just want to feel unlost

She felt kind of stupid, really, for expecting so much of him without explaining anything. Sure, maybe he could see they had a connection, but she should have known that he wouldn’t understand the severity of the situation. This time, she was going to fully explain everything so Ryan wouldn’t make a mistake again.

After she got to the high school, Lindsay found Ryan standing alone, just where she’d told him to meet her. She had to make sure no one would be around, especially not Gavin or Michael, so they met at a more isolated part of the building.

Ryan was leaning against the wall, reading, so he heard Lindsay’s footsteps from the far end of the hallway immediately. As she approached, he closed the book and turned to face her. “You, me, and an empty hallway at seven in the morning. If I’m right, nothing about this situation is very good.”

Lindsay laughed, crossing her arms. She shifted her weight onto her left food and kept her eyes to the ground for a moment before meeting his gaze. “Well, I guess it depends on what you see as bad.”

“Look,” Ryan started, shaking his head with a sigh. “If this is about yesterday, I’m sorry. I just thought it would be something funny to say, and if you disagree, then I really am sorry.”

Lindsay shook her head, waving it off. “No, no, no, it’s alright, don’t apologize.” She paused, biting her lip, wondering if she was making the right decision. “Listen, I just…” she trailed off, not knowing how to start to explain.

Ryan raised an eyebrow, tilting his head and leaning over slightly to meet her gaze, since she had shifted her own to the ground again. “Is something wrong?”

She looked up immediately, surprising him, and opened her mouth as if she were about to say something. Still, nothing came out, so she closed her mouth again. This left Ryan feeling more confused than before.

Suddenly, she took a sharp intake of breath and asked, “What do you know about Gavin’s past?”

Surprised by the sudden, seemingly off topic question, Ryan’s eyes widened. He tried to say something, maybe ask why she wanted to know, but all that came out was gibberish. He shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t know, he never really talked all that much about it. I know that he was adopted and that he was bullied as a kid, but all that kind of stopped after he met Dan. Now he’s pretty much the most popular guy in school.”

“Well, you’re pretty much right about most of that, except for the last part,” Lindsay admitted, turning her head to look at the wall.

“What are you talking about?” Ryan asked. “He’s got so many friends he can barely name all off them.”

“No, not that,” Lindsay laughs, shaking her head. She paused for quite a while before continuing. “It wasn’t Dan.”

“I’m sorry, I’m not following and I need you to explain—what are you talking about?” Lindsay knew that she just wasn’t making any sense to Ryan, and she was confusing the hell out of him. She finally looked up at him again, but she was surprised to see that he was more concerned than confused.

“Okay,” Lindsay gave in, placing her hands on her hips. “I’m going to tell you something. But nobody knows this. I don’t even think Gavin or Michael know. As far as I know, it’s just me and their parents. And you, of course, in a couple of minutes.”

Ryan’s brow furrowed in skepticism and worry, but he nodded anyway. “Okay. Enlighten me.”

“God, this is messed up,” Lindsay shook her head again. She covered her face with her hands and leaned back, as if she wanted to scream. “I know this isn’t really my story to tell, and I feel so guilty about it, but you have to know if you’re going to help.”

“It—it’s okay, Lindsay,” Ryan reassured her. “If it’s something I need to know that will help, it’s okay, don’t worry.”

She dropped her hands and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, okay.” She leaned back against the wall and slid down, sitting cross-legged on the floor. She patted the space next to her, asking Ryan to sit next to her. “You’re gonna want to sit down for this one.”

Ryan complied, sitting with his back against the wall and in the same position as Lindsay. “So, continue?”

“We were five,” Lindsay began, placing her hands in her lap. “Gavin moved here after his birth parents died. He came to my preschool, and the kids didn’t really like him.” She shook her head, remembering the way Gavin was mistreated. “They bullied him pretty hard, especially for five year olds. I always watched, you know? I saw how they made fun of him for being different, and I always felt bad about it.”

She stopped, and looked at Ryan, who was listening intently. She laughed bitterly. “I tried to help. Tried to talk to him. But he didn’t talk much, so we didn’t connect that well. But I could tell he was hurting, even if he didn’t want to talk to me about it.”

“Sounds pretty cruel for a couple of kids. Damn.” Ryan frowned, wondering how they could have gotten away with all of that.

“Yeah,” Lindsay agreed, playing with the hem of her shirt. “Anyway, it was some time later, and Michael came to our preschool.”

Ryan’s eyes widened. “No way. You’re kidding. Or you’ve got the wrong kid.”

Lindsay laughed, expecting that response. “No, this is serious.” She looked up at Ryan and smiled. “I talked to him first, showed him around, the usual. And then he noticed that Gavin was being teased, and he asked me, ‘Lindsay, does that always happen?’” She smiled, remembering her friend’s selfless bravery. “I don’t remember the details, but the next thing I knew, Michael was standing up to the kids that tormented Gavin for months.”

“If you’re serious, then I think it’s kind of ironic that the next time they meet, Gavin saves Michael,” Ryan pointed out. “But then again, Michael seems pretty fierce. I’m not all that surprised that he would do something like that.”

“You’re right, he does,” Lindsay laughed, nodding. “So, Michael saves Gavin from his bullies. He gets them to leave him alone, and they become best friends. Totally inseparable. I can’t even believe they let me into their friendship.”

She felt her eyes become heavy with tears as she remembered all of the things they did together as kids. “You know, they even made a promise. Gavin made Michael promise that he would never leave, and Michael was so motivated to keep it, just so that Gavin wouldn’t be lonely anymore.”

“So… it looks like he couldn’t keep that promise, seeing as Michael just suddenly moved here earlier this year,” Ryan concluded, connecting the dots.

Lindsay could feel the first few tears falling. “Yeah.” She shook her head and wiped her eyes with her sleeve before continuing. “We were so happy. We spent almost every day together.” She paused. “And then, one day, Gavin came up to me and told me that Michael broke his promise.”

“Because he was moving?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah, I think his dad got relocated or something because of his job, so they had to leave,” Lindsay answered. “And Gavin was so heartbroken.”

She stopped again as more tears fell from her eyes. Ryan rummaged through his bag, pulled out a pack of tissues, and offered her some. She nodded in thanks, taking them. “They really loved each other, you know. Platonically, of course. They were closer than the closest siblings.”

She wiped her tears away and blew her nose into the tissues she’d been given. “And you know what Michael did? He came in with rings made from flowers and told Gavin to marry him.”

As much as he wanted to keep it in, Ryan laughed. “Why?”

Lindsay laughed, too. “I don’t remember exactly what he said. But he said it was like a promise. A new, stronger one. They’d get married so they’d never forget each other, and Michael said he’d come back.”

“Which he did,” Ryan pointed out.

“He did,” Lindsay started, her breathing shaky, “but… it doesn’t look like either of them remember.”

Ryan wanted to say something, but he had no idea what it should be.

“I grew up with Gavin,” Lindsay said, shaking her head. “I saw it, you know. As soon as he met Dan, and then Ray, and then everyone else in his life. I could tell he was forgetting about Michael.” She paused, bringing her knees to her chest. “And I asked him one night. We were twelve. I asked him about Michael.”

Ryan nodded, silently asking her to go on.

“He said he never knew a Michael.”

“Oh…?” Ryan asked, again not knowing how to respond to the last sentence.

“I mean, I don’t know, I don’t totally blame him,” Lindsay said, trying to justify Gavin’s lost memories. “I know he was just trying to protect himself. He thought that if he didn’t think about it, he wouldn’t feel as lonely,” Lindsay explained. She looked away from Ryan, staring down the hallway, not wanting to face him. Even though she knew all of this, she still blamed herself for letting Gavin forget it all.

Ryan could tell she was in some kind of internal conflict, so he changed the subject. “Then why doesn’t Michael remember?” he asked quietly.

Lindsay shrugged, facing front again. “I don’t really know. I asked his parents, but they didn’t know either. I mean, when we were kids, Michael was always at Gavin’s house, sometimes past dinner time.” Lindsay closed her eyes, crossing her arms over her knees burying her face in her arms. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they were just too busy to notice that their son was falling apart.”

She lifted her head and wiped away her tears again. “I know that he talked to Gavin’s dad about his past once, but it was pretty brief.” She bit her lip, not wanting to speak her next few words, as if that would keep them from being true. “He said he was being bullied. It seemed pretty bad.”

Ryan sighed, crossing his arms, overwhelmed by everything he was just told and entrusted with. “This all sounds… really bad. And kind of ironic.” He paused, trying to make sense of it all, but came up with nothing. “What a turn of events.”

“Yeah, it really is,” Lindsay agreed. She stopped, and turned her head to look at Ryan. “Now, I know that I didn’t really explain this all that well, but at least you know.”

She straightened her legs before crossing them again and fully turning her body to face Ryan. “The only way that this can be set right is to get them to remember each other. I get that I shouldn’t really be meddling in this, but I want them to be happy.”

She stopped, trying to figure out how to summarize the goal in the best way. “I want them to remember their past, and I want them to know that they’re finally together again. That they kept their promise.”

“Of course,” Ryan agreed. “It sounds like they were both pretty hurt when Michael left.” He paused, trying to think of a way to go about getting them to remember, but came up with nothing in the moment. “I don’t know if we can guarantee that this will work,” Ryan admitted. “But if it does, and we somehow get them to remember, at least they’ll finally get some real closure.”

Lindsay nodded. “Yeah, they really will,” she said with a smile, knowing how good this would be for the two of them. She shook herself out of her thoughts and asked, “So you’re on board, right?”

Ryan laughed incredulously. “After all that? How could I possibly not be invested in this?”

“Okay, okay, fair enough.” Lindsay grinned, excited to see this plan finally going into action. “All I need is, like I said before, a couple of subtle hints and all that. Just to see if you can jog his memory without doing it for him, okay?”

“Yeah, no problem,” Ryan reassured, letting her know that he was now well aware of all the boundaries that he should not cross. “You can count on me. Don’t worry.”

Lindsay smiled. She then shifted her body so that she sat on her knees before pushing herself up to stand. She stretched and turned to Ryan, bending down and offering him a hand to help him to his feet. He took her hand with a smile and let her help him up.

“Glad to have you on my side, Ryan,” Lindsay said, patting him on the shoulder. She pulled out her phone and checked the time. “Now, c’mon, at this point they’re definitely looking for their missing friends, and we should get going before anybody finds us.”

She began to head down the hallway, and Ryan laughed, following her. “Of course, we wouldn’t want anyone ruining our plans, now wouldn’t we?”

Lindsay smiled and shook her head. “Nope! Not when we’re onto something so good.”

