Jesus got into the car with Andrew when he pulled up and told his sisters he would meet them at the movies, while they went to pick up their friends. He was very excited to be able to leave the house again. Since he hadn't wanted to risk getting caught and having his grounding extended, he had just settled with seeing his boyfriend at school.

They hadn't talked about making it official yet, but Jesus had started to refer to him as that when thinking about him. He had been waiting for a good time to ask him to make it official between them, and it seemed like tonight would be a good night to do it. Sure, it was technically their first date, but they had spent every moment possible together at school for the last two weeks and texting each other constantly.

He had learned that his birthday was October third, which Andrew was always quoting Mean Girls. Also, that he was an only child from Washington, with a dead mother from childbirth, his father a rich, but terrible dad who had sent him off to boarding school. His father hadn't even looked up from his phone when Andrew had asked to leave the school and go live with Monte.

Daddy had sent him away with a new car as some kind of apology without blinking an eye. He didn't mind the car though, it helped him get around, even though his only real friend was Jesus. He had made friends with another guy from the wrestling team who he hung out with a few times in the last two weeks, but Jesus didn't have a need to get jealous.

Andrew would point out a hot guy at school and wag his eyebrows at Jesus, asking if he thought he was cute. To him though, the blonde boy was the only one he felt any sort of attraction toward. When he would tell the boy that though, he would roll his eyes and try to call him out on his cheesiness. But when they were alone on the beach in the morning before school would start, they would sit and talk about serious things and hold hands.

He wanted to say he was in love, but he also thought he was with other girls as well. It was different with the blonde boy, but to say it out loud this soon without being a hundred percent certain was not something he was going to risk. He did feel very strongly for him though.

Pulling away from the curb, Andrew reached over and grabbed his hand, lacing their fingers together. "It's so nice to be alone with you outside of school again."

Squeezing his hand, Jesus brought it to his lips and kissed his knuckles. "Yeah, no kidding. To bad we won't be alone long enough to do anything."

"I told you, take me on a date and then we will see."

"Technically we're going on a date right now." Andrew laughed at that. "We can sit in the back and make out in the dark?"

Shaking his head with a smile, he glanced over at him. "Aren't your sisters meeting us there?" Laughing as he cursed, they began to talk about what movie the girls would make them watch and soon were pulling into the theatre parking lot and waiting for the girls to arrive.

Jesus turned in his seat and leaned toward the boy. "Kiss me." Knowing that his tinted windows would block anyone from seeing. Reaching out to cup his face, the boy leaned forward and kissed him, sneaking out his tongue to lick his lips. When he pulled away, the tan boy sighed. "Will you be my boyfriend?"

He had just let it slip, without any before hand though. Jesus knew the other boy would be surprised, would probably laugh and smile, but he had not expected him to turn away with a sad look. "Look, I'm sorry if it's too soon, but I really like you and I want you to be my boyfriend. Even if we can't tell anyone yet."

"Jesus, it's not that." Frowning at him, the boy reached out to grab Andrew's hand squeezed it, not saying anything. Just waiting for an explanation. "I don't know if we should even be together."

Feeling his whole stomach clench, Jesus reached for his other hand and held them tight. "Is it the secrecy? I said I'm okay with keeping it a secret. We can wait longer if you still need to think."

But the other boy shook his head. "I really, really fucking like you, and I didn't expect to fall for you so fast, but..."

"You feel that way? Me too. I've wanted to tell you for the last few days but I didn't know how you would take it. But since we both feel the same way..."

"Oh, Jesus, I'm so sorry." The boy had tears falling down his face, and pulled away to wipe them away. "I can't do this."

Grabbing his face and making him look at him, Jesus looked into his eyes and saw how lost the boy was. "Tell me why. Tell me what is wrong. We can fix whatever is wrong."

"You can't fix HIV." He said softly, letting out a dark laugh. Jesus felt his mind go blank as he pulled his hands away slowly and sat back, looking out the window.

"How?" He couldn't think of anything else to say.

