quickly covering her mouth with her hands and trying to apologize bashfully with her eyes, not meaning to let the excitement get the best of her. Of all the things that this could have been about, this was the last thing she could have thought up, but once her brain finally caught up again, the girl felt this sense of pride well up in her chest at the thought of the other having the courage to speak up about any of it at all. She stayed quiet, though, wanting to let him finish before throwing an unsolicited party, and softly drew her brows together in thought. ââŠWell, first of all, being brave enough to say anything about that sorta stuff at all is hard on its own, so like, I just wanna say that Iâm really proud of you, âcuz that was really rad. SecondâŠthereâs never really like, a right or wrong time to figure out or explore your sexuality. Itâs fluid, yanno? And different for everyone. Like, I kinda realized I was into girls in junior high but that doesnât mean thatâs how everyone elseâs experience is gonna go. Thereâs people who kinda grow up already recognizing who they are and other people who question and explore in their twenties or even older than that and thatâs okay. Itâs all okay. You donât gotta have it all figured out right now, I guess, is what IâmâŠtryna say with all this rambling.â She lightly snorted out. At his next words, the brunetteâs features hardened just a bit, remembering how she had found her brother upset at pride just a little bit after they had split up for the night and he didnât seem to want to talk about it so she didnât pry, but now it was all starting to make a little more sense, slowly trying to connect the dots, as she just silently nodded, also remembering how mad she had gotten herself on his behalf. âUh, y-yeah. I canâŠI can pass it along.â
That had been a lot, and Fred would have regretted it if Mabel hadnât immediately gone in with nice things to say. Every time that Fred was reminded the majority of the world wasnât like his parents was a good time to him, and though he didnât relax entirely, there was at least one more person in the world that he didnât feel as heavy around. âThanks. And yeah, like I said, itâs not like...I donât know, itâs just I had everything else figured out and this seems like a pretty big thing to have missed?â Other people not realizing until they were even eighty was fine with him, but he was supposed to know what he was doing. It was his thing. âThanks...You guys are pretty cool, I donât want either of you to be pissed at me âcause Iâm too hard on myself.â And pride had just been...the worst. Fred Jones having a panic attack for the first time in his life worst. âGuess itâs kinda weird I told you, huh?â