Open Your Eyes

by someofthissomeofthat310

My take on what could happen if there's a season 3. *Summary inside because I don't want to take the chance of spoiling the second season for someone that hasn't seen it yet*

6. What Happens in Vegas

~ Chapter 6: What Happens in Vegas ~

Victor's POV

"Okay. I have now perfected our playlist," Lake said victoriously.

I groaned. "Can't we just connect Benji's phone? He has a lot of cool music!"

"I think we should instate a house rule. Driver picks the music," Lucy suggested.

"I think that's already a rule of the road," I pointed out.

"It's my car," Lake argued. "I think that the rule of the road is whoever's car it is picks the music."

"And this is why we need a house rule," Lucy told me.

"Then I second it. Driver picks the music," I said.

"Thirded," Benji added.

"That's not fair! I don't get to drive because someone thinks I'm a danger to society."

"Not someone. Everyone," Lucy corrected. "Victor and I are cool with being the only two drivers if it means we get there in one piece."

"But both of you are just gonna pick Benji's music," Lake complained. None of us said anything. "I'm feeling attacked right now. My music is great."

"You're music… is wonderful," Benji said cautiously. "But… we thought we might enjoy some music that everyone likes."

I bit my lip so I wouldn't laugh. "So, you're saying not everyone likes my music?" Lake challenged.

"No," Benji said at the same time that Lucy said, "yes."

"We just think that Benji's music is more… universal," I provided.

"Exactly," Lucy agreed. "Glad we're on the same page."

"I'm trying very hard not to take this personally," Lake muttered. She passed the cord back to us anyway.

Benji pressed shuffle on his playlist and the first song to play was Call Me Maybe. As one, Lake and I turned to look at Benji. The sun was setting, but I could see his faint flush when Lake asked, "this is what you consider good music?"

"I like it," I said at the same time that Benji asked, "what's wrong with this song?"

"What's not wrong with this song?" I wouldn't have put it past Lake to start listing things that she thought were wrong with it, and I was fully prepared to spend the entire trip to Vegas defending it if I needed to.

I didn't need to. Lucy put her hand on Lake's shoulder. "It's one of the songs his band did as a cover, remember? It was amazing."

Lake couldn't argue with that. Benji's version of Call Me Maybe was honestly the best.

I sat back in my seat and let my eyes flutter closed. For a second, I was back in Brasstown after my shift with Benji. We were dancing ridiculously and… it was like nothing else existed. It was the first time I'd ever felt like that. I hadn't known then that it was just the start of how I would feel with Benji. Somewhere along the way, we created our own little world. I loved that little world.

No one said a word while the song played out. When I opened my eyes, Benji was watching me. We didn't say anything during the next song or the next one.

The silence wasn't broken until Lake said, "we should hit up the Grand Canyon. That's close to Vegas, right? When are we ever going to be this close to it again?"

The next hour of our trip was spent vaguely planning how we were going to spend our time in Vegas. Lake refused to broach the topic of Sunday while I was with them because she said she wanted to surprise me. Knowing Lake, that could mean anything, and I was hoping Benji would veto anything too excessive.

We agreed on to-go meals pretty quickly, so we drove to a Mcdonald's around 8. Lucy passed back what Benji and I had ordered, but I put my food in between me and Benji. I was focused on what to say to my parents. I'd typed and deleted the message about a hundred times.

Somehow, telling them that we were getting away from a sex tape didn't seem like the right move, but everything else felt like lying.

"Oh my God," Lake said. "Just send the freaking message!"

"Don't rush me."

"I don't see what the big deal is," Lake grumbled. "Just tell your mom you're gonna be gone until Tuesday."

"It's not that easy. I have to explain to my mom that I'm going away for almost a week despite being grounded and that the entire school has seen me have sex with my boyfriend," I snapped.

"Yeah, but-"

"Cut him some slack," Benji interrupted. "This is a big deal for him."

Thank you, I mouthed to Benji. He nodded. I knew he didn't understand why I was panicking so much about this, so it was nice that he defended me. "Take a break. Eat. Then go back to your message. It's already 8:30. What's another hour?"

He had a point. I was distracted while we ate and tapped my phone against my knee while I thought about what to say. I finally typed, a video of me and Benji got out.

I deleted the words almost immediately. Something happened, and you won't see me for a while.

"Does this sound too ominous?" I asked.

Benji glanced at my phone and snickered. "I think your mom is going to think I'm kidnapping you."

I frowned. "Right."

"But the first part is good. Something happened. It's short and to the point. We know Ms. Albright already called her, so she knows about the video. Just change the second part," Benji suggested.

I turned back to my phone. I'm really, really, really sorry, but I need to get away for a few days.

"Too many reallys," Benji told me.

I groaned. This was impossible. There was no right thing to say. "Do you want to text them?" He held out his hand for my phone. "Wait. Really?"

"Why not?" I passed him my phone, and he typed for a minute before he passed it back. "How's that?"

Something happened. I need to get away for a few days. I'm safe, and I'm with Benji. I'm sorry for not telling you before we left. I love you.

"I think that's perfect," I said. It was way better than the messages I'd tried so far. "You know it's only going to make them angrier when they find out I'm with you."

"Yeah, but I think it will help to hear it from you."

He was right. I closed my eyes and pressed send on the message. "Oh, God. I shouldn't have sent it, right? I should have just faced them when we got back?"

"You needed to text them; you couldn't just disappear. Give them a second. Your mom has probably been waiting to hear from you."

Sure enough, she answered less than a minute after I sent her the text. We'll talk when you get home. I need you to check in with me every morning, around lunch, and at night. I love you. Stay safe.

I was still rereading her message when my dad answered nearly twenty minutes later. We understand. We love you.

"That went way better than I thought it would," I muttered. I really couldn't wrap my head around the fact that neither of them had unleashed their fury on me. They were probably waiting until I got home; they couldn't exactly drive fear into my heart via text message.

"Now that that's out of the way, try to take a nap," Benji encouraged. "You're going to be driving when we stop in a few hours, and none of us want you falling asleep at the wheel."

- . - . - . -

Felix's POV

Victor texted me really late. Are you awake? I should've been asleep but perks of insomnia, I guess.

I answered him right away. Yeah.

The FaceTime request came in right after I pressed send. When I accepted it, I was surprised to see Benji.

"Oh. Hi," I said.

Benji held the phone so I could see Victor as well. "Hey," Victor said.

"Are you still driving?" I asked.

"I actually just started driving. Why are you up? Isn't it 1 am by you?"

"You're the one that texted me at 1 am. Why are you up… wait, is it not 1 am by you?" I questioned.

"No. It's just after midnight," he explained.

When Pilar told me they were leaving Georgia, I assumed they were going to New York to visit Simon but that would've been the same time zone. "Wait, you're coming back, right? This isn't your way of taking off and ditching us?"

"Why does everyone think I'm running away?" Victor asked annoyed.

"Because you are," Benji suggested. "It's just temporary. I feel like I should be the insulted one. Do people think I'd let you run away?"

"Let me?" Victor took his eyes off the road for a second to give Benji a glare that I thought was kind of terrifying. Benji didn't seem to think anything of it.

"Yeah," Benji confirmed. "You wouldn't run off without me and I'd never let us run off together."

Victor thought about that for a second. "You'd let us," he said confidently. "If I really asked."

Benji opened his mouth, but I cut in before they could continue this weird argument. "If you're not running away, where are you going?"

Victor bit his lip. "You can't tell anyone. Not even Pilar, okay?"

"You want me to lie to Pilar?" I asked. "You know she wouldn't say anything."

"I know, and I'll tell her everything once we get back, but I don't want anyone to know where we're going."

"But you're gonna tell me?"

"I'd like to, yeah. If you're cool with that."

I felt so flattered. "Yeah, of course. I won't tell Pilar. I promise."

"We're road-tripping with Lucy and Lake to visit Mia and Andrew in Las Vegas."

I sat up in my bed. "Las Vegas?"

"Yeah."

"Wow. That's gonna be some road trip. How long will it take?"

"With our stops for gas and food, probably about thirty hours, but our ETA keeps changing, so who knows. It'll be worth it. We needed to get away."

"Right," I acknowledged. I looked away from the phone. I didn't want to think about why he had to get away because it made me sick to my stomach to think of what someone had done to him, and I couldn't feel sick to my stomach without the visual of what I'd seen. I felt so bad for them.

"Pilar said you saw it," Victor said. He was staring pointedly at the street… or maybe he was just being a good driver. He couldn't exactly look at the phone and drive at the same time.

"Uh, yeah," I admitted. "She asked me to watch it because she didn't want to see you have sex, but she wanted to know how bad it was. It's really messed up."

"Yeah," Victor agreed quietly.

Benji chewed his lip. "How bad is it? You were in school all day… what are they saying?"

"I'm not going to lie to you… it's bad. Everyone's talking about it. Ms. Dillinger nearly had a breakdown today because she could not get our class under control. They couldn't stop talking about why you weren't in class and someone kept playing the video so we could hear the audio." Victor flinched. "For what it's worth, a lot of people don't blame you. There are a few people that are… being like, you know, but mostly everyone thinks it's sick that someone recorded you." Victor nodded and as they passed under a light, I realized just how upset he was. "But that doesn't matter. Did you say you're road tripping with Lake and Lucy?"

"Yeah," Benji answered. "They're asleep in the back. It's kind of cute. We should take a picture."

"Do that and die," Lake muttered sleepily.

I chuckled. "So, your road trip is going really well I see. Are you driving the whole way?"

Victor smiled. "Lucy and I are trading off," he told me. "It's their shift to sleep." Benji looked at Victor. "Right. So, there is a reason I called. I just wanted to make sure you were cool that I didn't ask you to come with me. It kind of happened quickly, and I didn't think you'd want to leave your mom. I wish you could've come with us."

"You're right; things are still getting back to normal with her and I wouldn't have been able to leave her," I assured him. Honestly, it hadn't occurred to me that he would've wanted me to go with him. I figured this getaway was more about him and Benji than the people they were with. Plus, I knew how important Mia was to Lake. I spent all of last summer listening to Lake complain about how much she missed her. Lucy seemed like a random travel companion, but she was Benji's best friend and seemed to have gotten close with Lake the last several months, so maybe she wasn't so random. "I'm not mad."

Victor looked relieved. I didn't realize he'd been worried about that. "Thanks. Vegas would have been so fun with you."

"Oh, for sure," I agreed. "But, hey, Vegas isn't going anywhere. Once things get a little more back to normal here, we can go. Or, better yet, we can travel to our own far-off location and do a boy's weekend."

Victor chuckled. "That sounds nice. Maybe over the summer if I'm ungrounded by then."

I looked away from my phone. Pilar had talked to me a few hours ago. She'd been all excited because she hoped she made a breakthrough with her mom. I was under strict orders not to tell Victor because she didn't want to get his hopes up just to have something change before he got back.

"Where should we go?" I asked. "If this is making up for Vegas, I want to experience a different state."

Victor tilted his head. "Have you never been out of Georgia?"

"I went to Florida when I was little, but I don't really remember it. After my dad died, we stuck to local trips. Unlike someone I know who seems to casually take off across the country all the time."

"Not all the time," he muttered. "I'll let you pick where we go then. Let's just stick with the U.S., okay?"

"Hawaii, here we come," I teased. "Nah. We'll figure it out."

Benji coughed to clear his throat. "It's boy's weekend, not boyfriend's weekend. You'll survive a weekend without us," Victor teased.

It was one of the things I loved about Victor. He was obsessively in love with Benji, but he always made time to spend time with me (these last two weeks being the exception because he hadn't been able to make time for anyone).

Benji rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You can just have a boring, miserable time without me."

I chuckled. "You can come, but you have to find your own place to sleep. Dibs on Victor as my roommate."

Victor started to crack up. "Maybe I'll talk to Simon and see if he's up for us visiting him in New York. We could all sleep on his floor. Like a slumber party." His last words came out high-pitched because he was trying so hard to stop laughing.

"We'll figure it out. But, speaking of Simon. Do you know his dad's name?" I asked.

Victor looked thoughtful for a moment. "No. I can check through our messages, but I don't think he's ever mentioned it. Why?"

"My mom called a lawyer named Jack Spier today to schedule an interview. He didn't answer, but I wasn't sure if they were related."

"Once we get to Vegas, I'll text Simon and ask; I'll ask him to put in a good word if it is," he promised. "Did you say she called to schedule an interview?"

