“Collie!”

                My head snapped up and I looked around in alarm. Colin gave me a concerned look and rubbed my back a little.

                “Are you alright?” he asked.

                I pushed his hand off of me and nodded, wiping at my mouth to make sure I hadn’t drooled. Ant and Emma were watching me curiously.

                “I’m fine. Just tired,” I mumbled.

                “Colin! He was partying last night. You shouldn’t have woken him up,” Emma said with a frown.

                “Well, he just kind of dropped his head. It almost looked like he fainted,” Colin said defensively.

                I stretched and cracked my back. I rubbed at my eyes and folded my arms over the table, resting my head on them.

                “Collie, your hand still doesn’t look any better. It looks even worse,” Colin said, examining it.

                “It feels fine,” I lied.

                “So your party was fun then?” Ant asked. “Being tired after a party obviously means it was fun!”

                I nodded. “Yea, it was fun.”

                Colin eyed me suspiciously. “Did you get laid, Collie?”

                “No, I did not get laid Colin.”

                He relaxed a little, not noticing Emma desperately trying to hold back laughter. I was even fighting back a little smirk at the thought of sleeping with Misha. He was such a dork. I couldn’t even imagine him having sex.

                “Good. Mom and dad would get so furious if they ever found out that either of us had ever…” He trailed off and shrugged, taking Ant’s hand in his.

                My eyes widened a little and I picked my head up. “Colin, they’ve been talking to you, haven’t they?” I demanded.

                “I didn’t want to worry you,” he mumbled, dropping his gaze.

                “What did they say to you?” I growled. I would kill my parents if they were giving my brother trouble.

                “They’ve just been trying to convince me how bad homosexuality is,” he said. But I could tell that wasn’t all.

                “They’ve tried to get you away from me and Ant, huh?” I asked.

                His face paled a little. “It won’t work. No matter what they say, I will never stay away from you guys,” he said, quiet but determined. “They tried to tell me to stay away from you, Collie. They said you were a terrible influence. That it was your fault I’m ‘confused’ about my sexuality. And then they went on to say that it was Ant’s fault that you were confused, so I should stay away from him too. But I told them I wouldn’t stay away from either of you. I told them I love Ant, and dad got really mad at me.”

                So it wasn’t just me that they were harassing. Guilt bolted through me at the relief that realization brought.

                Still, I had a feeling that they were a lot crueler towards me with it. After all, I was the one who had turned Colin gay, right?

                “Did he slap you or anything?” I asked.

                He shook his head wildly. “God no! Dad would never slap us! No over something like this!” he cried. “Only if we were being really, really rude!”

                But then understanding lit his eyes. “Oh my god. Oh my god, did he hit you Collie? Did he have something to do with your hand?”

                I shook my head. “Dad wouldn’t hit us, you know that. And I told you that I just slammed my hand in the door.” I kept a straight face as I lied to my brother.

                Colin shot me a skeptical look, but didn’t say anything more on the topic. He got up and went over to the vending machine to get himself a drink.

                “Ant,” I said, turning to him. “I need to talk to you after school. Alone. And I don’t want Colin to know.”

                “Uh…Okay,” Ant said in confusion. “Is it really that important Collie?”

                “Yes. Yes it is,” I said. I shot Emma a look that told her not to let Misha know I was going to be with Ant. She nodded slightly, letting me know she understood.

                Colin came back over and sat down. He wrapped an arm around Ant, kissing his cheek. “Are we hanging out after school Ant?”

                “I have something to do right after school. But as soon as I’m free, I’ll text you,” he said eagerly.

                “Okay. Collie, want to go get ice cream after school?” Colin offered.

                “I can’t. I’m going to Misha’s house,” I lied.

                “Damn,” Colin said with a frown. “You guys are so busy. How about you Emma?”

                “I’m up for ice cream after school Colin! We haven’t hung out together in a while,” she said, smiling widely. Colin and Emma were best friends.

                I saw Ant watching Colin’s expression carefully, and a little nervously. But he had nothing to worry about. The fierce attraction for Emma that had once been in Colin’s eyes had vanished completely. The only time he ever got that kind of expression anymore was when he was looking at Ant.

                “Awesome!” Colin said enthusiastically.

                The bell rang and we got up. Colin kissed Ant before heading towards his class. Ant and I walked towards our English class together.

                “So what do you need to talk to me about?” he asked.

                “It’s…complicated to explain. You’ll see,” I said. I was still trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to go about this.

                When the end of the day came, I followed Ant out to his car, having told my brother that Misha was picking me up. I got in Ant’s car and he pulled out of the parking lot, starting towards his house.

                “She wants to introduce me to her friend Eddie. What is she tryin’ to do to me? He got words that rhyme, he got a dirty mind. Persuasive, am I about to do it now?” I mumbled along with the music.

