I turned off my car, letting out a heavy sigh as my head fell back against my headrest.

Put on the smile, Hero.

I'd never been more exhausted in my life. I didn't think it was possible to have so much on my mind, but it in fact was possible.

I cleared my throat and gave myself one last glance in the mirror, clenching my jaw before opening my door and stepping out of my car.

I smiled as soon as I saw Josie, nodding. "Hey."

She walked over to me, shaking her head. "I can't fucking believe my parents."

I lifted my eyebrows, looking down at her as I leaned against my car. "Oh?"

"Oh," she glumly said, rolling her eyes, "I'm so done with them."

"Well, I'm sure they've wanted to be done with your difficult ass, too."

She smiled up at me as we began to walk. I wrapped my hand around the strap of my backpack, my tongue in my bottom lip.

"So you can finally play again," she said, looking up at me.

"Finally," I said, when realistically, I really didn't even have the headspace for that currently.

I mean, is this what this does to people? Makes them hate even the things they love most in the world?

"Hey, are you good?" She asked, grabbing my arm as she stopped.

I bit down on my lip, dreading this question. I plastered on a smile, looking down at her. "You know me, Jo."

She smiled. "Hey, Amelia's up there."

"You're not letting up on that, are you?"

"She's so pretty, smart, and sweet. Well, sweet enough. How sweet are you really if you're a seventeen year old girl?"

I smiled a fake smile. Josie walked a few steps ahead of me, looking over her shoulder. "Eros is waiting. Bye, see you later."

"Bye," I said, walking up the steps by myself. I got greetings from everyone, because everyone knew Hero King.

But I didn't know him anymore.

"Hey," a soft voice called out, making me look over at Amelia.

"Hey," I said, smiling a weak smile.

We walked inside together, and as soon as we got to our lockers, she leaned against hers. "You look tired."

"I am fucking tired," I muttered, opening my locker.

I felt a fingertip brush against my jaw, making me freeze. I hadn't felt a comforting touch that I'd actually allowed in quite some time.

I looked down at her after a few seconds, realizing that I didn't really have to put on a front with Amelia.

"I'm really tired," I softly said, nodding down at her.

She nodded. "That's okay. High school sucks."

She casually opened her arms and I rested my head on her shoulder, clenching my jaw. I closed my eyes and relaxed into her, but not letting myself get too comfortable.

"I think I got dog hair on my head," I muttered, leaning up as I scrubbed my palm across my forehead.

She laughed. "You probably did. My dog will not get off of me, I don't know why. She just won't leave."

"It's your comforting presence," I said, looking down at her.

"Gotta be," she softly said, leaning her head against her locker.

"I don't want to be here," I whispered, shaking my head.

She looked up at me, a sympathetic look on her face. "I know."

I sighed, grabbing my books. "I've got to go. Thanks for the hug."

She smiled up at me. "You're welcome."

I walked down the hallway, attempting to avoid Mrs. Thompson. I didn't have the energy to deal with her today.

"Yo," Eros greeted, stopping me directly in front of her classroom.

I let out a sigh, looking at him. "Hey."

"You're finally going to be in practice today, yeah?"

"Yeah," I said.

He nodded with a smile. "Good. We n-"

"Hero?"

I looked over at Mrs. Thompson, letting out a sigh. "Yes ma'am?"

She nodded towards her classroom. "Come in, I need to talk to you about a test."

Eros sucked in a breath, punching my arm. "Good luck."

I walked into her classroom, closing the door behind me. "I thought I did good on the one last week."

She looked at me with a confused look on her face, shaking her head. "Y-you did. I didn't actually need to talk to you about a test."

"So you made me look stupid in front of my friend."

She tilted her head over. "I've asked you multiple times to stop by after class so we could talk."

"There is nothing to talk about," I said, looking over at her, "you're married. You're my teacher."

"Hero," she said, shaking her head.

"It was a hug, Mrs. Thompson," I firmly stated, my eyes locked on hers, "nothing else."

She let out a laugh, looking away from me. "Except for the advances you made towards me. Hero, if anyone found out about that, I could lose my job."

"Mrs. Thompson, I really don't need the burden of that shit on me right now, too. Okay? So let's forget it happened. Nothing happened. Nothing has ever happened."

She bit down on her lip. "Are you okay, Hero?"

I chuckled, shaking my head. "Bye."

"Hero-"

I opened her door and walked out into the hallway, pulling my keys out of my pocket. I spotted Amelia and pushed through everyone else to get to her, stopping behind her.

"Skip with me."

She looked back at me, her eyebrows knitted together. "What?"

"I can't be here today," I said, "skip with me. We can go do something."

She turned around to face me, waving at the girl she'd been talking to as she excused herself.

"I can't skip, Hero," she softly said.

"Why not?" I asked.

She laughed, shaking her head. "We're honor roll students. Those things kinda matter right now."

I looked down at her. "Please. I don't want to be alone, but I don't want to be here."

"Just tell your parents you're not feeling well," she said, "here."

She opened her locker and pulled out a tiny bag, unzipping it and pulling out something that looked like makeup.

She dipped a brush in and patted something red along my cheeks and nose, smiling up at me. "There. Looking feverish."

I smiled down at her. "You're sure you don't want to skip?"

She nodded, placing the bag back in her locker. "Yeah."

I walked backwards through the hallway, smiling at her. "You're gonna regret it."

"I'm sure I will," she said, smiling as she waved goodbye.