The boy was silent for a moment, and when he spoke again, he could hear the tears in his voice, choking him. "I-it was that first time with that guy I told you about. After we had s-sex for the first time he left m-me the next day. I found out a couple months later because I had to get a physical d-done for wrestling and my dad went ahead and told them to run drug tests and shit on me. They found that and put me on medicine."

"That's why you wouldn't have sex with me that night."

He scoffed. "I'm not a fucking whore, Jesus. I didn't have sex with you because I wasn't going to hookup up with a complete stranger, I wasn't lying about that. I got it the first, and only time I ever had sex."

Jesus felt dead inside. Lied too. He hadn't lied about it, but keeping something like that away from the guy you were talking to was a huge fucking deal. "We kissed."

"God, you can't catch it from kissing, it's through blood and sex."

"I fucking pulled that hook out of your arm the very first time we met." He said, exploding on him. "And you just fucking decided that you were going to keep that you have an STD to yourself?"

"You didn't even get touched by the blood, you only touched the hook and you throw it away right after." He had his hands in over his face, but he was yelling into them, and Jesus could see from his shoulders moving that he was crying.

"We got in the jacuzzi together."

"I put on a waterproof band-aid, but of course you didn't notice. Do you think I'm dumb? So Monte must have it, and my dad, but no they don't. I'm not even detectable."

Jesus frowned at him. "What the hell does that mean?"

Andrew looked up, eyes red from crying, and nose dripping. "It means that technically I could have sex without a condom and not give it to anyone, but I would still use a condom anyway. It's not a hundred percent."

Sitting back in his seat, Jesus tried to get his feelings under control. So there was no huge risk of getting it, but he still couldn't get over the fact that he had kept something as huge as HIV away from him. He heard nothing but evil things about the disease and it scared him to think that he could have caught it. But of course, it had been him who wanted to hook up that night, he could have gotten any of the times he had had sex with a girl.

Maybe he was blowing this out of proportion, but he still felt his stomach was queasy and turned to the boy, who was looking out the window. Rational thoughts finally took over and he realized that Andrew would've made sure that he wouldn't put Jesus at risk. He had said that he was falling for him, and no one would put someone they loved into a position like that, in danger.

"So, we could still have a normal relationship, with sex and everything? We'd just have to be super careful?" Jesus reached out and took his hand even though it was stiff in his.

The hand relaxed and Andrew turned to look at him. "If you actually would give it a chance."

Jesus tried to smile for him. "You were the one who was trying to break up with me."

"We're not dating." He pointed out.

Grinning, he pulled the boy in for a kiss. "Yes we are." He said as he pulled away. Andrew laughed and started crying again. "Oh, what now babe."

"You really want to try, even though..."

Jesus pulled him against him, stopping him from finishing his sentence and kissed his neck. "You're not getting away from me that easy." The boy sobbed against him and pulled away, trying to calm himself and clean his face.

There was a knock on his window, and the door opened. Mariana looked down at him. "Come on, we're going to miss the movie." He looked over to where Andrew was wiping away at his face, but knew it would be noticed. So he got out of the car, trying to think of something before the girls asked about it.

But the girls just turned and walked away, and he noticed Kiara, Daphne, and Mariana's friend Tia were with them. Turning, he looked over at his boyfriend as he close his door and walked to stand in front of him. Making sure the girls were out of eyesight, he wrapped his arms around him.

"Well that was a rollercoaster of a day." Andrew said against his neck, chuckling.

"No fucking kidding." He pulled away though and walked with him into the theatre, taking their seats next to Tia, Jesus on the end so that he could push his leg against Andrew's without anyone noticing.

After the movie, they headed to Steak and Shake to eat before they had to be home by one. They claimed a large booth at the back of the restaurant. The boys sat beside Mariana and Tia with the other girls opposite them.

"This is Daphne and Kiana, and you know my sisters and Tia from school obviously." Jesus pointed the two girls out, introducing them. "Everyone, this is Andrew." They said their hellos and went silent, looking down at their menus.

