“I love you.”

                “I love you too.”

                I mentally groaned as I watched Colin and Ant start kissing again. They pulled away and smiled at each other.

                “Maybe if I bang my head on the table hard enough, I’ll die,” I said thoughtfully, eyeing on the table.

                “Then you won’t get dinner tonight,” Emma said, quiet so that only I could hear her.

                “Shut up Emma,” I said, weighing my options. Dinner with Misha, or killing myself so that I didn’t have to watch my brother make-out with the guy I had been infatuated with for years?

                Sigh. Life could be so complicated sometimes.

                “Are we making you uncomfortable Collie?” Ant asked with a frown.

                “No, no. Please continue eating each others’ faces. I love watching that while I’m trying to eat my lunch,” I said.

                “Sorry, sorry,” Colin said with a sigh as Ant crawled off of his lap back into his own seat.

                “Collie, are you going to come hang out with us at my house today?” Ant asked eagerly.

                I shook my head. “No can do Ant. I was going to look for some shorts at the clothes store and then meet up with a friend for ice cream. Speaking of which, Colin can you drop me off at the clothes store afterschool?” I asked.

                “That depends. Who are you meeting at the ice cream shop?” he asked suspiciously.

                I smirked. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

                “Aw, just let him go Colin!” Emma said, laughing as she watched us. “If he’s meeting up with some mystery guy, then so be it. But maybe he really is just meeting up with a friend.”

                Ah, Emma to my rescue. Maybe the fact that she still had feelings for me could come in handy.

                Then again, maybe she’d get so jealous of her brother that she’d sell me out to Colin. Jeez, girls were so unpredictable. No wonder I was gay.

                “Fine,” Colin said with a sigh.

                We waited until the bell rang and I went off to class with Ant. We sat down next to each other and he turned to face me, his usual bright smile on his face.

                “Are you meeting up with your mystery man?” he asked.

                I nodded. “Yep. But don’t tell my brother. I don’t need Colin stalking me while I’m trying to hang out with someone,” I said.

                Ant held out his pinky to me. “I won’t tell Colin! Pinky promise.”

                I wrapped my pinky around his. “Good.”

                I eyed Ant carefully and mentally sighed. Colin was beyond lucky to be with a guy as amazing as Ant.

                He was so honest and loyal. Such a bright and bubbly person, even when he was depressed. He loved to make other people smile.

                Misha, I reminded myself sternly. Ant was happily with Colin now. So I needed to move on from him and pursue my feelings for Misha.

                The end of the day came slowly. When the final bell rang, I hopped out of my seat and went down to the senior hallway and over to my locker.

                I exchanged my books and slung my backpack over my shoulder, leaning against my locker. I watched as Colin came down the hallway, surrounded by his usual crowd of people. It had shrunk a little since he had started dating Ant, but it was still a fairly large crowd of kids.

                Colin came over to me and I shifted uncomfortably at the large amount of people now surrounding the two of us. I hated large crowds of people. And I was especially on edge today, since I was kind of nervous for dinner with Misha.

                “Are you alright Collie?” Colin asked, cocking his head to the side curiously as he opened his locker.

                “Yea. Fine,” I said with a shrug.

                He shut his locker and motioned at me to follow him. He parted the crowd of kids like the Red Sea, smiling and saying goodbye to each of them.

                Ant bounded over to Colin and smiled. They hugged and shared a kiss. I rolled my eyes and glanced around the hallway so that I wouldn’t have to watch them try to eat each others’ faces yet again.

                “Alright, let’s head out Collie,” Colin said after kissing Ant one last time.

                I followed him outside and down the hill to the car. We got in together and he pulled out of the parking lot.

                “Which clothes store? TJ’s Apparel?” he asked.

                I nodded at him. “Yea. I just want to try to find new shorts since mine ripped. It’ll kill sometime until I need to head over to the ice cream shop,” I said casually.

                “I take it you won’t tell me who you’re meeting up with?” he asked with a frown. Colin hated it when I kept things from him, especially since he was so open with me.

                “Aw, look who’s learning,” I said, smirking at him.

                He pouted. We fell into silence, turning up the music in the car. A few minutes later, Colin pulled into the parking lot and put the car in park.

                “Alright. Have fun with your boyfriend thing,” he said.

                “I will,” I said smugly, getting out of the car and heading into TJ’s Apparel. I glanced over my shoulder, feeling relief course through me as I watched Colin’s car disappear up the road and out of sight. Thank god he wasn’t spying.

                I went into the store and immediately spotted Misha. He was hanging some shirts up on a rack, nodding his head along in time to the music coming out of the store’s speakers.

