.☘︎ ݁˖ Noah .☘︎ ݁˖

Hello, my name is Noah. I’m gay. I grew up in a small midwestern town. And I’m in love with my best friend.

My best friend is also my boyfriend. Who is also queer. Who was my childhood best friend. And also grew up in a small midwestern town.

He and I have known each other since 4th grade. In fact, his mother with my first, second and third grade teacher.

He and I were always super close, playing dnd on his porch with our other friends and skateboarding downtown (stranger things was actually the thing that brought our love of dnd to light). But when we got to high school we grew even closer. We began playing even more dnd and video games online, we’d stay up late talking about everything and nothing. In my junior year of high school I realized “oh wow ok, I actually wanna KISS this guy, not just be his best friend.” But I knew I couldn’t because I thought he was straight (and he was currently in a relationship with a girl). So I told myself not to act on it, to push it down and just enjoy being his friend. But those feelings kept pushing themselves to the surface and it became painful to hide who I was around him. The summer before my senior year, he broke up with his girlfriend. And we started spending almost everyday together, I would even spend multiple nights in a row at his house and we’d play video games together up in his loft bed. We’d write dnd campaigns that’d we’d never get the chance to play and characters that had beautiful stories. It was the best summer of my life. And BITCHHHH I yearned hard. On the last day of summer he drove me up to the lookout (our town’s equivalent to lovers lake) and asked me “Noah this is hard to say, but have you ever considered being more than friends with me?” I froze, I didn’t know how to respond, HOW was I supposed to respond to what I had been hoping for the past year and a half but had no reason to believe was actually a possibility for me?? “Noah, can you please say something??” I just nodded my head and laughed, we kissed and we have been dating for over two years now. We are about to leave our hometown to move to a big city together. He is the love of my life.

I am gay. He is gay. He is my best friend. And he is my boyfriend.

So no, a queer best friends to lovers love story is not “unrealistic” the duffer brothers are just cowards. We were excited to see a relationship similar to ours portrayed in a show that defined our early friendship. But I want you all to know that just because the duffers were too weak-willed to make Byler happen. Queer love such as theirs DOES exist.