I guessed I hadn't had a chance to talk to Victor since lunch on Monday. "Yeah. Your dad hooked it up. He asked around at PFLAG. He's like… a really great dad."

"He is," Victor agreed. A weird look crossed his face. "Do you know if he knows?"

"Pilar said they both do. She came to see me after she took out the trash," I explained.

He groaned. "Are they okay? Is Pilar? She seemed fine, but-"

"They're just worried about you," I told him seriously. "We all are. This sucks and what people are saying about you… I know you don't want to talk about it but if you ever do, consider me your judgment-free zone."

"No offense, Felix. But I think the only person I need to talk to about it is Benji and we're not ready for that." One look at Benji told me that the 'we' Victor was referring to was only himself.

"No offense taken," I assured him.

"Do they know who did it?" Benji asked

"Someone on the team; that's all we know. Maybe have Andrew poke around because they're treating it like it's a state secret."

"It was someone on my team." Victor looked almost dejected by that. He was probably hoping it hadn't been but, really, who else could have done it?

"Yeah."

Victor let out a frustrated growl. Victor's phone briefly was facing the top of the car. I couldn't see what Benji did, but I could hear Victor taking deep breaths. "Sorry."

"You don't need to apologize," Benji assured him.

When Benji picked the phone back up, I decided to change the subject. "What are you going to do in Las Vegas?"

I stayed on the phone with them for a long, long time. Way later than I should have, but it was worth spending a Thursday fighting to stay awake.

- . - . - . -

Benji's POV

"Hey. Wake up," I said as I nudged Victor. I'd let him sleep as long as possible because he'd driven from before midnight until he traded off with Lucy right before 6, and he'd needed the rest. I was technically supposed to help him stay awake while he was driving, but it ended up being the other way around. Once we got off the phone with Felix, he kept me awake as he told me about Texas. We'd talked about it before, but not like this. We were essentially reversing the drive Victor's family had made when they moved and it brought up a lot for him. I passed him a bagel. "Eat up. We stopped and got bagels about two hours ago." I'd been surprised when he slept through it; he must've been really exhausted.

He accepted the bagel and looked around. It took him a minute to recognize where we were. "Are we…" he started.

"In Graham," I confirmed. Lucy and Lake had gotten on board once they realized it was only fifteen minutes out of the way. "I didn't have Matt's address, but this is a pretty small town, so if you have it, we can stop by."

"No need," he said. "It's Thursday. Everyone's in school right now."

"I forgot," I admitted. It didn't feel like a Thursday. "We could stick around until the end of the school day." I didn't want to do that because then we wouldn't get to Vegas until tomorrow morning, and I was getting sick of being in a car, but I'd suck it up for Victor.

"No. I think… I think this is what I need to do," he told me.

"Are you sure? I get you wanting to reconnect with Matt, but… no offense, your other friends kind of seemed like dicks," I pointed out. I wasn't even exaggerating. The shit that Victor had to put up with in Texas was ridiculous. Even if you ignore that they essentially made it impossible for him to figure out if he was gay by their constant gay jokes and microaggressions, they were just terrible friends. They were the kind of friends that wanted people to know they knew Victor, The Basketball Star, but didn't care to be friends with Victor, the person. There was a reason he hadn't stayed in contact with his friends after he moved. It seemed like the only person he really missed was his best friend, Matt. Despite promising to stay in touch, neither of them had.

Victor timed it so we got to the school when everyone would be at lunch. "Who gives kids lunch at 10 am?" I asked.

Victor grinned. "Our Vice Principal, Mr. Sanchez, used to announce our 'brunch' options every day. It was the way our schedule worked out because our school day started at 7:15." His face got serious. "I don't know if they'll let you in or if you'll end up having to wait in the car because you're not a student.," he said quietly. "But if they will…"

"I'll be by your side the whole time," I promised. "Whatever you need."

Victor looked terrified as he nodded. "Am I doing it? Am I getting out of the car?"

"You probably need to open the door to get out of the car," I suggested. He still didn't move. "Hey, it'll be okay." I reached across him and opened the door. He reluctantly got out. Before he could start to walk towards the school, I gave him a long kiss. "Whatever happens, I love you."

"Love you too." He kissed me quickly. "We can't hold hands here. At least, not until I get to tell Matt. I don't care who else finds out, but he deserves to hear from me."

"You know there's a chance he already knows. We are Instagram official."

"Yeah, but no one from Texas follows me on Instagram." I raised my eyebrows at him. "They all followed my old Instagrams. When we moved, I wanted a fresh start, so I closed both of them and made a new account."

"You had two?" I asked incredulously. I knew Victor had a slight social media obsession, but I could barely manage one Instagram.

"Yeah. I had the one that all my friends followed me on and then the one that, like, my priest and cousins followed me on."

"You had a finsta?" What? How did I go this long without knowing that?

He frowned. "I guess. We didn't call it that. I just had an Instagram where I could post douchey, shirtless pictures after basketball practice with the rest of my team. Stupid shit like that. When I moved, I didn't want to be two different Victor's. I just wanted to be me." He shivered and wrapped his arms around himself.

"Do you still have those shirtless pictures?" I asked casually in an attempt to make him smile. It worked.

He shoved me lightly. "It's nothing you haven't seen before. I want to be able to tell Matt. I feel like I owe him that."

"I get it." I grabbed his hand and squeezed it before I let it fall to his side.

I followed him to the entrance of his school. It was different from Creekwood. There was a buzzer to be let into a vestibule where he could then be let into the school. The secretary working recognized him right away and gave him a long hug. "It's great to see you too, Mrs. Carmichael." He patted her back awkwardly. "This is Benji. I was hoping to show him around. Maybe introduce him to some of my old friends."

"Of course." She pulled out a clipboard with sheets of yellow visitor's passes. She started what felt like a very well-rehearsed speech. "Fill out all the information. Put the top part on your shirt. It needs to be visible at all times while you're in the school so you can be identified as a visitor. You're free to walk around as long as we can see your pass. Stop in before you leave."

"We will," Victor promised. Mrs. Carmichael walked away to do something with the copier.

We walked out and a photo of Victor caught my attention. "What is that?"

"I broke the school record for points in a single game my freshman year," he admitted. "I actually started off on the bench, but then this senior, Max, sprained his ankle about ten seconds in and was out the rest of the game. I was put in, I broke the record, and I've started ever since. My name's on that." He pointed at a trophy with a little gold basketball player. His name and 2019 were written on the base of the trophy.

"You didn't get to take it with you when you moved?" I asked surprised. It seemed like the kind of thing that he'd want to remember. My mom still had all of my participation trophies from the sports she forced me to do as a little kid and those weren't school record trophies.

"I didn't ask. I didn't think to," he admitted. "Cafeteria's this way."

By the time we got to the cafeteria, I was kind of amazed by how well-liked Victor had been here. Everyone seemed to know him. I didn't think that he was hated or anything, but the sheer amount of admiration he got from old classmates and teachers was kind of overwhelming. He ran into at least twenty people that stopped him to say hi and acted like their best friend had finally come home.

His basketball coach was actually in tears when she saw him and told him that the school was missing one of the leaders in their community. Everyone looked up to him here. No wonder he put so much pressure on himself.

When he walked into the cafeteria, an actual silence spread through the room. "I thought you said your school was small," I whispered.

"It is. This is it. This is the whole school," he whispered back. He waved at someone as we started to head towards the back of the cafeteria. "We didn't have the choice of eating outside like we do at Creekwood. Everyone eats in here."

I looked around again. It seemed like we were surrounded but if this was the whole school, Victor was right. It was small.

The quiet was broken by a, 'yo Salazar!' from the table we were walking towards. I could almost definitively split the cafeteria up into people that were here when Victor had been here and people that had no idea who he was.

Victor greeted a ton of people before we got to a large round table in the back corner of the room. "Hey, guys," Victor said.

They were a flurry of handshake hugs as everyone said hi to Victor and asked him questions about Georgia that they didn't wait to get an answer to.

The last person to greet Victor was the first person to give him a real hug. "Hey, Matt," he said quietly.

Victor had never mentioned how cute Matt was. I felt a little taken aback by it. I'd expected him to look more like a high schooler and less like Charlie Puth. I knew Victor had a reoccurring sex dream about Charlie, and it was making me wonder if Victor had ever crushed on Matt. He'd said he never really had room to explore his sexuality here, but he'd been questioning long before he moved to Atlanta. Had Matt been the start of his questioning? I was surprised by the jealousy I felt. When Victor's aunt had mentioned Matt, I dismissed it because Victor had. Maybe we should have talked about it more.

My jealousy was short-lived because Victor broke the hug and turned towards me. "Benji, this is Matt. Matt, this is Benji."

Matt shook my hand and it became really obvious from the look of confusion on his face that he had no clue who I was. I realized Victor must've been right that no one from Texas followed him on Instagram because it was kind of like I was irrelevant to them, like I was just taking up space behind Victor.

Matt was the first one to acknowledge that I was there when he asked, "are you one of Victor's new friends from Atlanta?"

"Um, not exactly," Victor said slowly. He closed his eyes for a second. "Benji is…" He let out a slightly shaky breath. "He's my boyfriend." I moved so I was standing next to him. When he reached for my hand, I laced my fingers through his.

Matt looked surprised but not disgusted. Unlike whoever was standing next to him who took several steps back and looked like he'd just been forced to eat something vile. "When did this happen?" Matt asked.

"Benji? Or being gay?"

"Benji," he answered with a small smile.

"Almost ten months ago."

"That's great, man." Matt looked sincere, and I could see Victor's relief. "How has Georgia been? Obviously, it's been really good for your love life." He nudged Victor.

Victor chuckled and almost looked like he was glowing a little. "It's been kind of amazing, but I've missed Texas."

"Trust me. You're not missing anything. Except maybe basketball. The team sucks without you."

Victor snorted. "You play so that can't be true."

Matt grinned. "How long are you here for? We could always hang out later. I'd love to catch up and get to know Benji more. I want to get to know the guy that got through to Victor I-don't-have-time-to-date Salazar."

I raised my eyebrow at Victor, and he shrugged. He was at Creekwood like a week before he was dating. "We're only passing through. I just didn't want to pass through and not see you."

I didn't think Victor was aware of the looks his other friends were giving him until he said, "and how is everyone else doing?" He tightened his grip on my hand.

It was kind of weird how, in one move, they all left. They just picked up their trays and walked away. Matt shifted uncomfortably. "You know how they are."

"Yeah," Victor said quietly. He coughed. "We really do have to get going, but it was great to see you."

"You too. Stay in touch."

Victor nodded before he started to walk away. I didn't think the whispers and stares that followed us were excessive, but Victor held my hand in a death grip until we left the cafeteria.

"You okay?" I asked as we walked back towards the main office.

"I am actually." He sounded surprised. "Everyone at that table used to be one of my teammates. I've known them their whole lives; they were pretty much exactly who I thought they'd be. Matt surprised me though."

"You didn't think he'd take it well?"

Victor shook his head. "I was sure he wouldn't."

"Why?"

Victor hesitated. "Because we'd talked about it before. Matt once said that he couldn't understand why a guy would choose to be with another guy. I think his exact words were, 'don't they realize how sick that is?' I wonder… if he just said that because he thought he should. Maybe if I'd told him the truth… I don't know. Maybe I wouldn't have hurt Mia, and maybe I would have figured out my stuff sooner."

"You can't think like that." We were almost to the office, but I stopped him. "You can't change how things went down. You had your reasons for not telling anyone here and from what I saw, they were pretty good reasons." It would be a long time before I'd be able to forget how almost everyone at his old lunch table walked away in one coreographed moved. I tilted his chin. "Victor, hey. You did what you needed to do when you were here. If you'd come out and they acted like that? I don't want to think about who would've moved to Creekwood, but it wouldn't have been you and that would've been a tragedy. We wouldn't have been right for each other if your… friends here turned your sexuality into something you needed to be ashamed of or turned you into someone that was ashamed of yourself. You came out when it was the right time for you."

He shrugged. "Yeah, maybe, but what if I could have changed things here? What if there was another kid like me here?"

"I don't know how to tell you this, but there definitely was. You may have felt alone here, but you weren't. It's not your fault that you didn't realize that. You were surrounded by people that made you feel like you were in this by yourself. If it helps, the whole cafeteria just saw you. Maybe you didn't get through to anyone while you were here, but you just showed who knows how many kids that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. You showed them how amazing it is that you're you now."

He leaned down and kissed me. "Thanks. You always know what to say."

"Of course. I'm sure we could stay in Graham for a bit if you wanted to. Catch up with your super-hot old best friend Matt?"