                He looked up and noticed me. A smile broke out on his face and he waved cheerfully. I sighed and shook my head.

                “You’re such a dork,” I said as I made my way over to him.

                “But I’m your dork,” he said happily.

                “Yes. You’re my dork,” I said with another sigh. “Lucky me.”

                “Hey! Fine, I guess I’ll just go eat dinner by myself.” He sniffed dramatically.

                “Oh, shut up.”

                He laughed and pulled me into a hug. “I’ve been waiting all day for this. Just a half hour until I get off of my shift, and then we can go eat.”

                “Alright. I really am going to look around for shorts,” I said, pulling away from him.

                “Excuse me young man, can you help me?” an older woman asked, going over to Misha.

                “Sure ma’am! What can I help you with?” Misha asked cheerfully.

                I smiled a little and made my way over to the shorts as the old lady started talking to Misha. I flicked through the shorts, looking for any I’d wear.

                I kept myself occupied until it was four. I watched as Misha skipped over to me. He hooked his arm through mine and grinned.

                “Great. Now you’re an embarrassing dork,” I groaned.

                “Aw, don’t be mean to me Collie!” he said with a pout.

                “Then stop skipping!” I said sternly, sliding my arm away from his. I reached down and held his hand, pulling him towards the door.

                We left and I followed Misha over to his car. I hopped into the passenger seat and flicked through Misha’s iPod as he started up the car and pulled out of the parking lot.

                “Yep. You’re definitely gay,” I said with a hopeless sigh, flicking past more Jeffree Star songs than should ever be on a single iPod. Finally, I settled on some Sum41.

                “Hey, don’t hate me ‘cause you ain’t me,” he said, snapping a Z-formation.

                I banged my head against the dashboard and groaned loudly. “God, I’m just going to pretend I don’t even freaking know you Misha.”

                Misha chuckled and smiled innocently. “Hey, you know I’m just messing around. I’m not really that dorky and embarrassing!”

                “Hi, I’m Misha Redner. I’m almost 20 years old, I watch anime and read manga, I live with my parents, I’ve worked at the same clothes store for 3 years, girls scare me, and I have pet frogs named after anime characters,” I said, raising an eyebrow at him.

                “Wow Misha. You’re a frickin’ loser,” he said, glancing at me and grinning. “But, yea, my name is Collier Archer. I’m 17 years old, I’ve never dated anyone before, I’m overly sarcastic, I live in my parents’ basement, and I spend most of my time holed up in the basement reading Stephen King.”

                “Wow Collier! I wish I could be more like you,” I said, frowning deeply. “Instead, I’m just dorky old Misha.”

                “Maybe someday you’ll be as cool as me,” he said with a shrug.

                We stared at each other for a minute before starting to laugh. Misha reached over and took my hand in his, squeezing it.

                He pulled into the parking lot of a local restaurant and we got out of the car. We held hands as we walked into the restaurant together.

                “Two?” a waiter asked.

                “Well we don’t have imaginary friends,” I grumbled.

                “Collie!” Misha said, elbowing me and rolling his eyes. “Yes, two please,” he said, shooting the waiter an apologetic look.

                The waiter led us to a table and took our drink orders before disappearing. I opened up my menu and started to scan it in search of something to eat.

                “Hey Collie…are you African? Because African love ya!” Misha slapped his knee and laughed at his own terrible pun. “Get it, get it? Like I frickin’ love ya, but African!”

                “Misha, sometimes I wish you would confuse a glue stick for chap stick,” I said, face-palming myself.

                “Hey, I told you I was going to be punny,” he said, grinning proudly.

                “Oh god stop.” 

                “Are you wearing space pants? Because your ass is out of this world.”

                “Misha, stop. For the love of god, stop it.”

                “Do you work at Little Caesar’s? Because you’re hot and I’m ready.”

                “Misha!”

                “Do yo-”

                I leaned over and slapped my hand over his mouth, letting out a groan. He pouted and licked at my hand, but I didn’t pull it away.

                “I grew up with a very, very talkative twin. If you think I can’t handle hand licking, you’re dead wrong,” I warned. “Now, promise you’ll stop, and I’ll move my hand.”

                He pulled my hand away, still pouting and looking adorable. “Fine. I promise I’ll stop. You mean fun killer.”

                I wiped my hand on my jeans and shrugged. “I’m just trying to help you out here, Misha. If you go around with pick-up lines like that, it’s only a matter of time before everyone is too embarrassed to be your friend.”

                “Hey!” he whined.

                “I’m just kidding,” I said. I paused thoughtfully. “Well, kind of.”

                “Hey Collie…how are things at home?” Misha asked, a sudden seriousness coming to his face.

                “Things are fine. Why?” I asked, keeping my voice casual.

