Their second date consisted of dinner, a movie, and then a walk around campus until Sean insisted that Lawson should get some sleep and walked him up to his dorm. They stood outside of the door looking at one another for a long moment before Sean laughed and stepped forward, closing the distance between the two of them to press a quick kiss to Lawson's mouth. It wasn't exactly the kiss he knew both of them were thinking about having, but Lawson was happy they were saving that one for later, and smiled up at Sean pleasantly.

"Don't look at me like that," Sean demanded, expression soft and Lawson raised his eyebrows. They were still standing incredibly close together, sharing the same air, and Sean's eyes seemed to have a hard time focusing on something other that Lawson's mouth.

"Like what?"

"All cute and happy like that," Sean claimed, squeezing his eyes shut before taking a big step away from the other boy. "You have no idea what you do to me, Lawson".

"I'm guessing it's similar to what happens to me every time around you," Lawson pointed out, frowning a little bit because Sean had moved so far away.

"Lawson, I need to ask you something," Sean claimed after a long pause, in which Lawson could admit he was shamefully checking out the other boy.

"Yeah?"

"Would you... Lawson- fuck, what's your middle name?" Sean inquired and Lawson's eyebrows shot up.

"James".

"Would you, Lawson James Murphy, please officially be by boyfriend," Sean finished, a small smirk on his face because they both knew the answer was yes.

Only Lawson didn't give it right away, only stared at Sean with wide eyes, because he had made a promise to himself earlier in the week, and he thought he would have a little more time before he had to fulfill it.

Before you become official, you need to tell him about Nathan.

At Lawson's clear hesitance, Sean's eyes got incredibly large. "Do you... not want to date me?"

"No!" Lawson exclaimed. "I mean, of course I do. I really want to date you, Sean. You know I do. It's just... I need to tell you something first, and then you can decide if you want to take it back or not, Alright?" His teeth tugged at his lower lip, partly in nerves, and partly to keep himself from begging the other boy to not take it back, even before he shared his secret.

Slowly, blue eyes unwavering from Lawson's brown ones, Sean nodded. "Okay... I'm listening".

Lawson didn't immediately speak, thinking about the best way to tell him. Nathan and I used to have sex. A lot. Or, you know my friend Nathan who you've actually become pretty close to? Yeah? Well we had sex in a hot tub before. Only horrible options ran through his head, and it was only when he notice Sean was getting increasingly nervous that he blurted out, "Nathan and I used to have an arrangement in high school!"

He then cringed because his neighbors had probably been able to hear that, and the one on the left was prone to yelling at him and Wes whenever they were too loud.

Sean's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "Uh... I'm not sure what that means. What kind of arrangement?" Sean asked, and Lawson turned his face away, staring down the hall and trying to pretend like there wasn't a tomato colored blush on his face. "Oh". Sean's voice was very small. "Like... a sexual arrangement?"

"You could call it that," Lawson grumbled, biting his lip again and turning his face towards Sean, who, to his surprise, threw his head back and laughed.

"You, and your friend Nathan who is very attractive, and now single had an arrangement in high school? He's the guy you've have sex with?" All of this was said through light, sarcastic sounding laughter that made Lawson want to cringe. Instead, he scoffed.

"It wasn't romantic or anything. I was telling the truth when I said I never had romantic feelings for a man before. It was just..." Lawson cut off and shook his head. "It was nothing. Literally just a sort of... if stress reliever. It doesn't even matter really. Nathan loves Glenn, and I really like you, and I do want to date you but I wanted to make sure to tell you before we started dating in case it came up in conversation and you thought I was hiding it from you". Sean just looked at him, eyes slightly narrowed. "Sean?"

With a sigh, and a little head nod, the boy said, "thank you for telling me".

Lawson lip was getting sore from chewing it so much, but he still continued to. "Does it bother you?" Something in his voice caused Sean to smile and move closer again, back into touching distance.

"Not enough that it changes anything," Sean assured and Lawson breathed a long sigh of relief, leaning forward to press his face into Sean's shoulder.

"Thank god," he breathed, and Sean's arms came to wrap around his waist. "Hey... does that mean-"

"That I still want you to be your boyfriend?" Sean asked into his ear. "Yes, I believe it does".