 The first time Ryan really approached Gavin was during their first play rehearsal. Ryan, having a more important role in the play, was a bit busier than Gavin, so he didn’t get that many chances to speak with him. He found time to come around during breaks or during scenes that neither of them had to be in, even though the opportunities didn’t come around all that often.

He had gotten a couple of moments alone with Gavin just to talk and have some banter, just like always. Ryan didn’t want to be too obvious about his plans, so he had to build up some usual conversation to cover his true intentions. He talked about a few useless things—classes, friends, etc. Gavin was acting as usual, so Ryan was feeling pretty confident about confronting him.

When they finally got a long break, Ryan figured this would be the best time to approach Gavin.

He found him in the back, just sitting around and drinking from a water bottle. Ryan walked up to Gavin and sat in the chair next to him, and Gavin made a noise of acknowledgement. He capped the bottle and set it down, turning to Ryan. “Hey, Ryan! What’s up?”

“Meh, nothing, actually,” Ryan shrugged. “What about you? How’s the acting life treating you?”

“Well, it’s not that great having to act as a Nazi,” Gavin scoffed, shaking his head, “but it’s pretty good! I haven’t had this much fun in a while.” He smiled, looking off to the side. “I’m really glad that Michael encouraged me to try out.”

Ryan nodded, glad to hear Gavin bring up Michael. “Yeah? Do you think you’d wanna continue acting in the future?”

“Oh, god, I don’t know, Ryan,” Gavin shrugged, taking another sip of water. “This is fun, it’s great, really, but I don’t know if I’d want to do this for money.” Gavin paused. He looked away for a moment and then looked back at Ryan. “Would you?”

“Actually, I might,” Ryan admitted, leaning back in his chair.

Shocked, Gavin straightened up and turned to completely face Ryan. “You must be joking!”

Ryan chuckled, crossing his arms. “Well, it’s not the only thing that I’m interested in, but I really am serious.”

Gavin stared at him in disbelief for a moment before shaking his head. “Ryan, I hope you know that you surprise me with something new every single day.”

Ryan laughed off that comment and moved to a different topic. “So if not theater, what else is there?”

“What do you mean, Ryan?” Gavin asked, confused.

Ryan shrugged, sitting up straight. “You ever think about your future? It’s just that you’re a sophomore now, and…” he trailed off, not really knowing how to come up with a reason for asking without mentioning Michael.

Gavin hummed, looking off in a different direction as he thought. “God, I don’t know, Ryan.” He continued to think, weighing all the possibilities, but came up with nothing. “I don’t know.”

“Well, that’s fair,” Ryan said, realizing that his question was probably too broad. “I don’t really know either. I’ve got a general idea, I guess.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Get a job, probably get married, probably have kids…” he trailed off, thought for a moment, and continued. “And keep you guys around, if I can.”

Gavin grinned, patting Ryan on the back. “Aw, Ryan!” He laughed and shifted so that he sat with one leg crossed under the other. “Don’t worry, Ryan, you’ll never get rid of me.”

Ryan scoffed. “Yeah, I never thought I would.” He paused and gave Gavin a smile. “So, what about you? What are you hoping your future friends and family will look like?”

“Mine?” Gavin sighed, leaning back in his chair. He leaned his elbow on the arm rest, placing his hand at his mouth as he thought. “I guess I’m just like you, Ryan. I want to keep all my friends!” He grinned again at Ryan and then uncrossed his leg to cross the other one underneath it. “Lindsay would probably kill me if I ever tried to cut her out of my life. And I couldn’t even imagine getting rid of Dan. And Michael…” he trailed off, gaze shifting to the floor. A smile broke out onto his face and he laughed lightly.

“And Michael…?” Ryan asked, both confused and hopeful.

Gavin shook himself out of his thoughts, coming back to reality. “What?” He shifted again so that both of his legs were crossed again. “Oh, it’s nothing,” he said, realizing what had just happened. “I just remembered something funny that I told Michael once.”

“What was it?” Ryan pushed, and he hoped it wasn’t too pushy, just enough to get some information out of Gavin.

Gavin laughed again. “It was dumb. We were studying biology, and I drew a family, and I said it was us.” He chuckled, thinking about how stupid it was. “And on the way home I made Michael promise that we’d always be together.” He quieted down by the end of the sentence, as if realizing what he’d done was somehow embarrassing or something.

“Really?” Ryan was truly intrigued, so he pressed further. He thought that maybe Gavin had already realized it on his own.

“Yeah,” Gavin sighed. “It was dumb. And creepy, probably. I’d only known him a month, if even that.”

“I don’t think so,” Ryan shrugged. He discreetly checked the time to make sure they still had a while to continue their conversation without being interrupted. Once he was sure they had at least another few minutes, he cleared his throat and put his phone away. “Actually, it’s kind of sweet.”

Gavin shot a look of disbelief at Ryan and scoffed. “I don’t know what it is. It’s like love at first sight, but for friends.” Gavin shook his head, not knowing how to phrase how he felt. He looked away for a moment before meeting Ryan’s gaze again. “Don’t you ever look at someone and feel this nagging feeling, like you have to have them in your life? Because that’s what I feel like.”

Ryan smirked, knowing that Gavin was in so deep and didn’t even realize it. “Maybe that’s just regular love at first sight.”

Gavin blushed and he lightly hit Ryan’s shoulder in mock anger. “Shut up!”

“You don’t know!” Ryan laughed. “Maybe you were right, maybe that family is you and Michael, and you’ll be married some day!”

Gavin’s face turned a deeper shade of pink, and he covered his face with one hand, trying to hide it. He used the other to swat at Ryan helplessly, trying to get him to stop talking. “Shut up, Ryan! Why do you have to make this embarrassing!”

“I’m just saying, love is unpredictable,” Ryan defended himself, chuckling. “And you two look great together! The perfect couple!”

At that point, practice was called back on, and Gavin used that as his excuse to get away. He faced away from Ryan, keeping his face covered, and practically ran away, mumbling to himself about how Ryan didn’t know when to shut up. Ryan stayed right where he sat and laughed, thinking that this conversation was overall a success.

 Since Gavin was at play practice, Michael didn’t really have anywhere to go.

He decided to tag along with Lindsay and hang out at the video editing club. He stayed in the back and promised not to do anything while the club was working, so they let him stick around. Michael watched as they tested the equipment, wrote up the script for tomorrow’s news, and edited a few videos that were going to be played on the morning announcements over the next week.

Eventually, their hour of time ran out, and Lindsay and Michael were the only ones left in the club room. The others had moved out, so Michael sat next to Lindsay as she worked on editing. He watched her quietly, not wanting to interrupt her focus.

After a minute or two of silence, however, Lindsay broke it for him. “So, what are you doing here? Don’t you have your own club?”

Michael shrugged. “Well, yeah.” He unlocked his phone and absentmindedly swiped between screens, pretending to look like the question didn’t bother him at all. “Yearbook’s okay, but it’s kind of lonely I guess.”

“Alright, alright.” She glanced at him and saw right through his façade. “You big baby,” Lindsay snickered, earning a ‘fuck you’ from Michael. “You can stay with me.”

Michael rolled his eyes. “Even if you said no, I wouldn’t be moving.”

Lindsay smiled and went back to editing. Michael watched her, intrigued by how something that looked complex to him was definitely a piece of cake for her. He stared at the screen, completely confused, as the pointer darted back and forth. Lindsay was dragging video clips back and forth, adding things to them, removing things, writing text, and a bunch of other things that Michael could barely comprehend. Almost mesmerized, Michael whispered, “I just don’t get how you can do all this shit. And it makes sense to you.”

Lindsay laughed, typing something in to layer over the video. “Yeah, it’s pretty sick, isn’t it?”

“I’d argue that it’s a little more than just sick,” Michael said, leaning in. He rolled the chair in further to get closer to the screen. “None of this makes any fucking sense to me.”

Lindsay laughed a little louder this time, turning to face Michael with a grin. “Yeah? Doesn’t surprise me.”

Michael huffed, playfully hitting Lindsay on the shoulder. “Shut up,” he said, shaking his head with a smile.

Lindsay nodded, giving an absent minded “yeah, yeah,” in response before going back to editing. Michael watched intently for a moment before asking, “What made you want to do this?”

“Video editing?” Lindsay hummed, thinking on the question as she added a few more little details to the video. “It’s fun, so there’s that,” she commented, earning a scoff from Michael. She giggled and continued to think. “I guess it started with Gavin and Dan.”

“Oh, yeah?” Michael perked up, interested in this sudden backstory.

“Yeah,” Lindsay nodded, remembering the fun they used to have as kids. “They started out filming stuff in slow motion, which was kind of stupid.”

“Sounds like typical Gavin,” Michael said, shaking his head.

Lindsay grinned, agreeing with him. “Well, they were the stars of those videos, and they called me in for help with editing and filming sometimes.” She paused as she was going through the video she was currently editing, finding a mistake. She apologized for the sudden stop as she quickly fixed the error. “It was a lot of fun back then, and I guess it just stuck. I’ve been into it ever since.”

“That’s kind of nice,” Michael said, not really knowing what else to say. “And you’re good at it, too,” he added.

“Thanks,” Lindsay smiled, accepting the compliment. She went back to editing for a moment, sighing in relief as she finally set the video to render. “Anyway, what about you? Don’t you have anything you’re super passionate about?”

Michael shook his head. “Oh, god, no, not me.” He frowned, thinking maybe there might be something, but came up empty. “Nothing like you with your videos or Gavin with his theater.”

Lindsay bit her lip when Michael mentioned Gavin, wondering if she should let the conversation go in that direction. She ended up deciding against it, thinking that they should probably discuss that somewhere more private.

Ultimately, Lindsay sighed, letting go of the mouse. She pushed lightly on the desk, rolling away from the monitor in her chair. “So, nothing, huh?” Lindsay said, glancing at the video progress. She paused, thinking about where to take the conversation. “And I guess that means you have no idea what you want to do with your life, huh?”

Michael scoffed, crossing his arms. “Nope.” He looked away for a moment, a smile forming on his face. “Actually, I was talking to Gavin about that recently. That it’s kind of fucked up that we expect kids to choose what they wanna do for the rest of their lives at eighteen years old.”

“Ugh, honestly,” Lindsay agreed, slightly hung up on the fact that Michael brought up Gavin yet again. She was onto something, but had to confirm her suspicions. “So what are you planning to do after this?” Lindsay asked, wary of Michael’s answer.

Michael was slightly surprised by the sudden question. “Oh, uh, well I was just gonna drop by the auditorium and wait ‘til Gavin was ready to go.”

Lindsay nodded, glad to hear that. “Well, you could do that, but you’d be stuck there for a little while. I don’t think play practice ends until four or maybe five?” she said, half asking the second half of it. “So you might need a back-up plan.”

