Coming out to my brother didn't go so well, so I needed to tell someone that at the very least wouldn't care. I'm wanting to wait a few months before I come out to my parents and new friends at college, so I needed to relieve the pressure to tell; I needed someone else to know. I had been planning to tell my friend for a week or so. He's probably the closest thing I have to a best friend at the moment. Just because of the social dynamics where I live and my insecurities of being gay, I never did make close friends, nor the kind I wanted to in high school. (That's not to say that I'm not plenty social.) He's quirky, I guess you'd say, and most of his friends are girls. That's to say that he's not an average teenage guy; I knew he'd understand being different. I knew he'd be cool with it. I didn't know exactly how I wanted to do it, but I knew that it was going to be today. We played tennis and ate lunch together, the whole time I was trying to build up the courage. Afterword, we were just watching TV, our conversation fading, becoming increasingly dull. After a quiet pause, I said "Can I talk to you about something?" and he happily said sure. "Well I uh.... I'm uh..." I winced. I was clearly distressed. "Wanna wait?" "Yeah" I sighed. We watched TV, spoke a few more idle words. Five minutes later: "Ok, I've gotta tell you something.............I uhhh.............Crap, you probably already know by now..." "No, not at all." I had always assumed that he and others I hung out with suspected it. "Well I uh........Ah screw it, I'm gay." I said it tersely, in a short tone like I was talking to someone who would be disappointed and ready to fight with me over it, belligerent defense. There was no reason for that, though. I guess I said it that way because I was angry at myself for not getting it out sooner and more smoothly. "Really?" He responded in a tone fitting to the way I told him. Our conversation continued a little awkwardly, but not at all bad all things considered. Good thing we're going off to college. He really didn't care. Apparently no one suspected it at all, except a few years ago when I reacted weirdly this one flamboyant gay guy who (correctly) tried to tell me I was gay. His lesbian great aunt is cool and everyone generally likes her. "So I'm really the second person you've told?" I felt stupid. It was kinda sad that I didn't have anyone else to tell. He was surprised, a little bit honored. He knew I struggled with opening up to people, but my telling him second revealed just how much of a struggle it was. After that, the conversation came and went, and it was surprisingly normal. I left his house feeling a little vulnerable, but it was still a good feeling. Edit: This turned out way more prose-like than I thought it would.
Congratulations I'm glad for you that at least this coming out went well, and I hope that your brother will come around with this. Take care, Cécile