Chapter 288 Garrett

Chapter 288 Garrett
Garrett

The next morning passed almost entirely on autopilot.

Aslan and I got up, showered, dressed and somehow made ourselves presentable without saying much of anything. My thoughts were too loud for conversation, and judging by the way he kept losing track of what he was doing, his weren't much better.

By the time we were ready, my heart had been pounding for so long I couldn't remember what normal felt like.

I reached for the door, but Aslan caught my wrist. “Wait.”

I turned, and he led me back to the bed. We sat, and for a moment he didn't say anything. He just took my face between his hands and looked at me.
“Baby, I don't have to tell you I'm with you. You already know that.” His thumbs brushed slowly beneath my eyes. “But I need you to hear something before we walk out that door. We don't know what that jury is going to decide. We can hope. We can believe they heard the truth. But if somehow this goes wrong today...”

My stomach twisted. “Lion—”

“I know. I fucking hate saying it too. Just listen.” He leaned closer. “If we lose, you still don't lose me. You don't lose us. And nobody gets to take you anywhere ever again. Nobody.”

I stared at him.

“If you want to leave after this, we leave. We get those passports and go somewhere nobody knows our names and start over. We go to China, for all I care... And if you want to stay and fight every last one of them, then we stay and fight. But either way, we do it together.” His forehead touched mine. “This isn't the end of your life, Garrett. Whatever they say today, it's the beginning of it.”

Fuck.
I closed my eyes and held onto his wrists.

“And besides,” he whispered, “have you not heard that love and justice always prevail?”

A laugh escaped me despite the knot in my throat. “That's your inspirational speech?”

“No, my inspirational speech is that there's a disgusting amount of love between us, and I refuse to believe the universe can handle this much obnoxious gay romance without balancing things out.”

That got a real laugh out of me.

He smiled. “There he is.”

I kissed him once and stood. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

I took a breath. “Let's go find out.”

We found the others outside the courthouse, and they were definitely not moving through the same half-dead trance we were.

“Finally!” Evan practically charged at us. “Did you seriously not get any of my messages?”

“Dude, I've been calling you too.” Aitor grinned, holding up his phone.

“We haven't been on our phones, guys. It's literally the last thing I wanted to look at this morning.”

“Guys!” James came rushing toward us with Joe and several others close behind. “Have you seen this? This is fucking awesome.”

Aslan and I exchanged a look.

“Okay...” Aslan frowned. “What are we missing here?”

I glanced between all their excited faces. “Did we sleep through the verdict or something?”

Aitor shoved his phone into my hands. “Better. Look.”

I looked.
Holy shit.

The post from my account had spread everywhere. So had theirs. Millions of views, comments and shares. But it wasn't only our pages anymore. News outlets had picked up the story. Creators were talking about it. Former patients and families were sharing their experiences. Posts about conversion therapy, institutional abuse and Spring Creek were multiplying faster than I could follow them. Hashtags were trending. My name was fucking everywhere.

For once, I couldn't think of a single thing to say.

Evan rested a hand on my shoulder. His excitement softened when I looked at him. “Whatever that verdict says today, Garr... to the rest of the world, you already won.”

And fuck if I didn't have to blink really fast after that.

Aslan smiled beside me. “Told you.”

I handed Aitor his phone back and took a long breath as I looked toward the courthouse doors.
Now we just needed twelve more people to agree.

I was still trying to process everything on our way to the courthouse, when we turned the corner and Olivia hit the brakes. For a second, nobody in the car spoke.

“Oh my God...” Aslan whispered.

The entire street in front of the courthouse was packed.
Hundreds of people stood behind police barriers, with more filling the sidewalks and every designated area around the building. Officers had created a narrow passage for authorized vehicles while reporters crowded behind separate barricades, cameras pointed toward the enormous gathering.

There were rainbow flags everywhere. And signs.

JUSTICE FOR GARRETT.
SHUT DOWN SPRING CREEK.
LOVE DOESN'T NEED A CURE.
WE BELIEVE SURVIVORS.
YOU NEVER NEEDED FIXING.

Some had my name. Some had Aslan's. Others carried photographs of people I didn't recognize beside words like MY SON SURVIVED, MY SISTER DESERVED BETTER, and NEVER AGAIN.

My hand flew to my mouth.

“Holy shit,” Olivia breathed.

The security guard in the front seat spoke quietly to one of the officers outside before motioning for Olivia to continue.
We crawled forward.

People moved behind the barricades on either side of us, raising their signs as the car passed. 
I couldn't fucking breathe.

Then somebody recognized me through the window.
“Garrett!”

Heads turned. Within seconds, my name was moving through the crowd.
“Garrett!”
“We believe you!”
“We're with you!”

Aslan found my hand and squeezed it hard as I stared through the glass, trying really hard to hold back my tears.
All my fucking life, I'd been taught to be terrified of this exact moment.
People knowing.

Knowing I wasn't straight. Knowing what had been done to me. My mother had taught me that people would look at me with shame. Graves had spent years convincing me there was something inside me that needed to be corrected before the rest of the world could ever accept me.

Now the whole fucking world knew. And they hadn't turned away. They'd shown up.

Eventually, we couldn't drive any farther. Police had blocked off the final stretch to keep the courthouse entrance secure, and several officers were already waiting alongside members of our security team.

Olivia turned around. Her eyes were wet too. “Ready?”

Not even close, but I nodded anyway.

The security guard got out first. An officer opened my door, and the sound hit me immediately.
The cheering became deafening.

I stepped out with Aslan beside me and froze for half a second, the entire wrestling team was there. My team. My friends. All holding signs as well… 
“GO WIN THIS FIGHT, CAPTAIN!” “WE BELIEVE IN YOU!”

And this time I broke, overwhelmed by it all. Tears ran down my face until all I could do was take a hand to my heart and nod.

By then, another car had pulled in behind ours. Aitor climbed out, took one look around and simply stared. James emerged behind him with his mouth hanging open as all others shook their heads in complete disbelief.
Nobody had expected this.

My whole body was trembling, but somehow I was smiling through the tears. “Lion...”

“I know.” Aslan was barely keeping it together.

Security closed around us, guiding us toward the courthouse doors while the crowd remained behind the barriers.
I looked at them one more time.

Maybe I had spent too many years believing I had to become someone else before I deserved a life. Maybe some part of me had still believed it yesterday, even while swearing under oath that Graves had been wrong.
Not anymore.
There was nothing wrong with me.

There had never been anything wrong with me.