It's the Saturday before school starts when Alexa asks Guy the big question. Not the "Will you marry me?" one, obviously, the "I wanna have sex. Do you?" question. They're lying on his couch making out while some crappy TV show plays in the background. She stops kissing him and brushes her hair out of her eyes and says it like it's no big deal. It takes him a second to answer, mostly because he's in shock and partly because he doesn't know how to answer.

He's never been the 'sexy' type. No girl has probably ever even considered sleeping with him. He's the guy that girls take home to meet their parents, not fuck in the backseat of their car. He likes being that guy. But now he's lying here with Alexa on top of him – beautiful Alexa, who may or may not be giving him a semi with the way she's grinding against his dick – and he's given the option to be someone other than himself.

"Um . . . you want to?"

She giggles, "I just said that, didn't I?"

"Yeah. Sorry,"

Guy knows he has to say something else but he truly can't think of anyone. What can he say that won't sound stupid? And aside from that, he doesn't know if he entirely does want to. It wasn't like he didn't like Alexa. She was super smart, sweet, liked stupid jokes in the way that she'd shoot milk out of her nose at a simple knock-knock joke. He liked her a lot and was lucky to have her. But sex? . . . Guy definitely didn't know about that.

"Are you okay?" Alexa asked when he didn't say anything else. "We don't have to do anything if you don't want to,"

Guy took her hand off his chest and held it. "It's not that I . . . don't want to. It's just that I'm – not ready to. I'm sorry. Please don't be mad,"
Alexa smiled and looked down before whispering, "You want to know a secret?"

He nodded.

"I'm a virgin," she bit her lip like she was nervous that he was going to laugh at her or something and he did laugh, but not because he was making fun of her.

"Me too,"

Alexa looked surprised by that. "No shit?"

"No shit."

"But what about Connie?"

Guy swallowed hard. Connie's name being brought up was always a sore spot for him (he wasn't entirely sure why). He also felt sort of bad that he'd kind of been ignoring her since he and Alexa started going out in March.

"Well . . . we broke up the summer before freshmen year. We were sort of young," he explained.

Alexa shrugged. "Oh. Sorry, y'know, I just figured . . ."

"Figured what?"

"Nothing. Connie's just . . . well . . . you know . . . people talk . . ."

Guy sat up as best as he could with her on top of him. "Yeah? Well, people are full of shit."

"Are they? Because I remember you saying just a few months ago that you didn't like that she was out sleeping with all these shifty guys," Alexa said it like she thought that he was getting angry with her. Guy tried (and failed) to convince himself that he wasn't becoming upset just because she had implied something about Connie. But still, he had said that and he couldn't take it back.

"Whatever. I shouldn't have said that, it's not my business. You're my girlfriend now. I can't look after her anymore,"

Alexa beamed brightly at that, which made Guy feel a little guilty. There had been numerous times where people had approached him and Alexa and asked what had happened to Connie. She'd never said anything, but Guy picked up on a lot. He knew she felt self conscious about it and hearing him confirm that she was his girlfriend and not Connie must've been great for her.

"Can we makeout again?" she asked.

He giggled and they attached their lips together once more.


The night after the party, Adam took Julie out to eat at their favorite diner to cheer her up. She'd hardly said two words since they sat down, just playing with her straw and looking at the table. Adam knew her better than almost anyone, and he knew that she was waiting for him to say something before they talked about the night before. He didn't know how to bring it up. He'd never been good at talking.

"So, uh, you talk to Connie about . . .?" he finally said.

Julie nodded. "Yep."

"Did you guys . . . hang out today?"

She shook her head. "No. I – it's weird, but I'm not even that upset about Zack,"

He raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure? You seemed pretty upset yesterday."

"I don't know. I was thinking about it today and it's not really a shock or anything. I've been preparing for him to cheat on me for months now," Julie shrugged.

Adam didn't question it.

"How's Jessica?" she asked him after a few moments of awkward silence. "You talk to her?"

He looked at the ground. He knew that Julie knew that he wasn't particularly interested in Jessica . . . at least sexually. He'd started hanging out with her a few months ago and he'd really enjoyed talking with her – she was super funny and always had crazy stories that made him smile. Things had gone downhill one night when they were hanging out in his pool and she asked if he liked her and he hadn't known how to say no so he'd smiled shyly and said yes. One thing led to another and before he knew it he was losing his virginity on the patch of grass next to the diving board. Jessica had told pretty much everyone they knew about what they'd done and now everyone was calling them the Eden Hall supercouple. It was only Julie who hadn't yet called them a cute couple and Adam knew why.

"Uh . . . yeah. She's not mad about me ditching her to take you home. She said it was sweet actually,"

"She must really like you," Julie said in a knowing voice.

Adam nodded. "She does,"

"And you really like her?"

He was a terrible liar. "Yep,"

Julie raised her eyebrows and looked around to make sure no one was listening before saying, "It's me. You told me the truth once before you can tell me again,"

Adam couldn't help but look away. Memories of freshmen year were too painful – when he'd been taken away from his friends and forced to hang with the rest of the Varsity team. When they'd gotten him drunk at every party and locked him in a room with three cheerleaders until they all performed oral sex on each other. He'd fallen into a depression that took a toll too heavy to get over on him. And then one night the summer before sophomore year, he and Julie were at a party and they'd both been drinking a little too much and he'd admitted to her in his bout of sadness that he was in love with Charlie.