Victor stared at me. "Are you… jealous?"

"No. Why would I be jealous?" I crossed my arms because I knew it didn't make sense, but it was coursing through me making me feel irritable and like I was seconds away from igniting. There was no reason to be jealous. Once we left here, chances were Victor wouldn't see Matt for a long, long time. Maybe he'd see him when his aunt had her baby, but she wasn't due until the beginning of July, so even that was a ways away.

Victor bit his lip and looked behind me. "I don't know how to tell you this, but you have nothing to be jealous of. Even when I was questioning here, Matt was never part of that question."

I sighed. "Are you sure? Because-"

"I'm sure," he interrupted.

"Then why did you tell him you didn't have time to date?"

Victor frowned. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"You started dating Mia right after you moved," I told him. "You didn't have a problem dating in Georgia. Did you not want to date because of him?" I hated to ask, but I knew I was always going to wonder if I didn't say something.

"Mia was the first girl I ever thought I might like. The girls here… I never felt anything towards them, and it was easier to pretend that I was too busy with basketball than it was to explain that." He took a step closer to me so he was just a little too close. "As much as I love this new jealous side of you, there's nothing for you to be jealous of. I can't explain why I wasn't attracted to Matt. Objectively speaking, you're not wrong that he's not totally miserable looking, but it never happened." He brought his hand to my cheek. "I've never felt anything close to what I feel with you. Not with anyone; not even a little bit."

I couldn't help the small smile that spread across my face. "Okay."

"Now, come on. We can't stay and catch up with my super-hot old best friend because we need to get back on the road. We're not going to get to Vegas until midnight if we're lucky."

"We'd be there by 8 if we let Lake drive," I joked.

"Which is exactly why she lost her driving privileges," he retorted. He looked down the hallway with a sad look on his face.

"We don't have to leave yet," I said softly.

"I want to. I spent a year and a half in this building being scared of my friends and of who I am. I'm not scared anymore. I'm glad we came, but this isn't a chapter of my life I need to relive."

I felt myself filling with pride. I kissed him quickly. "Come on then."

"Victor?" A voice called.

- . - . - . -

Lake's POV

"I can't believe Victor's telling all of his old friends," Lucy muttered. They'd been inside nearly twenty minutes. "Did you hear him with Benji last night?"

I eyed her. I had because I couldn't help myself once he called Felix and then it took me a long time to fall asleep, but I didn't think she'd been listening. "Weren't you asleep?"

"Mostly," she confirmed. "I woke up a few times. Do you think they're taking it okay?"

"Probably not. I don't know how much you heard but… his friends weren't exactly top act. It's a good thing we got him out."

"We?" Lucy chuckled. "His parents moved him."

"The important thing is he got out. It's kind of amazing that he's not more of an asshole. This isn't exactly a liberal donut hole."

"A liberal donut hole?" she asked.

"Yeah. You know. Texas is mostly conservative with little patches, or donut holes, of liberal cities," I explained.

"Right. Of course. Who wouldn't have realized that that's what you meant?" She smiled and looked back at the school. "You don't think they'll beat him up or anything, do you?"

"I think Victor and Benji could take them if they tried," I pointed out. "They're both jacked. Ooh. We should go to a swimming pool while we're in Vegas."

"We don't have swimsuits."

"That means Benji probably doesn't either."

"I think you have already seen more than enough of Benji," Lucy argued.

I frowned. She was probably right. "I guess I should lay off those jokes for a bit, huh?"

"That might be a good idea. Are you still planning to tell them when we get to Las Vegas?"

"I'm gonna tell Mia too." I knew I needed to tell her. I'd been making excuses for it because I didn't want to do it over the phone, and I didn't think I was going to see her until she came back to Atlanta, but now I had a chance to tell her in person. "I have to tell her."

"Wow. That's a big move," she observed. "Are you ready for that?"

"I have to be. Besides, you know what they say. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," I said casually.

"Is that what you want? For this to stay in Vegas?" Lucy asked.

"No. That's not what I meant. I just meant that this is a weekend to take chances and do things without thinking of the consequences. It means it's a weekend to try new things and to be brave."

"I like that," she said softly. She leaned over and kissed my cheek. "I think this is going to be a really good weekend. I still think we're crazy."

"Oh, we're definitely crazy," I confirmed.

Lucy chuckled. "I think I'm okay with being crazy with you. Though, I don't think we're as crazy as Victor and Benji. Look."

Victor and Benji were literally sprinting from the school. Benji was holding a trophy, and they practically jumped into the car. "Drive!" Victor shouted.

A middle-aged man ran out of the building as well.

"Go, go, go!" Benji urged.

Lucy didn't hesitate. I waited until we were out of the parking lot to ask, "what the hell just happened?"

Victor and Benji were breathing heavily.

"We ran into Pilar's ex-boyfriend," Victor explained in between breaths. "He saw me kiss Benji and he went off on us. Told me that I let down my family and disgraced the Steers." At my confused look, he clarified, "that was our mascot."

"Right when you walk in the school, there's this display case where Victor's name was on a trophy because he broke the school record in… something," Benji explained.

"Benji told him if I was a disgrace, then the school didn't deserve me. Then he grabbed the trophy and we ran." Victor looked over at Benji. "I've never seen you like that before."

Benji laughed. "Did you see his face?"

"I can't wait to tell Pilar about this; I'll have to call her once we switch off." Victor snorted. "You threw the basketball at him… I wish I had a video of that. Do you think they'd send me the security footage if I asked?" He couldn't keep himself together while he asked the question.

Benji laughed right with him. "Only if it has audio. I want to hear you tell him that Pilar upgraded again."

"I only told the truth," Victor said. He immediately looked over at me guiltily. "I mean…"

"It's okay. If that guy had a problem with you, then Pilar did upgrade. And Felix is an upgrade no matter how you slice it." I hesitated. "I'm really over him. And I'm happy he's happy." Victor closed his eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I just want to remember this. Remember how we got a little revenge on Erick and that you're okay and that we're being stupid teenagers on the adventure of a lifetime and that I get to do this all with my boyfriend." Victor laughed. "I want a picture of Erick's face to send to Pilar. That might be the greatest thing to ever happen."

"Ouch," Benji said. "Of all the great things we've done together, you're calling that the greatest."

A question about how many of those great things involved nudity was nearly out of my mouth before I clamped my mouth shut. They needed time, I reminded myself.

"For sure," Victor confirmed.

"Okay, weirdo," Benji said affectionately.

"Are you two done flirting?" I asked.

"Never." Victor rested his head on Benji's shoulder. His next question was for Lucy. "When do you want to trade off? You've been driving for a long time." She'd only been driving for four-and-a-half hours, which wasn't even close to how long Victor had driven for last night. Maybe he was asking because Lucy looked exhausted, and Victor looked like he was running on pure adrenaline.

"The next gas station we pass," Lucy answered. She was staring intently at the road and I recognized it as her attempt to stay awake.

I pulled out my phone and looked for gas stations on the way. "There's one less than a minute off on our route in about fifteen miles. It says ten minutes. If that's too far, I can look to see if there's one we can reroute to."

"No, I'll be fine."

I was kind of nervous that she might not be fine because she was doing the thing where she shut her eyes then opened them as wide as she could. "So, I have a project in History on the French Revolution, but I don't know anything about it."

"Which one?" Lucy asked. She noticeably perked up.

"Which one?" I repeated incredulously. "There was more than one?"

"Yeah. I think there are three that are officially recognized, but there were way more than that. They essentially couldn't make up their minds about what they wanted or they had someone, like Napoleon, that decided he was above the law and so he changed the laws to make it impossible to get rid of him."

"I don't know which one it is," I said annoyed. It was one of the things I hated about History. It almost made sense, then suddenly there were three revolutions instead of one.

"1789," Victor said. "You have Ms. Dillinger, right? I have her too. We just started watching that God-awful documentary on Napoleon. Thank God we don't have to finish it."

Maybe he watched it. I couldn't remember a single thing about it, but he was right. We started watching something on Tuesday. "Do you think that's gonna make it tough to do the project?" I asked uncertainly.

"What topic did you get?" Victor asked. "I have to do mine on Marie Antoinette."

"I have…" I frowned as I tried to remember. "The Wives' March, I think."

Lucy chuckled. "The Women's March on Versailles. You'll like it. It happened when the cost of bread skyrocketed. All of these people were like 'why is the bread so expensive. This is supposed to be the poor man's food; here we are, the poor man, and we can't feed our families right now'. They started to march to demand reasonably priced food. Other people were like, 'yeah, this is a problem' and joined them. There were thousands of them marching in the rain. They went to the palace and essentially told the king to fix this problem. A small group came to an agreement with him, but a lot of people didn't want to settle for an 'I'll do something about it'. They wanted to take action, so they broke into the palace. When they were removed from the palace, the king talked to them and was like 'hey now, we came to an agreement'. They essentially said 'screw your agreement. Where's your wife? This is her fault'. They probably would've killed her, but Lafayette saved her because people liked him, so they weren't willing to shoot him."

"If you couldn't tell, Lucy loves History," Benji said. "She's the only reason I'm passing."

"Not the only reason," Lucy protested.

"Turn right in a quarter of a mile. We're almost there," I said. I turned back to Benji. "It's crazy, right? She just knows everything."

"I don't know everything," she muttered.

"Close enough." I watched as she made the right. "Okay, it should be on the left in half a mile."

- . - . - . -

Pilar's POV

I was sitting with Felix when Victor called. I punched Felix's arm and motioned to my phone before I answered it and put him on speakerphone.

"Victor?"

"Hey, Pilar. You will not believe what Benji just did."

"I would say it was a team effort," Benji corrected.

"It was all you. If it was a team effort, I was the assist. You were the goal."

"I think you did the hard part."

"Will you stop and tell me what happened?" I asked. If I let them, they would probably go on like that for hours.

"We ran into Erick."

"Erick… are you in Texas? Did you go back to Graham?" Felix looked away from me. "Did you know?"

Felix didn't have a chance to answer me. "Briefly. We only stopped by to see Matt," Victor explained.

Oh, Matt. My first love. He and Victor had been best friends for forever and I was madly in love with him for years. When I was in the sixth grade, Matt told me he liked me too, but he was upfront with me. He didn't think we'd be together forever and he wasn't willing to jeopardize his friendship with Victor or with me for a fling. It only made me more obsessed with him. Until I started dating Will in the seventh grade, I was totally hung up on Matt. "How is he?" I asked.

"He's good," Victor said. "He was cool with me. I can't say that for all of my old friends, but he didn't have a problem with it. He seemed to like Benji."

"Of course he did." There was a reason I loved Matt; it was because he was undeniably an amazing person.

"I bet he misses you."

"Shut up," I muttered.

"Why… why would Matt miss her?" Felix asked.

"She had the biggest crush on him. I remember she had a whole wedding ceremony for him when she was… what were you? Seven? I think he'd just turned nine. She proposed to him with a ring pop and everything."

"You said you ran into Erick?" I attempted to change the subject, but I didn't think they heard me because Benji was laughing so hard.

"Shh," Victor hissed. "You're going to wake them up. Lucy needs to sleep."

"I can't help it. Tell me you have pictures of this proposal," Benji begged.

"Our mom does. Pilar dressed up and everything. If my mom ever forgives you for kidnapping me, maybe she'll show you them."

That stopped Benji's laughter right away. "I'd hardly call this kidnapping. This whole trip was your idea."

"I'm going to burn all of those pictures before you get home, so it won't matter," I interjected. "Victor already dug out those ballet pictures. No way are you seeing anything else."

"You did ballet?" Felix asked incredulously.

"I'll have Benji send you the pictures," Victor offered. "I have them on my phone."

"Is nothing sacred?" I muttered. "So, how is Matt? How's everyone in Texas?"

"Who exactly is this Matt guy?" Felix asked.

"He was one of my friends back in Texas," Victor explained.

"Is he cute?"

"Very," Benji said. He didn't sound happy.

"Is anyone not jealous of Matt right now?" I asked.

"I'm not feeling particularly jealous," Victor pointed out. "Benji thinks he looks like a model."

"He's kind of right," I said.

"You're not helping."

"You brought up my fake wedding in front of my boyfriend. We're not even close to being even."

"You're the one that put me on speakerphone."

"Yeah because I didn't think this was going to turn into a game of How-Do-We-Humiliate-Pilar," I argued.

"That seems like a you-problem and not a me-problem," Victor tossed back.

