"What?"

"What?" I nervously chuckled, waiting for him to come back to Earth. He panicked, his eyes darting from the ceiling to the floor to the front and back.

"Well…" I could see he was struggling to make sense of this. His crush had just come out to him, after all. "I always knew it." He said, with a smile.

"You're a terrible liar."

"I know." He looked down, at my legs. "And I guess I'm free to tell you." He continued on. "I'm gay."

A nasty grin broke out of me. "I knew it."

"How?!" he shouted quietly.

"It doesn't take a genius to know it." I grinningly said. He began to feel down, a bit disappointed. "How you blushed when we joked about Toby, how you were the first to stand up against Robinson, and I, just, felt it last night… you know?"

"Uhm…" He hummed, in shock. "But how'd you know that you're bi?"

"Cindy. And Bryce."

"Bryce?"

"Yeah. And you." I whispered, getting closer to him.

"So, what now? We're boyfriends?" He said, pushing me back slightly.

"I don't know." I said, my thoughts drifting together like crumbs in outer space. "Part of me wants to love you so badly, but part of me wants to maintain this friendship. Can we?"

He looked up, thinking of my question.

"The Greeks were smarter than us," I continued on, "They had different kinds of love. There's storge, family love, eros, which is sexual love, which you definitely have." Rafe faked a laugh. "There's philia, which is brotherly love. Then there's agape, transcendental love, the very highest form, like when you place the other person above yourself."

"You are SO going to Harvard." He remarked. I chuckled slightly. "So, obviously we're, like, something between eros and philia?" he asked.

"No." I held his hand, which was under mine. "This is agape. It's not just sexual or brotherly love. It's both."

We approached each other. We first laid our heads against each other, then, as we turned, I felt his lip touch mine. Then our tongues touched. Thank God no one passed by us. It felt heavenly. I felt his pulse grow faster as mine did as well. We shared our heartbeats. We shared our hearts. And it took about a few seconds to realize we were in a plane.

"I am SO calling you my boyfriend when we reach Boulder." He said as we got back to our seats, red from the shame. "Agape, huh."

"Yeah."

We held hands throughout the entire flight. I felt like a rock had finally fallen off my chest. And I felt like my heart was now like ice cream inside an oven. Molten hot. This wasn't the same feeling as the one when I dated Cindy. This feeling. Agape.

I saw the open landscape of the Great Plains as we flew above it. Thousands of words raced through my head. I was madly in love. And I loved the feeling. Sorry, Bryce. I thought. So, so, sorry. I bowed my head a little, and looked back at Rafe, who was smiling at me.

"It's you. It's always been you."

"What?" He replied.

"The wife. Remember?"

"Oh."

We curled our hands to grip each other tightly, and as he turned back to his phone, I gave him a small kiss on his blushing cheeks.

We arrived at the airport later in the day, and as we passed through the arrivals gate, we saw Mr. Goldberg. Rafe looked at me, and then he looked at our hands, which were holding each other. "Here goes nothing."

"My two favorite guys!" Mr. Goldberg yelled, hugging Rafe tight and kissing him on the cheek. He then grabbed me and hugged me tightly too.

"Good to see you, Mr. G!" I said.

"I like that. Mr. G. Go with that. Or Gavin."

"Alright, Mr. G." Rafe cracked up warmly.

We got to the outside curb and found it was a beautiful sunny day, not too cold, maybe as cool as a New Hampshire spring. The view was amazing. A massive wave of mountains built up in the distance, while the pale-yellow desert brown rolled all the way towards the city limits. It felt awfully strange and awe-inspiring, like I was on Mars.

Mrs. G was in a Prius, waving at us. And when she saw us, she moved from the front to the back, giving me shotgun. "You're bigger," she said to me, pecking me a small kiss on the kiss. She then turned to Rafe and gave him a big warm squeeze.

As we drove through the city, I told the parents first.

"Rafe and I are together." I said.

"Wait, you're serious?" Mr. G said, doing a double take on me and Rafe.

"Yeah." Rafe answered along with me.

"Well, good for you two." Mrs. G said, me seeing her face lighting up.

I could see Rafe sweat nervously while he watched the city zoom by. I went on to tell what had happened throughout the week, and I could see three of them being extremely excited and joyful. We laughed, joked and celebrated. Four people in a Prius, throwing ourselves a mini-party. I myself was less happy, as a small voice came into my head. What about your parents, Ben? How would your father think about this? I quickly waved off the question, focusing on telling the Goldbergs about the fun we had. What's going to happen to you?

"Claire Olivia came by earlier this week. She was trying to gauge how much you'd hate a surprise party when you got home." Mrs. G said.

"Well, she's up to an even bigger surprise!" I chimed in. We all laughed.

"Anyway, I estimated a lot."

"You estimated correctly." Rafe replied. He had to explain to me that Claire Olivia and him were actually just best friends. I wasn't as surprised as he thought I would be. I guessed that they made up and were now back to friends. That Claire Olivia was still going to have her surprised party turned towards her.

"Oh, come on, who doesn't like a surprised party?" Mr. G said, looking at the rear-view mirror.

Rafe raised his arm, and I followed.

"You two, way, way too much." Mrs. G said.

"Who knew that you had a doppelganger from northern New Hampshire? And a cute one too." Rafe's dad said.

When we turned to the town of Boulder, I could see Rafe reminiscing on his old favorite landmarks. The Pearl Street Mall, which was filled with performers from all over the world, even in a cold November day.

When we turned the corner and parked into their house's driveway, I was excited. How would his family react? I asked myself. Who is Claire Olivia?

Rafe exhaled, probably from the obvious pack of cars parked on his street.

"Humor us." Mrs. G said. "Pretend that you like people, and that you like seeing people who love you. Just for a bit."

