Unaware of his homophobia, I assumed he was right. 'You should be out playing football,' he said.
An adult man who towered over me, pulled me to one side, and said it wasn't right for a boy to be friends with a group of girls. The only lad at the girl’s sleepover, where a father made me feel bad for being the only boy there.
I lost count of the times I was the only boy shopping with a group of girls. 'Īnd ‘behind’ them is exactly where I stood. According to the Urban Dictionary, ' The gay best friend is the best friend of any hot girl you know, and the key to getting with that girl. To the world, I was just one of ‘the girls.’ But in my heart, that didn't feel right. We’d laugh at my stupid jokes and it felt good to have real friends to text and hang out with.īut the negatives that came with the GBF label gradually started to creep in. They didn’t judge me or make me feel bad. I finally felt needed and, for the first time in my life, like I fitted in. Those friends brought me back to life after hiding for so long.
