Post by NATHANIEL SPERLING on Aug 21, 2018 8:05:03 GMT -5
It was a week or so before Nate was permitted to leave his bed and go for short walks around the hospital. Although even then he had to pick his times wisely. Every day there was a new bag or letters and gifts send to his room. At first Nate had expected there to be some backlash for being outed in the way he had been. The photo hadn’t exactly been subtle, his tongue down another man’s throat was the last image Nathaniel had ever imagined would be how he would tell the world (if he ever did) that he wasn’t straight. Yet it was the one that had served to inform the wizarding world that he was.
He had expected the howlers, or so he had thought, but it didn’t make it any easier to sit and listen to them, condemning him. Though, what struck him harder was the contents of some of the other letters he had received. Letters of encouragement, ones condemning the Prophet’s gossip column, and applauding him for his bravery. Nate hadn’t felt so brave, cooped up in a hospital room, terrified about how he would be treated at the press conference. His manager had told him that he would read a statement and Nate wouldn’t have to speak, but Nate knew that –although the easier way out- that wouldn’t help him get through this.
All the prepping in the world couldn’t have prepared him for the onslaught of questions that had been fired at him, and for Nate it opened his eyes to a very different side of the press. He had been questioned before about love interests but had always been able to say that he was focussing on his career, he didn’t mind being referred to as “dull, or boring” now, not when there were other words popping up to describe him and his “lifestyle”. Yet the question that had knocked Nathaniel for six hadn’t been about him, but his family. How were his family dealing with the news? Nate had frozen. He couldn’t help but beat himself up afterwards for not having been prepared for it, but he didn’t think he could have been. However his family were taking the news, he knew that it wasn’t well, he hadn’t heard from any of them in over a week and he was facing the grim realisation that that was their response to it all, silence. They had cut him off, he didn’t need to try and contact them to know, he had been told that would be what would happen. It was hard not to feel like everything was falling in on him right now, and yet, Nate found himself telling everyone he was fine. He smiled at the nurses and thanked them for taking care of him each day. He held conversations with FABIANO PERINI when he visited, but he knew he wasn’t the same.
And there were some evenings when he had spent so much time in his room that he needed desperately to get out and be alone. He had intended to go and sit outside but few places he went were exclusively for patients. He had managed to find the café open at a particularly quiet time however and dressed in sweatpants and a deep green hoodie he made his way in, ordering up a hot chocolate and looking around the almost empty café before taking a seat, cupping his mug between his hands, staring down at the marshmallow’s and cream and feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders.
TAG: LORENZO DELAROSA
OUTFIT: Dark grey sweatpants and a dark green hoodie
NOTES: Hope this is alright, need anything changed just shout!