friendships & starting to come out

whilst everything was going on with tim, dave and i also hung out a lot and became really good friends. we hung out lots, did a lot of partying, and he took me to gay bars. by about Feb 2002 we had known each other only 2 months but were very best friends, we saw each other every day. he had a bf who was a bit of a wanker and that he had lost interest in, and although he didnt like me romantically i was his escape from that. he couldnt dump him cause the guy was mental and he didnt know what would happen if he did. so i helped him with that while he helped me with my issues. he also had some great friends, mostly girls (fag hags i guess), who i became close with. it was cool to hang out with people who knew your sexuailty but couldnt care less, its not something i imagined experiencing, growing up like i did you just assume everyone is a bigot or will think less of they know ur gay, it was comforting to know not everyone was like that. so i guess besides my experience of telling the straight best friend which was about 4-5 months earlier, this was the start of my coming out process (something which is still going on 7 years later!!!!!). its totally different thought when these are new people who know who you are from the start. i was still in no way prepared to start telling anyone else, especially from my past.