Unable to help himself, Lawson released a high pitched happy noise before grinning into the other boy's shoulder. "Well," he said, speaking only after he had composed himself and Sean had stopped laughing at his joy, "then I guess I'm your boyfriend".

They were already pretty much hugging, so Lawson's arms came out around Sean's shoulders to complete it, and Sean sighed in content against his neck before his lips moved to that spot below Lawson's jaw that made him squirm. After discovering it the weekend before, Sean had pressed his fingers into the spot many times just to see Lawson jolt, but this was the first time since that day that his lips had grazed it. Lawson groaned softly, and Sean kissed it again, and then again, and then he laved his tongue over it slowly.

Tangling a hand in the back of Sean's hair, Lawson pulled the other boy's head back so they could make eye contact.

The tension between them was insane, and the room behind him was empty since Wes was with Del. They could very easily-

"Fuck," Sean groaned before gently pushing Lawson away. "You should go inside now before I maul you in your hallway".

When Lawson swallowed, it felt incredibly thick going down. "Is that an option?" He inquired, completely sincere and Sean swore, bringing his hands up to cover his face before speaking.

"Your friends will ask us when we made out the first time and we'll have to say, the same night that Lawson admitted to fucking Nathan," Sean groaned into his hands before dropping them. "Not tonight".

"Okay," Lawson agreed before leaning forward and pressing a short kiss to the other boy's cheek. "Leave me then to get off all by myself". Another groan, but this time Sean began to walk away from him, down the hall.

"Enjoy the rest of your night, Lawson," Sean called over his shoulder, not giving Lawson anymore time to tease him, because the second later he was trudging down the stairs.

With a grin to himself, Lawson pulled out his keys and opened his door. Despite what he had said to Sean, he didn't masturbate once he crawled into bed. Instead, he took out his phone and called Nathan.

***

As Lawson got ready the next day, he spoke to his mother over speaker phone, though he feared he would have to take her off of it if she kept making those squealing noises.

"Mom, please calm down," Lawson urged as he raked his hands through his light brown hair, trying to get it to do something good. Quite miserably, he was failing. "It's not that big of a deal".

"A boyfriend!?" She yelled in response before making more happy noises. "You have a boyfriend?!"

"I'm not going to repeat myself," Lawson insisted, trying to sound stern. He was glad his mother couldn't see his smile. "I don't really get why you're freaking out anyways. We've only been dating for like a week, and he's only been my boyfriend for..." Lawson paused to check the time on his watch. "Thirteen hours".

"This is perfect!" She claimed, and Lawson took a seat on the end of his bed to put his shoes on. "I want to approve of him before you get too far into the relationship. When can you two over for dinner? Are you doing anything tonight? Or tomorrow works, though it's a sunday and we'll have to put the girls to bed a little earlier-"

"Mom," Lawson interrupted. "Not... Not this weekend. Probably not even next weekend either. I don't want to scare him away so soon, you know".

"Lawson," She shot back and he huffed.

"Fine. I'll... I'll talk to him about it but no guarantees". Another happy noise left his mom and Lawson rolled his eyes. "Calm down".

"Oh, you know I can't," She was saying, but Lawson was only partially paying attention as there was a knock on his door. He checked the time again, and noted Sean was a few minutes early, but he didn't mind.

"Hey mom, sorry to interrupt but I actually need to go," he cut in, picking up his phone before taking it off of speaker and pressing it to his ear so she couldn't say anything embarrassing when he opened the door for Sean.

While he was waiting for Lawson, Sean had been looking down at his phone, but the second the door opened he raised his head and smiled. For a moment, Lawson allowed himself to be distracted by how good Sean looked wearing fitted dark jeans and a button down- the top ther buttons were unbuttoned and Lawson was extremely tempted to lean forward and bite Sean's collarbone- but then his mother asked, "is it him?" in his ear, loud enough that Sean apparently heard because his eyebrows shot up. "It is, isn't it".

Before Lawson could respond, Sean leaned towards him, close enough that their mouths were nearly touching. While maintaining eye contact, he said, "Hi Mrs. Murphy," into the speaker and Lawson's eyes got incredibly wide. He jerked away from the other boy as his mother made a noise like a scream directly into his ear.

