"I'm bored." Mycah complained, flopping down next to Arden on the couch.

"Good for you." Arden replied without bothering to look up from his book. Mycah was so childlike at times, constantly needing to be entertained.

"Whatcha reading?" Mycah hummed, angling his neck to read the cover of Arden's book.

"A book." Arden answered curtly, not in the mood to entertain Mycah with small talk. He didn't like storms, and focusing his energy on his novel was helping to keep his mind off the ongoing storm.

"I noticed as much. What book?" Mycah asked, rolling his eyes.

Arden ignored him, continuing to read.

"Arden." Mycah whined, shoving the other boy lightly.

"Mycah." Arden mimicked, still not looking up from his book. However, his efforts to ignore the Mycah were futile when the other boy simply reached across and plucked the book from his hands.

"Hey!" Arden sputtered indignantly, "I was in the middle of reading that."

"Well not any more pretty boy." Mycah answered cheekily, smirking when he noticed the blush that spread across Arden's cheeks.

"Give it back."

"Nope."

"Mycah." Arden said sternly.

"Yes?"

"Give it back."

"No. Let's do something else, I'm bored."

"Piss off," Arden huffed. "I'm not your babysitter. If you're bored, go outside."

"But there's a storm." Mycah answered.

"My point exactly."

Mycah stuck his tongue out childishly at Arden, who flipped him off in return.

"I have an idea." Mycah said.

"I don't care. Give me my book." Arden answered blandly.

"Let's get drunk."

Arden stared at Mycah for a moment in disbelief. "Yeah, because that worked out so well for us last time," he said sarcastically.

"About that.." Mycah began casually, but Arden cut him off before he could continue.

"I don't want to hear whatever you're about to say. What we said that night stays with that night." He said abruptly, causing Mycah's face to fall in disappointment.

"C'mon Arden. Let's just talk about it. It's not like you've anything better to do." Mycah whined.

Arden stared at Mycah, dumbfounded. "Yes I do. I have my book to read." He said, lunging across in an attempt to grab the book off Mycah, who in turn legged it off the couch and straight into the kitchen, hiding the book in a cupboard with such speed that by the time Arden had followed him in the book was nowhere to be seen.

They faced off across the kitchen counter, Mycah smirking victoriously while Arden frowned, annoyed.

"Hey," he protested. "Don't be a dick Mycah. I want my book."

"Tough. My idea's better." Mycah answered, gesturing towards the glass drinks cabinet.

"Not happening." Arden replied adamantly, crossing his arms in protest.

"You're such a prude." Mycah huffed, "I'm only just trying to get you to talk to me. I'm making an effort here Arden."

Mycah brushed past Arden, heading into the sitting room and flopping back down on the couch where they were sat moments ago.

He sat in silence for a few minutes, just thinking. He didn't know why he had this sudden urge to have Arden open up to him, but it frustrated him to no end that he was here trying to be civil and Arden was too distrusting of him to share.

He didn't want to be forcing him out of the closet or anything, but at the same time it was more or less accepted fact between them the Arden was not straight. Mycah simply did not understand why Arden refused to say it properly in front of him. It's not like he would judge him or anything I mean, hello- he himself had liked his fair share of boys throughout the years.

His thoughts were interrupted when Arden silently joined him on the couch. At first he said nothing, simply sitting. A few minutes later, however, he caught Mycah by surprise by breaking the silence.

"I've suspected I was gay since i was ten years old," Arden began.

Mycah's head whipped up in shock. Was Arden actually about to open up to him?

"I had a crush on this boy, but back then I didn't think much of it. Just a friend-crush type thing. But as I got older, this started to happen more frequently. I convinced myself it was nothing, just hormones. I somehow managed to talk myself into believing I had crushes on some of the girls in our grade. And I believed it, I genuinely believed I had those crushes. But there was always something missing."

Arden paused for a moment to take a breath. Mych waited silently for him to continue, afraid that if he spoke up he would ruin the moment, or Arden would snap out of it and realize what he was doing and close up again.