“Really? Damn.” Michael shook his head, upset by the change of plans. “I should really ask him what his schedule’s like to avoid stuff like this.” He unlocked his phone and wrote a note down so as not to forget it.

Lindsay watched him, wanting to speak her next few words, but worried about the outcome. When Michael looked back up at her, ready to speak, she blurted it all out anyway. “Okay, Michael, face it, you’re lost without him.”

Michael’s eyes widened and his face reddened, half in shame and half in embarrassment. “I am— I do not— Gavin’s not—” He paused, and then fully stopped and sighed, realizing there was no way he was going to get out of this. “Okay, sure. I am.” He stared at the floor for a while, his face burning red. He kept facing the floor, but glanced up at Lindsay momentarily. “So what?” he asked, almost angry.

Lindsay shrugged, not necessarily seeing anything wrong with that. “Nothing’s wrong.” She thought for a moment, carefully picking her next words. “I just want to know why,” is what she settled for.

Michael stared at the ground for another moment before sighing and slumping back in the seat. “God, I don’t know,” he admitted, running a hand through his hair. “I wish I could explain it.” He straightened up and inhaled sharply, thinking he was onto something, but he shook his head and sighed.

It took him a moment to get his thoughts together, but he got there eventually. “It’s like, we met, and something clicked. Like when you’re trying to solve a problem and you finally get the answer, or when you’re solving a puzzle and the last piece falls into place.”

A moment of silence went by before he whispered, “It was like we were meant to find each other.”

Lindsay smiled, glad to hear his answer. “Like a soulmate?”

Just as he had started to calm down, his face went red again. “No! God, no!” He was completely flustered, trying to make excuses and explain how what he felt and what a soulmate was were completely different.

Lindsay laughed at the sudden violent reaction and reached out a hand to touch his shoulder. “It’s okay, I get it, alright?” Michael’s shoulders slumped, and he calmed down. Lindsay smiled, and she turned back to the computer. The video had finished rendering. “Let me just take care of this real quick and we’ll go, okay?”

Michael tried to answer, but Lindsay’s comment had practically caused him to short circuit, so all he came up with was a jumbled mess sounding like “mhphm.”

Lindsay quickly uploaded the video to folder shared between the club members and shut down the program and the computer. She and Michael then packed up their things and left the room right after Lindsay shut off the light and locked the door.

On their way out, they decided to visit the drama club and see if they could catch a glimpse of Gavin on stage. As they arrived at the auditorium and moved to the back, they happened to overhear a couple of gossiping girls who seemed to be in the drama club.

“Did you see Gavin’s face?” one of them said, laughing. “It was so red, and he was trying so hard to cover it!”

That certainly grabbed their attention. Michael and Lindsay shared a look of shock as they nodded, focusing less on the stage and more on their gossip.

“I know!” agreed another. “What do you think they were talking about?”

Another shrugged. “No idea, but it seemed pretty suspicious. Ryan looked like he was all about it.”

Michael’s eyes widened and he gave Lindsay another look. Lindsay hoped that this was just a misunderstanding, and she returned a look to try and convey her thoughts. It didn’t help to calm Michael down at all.

“They must be dating,” the first one concluded. “It’s the only logical explanation!” All of them broke out into laughter, speculating on the idea of Ryan and Gavin together.

Lindsay grabbed Michael’s hand and dragged him out of there, knowing that any more time spent in there would be disastrous. Michael was silent for most of it, too confused and worried to say anything.

“What the hell is that about?” Lindsay said, realizing that she would mostly be talking to herself. “That’s gotta be a misunderstanding!” she said, hoping to get through to Michael.

Michael still didn’t respond, and Lindsay bit her lip, wondering how she could possibly get the point across. “Ryan would never go for Gavin. This can’t be real. They’ve got to be making it up.”

Still no response. She felt bad for Michael, but she had to do something to get his head out of his thoughts. He just wasn’t cooperating with her.

Lindsay sighed. It was going to be a long walk home.

 The walk home went as Lindsay had expected. Michael didn’t say much for a while, but he started responding again once Lindsay had moved on to different topics. They made small talk, but it was pretty bland and boring. But Lindsay would take that over leaving Michael to his own self destructive thoughts.

They decided to hang out in Gavin’s room and wait for him to get back, maybe to clear up this whole thing and get to the truth. They sat together on the floor, each doing their own thing, waiting patiently for Gavin.

Lindsay had moved on to some homework, but she looked up occasionally to make sure Michael was doing okay. The third time she looked up and saw that he was again staring into space, she stepped in.

She sighed, pulling herself up into a sitting position and scooting over to sit next to Michael. “Okay, Michael. Why are you so hung up on this?”

The sudden question shook him out of his thoughts. He looked at her, then away, and back at her. “I don’t know,” he breathed out, exasperated. “I just am.” He shook his head, devolving into a frustrated yell. He leaned over, putting his face in his hands. “God, this is so fucking stupid.”

“It’s not,” Lindsay reassured him. “I’m also pretty shocked and worried.”

“But not as much as me,” Michael said through gritted teeth.

Lindsay opened her mouth to refute that statement, but she realized that he was right. She closed her mouth and frowned worriedly. “…No,” she whispered. “Not as much as you.”

Michael pulled his knees in to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. He looked away from Lindsay, nodding his head at the words she repeated. Suddenly, he sighed and met her eyes again. “You wanna know something?”

Lindsay was taken aback by the sudden question, but she agreed anyway. “Yeah, of course, if it’ll make you feel better.”

Michael shook his head in disbelief with himself as he laughed. “I can’t believe I’m about to tell you this.” He let go of his knees and crossed his legs instead. “When I was younger, kids were always bullying me for no goddamn reason. They made me feel like absolute shit, and I had no one to turn to. It was so fucking hard to talk to anyone, let alone trust them.”

Michael paused, surprised to see the hurt look on Lindsay’s face. He shook himself out of his thoughts and continued. “Anyway, it’s always been hard for me to get close to people. And then I met Gavin, and I thought that it was over. I thought I could trust him with anything, and then this suddenly happens?”

He scoffed, shaking his head again, eager to rush through the story and be done with it. “It’s so fucking stupid that I’m so hung up about this, but I fucking am. I just thought that if there was anything important that he was going through, I would know. But I’m hearing about this through some shitty gossip.”

There was a long silence between them for a while before Lindsay finally sighed, placing a hand on top of Michael’s to calm him down. “First of all,” she began, squeezing his hand, “I’m so sorry about your childhood. You didn’t deserve that.”

Michael glanced at her, frowned, and looked away again. “Thanks. Even though it won’t change anything. But thanks.”

Lindsay gave him a small smile before continuing. “Second, it’s good that you trust him. And you should continue to trust him. And believe in him.”

Michael didn’t reply, so Lindsay went on. “Michael, relationships are a two-way street. Gavin trusts you so much that you were the first person he even told about his interest in the drama club.” She paused, waiting for a response. When none was given, she continued. “That means that you need to trust him with this. If something is going on, he’ll tell you. If nothing’s going on, he’ll tell you. But you need to believe in him.”

Michael removed his hand from Lindsay’s grip, disappointing her for a moment before he placed his hand on top of hers and squeezed instead. Lindsay tried to meet his gaze, smiling, but he looked away. “You’re right. I know you’re right.” He frowned, finally looking her in the eye. “But it’s hard.”

“Of course it is,” Lindsay understood, nodding. “You’ve had a hard time believing in others because they’ve all let you down, but Gavin won’t do that. It’ll be hard to realize that, but you need to. For your sake.”

Michael took his hand back and crossed his arms. “Yeah,” he breathed, nodding slowly. “I’m just gonna have to believe in him.”

Lindsay grinned, laughing. “I promise that he will never let you down. I’ll make sure of it.”

Michael looked away for a moment and then back at Lindsay, a small smile on his face. “I’ll hold you to that, you know.”

Lindsay was about to respond, but the door suddenly flew open as Gavin ran inside, slamming it shut behind him. He threw his bag to the floor and practically dropped down to Michael and Lindsay’s level. He took out his phone, as if looking for something frantically.

Michael was going to ask what the hell his problem was, but Gavin interrupted him by shoving his phone in their faces. “Have you seen this!?” he exclaimed, getting even closer.

Michael snatched the phone out of Gavin’s hand and brought it closer so that he and Lindsay could read. It was a list of Gavin’s recent text messages, many of them asking about his relationship with Ryan.

“It’s ridiculous!” Gavin cried, exasperated as he threw himself onto his bed. “They have no idea what they’re talking about!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Lindsay interjected, pulling herself up to her feet. She held out Gavin’s phone to him. “Can you please explain what this is about?”

Gavin huffed, taking the phone back. “Me and Ryan were just talking during a break. He asked me all sorts of weird questions about my future, and one of them was just really embarrassing and really sudden.”

Gavin groaned and buried his face in his pillow, remembering the question and realizing that the subject of it was currently sitting on the floor of his bedroom.  He lifted his head to say, “And now people are making a big deal out of nothing!” before plopping his head back down into the pillow.

Lindsay sat at the foot of Gavin’s bed and crossed her legs. “So, you’re not secretly dating Ryan behind our backs?”

“Of course not!” Gavin flipped over, hugging the pillow to his chest. “Even if I was, you both know that you’re the first people I’d tell! I wouldn’t keep this a secret.”

“That’s what I thought.” Lindsay smiled, glancing at Michael as if to tell him “I told you so.”

Gavin and Michael looked up from their lunches to give Lindsay a questioning look. “What?” they asked, almost in perfect unison.

Lindsay sighed, placing her fork down and leaning on her elbow. “You know,” she started, gesturing vaguely with her other hand, “a celebration, for like, getting into the play and all.”

Gavin gasped, quickly sitting up straight. “You’re right!” He leaned back, crossing his arms. “After all, I went through all that stress and worked so hard, I deserve it!” Michael shook his head and sighed, getting a laugh out of Gavin.

“Oh, but, it shouldn’t just be me, of course.” Gavin placed his hands on the table and leaned forward, looking over at Ryan’s side of the table. “Hey, Ryan!”

Ryan, surprised by the sudden call, nearly choked on whatever he was chewing, but acknowledged Gavin anyway. “Yes, Gavin?” he called back, in between coughing fits.

“We want to celebrate the fact that we got into the play! After school, at the mall! You’ll come, won’t you?” Gavin asked, an expectant smile on his face.

Ryan shrugged and turned to speak with the people at his end of the table. It was a conversation that Gavin couldn’t quite hear, but it ended quickly. Ryan turned back to Gavin, saying, “Sure, why not? Can Jack come?”

Gavin grinned even wider, if possible. “Of course!” Ryan gave him a quick thumbs up and went back to eating, ending the conversation.