"Sometimes I wish I had siblings, but then y'all start arguing over the weirdest things," Benji said.

"We're a delight," Victor and I said in unison. It had been instinct; the same thing we'd said hundreds of times back in Texas when people called us out on our sibling rivalry.

I chuckled and could hear Victor's laughter as well. We used to be so in sync; we'd lost that a while when we first moved, but it had slowly been coming back since he came out. Moments like this made me feel like we were back to normal.

"So what happened with Erick?" I asked.

"He saw me kissing Benji and made a huge deal about it, so Benji threw a basketball at him. It hit him right in the face," Victor explained. "I wish you could have seen him, P. It was hilarious. Do you remember Halloween when Erick walked into that giant spider web because he thought it was fake?"

"You mean the one you told him was fake?" I questioned.

There was a long silence. "Okay, he deserved it. So you do remember it."

"Of course." I'd pretended to be upset about it at the time because I knew that's what Erick wanted from me, but it had been kind of funny.

"This was funnier," he assured me. "I know it wasn't much to avenge your honor, but it was something."

"Avenge my honor?" I scoffed. "I don't need anyone to avenge my honor. I'm glad you avenged your own honor though. If he has a problem with you, it's better that he's out of all of our lives."

"Victor told him you upgraded."

"Aww, Victor," Felix said. "Thanks."

"It's true, man," Victor pointed out. He probably would have said more, but there were a lot of people listening in, and it was weird enough when it was the three of us. I hadn't believed Felix that Victor had become his hype man, but it was kind of true.

I think when things were really bad for Felix and Victor felt completely blindsided by it, he realized how special their relationship was, and he made a point of being a better friend and being there for Felix as much as Felix was always there for him.

"Can you tell us where you're going now?" I asked.

"Not yet. We'll tell you all about it when we get back." There was a slight pause. "What the fuck?" Victor or someone else pressed down on the car horn for about ten seconds. "Asshole. There's not even someone behind me."

"What just happened?"

"No one knows how to drive," he grumbled.

"Someone just cut us off," Benji explained. "But we're good. We're all good. We didn't hit them."

"Have you been driving this whole time?" It took us almost fourteen hours to drive to Atlanta when we'd moved. If they'd left right after I saw them yesterday… then they'd definitely been driving all night."

"We've been on the road. Me and Lucy have been switching off."

"Wait. Lucy?" Felix started playing with his hands, and I glared at him.

"Um. Yeah. We're going to see Mia, so Lake came with us, and we roped Lucy into it."

"I didn't know that's what you're doing. Why didn't you tell us? Or I guess why didn't you tell me because Felix looks like he already knew." I sounded bitter, but I couldn't help it. I'd been speculating about where Victor was before he'd called.

"Because anyone that's been on Mia's Instagram knows where she is, and I don't want mom and dad knowing," he answered.

"I won't tell them," I promised.

When we hung up, I turned to Felix. He put his hands up defensively. "Before you get mad, Victor specifically asked me not to tell you."

"I wouldn't have said anything," I protested.

"I know that. And I told him that, but he didn't want to take the chance."

"Whatever," I said grumpily.

"Tell you what. Why don't we go out tonight? I'll make it up to you," Felix suggested.

"I can't. I have to watch Adrian. My mom and dad are going out to talk about what happened. They have some meeting with the school tomorrow, and they don't want Adrian to know."

"Friday then," Felix pressed. "We can go on a picnic. We can go watch the sunset and look at the stars. Though it won't be as beautiful as you."

I found myself smiling despite myself. "Fine. But you're not off the hook yet."

- . - . - . -

Mia's POV

Around 9, Andrew and I went downstairs to book rooms for Victor, Benji, Lucy, and Lake. We knew they were still four hours away because Victor had texted me to let me know they'd just grabbed dinner and were about to do their last swap. He would be driving until they got to our hotel. We figured the least we could do after they'd been driving for thirty hours was pay for their rooms.

I was excited and jittery. I'd met so many people on my trip, but I missed my friends like crazy. When Victor told me that Lake was tagging along, I'd nearly cried. I couldn't believe her mom was letting her go because her mom worried more about Lake than Lake did, and it wasn't exactly the safest thing for Lake to travel across the country. Lake must have been doing some serious angsty brooding to get her mom to agree to let her come see me.

Unless she only knew that she was coming to see me and didn't know how far away I was. I hadn't talked to Lake yet. I kind of wanted to see her and let that be the next time we talked.

Victor had sent me some pictures of the four of them at some gas station in Texas that had a giant statue of a longhorn. They'd taken a clean picture and a hilarious picture and I honestly wasn't sure which one I loved more. I couldn't wait for them to get here.

Andrew had strategically planned for us to have a late dinner (I think in the hopes that I would have less time to pace around our hotel room while I waited for Benji to text me that they were ten minutes away). It didn't change that we were back in our hotel room with nearly three hours to kill before they'd be here.

Nothing Andrew did distracted me. I was so excited. I didn't think I'd ever been this excited for something in my life. They must have been just as excited because Victor shaved thirty minutes off his ETA and I got the text from Benji before 12:30 am. It was a picture of the four of them. Victor was the only one not facing the camera, but he was giving the picture a thumbs up. Everyone else was cheesing hard.

I ran down the stairs because I didn't have the patience to wait for the elevator. Our hotel rooms were on the ninth floor and all of the elevators were on the first floor. Who had time to deal with that?

I thought pacing in front of the entrance to the hotel was better than pacing in our hotel room if only because I knew it meant they were almost here.

I glanced at my watch approximately every ten seconds. Time did not move faster no matter how much I willed it to.

Finally. "Mia!"

Victor got to me first. He practically ran to me, and I melted in his embrace. I was crying before he let me go so he could hug Andrew. Benji got to me next. Then Lucy.

"Where's Lake?" I asked.

"I'm here." The voice came from behind me. I spun around and a sob ripped through my chest.

"Lake," I whispered.

For a few seconds, we just stood there. I felt like I was drinking her in again. Part of me had been with her in Atlanta this entire trip, and I forgot what it felt like to not be missing that piece.

Lake's composure broke and she threw her arms around me. "I've missed you so much."

I didn't know how much time had passed before we pulled back from our hug. We had to make up for four months of not hugging. I hastily wiped my eyes. "How are you?"

"I'm good now. Really good," she told me. "I can't believe this. You look so good."

"So do you. You look… happy."

"I am," she confirmed. "I'm really, really happy right now." She wiped her eyes. "It is so good to see you again. Tell me everything. Any luck with your mom? Are you seeing the world? Is Andrew being good to you? You guys are being safe, right? I'm too young to be an aunt."

I couldn't help my laughter. "We're being safe," I assured her. I remembered that we weren't alone when I glanced behind me to look at Andrew; the rest of our group had moved away to give us our space. "We've only been here a day, so we haven't looked for her yet. Andrew's been better than good, Lake. He's been my rock. I think I would have gone crazy if it wasn't for him. We'll talk tomorrow because I have so much to tell you. You must be exhausted." I knew she had stuff to tell me too. Or, I at least hoped she had stuff.

We rejoined them in time to realize that Benji and Lucy looked like they wanted to be anywhere but where they were while Andrew and Victor were talking basketball. Lucy yawned big.

"Are we boring you?" Andrew teased.

"I'm too tired to pretend to be interested in this," Lucy complained.

"Well, lucky for you, we only came down here to give you these." I held out the hotel key cards.

"We were going to book our hotel rooms," Victor protested. "You didn't need to."

"You just drove through three different time zones and spent thirty hours in a car to come see me. It was the least I could do." Victor opened his mouth to say something but I held up my hand. "We both know I'm going to win this argument. You can fight with me over breakfast but for tonight, enjoy a complimentary hotel room."

In the end, Benji accepted the key card. "Thank you for your generosity." When Victor glared at him, he defensively said, "she's right. You can argue about this over breakfast. Now move or you can sleep out here."

Victor grumbled but followed Benji inside. "What's the plan for breakfast?" I asked when we piled into the elevator.

"Can we figure that out when we wake up? None of us have slept more than three or four hours since we woke up on Wednesday," Victor said.

"We'll make my room home-base. As you wake up, you can come on over. I'm in 922," I told them.

"Our room," Andrew corrected. "But yes. Mia always wakes up early, so whenever you're up, come on over."

- . - . - . -

Benji's POV

Victor glanced at his watch. "Benji needs at least eight hours of sleep if we want him to be remotely functional tomorrow, so why don't we aim for brunch? The latest we'll meet up is… how does eleven sound?"

"How did eight hours turn into over ten?" Lake asked.

Victor, wisely, ignored her question. "I'll set my alarm," Lucy said sleepily. It was hard to figure out who was more tired between the two of them. They honestly looked like they could've fallen asleep in the elevator.

When the doors opened, Victor looked at the signs with the room numbers and a confused look spread across his face as he tried to figure out where he was going.

"We're 906," I told him. "This way." Mia and Andrew's room was on the opposite end of the hallway to ours, so we said our goodnights before we parted.

"Now they give us two beds," Victor muttered as we walked into our room.

I snorted. "It's okay. It just means we'll have to squeeze in," I teased. I pinched his butt.

"I think I can live with that," he said. He dropped his bag off and yawned big. "You texted my mom when we swapped off, right?"

"Yeah. She sent you a thumbs up. She's getting used to those emojis."

He smiled and let out a sleepy chuckle. He wavered on his feet. "I need to shower but I feel like I'm made of cement."

I rifled through his bag and pulled out two pairs of pajama pants. I threw one to him, but his reflexes were so slow, he didn't catch them. "Do you want to wait until the morning?"

"No." He fished up his pajama pants. "I am about to take the world's shortest shower."

"I'll time you for the record books."

"Maybe the second shortest shower."

"If you're not out in five minutes, I'm going to assume you fell asleep," I warned him.

"That sounds fair." It was less than five minutes before he was back out in our room. He was curled up and fast asleep by the time I got out of the shower. He didn't even stir when I climbed into bed with him.

I knew when Victor woke up because his hand must've ended up under my pillow last night and his attempt to move it without jostling my pillow failed. "What time is it?" I asked groggily.

"9:30," he answered. "I'm sorry I woke you." He squeezed my hand. "You still got time if you want to go back to sleep."

"I'm okay. I'm awake now." I leaned over and kissed him.

He pulled back and wrinkled his nose. "Don't take this the wrong way…"

"But my breath smells as bad as yours does?" I guessed. An entire day in the car without brushing our teeth really wasn't working for us. We probably should have brushed when we got here, but I didn't have room to think about anything but getting to sleep.

He chuckled. "Yeah." He flopped back and groaned. "I don't want to get out of bed, but I really want to kiss you."

"Sounds like a dilemma." I pretended to stretch and moved a little closer to him, pushing him closer to the edge of the bed. I moved a little bit more. I kept moving until he was practically clinging to the comforter to keep from falling off the side of the bed.

"That's not fair," he complained.

"Brush your teeth and we can do something about that."

"You have to brush yours too," he muttered as he stood up. He threw a pillow at me. I had to stifle my laughter. His hair stuck up at odd angles and he looked so sleepy and adorable.

"And you say I'm not a morning person," I teased. It was kind of a nice role reversal because Victor was usually so put together in the mornings. I guess eight hours of sleep wasn't enough to make up for over a day of barely sleeping and the stress of finding out that someone had recorded us.

He dug through my bag until he pulled out two toothbrushes and a tube of toothpaste.

I got up as well and followed him into the bathroom. Victor looked significantly more awake after he brushed his teeth.

He was sitting on our bed when I got out of the bathroom. I sat down next to him and got a proper kiss. Victor fell back against the bed, and I laid by his side.

"Do you think Lake and Lucy are up?" I asked.

"Probably. Honestly, I'm impressed Lake didn't just sleep in Mia's room. You know how much she's missed her," Victor pointed out. "But I'm cool with pretending we slept another twenty minutes before we go over."

"Mmm. We are very sleepy."

He shifted a little and kissed me. He ran his hand through my hair. "Would you be okay with waiting?" He asked quietly. "I'm sorry. I just… I'm still not ready to talk about this, but I don't want to be thinking about that video when I'm with you. When I'm with you… I want to be only with you and not with all the people that have seen us have sex."

"We don't have to do anything. I know this is a lot for you, and we can take as much time as you need." I leaned over and kissed him. "I know you're not ready to talk about it, but how are you feeling?"

Victor frowned. "I don't understand why this keeps happening," he said quietly. He looked at the space on the bed between us. "I know we were careless, but does that mean we deserve this?"

