Maybe Riley was making a mistake to assume that Zane knew that Mat had returned, but it wasn't completely unreasonable. Riley ran up to Zane's apartment door and knocked once, than twice and eventually five times before his mom answered. Riley looked shocked and embarrassed to see an irritated Mrs. Park standing at the door.

"Oh, s-sorry I…Is Zane here?" Riley must have looked really distressed, because Zane's mother's face softened which was rare for her. She reached out and touched Riley's shoulder.

"No, he's out. You okay Riley?" Riley shrugged her hand off and nodded.

"Yeah, when will he be back?"

"I don't know." Mrs. Park answered slowly and almost defensively because of all the questions Riley was asking.

"Well where'd he go?" Mrs. Park looked upward and sighed. Sometimes she felt that Riley and Zane were way too involved for being eighteen. She felt that it was none of Riley's business what Zane was doing every second of every day and vice versa.

"Riley, would you like to come in and wait for him?" Riley breathed out and nodded.

"Yeah that would be good, sorry." Riley stormed passed Mrs. Park and directed himself to Zane's room where he sat on the bed. Mrs. Park watched Riley walk by, and shook her head out of pity.

Riley sat there and planned what he would say to Zane? Should he act angry or curious when he asked if Zane knew that Mat was coming back? Would it maybe be best if he didn't bring it up at all?

In the midst of his thoughts Riley heard the front door open and shut and the sound of Zane's voice.

"Riley's waiting for you…" he heard say. A few moments later Zane came through the door. Riley stood up, grinning. Obviously he wasn't going to act angry. He hadn't really seen Zane in a few days, and he couldn't get mad at that face. Zane smiled just as big, dropped his bags on the ground and ran so that he could jump into Riley's arms. Zane leaned back in Riley's grip so that he could kiss him on the lips before pressing his nose to his.

"Hey beautiful." Riley whispered with his arms wrapped tightly around Zane's lower back. Zane smiled and kissed Riley again.

"Hey stud. I missed you." Riley leaned back slightly to make eye contact with Zane.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, it was weird not seeing you everyday," Zane said as he separated himself from Riley to put his grocery bag in the kitchen. He continued talking when he came back. "felt like I was missing an arm or something." Riley smiled to himself. Here he was worrying about some guy that Zane hadn't talked to in about a year and Zane was thinking about him the entire time they were apart. He felt like a jerk.

"Yeah, me too." Riley decided not to ask Zane about Mat. It wasn't that important anyway.

"I have a surprise for you." Zane said as he pushed Riley back onto the bed. Zane took his jacket off and Riley raised an eyebrow.

"Whatever it is, I like it already." Zane smirked and shook his head at his boyfriend as he reached into his jacket pocket.

"It's not that kind of surprise." Zane pulled out a very mini manila envelope with Riley's name on it and threw it to him. "Here, open it." Riley looked up at Zane who waited with anticipation as Riley finally began to open the enevelope. He pulled out a key and half smiled.

"What's this?"

"Guess."

"Ummm, the key to your heart?" Zane laughed and sat down next to Riley.

"Nope, guess again."

"The key to your chastity belt?" Zane raised an eyebrow at Riley and laughed out of one side of his mouth at the irony of the statement. Riley widened his eyes and nodded in agreement. "You're right. You in a chastity belt is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." Riley stopped laughing for a moment and stared at the key in his hand. He recognized the pattern as the key that Zane had in his pocket, which was the key to his apartment.

"I just figured that you practically live here already, so why not give you the freedom to come and go as you please?" Riley's face lit up as he stared at the key, shocked and in disbelief.

"Wow, Zane this is great. How would your mom feel?"

"Don't worry, I had to ask her permission first. She wasn't gung ho about it but she didn't object." Riley admired the key once more and then his boyfriend, who was smiling sheepishly. "So?"

"Yeah, wow …I mean this is the first time I've ever had a key to someone else's place." Riley said, looking at Zane expectantly. He wanted Zane to say 'me too' but it didn't follow. Instead it was that familiar awkward glance at the floor and the walls that he would do when he was trying to avoid something. "But, it's not for you?" Riley said bravely as he tried to catch Zane's eye. "Zane, I have the right to know. How serious were you and Mat anyway?" Zane sighed and kicked his shoes onto the floor so that he could face Riley sitting Indian style. Riley mirrored him to make him feel more comfortable.

"When I was almost seventeen, me and Mat were just starting to go out. He encouraged me to come out to my parents and uh, let's just say I needed a new place to live afterward. Him and his parents opened their arms to me and so I stayed there, for a few months."

"Did his parents know?"

"That me and him were…? Yeah. We stayed in the same room and everything. They had no problem with it." Zane paused to twiddle his thumbs for a moment before continuing. "Even after I began talking to my parents again, and they decided that I needed to go home, I stayed with him. We were dependent on each other, it felt strange to be apart for more than an hour." In between Zane's pauses in the story it was dead silent, Riley didn't dare say a word. "I remember it was the night that I showed up on his doorstep, crying, babbling, talking about how my parents kicked me out and he said nothing, he simply pulled me into the house and held me, for about and hour. The only thing he actually said was that he loved me, and he said It over and over. It was actually the first time he ever said that."

Riley squirmed uncomfortably at the mention of the l word. He and Zane had only said it to each other few times since Riley's huge announcement on the football field. It made him feel like it was rushed, and that neither of them really felt it.

At this point, Riley was staring straight ahead. He had adjusted himself on the bed so that he was no longer facing Zane. He hated seeing Zane's facial expression as he remembered these things, he seemed to miss Mat.

"Then we were inseparable, We began doing everything together…I remember," Riley looked up to stare at Zane and realized that it was a mistake. Zane was smiling widely. "Every time that he didn't see me for a day or so, he would do really cute things. One time he went away to a camp for a week and he arranged before hand for someone to send me something special every day he was away…almost felt like he never left."

"Sounds like you two really loved each other." Riley paused to see Zane's response, which was a light awkward nod. "If you guys were so perfect why'd you two break up?" Zane hesitated and looked at his feet, he wanted to lie and say that they got into a fight, or that they had no sexual connection, or that Mat cheated on him or something. But it was none of that.

"We weren't perfect. We had our problems. But, We broke up because he was moving back to Brazil. We had no choice." The room became so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Riley was leaning on his knees staring down at the floor, trying to keep himself from jumping up and screaming. He couldn't believe that the only reason the two broke up was because Mat moved back to Brazil. He also couldn't believe that Mat was back, and Riley knew exactly why he returned.

Riley sat with his back to Zane and began breathing heavily.

"One more thing," Riley said trying to keep his composure "If Mat hadn't of left, would you too still be together?" Zane sniffed causing Riley to look back up at him.

"Honestly, I don't know."