I know what you're gettin' at, but Seth, stop it. I don't wanna be with Marissa anymore. I don't. I got out of Chino for a reason. I don't want my life to be like that anymore. If I'm gonna be with someone it's gonna be... someone.. whose life looks the way I want mine to look, y'know, stable parents who care and don't sleep with anyone I go to school with and want to know when I'll be home. Someone like... you know what, I think you get the picture. I'll see you at lunch.
Seth muttered under his breath as Ryan walked away. He knew what Ryan was saying, he could feel the nearness of the guy he’d once called his best friend. And, for all intents and purposes, he still was. But this… what Ryan was talking about was so much more than friendship. More than being brothers. It was Chrismukkah by the fire, filling stockings, drinking hot cocoa. It was charity events where they show up together, win cruises as a couple. Fuck.
It wasn’t just admitting their feelings for each other, but to the rest of the population of this god forsaken town.
Seth watched Ryan reach the double doors of the school and he found himself cemented to the sidewalk.
“Awe, did you forget how to walk, Cohen?”
Summer’s voice came from behind, but it didn’t have the same ring that he was so used to it having. It was flat. Plain. Like everybody else in this world.
Save for one person. One man.
“I’m just… Hey, Summer? When you finally accepted… how you felt about me.”
“No, just hear me out. It was, essentially, social suicide for you. People knowing was terrifying. But how did you… accept it and move forward? How did you step onto that cart with me?”
Summer looked at him for a long moment. “There are some things you just can’t fight, Cohen.”
Seth’s eyes hadn’t moved from the doors Ryan had disappeared through. “Yeah. Thanks.”
The bell rang for fourth hour.