"No," I said strongly. He looked startled by the volume of my voice. "Why would you think it was?"

"Because we didn't get the message the first two-and-a-half times someone walked in on us," he said bitterly.

"You need to stop counting that half. She didn't know there was anything she was walking in on."

"But we knew," Victor pointed out. "I mean, maybe we should have learned from those and not put ourselves in a position-"

I shifted a little. "Stop." He cut himself off and looked at me. I saw the slightest hint of desperation. "This is the last thing I'm going to say and then I'm putting a ban on talking about this for the rest of the day… what kind of reverse psychology did you just work?" Victor chuckled. "Your mom walking in on us, Lucy almost walking in on us, my mom walking in on us? We get to blame ourselves for that. We even get to blame ourselves for having sex in a locker room, but we absolutely do not get to put blame anywhere near us for someone recording us. That's not on us."

I expected him to argue that there would be nothing to record if there was nothing to walk in on, but maybe he needed to believe it wasn't our fault as much as I did. He nodded.

I kissed him gently before he shifted so I could wrap my arms around him. I rested my head on his chest. We laid there until Lake knocked on our door to find out where we were.

- . - . - . -

Adrian's POV

I knocked on Pilar's door. I knew she was getting ready for school, but I needed to talk to her, so I figured I'd give it a shot. She looked confused to see me. "What's up?"

"There's this kid in my class, Mallory. She says her older brother goes to high school with you and Victor."

Pilar studied me warily. "Okay."

"She says Victor is a pervert."

"Do little kids even know what that means?" she asked skeptically.

"I'm not a baby," I told her. I wanted to be more annoyed, but I really didn't know. Mallory had told me, but she wasn't exactly known for her honesty, so I didn't know if what she'd said was true. "She said he's had sex. Is that what that means?"

"No, of course not," she said defensively. "Do you even know what sex is?"

"Yeah, of course. I know where babies come from and everything." Admittedly, I was a little fuzzy on how Victor and Benji could have sex because what our dad had told me didn't really work for him and Benji, but I wasn't going to tell Pilar that because I thought I was more likely to get answers if she thought I already knew. "So, he hasn't done it?" I confirmed.

Pilar looked down at her bed. I realized that she might have been in the process of making it because half of it looked like it had been straightened out. I tucked in the far corner to help her. "Why aren't you asking mom and dad about this?" she asked.

"Because they wouldn't tell me the truth," I told her. "Mallory talks about sex all the time because her brother's gonna be a dad. She told me that I'm a baby for not knowing more about it."

"Is her last name Migliaccio?" she asked.

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

She bit her lip. "I heard about it at school. Her brother's Jason Migliaccio, right? He's only a freshman."

"Yeah. Please. Can you tell me the truth? What happened with Victor?"

"I'm really sorry, but no. That has to be mom and dad. If you were older, and they weren't talking to you about this stuff, that would be one thing. But you're not even nine yet. I can't be the one to tell you about this."

"I'm going to be nine in a month," I pointed out.

"And that's still too young."

"If you don't tell me, I'm just going to keep believing what my classmates tell me."

"No, you're not. You're too smart for that."

I groaned. "Can you at least answer one question?"

"One question."

"And you'll answer me honestly?"

She studied me for a minute. "If I can," she said slowly. "I won't lie to you, but I can't promise I'll be able to give you an answer."

I took a second to figure out what I wanted to ask her because so much had popped up during school. "Where is Victor?" When I'd asked our mom where he was when she was walking me home from school yesterday, she'd gotten super defensive and had started talking about how we should go see a movie this weekend. "Did he run away from us?"

"No. He would never run away from you; the rest of us, maybe, but not you," she promised. She sat down on her bed and patted the space next to her. "Victor went away with Benji for a few days. He'll be back next week."

"Why did he go away?"

She hesitated. "Do you remember Mia?"

"Yes."

"He went to see her."

"Is he getting back together with her?" I asked uncertainly.

"Of course not. Victor's gay. You know that."

"But he liked her before," I pointed out. "People can like both."

Pilar smiled for a second. "They can, but Victor doesn't. He loves Benji. He liked Mia in a different way before he started dating Benji. They're friends, that's it. That's why he's going to see her. He hasn't seen her in a long time," Pilar explained.

"Mom and dad were okay with him going to see her?" I asked skeptically.

Pilar instantly stiffened. "That's more than one question. Come on. I need to go to school and you need to eat breakfast so mom can drop you off."

"One more," I pleaded.

She eyed me. "Go ahead."

"Will Victor and Benji stay together?"

Her face softened. "No one knows what might happen, but I think so."

"I hope so," I told her.

She smiled. "You really like Benji, huh?"

I nodded. "Yeah. And I like how happy Victor is when they're together."

"Me too. He's good for Victor. Now, move it or you're going to have to listen to mom talk about how she gave you the gift of life and you couldn't even give her the gift of being on time."

She poked me and I chuckled. She was right; our mom played that card all the time. I climbed off Pilar's bed. I was about to leave her bedroom, but I turned back and hugged her. "Thank you."

- . - . - . -

Armando's POV

It was kind of surreal to be an adult in the principal's office; I was forty and it still made me feel like I was doing something wrong. We'd arrived right after we dropped Adrian off at school. He definitely knew something was up, but he didn't ask. He probably knew we weren't going to tell him, or maybe he was just distracted because his little friend had been out of school most of the week and all we'd heard about was how bored he was without Jeffrey.

When we'd gotten to the school, we found out that the principal wasn't going to be in until after 1 pm. The vice-principal had offered to meet with us herself, but we'd elected to come back. We'd arrived promptly at 1 pm and had been waiting a long time to be called into the meeting. Every few minutes, Isa let out an impatient sigh. It was almost an hour after we got there that we were guided to Ms. Knight's office. The vice-principal greeted us warmly and told us that she 'thought the world' of Victor. Isa didn't let the stony expression on her face drop as they apologized for the incident and told us about the resources that they could offer to Victor from counseling to legal routes he could pursue.

Just like Isa had said, they only talked about his legal rights with Benji. I realized very quickly that Isa had not been exaggerating when she said she got into mama bear mode. I sat back in my chair and let her take the wheel because I'd never seen anything like it.

"That is not good enough," Isa said, interrupting Ms. Knight's spiel about how there was only so much they could do for a video that was posted anonymously. "This happened on school property and was made by one of your students. You have a responsibility to keep him safe. Yes, my son made a mistake. Yes, he and his boyfriend shouldn't have had sex in the locker room. But does that make it okay that someone recorded him? To me, that's much worse and, for some reason, we're not talking about that."

"Of course it's not okay," Ms. Knight said slowly. "No one here is condoning what happened. It was unfortunate-"

"Unfortunate," Isa scoffed. "Unfortunate is when someone accidentally bumps into someone in the hallway and makes them drop their books. Unfortunate is when you change the lunch menu last minute and I have to listen to my kids complain that they didn't get pizza on the one day they didn't bring a bagged lunch to school. Unfortunate is someone leaving their homework home. This wasn't unfortunate. This was a crime."

"Victor committed a crime too," Ms. Knight pointed out. "And we have been very lenient with him. We elected not to press charges."

"Lenient." Isa got that look in her eye like she'd personally been scorned by what Ms. Knight had said. "You suspended him."

"Because he violated our sexual misconduct policy."

Isa noticeably took a deep breath. "And what policies do you have in place to hold the person that recorded him accountable?"

"We've already told you that we don't know wh-"

"You keep saying that, but I know that if I spent ten seconds in this hallway, I'd be able to figure it out. I want to know how you're finding him and what you're going to do. What are you doing about the fact that one of your students felt it was okay to record my son having sex? What are you going to do about the fact that this is the kind of bullshit that Victor has to put up with in your school because he's gay? Or is it because he's gay that you're not taking this seriously?" I stared at Isa because I didn't think I'd ever heard her swear before. At least, not like that. She was more of a 'damn' and 'hell' swearer and even that was only when she was really upset.

"Mrs. Salazar, I understand that you are upset, but we do not discriminate against our students, and I have to ask you not to cuss."

"Then tell me what you're doing about this." Isa crossed her arms and sat back in her seat.

Ms. Knight and Ms. Albright exchanged glances. "We cannot give you any information about who we're talking to because our minors have a right to privacy."

Isa let out what I could only describe as a deranged laugh. "Then why didn't my son have privacy? Why has the whole school seen what he's done with Benji?"

"Because your son chose to have sex in a public space in this building," Ms. Knight snapped. It was the first time her composure cracked, and I could see Isa rising to the bait.

Ms. Albright immediately stepped in. "Mrs. Salazar, Victor didn't deserve what happened. No one thinks he does. He made a mistake, and it was clear from our conversation on Wednesday that he was really embarrassed about it and, as I told him, we had a legal responsibility to enforce some type of disciplinary consequences. I wish we didn't have to. You are welcome to schedule a meeting with our superintendent. She made the final decision with this, and I'm sure she'd be willing to talk with you to see what we can all do for Victor."

"And the kid that did this?" Isa pressed.

"Unfortunately, just because Victor's privacy was violated, doesn't mean we can violate the privacy of one of his teammates." Isa sat up a little straighter and stared at Ms. Albright intently. "Our students all deserve a safe environment, and I'm sorry that was violated for Victor after his game on Tuesday. I can tell you that we have a panel of teachers that are helping out with this investigation. We can sign you in as a visitor if you'd like to talk to any of them."

"Which teachers?" Isa's whole demeanor changed.

"We have Mrs. Francheski, one of our math teachers. Mr. Ford, the basketball coach. Myself and Ms. Knight. Our superintendent, Mrs. Sanders. Mr. Ford… no, I already said him. Mr. Fredrickson. I believe you heard from him yesterday."

Isa stood up. "Thank you. We would appreciate that visitor's pass."

"Of course. Right this way. We can schedule your meeting with Mrs. Sanders while we're at it. School will be out in just a few minutes so, hopefully, you can catch them before they leave for the weekend. The only one you won't miss is Coach Ford. The team has practice."

Isa and I followed her to the front of the office. The secretary scheduled us for a meeting on Monday while Ms. Albright filled out our passes for us. "How do we get to the gym from here?" Isa asked. Ms. Albright produced a map of the school and traced our path. I was surprised when Isa took her hands. "Thank you," she said seriously.

Ms. Albright hesitated before she whispered, "good luck."

"What was that about?" I asked once we were in the hallway.

"Weren't you listening?" Isa asked. "They're investigating Victor's team. I'm pretty sure telling me that was illegal, but I love that woman for it."

I hated to admit it but that made a lot of sense. We probably should have figured out that it was someone on his team; it was hard to think about who did it when we were still struggling to deal with the fact that it had happened. "So, what are we doing?"

"We're going to talk to his team." I recognized the look in her eyes. Nothing good ever came from that look.

"Isa, they're kids."

"Yeah. And one of them recorded Victor. I'm sorry if I fail to feel bad for them."

"Maybe rein it in a bit. You don't want to give them nightmares."

"They're lucky that's all they're getting," she said angrily. "If they weren't children…" She trailed off, but she didn't need to finish.

We arrived at the gym then and walked in to see Coach Ford standing in the middle of the gym. Two kids were stretching on the floor and a third left the locker room after we arrived. "Coach Ford," I said when we walked over. "Ms. Albright told us we could stop by."

"Mr. and Mrs. Salazar. It's so nice to see you again." I could see how uncomfortable he was.

"I'd like to have a quick chat with Victor's teammates once they're all out here if that's okay with you," Isa said.

In any other situation, it would have been amusing to see that coach cowering under Isa's glare… who was I kidding? It was hilarious; I had to bite my cheek to hide my smile.

Coach Ford turned red and stammered, "of… of course."

Within five minutes, the whole team was sitting in the bleachers. Isa looked at each of them before she started to speak. "My name is Isabel Salazar. Many of you know my son, Victor." His teammates exchanged looks and a few of them chuckled. One, in particular, went pale and looked terrified. I knew Isa spotted him as well because she moved so she was standing directly in front of him. "What happened may seem like a joke to you, but it's not a joke to me. So, here's what's going to happen. We know it was one of you, so you either all go down or whoever took that video comes forward. Do you know what the charge is for recording a minor without their consent? It's a felony. That means you get a fine and prison time. Oh, are we done laughing?"

Isa scanned the bleachers. "Now, whoever took the video might be thinking, hey, I'm a minor myself. Hate to break it to you hotshot, it's still a felony. So, maybe you spend some time in juvie before you go to prison." She took a step closer to the kid who now looked like he was close to tears.

