Evan walked up to Jared's front door. Heidi dropped him off at his house after school before she left for her classes.

    He decided to bring Charles because Jared absolutely adored the dog. Evan lifted his left hand and rang the doorbell. He fiddled with the end of Charles's leash as he waited for someone to answer the door.

    He heard the door open. "Hello Evan!" a female voice said.

    "Hey, Mrs. Kleinman," Evan answered. "Is uh, is Jared here?" He should be here, he was the one that asked Evan to come over. Unless he was joking and didn't want to hang out. Maybe he was filming this to show the school how much of a loser he was.

    But Jared wouldn't go that far. Sure, he may poke fun at him all the time but he'd never publicly humiliate him.

    "He's upstairs in his room," Mrs. Kleinman replied. Evan heard her step to the side. He walked into the house and Mrs. Kleinman shut the door. "Are you staying for dinner?"

    Evan nodded. "Yeah, uh mom is at her, her class and she won't- she has a late shift tonight. And I'd, I'd rather not order anything." He kneeled down to untie his shoes. He tossed them over to the closet (He hoped it was the closet. He hadn't been in their house in a while).

    Mrs. Kleinman didn't say anything and the echo of her feet softly padding across the wooden floor rang in Evan's ears. The boy made his way over to the staircase next to the front door. He carefully made his way up the steps, fingers clutched around the railing so he wouldn't fall.

    He let his fingers run against the wall as he walked. He got to the third floor and knocked. The door swung open.

    "Hey Evan," Jared said. "Come in."

    Evan smiled in thanks. He gently tugged on Charles's leash to keep him from sniffing everything. He stepped into the room and Jared closed the door.

    "Glad you could stop by," Jared continued, "parents almost took away my car insurance."

    Evan swallowed. Of course, the stupid car insurance. Evan forced a laugh. "Yeah." He made his way over to Jared's bed and sat down. He felt Charles curl up on his feet.

    "So, you've been hanging out with Connor a lot." Jared coughed. "What's that about? You dating?"

    Evan blushed. "No!" he exclaimed. "We just— we had a project together and we kinda. . . Became friends. And besides he leads me to class so that's probably why you think we hang out a lot because we're always near each other but most of the time we don't even talk."

    He sensed Jared's eyes on him. He was probably not believing anything he'd just said. Evan bent his head and picked at the skin around his fingernails.

    "Alright, what's wrong?"

    Evan looked up. "What do you mean?"

    Jared cleared his throat. "You only pick at your fingers when something's really bothering you."

    Evan chewed on his lip and forced his hands apart. "Nothing's wrong."

    "Evan—"

    Why do you care?" Evan blurted. He instantly tensed up. "We, we're family friends. That's what you always say."

    "What are you talking about?" Jared's voice was quiet. "Of course I care. We're fam— we're. . . We're friends."

    Evan's eyes widened. They were friends. Jared actually thought they were friends. Not family friends. That word flooded through Evan's mind. Friend friend friendfriendfriend.

    He was so caught up with his thoughts that he didn't even register the fact that Jared was calling his name.

    "I like Connor!" he yelled on impulse. He slapped a hand over his mouth.

    Jared didn't say anything for a while. Then he started laughing. "About time you figured that out. I've seen the way you two look at each other. So, you've told him?"

    Evan shook his head. "He confessed to me but he blamed it on being high afterwards."

    Jared inhaled sharply. "Oh man, that must suck. But if it makes you feel better, I'm practically in the same boat."

    "You are?"

    Jared hummed in confirmation. "It's whatever though. Wanna listen to me scream at video games like a YouTuber?"

    Evan nodded and shifted himself so he was sitting with his legs crossed.

    After about an hour of listening to Jared curse and beat his controller into the floor multiple times, the video game sounds stopped.

    Evan lifted his head up, confused.

    "So," Jared started, "if you like Connor, does that mean you're gay?"

    Both boys were startled by the sound of someone clearing their throat. "Jared," a high pitched voice said, "what are you talking about?"

    Evan paled. Claire Kleinman had heard what Jared said.

    "Nothing, mom," Jared said quickly and quietly.

    She hummed. "I think it's time for Evan to go home." She walked out of the room.

    Jared rushed over to Evan, who was trying to calm himself down. "Shit dude, I am so sorry. I had no idea she would walk in."

    Evan shook his head, unable to form words. This was it. No more spending nights at Jared's house. No more celebrating Hanukkah together. No more after-school study sessions that ended with a movie marathon and worried texts from Heidi.

    "Come on, you better go home."

    Evan let himself be dragged out of the room by Jared. He made sure Charles's leash was wrapped around his wrist so he wouldn't drop it due to his weakened grip.

    He had to keep the tears at bay. Tears meant a full-blown panic attack that would take forever to stop.

    He hardly registered the fact that they were now in Jared's car and driving down the road. He didn't hear Jared apologizing so many times. He didn't feel his phone vibrate. He didn't notice the way his body shaking got worse as time passed. He was just numb.

    Jared had to shake him to get him to realize they were at his apartment. He thanked Jared for the ride and climbed out of the car. Jared threw out one more apology before driving away.

    Evan walked into the apartment building and unlocked his door. The first tear fell as he let the door slam behind him.

It was around two in the morning and Evan laid on his bed on his side. He had his knees pulled up to his chest. Charles was sleeping next to him, his quiet breaths soothing the boy. His face was wet with tears that stopped coming a few minutes ago. Now he just sat there, numb all over.

    He had spilled his secret to Jared's mom.

    No.

    Jared had spilled his secret to Jared's mom. But he didn't mean it. They both knew how she was about that topic and Evan knew how deeply it affected Jared in his life. He hadn't known Claire Kleinman would walk in at the exact moment when those words tumbled from his mouth.

    And he had apologized so many times right after and while he drove Evan home. He didn't mean it. But Evan had hoped that he wouldn't say it while they were still in his house with his mom around. At school or outside is completely fine, he could say whatever he wanted about the topic. As long as he didn't cross the invisible boundaries he didn't know about.

    But shit. Now Evan felt like he wasn't allowed back to the Kleinman's house and he felt weird just being around Jared at school.

    Evan's bedroom door opened. "Honey?" Heidi called out. "What're you doing up? It's a school night."

    "I couldn't sleep," he lied. It was sort of true; he was tired but his mind kept him up.

    Heidi shuffled into the room. "Is everything alright?" Evan didn't answer. "Evan?"

    Everything came spilling out of his mouth before Evan knew what was going on. He told her everything; the kiss, the way Connor blamed it on weed, how he confessed to Jared, that his mom overheard. Everything.

    He brought himself to tears again and he sobbed uncontrollably. "I just— I have no, no idea what to do." The words came out incoherently.

    The room was silent except for Evan's sobs and sniffs. Heidi took a deep breath and made her way over to the bed. The bed dipped down and small arms wrapped around Evan's waist.

    "I am so glad you told me, Evan," she said softly. "I love you no matter what. Do you remember what you asked me when your father left?" Evan shook his head. "You asked me if there was another truck coming to take me away, and let me tell you this: I didn't leave then, and I won't leave now. You mean so much to me, it doesn't matter if you like boys or girls or both or neither. I'm proud of you no matter what."

    Evan's sobs subsided and now tears just spilled freely down his face. He sniffed and wiped his nose with the back of his hoodie sleeve. He leaned into the hug and closed his eyes. He felt Heidi plant a kiss on his head as he drifted off to sleep.