Alex had started acting differently at school. Whenever someone saw him, he looked sad. No one knew why. He would just go to class and sit there silently. That was the major red flag. Alex being quiet was never a good sign. Everyone tried to get him to tell them what was wrong, but he would never answer. He seemed drained. The whole week was like that. It seemed like he never smiled once.

John was sitting in his room after school. It was Friday, and he was hoping Alex would be feeling better over the weekend. He had just put away his books when his phone dinged.

Freckles: hey, John, can I come over

Another bad sign. Whenever Alex wanted to talk about something, he didn't give you a warning. He just showed up and started talking. So if he sent him a text asking to come over, it was something serious.

SouthernBoy: yeah you know the window is always open

Read at 3:40 p.m.

He sat there for a few minutes when there was a knock on his bedroom door. Weird.

"It's open."

Alex opened the door. He didn't look to good. There were evident bags under his eyes, and they were red and puffy. His curly hair was in an even bigger mess than it usually was. He walked in and sat down on John's bed. John sat down next to him, waiting for him to talk. Alex opened his mouth a few times, but no sound came out. The noise that finally came out was a sob that caught John off guard.

He pulled Alex closer to him and hugged him as Alex cried, letting out everything he had been holding in the past week. John didn't make him talk, just let him cry. Alex hugged him tight as the tears fell. They both just sat there until Alex had calmed down a bit.

"I-i'm sorry, I just needed to c-come over. I didn't mean to, to cry. I'm sorry."

"No, no, don't worry. You're fine. But are you ok?"

Alex took a few shakey breaths before answering. "I.. well.. no. I just, I was so excited about the flower, and now it's like it was a mistake, like it wasn't supposed to happen. Besides, who would even love me back?"

Everything was screaming at John to tell Alex. Hey! It's me! I love you! I have your flower! Everything's going to be ok!

But he didn't. He stayed quiet, letting Alex talk and hugging him closer.

"-and I just feel so useless. I know that makes no sense, but I do."

John reached a hand up and started running it through Alex's hair, hoping to call him down a bit. Alex sighed and leaned his head against John's chest.

"Thanks." He mumbled.

"For what? I haven't really done anything."

"Thanks for listening and just being here in general. You've always been the person I could go to and talk about anything on my mind. I can open up easily with you. It really means a lot to me. So thanks."

John smiled and leaned his head down on Alex's.

"No problem."

They sat there like that for a while, neither one of them talking. John glanced out his window and noticed that the sun was going down.

"Hey, it's getting kinda late. You wanna just spend the night here, since it's the weekend?"

"Sure." He moved out of John's arms to head to the window. "I'll go grab some stuff real quick."

"I've got some old shirts you could just wear, and some sweatpants I'm sure, if you just want to use those."

"Ok."

•••

John's old shirt was huge on Alex, but he didn't mind. That just made it more comfortable. Their next problem was where Alex was going to sleep. Usually, they plan these things out and Alex will bring over a sleeping bag or something. They decided to just share the bed since it was big enough for the both of them. Everything worked out, and they both fell asleep quickly.

Alex was the first to wake up. He had slowly opened his eyes, and moved to stretch only to realize he couldn't exactly move. He turned his head to see that while they were both asleep, they had started cuddling. Alex immediately started freaking out, but calmed down when he realized that this actually felt nice. John's arms were wrapped around his stomach and his back was to John's chest. He could feel John's breath on his neck. He found himself subconsciously snuggling closer to John, about to close his eyes when he snapped them open, a sudden realization hitting him.

He's in love with John.