Ross' POV:

Until the sun went down, me and Robert spent the whole afternoon in the spot we found. We ate snacks, read his astronomy book, and I even played one more song for him on the guitar. It really flattered and embarrassed me how much he liked my guitar playing. His constant compliments and him reassuring me that I play good made my heart flutter a bit. I never thought I would've played in front of anyone but I'm glad I did, and I'm glad it was Robert to be the first person to hear. It's still a little shocking though that just by my humming he could tell I could sing.

The sun was almost down and Robert and I were laying on the blanket reading his book just like this morning. Moments like this between me and him with so much tension really do make it hard for me to try and forget my feelings. But why do these moments keep happening? I mean, I'm sure Robert can also feel the tension so why do we keep ending up in these moments? Or maybe he really doesn't and we're just doing what normal friends would do and I'm thinking about it too much. God, maybe I should talk to someone about this. It's all so confusing, I've always thought I was straight but Robert makes me think differently, and I can't get over that it's him specifically that's making me question myself. My best friend.

"The sun is almost down, you wanna set up the notebook?" Robert asks once he finishes the page he's on.

"Sure! I don't really know much about stargazing notebooks though, is there like a certain layout?" I ask.

"No, though if we had an actual stargazing notebook there would be some extra stuff in there to help with the notes." he answers.

"Oh, okay then," I think for a moment about what exactly we'd be setting up, but can't really think of anything. "So.. what are we setting up?" I ask awkwardly as I sit up, I was laying down before.

Robert also sits up and closes the book. "Well, I was thinking that we could do journal entries too? Like in the movies?" Robert looks down for a second then back up at me with an awkward smile. "If it sounds too cringe we don't have to do it though of course."

"No, of course I wanna do it!" I answer, cringing right after at my sudden change in tone.

Robert chuckles and pulls the notebook out from his bag along with a pencil. He opens it to a blank page. "You wanna go first?" he asks.

"Eh, you go first so I could use yours as an example." I answer.

Robert nods and begins writing. He would take pauses every now and then and spin the pencil in his fingers to think of what to write and when he thought of something he would nod to himself and go back to writing, which made me chuckle a little.

Once he finished he looked up at me and spun the pencil in his fingers once last time before handing it to me. "Your turn!" he beams out with a smile.

I take the pencil and book from his hand and look down at it. I read through his entry to get an idea of what I should write:

"Sunday, January 8th
Robert:
At a super cool spot with Ross to go stargazing! So far I'm having lots of fun with him and I'm excited for the sun to go down. I think the best part of the day so far was when Ross played that Three Eleven song on the guitar, he's so amazingly, awesomely, fantastically, outstandingly good at it :) (Had to exaggerate on that since I know you're reading this Ross. I bet your face is gonna turn red lol ;) )"

My face, just like predicted, turned red from embarrassment and I heard Robert laugh from next to me.

"I knew it." he teased as he gave me a playful nudge.

I scoffed and gave him a nudge back. "Shut up you dork."

I looked back down at the book and continued to read his entry.

"Anyways, I'm having a really good time and I'm excited for the next time we'll be able to come back here! :D"

I smiled to myself at how much thought he put into his entry and the little faces he drew in it. I drew an arrow to the part where he predicted my face would turn red and drew a hand sticking up the middle finger and wrote my name under. I chuckled and then started to brainstorm about my entry. As thoughts came to my head I wrote it down onto the paper:

"Ross:
The spot Robert picked out is super cool, the sky looks really big here and when spring comes it's gonna look even better. There was a hill we were gonna climb but couldn't because of all the snow but we'll be able to soon. I'm also having a lot of fun, Robert is good company. I'm glad he liked my guitar playing. I'm super happy right now and I can't white for the sun to go down :)"

I read through my entry to make sure everything looked good and handed it back to Robert along with the pencil. He read through my entry and softly smiled and then laughed at the middle finger I drew. He stuck the middle finger up at me before drawing a line under our entries for our stargazing notes.