"Oh my god, mom. I need to go. I love you, and I'll talk you later," Lawson demanded, all the while that his mom yelled is he cute, he sounds cute! Into his ear. He cut off her voice by hanging up as he glared at Sean, who smiled smugly.

"Well, am I cute?" Sean teased, leaning forward slightly, and Lawson attempted to stay annoyed, but failed with a short huff of amusement.

"You are," he admitted. "And you're lucky for it or I would have already knocked your teeth out". Sean laughed, because they both knew at this point Lawson didn't really get angry with him, and then held his hand out.

"Come on. Nathan's probably waiting".

After their date the night before, Lawson had called Nathan to inform him that Sean had been educated of their past, and while he seemed perfectly okay with it, it still might be a little weird for a while. Upon hearing this, Nathan had said, "Don't worry, I'll fix this," before hanging up on him without explanation. That came five or so minutes later when he received two text messages, one from Sean, and one from Nate.

Nathan:

You me and Sean are getting lunch tomorrow to talk it out

Sean:

I'm not dead, I know you were probably wondering. Also, we're apparently getting lunch tomorrow with Nathan because he wants to "talk it out," whatever that means. I'm guessing you told him?

And so there they were, in a coffee shop thirteen hours later waiting for Nathan to arrive. "I honestly have no fucking clue what he's going to say," Lawson admitted, shifting nervously in his chair and Sean reached under the table to put a hand on Lawson's knee, stilling him.

"Why are you freaking out so much? You've told me everything, right?" Sean asked, and Lawson nodded quickly.

"Yeah, of course I did... It's just, well, Nathan's kind of an idiot, as you've probably realized, and I'm concerned that he will feel the need to give details or something, which is something I really don't want to relive, and I'm sure you don't want to here," Lawson explained, bringing his hand to Sean's under the table. "Thank you".

"For?" Sean asked, turning his head to look at Lawson.

"For being so understanding with this," Lawson explained, and Sean looked at him for a moment longer before sighing heavily and leaning forward to press his forehead against Lawson's.

"Why wouldn't I be understanding? I like you, like, a shit ton, if you haven't realized. What happened in the past doesn't really matter for anything except the fact that it made you who you are today, and I think you're wonderful, so maybe I should actually thank him," Sean said, voice low and Lawson laughed softly.

"Don't do that. His ego will get even bigger". A snort left Sean at that, and his mouth parted to say something else, but before sound could leave his lips, they were interrupted.

"See, I told you that you were dating," Nathan said happily, taking the seat across from Sean and smiling at the two of them. Reluctantly, the two embracing boy's pulled back from one another.

"At the time you brought it up, we weren't," Sean pointed out and Nathan just shrugged. He must have already gone to the front and ordered, because he was cupping a back coffee between his hands. His dark blue eyes focused on Sean, completely ignoring Lawson.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Nate questioned, suddenly serious and Lawson looked between the two boys. Sean seemed completely at ease, shoulders relaxed and eyes half lidded.

"Did any of it happen because you had feelings of one another?" Sean inquired, voice steady. In response, Nathan snorted.

"No," he assured with a head shake. "Not at all".

"Then I guess I really don't care".

Nathan looked at him for a second, eyes slightly narrowed, and then he shrugged and said, "okay," before asking what they had been up to lately.

It was a relief to Lawson to be off the topic of him and Nathan, and onto the topic of him and Sean, so he eagerly told his friend of their whereabouts over the last week.

"So you've already been on... what, like four dates?" Nathan asked and Sean shrugged.

"Technically two official dates. We still do stuff during the week but they aren't really dates," Sean explained, and Lawson nodded in agreement, bringing his eyes from his boyfriend to Nathan, who had seemingly stopped paying attention to them.

His eyes were on the front of the coffee shop, mouth slightly parted as if he was seeing something that surprised him, and Lawson glanced over his left shoulder to see what exactly had caught Nate's attention.

Of course.

Glenn was standing in the doorway, hesitating, his expression a mix between happy and conflicted, and Lawson glanced back to Nathan. A soft elbow was driven into his side, and then Sean's lips were by his ear, whispering, "who is that?"