Gavin sunk back into his seat, smiling. Lindsay scoffed, resting her head in her hands. “I don’t remember letting you choose where we were going, when, and with who.”

“Aww, come on, Lindsay,” Gavin whined, resting his face on the table. He looked up at her with the best puppy dog eyes he could muster, earning a disgusted look from Michael. “It’s a celebration for me, I should get to choose, right?”

Before Lindsay could answer, he shot up straight in his chair, effectively scaring the shit out of Michael. “Besides, it’s more fun with more people, right?” As if that wasn’t enough of a scare, Gavin turned and grabbed Michael’s hands without warning, allowing whatever was left of his soul to leave his body. “Michael, is there anyone you want to invite?”

After taking a second to breathe, Michael thought about anyone he could potentially invite. Other than Gavin and Lindsay, who he basically spent every waking moment with, there were very few candidates. “I guess… maybe… Kdin?” he asked more than answered.

“Oh, yeah! You guys were really good friends in the beginning of the year.” Without letting go of Michael’s hands, Gavin stood up, pulling Michael up along with him. “It’ll be easier to go to Kdin than it will be to yell across the table,” he explained, dragging Michael towards the opposite end of the table.

When they got there, Gavin gave Michael a little push to get him to open the conversation. Michael gave him a look, but turned back to Kdin and his group of friends. “Uh, hey, Kdin.”

Kdin stopped mid-sentence and turned to Michael with a smile. “Hey, Michael! What’s up?”

“Well,” he started, suddenly unable to speak. Michael gestured wildly with his hands, as if trying to grasp the words he needed. “Me and Gavin, and some others, we wanted to know if you wanted to hang out, today after school?” he finally pieced together.

Kdin frowned. “Oh, that sounds fun.” He glanced at the others at his table and looked back at Michael apologetically. “But I’ve already made plans with my friends here, so…” he trailed off.

Gavin leaned close to Michael, whispering, “Friends are invited too, you know.”

Without realizing he was speaking too loud, Michael replied, “Well, I don’t know if his friends want to come.” As he spoke, he glanced at the people at Kdin’s table and realized one was staring him down. Angrily.

Instinctively, Michael balled up his fists in response. Gavin noticed the action immediately and grabbed Michael’s right hand, coaxing him to relax.

Kdin must have noticed too, because he glanced at the kid that was staring Michael down, looked at Michael, and back to the kid. “Jeremy,” Kdin said, sighing, “it’s okay.”

“No, it’s not,” the kid, who Michael assumed was Jeremy, practically growled.

“He doesn’t know,” Kdin explained. “Well, yet, I guess.”

Michael had finally relaxed his hands, and Gavin let go of him. “Doesn’t know what?” Michael asked.

Kdin glanced around for a moment before motioning for Michael to move in closer. Confused, Michael bent down a bit, enough for them to be at eye level. “Listen, I trust you, Michael,” Kdin whispered. “So I’m letting you know that I’m… transgender. Which means that I identify as a girl, not a guy. So when you talk about me, please use she instead of he, okay?”

Michael nodded. It wasn’t a new concept to him, but he’d never known anyone like that personally. Still, he knew enough to know that it was downright humiliating to not have anyone take you seriously or respect you, so Michael vowed to support Kdin, whoever h- …she was. “Okay, Kdin. I’ll try not to make that mistake again.”

Gavin gave Michael a questioning look when Michael stood up straight again, but Michael waved him off. “Anyway,” Michael began again, “what Gavin was saying was, if you want, your friends can come too.”

“Oh!” Kdin smiled again. She turned to her friends, who were locked in their own conversation at that point. “Hey, guys,” she interjected, quickly getting her friends’ attention. “Do you wanna hang out with Michael and Gavin today?”

Her friends seemed to think about it for a moment, but they quickly agreed to it. Kdin turned back to Michael with a smile. “Okay, everyone’s on board! Where are we meeting and when?”

“After school at the mall!” Gavin answered for Michael. “We’ll meet you by the entrance!” With that, Gavin grabbed Michael’s hand again and dragged him back to their seats. Michael could barely give a goodbye wave to Kdin.

Lindsay sat patiently, watching the two of them as they sat down. “I take it that they agreed?” she asked.

“Yeah, they’re coming,” Michael answered, deciding to pack his lunch away rather than continue to eat.

“What about you, Lindsay?” Gavin asked, doing the same. “Is there anyone you want to bring?”

Lindsay shook her head. “Well, Dan and Ray seem like they’re busy, and I don’t really see a point in inviting anyone from my end if the celebration is for you and Ryan.”

Gavin huffed, crossing his arms. “I said it would be more fun if we have more people, Lindsay. If there’s anyone you want to bring, you can invite them!”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Lindsay laughed, waving him off. “It’s not like I really know anyone other than you dorks, anyway.” Gavin gasped at the word ‘dorks’ and opened his mouth to explain how they were very much indeed not dorks, but the bell rang before he could say anything.

At the sound of the bell, Gavin grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder, as if in a hurry. Already halfway turned around, he pulled out his phone and called back at Michael and Lindsay. “Sorry, guys,” he apologized, waving his phone in the air. “I have to get to class quick, but I promise to text everyone the location and time, okay?” Before Michael or Lindsay could answer, Gavin had already run off into the crowd.

Shocked, Michael stared at the crowd that Gavin had so quickly disappeared into. “Wonder what’s got him in a rush?”

Lindsay sighed, shrugging her shoulders. “Who knows?” She stood up and began packing her stuff away, listing off possibilities as she worked. “Maybe he’s resolved to pull himself together in that class, or he pissed off the teacher so he’s trying to prove he’s not a delinquent, or…” She trailed off, trying to think of any other overused tropes that might explain Gavin’s behavior.

She snickered, thinking of another. “Or maybe he made a promise to meet up with the person he likes before class?” She burst into laughter just thinking about it, barely being able to finish the sentence.

She expected Michael to laugh along with her, but when she didn’t hear anything from him, she paused and looked his way. Instead of a smile, there was a look of shock on his face—one that shocked her as well.

She wanted to say something, something like, “Wait, fuck, that’s not what I meant,” but nothing came out.

Eventually, Michael spoke up, asking, “Is… Is there seriously someone that Gavin likes?”

“No way.”

A hand fell onto Michael’s shoulder and he turned in surprise to find himself staring up at Ryan. “Well, I mean, I don’t know.” Ryan removed his hand and apologized for being so sudden. He then shrugged, adding, “I mean, he’s so busy being friends with everybody. I doubt there’s a special someone in his life.”

“Oh,” was the only thing Michael could say, too caught up in the idea of Gavin being in love with someone, for some reason he couldn’t figure out.

Ryan sighed, not really knowing what to do in this situation. “I, uh, sorry again about so randomly butting into the conversation.” He gestured with his hands, looking for the words he wanted to say. “I was looking for Gavin, to ask him where we should meet after school. And then, well, he wasn’t here, and you guys were talking and I overheard you, and…” He was hoping Michael would understand and finish the conversation, but to no avail. “And, so, yeah, I just thought I’d say something.”

Lindsay shook her head and walked up to the two of them, patting Ryan on the back. “No worries, Ryan. Gavin said he’d text everyone before school’s over.” She gave him a smile and a tentative thumbs up, silently telling him not to worry too much.

Ryan got the message and nodded. “Right, okay.” He spotted Jack leaving without him and started to move towards that direction. “Okay, well, see you guys later!” And then he was off.

Lindsay waved him off and looked back to Michael, who was still staring off into space. With a long sigh, she slapped his back, making him fall forward. He caught himself quickly, but the action earned Lindsay a long string of angry curses, which she was happy to hear. “Geez, I didn’t think this of all things would be your undoing.

Pulling his backpack up on his shoulder after being so rudely pushed, Michael furrowed his brow at her words. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Lindsay snickered again, shaking her head. “Gavin’s love life got you all messed up.”

To his dismay, Michael’s face reddened. He struggled to come up with an excuse. “What the— It’s just— I was just thinking—” He fumbled for the right words, trying to explain himself for being so caught up in it without being too weird about it. “I thought that, if he had someone he liked, I would know, so when you said that, I felt...” he trailed off.

What did he feel, anyway? Michael really didn’t know.

“I was just… surprised, is all.” Michael decided that was probably the best way to put it.

Lindsay seemed unconvinced, but she agreed anyway. “Yeah, yeah, okay. Sure.” She debated whether or not she should keep her mouth shut, but decided to speak anyway. “Besides, if you care so much, you can just ask him after school,” she said with a laugh.

Michael felt his face heat up again. “Shut up.”

 As promised, Gavin texted the group right before the last bell rang. He set the meeting time for three o’clock, right at the front entrance. He figured that would give everyone enough time to bring their stuff at home and make it back to the mall.

At three, as promised, Gavin showed up with Michael and Lindsay. Ryan and Jack seemed to be waiting there since school got out, since they drove straight from the high school to the mall. Within a few minutes, Kdin showed up with the three guys she was with at lunch. They introduced themselves to Michael as Matt, Jeremy, and Trevor.

After the shared pleasantries, the group entered the mall and officially began the “celebration”. They spent a few hours doing some window shopping, entering stores and essentially wreaking havoc. It began with a couple of generic clothing stores. They went in and actually looked at the clothes and considered purchasing them, nothing special. Half the group thought it was a productive way to spend their time, but the other half saw it as a waste.

Which led to that half dragging the half that was having a perfectly good time into the department stores. Jeremy had the genius idea of starting a fashion competition. Except they weren’t fighting for the title of best dressed—they were looking to be the worst. The competition was tournament style. Each person got five minutes to run around the floor and look for the worst set of clothes they could find. At the end of the five minutes, they got time to change. Whoever came out looking worse would advance.

Most of the outfits were pretty bad, but some were definitely worse than others. Those who were eliminated early were Jack in a tropical shirt and some shorts, Michael in a weird leather jacket with a wolf on the back, Kdin in a dress with an ugly color combination (who probably wouldn’t have been eliminated if she hadn’t gone up against someone with an even uglier color combination), and Lindsay, somehow, finding an outfit with every piece covered in cats or cat paw prints. Gavin got lucky and skipped to the final round.

Trevor and Matt got through the first round with some dysfunctional outfits, but eventually lost to Ryan and Jeremy. In the end, it was Jeremy, Ryan, and Gavin all up against each other. Jeremy, for all three rounds, somehow managed to find three horrifying outfits, all in purple and orange. Ryan got through not because his outfit was the ugliest, but because it was the creepiest, and he continued that trend for the final round. Gavin, having not yet gone against anyone, went for a strategy that no one had gone for yet—a ridiculous amount of jewelry on top of the douchiest outfit he could make.