She glanced back at me. I had no idea what she was doing, so I'd mostly been standing here with my arms crossed trying to look intimidating. If her look of approval was anything to go off of, I was succeeding. "So, here's our offer. Come forward now. Face the consequences with the school, apologize to my son, and my husband and I won't pursue legal action." She looked right at the kid. "That's your choice. Do the right thing, or we will find out who you are. We're going to stand out in the hallway for ten minutes. Then our offer is off the table."

"Did you get a law degree I didn't know about?" I asked her as we walked out of the gym.

"You can find anything on Google. Pilar helped me yesterday. I wanted to know our options."

"Ten minutes, huh?"

"We won't need it. He cracked."

Sure enough, less than a minute later, the terrified kid ran out into the hallway. "Mrs. Salazar! Mrs. Salazar, I am so sorry. I never wanted any of this to happen. I recorded Victor, but I swear, I didn't mean for this to happen."

"What's your name?"

"Joel. Joel Summers."

"Joel. Victor's talked about you," I said surprised. That somehow made this feel worse. It would be one thing if he'd been one of the kids that had been giving Victor a hard time; it would still be bad but expected. Joel though? It felt like a bigger betrayal. "He said you were always nice to him when a lot of kids on the team weren't. Why would you do this?"

Joel looked at the ground. A tear slipped down his cheek. "I forgot my school bag, and I ran back into the locker room to grab it. They didn't hear me, but I could hear them, and I went to see what was happening, and… I didn't mean for anyone to see it. I'd never seen two guys like that before… and… and…" He let out a shuddery breath. "I'm so sorry."

"You never meant for anyone to see it? Then how did it end up on the school blog?" I asked.

"My brother saw it. I was watching it when he walked into my bedroom Wednesday morning." The kid turned a vibrant red. I didn't know it was possible for someone to blush that deeply. "He took my phone and showed it to his girlfriend. She thought it was hilarious and told me I should show it to everyone. I was really scared that they'd realize… I didn't think what Victor was doing was funny. When they said I should post it, and they asked me why I took it if I wasn't planning on sharing it, I felt like I didn't have a choice. I couldn't tell them the truth. I couldn't tell them that I'm-" he let out a shaky breath. "That I'm bisexual. They won't be able to handle it."

Isa exhaled. "Are we the first people you told?" Joel nodded. "Thank you. For your honesty." She looked up, and I could see how hard she was trying not to cry. "One of the things I've always respected about Victor is that he always does the right thing. When he came out to me, I didn't make it easy on him."

"I know." Joel hung his head. "I overheard Victor talking about it one day."

She nodded. "Yeah. Whatever he said was probably true."

Joel frowned. "I figured. Andrew always asked him about it before every game. He told Victor to play for you. He told him to give you a reason to come back to his games."

Isa winced. She'd been to every home game this season but that didn't make up for everything she missed in the fall. I hadn't realized Victor felt that way. With my work schedule, I'd only been able to go to one game in the fall - most of the games in the fall season had been right after school. "He never said anything to us."

"Oh, I know. He always said he couldn't make things worse. I never understood, not really. He tried to explain it to Andrew once. He said something like the only thing worse than you not coming to his games would be you not coming if he asked you to go." Joel suddenly shot me a panicked look. "I can't tell you why he didn't say anything to you, sir. I honestly thought you were divorced or something because I could've sworn he said he was stopping by your place after one of our practices last season."

"Has he said anything recently?"

Joel shook his head. "When Andrew left… he started to keep to himself. The only thing he'll talk about now is basketball and, even then, he doesn't say much."

Isa glanced at me, and I was pretty sure my shock mirrored hers. When he played basketball, he was usually his most outgoing self. I'd prided myself on being there for him but that was a pretty big thing to miss. I tried to think back to his last game and whether he seemed happy. Guilt filled me when I realized I wasn't sure. Had I missed that he was struggling?

Now was not the time to say anything. Isa and I would need to have a long talk soon, but we weren't going to do that in front of this kid.

"He didn't deserve what you did to him," I finally said. "It took him a long time to come out to us and, even after he did, he struggled."

Joel nodded and hung his head.

Isa's voice was gentle when she spoke. "I've seen how Victor carries his mistakes from before he came out," she said softly. "They are things he has to live with for the rest of his life." She took her deep breath. "It's going to be harder for you. Because knowing that you hurt a kid as good as Victor? That doesn't get easier. I will feel guilty for the rest of my life that I let down such an amazing and selfless kid, and I know that there's no way I can possibly make it up to him, but God help me, I will try." I looked at her surprised. I didn't know she felt that way; I'd been operating under the assumption that since Victor had forgiven her, she'd forgiven herself. I felt some of the anger I'd been holding onto disappear. "That's what you're going to carry for the rest of your life as well. I appreciate that you told us and I'm sure it wasn't easy, but it doesn't change this. You recorded him. You shared that video with the entire school. There's nothing you can say to take that back. You can only do the right thing now." Isa put her hand on his shoulder. "For what it's worth, I believe that you didn't mean for this to hurt Victor as much as it did. I even believe that you are a good kid. No one should feel like they have to do the wrong thing to hide who they are, and I'm sorry that you did."

Joel wiped his eyes and chewed on his lips. He nodded. "I wish I was braver."

"It's never too late. Whenever you're ready, I know Victor will forgive you, and he'll listen if you need someone to talk to. Because that's the kind of kid he is. For now, I think we need to go see Ms. Albright."

"Yeah." He wiped his eyes on his sleeve, but it was useless; he was crying pretty hard now. "What's going to happen to me?"

"I don't know," I answered. "That's not up to us." Joel looked terrified when I addressed him. I didn't know what I looked like, but I imagined it was a mix of furious and disgusted with a tiny bit of pity thrown in there. I was practically shaking. Here was the kid that had done this. I started to turn away before I turned back to him. "You can't make this up to Victor, but Isabel's right. He deserves an apology from you."

Joel nodded. "I will. I'll apologize." He wiped his eyes again and a steely look crossed his face. "During our first game this season, Karl, our power forward ripped into me because I missed the shot that could've won us the game. Victor stood up for me. He told Karl that we didn't put down our teammates. Then he told me that you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, and at least I tried."

Isa smiled for the first time since we got the news about Victor. "That's one of his favorite quotes. He used to have it on his wall in his bedroom back in Texas."

"That's who I should've been for him. I should have been as good of a teammate as he was for me, and I'm so sorry that I wasn't, but I will do whatever I can to make this up to him."

We walked Joel to the office where Ms. Albright was essentially waiting for us. The moment Joel told her what he'd done, she asked us to leave.

We sat in the car in the parking lot for a long time. "Do you think he's okay?" I asked quietly. "That video aside, do you think he's okay? Have we been missing something?"

"I don't know." She had a weird look on her face. "I think… I think I'd like to go with you to your meeting on Tuesday. Get some advice on how to talk to Victor about what happened." I stared at her. I couldn't have spoken words if I tried, and I wasn't together enough to try right now. "What? You've been asking me for months to go with you."

"And you always said no," I told her. She'd been adamant against going.

"Yeah, well. I guess I heard myself in there." When she saw my confused look, she explained, "I have to live with what I did for the rest of my life, but Victor shouldn't have to live with that and until I stop hiding behind this excuse of 'I'm better now', he has to live with it. He doesn't deserve better; he deserves the best, and I'm going to be that for him. I tried to do it on my own but I think… I think I need more help than I can give myself."

I took her hand in mine. I didn't care that this was ten months late. I was thrilled she was taking the step to get there. "I'm really glad to hear that, Isa."

- . - . - . -

Rahim's POV

I wasn't panicking. Not at all. I definitely was not thinking about the fact that any minute, TJ was going to knock on my door to take me out to an unknown destination where we'd spend an undetermined amount of time interacting face-to-face. I wasn't thinking about all the boys that didn't think I was masculine enough to date. I wasn't thinking about how this was going to be my first official date. I wasn't thinking about the very real possibility that I might get a kiss from someone that actually wanted to kiss me.

No, I was doing a very good job not thinking about those things.

That was a lie. I was doing a miserable job. I called Ryker. "Oh my God. If you call me one more time, I am going to block you," they warned.

"I'm sorry. I'm just freaking out. What if this date sucks?"

"Of course it's going to suck; all first dates suck!" Ryker pointed out.

"You're not helping."

"Sorry. I'm sure TJ will be the exception to the first-dates-suck rule and you'll have a magical and life-changing night."

"Thanks. Was that optimism too much to ask for?"

"Yes! Trust me. First dates should be bad. Not disastrously bad but if you have a perfect first date, you know it's not going to last."

"Why do you say that?"

"The first time you're out with someone? If it's perfect, they're hiding something. I'm telling you. Ask anyone in a serious, nontoxic relationship. All of them had bad first dates. It's like a rite of passage. You have a bad first date and if you still want a second, it means something. You want to find someone that's worth a bad date."

"That… almost makes sense," I said reluctantly. And it did. Maybe not the bad first dates thing but finding someone that's worth a bad date. It wasn't terrible advice.

"I'm hanging up now. Have fun. Breathe. Don't overthink. Maybe wait until the second date to spontaneously break out into song," they suggested.

"I do not spontaneously break out into song," I protested.

"You were singing Defying Gravity during lunch today."

"That's because that song is amazing. Adele Dazeem is an icon." I needed more friends that watched the Oscars because that shit was hilarious. I was eight when it happened, but it would forever live on in infamy inside my head. I could practically hear how they'd raise their eyebrows at me. There was a knock on my door before I could make my case. "He's here."

"Have fun!"

I put my phone in my pocket and walked towards the door. I could feel my heart hammering in my chest. I tried to remember Ryker's advice and took a deep breath as I pulled the door open.

"TJ, hi. Wow. You look really nice."

"You do too," he said. "I'm impressed." We stood like that for a minute. "Self-disclaimer, I'm nervous. I wasn't sure if I was going to be meeting your parents, so I do have flowers in my car."

"You got my mom flowers?" This kid. I couldn't. I actually couldn't. "Do you want to meet them?"

"I got your parents flowers," he corrected. "And I don't have to. I just wasn't sure what the protocol was."

"You're the one that's been on a first date before."

"Yeah, but my ex lives next door. I've known his parents as long as I've known him."

"Mmm. Fair enough. If you want to meet them, come on in. They know about you."

He grinned. "Just give me a second to grab the flowers."

I watched as he ran to his car. He was back a minute later. "One small thing. They think we're walking wherever we're going so if you could refrain from telling them you're driving me, that would be great."

"Why do they think we're walking?" he asked.

"Because there's no way they would let me in the car with someone that's only had their license for four months."

He grinned. "I think it's bad luck to lie to your parents but, lucky for you, I've been waiting a very long time for this date. A few days earlier, and my self-control would have been way stronger."

I stepped aside so he could come inside. "Glad I waited then." I walked into the living room where my parents were reading. That was their idea of a wild and crazy night. "Mom? Dad? This is TJ."

"It is so nice to meet you both," TJ said. "These are for you."

"These are beautiful. We've heard a lot about you," my mom said as she accepted the flowers. "Rahim spoke highly of you."

My dad shook his hand. "Yes. It's nice to meet such an upstanding gentleman."

"I told them a totally normal amount, to clarify," I said under my breath to TJ. I'd literally told them the bare minimum yesterday when I told them I had a date tonight. I hadn't been sure how they'd take a date, but they hadn't been weird about it. I guessed they were saving their weird for right now.

"Rahim tells us you're quite smart," my dad added. "You go to Galileo."

"Yes, sir."

"Very impressive," my mom says.

"That's a good school. Big Ivy turnout," my dad adds.

I internally groan. "I think that's enough here. We won't be out too late," I said. If my dad got into a conversation about the Ivy Leagues, we were never going to leave.

I dragged TJ out of my house. "I'm quite smart, am I?" he asked, his voice smug.

"Like you didn't already know that. Do I get to find out where we're going now?"

"Nope," he answered. The lights on his car flashed as he unlocked it. I climbed into the passenger seat. It was my first time in his car, and it smelt like vanilla. The back seat was littered with library books and binders and empty water bottles. If I'd given any thought to what the inside of his car would look like, this probably would've been it.

Ice skating. That was his plan. He had been ice skating since he could walk, so he was a natural on the ice. He'd also been playing ice hockey almost his whole life. Yeah, I was on a date with a hockey player.

