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Gregory walks into development day with a brand new binder in arm and laptop spreadsheet already fully tracked out and detailed using all of his experience from the past three years.
He’d stayed up late into the night, mulling over files and records, even calling Barbara whenever he had a question about an incoming student ( She’d stopped responding to his calls after the fifth time around. ) It might’ve been considered overkill, but it’s just what’s easiest for him. Gregory likes structure, and he’s learned that planning as he goes gives him headaches.
Thus, the binder with all the data he could possibly need to make this school year as successful as possible. A welcome addition to his routine.
So he’s the most confident and secure he’s ever been at the beginning of the year, walking into the staff room as soon as he gets to Abbott in hopes that he can catch up with everyone before Ava’s opening assembly starts.
“— Robinson and I have been going steady. We haven’t officially labeled anything yet, but I kinda like it that way.” Melissa’s explaining to the others, “Less pressure, arguably a more active sex life than any other relationship I’ve ever had.”
Janine sighs, “Dating is just so hard . You know, Jacob and Erika actually helped me download Tinder over the summer and so far all my dates have been complete busts.”
“Well, are ya matching with the right guys?”
She shrugs, “That’s the thing! Tariq’s the only long term relationship I’ve ever had. I don’t know what my type is.”
“I must say, I don’t understand all these strange new methods of finding love. When I was young it was all about the meetcutes,” Barbara looks off into the distance lovingly, “I remember when I met Gerald for the first time in church. Instant connection.”
“I mean, most people don’t actually use Tinder for love, they use it for, ehem, other activities.” Jacob speaks up.
“ What ?” Janine gasps, “But you’re the one who told me to use the app.”
“You seemed a bit high-strung the last time we met up over the summer, so Erika and I figured that ...”
“Oh my god. You were whoring me out.”
He scrunched his nose, “That seems like a vulgar way to put it.”
“Nothing wrong with getting laid, kid. It’ll be good for you.” Melissa pitches in, patting Janine on the back.
“Taylor utilizes Tinder as well, she told me she met her newest boyfriend that way. I believe they broke up recently, though.” Barbara says.
“Oh,” Janine frowns, “I’m sorry.”
“No, no, don’t be. She broke up with him . I raised my daughter to know her value and her worth, so she knows not to date bums.” She turns to Gregory, pulling him into the conversation for the first time since he walked into the staff room and snuck over to his table, “No offense, dear.”
“None taken.” Maybe a little bit.
Ava struts into the room, oversized hot pink Stanley cup in one hand and a large coffee in the other, “Happy development day Abbott crew!”
“Ava, did you just arrive? The assembly’s in ten minutes.” Barbara asks incredulously.
“Whatever, this school runs on my time anyways.” She winks, “Now tell me what y’all were gossiping about just now.”
“We were talking about our dating lives and I’ve just made the shocking discovery that Jacob talked me into downloading Tinder because he apparently thinks that I desperately need to have sex.”
Jacob and Ava both speak up at the same time:
“I did not say that —“
“Agreed!”
Janine squints her eyes at Ava in an attempt to be menacing. Gregory thinks she just looks like a vaguely annoyed hamster.
“Girl, why are you looking at me like that? I am one of the only two people in this room that would know, as I am in a very dedicated and heartfelt relationship of over two years.”
“You constantly flirt with other people.” Gregory points out.
“I never said I wasn’t looking for a third.” She smirks at him, “Besides, what’s even going on in your life, Gregory? Last I heard you were getting dumped and rejected by women left and right. Don’t hate if you aren’t getting bitches!”
He huffs, sitting straighter in his chair and making eye contact with Jacob, who smiles shyly back at him.
His binder isn’t the only new addition to Gregory’s routine, because over the summer, he and Jacob had gotten together. It’d been a slow process of friend hangouts turning into what were essentially dates, a progression the two of them had both been oblivious of until they were eating dinner together at an upscale restaurant and started fighting over the check. Gregory had ended up successfully paying and taking Jacob home with him as his newly declared boyfriend. Win-Win.
Since they’d only gotten together mid-July, it was still a fairly recent development, meaning that only Janine knew of their relationship. Jacob had insisted they tell her first ( “Otherwise I’m, like, totally violating the bro code and that would make me the worst best friend on the planet.” ) and Gregory had agreed, since — past feelings for eachother aside — Janine was one of his closest friends at Abbott, and it would be nice to have somebody that knew.
But even though they hadn’t officially told anybody else yet, it wasn’t like they were keeping their relationship secret either, so Gregory smugly responds to Ava: “I actually have been seeing somebody.”
Janine perks up next to him in excitement, pressing her lips tight together so that she doesn’t blurt it out before Gregory gets the chance to say anything.
“Oh, word?” Ava tilts her head in interest. “You can’t just say that and not give us the deets!”
“Yeah, Greg, come on.” Melissa nods, “Who is she?”
He clears his throat, “Well, it’s actually “he”, not “she”, and …”
Jacob nods at him encouragingly, pink already dusting his cheeks for the sheer anticipation of what they were about to reveal. Gregory pauses, distracted but just how adorable he looks like this, before snapping back into motion.
“… And you know him. Jacob and I are dating.”
Janine squeals, clapping loudly, but the rest of the staff room is silent and Gregory has the sudden thought flash through his head of: Oh my god are they homophobic? Which makes absolutely zero sense, because none of his friends have ever expressed anything of the sort, but then why are they being so quiet?
The silence is broken when Ava bursts out laughing, throwing her completely full cup of coffee into the trash to balance herself.
