Excerpt: The Bachelor

"Do you just not care?" He said, sounding smaller than Jason had ever heard him.
"What?" Jason looked at him, confusion etched all over his face.
"About me. About how I feel. I'm trying to show you that things can be different, but all you want is to cling to what you know. You haven't even noticed that I hate how things are now."
"That's not true." Jason said, even though it was. "I just... It's difficult. I don't want to lose everything I have over some thought that maybe it could be better."
"Everything you have is shit!" Nate snapped, finally losing his temper and turning to face Jason. "Your friends are boring drunks who don't care about anything but the next fuck, they're just holding you down. Can't you see that you're better than them, Jason? So much better! You're sensitive! You think about more than booze and chicks! I fell in love with you because you understood me just by reading some shitty poem I wrote. Why can't you understand me anymore even when I clearly tell you how I'm feeling? I am tired of this. I can't do it anymore. If you don't tell them, I will." Nate squeezed Jason's hand gently then let go, staring intently at the cigarette in his hand, willing himself to speak; unable to say the next words while looking at Jason.
"Either we tell your friends about us..." He said quietly, an edge of roughness and pain to his voice. "...Or I can't do this anymore."
Jason stared at him, shocked. "You mean... like..."
"I mean I can't be with you if we're going to live like this." Nate said quietly, walking to the water's edge and sitting down, hugging his knees with the hand that had been holding Jason's, taking a long drag of the abandoned cigarette in his other hand. "I want... I want a future with you. I know it's stupid, but I want us to get married and adopt kids and grow old together. We can't ever do any of that if you can't even tell your friends you're gay. If you can't do that... I can't keep wasting all my love on someone I've got no future with."
Jason wasn't sure when he ended up sitting next to Nate; he didn't remember walking or sitting while his boyfriend spoke, but he was there now, and that was that. He turned, so he was sitting in front of Nate, and kissed him hard, desperate to show him that he felt the same.
"I love you so much. I want all that too, I reall, really do. I just... I can't tell them. You may be confident enough to be out to all your friends, but I can't. I can't see their faces and know they're thinking about how I'm a huge fudge packer. I can't. I'm not strong enough."
"Can't we be strong enough together?" Nate pleaded, looking up into Jason's eyes, silently begging with his own brilliant blues.