It was a tough choice for those who were eliminated, but Jeremy ended up winning. He was wearing a prison orange shirt, bright yellow dress pants, a royal purple suit jacket, and, to top it all off, a white cowboy hat. It was probably the worst thing anyone could lay their eyes on.

After that, they spent a little more time in the department store, running around and messing with the furniture, the makeup and perfume, and anything else they could get their hands on. It was a mess.

And that was exactly what Michael thought as he watched, horrified, as Lindsay sprayed herself every kind of perfume she was allowed to touch.

It didn’t stop there. They stepped into a Bath and Body Works and, suddenly, Jeremy, Matt, and even Gavin were obsessed with trying out every kind of hand soap at the sink. They must have washed their hands at least twelve times. If not more than that.

And, once again, Michael watched, slightly less horrified, as Lindsay sprayed herself with every perfume bottle labeled “try me”.

They realized it was time to leave once the hand washing team then became obsessed with smelling every candle they could find. The seniors had to drag their little sophomore friends out of the store, and they ended up finding themselves at the movie theater that was joined to the mall.

It was getting a little late, so they ultimately decided against a movie, but did take full advantage of the small arcade area in the front. Jeremy insisted on playing with Ryan, his “battle buddy”, in the shooter game. Trevor and Jack were drawn to the retro games, and they ended up taking turns playing Space Invaders. The others decided to take turns racing each other.

After quite a while, they were about to leave to get dinner together, but something else stopped them. The animal riders.

“We have to ride them!” Gavin practically yelled, running for the stand. “We have to!” he repeated.

Jeremy and Matt ran after him, agreeing, while Michael and Kdin shared a look and reluctantly agreed to follow.

“I guess we have no choice,” Jack sighed, shaking his head.

Ryan laughed, agreeing. “I mean, it looks fun, doesn’t it?”

Jack gave Ryan a look, silently asking, “are you fucking kidding me?” Ryan would have responded, but Jack had already left to follow the rest of them before he could.

Ryan was going to follow, but Lindsay grabbed his arm, stopping him in place. Confused, he gave Lindsay a questioning look. “Everything… all right?”

“Oh, yeah,” Lindsay nodded. “I’m just, thirsty is all.” She was silent for a moment before she continued, confusing Ryan even more. She then suddenly looked up, surprising him. “Come with me to get a drink?”

Still puzzled, but not wanting to ask anything if she didn’t want to tell, he agreed. “Yeah, sure.”

“Great.”

The two of them walked together, silently, towards the nearest food place. Ryan kept glancing at Lindsay, but she looked so deep in thought and almost pained. He wanted to say something, but he couldn’t figure anything out.

He watched her order, pay, and receive her drink wordlessly. Even as she turned away from the counter, she sipped her drink and looked in a different direction, away from him.

It was probably the most stressful moment of Ryan’s life. Not even college apps were this bad.

“Hey, Ryan…” Lindsay started, trailing off.

“Yeah?” he responded, almost too quickly.

She looked up at him, down at the drink, and then back up at him. “If I… tell you something. You won’t think it’s crazy or anything, right? Like, you’ll listen to me.”

She looked worried, which worried Ryan even more. “Yeah, of course,” he responded, hoping not to say anything wrong.

Lindsay sighed in relief. There was a long pause before she said anything. “Well, there’s these two people. And I know they’re supposed to be together. Or, at least, they definitely should. But it’s… It’s like, they don’t know. They aren’t together. Well, they are, but not in the way they should be.” Lindsay groaned, squeezing her cup. She seemed frustrated, like she didn’t know how she should be saying this. “And I just want to help them, you know? But it’s like they’re too dense to get it!” Her grip tightened, and Ryan laughed.

Again, Lindsay sighed. Her grip relaxed, and her frustration melted into worry. “I just want them to be happy. Together. But I don’t want to intervene too much, or it won’t feel real.” She stopped again, thinking. “But I also know I have to do something, or nothing will ever happen.”

Ryan smiled, happy to see that his friend was trying so hard for other people’s happiness. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t know exactly who she was talking about, since he knew exactly how she was feeling. “You’re talking about Michael and Gavin, aren’t you?”

Lindsay looked up at Ryan so surprised that she almost dropped her cup. “I— uh, you, you knew?” she stuttered, absolutely floored.

Ryan shrugged, laughing, half out of relief that what was troubling Lindsay wasn’t that heavy, and half because it was just so funny that she really thought he had no idea. “Well, yeah. It’s kind of obvious that those two have some sort of connection.” Ryan paused, humming, trying to figure out how to explain. “It’s like, I don’t know, soulmates. Like they just… fit together, almost too perfectly.” He stopped again, remembering something with a laugh. “Also, with the way Michael responded at lunch to the idea of Gavin being in love with anyone… of course they’d be the ones you were talking about.”

“Oh my God, I’m so glad you agree,” Lindsay laughed, her shock fading into relief. She tapped Ryan’s arm, telling him that they should start walking back.

“So, let me guess. You asked me because now that Gavin and I are in the play together, we spend more time together, alone, away from Michael, and you want me to help out,” Ryan predicted. “Am I right?”

Lindsay laughed, glad that Ryan got the message. “I mean, you’re a schemey guy, Ryan. Even if you weren’t in the play with Gavin, I probably still would have asked you.”

Ryan didn’t know if he should have been offended or pleased with that comment, so he chose not to respond to it. “Anyway, so what do you want me to do?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Lindsay shrugged, continuing to sip her drink. “Simple things. Just ease it into conversation.” She moved her head from side to side, thinking of things Ryan could do. “Like, just a kind word or two about Michael, mention if you talked to him recently, discreetly ask about Gavin’s feelings about Michael, I guess?”

“Gotcha.”

“Hey, Lindsay! We were wondering where you went!”

Their attention was drawn to Gavin, who was running up to them from the animal ride stand. He gasped, seeing the drink in her hand. “You went to get stuff without us?” he asked, with exaggerated mortification. “We were gonna get dinner right after this, Lindsay!”

“Oh, c’mon. It’s just one thing,” she said, waving him off. “Besides,” she peered behind Gavin to see the rest of the group still riding the animals, “it doesn’t look like we’ll be going any time soon.”

Gavin turned around to see that everyone had decided they wanted to go for another round. If not more. Disappointed, he turned back to Lindsay, who had a smug grin on her face.

“Touché.”

 Eventually, Gavin and Lindsay were able to convince everyone to get up and go get something to eat. They decided on a little restaurant that was partly built into the mall, which might have been a mistake.

Gavin shook his head, resting his face in his hands. “I never would have thought that Ryan of all people would have been the hardest to convince,” he muttered as he watched the rest of the plates get cleared away.

“Oh, come on, Gavin. You were the one who suggested we ride them in the first place,” Ryan pointed out.

“I did, but I went once!” Gavin retorted, pressing his palms into the table. “If we hadn’t stopped you, you probably would have gone for a third ride!”

“Nah,” Ryan laughed, shrugging it off.

Gavin gave him an angry look, expecting an actual answer. When none was given, he sighed, slumping back into his chair and crossing his arms. “Yes, you would have,” he muttered again, taking a sip of whatever was left of his drink.

Ryan leaned on his elbow and stared at Gavin for a good five seconds, making Gavin extremely uncomfortable. Gavin was about to ask if something was wrong when Ryan suddenly asked, “Gavin, is there anyone you have a crush on or anything?”

In unison, Gavin, Michael, and Lindsay all dropped what they were doing and stared at Ryan, wide-eyed and in disbelief. The rest of the table seemed to overhear and listened curiously as well.

Gavin, having been drinking something right before Ryan asked, was struggling not to choke on it. In between coughs, he asked incredulously, “Ryan, what are you talking about?”

Ryan laughed, a bit too happily for the situation. “What? It was just a question. I was just curious.”

Lindsay held her head in her hands, unable to say or do anything. ‘I want to die. I want to curl up and just die,’ was all she could think.

Gavin’s face flushed as he thought about the question. Unable to give a straight answer, he stuttered as he tried to come up with something. “I— I just— No, I—I don’t think so?”

Michael didn’t know why, but even though that was the answer he thought he wanted to hear, it didn’t make him feel any better.

Ryan was going to reply to that statement, but Gavin stopped him before he could say anything else and do any more damage. “I—I mean, why does it even matter if I like anyone? You’re the one that’s looking like a male model, Ryan!”

Ryan flinched at that statement, and it earned quite a few laughs from the rest of the table. “Wh—why would you say that?” he asked nervously.

Gavin smirked, realizing he had the upper hand now. “Look at you, Ryan! I mean, you’re gorgeous. Of course you would be comparable to a male model. You could have anyone you want, couldn’t you?”

A part of Ryan felt relieved that Gavin only said ‘comparable’, but the rest was still very upset with the current conversation. “No I couldn’t! Why are we even talking about this?”

“Because you brought it up!” Gavin pointed out.

“Okay, how about, we just, not talk about this. Anymore.” Lindsay intervened before it got any worse. “Just, like, shut up. Both of you. Let’s discuss something else.”

As if on cue, Jeremy called out to Ryan and Gavin, waving around a dessert menu. “Hey, you guys should get something! Like a cake! It wouldn’t be a real celebration without a cake!” he singsonged with a wink.

Ryan and Gavin exchanged a look before looking at Jeremy with intense scrutiny. “Give us that menu,” Ryan ordered.

With a laugh, Jeremy happily handed it over, and in no time, Ryan and Gavin were happily discussing which cakes they wanted to get.

Lindsay sighed, feeling somewhat relieved that they weren’t discussing their love lives anymore. She watched in content as they bickered over which cake would be best to get while Michael pointed out that they could each get their own cake. At least it wasn’t a conversation that could jeopardize anything.

Still, she knew that she had to make sure that Ryan knew the limits to his “help” to prevent this from happening again.

 In the end, Ryan and Gavin picked two separate cakes, but they ended up sharing them anyway. When they arrived, the whole table sang some shitty rendition of “Happy Birthday”, but instead of “happy birthday”, it was “happy getting into the play celebration”.

After they finished, the whole group said some final goodbyes before finally splitting up. Ryan and Jack drove, so they stayed to make sure everyone else got picked up first. Kdin, Jeremy, Matt, and Trevor all left with their parents within a half hour, and Geoff came to get Michael, Gavin, and Lindsay.

The ride home was short, and before Michael knew it, he was back home. Alone.

It was about eight o’clock, so he wasn’t all that surprised that his parents weren’t home yet. He’d grown accustomed to it over the years. Some nights he’d even go to sleep without seeing his parents.

Without anyone to greet, Michael went straight upstairs to his room. He resolved to work on his homework for a while, at least to kill time until his parents got home. However, unsurprisingly, he ended up falling asleep halfway through.

