Shane and Rose coming out date (but letās double the gay!)
The second (and last) time Shane and Rose try to have sex with each other is in fact a disaster. Shane canāt stay hard. Topping just really doesnāt do anything for him, and combined with the weird definitely not heartbreak ache in his chest and the wrongness thatās chilled his spine since their clothes came off, itās bad enough that he starts to feel the telltale soreness in his throat that has always preceded frustrated tears.
At the same time, Rose has pulled Shaneās head down to her shoulder so he wonāt notice how far away her eyes are as she frowns at the ceiling and tries desperately to will her body to orgasm. Itās getting further away though, frozen over with the dread that sheās going to have to finally face the thought sheās been carefully not thinking since a game of strip spin the bottle at a party in theater school. Iām gay, she thinks, and immediately goes still and tense. She nudges Shane and feels so guilty as she tells him āI think Iām actually not in the mood tonight.ā Itās cowardly, and he looks miserable when he pulls away. God, she mustāve been doing such a terrible job at pretending to be into it. Well, sheās certainly been able to feel that he hasnāt been having a good time.
āSorry, babe,ā she says. She wants to soften it further with an excuse about being tired, but the thought of lying to Shane makes her nauseous. Heās been so sweet to her, and she really does like him so much. Heās hilarious, and when she talks he listens and actually understands her, and heās objectively gorgeous. But she canāt convince herself she wants to fuck him. His face is an odd combination of relief and apology. Fuck. He thinks itās his fault, that heās been the one to upset her, and she wonāt have that, so she asks, āCan we just cuddle for a while?ā
Shaneās arms feel awkward as he wraps Rose up in them, but sheās put on her T-shirt and a spare pair of his boxers, and heās done the same so itās at least better than before. He feels sick with guilt that heās put that nervous expression on her face. Who is he to be making Rose Fucking Landry self-conscious? For the first time, he feels the urge to tell someone elseā¦that heās gay. Because thatās whatās causing the problem. He loves watching her face move through its thousand expressions, breathing in the gentle scent of her shampoo when he kisses the top of her head (so much that he does it now, even with the weirdness lingering), and the way she always gives his waist one quick extra squeeze before she lets go of a hug.
But as he lays in bed with her, he has to admit that all of those nice feelings he gets with Rose are a lot more like how he feels about Jackie Pike than⦠than Ilya. Shaneās throat aches again, and with Rose asleep, he lets the tears come until heās too tired to keep himself awake.
The next morning, Rose asks Shane to get dinner with her just the two of them, and then proceeds to spend every moment waiting for resets thinking through how to go about coming out to her boyfriend. Because the selfish thing is, she wants to find some combination of words that lets her keep him after. Despite the necessary death of their romantic relationship, Rose knows Shane Hollander is a person she could grow to love very deeply, and she wants to. Itāll be a hard sell. Sheās really not worried about him saying anything mean or being gross about it, but she thinks heād be justified in feeling hurt and wanting as clean a break as possible.
When they sit down at their table, heās so cute, looking at her in the candlelight with his warm eyes and wide smile that she just has to tell him so. It flusters him adorably, and then she ends up rambling something about Miles and jealousy that flusters him worse when she realizes sheās sending horribly mixed signals for someone about to tell her boyfriend they have to break up because sheās probably a lesbian.
āIām sorry, Iām going about this the wrong way,ā she tells him.
Shane is absolutely certain he is about to be dumped, and once again feels that terrible surge of dread and relief washed down with guilt. It needs to end, isnāt fair to her, and she should be the one to do the dumping, but a part of him still wishes she wouldnāt. Even knowing theyāll never be able to make each other happy like this, heās already mourning the loss of their easy conversations and her easy affection. But then she says, āIām really sorry about last night. I know I was being weird and not reallyā¦doing it for you?ā His stomach goes cold and Shane feels like the worst person in the world. Is she really apologizing to him? As though she should have been doing better? That awful self conscious look is back on her face, and Shane needs to come clean. Heās so immediately anxious he thinks he might start hyperventilating or breaking out in hives but thereās no way he can live with the shame of letting Rose put the blame on herself.
āI think Iām gay,ā they blurt out, their voices overlapping choppily.
Thereās a moment of mutual stunned silence, before Rose, unsurprisingly, recovers first. A peal of delighted laughter rings out as she briefly collapses back against the booth in relief. When she sits up again, Shane is looking at her with an entirely different tangle of emotion from last night, but he does look like heās going to cry again. She reaches across the table to squeeze his hands, and beams when he squeezes back. āShane Hollander, we are going to be best friends. Starting now.ā