He'd figured that out once his parents found him in the bathroom with his ice skate pressed into his hand and took him into a therapist, that the root of his depression was that Charlie had stopped talking to him. And once he'd figured that out, he figured out that he'd had feelings for him for a long time. He'd never told anyone other then his therapist and Julie. He'd always hoped Julie had forgotten that he'd told her but he knew from the looks she gave him whenever Charlie said anything to him that she hadn't.

"I . . . I like her, Julie. I promise," he said with as much assurance as he could muster.

Julie rached across the table and took his hand. She only did that when she was getting serious. "I don't think you do, honey. I see the way you look at him – you're my best friend. We've been best friends since that day during the Goodwill games when you called out Portman for being a pig to me. We've always had each other's backs. I would never, ever make fun of you. You can trust me. I love you,"

He hadn't realized he'd started crying but everything Julie said was true. She was without a doubt the most important person in his life, the only person he didn't have to prove anything to. And he did trust her. He could talk to her about this for the first time really.

"Okay," he whispered and squeezed her hand. "Nothing's changed. I still feel the same way I did when I told you what I . . . told you. But being with Jessica isn't to cover that up, the thing with Jessica kind of just happened. And I feel like a total ass for going out with her when I'm madly in love with someone else but it's not like I can just break up with her. I don't want to hurt her,"

Julie wasn't crying, but she never cried. She was smiling like she was emotional, though. "That's your problem, Adam. You never want to hurt anyone's feelings. Guess what? Her feelings are gonna get hurt either way because it's pretty damn obvious how you feel about a certain someone,"

His eyes widened. "Wait, really? Do you think he knows?"

"Charlie's a dumbass. No way he's realized it yet. No one else on the team either – they're all idiot straight boys and Connie's too preoccupied in her own love life to notice much,"
Adam nodded and felt his heart rate go down. "Idiot straight boys – so do you, uh, think he's straight?" He already knew the answer but figured he'd ask anyway.

"Um . . . well . . . I can find out,"

"No, no, don't!"
"Alright, then I won't,"

"But what do you think he is?"

Julie leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. "I mean . . . I don't think he's like . . . exclusive or anything. But figuring out whether someone's gay or straight isn't the easiest thing to do,"

Adam shrugged. "I guess,"

"So . . ." Julie said slowly. "You ever gonna tell him?"

He'd considered it before. Imagined it countless times – catching him after practice one day, confessing his love for him. Charlie would smile shyly in that cute way he does and then they'd kiss and skate off together. But he wasn't an idiot – that was never going to happen. It wasn't like Charlie would laugh at him or anything, he'd probably just be like "Sorry, I'm straight" and continue on with his day.

"No. Too embarrassing," And he'd never feel the same.


Charlie knelt on the ground of their small apartment sweeping up the remains of what had been his mother's favorite plate that she'd gotten from England. His stepfather sat lazily in the armchair next to him, clicking through channels and sipping a beer. Charlie tried his best not to glare at him but it wasn't that easy. Coming home to see the piece of shit slapping your mother around every day wasn't something that you could forget about easily.

On this specific day, he'd arrived home after a day of hanging with Fulton at the mall and walked in to see Jim toss the plate right past his mother's head. He'd stepped in between the two of them and checked her head for scratches like he'd done a thousand times and took her to his room to rest while he cleaned up the mess.

Jim never hit him. It was rare for him to even lay a hand on Charlie, aside from the common pat on the back he got after a big win. He'd never asked why he was spared from the abuse, but he'd seen lots of after school specials explaining that sometimes women beaters think that it's too far to hit a kid. Charlie could only roll his eyes at the stupidity of that.

Once everything was clean, he tossed the shards into the kitchen garbage and tiptoed into his room where his mother was lying down. He sat down next to her and held her hand. "I still don't understand why you stay with that asshole," he whispered so Jim couldn't hear. The man always seemed to hear everything.

She smiled sadly. "Neither do I,"

"You should leave him. We'll be fine on our own, mom. We've been on our own before. And I'm older now, I can get a job. I can take care of us, mom,"

His mother squeezed his hand tight. "Life's not always that simple, Charlie."

"What's not simple about it? All you have to do is leave him and I can call Bombay to handle all the lawer-y stuff. We can stay with grandma or something until it's all cleared up,"

"Honey . . . I can't . . ."

They'd had this conversation a countless number of times. Every time ended the same way – his mother insisting that everything was fine the way it was and that he should relax. Charlie couldn't do that. He couldn't sit back and let some piece of shit abuse his mother just for the hell of it. But it wasn't like there was much he could do since his mother refused to leave him.

He'd been spending less and less time with his friends recently so that he could look after her. Hanging out with Fulton was the first thing he'd done with them in over a month. Charlie was also extremely worried because school started next week. Thankfully, his mother worked most of the day but there were still her days off to consider.

She must've seen the worried look on his face because she kissed his hand gently. "You're the best son ever, you know that, right?"

If I was you wouldn't be getting hit, he thought to himself. Instead, he smiled gently and said. "Yep,"

"You're the sweetest boy in the world, the way you look after me and all your friends. You try so hard at everything - you're so good. You're so brave. So, so kind. Better sense of right and wrong then any boy I've known in my whole life. And I love you,"

Charlie smiled and kissed her head. "All that's because of you, ma."

Little did he know that those were the same things that made Adam love him as well.


Author's Note: Please be sure to follow and review if you enjoyed it! Next chapter may or may not include a very awkward double date.