Summer had drawn to a close much too soon, and Liam wanted nothing more than to spend one last day at the beach with his friends, which is exactly why he had packed up his CR-V at 9:00 am and picked up Ryan and Lydia shortly after. They’d made their way down to Kitty Hawk, windows down and music blaring as they enjoyed their final day of freedom. For now, they had one more day without responsibility before senior year started to take over. In their very near future, their lives would be consumed by college applications, homework, and extra-curriculars. For now, Liam was content to pretend that all of that didn’t exist: he flipped onto his stomach as he gazed out at the ocean, watching as the waves crashed against the shore.
There was next to no one else on the beach at the moment: these were the perks of having a father who was a surgeon. They’d owned the beach house for as long as Liam could remember. He often made the hour long drive down to North Carolina when he had a lot of thinking to do, whether it be worrying about grades, family stress, or boy problems, not that he had a lot of boy problems to speak of. Despite the fact that his graduating class consisted of nearly 500 people, he could count the amount of guys who were out of the closet on one hand. Unfortunately, Liam spent most of his time pining after boys who were 100% heterosexual. His only hope was that one of the objects of his affection would come out of the closet this year, but he wasn’t holding his breath.
Ryan’s voice finally cut through the moment of calmness. “Guys, our senior year starts tomorrow!” he exclaimed. “I can’t believe it. It seems like just yesterday we were jumping on the bus for grade school.”
Liam chuckled: only Ryan would actually be excited about starting school tomorrow. “I know, right?” he smiled, turning to look at his best friend. “Summer flew by. I’m not looking forward to filling out college applications, but I can’t wait to actually be at college. It’s going to be so different. I love my dad and everything, but I really need to get out of this town. You two are literally the only people I’m going to miss from our class.”
It was true: Ryan had been his best friend since they’d met in first grade. He’d been the first person Liam had come out to, and he’d been nothing but supportive ever since, which couldn’t be said for a majority of his friends. He’d started to finally admit to himself toward the end of middle school that he might be gay, and he’d hated keeping the secret to himself. Ryan had never been anything but honest with him, and he felt horrible that he couldn’t do the same. Liam had finally blurted it out one day during their freshmen year while they’d been playing video games. Ryan hadn’t said the stereotypical, “I’ve always known,” but he also hadn’t seemed particularly shocked. After a hug and a promise that it wouldn’t come between their friendship, they’d continued to play video games like nothing had ever happened.
“Don’t even remind me about applying to college,” Lydia groaned. “I still have no idea how I’m ever going to be able to afford it. I’m going to have to go somewhere in-state. I’ll probably end up at UVA or something.”
“You’re crazy. What’s your GPA now, like a 5.0?” Liam joked back. “You’ll get offered money to go out-of-state, no doubt in my mind.”
Lydia wrinkled her nose as she shook her head. “Oh, you’re funny. It’s so hard to get money to places like that.” She gave another sigh, looking out at the ocean with a wistful expression on her face. “I just want to go to Cornell.”
Lydia had come along later, but she had become just as close to him as Ryan was. She’d started dating Ryan during sophomore year, and she had Liam had clicked immediately. It helped that she was one of the sweetest girls he knew, and she always knew what to say when he was having a bad day to make him feel better.
Most people joked that Liam was the third wheel, but it honestly never felt like that. However, he couldn’t be with Ryan and Lydia all the time, and that was another reason he was so desperate to find a boyfriend. He needed someone to share new experiences with, but the gay students weren’t exactly plentiful around here, and he didn’t have high hopes of finding anyone until college.
He must have gotten a thoughtful expression on his face, because all of a sudden, he heard Lydia’s voice. “What’s up Liam?” she asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.
“Oh,” Liam said, looking back at her, slightly perplexed. “I was just thinking about the new school year.”
His eyes wandered back toward the waves as he continued to think, and he reluctantly pushed himself up. “I should probably start heading back guys,” he sighed. “Dad’s actually supposed to be home early tonight, and I said I’d get dinner ready for him.”
Being a surgeon, Liam’s father often had to work long hours and didn’t make it home for family dinners very often. Liam’s mom had died when he was 11, so he’d gotten used to being on his own, but he tried to be there to make a family dinner when his dad was supposed to be off early.
His mother had passed away after battling breast cancer for several years, and things hadn’t been easy, but he had grown closer to his father since then. Liam had been terrified to come out to him since they had never discussed homosexuality before, and he didn’t know his views on it. He’d heard so many horror stories about boy’s coming out to their fathers and being practically disowned, and he hadn’t wanted that to happen to him. When Liam finally mustered up the courage to tell him, he was shocked when he just hugged him and said, “Liam, I don’t care who you love. I’ll never stop loving you.”
The three of them packed up their things and began to drive back home, chatting lightly during the ride. After dropping his friends off at Ryan’s house, he drove back home. He paused before walking inside, trying to enjoy the last few minutes of summer. His life was about to get much more stressful, and he wasn’t looking forward to it. He finally walked inside, taking the chicken out of the fridge that he’d marinated earlier. He’d actually gotten rather good at cooking the past few years, trying out and perfecting many of the recipes in his mother’s cooking book.
He decided to go for an easy meal tonight, plopping the chicken in the oven and grabbing a bag of beans from the freezer. He set the beans to simmer and set the table quickly, sitting down at it as he waited for his dad to get home. Thoughts of classes and school quickly took over again as he worried if he had overloaded himself this year. The fact that he had three AP classes his first semester was daunting, but he knew that ht could do it. AP classes were the key to getting into a good college, and that was his ultimate goal: falling in love could wait until he had secured a spot at the college of his dreams.
The front door opened, and his father walked in. “Hey buddy,” he called out as he came through to the kitchen.
“Hey dad,” Liam smiled back. “I made chicken and beans, and I’m just about to put some garlic bread in the oven.”
“Smells delicious,” his father grinned. “I’m looking forward to it. Let me just go change.” He squeezed his shoulder before heading up the stairs to change out of his scrubs.
Liam finished up dinner quickly and plated the food, sitting down to a nice, quiet dinner with his father as his summer officially drew to an end. He excused himself after doing the dishes to go gather his things together, and he even got in bed early for once. Liam let his thoughts consume him as he finally drifted off to sleep.
