Joaquin wasn’t quite sure how to answer Kevin. It wasn’t like Joaquin was ashamed of Kevin or anything, it was more that he was afraid. Not of Kevin, but of what would happen if the serpents knew about Kevin. If FP knew that Joaquin was dating the sheriff’s son, well, Joaquin didn’t want to even think about what would happen then. Kevin noticed Joaquin’s hesitation.

“I’m sorry. Forget about it. I don’t want to push you or anything.” Kevin began to move back down to the floor and his food.

“No, wait.” Joaquin said, reaching out and grabbing Kevin by the arm. Kevin turned and looked at Joaquin. There, in his eyes, was a kind of vulnerability that Joaquin had never seen from Kevin before. “Kev, it’s not you. I swear it’s not.”

Kevin hesitantly sat back down next to Joaquin on the couch, “Okay.. Well then what is it?”

Joaquin sighed. “I’m afraid.”

“Of what?”

“Of you. Of this. Of, of the serpents.”

The last one seemed to catch Kevin’s attention, “I thought the serpents were okay with the fact that you were gay?”

This was it. This was Joaquin’s out. He didn’t have to tell Kevin about his fears of FP, about everything that he had done. He could just say that he was afraid of some southside homophobes. It was an perfect, easy lie, so why was Joaquin having such a hard time telling it?

“That’s not exactly what I’m afraid of Kev–”

“Damn it Joaquin.” Kevin sighed, but he didn’t seem angry. “I can’t believe I even asked you, I’m so dumb.” He brought his hand up to Joaquin’s face, gently rubbing his jaw with his thumb. “Of course, you need to stay safe. I’d rather be with you in secret then have you get threatened by some barbarian.” Kevin pressed a short kiss to Joaquin’s cheek, “I’m sorry” then he pressed his lips to Joaquin’s.

Joaquin leaned into the kiss wanting to get as close to Kevin as possible. How had he managed to land such a perfect boy? Kevin was smart and funny and understanding, and Joaquin was.. What was he? Right now, he felt like a shitty boyfriend. Sure he hadn’t actually lied to Kevin, but he hadn’t exactly told him the truth. Still, Kevin had jumped to that conclusion, he had tried to explain. Joaquin was rationalizing, he knew it. But he really didn’t want to think about it. Especially not when Kevin was climbing over him, straddling him and deepening the kiss further.

“Hmm, oh. Kevin.” Joaquin murmured. He brought his hand up from Kevin’s hips and to the back of his neck, curling his fingers into Kevin’s short hair. “What did I do to deserve you?”

“Shh.” Kevin whispered. “Shut up and kiss me.” He paused for a split second before adding, “And take your hair down.”

Joaquin laughed and removed his hands from Kevin’s hair to bring them up to his own, pulling out the hair-tie and shaking his head a bit to free his hair. Kevin made a sound akin to a growl before tackling Joaquin so that he was now lying on the couch and kissing him, hard. Joaquin moved easily with Kevin smiling into the kiss and decidedly not thinking about FP or the serpents or anything that wasn’t Kevin Keller (plus, Joaquin was pretty sure that he would not be allowed to call himself a gay teen if he let FP Jones distract him from a makeout session with Riverdale’s hottest).

They stayed that way for a while, just groping and kissing on the Keller couch. They didn’t pull away until Kevin’s phone began to buzz.

“You gonna get that?” Joaquin asked, slightly out of breath. Kevin was kissing down his jawline and neck, determined to cover him in hickeys it seemed.

“Uh-uh” Kevin mumbled from Joaquin’s collarbone. Joaquin just chuckled. He almost let himself fall back into Kevin completely, but when he turned his head, he caught a glimpse of the caller ID. Quickly he pushed Kevin away from his neck.

“Shit. Kev, it’s your dad. You should answer it.” Joaquin maneuvered his way out from underneath Kevin and Kevin answered the phone.

“Hey Dad.” As Kevin began talking to Sheriff Keller, Joaquin began packing up, buttoning his shirt, pulling on his jacket and shoes, searching for his phone in the couch cushions.

“Uh-huh. Yup. It’s all okay Dad, I’ll see you soon. Bye.” Kevin sighed, hanging up the phone. He looked up at Joaquin, who was still preparing to leave. “Do you have to go?” Kevin pleaded.

“Do you really want me to meet your dad like this?”  He gestured to his disheveled appearance, “I think I oughta go.”

Kevin huffed, moving to the side of the couch so that he could lean over the arm and kiss Joaquin again. “My dad’ll like you. I promise.”

“Okay, you need to go to sleep. You’re talking crazy.”

“Just, let me pretend okay?” Kevin replied blissfully, “Let me pretend that my dad isn’t the sheriff and that some serpents aren’t homophobic and that all my friends knew and we could kiss wherever we wanted with no worries.” Joaquin felt a wave of guilt crash over him. Kevin just smiled and gave Joaquin one last kiss. “I’m happy with just pretending.”

As he rode back to the Southside, Joaquin lingered on Kevin’s words. Kevin was happy with pretending, so why should he feel bad? Maybe Joaquin’s lie–no, omission of truth–wasn’t a big deal. So what if it forced Kevin to lie to his dad and friends? Even Joaquin couldn’t rationalize it really. Joaquin didn’t think he could handle the weight of lying to Kevin; he vowed to tell Kevin tomorrow that they could go public. Joaquin was a lot of things, a gang-member, a teenager, a brother, a gay kid, but he was not a liar.