He skated circles around me while I struggled not to fall down. Once I got my 'ice legs' (I was pretty sure no one except for TJ actually called it that), TJ took both of my hands and skated backward as we went around the rink. It would have been embarrassing, but I couldn't think about much other than how he was holding my hands.

TJ said that when he went full speed, it was like flying as his skates slid across the ice. I didn't need to go full speed to know what it felt like to fly. I wasn't sure my feet touched the ground the whole time we skated.

It was kind of fun. Way more fun than I thought it would be. And really sweet. It gave us the chance to talk to each other without our cell phones in between us which was so nice. He asked a million questions about what roles I'd had in the plays I'd performed in and the movies I liked and the books I hadn't read for school. I learned so much about this hitherto unknown athletic side of him; he told me about the first time he went ice skating with his parents. I got the idea that his parents might not be totally cool with him because he got a little weird and quickly changed the subject back to hockey.

We ended up having our own personal ice rink food picnic at a park about a quarter-mile away from the rink. It was a really good thing that TJ thought to set an alarm so we wouldn't miss my curfew because I had no concept of what time it was while we talked.

TJ drove me home and walked me to my door. I could feel my heart pounding in anticipation. I didn't know for sure that he was going to kiss me, but I hoped he would.

"I had a great time tonight," I told him.

"Do you think that means you might want to do this again sometime?" he asked hopefully.

I nodded. "Yeah. I'd really like that, but I definitely get to plan the next date."

"Deal."

He was smiling so big and I realized that he didn't have to be the one to kiss me. I really, really wanted to kiss him. I took a step closer to him. He was roughly my height, so our lips were essentially already lined up.

His eyes fluttered closed as I leaned in.

Wow. That was all I could say. Wow. Forget about flying. I was soaring.

- . - . - . -

Pilar's POV

Felix was nothing if not prompt. I was ready thirty minutes before he said he'd stop by, but when my mom asked me to take out the trash, he was already leaning against the wall. "You're early," he said, surprised.

"I can say the same for you."

He grinned. "Wouldn't want to be late, milady."

I rolled my eyes but couldn't keep the smile off my face. "Whatever. I just need to toss this outside and I'll be good to go."

"Allow me." He reached for the bag.

"You want to carry our trash?" I asked skeptically.

He thought about that for a second. "I don't want you to have to carry it."

"And they say chivalry is dead," I teased. He frowned and I held up my hand. "It's a joke. You do not need to go into your jousting metaphor again." He grabbed the bag of trash, and I followed him outside. It was around seven, so we had some time before the sun would be setting.

He tossed our trash in the can before he grabbed my hand. The park was a fifteen-minute walk from our apartment, but we were walking so slowly, it took nearly twenty. I stopped dead when there was a pizza delivery car in the parking lot. "So, fun fact. Did you know they deliver to parks?"

"I did not."

He grabbed the pizza through the window and handed the annoyed-looking girl some money. We made our way to our tree. I guessed it wasn't technically ours, but it was where we had most of our dates.

Felix pulled a blanket out of his bag. "What time do you have to be back?" he asked while he set up the blanket.

"Honestly, it probably doesn't matter. I could stay out here all night and I doubt my parents would say anything."

Felix eyed me out of the corner of his eye. "Why do you say that?"

"Because how can they get mad at me for staying out past curfew when Victor's on the other side of the country? Don't worry. I'm not actually going to stay out too late. Knowing you, you'll have me back before curfew."

Felix chuckled. "If I knew when that was, I probably would," he agreed.

That was a pretty good reason not to tell him. "Not to change the subject, but do you know what my mom's latest insanity is? She wants us all to call Victor at 3 am on Sunday to wish him a happy birthday just as it turns to midnight by him. She had Adrian help her find Benji's Instagram, so she knows they're in Vegas." Victor must've asked Lake and Mia not to mention him in their stories, but they hadn't afforded Benji the same luxury.

"I… actually don't think that's a bad idea. Do you think I could hop on that phone call? I'd love to wish him a happy birthday."

I studied him for a moment. "You really miss him."

He shrugged. "I know it doesn't make much sense, but-"

"You don't need to make excuses," I said softly. "You're allowed to miss him. We all miss him."

Felix sighed. "I just can't help but think about how different things are now," he said.

"Now that Victor's in Vegas?" I asked uncertainly.

He shook his head. "No. I mean, since you all moved here. My whole life, I thought I was all alone. The friends I had when I was little dropped me the moment Andrew came up with Lonestone when I was ten, and I was twelve the first time I remember my mom having a bad depressive episode followed by a manic episode followed by a diagnosis that took us down months of testing different meds to try to find one that worked. For over four years, my world revolved around keeping myself safe from everyone around me. I was in it alone. Then Victor came into the picture, and I was so excited. He didn't know about the rumors, so I kind of got to reclaim them with him. I could be who I really was for the first time and he didn't make me feel like there was something wrong with that. Somehow, I didn't scare him away, and he became my best friend. I mean, we shouldn't work. He shouldn't want to be my friend. He's got everything going for him, but he still chose me. Can you believe that?"

"I can," I told him. Part of that was because I'd had almost fifteen years to get used to who Victor was, so his friendship with Felix didn't surprise me at all. The other part was… Felix was so likeable; I didn't know how anyone could not want to be around him.

He smiled and ducked his head. "I got lucky with you too. Thank God you like fear, so there was no scaring you away." I grinned at him. "I just feel so lucky that both of you came into my life and made my world bigger and messier and better. So much better."

"You're sentimental today."

"I'm sentimental every day," he corrected. "It's hard not to be when I'm with you."

I brought my hand up to his cheek. I had a feeling he was building up to something. "Are you sure that's it?"

He opened and closed his mouth before he shook his head. "We, uh, don't want the pizza to get cold." He dropped my hand to open the pizza box.

"Right."

"So, my mom had a phone interview with that guy your dad hooked us up with. This afternoon. She said it went well."

"Oh my God, what? Why didn't you tell me?" I asked incredulously. We'd been texting all afternoon, so I didn't understand why he hadn't mentioned it.

"She didn't tell me until I got home from school, and I wanted to see your face when I told you. I knew you'd be just as excited as us."

Well, now I couldn't be mad at him. "She got the job?"

"Not exactly. She has an interview on Monday, but she thinks it might just be a formality. If she's right, she's hoping she'll be able to get started right away."

"That's amazing."

He smiled and ducked his head. "Yeah. It really is. God, it was so hard not to tell you this afternoon."

"You could have just come over if you didn't want to call," I pointed out. He usually had no qualms about showing up at our apartment. Admittedly, that was almost always when Victor was home.

"Are we there? Can I just invite myself over?"

He was trying way too hard to look casual.

I sat up a little and faced him. "Okay, why are you being weird?"

I was kind of ready for him to give me the answer he usually gave which was something along the lines of how he was always weird, but he didn't. "I, uh, guess there was something I wanted to talk to you about."

I tried not to look as panicked on the outside as I felt on the inside. In my experience, nothing good ever came out of someone saying they needed to talk to me in the tone he'd just used. I reminded myself that just a few minutes ago, he was saying how happy he was with me.

"About what?" I asked.

Before he had a chance to answer, a fluffy dog ran right up to Felix and started licking his face.

Felix started to laugh. "Hey there, Rusty."

"Do you know it?" I asked.

"Yeah. I used to walk him when I got home from school. The Carters lived in one of those townhouses down the street from us. It's been maybe two years since they moved. I can't believe he remembered me," he told me. "Okay, okay." He held Rusty away from him. "I missed you too, boy." Felix buried his face in Rusty's fur for a second. "You can pet him. He's super friendly."

I hesitantly reached out. The moment I touched his side, Rusty turned to face me. I kid you not. If Felix was a dog, he'd look like Rusty.

His owner got to us then. "Sorry about… Felix, wow. Hi."

Felix kept petting Rusty. "Hey, Mr. Carter. Funny running into you."

"Yeah. I thought Rusty got a whiff of a squirrel. Turns out he smelt our favorite dog walker."

"How's the missus?"

"She's good. Pregnant again. With twins. She wanted three kids, but we agreed on two. Should have known she'd find a loophole."

Felix laughed. "You won't find me betting against her. Twins! Congrats!" He turned towards me. "When they moved, they were expecting a little girl."

"Emma," he said. He pulled out his phone and showed Felix his screensaver which was a picture of him and a toddler making a funny face at the camera.

"She's adorable," I commented. She really was. She looked a lot like the toddlers you see in Pampers commercials.

"Where are my manners? This is my girlfriend, Pilar."

Mr. Carter lit up. "Told you it would happen. You just couldn't let the rumors define you."

"They did for a while," Felix admitted. "But I got lucky with her."

"I remember those days," Mr. Carter said with a wink. He crouched down and hooked the leash onto Rusty's collar. "It was great running into you. Irene will be thrilled to hear you're doing well."

Rusty did not want to leave and it took a minute for Mr. Carter to get him away from Felix. "Man, I love that dog. He was pretty much my only friend in middle school."

"That's kind of sad."

"Yeah, well, there wasn't much room for friends when people were trying to get close to me so they could pants me and see if I had a lonestone," he said bitterly.

"Really? That's messed up."

"Yeah, it was."

"You've never talked about what that was like," I said softly.

He shrugged. "I don't like to think about it." He shivered. "I don't like thinking about how alone I was."

"I get that." I leaned into him, and he wrapped his arms around me. "Did you know Adrian used to be bullied pretty badly?"

"Who could possibly bully Adrian? He's like the sweetest kid!"

"So are you," I reminded him gently. "Adrian has a… mannerism to him that a lot of kids in Texas didn't understand, and it didn't help that he used to be small for his age. He had a growth spurt a few months before we moved here and another last summer, but he used to be tiny. Everyone in his class was taller than him, and it didn't fly with most of his classmates. It was partially the mix of kids that he was in with in the first grade. They thought he was an easy target. They called him thumbsucker or a baby or… I can't remember exactly what it was, but it involved his name. He didn't tell us almost the entire school year. It got to the point where he was making up friends that he was spending time with during class when he was really playing himself in different board games. Then, in March, my mom reached out to his teacher to get the last names of his friends for invitations to his birthday and found out none of them existed. He told us he was embarrassed for us to know because he felt like he was doing something wrong and he didn't want us to think he was a baby or that he wasn't strong enough to handle some bullshit."

"Poor Adrian."

"Yeah. He was worried about Victor in particular because, by that point, Victor had blown up at his high school. We couldn't take him to the grocery store without a million people stopping him to tell him how well he played in the last game. Even parents knew him. Adrian loves Victor. Like, if it came down to a choice between me, my parents, and Victor. I'm like 75% sure, he'd pick Victor. Victor was eventually the one that got him to open up about it. When our mom asked him about the fake names, he tried to say they were nicknames, but Victor got through to him."

"How?" Felix asked quietly.

"He hugged Adrian and told him that no matter what was going on, we were his family, and we were nosy, so we were gonna find out regardless. Then he tickled him, and Adrian was hysterically laughing. Victor told him he wasn't gonna stop until Adrian told the truth, so he did. Then Victor told him that he thought he was so strong for telling us something that was so hard to talk about. He told him it wasn't his fault that something was out of his control, and he needed to be able to admit that and accept help." I frowned.

"What?" Felix asked.

"Just realizing how much of a hypocrite Victor is." I shook my head. "Anyway, just in case you're worried about any of the things Adrian was worried about, I think it takes so much strength to go through something like that and come out of it as amazing as you are."

"Adrian's a smart kid," Felix observed. "It is embarrassing, though. I know it shouldn't be, but… I've never told anyone this, but I saw a therapist when I was in the sixth grade. My mom had just been diagnosed with bipolar depression, and she knew mental health could run in the family, so I think she wanted me to go as a precaution." I filed that away to think about later because the thought had never crossed my mind. "During my first and only session, the therapist asked me why I was being bullied. When I told her, she said that part of the reason it got so bad was because I was rising to the bait, and I felt like… there was something wrong with me because I couldn't help but rise to it. She made it seem like I should be able to switch a flip and ignore everything that was happening around me. I was supposed to ignore the fact that while my classmates were having their first kisses, I was getting fake love letters because the idea that someone might actually like me was hilarious. I was supposed to ignore all of the comments that were written on the walls of the bathroom or around the school or in my yearbooks. I was supposed to be okay with the fact that other people were embarrassed to be seen with me. That's how I stop the bullies, she said. It only made me more ashamed of who I was because I couldn't do it."

"Your therapist sounds like she sucked. They're not all that bad. Your mom has a really good one now, right?"