Callie looked up. "So Andrew, you just started here a couple weeks ago didn't you?"

"Umm, yeah, I moved here from Washington." He smiled at her. "It's way nicer here, and less rain." She smiled her agreement.

"So how did you guys meet? You're in my grade aren't you?"

Jesus rolled his eyes. "You're so nosy. If it's really that important, I showed him around school on his first day."

"And we just hit it off." Andrew joked, smiling and winking at his sister. She blushed and looked back down at her menu. Since he was sitting beside Tia, he turned to her and asked if he could get out to use the bathroom. The girls moved for him and sat back down, turning on Jesus.

"Does he have a girlfriend? He's really freaking cute." Mariana asked, watching the boy enter the restroom across the restaurant.

Jesus shrugged. "I know he's dating someone, but he's very secretive about it." He had to stop himself from laughing that he was telling the truth yet kind of lying to them.

Callie narrowed her eyes. "Why would he be secretive about it?"

Tia spoke up after taking a sip of her drink. "Well duh, he's obviously gay. He's got a boyfriend back home probably."

Laughing, Jesus took a breadstick from the pile the waitress just put on the table. "What makes you think that?"

"It's just this vibe I get. A couple times I thought he was flirting with me, but then he would do that same thing with Callie too. Yet around you, he acts kind of awkward. I used to have a gay friend back at my old school and he was just like that."

"Meh, it's not of my business what or who he likes." As long as it's me, he thought to himself. The rest of the girls shrugged too, and when he came back out, they continued on as if they hadn't been talking about him.

As the night went on, he did start to notice that Andrew wouldn't look at him as much as when they were alone. Also that he didn't sit as close as Jesus would want him to. Maybe it was just a coincidence that he was acting like that around him because he didn't want the girls to know they were a thing, but it made sense since he didn't want anyone to know about him being bi.

He ignored it though, and was happy when they were saying goodbye to the girls and climbing back into Andrew's car. They drove out of the parking lot, and he looked over at his boyfriend. "So Tia thinks you have a boyfriend back home."

Frowning, he looked over at him. "Why?" Smiling, he looked out the front window as he recounted the conversation. But when he looked over at him, he was staring straight ahead, a nervous look on his face. "Do you think she'll try to start a rumor?"

Shrugging, Jesus reached over and grabbed his hand. "You can just deny if she does, but I doubt she will even say anything." That didn't seem to help the boy, and the tan boy sighed. "Listen, if you want to make up a story about a girlfriend back home, I won't get mad. As long as it is just made up."

"No, I'm dating you, and you're right, it'd just be a rumor." They drove in silence all the way back to Jesus' house. When they pulled up, the girls were just climbing out of the car, having already dropped off the other girls. The couple watched them walk into the house and Jesus leaned over and kissed his boyfriend.

"I hate to break this short, but they'll wonder why I'm in your car for so long." He got out of the car. "Bye, babe."

"Bye." He said with a smile at the nickname and drove off.

Walking into the house, he heard his sisters shuffling around in their room as he walked up the stairs, passing the door. Opening the door to the room he shared with Jude, he found him and Connor under a blanket, but he had an inkling that they were naked.

"Oh."

"Umm, hey." Jude said, blushing up at him, Connor smiling guiltily beside him.

Jesus stood there for a moment, and sniffed slightly, smelling sex and something else. "Latex. Did you guys get into my lube?" He had gotten it a week ago, just in case he and Andrew decided to do the deed. Though with the new information, it might be a while before either of them felt up to it.

Connor frowned. "I brought my own."

"Better have." He then turned off the light and walked over to his bed, stripping down to his underwear and sliding under the covers. Laying there, staring at the ceiling, jealous of the boys in the other bed, not having to hide their love, and being able to do something that was a problem with him and Andrew at the moment.