                Ant pulled into his driveway and we got out and went inside. I followed him to his bedroom and sat on his bed, aware that he and my brother had had sex on this bed multiple times. Sigh, some things I just wish I never knew.

                Ant sat next to me. “Alright Collie, what’s up?” he asked, cocking his head to the side curiously.

                “Ant, you love my brother, right?” I asked.

                “Of course I love Colin,” he said dreamily.

                “And you’re happy with him?”

                “Happy as a clam! Wait, can clams even be happy?”

                “I don’t know. Would you ever leave Colin?”

                “Never,” he said in horror. “I’ve worked so hard to get with him. And now that I’m with him, I love him and he loves me. He treats me amazing. I couldn’t ask for a better boy in my life. I love Colin, and I will never leave him. He’s the best thing to ever happen in my life.”

                I nodded. “That’s all I needed to hear,” I said.

                Before he could say anything, I placed my hand on the back of his neck and pulled him to me, kissing him roughly. His body froze in shock.

                I pulled away from him and sighed, running a hand through my hair. “I’m sorry. I needed to do that.”

                “Collie, that wasn’t okay,” he said nervously, backing away from me a little. “I’m dating Colin. It was different when I wasn’t dating him. But that was not okay. Please don’t ever do that again.”

                “Yea, trust me, I won’t. I just…I needed to know. I needed to know if I was over you Ant. I needed to know for a fact that I had no chance for you, and that my feelings for you were going away. I want to be with Misha, but I couldn’t happily be with him until I knew that he was the only one I wanted to be with,” I said, staring up at Ant’s ceiling thoughtfully.

                My phone buzzed and I pulled it out of my pocket. I mentally sighed and opened the text message.

                From: Misha

                Hi Collie! Just wanted to tell you I was thinking about you, and I hope we can hang out tomorrow<3 c:

                “Dork,” I said, shaking my head. “Misha is such a dork.”

                I replied back, telling him that we could hang out tomorrow. I had some things I needed to say to him.

                “Collie, are you over me?” Ant asked.

                I eyed him and sighed. “I guess so. But would it really matter if I wasn’t? I know you would never leave Colin, and I’m happy for you guys. I really am. I wouldn’t want to ruin that for either of you,” I said honestly.

                “You deserve someone who’s good to you Collie. I hope you and this Kesha guy work out,” Ant said sincerely.

                “Misha, not Kesha,” I said, rolling my eyes.

                “I knew that! It’s just a strange name,” Ant said, laughing  little.

                “Well, he’s kind of a strange guy,” I said, leaning back against the wall.

                Misha was so patient and determined to get with me. I just didn’t understand it. He went to a college that was crawling with attractive boys, yet he chose me.

                “Well, I better head out so that you can go hang out with Colin,” I said, standing up.

                “Bye Collie,” Ant said, getting up and following me down to his front door.

                I hesitated with my hand on the door handle. I turned to Ant and met his eyes steadily.

                “I want you to tell me that you’ll never be with me. And be mean about it,” I said. I needed to hear him say it.

                “I can’t do that-”

                “Ant, please.”

                He gulped and nodded. “I will never be with you Collie. I love Colin, and I could never feel that way about you.” His voice was firm, despite the terrible guilt in his eyes.

                “Thank you,” I said and left his house, getting in my car before he could say anything to me.

                I drove myself home and went around back, sneaking in through my window. I just didn’t feel like letting my parents know I was home.

                “There you go Collie. Now you know for sure,” I said bitterly.

                I sighed and got up, leaving my room and deciding to get some food. I paused on the stairs as my parents’ voices drifted down.

                “Jake, all I’m saying is that maybe you need to spend more time with the boys. We need to stop this before it goes too far,” mom was saying.

                “Collie’s already experimenting, and god only knows what Colin and Ant Andrews do. We need to get Colin away from Ant. I told you that it was a bad idea to leave them alone,” dad said.

                “What we need to do is get through to Collie. Colin’s always been very dependent on Collie. He’s always admired Collie. So as long as Collie thinks he’s gay, Colin’s going to think the same thing too. Collie got in Colin’s head. And Collie is too stubborn to listen to us,” mom said sadly.

                “I don’t want to send Collie way. Believe me, I don’t. But maybe we should send him to a private school. Get him away from Colin, and especially away from Anthony. Ant’s the one who started this whole mess, making Collie think he’s a faggot,” dad said, sounding angry now.

                “The boys aren’t faggots,” mom said, sounding scared. “I think what we need to do right now is find out who this boy is that Collie’s…seeing. Then we can find a way to get Collie away from him. If we can get through to Collie, then we can get through to Colin with no problem.”

