If you're hurt,then be gay

Episode 1

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🌧️ If You’re Hurt, Then Be Gay

by maeve_

The rain outside whispered against the glass — soft, endless, and heavy, just like her heart.

Elliyah Zeihyra Aviriel Montefalco, or just Liyah, sat quietly on her bed. Her phone screen glowed faintly, showing a photo she had scrolled past a hundred times but never deleted.

It was her and him — smiling, hands intertwined, eyes full of promises that never lasted.

Now, even that smile felt like a knife pressed against her chest.

She pressed the power button and tossed the phone beside her pillow, sighing shakily. “Why does forgetting feel impossible?” she whispered to herself.

A low, teasing voice came from the doorway. “Because you keep remembering on purpose.”

Liyah looked up, startled.

There, leaning against the doorframe, was Rinaya — her best friend since middle school. Tall, boyish, with short layered hair that framed her handsome face. Even in a plain oversized shirt and black sweatpants, she had that kind of presence that drew the room’s attention.

Her white skin almost glowed in the dim bedroom light, and her deep brown eyes — calm, yet full of warmth — met Liyah’s tired gaze.

Liyah tried to smile. “You don’t get it, Rina. He was different.”

Rinaya pushed off the wall and stepped closer. “Different?” she asked quietly. “He made you cry for three nights straight. I heard you.”

“That’s not—” Liyah began, but her voice broke halfway.

Rinaya didn’t let her finish. She sat behind Liyah on the bed, gently pulling her into a back hug. Her arms wrapped securely around Liyah’s waist — firm enough to anchor her, soft enough not to scare her.

“Stop trying to act strong,” Rinaya murmured near her ear, her breath warm against her skin. “It’s okay to break sometimes. You’re human, Liyah.”

The words struck something deep inside her.

Liyah’s fingers curled around Rinaya’s forearm, trembling slightly. “Rina… what are you doing?”

Rinaya chuckled softly. “Comforting my best friend. Unless you don’t want me to?”

Liyah didn’t answer. She just… leaned back. Just a little. Into the warmth that felt like home.

Outside, the rain drummed softly against the window — steady, rhythmic, like the heartbeat she felt through Rinaya’s chest.

For a moment, neither of them spoke. There was no need to. The silence between them wasn’t empty — it was full of everything they couldn’t say out loud.

After a while, Liyah whispered, “Rina… why are you always here?”

Rinaya hesitated. Then quietly, she said, “Because I don’t want anyone else to hurt you again.”

Liyah blinked, startled by the honesty in her tone. “You make it sound like I’m fragile.”

“You are,” Rinaya said with a faint smile. “But that’s what makes you… you.”

Liyah turned slightly, her tear-streaked eyes meeting Rinaya’s. Those eyes — steady, deep, unshaken — looked like they were holding the world still for her.

“Someone like you?” Liyah asked softly.

Rinaya’s lips curved into that familiar boyish grin that always made Liyah’s stomach flip. “Exactly like me.”

Liyah laughed through the tears still clinging to her lashes. “Then maybe…” she whispered, voice trembling, “…if I’m hurt—then I’ll just be gay.”

Rinaya’s chuckle was low, but her eyes softened. She rested her forehead gently against Liyah’s.

“Good,” she whispered. “Then you’ll finally be mine.”

Liyah froze for half a second — surprised, flustered, but not afraid.

“Yours?” she echoed, her voice barely audible.

“Mine,” Rinaya repeated, this time with a smile that was half a joke and half a truth she’d been hiding for years.

The rain outside slowed to a drizzle. The air in the room felt warmer, lighter.

Liyah didn’t pull away. Instead, she closed her eyes and breathed in — the faint scent of Rinaya’s cologne, the warmth of her skin, the security of being seen and understood without words.

Her heart, which had been aching for days, finally felt something that wasn’t pain.

It felt safe.

It felt like Rinaya.

As Rinaya’s arms tightened slightly around her, Liyah realized that maybe love didn’t always have to start with a spark. Sometimes, it began in quiet rooms, between soft laughter and shared silence, in the arms of someone who never left.

“Thank you, Rina,” she whispered, almost too softly to hear.

Rinaya smiled against her shoulder. “You don’t need to thank me, Liyah. Just… stay.”

And for that night, Liyah did. She stayed — wrapped in the comfort of someone who had loved her all along, even before she knew what love really meant.

The storm outside faded. The world stilled.

And in that quiet moment, in Rinaya’s steady embrace, Liyah learned that sometimes, love doesn’t have to be loud.

It just has to stay.

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