He heard them chuckling to each other and let out a noise, Connor laughing out loud at his noise.

xxx

The next morning, he rolled out of bed and stood up, heading to his dresser to pull on some sweats and a t-shirt, and looking over at his brother's bed, looked wide-eyed at the lube stain on his sheets. The boys were gone from the bed, and it was most likely that they hadn't seen it when the got up. He walked over, doing them a favor, and made the bed, hiding the spot.

Walking down to the kitchen, he grabbed a piece of toast from the table where only his mother's sat chatting. Pulling out his phone as he got a text from Andrew saying he wanted to call him, he left the house and walked out to the garage where he found the lover boys laying on the couch together. He rolled his eyes at Jude's hand leaving the other's pants.

Putting up a finger to his mouth, he pushed the call button and put the phone to his ear. "Hey." He said to Andrew as he answered the phone.

"Hey, I really, really wanna see you today." The other boy sounded flushed, probably just got done working out. Jesus hadn't worked out this weekend, but he would just skip these couple days, he'd be fine.

"I mean, you could just come over here and stay the night." It would be so good to be able to hold each other and sleep again, just like that first night, just a smaller bed, and his brother and his boyfriend in the room. No biggie.

The other boy was silent for a moment before answering. "I don't think that would be good. What if someone saw us cuddling or something, because I know how you are." He smiled as the boy chuckled.

"No one would know except for my little brother."

"Why would he know?"

"Well, I share a room with him." He explained.

There was silence for a moment. "Well we couldn't do anything then if he's in the room with us anyway. So that'll help keep your hands off me."

"I can't do that anyway, his boyfriend is staying."

"Oh, it's the gay brother? Well I mean, it would give us time together."

"So you'll come?"

"Yeah, I guess I will."

"I have to ask my moms, but they'll say yes, now that I'm ungrounded."

"And they won't expect it to be your boyfriend staying." He joked. "Yeah go ahead and ask them and I'll tell Monte."

"Good."

"I can't wait to see you." He said softly, probably lowering his voice because Monte was around.

He looked up at the boys and glared at them. "Yeah, can't wait to see you, too."

Jude frowned at him as he ended the call. "You know moms won't let you have a girl over."

Jesus had already told Andrew that his brother would know, so he went ahead and told him. "It's not a girl."

"Oh."

Jesus stood there for a moment and just looked at them. "Don't tell anyone."

The boy shrugged. "Cross my heart." Looking at Connor, he got the same answer.

"Also, next time make sure you make sure that the stains from your sex aren't in plain sight to everyone." and then left them to themselves, ignoring their widened eyes.

Walking into the kitchen where his moms were still sitting at the table, he stood at the end of the table and leaned on it. "So my friend Andrew wants to come over, and probably stay the night. Is it okay if he does?"

Lena turned to him. "That boy you showed around on his first day?"

"Yep." He affirmed.

"Sure, that's fine." He smiled at them and left them, returning to his room and flinging himself on his bed. He pulled out his phone to find a text saying that he wouldn't be able to come over till a little after four. Looking at the time on his phone, he sighed at seeing that it was just nearing eleven, but what could he do about it.

Simultaneously texting Andrew about some family reunion thing he was at, and watching TV, he passed the next couple hours in a slow motion daze. Connor and Jude came and watched with him for a couple hours and then Mariana poked her head into the door. "Hey guys, moms offered to take us to the beach for a few hours, wanna go?"

The lover boys agreed to it, and seeing that it was only one and he still had hours to go, he agreed to go with them. Pushing himself off the bed and throwing on some trunks and changing his t-shirt out for a tank top, he followed the rest of the clan out to the car and they all climbed in, chatting happily with each other. The only one missing was Brandon, who was with his dad.

Arriving at the beach, they exited the vehicle and Jesus lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the sun, looking out across the sand and water. It was such a beautiful day and he wished he could've been spending it with Andrew. Thinking of him, he pulled out his phone and took a picture of the beach in front of him and sent it to the boy.

Wish you were here

:(

How's the reunion going?