                “I know your parents don’t approve of your sexuality. I just…I just want to make sure they’re not being hard on you about it,” he mumbled.

                I felt a sudden, burning jealousy consuming me. Misha’s parents accepted his sexuality. Hell, they were completely fine with it. They encouraged him to be open and proud. Why couldn’t Colin and I have that? Why did we have to get stuck with the homophobic assholes? And why did they always have to take it out on me?

                I mentally calmed myself, locking those feelings away in my heart and shaking it out of my head. It was my situation, and I had to deal with it. Whining about it and wondering why wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I had to accept it, and do what I could to change it.

                I shrugged at Misha. “Eh, it’s not that bad,” I lied.

                “Promise that you’ll tell me if they’re ever mean to you?” he asked, reaching over and holding my hand.

                “I promise,” I said, knowing full well that it was a lie. I just didn’t see any need to worry Misha over a situation that he couldn’t change.

                Misha relaxed and smiled. “Thank you Collie. Emma told me that they’re complete homophobes. I just don’t want them to hurt you or upset you,” he said.

                “They never do,” I said, dropping my eyes back to the menu. I could handle myself. I didn’t need to worry Misha.

                The waiter came back and took our orders. I leaned back and sipped on my soda as he left our table with our orders.

                “I wish we could do something after dinner, but I need to get to class,” Misha said with a sigh.

                “Nah, I’m fine with just dinner. We can hang out tomorrow after I get out of school and do something then,” I said.

                “Oh, oh! We can play ping-pong in the pool house!” he cried in excitement.

                “Dork. D-O-R-K,” I said, shaking my head. “We can just go swimming, you goof.”

                Misha blushed. “Yea, we can go swimming. Swimming’s cool too,” he said, trying to act casual.

                “Oh Misha. You’re quite a special one,” I said, laughing a little. He was such a freaking dork. It was adorable.

                The waiter came back and set our food down for us. We ate in comfortable silence. I fished around my brain for something to say to Misha. Maybe something funny. I wasn’t a funny guy, and now I wished I was. Misha had a cute laugh.

                “You know, I have class in the morning tomorrow, and I don’t have work tomorrow night. We could go swimming after school, go out for ice cream, go in the hot tub, and watch movies. You could, uh, sleepover.” Another blush appeared on his face as he said that.

                Hm, if I slept over, that meant I got to sleep in his bed with him. God damn I loved this college boy. Maybe he was one of those guys that cuddled in his sleep…

                “Yea, I could sleepover,” I said with a nod. “We can watch HottieBoombaLottie since you’re basically a real-life Ethan.”

                “Hey! I do not have a life-sized cardboard cut-out of you!” he argued.

                I chuckled and sipped on my soda. I would have to come up with something to tell my parents about tomorrow. Or I could just tell them the truth and tune them out while they ranted about how I was a disgusting faggot.

                Yea, that could work.

                “So, what time do you want to do this sleepover tomorrow?” I asked.

                Ah, the adorable blush was back on Misha’s face. “Um, how about five? That’ll give me enough time to get home from my classes and finish a paper that I have to turn in the next day,” he said.

                “Sure. Five it is,” I said.

                We finished eating and the waiter came back, taking our plates and setting down a check. I pulled out my wallet and let out a whine as Misha snatched it out of my hands.

                He shook his head at me, grinning a little. “Nope. I invited you to dinner, and I’m paying,” he said.

                He put down money and stood up, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the restaurant. He handed me back my wallet once we were in the car.

                “Thanks Misha,” I said, stuffing my wallet back in my pocket.

                “Don’t thank me. I was just happy to have dinner with you,” he said shyly.

                He turned up the radio and we listened to Scary Kids Scaring Kids as he drove back to my house. He pulled into the driveway and leaned over, hugging me tightly.

                “Bye Collie. I can’t wait to see you tomorrow,” he said, pulling away from me.

                “Bye Misha. Thanks for dinner. I’ll text you tomorrow,” I said, waving to him as I got out of the car.

                I went into my house and down to the basement. I locked myself in my room, not wanting to talk to Colin or my parents right now.

                Tomorrow would be the first time I had ever slept over Misha’s room. I had spent the night at the Redner’s house before for Emma, but never for Misha.

                “Well, if the guy has strong enough feelings for me, he’ll make his move tomorrow,” I mumbled to myself, sitting down on my bed and running a hand through my hair.

                I still wasn’t completely sure how I felt about Misha Redner. But I guess tomorrow would help me identify the feelings that I had for him. Oh, it would be an interesting night.

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A.N.- Hehe, do you guys think Misha's going to make a move on Collie during their sleepover? ;3