"I think the sun is finally going down!" Robert beams out as he looks up from the book and at the sky.

I also look at the sky and notice that the sun is going down too. "Ooo, it is! I've never actually seen a sunset before." I say as I continue to look at the sunset in awe.

I hear Robert chuckle and scoot closer to me. "Me either."

We both continue to watch the sun slowly go down in silence, just enjoying eachothers company. For a split second I think I felt Robert's hand graze mine, which made my heart start to race. I didn't move it though, I wanted him to think I didn't notice, if his hand even did touch mine.

Robert's POV:

Watching the sunset with Ross feels so surreal. I wanted to hold his hand but I didn't want to make him uncomfortable, so I ended up just slightly touching it. I don't think he noticed that I grazed against his hand thankfully.

But right now also feels like a good opportunity to be open with him. Roy was right last night, I should tell him I'm gay. It'd be good for him to know and maybe it'd make him be more open with me.

"Hey Ross, can I tell you something?" I say suddenly.

"Mhm!" he hums, still looking at the sky.

"Uhh, I'm gay."

Ross immediately looked from the sky straight to me.

"You're gay?!" he asked with a shocked tone. Not in a negative way.

"Yeah, for a while now." I answer. It's kind of amusing how shocked he is.

He looks down for a minute then says, "Thanks for telling me. Y'know I support you no matter what Rob." he says with a soft smile.

He looked like he was deep in thought though, as if he wanted to say or ask something. Until finally he looked back at me and took a breath.

He asked, "How long have you known?"

"I've known since probably elementary school. I've just never been interested in girls." I answer.

Ross sighs and looks back down. "Can- Can you help me with something?" he asks hesitantly with a low tone.

"Of course, what is it?"

He rests his head on his knees. "I don't know if I'm straight or gay."

As soon as he finished saying that, I raised my eyebrows.

"So, you've been questioning your sexuality?" I ask to confirm.

"...Yeah." he answers.

I nod to myself. "What's making you question it?"

It took Ross a while to think of a response. "Um, there's a guy from a show I like that looks nice? I'm just confused cause I've always thought I was straight." he says with a questioning tone.

"Well maybe you're bisexual? You like boys and girls."

Ross lifted his head from his knees and head-butt himself. "Why didn't I think of that? So simple." He smiles to himself. "Well then, I think I'm bisexual. Thank you for helping me Rob."

I also smile and give him a hug. "I'm glad I was able to help you!"

I break the hug and change my smile to a smug one. "So, who's the guy?" I ask teasingly.

His face turns a bit red and he gives me a nudge. "I'm not telling you."

I chuckle and me and him look back at the sky, the sun now down and the stars more visible.

"Wow.." I say in awe, admiring the stars. "They look so beautiful."

"They really do." Ross responds.

I grab the stargazing notebook from my lap and start to jot down some notes quickly. I notice Ross look at me for a second and chuckle before looking back at the sky which made my heart flutter a bit.

I have a chance.

I close the book after jotting down all my notes and look back at the sky.

"Should we start heading back? I don't want to worry your mom." I ask.

"Just another five minutes." Ross responds.

I nod my head and continue to admire the stars with him.

-

Around 15 minutes later we made it out of the forest, and thankfully those crows were gone so no loud noises. We started making our way to Ross' house but thought of something I wanted to do before going back.

"Hey, I'm gonna go somewhere before heading back. You could go home and wait cause it'll be a bit." I say.

Ross looks at me with a confused expression. "It's dark out though? Where are you going?" Ross questions.

"Well, we're near the hospital so I was thinking of going to see Riley. I haven't gone to visit her in a while and I'm sure she's wondering how I've been. And I bet she'll be super happy when I tell her that dad will be out of our life soon." I answer, smiling to myself at the thought of how happy Riley will be when she sees me.

"I'll come with you. It's too dark out." Ross says, turning around to walk in the direction of the hospital.

"Are you sure? You don't have to." I respond, now walking towards the hospital with Ross.

"I'm sure."

We give each other a smile and make our way to the hospital together.