He woke up later, to the sound of his ringtone. He jumped in his seat, surprised at the sudden noise, and even more surprised to see that he was still sitting at his desk. By the time he had become fully aware of where he was and what was going on, his phone had stopped ringing, but he checked it anyway.

look outside

It was from Gavin, so Michael knew it was better to just do what he asked and not question it. He sighed, pocketing his phone and moving towards the window facing his front lawn. As he looked out, he expected something strange in the sky or something left for him on the driveway.

He didn’t expect Gavin to be standing in front of his house, but there he was.

Shocked, Michael checked the time on his phone. He wondered how late it was, and why the fuck Gavin was outside.

It was ten o’clock.

Michael was about to call Gavin and tell him to go the fuck home and go to bed what the fuck, but Gavin had already sent him a text.

how can i get inside?

Michael wanted to scream.

Was Gavin just being stupid? How could he get inside at this time? Well, it wasn’t that late, but his parents would definitely hear him come in, and then they would want to know what he was doing there, and it just wouldn’t be good for either of them.

Michael wondered if there was a ladder Gavin could get to. Or a rope. He was going to check, but Gavin had texted him again.

theres no car in the driveway… are ur parents home?

Michael sighed. Of course his parents weren’t home yet. He wanted to be upset, but he thought that he should probably be glad in this case. He texted back:

no. u can just come in through the front door. ill let u in.

Within a few seconds, Michael bounded down the stairs and opened the door for Gavin. Wordlessly, Michael stepped aside, allowing Gavin to enter. Gavin nodded a thank you and stepped inside, looking around curiously.

“Let’s go upstairs.”

Michael led Gavin up the stairs and up to his room. He opened the door, allowing Gavin to enter first. As soon as Gavin went inside, Michael followed after and shut the door behind them.

Just as he did downstairs, Gavin looked around Michael’s room curiously. “So, this is your room…”

“Yeah,” Michael shrugged, plopping himself down on his bed. He looked around at the simple, messy room that he inhabited and realized that he probably shouldn’t have let Gavin upstairs. “Nothing special.”

“Well, it is kind of special!” Gavin said, smiling. He let himself fall backwards onto Michael’s bed, stretching his limbs. “I’ve never been in here before.”

Michael scooted backwards and crossed his legs. He stared at Gavin as he lay on his bed, wondering why he suddenly decided to visit. Before he got a chance to ask, Gavin sat up and turned to face Michael, asking, “So why aren’t your parents home?”

Michael’s eyes narrowed as he stared down at his lap. He really didn’t want to be having this conversation. “I don’t know,” was all he said.

“Oh,” Gavin said, trying to think of possible explanations for Michael’s parents’ absence. “Do they work a little farther away or something? Or are they working late?”

Michael sighed, turning to the window. He was silent for a moment before he answered. “I guess.”

Gavin could tell that Michael probably didn’t want to keep talking about it, so he dropped the issue. He waited for Michael to bring something else up, to change the topic.

He didn’t say anything for a minute or so. Gavin had picked a different direction to look in, but peered back at Michael, looking for a change in posture or anything. Suddenly, Michael asked, “Well, why are you here, Gavin?”

Gavin smiled, laughing quietly. “Um, I don’t really know.” The laughter grew louder, and Michael turned to give Gavin a quizzical look. He stopped, and met Michael’s gaze. “I just thought, I wanted to see you.”

Michael backed up on his bed, sighed, and leaned back against the headboard of the bed. “Idiot, you saw me all day.”

Another laugh. “I guess, but, even though I said I wanted more people to come along, the more time we spent with more people, I realized that I really just wanted it to be us.” Gavin pulled his knees up and hugged them to his chest. “Besides, you and Lindsay were my greatest support. And you especially, since you were the first person I told.”

Gavin laughed again, lightening up the tense atmosphere. He let go of his knees and moved next to Michael on the bed, also leaning back against the headboard. “So then I thought that I just wanted to see you. And I came to see you.”

Michael was silent. He was honestly shocked that Gavin felt that way, and he had no idea what to say. “You… you’re such a reckless person, acting on impulse like that,” he eventually said.

“Maybe,” Gavin said, grinning. “But I got to see you, anyway.”

“You would have seen me tomorrow at school.”

“But not alone.”

Michael didn’t know how to respond to that.

Suddenly, Gavin slumped down until he was laying on the bed. “By the way, I’m going to sleep here. No if’s, and’s, or but’s about it.”

Michael groaned, holding his head in his hands. “What the fuck are you talking about? You can’t just decide to sleep here, in my house, in my bed!”

“Too late.”

Michael sighed, slumping back against the headboard. “Well, I guess I’ll go fuck myself, then,” he muttered.

Both of them were silent for a few minutes, and when Gavin didn’t say anything, Michael thought Gavin had already fallen asleep. He was about to get up to brush his teeth and change into some pajamas, but Gavin said something that stopped him.

“Hey, Michael,” Gavin whispered. “Could you make a promise with me?”

Michael sighed yet again. “What is it?”

“If you’re ever lonely, I’ll promise to just be beside you. To just be with you.” Gavin paused. “And you do the same for me. Just like tonight.”

“Yeah, sure,” Michael agreed, starting to get up.

Gavin pulled on Michael’s shirt, preventing him from standing. “No, you have to really promise.”

Michael lay down next to Gavin and faced him, realizing Gavin wasn’t going to get up or let him get up. “How.”

Gavin had his eyes closed, but held up his left hand with his pinky out. What a child, Michael thought, but he still wrapped his own pinky around Gavin’s. “Pinky swear,” he said, thinking it was absolutely ridiculous.

“Then I’ll never be lonely again,” Gavin whispered, half asleep.

The duo sat patiently in the chorus room as they waited for Gavin to reappear. It had only been a few minutes, but they were already intensely engaged in a game of “guess-how-nervous-that-person-is-on-a-scale-of-one-to-ten-and-prove-why”. Michael seemed to have the upper hand, being that he was so accustomed to nervous quirks and such.

Discreetly leaning closer to Lindsay, but keeping his gaze away from her, Michael whispered, “The guy in the back, in the purple turtleneck.”

Just as carefully, Lindsay nodded so as to not draw attention to herself.

“I’m thinking he’s an eight.”

Lindsay let out a noise of disagreement before arguing against it. “No way. He looks way too composed.”

“I thought so too,” Michael agreed, shifting in his seat so he didn’t have to keep leaning over her, “but look at his hands and his face. He’s shaking, and the kid’s sweating up a storm.”

Lindsay had to take a longer look at the kid in the turtleneck. Sure enough, Michael was right. He was talking with his hands, but they shook a little as he rehearsed. And, god, once she really looked at his face, she realized that he really was drenched with sweat. “Jesus. Are his pores connected to Niagara Falls or something? Someone get that kid a towel!”

Lindsay slumped in the seat and crossed her arms, feeling smug about that comment. Michael had to bite his lip to keep himself from laughing. “Wish we could’ve seen Gavin and rated him on the nervousness scale before he went in.”

Just as the sentence left his mouth, the door to the auditioning room opened. A teacher—probably the chorus teacher, Michael guessed—stepped out with a clipboard. Following behind him was Gavin, looking absolutely wrecked.

“Damn, Gavin looks like it didn’t go so well,” Michael sighed.

Lindsay frowned, also taking a look at Gavin. “Yeah. I wonder what got him thinking like that?”

Gavin looked up from the floor and immediately saw Michael and Lindsay. His body relaxed, out of his stiff, concerned state, and he ran over to them, pulling them both out of their chairs and into a hug. “Guys… I don’t know what to think.”

Lindsay sighed, returning the hug as she wrapped an arm around Gavin’s waist. “You probably did fine, Gavin. What could have possibly gone wrong?”

Gavin’s grip tightened. “I don’t know, there were a couple of things that might’ve ruined it for me.” He paused, replaying the audition in his mind.

“Well, there’s really no point in agonizing over it now, Gavin,” Michael said, patting Gavin on the back. “It’s done, but you did your best.”

Gavin let go of his friends, shocked that Michael wasn’t being as supportive as he usually was. “But Mi—”

“What I mean is what’s done is done, but I know you did your best. And I know that your best is the best that those teachers could ever witness,” Michael reassured him.

Gavin went pink at the sudden praise. Unable to meet Michael’s gaze, he opted to stare at the floor. “I— thanks, Michael,” he mumbled.

“Don’t worry about it, Gavin.” Michael placed a hand on Gavin’s shoulder, bringing him a bit closer. “I seriously doubt that you fucked up. With all the practice and effort you put into it, it’s pretty much impossible at this point.”

“Yeah, Michael’s right!” Lindsay chimed in, closing the gap between the three of them as she pushed Gavin into Michael. She wrapped her arms around them again as the three started giggling.

“Thanks, guys,” Gavin said as he gave his friends a squeeze. After hearing his friends reason with him, his nerves calmed down. He relaxed, replacing the look of frustration and fear with one of his signature bright smiles. “If you can have so much confidence, then I guess I’ve got no choice but to believe it.”

“Hey,” Lindsay said, hugging her friends a little tighter, “since we’re pretty much convinced that Gavin did so well, let’s go celebrate this!”

Michael laughed at the suggestion, wriggling out of Lindsay’s grip. “And what do you have in mind, Lindsay? It’s a school night, and even then, it’s not like there’s much to do in this town.”

Lindsay grinned, letting Gavin go as well. “Well, then let’s just take a walk and look for something nice, why don’t we? Like an adventure! You never know what we might find.” Her gaze flicked back and forth from Michael to Gavin and back again expectantly, hoping to persuade them into agreeing.

After a short period of silence, Michael sighed, stepping next to Lindsay to face Gavin. “Okay, whatever. I’m in.” He shrugged. “It’s not like it really makes a difference to my parents since they won’t be home ‘til later. And Lindsay’s right, it could be fun.”

“Yes!” Lindsay cheered, giving Michael a high five. “So, Gavin? You in?”

“If you’re going to be so insistent, I might as well say yes,” Gavin laughed.

“Nice!” Lindsay grabbed their hands and led them towards the door. “This’s gonna be great, I can feel it!”

The trio exited the school, mostly engaged in simple conversations. They discussed the school day, how classes went, and how much homework they had for the night. Lindsay decided they’d be headed for the more city-like part of town. She claimed that it would be easier to find small businesses and shops and such there.

They followed the sidewalk as Lindsay led them down the streets. Each time they passed a potential spot to visit, they ended up debating its worth for so long that they’d be too far down the street to come back to it.

After walking for fifteen minutes, Gavin whined, “Lindsay! We’ve been out here for so long! Can’t we just pick something already?”