Meh, I'm just talking with Monte, no one else I want to talk to besides you

At least I'll get to see you tonight

For sure :) alright gotta go, sorry

It's cool, I'm gonna get in the water anyway

Bye :)

Later ;)

Heading over to his mom's purse, he stuck his phone in it and followed Mariana and Callie down to the water. Enjoying the feel of the cool water on his skin and having fun chasing after the girls and flinging them into the water, Mariana screaming about her hair. It seemed like minutes, but apparently was getting close to four when they were called from the water and began to pack up the family.

Walking over to the purse, he was reaching inside when he looked at Lena's phone that was on top of his own and read the text that showed up on the screen.

Yeah, I just left the doctors with him, but they said Andrew will have to come back for more testing, but they say he's still undetectable.

Jesus quickly picked up his phone and looked at his texts, where there was a message from Andrew saying he was about to head to their house. Texting back that they were headed back from the beach now and that he might get there before him and his family did, he put his phone back in his pocket and got into the car.

Why would he lie about having to go to the doctor's? It wasn't as if he didn't know about the whole HIV thing. Maybe it was just him being used to hiding it and coming up with something to cover it up. He had just told him last night, so maybe it was just something he had done for so long that he didn't even think about it.

Relaxing back into his seat, he listened and added comments into the conversation his family was having and sighed with happiness as they pulled into their driveway and he saw Andrew parked in front of the house. Leaving the vehicle, he walked over to his car and smiled at him as he stepped out, reaching in to grab a backpack.

"Hey."

Andrew smiled at him. "Hey."

All he wanted to do was kiss him, but he knew he couldn't just yet. "I know about the doctor's visit."

His face fell and he looked worried. "Oh, how?"

"Hey, it's okay that you lied to me, I know you're probably just used to keeping it all to yourself. Monte was texting my mom about it and I saw the text."

Sighing, he leaned against the car. "I told her she shouldn't be telling anyone, but I guess your moms are really her only friends."

Nodding his agreement, he went motioned toward the house where the rest of the family had already went into, and the other boy followed him up the steps. "Are you okay? Like, everything is fine?"

He shrugged. "They said I'm still undetectable, but that they will need to do more tests so I can get on to this other medicine which is supposed to be better or something, I don't really know."

They both went silent as they opened the door and walked past the living room where his siblings were watching TV and talking. He assumed his mothers were in the kitchen making dinner and led the way to his room. Andrew dropped his bag by his bed and sat down on it, looking around the room.

"I may not have a whole basement to myself, but I don't really mind it. What I do mind is when Connor is here and they wanna laugh and talk and keep me up all night."

Nodding, the blonde walked over to wear he had some pictures of his family, and one of Ana. "Who is that?"

"Oh, that's my birth mom, Ana. She and my new half sister don't live too far away." Jesus had already told him everything about the adoption, the wreck, and the new baby, which was in the process of being adopted by his moms, though the baby didn't live there yet.

"You guys have so many people in this house." He said returning to his bed and laying down on it. Jesus agreed and lay down next to him, wrapping an arm around the boy and kissing him. Andrew pulled away though and looked over him at the closed door. "What if someone comes in?"

"I wish I didn't have to care." He answered, sighing and pulling away, moving over to the desk chair.

"I know, but I'm just so scared of what everyone would think." He sat up on the bed and looked over at Jesus sadly.

Moving back to the bed to sit beside him, he grabbed his hand and looked down at his fingers, not feeling the same fear he did. Jesus grew up with two moms, his brother was already out and could walk through the halls with Connor and no one would bat an eye. Unlike Andrew, he had grown up in a home and place that was accepting and he was so lucky for that.

"Listen, I know we both grew up completely different, and I don't feel the same way about coming out as you do, but it's not as scary as you would think. Especially not around here. No one cares here and we all know Monte best friends with my moms, and you don't live with your dad, so what's holding you back?"

"My best friend committed suicide after he came out because he had been bullied so bad." He said this so softly that Jesus almost didn't understand what he said. Andrew looked down into his hands, and the tan boy put his arms around his boyfriend and held him as he noticed tears fall into the boy's hand.