                “You’re right. We’ll find out who Collie is seeing, and put an end to it. Then we’ll put an end to this foolish Colin and Anthony business,” dad said firmly.

                As mom started talking about dinner, I turned and crept back down the stairs and into my bedroom. I quietly shut the door and went over to my bed, sitting down and rubbing my temples.

                I couldn’t let them find out I was seeing Misha. What if they did find some way to keep me away from him?

                I sighed and shook my head. “No. Stop it Collie,” I told myself sternly.

                I would tell them that I was seeing Misha. What the hell could they do to stop me from seeing him?

                If they tried to send me away, I would just stay at Misha’s house for a few days. His parents loved me.

                “Homophobia sucks,” I said with a sigh, wishing I could see Misha right now.

                                                                                ***Misha’s POV***

                “Mom! Mom, where is my tie?” I asked, going into her bedroom.

                “Misha Nolan Redner! Do not wear your tie to work. Just wear a regular T-shirt. Your uniform is a name tag. Don’t dress like a…oh, what does Collie always call you? A nerd? No…a dork! Yea, don’t dress like a dork,” she said, shaking her head at me.

                I pouted at her. “You guys are so mean to me,” I grumbled.

                “Go on and get dressed. When do you have to be to work?” she asked.

                “In a half hour,” I said with a sigh. “I’m just going to change and grab a snack, and then I’ll head out.”

                I went into my bedroom and put on a plaid shirt. I pulled a sweater on over it and popped the collar of my plaid shirt out. I pinned my nametag to my sweater and went downstairs.

                I froze as I entered the living room and quickly pulled my nametag off of my shirt, stuffing it into my pocket. Oh man. This wasn’t good.

                Colin Archer looked up at me. He and Emma were sitting on the couch together, watching A Thousand Ways To Die on TV. Emma’s face paled a little as she realized how bad this situation was.

                “Hi Colin,” I said, giving him a little wave. I had hung out with him just a few times before, and would say hi to him whenever he was over hanging out with Emma.

                “Hi!” he said with a friendly smile. Oh thank god he always forgot my name was Misha. He and his parents generally called me Michael.

                “Don’t you have work?” Emma asked, trying to sound casual.

                “Yep. I was just getting ready to leave,” I said and started moving towards the kitchen.

                “So did you think Collie was acting weird today?” Colin asked Emma, concern in his voice.

                I stopped and turned to face him, feeling worried. Collie was acting weird? Had I upset him when I took it too far last night? Oh man, I shouldn’t have taken things as far as I did with him!

                “He just seemed tired,” Emma said, shooting me a look that told me to get out of the living room right now.

                Colin gave her a curious look before noticing that I was still in the room. “Oh! Sorry, did you need to talk to Emma, uh…” He struggled for a minute, trying to remember my name. “Michael! No…Not Michael…”

                He looked up at me, his eyes going wide. “Not Michael. Misha. Your name is Misha,” he whispered.

                I blushed. “Uh…I should probably get to work now,” I said awkwardly.

                “You’re the one that’s been talking to my brother!” he cried. He shot an accusing look at Emma. “You knew this whole time, didn’t you?”

                “He didn’t want me to say anything,” Emma said apologetically.

                Colin turned back to me. “What have you and Collie been doing?” he asked suspiciously.

                “Nothing!” I said, nervously playing with a string on my sweater.

                “Have you kissed Collie?” he asked.

                My face heated up, remembering last night. “Y-Yea.”

                “Gone any farther than just a kiss?”

                The color of my face probably gave that away. “We haven’t done anything bad!” I assured him hastily. “We haven’t, uh, you know. We haven’t had s-s-s…done the naughty, or anything.”

                “Now do you see why Collie calls him a dork?” Emma said with a hopeless sigh.

                Colin shook his head. “All this time, and my brother has been with your brother,” he said to Emma in wonder. “So every time he said he was at your house, he was really here for Misha, not you.”

                “He just wasn’t ready to tell you yet,” I said with a slight shrug. “I’m really sorry Colin. He’s been trying to sort out his feelings. But was he acting weird today?”

                Colin shrugged. “I thought he was acting weird,” he said with a frown. “Quieter than usual. And-”

                His eyes widened again. “Wait a minute. He told me he couldn’t hang out after school because he was going to be with you. He told me you were picking him up from school.”

                I furrowed my brow. “Are you sure he said that? I told him I had class and work. And he told me he had something to do today.”

                “He said he was going to be with you. Somebody had to have picked him up from school,” Colin said slowly.

                My heart began to slam a little harder as paranoia seeped into my bones. Was Collie seeing another boy? Was that why he didn’t want to date me yet?

                Was he just leading on me to for amusement?