I cracked my eyes open and looked at the nightstand in front of me. The alarm clock on it announced that it was only eight in the morning.

                I tried to move, but realized that there were arms around my waist. I craned my neck and smiled softly.

                “So you are a cuddler, huh?” I said quietly.

                Misha was sound asleep, his arms around me. His body  was curled up with my body comfortably.

                I turned in his arms so that I was facing him. He made a little grunting noise and snuggled his head against my neck.

                I slung an arm over him and closed my eyes, wishing I could fall back to sleep. I could hear someone making their way towards Misha’s room, and decided to pretend I was still asleep. If it was Emma and she saw me awake, she might wake Misha up. I didn’t want to move from this position.

                Misha’s bedroom door creaked open slowly. I could hear Mrs. Redner cursing under her breath at the creaking.

                “No,” she whispered to someone. “The boys are still asleep.”

                “Was I right? Did Misha cuddle Collie?” Emma asked. I could imagine her poking her head into the room.

                “Sh! Emma, they’re still asleep. And leave your brother alone,” Mrs. Redner said, quiet but stern.

                Emma started laughing a little. “I was right! I totally called it! Misha cuddled Collie in his sleep,” she said triumphantly. “That’s so adorable, but so embarrassing for Misha!”

                “Emma Marie Redner! Stop watching the boys sleep. Come on before you wake them up,” Mrs. Redner said with a sigh. The door creaked shut a second later, cutting off Emma’s protests.

                I opened my eyes and watched Misha as he slept. Oh god. I’m turning into a freaking Twilight character. Next thing I know, I’m going to be sparkling and imprinting on infants.

                I pushed those thoughts out of my mind. I sat in comfortable silence, curled up with Misha. After about an hour, Misha let out a light moan and blinked his eyes open.

                “Collie?” he asked sleepily. His eyes widened as he realized he was cuddling with me. “Oh my god. I cuddled you in my sleep, didn’t I?” He groaned loudly and tried to pull himself away from me.

                I placed my hand on his lower back and held him where he was. I looked into his eyes and shook my head at him.

                “Don’t move. Not yet. I don’t want to get out of bed yet,” I said.

                Misha nodded and laid back down with me. He pulled me closer to himself, and I rested my head on his chest.

                “Take your time to figure out your feelings Collie. I don’t want you to regret anything. I’m happy as long as I’m with you, even if we’re not in a relationship,” he said after a few minutes of comfortable silence.

                I nodded since I didn’t have anything to say to that. Misha laughed at me as my stomach growled loudly.

                “Time to get out of bed,” he said, sitting up and pulling me with him.

                We got out of Misha’s bed together and went downstairs. We entered the kitchen and Emma grinned at us from the table.

                “Misha, you didn’t warn Collie you’re a cuddler, huh?” she asked.

                Misha blushed furiously. “S-Shut up Emma!”

                “Misha likes to cuddle,” Emma taunted.

                “Holy shit! Shut up!” Misha groaned.

                “Misha! Watch your language,” Mrs. Redner said sternly.

                “Mom, I’m almost 20!” Misha whined, blushing even more as Emma and I laughed at him.

                “I don’t care if you’re almost 50. You live under my house, so you live under my rules. And my rules state that I don’t like hearing vulgarities coming from your mouth, especially when it’s directed at your little sister,” Mrs. Redner said.

                “But-”

                “Don’t make me ground you Misha.”

                “Sorry mommy.” Misha hung his head miserably.

                “Sheesh, no wonder you’re always single,” Emma said in amusement, watching her brother.

                “Aw, don’t worry Misha. It’s okay,” I said, pinching his cheek. “Someday you’ll be allowed to use big boy language.”

                He smacked my hand off and pouted at me. “Hush up Collier.”

                We sat down at the kitchen table together. Mrs. Redner made pancakes for us and we ate them hungrily.

                “So what do you want to do today Collie?” Misha asked once we had finished eating our breakfast.

                I shrugged. “Whatever. Do you have class or work today?”

                He nodded sadly. “Yea, I have class at noon and work right after that. But we can hang out for about two hours,” he said, checking the time.