"Yeah. My mom's therapist is amazing. She seems to like her. I know I just had someone that didn't work for me, but it was really tough. She was supposed to help me, and it seemed like her solution was don't be yourself. It was the same thing all of my classmates were saying and, for a while, I tried to be different, but it didn't work for me."

I knelt in front of him. "I'm so glad it didn't work because all of those things that make you you are all of the things I fell in love with."

He leaned forward. "I don't know if I'll ever get used to hearing you say that."

All the more reason to say it. "I love you."

"I love you too."

He pressed his lips to mine. We missed the sunset, but I was okay with that.

- . - . - . -

Victor's POV

"Remind me why we're up so early?" Benji's sleepy voice called. He was still snuggled under a blanket on our bed.

"Because you love me and you agreed to get to the Grand Canyon early so we could go on a hike," I reminded him.

"Yeah, but it's only 5:30," he complained.

"Which means that by the time we get breakfast and catch the shuttle, we won't get there until after 7. That's the perfect time for a hike. Now, will you get up? You can sleep on the bus."

"Are you going to sleep?"

I shrugged. We'd only gotten about five hours of sleep, but I wasn't that tired. "I'm okay."

"Then I'll stay up. I'll be fine once I get coffee."

"Good because that's our first stop," I assured him. "They said the shuttle runs every thirty minutes." We'd driven to a hotel about an hour away from the Grand Canyon last night and would be making the full four-and-a-half-hour drive back later tonight. Lake had made the Grand Canyon seem so much closer to Vegas and we quickly realized she was not looking at the right place. By then, we'd gotten excited about going, so we decided to stick with that plan. We'd walked around Vegas, taking in the sights all day yesterday and we'd have all day on Sunday before we had to head back to Atlanta at the crack of dawn on Monday.

It was another fifteen minutes before I coaxed Benji out of bed. When we got down to the lobby, Andrew, Mia, Lake, and Lucy were sitting in armchairs. "What's this? I thought you were driving over later."

"Andrew decided he wanted to go on the hike with you and insisted that since it was half of our group now, we may as well all go." Lake did not sound happy about that. Honestly, it was so much more convenient for us. We didn't have to worry about catching a bus and then a shuttle and then probably accidentally wandering somewhere we weren't supposed to be. "While you're climbing rocks or whatever, we're going to spend some time in the Village and get breakfast. Chicks versus dicks. We're definitely gonna have a better time."

"Okay then. Are we cool with stopping for coffee?"

"We insist," Lake said.

"But you or Benji are driving because you're the only ones that planned to be awake right now," Andrew added.

"Benji doesn't have his license," Lake said sleepily.

Andrew looked confused. "You don't? I thought you got it our freshman year because you're a year older than all of us."

"I was able to take the test our freshman year, but I failed it," Benji explained. I wasn't sure if I was aware of his discomfort because I knew he hated lying or if it was obvious to everyone.

Lucy jumped in. "He was embarrassed, so he pretended he had it for a while, but he didn't actually get it."

"Oh." Andrew still looked perplexed.

"On the upside, I have a lot of experience playing chauffeur," I teased.

"Kinky," Lake commented. Honestly, finally. "Shit. I mean…"

"There she is," Benji said with a huge grin.

Lake cocked her head. "What? Did you set me up?"

"No. That was actually a coincidence, but Benji's been trying to get you to crack since we started exploring yesterday," I told her.

"What? Why?"

"Because you didn't say anything about how I looked better without pants when I told you I ripped my seam," Benji supplied. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I missed you objectifying me."

Lake stared before she turned to Lucy. "I told you so," she said. "He doesn't think it's creepy."

"To be fair, I do think it's a little creepy, but I don't want you to stop just because…" He trailed off and none of us had to ask what he was talking about.

Lucy groaned. "You know you just gave her permission to go overboard with this, right?"

"You guys really got weirder after we left," Mia commented. Lake grinned as Mia tossed me her keys. Mia and Lake had both driven here because it was too long of a ride to justify someone sitting in the trunk of Mia's car and both of their cars only fit 5.

I caught them with one hand. "Are we all ready?"

Another upside of driving was that we only had to pay the car fee which was really nice. Our entire trip had been way more affordable than I expected (admittedly, that was thanks to Mia's refusal to let us pay for our room in Vegas). We got to stay at our hotel from last night for free because of some rewards program her dad was a part of.

Andrew started to act weird once we took the shuttle to the start of the trail. I knew what he wanted, and I wasn't particularly eager to talk about it. There were a few different paths we could take; we'd planned which one to go down, but Andrew's comment of 'only three miles' had effectively sent us down the longer trail. I held Benji's hand while we walked.

At first, we were quiet, but I finally ripped off the band-aid. "We suck without you," I told Andrew. We'd talked about basketball a little when we'd first gotten in but in a we-should-find-a-court-in-Vegas kind of way. We'd stayed away from dangerous topics like the school team. "Like, really badly. It's like we don't know how to play together."

"That's ridiculous, and you know it."

"It should be," I agreed. "But it's true. They'll be lucky when you're back next season."

"Next season? Did we lose the playoff game? I didn't think it happened yet."

"It didn't. It's on Wednesday, but they're playing against Whitman without both of us." We'd lost to Whitman in the Fall season and that was with both of us playing our absolute best.

He sighed. "Not a chance."

"Exactly."

"How are they being with you? I check in with Teddy every now and then, but it's hard to tell if he'd even be aware of anything that was going on."

"You mean like someone recording me and posting it to creeksecrets?" Benji's grip on my hand tightened. We still hadn't talked about it; we'd started too, but Benji had been the one to change the subject every time. It was partially because he'd instated a ban until I 'stopped being dumb' about it (I still maintained that if we hadn't had sex in the locker room, this wouldn't have happened, so it was partially our fault, but Benji refused to even entertain that notion). I think the other part was that, the longer we spent away from Creekwood, the more we didn't want to think about Creekwood and what had happened there. I didn't want to think about the video or how shitty everyone was being about this when I was with him because he was my safe space, and I think he felt the same way.

"It was definitely someone on the team?"

"Yeah. Pilar texted me yesterday." I didn't tell Andrew that it was Joel. Telling people about that wouldn't make me feel better and would only force Joel to put up with the same shit I'd been dealing with. If I'd found out on Wednesday, I probably wouldn't have hesitated, but I was able to think more clearly now. Apparently, 2000 miles of distance did a lot for the rational side of my brain. Plus, Joel got suspended for like twenty days or something like that, which seemed like such a long time to me. Benji had agreed with me right away not to tell anyone.

"Are you going to quit?"

I sighed. "I really don't know. I don't have to think about it until next year and Benji made me promise I wouldn't make a decision until then."

"Smart man," Andrew said appreciatively. I saw the faintest smile flash across Benji's face. He took his role as a basketball boyfriend very seriously.

"I… I never said thank you."

"For what?" Andrew asked. Benji was looking at me curiously too.

"When I challenged you in September, you stepped up. I didn't realize how much of a difference that made until you were gone. You stopped a lot before it got to me… we have some weird teammates."

Andrew chuckled. "We do. They're not giving you too hard of a time?"

"Not intentionally," I confirmed. "They're just… really oblivious without you."

Andrew looked a little pained to hear that. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I might shove Kieran into a locker if he asks me one more time if I think he looks hot when he flexes his arm or if someone intentionally turns to me to show themselves off while we're showering because they're so cool with me."

"Shit. I promise. I'm gonna whip 'em into shape next year. I thought they changed."

"They did. None of them refuse to change or shower around me. They don't make any homophobic comments. They're just… weird around me. It's not the same as it was before."

"Then there's still a problem." He let out a grunt as the terrain became uneven.

I shrugged. "Nothing you can do about that from here. Speaking of which, how much trouble are you in?"

Benji looked between us. "What do you mean?"

I frowned and instantly felt guilty. Andrew hadn't made a secret of his relationship with his parents, but I was now wondering if that was something he only talked about with the team.

"My parents have… really high expectations. They don't care about much when it comes to me… they ignore me 90% of the time. Then, a couple times a year, they show me off to their friends and talk about how I get straight A's and am a star on the basketball team so they can prove that Hallmark was right, they're the world's greatest parents." His words were dripping with sarcasm.

"None of which you're doing right now," Benji realized.

"How does this whole thing work with school?" I asked.

"We reached out to our teachers and they email us work each week. It kind of sucks. We're probably going to pass, but it won't be with A's."

"What do your parents have to say to that?" I asked.

"They're ignoring me," he admitted. "I check in with them every couple of weeks, but they haven't answered me in a while."

"That's really shitty," Benji said. He looked like he was reevaluating his whole life. I made a mental note to ask about that later because I had no idea what he thought about Andrew before he started dating Lucy and it only just occurred to me that they'd grown up together. Just like Lake and Felix and Lucy and Mia, they'd known each other since they were little; they never acted like it.

"Yeah. Victor had the pleasure of meeting my parents after a game last Fall."

I snorted. "Pleasure?" It had single-handedly been one of the most awkward experiences of my life.

"Did the Spencers not make you feel warm and fuzzy inside?" Andrew asked sarcastically.

Benji frowned. "What happened?"

"They essentially told me that I am a giant disappointment when we lost against the best team in the state of Georgia." =He sounded bitter; I didn't blame him.

"And then they started comparing Andrew to the rest of us," I added. "I think their exact words were, 'if you're not the best, why bother trying?' They were intense."

"Yeah, they get like that. I'm in a shit load of trouble. I don't think they're cut-me-off-and-disown-me mad because they still have high hopes for next year, but I'm in a lot of trouble. Don't tell Mia. I don't want to give her a reason to go back to Atlanta before she's ready. She already feels bad about keeping me away from school this whole time."

"I won't tell her," I promised.

Benji looked torn. "I won't tell her either, but I really think you should. If I was Mia, I'd be really upset if I found out from someone else." He looked right at me. "I wouldn't want you to feel like there was something we couldn't talk about… think about all the problems it caused when we didn't feel that way."

I looked away because he was right.

"Did you say you were having problems?" Andrew asked. He scrunched his eyebrows together like he couldn't fathom that.

"Er… yeah. They started before Mia's dad's wedding, but shit hit the fan that night," I admitted. They'd missed the weeks we'd spent fighting, and I was kind of grateful for that. "You had your own stuff going on, so you may not have noticed."

Andrew looked up. "Is that why you brought that other guy to the wedding?" he asked.

I tightened my grip on Benji's hand. "Something like that. We were on a break, but we worked it all out," I told him. "We're good now, but Benji has a point. All of our problems were because we didn't think we could talk about certain things."

"It's not that I can't talk to her; I just know her. She'd want to go back, and I can't do that to her. I'd rather take her anger after we find her mom than cut this short."

Benji sighed. "I guess I get that."

I had to bite my cheek to hide my laughter because he looked like he'd just lost at something. Andrew demanded that we catch him up on the latest school gossip (pre porno - he thought that was hilarious), and we continued our hike.

When we finished our hike, we were all exhausted. I let Andrew walk ahead of us. "You okay? You've been kind of quiet."

"I was breathing. There's a difference," Benji snapped. I stopped walking and raised my eyebrows at him. "Sorry. I'm just tired, and the two of you walk so fast and my calves hurt."

I hadn't thought that Benji would struggle more than we did with the hike. I should have just stuck to our original trail. The extra two miles were pretty tough, even for us. "Do you need a piggyback ride?" I asked.

"Really?"

"Yeah. If you're that tired, hop on. We have another half-mile to the village, and I can handle it." I handed him my bag before I squatted down. He climbed on and rested his head on my shoulder. "Better?"

He kissed my neck. "So much better."

I chuckled as I kept walking. "If Creekwood could see us now. Do you know what they'd be saying?"

"That you're a really good boyfriend," he suggested.

"Yeah, that totally seems like something the kids in our school would say," I said sarcastically.

"Lucky for us, we'll never find out. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."

"We're not in Vegas," I reminded him. "We're at the Grand Canyon."

"Yeah, let that sink in for a second. You're at the Grand Canyon. Look around, Vic. Creekwood? Joel? All the assholes from school? No one can touch us here." I stopped walking and turned around so we could look out at the part of the canyon that was visible to us.

"You're right," I whispered. "They can't get to us here." I turned my head so I could see Benji. "Thanks for coming here. And, even if it hurt, going on that hike with me. I love you. Like a lot, and I'm so glad we're here."

"Me too." For a moment, we stood there like that, taking in the Canyon. I couldn't speak for Benji, but there was something about it that made me feel particularly close to him.