A/N: Okay this is my first slash story and it will be told in alternating pov’s each chapter (I will tell you beforehand whose pov you are reading) and sometimes I will repeat scenes in different pov’s, just so you can see a character’s thought on a certain topic and so you can learn more about the character. I will inform you of that by labeling the chapters “NameofChapter in blank’s pov”, so you can skip those parts if you wish. I am in need of a beta, so please contact me in you are interested.

I have always known that my best friend is gay. I’ve known Tyler since before I can remember, but I know I have always known. Blame it on my “woman’s intuition” if you will or blame it on the fact that I was raised by two gay men, nevertheless I knew.

So I felt no real shock, when two minutes earlier, as I was slurping my way through spaghetti at “Mario’s Italian Food” (The local hang out deemed “cool” by my peers and really the only restaurant in this ghost town), Tyler, pale-faced and sweating like a whore in church, blurted out,

“Callie I think I’m gay”. (And yes, it was so dramatic that I had to give his little outburst a separate line.)

Tyler then clamped his mouth shut and ran a hand through his thick, short non-descript brown hair, looking as though he may faint. That’s the funny thing about Tyler, everything about him was just like his hair, non-descript, plain, ordinary, all American, no one would have pegged him as gay, and I’m sure he thought that I was shocked. But, as I’ve said before, I always knew.

He kept glancing at me after his “shocking” revelation, as if he expected me to scream obscenities and run out of the restaurant to escape him and keep myself from catching the gay. I don’t know why he would expect that, I mean he knows my dad and pop aren’t just “roommates”, like most of the town thinks (and really, most of the town is kind of stupid, why the hell would my dad still live with someone if he was raising a child? People will believe anything if that’s what they choose to believe. It’s easier to look away then to face the fact that our sweet innocent small town has two, homosexual men living and working and being quite successful and happy within its confines).

I decided to ignore him and his looks and continued on eating my spaghetti, sometimes twirling it like a lady (my pops taught me to eat spaghetti like that) and sometimes slurping away like a disgusting three year old with no manners (Result of my dad’s teaching to eat spaghetti).

As we continued our meal in silence, Tyler grew more and more agitated and started playing with his napkin and fork and the parmesan cheese (it looked as if the fork was getting married to the cheese in a veil made out of napkin, but oh no! The knife, too is in love with the beautiful and majestic fork, who will she choose??!).

After he got bored with that, Tyler cleared his throat and said “Well…do you hate me?”

“Don’t be stupid. You know I hate it when you ask dumbass questions like that”. I said, getting irritable. I’m his best friend, he should know that I could never hate him (Unless, of course he stole a boyfriend of mine, then it’d be the biggest smack down in history.).

“Well, you haven’t told me what you think.” He looked so pathetic, like a homeless person or a kicked puppy, or the saddest thing of all, a homeless kicked puppy.

“I think my dad just lost a bet.” I know, it’s an insensitive thing to say, but I’m not known for my sensitivity and I’m defiantly not good with serious moods, and the mood of the night was so serious I was drowning in it.

Tyler blinked. Then his eyes flashed to worry and I could tell he was scared that his being gay was obvious to everyone. Tyler’s eyes were the only real remarkable thing about him, and without his eyes he would have been in the cute average Joe category, instead of the handsome mysterious man category. Which I found somewhat funny, because to every other girl at our school, Tyler’s eyes screamed mystery and veiled emotion, but to me, I could read every thought that passed through him from his eyes.

“No, it’s not obvious.” I said rolling my eyes “I’ve just always known, you’re like my platonic soul mate and I just know things about you.”

“Honest?”

“Have I ever lied before?”

“Yes…all the time actually.”

“Let me rephrase that, have I ever lied to you before?”

“Yes…”

“Okay, let me rephrase that again, have I ever lied to you when if was important?! And do not bring up your mom’s engagement party; you and I both know that it wasn’t important.”

“Well, no.”

“Well, there you go.”

“You won’t tell anyone, will you, not even your parents, Callie promise you won’t tell?!” Tyler asked, looking scared again.

“Of course I won’t tell, but when do you think you’ll tell?”

“After high school.”

“We started high school last week, Tyler, that’s a long ass time to stay huddled in a closet.”

“Your parents seem to be okay about it.”

“Yeah, well…they follow the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy.” I said, ugh I sound like Bush.

“Well, I follow the “if they ask, deny it” policy.”

“Okay, I get it, no one but me will know.”

“I’m so scared Callie.” Tyler said, and when I look at him and in his eyes I feel like a huge hand has gone down my throat and is squeezing my heart. Tyler has every right to be scared. I imagine how is catholic parents and our homophobic community would act if he came out. It wouldn’t be pretty. I make a promise to myself to protect him in whatever way I could.

I’m not a touchy-feely person by nature, in fact I hate touching people, even my parents, it grosses me out, but I reached out and grabbed Tyler’s hands and squeezed them, and I looked him in the eyes and lied straight to face.

I told him everything was going to be okay.