                “Let’s go hang out in the pool house,” I offered.

                Misha nodded. We left the kitchen and went out the backdoor. We went into the pool house and Misha dragged over a ladder, leaning it against the wall.

                “We can go into the attic so that Emma doesn’t try to spy on us,” he said, rolling his eyes.

                We climbed up the ladder and crawled into the attic of the pool house. Misha shut the little door on the floor and flicked on the lights.

                I looked around the cramped space and was grateful that we were just in our shorts. It was incredibly hot up here.

                “Collie, can you tell me how you feel about me?” Misha asked, leaning against the wall and patting the spot next to him.

                I moved over next to him and he put his arm around my waist. I held his free hand in mine and nodded.

                “I like you a lot Misha. I know I have deep feelings for you. But I also have deep feelings for Ant Andrews, and I want to get over those before I advance us too far in our relationship. I don’t want either of us to get hurt just because I’m a little confused about my feelings,” I said.

                “Have you kissed Ant before?”

                I nodded. “Yea. In my bedroom. It didn’t mean anything to him, and I knew that. It was just something I had to do before he got too close to Colin, and he knew that.”

                “Collie can I…Can I kiss you again?” Misha asked shyly.

                “It wouldn’t a smart thing to do Misha,” I said.

                “But we’re young and stupid,” he said, cupping my face in his hands and pressing his lips against mine.

                He broke away from my lips, his face heating up a little. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to kiss you. I want to be with you Collier,” he said, putting his arm back around my waist.

                “Give it a little time Misha,” I said, dropping my head onto his shoulder.

                “I will. I don’t mean to pressure you. It’s just…I feel like me without you would be like Hikaru without Kaoru, or Rosencrantz without Guildenstern,” he said, frowning.

                “Oh my god. Stop being such a huge dork,” I groaned, burying my face against his shoulder.

                “What? It’s true!” he said, laughing and hugging me.

                I pulled my head away from his shoulder and rolled my eyes. “I can’t even handle you sometimes Misha.”

                “Neither can the club.”

                “Oh my god stop it.”

                “THE CLUB CAN’T EVEN HANDLE ME RIGHT NOWWWWW.”

                I slapped my hand over his mouth, glaring at him. “Stop it! Or else I will never ever kiss you again.”

                He gave me puppy dog eyes and I removed my hand. He sniffed dramatically and dropped his head in shame.

                “I’m sorry Collie. Forgive me?” he whimpered.

                I sighed. “You’re an obnoxious dork, but you’re my obnoxious dork,” I said, taking his hand in mine.

                We sat and talked together for a while. Misha checked the time and frowned deeply, letting out a sigh.

                “I have to get ready for class now Collie. But I’ll see you tomorrow, right?” he asked.

                I nodded and got up, following him out of the attic. We headed into the house together and up to his bedroom.

                I grabbed my bag and my car keys. Misha held his arms out to me and I laughed at how dorky he was.

                I moved into his arms and he hugged me tightly. We pulled away a little and he bit his lip as he looked at me.

                I nodded at him. “It’s alright. If you really want to, you can,” I said with a shrug.

                He nodded and pecked my lips. “Thank you for coming over Collie. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, smiling.

                “Bye Misha. I’ll text you later,” I said, waving to him and leaving his bedroom.

                I left the house and got in my car. I drove myself home, my mind spinning with thought of Misha and Ant.

                I pulled into the driveway and got out of the car. I went into the house and up the stairs, deciding to grab a snack.

                I froze and mentally cured as I reached the top of the stairs. I had forgotten all about my parents and the fact that I had snuck out last night.

                “COLLIER ARCHER!” my mother exploded, jumping off the couch and storming over to me. “JAKE! JAKE, HE’S BACK!”

                My dad came out of the kitchen and narrowed his eyes at me. He came over and shoved me against the wall.

                “You went to that boy’s house, didn’t you?” he snarled.

                “Dad, we were just hanging out!” I cried. “I swear we were just hanging out!”

                “I don’t give a damn what you were doing! Collier, you’re grounded!” he yelled.

                “For what? I slept over a friend’s house and I’m getting grounded?” I asked angrily.