“Huh?” Gregory’s eyes pop out in confusion, shifting his gaze over to Barbara and Melissa, who both look fairly skeptical.
“Gregory,” Barbara starts, “It is perfectly fine to be single and we are sorry if we’ve made you feel otherwise. You don’t have to feel obligated to lie.”
“What?” He frowns, “I’m not lying.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Ava gets out between an onslaught of laughter, “Is this some kinda bet or something? You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
Jacob looks equally as perplexed as Gregory, brows furrowing, “We actually are dating.”
“Bull. You’ve been hooking up with some asshole with a black Sedan for the past couple weeks. I know ‘cause he always parks blocking the driveway and youse guys always make a shitton of noise.” Melissa argues.
“And that’s Gregory’s black Sedan.”
“Oh, so you’d rather he be the gavone that inconveniences me on a daily basis than admit it? Okay.”
“You guys, I can testify that they’re telling the truth.” Janine says, “It might’ve been unexpected, but we shouldn’t discount their relationship.”
“It ain’t just unexpected, it’s hilarious . I mean, c’mon! I’m not buying it until I see proof of them being romantically involved.” Ava laughs, scrolling through her phone and presumably live tweeting this event.
And the initial confusion Gregory experienced is quickly being replaced with annoyance. The idea of him being in a relationship shouldn’t be nearly as absurd as they’re all making it out to be, and frustration is rising in him but the only reason he’s biting his tongue is that Jacob’s still in the room and this is still a workplace and he wouldn’t want to make him uncomfortable around their coworkers.
Speaking of, one quick glance at Jacob and Gregory can already tell that he’s masking his discomfort with the situation, chuckling along sadly as Ava continues to crack jokes about their relationship. It’s something that most people wouldn’t recognize at first, since Jacob’s gotten particularly good at it over the years, but Gregory knows.
He thinks about the nights they’ve spent together since they started dating, how Jacob had confessed to him that he always felt like an outsider within their group, how he never really felt like he fit in, always too loud or too much. Gregory can practically hear the thoughts flowing from Jacob now, and all he wants to do is reassure him.
So he does the completely mature thing and instead of continuing to insist upon their relationship, he sits up, grabs Jacob’s hand, and pulls him outside of the staff room. He continues walking until he’s led them to one of the more isolated corridors in the lower floor, stopping them in the corner.
“You good?” He asks.
“No,” Jacob laughs humorlessly, “All of our friends were ready to support you until they found out that I’m the person you’re dating and now we’re actually lying for whatever reason because I guess the idea of somebody actually liking me is appalling or something.”
He says it all at once without taking a break to breathe, and by the end of it he’s winded, “Sorry. That was a lot.”
Gregory shakes his head, “Don’t apologize, their reaction was unexpected.”
“Not as unexpected as our relationship, apparently.” Jacob sighs bitterly, “It’s just — I get it might be a surprise, but they could’ve just taken it in stride you know? Say they didn’t see it coming and move on. The fact that they laughed … It just feels personal. This — This is stupid, I’m probably overreacting —”
“It isn’t stupid at all. It’s okay to want to be taken seriously, and what they did was rude.” He rubs the palm of Jacob’s hand that he’s still holding in an attempt to soothe him, “But what I’m thinking is, who cares what they think?”
Jacob raises an eyebrow, because obviously he cares what they think, he constantly cares what people think, and Gregory has to backtrack.
“What I mean by that is, whether or not they believe us or think that us dating is a joke, we are actually together. You’re my boyfriend. And I like you and I don’t need our friends’ validation to do so. They can laugh all they want because at the end of the day I’m the one with a cute boyfriend, not them.”
He chuckles shyly, looking up at Gregory, “Well actually, Barbara and Ava are both in long-term relationships. Are you calling their partners ugly?”
“Haha. You get what I mean. That I’m the only one that gets to have you.”
“Mhm, and I’m the only one that gets to have you .”
“Exactly.” Gregory leans in, giving Jacob a sweet kiss on the lips, letting him melt into it before backing away, “Feel better?”
“I don’t know, I might need another one.” He winks, “But, yeah. If they’re still laughing, then that’s their business, not ours.”
“Exactly.”
The two of them share another kiss, simply because they can, before heading back into the staff room. Despite the reassurances he told Jacob, Gregory is a bit apprehensive, but one quick examination of everyone’s faces and he can tell that they’re over it.
Barbara clears her throat, nodding over to where their hands were still connected, “I apologize for not taking you two seriously at first. I’m very happy for you both.”
“Mhm,” Melissa hums in agreement, “But I wasn’t kidding about the Sedan. If you block my driveway one more time Gregory I swear to god I will key your car.”
Gregory flushes, “Right. Sorry.”
“Y’all cute or whatever.” Ava says.
Janine raises an eyebrow at her, shooting Ava a look, “And?”
She clicks her tongue, but concedes anyway, “And I’m sorry for laughing. And calling your relationship hilarious. And posting a twitter poll asking people to guess if you’re siblings or a couple.”
Everyone turns to Ava.
“A shocking amount of people voted siblings.”
Jacob moves past it, “Well, thank you for apologizing. In a way, I think it’s good that we got all of this out of the way on Development Day and not —“
“Wait, Ava,” Janine gasps, “Don’t you have to start the opening assembly?”
“ Shit !” Ava rushes out of the staff room, pushing Jacob and Gregory out of the way, “Principal coming through y’all!”
Gregory shares a look with Jacob, laughing amongst themselves as she flees. He supposes that even with all the new at the start of this school year, some things never really change.