Lindsay huffed. “Okay!” She stopped suddenly, startling the two boys. “Then let’s stay here,” Lindsay suggested, pointing at the sign above them.

Michael and Gavin took in the old-fashioned storefront before them. It was a shorter building, but the greenery decorating the outside gave it a lot of color. Taking a look inside, it was clear that the place was a café.

The boys contemplated the place for a moment, not sure if this is what they really wanted.

“You wanted me to pick a place, so I did,” Lindsay defended herself.

“I guess it’s better than walking farther with no end in sight,” Gavin joked. “Also, this place looks nice, anyway.”

“I guess so. Yeah, let’s stay,” Michael agreed.

Lindsay grinned and grabbed the door handle, pulling it open for her friends to enter first. “Well then, gentlemen, after you!”

The three of them entered and quickly grabbed a table by the front windows. Gavin and Michael sat next to each other while Lindsay took the seat opposite of Gavin.

“It’s really homey in here, isn’t it?” Lindsay said, appreciating the atmosphere of the little café.

“Aren’t all of them like this?” Michael asked.

“Nah, Starbucks isn’t like this at all,” Lindsay argued, grabbing a menu. “This place feels more lived in, don’t you think?”

Michael definitely couldn’t disagree with that point.

“But maybe I’m biased,” Lindsay smiled. “I’ve been here a few times from since I was younger.”

Gavin laughed. “Don’t tell me that your plan was to get us to go here in the first place.”

Lindsay shrugged, laughing at the accusation. “Guilty as charged.” She flipped through the menu, looking for something eye-catching. “This isn’t like a special place or anything, just a good memory. But it’s a childhood memory, I guess. So that makes it special.”

A waitress came to their table to greet them and take their order. Lindsay ordered quickly, but Michael and Gavin, being so invested in conversation, never got a chance to look at the menu. Instead of wasting time, Lindsay ordered things for them, and the waitress was gone.

“Anyway,” Gavin began once the waitress had left, “I don’t remember you ever talking about this place when we were young.”

“Well, visiting a café isn’t really an occasion to brag about, Gavin,” Lindsay said, shifting to lean on her elbows as she cupped her face in her hands.

“I think we should know everything about each other, with how long we’ve been together!” Gavin pointed out.

“And we do!” Lindsay laughed. “I’m willing to bet I know almost every single thing about you. And vice versa.” She picked up a salt shaker, toyed with it, and pretended to look it over. “But, you know what we don’t know?”

“What is it?”

“We don’t know anything about you, Michael,” Lindsay said, pointing the salt shaker towards him. “So I think you should tell us a little about your childhood.”

Michael’s jaw dropped at the sudden question. His childhood? What about it? “I— There’s not— It isn’t—”

Gavin sighed, throwing his head back as he slumped in his chair. “Ah, it won’t work, Lindsay. He wouldn’t tell me anything when I asked him, either.”

Lindsay shook her head. “No, no, no! You gotta tell us, Michael!” She leaned over the table and grabbed his hands. “It’s only fair if we know about you, too!”

Michael wanted Lindsay to let him go, but was frozen in place at the realization of what was to come. He had to think of a way to distract her, a way to get out of her sudden interrogation. “W-Well, I don’t know anything about your childhood.”

Lindsay released him, allowing him to relax. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “Okay, that’s fair enough.”

“Oh, then if we tell you about our childhood, then you’ll tell us about yours?” Gavin asked. “Then it’d be fair, right?”

Michael sighed. “Okay, sure. That’s fair.”

“Ooh!” Lindsay leaned back over the table to decide on a story to tell with Gavin. “What should we talk about?”

“Good question.” Gavin turned to Michael. “How far back do you want us to start?”

“I don’t care,” Michael answered bluntly. “It’s about you. I’ll be fine with anything I get.”

Gavin laughed. “Then we’ll just go as far back as we can and mention whatever comes to mind. I’ll start!” He hummed, thinking about something to talk about. “Well, okay, Lindsay and I met when we were… four or five?”

Lindsay nodded. “Something like that, yeah!” She laughed. “We became friends instantly.”

“We’ve had a lot of good times since then. We played house all the time, and Lindsay would come over almost every day. Until Dan showed up in our lives.”

“That was a big time skip,” Lindsay laughed.

“Well, nothing major really happened in between, did it?” Gavin sighed. “Except the bullying. But that’s not something I’d like to talk about.”

“That’s enough from us, isn’t it, Michael?” Lindsay asked. “Tell us a little about you.”

Since Lindsay and Gavin went that far back, Michael guessed he should as well. Besides, it would easiest for him to avoid talking about his share of bullying. “I used to live here, when I was little, if that counts.”

Gavin gasped. “Of course that counts! Why didn’t you ever tell us about it before? What if we’ve met before?”

“I don’t think we have, Gavin. I’m pretty sure I’d remember a personality like yours,” Michael laughed.

“You might be right,” Gavin huffed, crossing his arms again. “After all, losing a childhood friend and meeting them again after ten years is a bit too unrealistic.”

“Sounds like something that’d happen in one of those shitty young adult books, right?” Lindsay asked, a grin stretching across her face.

Michael laughed. “Yeah, like that.”

Gavin moved to ask Michael more about his past, but the waitress returned with their orders before they could do so. Carefully, she placed their dishes in front of them one by one. None of them had any questions or needs, so the waitress left them to carry on with her work.

As soon as the waitress was gone, Michael deadpanned, “Lindsay, what the fuck am I looking at here?”

Lindsay laughed. “You don’t like them?”

Michael stared at the variety of sweets laid out in front of him. There were a couple of cake slices set in front of him, all of them in different pastel shades. Some were decorated with cute candied flowers or had animal faces drawn onto them. It was basically a little kid’s dream come true.

“I don’t know how I feel about it.”

“Oh, come on, Michael!” Gavin said, throwing an arm around Michael’s shoulder and bringing him closer. “They’re nice!”

Michael nearly fell out of his seat as Gavin pulled his chair closer. “Jesus Christ, Gavin! Don’t scare me like that.” Gavin gasped and let go of Michael to let him readjust in his seat. After he did so, he sighed. “Okay, but you’re right, they definitely don’t look bad.”

“Then let’s share one!”

Michael furrowed his brows at Gavin’s sudden enthusiasm. “Gavin, we’ve got three cakes here. You can just eat your own.”

“Right but, wouldn’t it be more fun if we shared?” Gavin pouted. “And Lindsay can share with us too, of course!”

“No, no,” Lindsay shook her head. She pulled one of the cakes away from them. “This is mine. You share those two.” Lindsay smiled, pointing to the plainer looking cake.

“How’s it fair that you get your own, Lindsay?” Gavin whined.

“I’m paying.”

Gavin groaned in defeat while Lindsay laughed, taking another bite of her cake. “It’s only fair, Gavin. This might be your celebration, but if I want my own cake, I’m getting my own cake.”

Gavin sighed, pulling the remaining two cakes to him and Michael. “Okay, well, Michael, which one do you wanna share first?”

“Can’t we just eat both at the same time?” Michael asked. “It just makes more sense that way.”

“No, Michael!” Michael was shocked at how adamant Gavin was. “It’s gotta be one at a time. What if all the flavors get conflicted? It’s only right to enjoy the cake one at a time.”

Michael laughed again. “Dude, it’s fucking cake.”

“Well, try telling that to Lindsay. She’ll kill you if you even think about mixing the cakes up.”

Michael would have been more shocked if Lindsay wasn’t going to kill him if he suggested it. Still, his gaze shifted over to Lindsay, who was just about finished with her first slice of cake. “He’s right. I’ve taught him well.”

Michael laughed awkwardly, still unsure of whether or not he should feel threatened or just laugh it off. “Uh, okay, well then we can just eat this one first.” He pointed to the white cake decorated with yellow frosting.

“You’ll like that one,” Lindsay said, strangely confident.

“Yeah? What makes you say so?” Michael smiled.

“A gut feeling.”

“Don’t worry about it, Michael. Lindsay and I have been friends forever. She knows the kind of stuff I like, so you’ll probably like it,” Gavin reassured him. “Do you want first bite?”

“I don’t care, Gavin. I’ll take it, you take it, whichever.”

Lindsay leaned over, holding her head in her hand. “You guys sound like newlyweds, cutting the first slice.”

Michael’s heart stopped for a second. He looked over at Gavin to see that his face was now a bright pink. He was about to say something, but Gavin beat him to it. “Lindsay! God, that’s embarrassing!”

Lindsay giggled. “I only speak the truth.”

“Here, Gavin.” Michael gave him a fork so that they could take bites of the cake by themselves. “We can just eat it at the same time.”

Gavin smiled and took the fork from him. “Thanks, Michael.”

The two dug their forks into the cake and took a bite simultaneously so that they could both have the first bite.

Michael was initially shocked at the sour taste, but it became sweet as he kept chewing. “Lemon?”

Lindsay shrugged. “I thought with how sour you were when we first met, lemon was meant for you.”

Michael would have gotten much angrier if this was some stranger, but Lindsay was Lindsay, so it was to be expected. “Oh, shut up.”

“But it’s good, isn’t it?”

Gavin nodded. “I’ve always liked lemon flavored things, though. Lindsay, you knew that.”

“So I killed two birds with one stone.” Lindsay smiled. “But you’re happy with it, aren’t you?”

After a moment, both boys nodded. “Yeah.”

Lindsay’s smile widened. “Good.”

The three kept eating for a little while before Gavin asked, “Oh, Michael, do you want this little flower?”

“What? You have flowers?” Michael asked, shocked that Gavin would have kept flowers without water for so long.

“No, no,” Gavin laughed. “This one.” He pointed to the decorative icing flower on the cake slice. “Do you want it?”

Michael sighed. “Gavin, it doesn’t matter to me. We’re still both eating the cake.”

“Well, I just thought you might want it. I don’t know why. But I just wanted you to have it.”

“We’ll split it in half then, Gavin.” Michael cut the remaining slice in half, right down the center of the flower.

“Thanks, Michael!” Gavin grinned. Michael couldn’t help but smile back.

“Yeah, yeah.”

The first cake was finally devoured, and the third cake was left sitting there.

“So, Lindsay, what kind of cake is it?” Gavin asked.

“Actually, I don’t know,” she admitted. “It was new, and I wanted to try it. But it looks nice, doesn’t it?”

The cake in question was a small slice that was again decorated with white icing. The cake itself was brown, and the filling was a dark red.

Gavin picked up the plate and observed the cake. “Well it certainly doesn’t look bad.”

“So what is it? Some kind of chocolate or mocha kind of cake? The strawberry stuff inside looks kind of weird, though. Doesn’t seem like it would go with mocha.”