"Then puberty started and hormones really began to kick in and it became harder and harder for me to lie to myself. Harder to deny that I thought Jason and Daniel were cute. Harder to convince myself that I had a crush on Hazel and Eleanor. I couldn't be gay. It was just a phase, right? It had to be. But then freshman year started, and I saw this gorgeous senior guy, and right then and there I nearly started crying, because I couldn't deny it any more. Matthew Dixon, I think was his name."

Mycah nearly choked. Matthew Dixon? As in his own freshman-year-sexual-awakening-Matthew-Dixon. Damn, that boy was a heartbreaker.

But the difference between Mycah and Arden's experiences is that Mycah was instantly cool with liking boys, Arden seemed to struggle a lot more with the idea.

"I ran to the bathroom, trying to fight back the tears until I got behind the privacy of the stalls. I had suspected for the last four years, but now we were in high school, and I would be expected to date and I couldn't deny it anymore. But I didn't want it, back then at least. I wanted to be straight. Because I needed everything to be perfect and in order to have the perfect life I needed to be straight. I knew my parents would have no issues with me being gay, and I myself had no issues with anyone around me being queer. But I couldn't accept myself."

Arden paused to steady his breath before continuing. Mycah stayed silent, heart aching for the other boy. All this time he assumed that Arden didn't date because he thought he was above everyone else.

"You always said I was uptight, and you were right. I was uptight, because I was so worried that people would find out that I kept myself on a tight leash. I only ever had one relationship, if you could even call it that. It was more of a secret fling, and it was fun and all to begin with. But we were both so far in the closet that we couldn't take it seriously without fear of being caught. So we decided it best we just be friends."

Arden paused again, and for the first time looked up directly at Mycah, who's heart skipped a beat when those green eyes captured his own.

"Then there was you."

Mycah's breath caught in his throat.

"You were so comfortable with yourself, so free to laugh and joke about your sexuality. Confident enough to ask out boys who were assumed to be straight without caring what people thought. And everyone loved and respected you for that. And I hated it. I hated that it was so easy for you to kiss a guy at a party, while I had endless sleepless nights wishing I could change. So easy for you to proclaim that you thought a dude was hot, while I was constantly on edge worrying that my staring was too obvious."

Arden's voice had started to waver at this stage, and Mycah knew that the other boy was close to tears. Not that he blamed him, opening up was always difficult. Which is why he himself never did it.

"Do your parents know?" Mycah asked, deciding that it was now okay to speak up.

"Yeah, they're cool. Ruth knows too, and I'm pretty sure your parents do too."

Mycah was taken aback. How had his parents not told him? Though then again, Arden's parents had never spilled the details of Mycah's personal issues to their own son.

"And you? Are you cool with it?"

Arden hesitated before answering. "Yes, I think I am. I've grown up and matured and accepted that being straight doesn't equal being perfect. I've fully come to terms and no longer have any problem with being gay. I'm still struggling with the perfectionism side of things, if you couldn't already guess." He answered sheepishly.

"I get it. Well, maybe I don't get it per se, but I can understand what you mean." Mycah answered, placing a reassuring hand on Arden's shoulder. "None of us are perfect. But if it's any consolation, you're the closest to perfect I've ever come across. And that's coming from me." Mycah answered, and he meant it too. I mean, cmon. Arden was super smart, attractive, athletic, fit, charitable.. what didn't he have going for him?

Arden sniffed back tears, smiling weakly at Mycah. "Thank you." He said, sincere.

Mycah smiled in response, before giving into the urge and throwing his arms around Arden in a bear hug. Arden stiffened at first, our of surprise, before relaxing into the embrace and hugging Mycah back with just as much ferocity.

Mycah couldn't help but think that maybe if they didn't spend all their time trying to hate each other, they might actually like each other.

Platonically, of course.

+++

Okayyyy so I have some major explaining to do,, basically I was at camp for the last few weeks and had literally no time to write. But I'm back now,, and I'm goin on holidays in a week and half's time. I'll try to have two more chapters out between here and then (no promises as I'm working practically every day but I'll do my best! Xx)

Thank you for sticking around guys xxx

What do y'all think of Arden's revelations ??

Xxx

-A