                “We told you not to go to that faggot’s house and you snuck out! That’s why you’re grounded,” he said.

                “Misha isn’t a faggot! Don’t you dare call him a faggot,” I snapped, shoving my dad away from me.

                “Anyone that would dare kiss another boy is a faggot, Collie. You’re just confused,” mom said, trying to keep her patience.

                But I had long since lost my patience. “Then I guess I’m a faggot because I kissed him!” I said, glaring at both of them. “That’s right, I kissed him. And I don’t see a god damn problem with it.”

                My mom’s face paled as she stared at me. “Collie, that’s not funny. Don’t say things like that!” she whispered.

                “I’m gay. Get it through your heads. I kissed another boy, big frickin’ deal,” I said coldly.

                “Oh god. Oh no, oh no, this isn’t happening. Collie no. God, where did we go wrong with you?” mom asked, her eyes watering. “You’re not a faggot! Oh my god. Jake, our son is experimenting with boys. Oh god.”

                Dad grabbed my arm and dragged me into the bathroom. He grabbed the mouth wash off the counter and uncapped it.

                “You think you’re funny? Huh, you think this a joke Collier? BEING GAY IS WRONG! FAGGOTS ARE ABOMINATIONS! AND WE WILL NOT LET YOU BECOME A FREAKING ABOMINATION!”

                He grabbed my face and forced my mouth open, basically dumping the mouth wash in my mouth. I gagged on it and struggled away from him, spitting it onto the floor and gasping for breath.

                “Stop it!” I cried, backing away from him. “Stop it dad!”

                He grabbed me and did it two more times before setting the mouth wash down. He pulled me down to the basement, where they had forced my bedroom door open.

                “Now you listen to me and you listen to me damn well,” he said, shoving me onto my bed. “You’re our son, and we will not lose you like this. You’re not a faggot.”

                “I’m gay,” I said, glaring at him and clenching my fists. “And you can’t change that.”

                He rubbed his temples. “Collier, I forbid you from seeing that boy, whoever he is. And if I find out that you continue to see him after tonight, you bet your ass there will be consequences. I also think it’d be best if you just stay away from Colin. You got this delusional, disgusting idea of homosexuality into his head too. But Colin doesn’t have your rebellious attitude. It won’t be as hard for us to get him to see reason.”

                If only he knew what Colin and Ant did together…

                Dad came over and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Collie, we just want to help you,” he said, frowning deeply. “You’re not a faggot. You’re confused. I think the biggest thing is that you’re trying to rebel against us any way you can. But this is taking things too far. So we’re going to keep a good eye on you from now on. And if we catch you with this boy, we will send you away to stay with your grandmother until college.”

                With that, he turned and left my bedroom. I clenched my fists tightly, spinning around and letting them fly at my pillow.

                “Shit!” I hissed as I missed and hit my backboard. I gently cradled my fist and glared at the door, wishing I could just hit something right now.

                “Calm down Collie,” I mumbled to myself, taking a deep breath.

                I would have to be careful with Misha. My grandma was quite possibly the only person on the planet even more violently homophobic than my brother had been. She would beat the shit out of me if I lived with her.

                My phone buzzed and I grabbed it. I looked down at my hand and groaned, realizing that it would no doubt be bruised tomorrow. I ignored it and flipped open my text.

                From: Misha

                Hi Collie! Just wanted to say I miss you already and I can’t wait to see you again tomorrow. Because you are the Kaoru to my Hikaru and the Rosencrantz to my Guildenstern c;

                I rolled my eyes and replied back to him. He was such a dork. But I did love being with the boy, and I certainly had strong feelings for him.

                I would have to be careful with Misha from now on, though. I couldn’t risk getting caught and sent away by my parents.

                I also had to find a way to get rid of all the anger that was building up in me from my parents. I didn’t want to snap at someone because of it.

                Great. So now I had to be even more secretive with Misha, find out my feelings for him, get over my feelings for Ant, get a grip on my anger, and make sure no one knew just how bad my parents were getting towards me.

                Sigh.

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A.N.- What do you guys think Misha should do about his parents? :c