“Actually,” Lindsay started, taking the plate away from Gavin before he eventually dropped it, “it’s a peanut butter and jelly cake.”

Michael rolled his eyes. “Of course you’d want to try something like that.”

“And you wouldn’t?” Lindsay smiled.

“I guess I would.” Michael watched her cut the cake into three equal pieces. “What’s in it then, just peanut butter and jelly?”

Lindsay nodded. “Yeah, it’s unsalted peanut butter in the cake, and there’s pluot jam for the filling. I think it’ll be good.”

As soon as the cake was cut evenly, the three were immediately taking bites of their shares of the cake.

Lindsay hummed. “It’s actually pretty good. I didn’t know what to expect, since it was peanut butter and jelly, but it turned out to be way better than I thought.”

Gavin smiled. “Yeah, this is really good.”

Michael shrugged. “It definitely doesn’t suck.”

The three finished the cake quickly since they had one extra person sharing it. When it was done, the waitress returned to collect the dirty dishes and bring the check. Lindsay paid off the bill, but Michael and Gavin offered to pay the tip. Within a few minutes, they were out of the café.

As they exited, Gavin held the door open for his two friends. “Thanks for taking us here, Lindsay.”

“Don’t thank me, Gavin. This was just to celebrate you, anyway. Plus, I wanted to come here anyway,” she smiled.

“I still don’t get why you didn’t just tell us to come here in the first place, Lindsay,” Michael pointed out as he left the café. Shutting the door behind him, he continued. “If you knew about this place, then why didn’t you just tell us about it instead of pretending like you didn’t have a clue about where we’d be going?”

Lindsay laughed as they began to walk down the street. “Well, I actually wasn’t set on coming here from the beginning. But we’d already walked so far out here that I thought it was worth it to go a little farther and come here.”

Michael sighed. “But now it’ll take us double the amount of time it usually takes to walk home.” He looked up at the sky which was already starting to lose its blue color, opting for the warm colors of the setting sun. “And it’s gotten pretty late.”

Gavin sighed. “Then that means you can’t come over?”

“That’s not it, it’s just that we’ll have to walk longer than we would have from the school.”

Lindsay shook her head. “No, it’s okay. It’s really not that far from home. It’s about the same.” The guys looked a bit skeptical, but Lindsay reassured them, “Trust me, I’ve been here quite a few times, so I know how long it takes to get back.”

The trio walked back down the sidewalk on their way home, led by Lindsay. They made small talk on the way home, talking about the little things and making stupid jokes.

“It’s getting cold, isn’t it?” Michael mentioned.

Gavin hummed. “Well, it’s getting to be winter soon. Of course it’s getting cold.”

Lindsay shook her head. “Idiot, that’s not what you say. You offer him your jacket like a gentleman.”

Gavin’s face went red again. “I—I mean, if you want it, Michael, then I mean—”

Michael started laughing at Gavin’s sudden offer. “God, shut up, Gavin. I’m not that cold. But thanks for the offer.”

“No problem,” Gavin smiled, although the blush was still there.

Like Lindsay promised, the walk home was only a little longer than it would have if they had walked home from school. Gavin invited them both over, so all three of them piled into his house, eager to rest their legs from the walk home.

Geoff came out of the kitchen and into the entry. “Hey, where’ve you been?”

“Oh! Geoff!” Gavin perked up, kicking his shoes off. “Well, my callback was today, and to celebrate, Lindsay took us to this cute café. We tried some cakes, and they were pretty good.”

“Really? What kind of cake?”

“There was a peanut butter and jelly one which was weird,” Lindsay said. “But the other was lemon.”

“Lemon?” Geoff asked, surprised.

“Yeah, I like lemon flavored stuff, Geoff, so it wasn’t bad,” Gavin reassured him.

Geoff shook his head. “No, that’s not a problem.”

“Then why were you surprised?”

“It’s nothing,” Geoff waved him off. “Gonna do homework or something?”

Gavin nodded. “Oh, yeah. I hope it’s okay that I brought them over?”

Geoff shrugged. “And if I said it wasn’t?”

“You wouldn’t,” Gavin challenged.

Geoff put his hands up in mock defeat. “You got me.”

Gavin laughed. “C’mon Michael, Lindsay, let’s go upstairs!” He was already racing up the stairs, and Michael trailed behind him, laughing as Gavin nearly tripped over the rug at the top of the stairs.

Lindsay moved towards the stairs, but Geoff stopped her in place by pressing his hand against the wall. “Lemons?”

Lindsay smiled. “It was a harmless experiment. I just wanted to help.”

Geoff sighed. “If seeing him wasn’t enough to get Gavin to remember, I don’t know what good lemons will do. After all, you heard him, he likes lemon anyway.”

“I know that, but…” she trailed off, trying to find a way to phrase her thoughts. “It’s like, they shared lemon cake together. On their wedding day,” she said, air quotes around wedding. “I was hoping they might remember that specifically.”

“And they didn’t?” Geoff sighed.

“Actually, something interesting happened.”

Geoff looked at her confused. “Go on?”

“The cake had a frosting flower on it. Gavin offered it to Michael, saying he thought Michael should have it.”

Geoff looked hopeful for a moment, but eventually sighed. “It must be a coincidence.”

Lindsay shrugged. “You never know. It could be the beginning of them remembering their lost love.” She smiled, almost giggling.

Geoff couldn’t do anything but smile back. “If you’re so confident, then I’ll take it. I just want him to be happy.” He paused. “No, I want them to be happy.”

Lindsay smiled. “So do I.”

Geoff removed his hand from the wall, allowing Lindsay to pass. “Okay, well, go work your love fairy magic.”

Lindsay nodded and slowly headed up the stairs. Geoff returned to the kitchen.

“Love fairy magic, huh?” It was easier said than done. After all, neither of them showed any signs of remembering the past. Even outright asking them what they remember did nothing. It seemed like those memories had just completely disappeared.

But she could never just tell them how their past was really like. There was too much to risk in doing that. They might end up hating each other. They had to remember it themselves for it to be right.

And Lindsay was partially responsible for it. After all, she knew Gavin was beginning to forget Michael. She didn’t stop it. She had to fix it.

Lindsay opened the door to Gavin’s room, ready to get her homework done. As soon as she stepped inside, she found Michael and Gavin sitting next to each other on the floor, up against the bed, sleeping softly.

For a moment, Lindsay entertained the idea of waking them up, but decided against it. After all, they had a long day. They deserved a break.

She picked up a blanket on Gavin’s bed and covered them with it carefully, so as to not wake them up. As soon as they were covered, Lindsay left the room quietly.

She bounded down the stairs, catching Geoff’s attention. “What happened? Aren’t you doing homework?”

Lindsay smiled. “Not needed. The love fairy has worked her magic.” When Geoff gave her another confused look, she elaborated. “They’re sleeping. Don’t wake them until absolutely necessary.”

“Don’t they have homework?”

“That’s why I said absolutely necessary,” she laughed as she began packing up her things. “Give them an hour to rest.”

“And you can’t do that?” Geoff asked.

Lindsay sighed. “Okay, fine. I’ll be back later.” She slung her backpack onto her shoulder and opened the door. “I’ll be back in an hour!” With that, she shut the door, and made her way towards her house.

 A few days later, the finalized cast list was posted for the play. Gavin was dreading checking the list all day, and refused to look unless Michael or Lindsay was there with him. Gavin was a nervous wreck for most of the day, and people were catching on quickly. Both Michael and Lindsay had to make excuses for his behavior, most of which were half-assed and made no sense.

Finally, at lunch, when all of them were free, Gavin grabbed their hands and dragged them straight to the board where it was posted. When they approached it, Gavin covered his eyes, refusing to look. Much to his disappointment, Michael and Lindsay refused to tell him what part he got for him.

Exasperated, Gavin whined, “Just tell me! Yes or no?”

“We haven’t even looked at it ourselves. Just stop being a baby and look!” Michael chided him.

Lindsay nodded. “Gavin, if you don’t you won’t know.”

Gavin lowered his hands cautiously. “Okay. One look. If my name isn’t there, my name isn’t there. That’s all, right? That’s all!”

Lindsay sighed. “Gavin, you’re the only one that’s freaking out about this. Just look!” She pushed him, forcing his hands away from his face so that he could catch himself on the wall.

Gavin stared at the list, quickly scanning it for his name. For a short time, the hallway was dead silent.

Lindsay and Michael were shocked. They shared a knowing look of concern.

“Uh, Gavin, listen…” Lindsay started.

“You can be as upset as you want today, okay?” Michael continued.

“Yeah, uh… We were so sure that—”

“Guys,” Gavin cut them off, and they were immediately silent. Gavin turned around slowly with tears in his eyes. “Guys, I made it.”

Immediately, Lindsay and Michael’s faces brightened. Gavin pulled them into a hug as they celebrated in the hallway.

“I did it!” Gavin cheered. “I got the part of Rolf!”

“Hey, congrats, Gavin!” a voice suddenly said.

The three of them froze in place, afraid that they were about to get in trouble for making so much noise.

“Whoa, whoa, guys!” Ryan appeared from around the corner. “Why’d you stop?”

Gavin sighed. “Jesus, Ryan! You can’t just appear like that and not expect us to freak out! Your deep voice and commanding presence is too much to handle sometimes.”

“Comm—” Ryan sighed, used to Gavin’s sudden bouts of idiocy. “Anyway, I came to check the cast list.” He moved to the board and took a quick look at the board. As soon as he got there, he smiled widely. “Oh, yay! I’m the captain.”

“What?!” Gavin exclaimed, rushing over to the board, nearly knocking Ryan over. “How didn’t I notice it?” He double checked the list. “Ryan! You lied! Your name isn’t here!”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Yes, it is! It’s right there!” He pointed to his name on the list.

“Ryan, you idiot! Your name isn’t James!” Gavin argued back.

“Gavin, my name is James Ryan Haywood. It’s right there. That’s me.”

Gavin’s eyes widened. “Then how didn’t we see each other while auditioning?”

“Maybe we chose different days,” Ryan suggested, shrugging.

Gavin felt like his head was spinning. “Ryan… This is too much to take in at once.”

Ryan chuckled. “Well, on the bright side, we’re together in the play.”

Lindsay laughed, moving everyone closer together. “Well, then, this calls for yet another celebration!” She pulled them all into a hug. “Congratulations to Ryan and Gavin for making it into the play!”

Michael sighed. “And props to me and Lindsay for being here for them, I guess, since we really haven’t done anything. But good on us!”

“No, you guys are important! I really appreciate you guys! Especially after yesterday!” Gavin laughed.

“You know what I would really appreciate?” Ryan interjected. “If we all let go of each other and went to get some lunch. I’d really like that.”