"Fine." Rafe answered. "Sorry, Ben." He looked at me, our hands were gripped tight.

"Hey, no big deal for me, always up for a partay." I smiled at him.

"Remember? No partay for you." He said, flicking me a shoulder. I laughed at him, remembering the second time we met. Him vomiting on a Joey Warren girl. Us sitting in the corner. I'm pretty sure you're only allowed to say partay when you have a lampshade on your head, he said. Sweet, sweet Rafe.

We got out of the car, and as we entered the backyard, a crowd of seven yelled: "Surprise!"

"Wow!" Rafe shouted, acting badly. "This is… I'm shocked!"

I smiled beside him, and when Rafe began to introduce me to the notorious Claire Olivia, wrapped in a winter coat, she noticed our hand-holding.

"Whoa, whoa, what happened between you two?"

"I turned him gay." Rafe said. We both giggled at the notion. "Well, actually, he told me in the plane. He's bi."

"Heck of a surprise party, huh." I said to her, who stared at both of us with her eyes wide open.

There were purple streamers hanging from the trees, a table with drinks and snacks, and then there was a pig on a spit, which Rafe quickly corrected me to tofu pig on a spit. It wasn't as much of a difference to me, who never even HAD pig on a spit.

Rafe quickly introduced me to the other people, and them to me. There was Chloe, Rafe's grandma in a yellow sundress, Claire Olivia's parents, Aunt Ruth and Uncle Sidney, and there was some kid from the local PFLAG, who Rafe only somewhat despised.

Mr. G ran across the yard to the table, where he'd set up a boom box, and pressed play. Within seconds, the yard was filled with beautiful Hawaiian music.

"It's a mountain luau surprise party!" Mr. G yelled, all cheerful. I began to laugh at the sheer insanity, and Rafe followed with my laugh. Rafe went and talked to Claire Olivia after a big hug, while someone began to head towards me, as I was hanging around Rafe while he was talking to Claire Olivia.

"So, sweetie, does Rafe treat you well?" someone asked, I couldn't figure out if it was Aunt Ruth or Rafe's mom.

"Sure, he does." I smiled at her. Claire Olivia then called me up.

"Figured you'd attract a guy like Rafe." She eyed me up, giving an unimpressed look. "What did he tell you before, you know?" She rolled her eyes at Rafe, who shrugged nervously.

"Oh, he told me you were his girlfriend. In fact, he told the whole football team." She rolled her eyes again with a sigh, and excused herself for some punch after a slight handshake with me. I guess Rafe really was her gay best friend. Something was off, and I felt like Rafe still had something to tell me. Feeling slightly wronged, I gave myself a mental note to ask him about everything before Natick.

As I was surrounded by strangers, I quickly went to follow Rafe everywhere, from Claire Olivia's parents to the tofu pig. The pig looked frighteningly real, from the burn marks to the mauve snout to the spring-like tail. But it didn't look appetizing, at all.

As Rafe inspected the pig, his grandmother, Chloe came over and kissed his ear.

"Don't you just love tofu?" she effused, staring at the false pig. "You can do anything with it!" Just like one's heart. I looked at Rafe, who was annoyed by the tofu.

"Hey, Chloe."

"Good to see you and your boyfriend!" she said, looking at me. Rafe then looked at me as well, unimpressed by my indifferent smile.

"Hi." I sheepishly said.

"Nice to meet you. Ben, right? Hope my grandson treats you well." She slowly pats my arm, before walking away.

We both smiled at each other. Boyfriend. I could hear his heart melt.

As we shared our time together, I began to think of our future. What's gonna happen when we go to college? But my thoughts were interrupted by Grandma Chloe playing limbo. At first, she nervously went through, but after her legs had passed, the bar holders raised the bar up a bit, giving her more room. After she had finished clearing the bar, her yellow sundress' strap loosened, exposing us to her right boob. Someone clapped loudly, but I mostly looked on the grass while she redressed herself. Embarrassing.

Rafe's family was the best. Not that it could've beaten Toby and Albie, but they were a good competitor. Limbo, Hawaiian music, tofu pig against oversized pockets, Scanner Pong and apple gangs. The world sure is weird. I began to get why he hid himself after years of being proud. But I was still gonna ask him after the party.

Rafe followed his grandmother, his mother yelling excitingly, his father pulling out his phone to capture the moment while Claire Olivia pushed Rafe to the bar. He was pretty embarrassed and kept looking at me. Of course, being the supporting boyfriend that I am, I gave him a cackling laugh. He turned back to the bar, took a deep breath, and sauntered forward, shaking while his arms shuddered from the stress. He eventually finished it successfully, narrowly shimmying under the bar. And, well, no one else wanted to go next. I definitely didn't want to go.

"You did great, Rafe!" Claire Olivia shrieked next to me at the drinks bar.

"Whatever. What is in that?" he said, pointing to the fruit juice beside her.

"Oranges, apples, pineapples and peaches."

Mrs. G ran towards us, shrieking Rafe's good results to the world.

"You should've tried," she said to me.

"I don't think my body goes that way." I replied.

"Oh, you'd be surprised what your body can do." I winced, and Claire Olivia cracked up. While everyone was talking, me and Rafe stayed at the food area, inspecting the fake pig.

"Pretty incredible that someone actually made that." I said, giving a disgusted look. "I just don't want to eat it."

"Me neither."

I felt some nervousness in his voice. He was still unnerved from our plane ride, I guessed.

"You okay?" I asked. He looked around, seeing his family and his family's friends having fun conversations.

"Yeah, I'm okay." He said, with a slightly forced smile. The day was going great for both of us, so I just shrugged it off, happy that we could be together.