It didn't really occur to Lawson before that Sean really had never seen Glenn clearly before. The only time the two of them had been in the same place at the same time was that night they picked Glenn up at the bar, and even then, it was dark out and Sean had only been viewing him from a distance.

"Glenn," Nathan answered, having somehow heard Sean's whispered question. Sean's eyes widened a bit, and then he looked back towards the front at Glenn, who didn't seem to know what to do.

"How much longer do you guys have?" Lawson inquired, referring to the break that Nathan and Glenn were currently on. Nathan's throat constricted as he swallowed.

"A week," he admitted before his lips curled up into a smile, eyes still on his boyfriend. When Lawson turned his head, Glenn was also grinning, eyes only on Nathan as he crossed the busy cafe towards them.

"Looks like you get to meet another one of my friends," Lawson said to Sean, and then a smiling Glenn was upon them, attention still on a single person.

"Hi," he greeted, voice airy and Nathan just tipped his head back to look up at the other boy, eyes very bright with joy. The look reminded Lawson that this entire time without Glenn, Nathan had only had a fraction of his usual happiness.

Slowly, Glenn's eyes shifted over to Lawson, and his smile turned into something different. "Lawson".

"Hey Glenn," Lawson greeted softly and then Glenn's eyes were focused on Sean. "Oh! This is Sean. Sean, Glenn".

"Nice to meet you," Glenn greeted pleasantly, shaking Sean's hand.

"You as well," Sean said, and Glenn's eyes slid over to Lawson then, his expression knowing. With a roll of his eyes, Lawson squeezed Sean's hand beneath the table.

"I just wanted to say hi," Glenn explained, addressing Nathan now. "I know... well, I wasn't sure really what to do since we didn't talk about what happens if we run into one another, so I should probably just-"

"Sit," Nate concluded for him with a grin, and Glenn's eyes widened a little bit.

"Are... are you sure? I mean, is that okay with you? I understand if you don't want me to-"

"Glenn, sit down. Of course I'm sure," Nate cut in again, and Glenn smiled and took the seat across from Lawson. Immediately, he turned his entire body towards Nathan.

"Why aren't you eating?" Glenn asked, and Nathan's eyes got very wide. Lawson looked down at the muffins him and Sean had ordered, and then the table in front of Nathan, which only had his coffee.

"I, um-" Nathan began, eyes wide but Glenn tisked and got to his feet. "You're leaving because-"

"I still haven't ordered," Glenn explained. "I'm also going to get you food, and your going to eat if, even though it won't be lettuce or something equally terrible".

With that, Glenn left, and Lawson laughed at Nathan's ashamed expression. "What just happened?" Sean asked, looking between Lawson and Nathan.

"You see, Nathan gets obsessive about his weight and refuses to eat anything but vegetables and protein shakes," Lawson explained, leaning into his boyfriend side. The tables here had benches for seating, so it was easily for them to slide together. Sean's arm came around his waist absentmindedly.

"Really?" Sean asked, addressing Nathan who shrugged.

"I used to be overweight as a kid and Nico Dayton- Glenn's ex-boyfriend- used to beat me up because of it," he grumbled with a frown. "I can't help it".

"Glenn force feeds him unhealthy things like  French fries all the time," Lawson said, and a second later a pastry was dropped down on the table before Nathan, and Glenn was sliding back onto the bench, this time with a coffee mug.

"Has he been doing that often?" Glenn asked Lawson, gesturing to Nathan, who made a face.

"I don't know," Lawson admitted, thinking back. He recalled his lunch with Nathan, all those weeks ago, when Nate had only picked at a salad. Then he recalled going to Nathan's apartment to pick him up for tennis and gathering all of those wrappers from cheap processed foods. "I think he goes through phases". With a sigh, Glenn looked at Nathan, who shot Lawson a less than pleased look.

"I have not. All I ate was absolute shit until I gained like ten pounds, and then fell back into old ways to lose it. I'm fine now. Really-"

"You can't just do that," Glenn said, exacerbated, and Nathan just smiled fondly at him.

"This is what happens when you're not around to take care of me". Glenn's cheeks pinkened a little bit, but his eyes rolled and he fixed Sean and Lawson with a see what I have to put up with look.

It was easy for the four of them to fall into