"It was a year ago, and we had just come out to each other, I was in love with him but hadn't told him. I was going to until he decided that he was happy with himself and came out to his family and everyone." The shaking started and he turned his head into Jesus' chest, still talking.

"I told him I wanted to wait, because he wanted to come out together. So when the bullying started, I tried to stand up for him but started to get called faggot and other names, so I just stopped talking to him after I got jumped.

"The school told him he needed to leave the school because there was too many people who were bullying him to discipline them all. So they sent him home with a letter to his parents telling them he was kicked out for his own he called me that night, I ignored his call, like I had for the last hundred times."

He was silent for a moment, the tears and shaking having stopped. His voice was monotone when he continued. "They found him in the tub the next morning with his wrists cut and a note that said he loved me. My dad shipped me off to boarding school the next day."

Jesus sat there holding him, staring dumbstruck at the wall. This boy had been through so much more heartbreak and destruction than any other person he had met, Callie had nothing on this kid. Growing up without a mother that you felt was dead because of you, and then find out that the older boy who led you to believe he loved you had given you an incurable STD, and then the boy you had fallen in love with commits suicide and wondering constantly if you had just answered that last call, if you could have stopped it.

He kicked himself mentally as he realized how much of a dick he must've sounded like the whole time he was talking complete ignorance. Like how it wasn't as scary as he thought. He had lived through the nightmare of his friend coming out and watching the boy's life get destroyed, and then losing that friend when he had taken his own life, now blaming himself for not doing something to stop it.

Pulling Andrew's face up to him, he kissed his lips softly and smiled at him. "I'm here for you. I know sometimes I must seem like a complete ignorant ass, but I do care for you so much, and I wanna try to be better for you."

"Oh jesus, you didn't do anything wrong. You had no clue about all this stuff. It's my fault for letting this go on thinking it could work out."

Jesus kissed him again to shut him up, and leaned his forehead against the other boy's when he pulled away. "You're not gonna push me away, so you need to stop talking like that. I'm still here aren't I? Whatever you decide to do, I will stand behind you. I love you."

Choking on a sob, Andrew looked up at him incredulously. "No you don't, it's been two weeks, and my life is so fucked up. You don't need to have to deal with this with me, get away while you can."

"Well, then I'd just be added to that list of things that you feel went wrong in your life. The boy who ran away when he heard the truth? I'm not going to be that guy. You're stuck with me whether you like it or not."

Looking into his eyes, Andrew's started to fill again and he wrapped his arms around Jesus' neck and cried into his neck. "Oh god, I love you, I love you so much." Jesus held him and closed his eyes, realizing he really did love this boy. How could just two weeks be enough to fall so in love with someone that would help them carry a burden like Andrew's. He didn't want to question it, because all he wanted to do was hold his boyfriend and be there for him.

"Jesus?" The boy sobbed, pulling away.

"Yeah?"

He laughed, wiping away the tears on his face. "Can we get some food, I'm starving. Then I need a three day nap." Bursting out laughing, Jesus nodded and pulled the boy to his feet, hands twining together. But as he opened the door, Jesus tried to pull his hand out of the other's but he held on.

Turning, he looked at Andrew. "Their going to notice something is going on if you don't let go of my hand."

He shrugged. "Fuck it."

"No, not 'fuck it.' You need more time and that's okay."

"You said they wouldn't care, and we can just ask them to not tell anyone like your brother." Jesus looked into his eyes, not wanting him to just be rushing into this after that massive release of emotion. But his eyes were clear and he smiled sadly at him. "I want to come out with you, to your family."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I haven't told anyone about that and it helped me so much to tell you." He pushed past him and pulled him down the hallway, and down the stairs, past the empty front room and stopped right outside the kitchen where they could hear his family's voices coming from.

Now that they were just moments away from it, Jesus could start to feel the nauseous feeling of when you're about to tell your parents something huge. Looking at Andrew, who turned to smile at him, he took a deep breath and they walked into the room.

"Oh, that's new."