~*~

I knocked on Zach's door, waiting patiently for someone to open it. I looked down at the papers in my hands, making sure I had all of them.

The door flew open and I looked up, smiling at the woman standing in front of me.

So that's where Zach gets his looks from.

"Hey," I greeted, "I'm Zach's chem partner. I told him I'd drop some papers by?"

She stepped aside, smiling as she dried out a flower vase. "Of course, come in."

"This is a beautiful house."

"Thank you. Are you Fred King's son?"

"Yes ma'am, I am," I said, looking over at her.

She smiled. "You look just like him. I used to work in the building right next to his. He's very humble."

I smiled. "He is, yes ma'am."

"Such good manners," she said, "that's extremely rare these days."

I smiled over at her. She was beautiful- long, flowing blonde hair falling down her sides.

"Zach's upstairs," she said, "first door on the right, can't miss it."

I smiled, jogging upstairs. I knocked on Zach's door, pressing my ear against it.

"Hey, it's Henry," I said.

I heard shuffling around, making me lean back. The door opened and I was completely taken aback by the picture I was met with.

This is the... second time that he's done this now?

I trailed my eyes down his body that he'd never really shown off, except for now, only clad in plaid sleep pants and nothing else.

Literally. Nothing else.

"My eyes are up here," he teased, leaning against his doorframe.

I chuckled, clearing my throat. "Hey."

"Hey," he greeted, "come in. My mom's nosy."

"She's beautiful," I said, stepping inside.

"Don't be weird," he said, closing his door behind us.

I looked around his room, lifting an eyebrow. "It's dark."

"In my defense, it's usually not this dark," he said, "light's just really fucking my eyes over today."

"Sorry you're not feeling well," I said, turning around to face him.

"Yeah, I'm on my fucking ass," he muttered, collapsing on his bed.

He propped himself up on his elbow, nodding towards the papers in my hands. "What are those?"

"Chem papers, I told Mrs. Thompson I'd bring them to you."

He grimaced, holding out a hand. I held them out to him and he placed them on his nightstand.

"Do you like my lotion and tissues setup?" He asked, grinning.

"Really nice," I said, nodding down at his bed, "can I sit?"

He nodded, and I sat on the edge of his bed. I looked all around his room, and back at him. He had an eye pillow over his eyes, and was now flat on his back with his arms folded over his head.

"What do you think you've got?" I asked.

"I shouldn't be too contagious, if you want to kiss me."

I chuckled, making him smile. He pulled the eye pillow off of his eyes, looking over at me.

"You look good," he said.

I gulped, clearing my throat. I still wasn't entirely sure how to go about accepting these compliments from him.

"Y-you do, too," I said, nodding as I braced my elbows on my thighs.

He sat upright, bracing his forearm on his knees that were pulled up to his chest. "I make you nervous."

"N-no," I said, shaking my head as I looked back at him.

He grinned, resting his chin on his arm. "Yeah."

I looked down at his lips. The urge to kiss him had been biting at me ever since the day the thought even grazed my mind.

"You were a completely different guy when I met you."

"So were you," I muttered, my eyes still fixated on his lips.

He gently grabbed my chin, smiling. "Stop it. I wouldn't want to get you sick."

I pulled my bottom lip into my mouth, clearing my throat as I pulled away from him.

He trailed his eyes down my body, placing his tongue in his bottom lip. "You might want to leave before you get hard again."

He shot me a grin and I looked down, sucking in a breath. "Not living that one down, am I?"

He smiled, scooting over to sit next to me.

"Have you told anyone?" He asked, "not about me, but that you're going through changes?"

I shook my head. "No. I don't know how to tell people."

"Well, maybe it's different when your parents actually give a shit about what you do, but it was easy for me. Telling them. They really don't care."

"Yeah, well, blessing or curse, I got parents that do."

He smiled over at me. "I'm still sorry."

"For what?" I asked, looking over at him.

"For confusing you," he said, "making everything difficult. I remember when I was just finding out about, you know, my sexuality. It was confusing."

I nodded, looking over at him. "Yeah, it is. It's really confusing."

We sat in silence for a few seconds, just sitting next to each other.

"I don't get nervous around girls like I do you," I meekly admitted, shaking my head.

"I've noticed," he said.

I bit down on my lip. "But it's okay. You don't have to be sorry. I was going to find out sooner or later, anyways."

"If you need to, like, talk about anything," he trailed off, shaking his head, "I'm here. Even if I'm the one who made things difficult. I'm around."

"Thank you," I said, looking over at him.

"Yeah," he softly said, nodding as his eyes met mine.

I let out a sigh, realizing things were getting more complicated by the day, and I couldn't stop them from doing so.

~*~

"It's really selfish of them."

Eros looked over at me, sighing.

"It is," I said, throwing my strawberry down on my plate as I folded my legs beneath me, "I mean, one week, they're separated, and then this week, we have to accept that our parents are just casually hooking up."

"Josie, that's their business," he said, picking through the box of strawberries to find one.

"Eros, they're parents," I said, "they have other humans to worry about on top of themselves."

"Alright, well, they're good parents," he said, "they always have been."

"I'm not saying they're bad parents, I'm saying it's selfish of them to just expect us to accept all of these changes."

He placed his tongue in his cheek, his eyes fixated on me.

"And you know I've taken Mom's side," I said, "but she-"

"Don't talk bad about your mom, Jo."

"Eros."

"What, Josephine?" He asked, looking over at me.

"I'm supposed to be able to talk to you," I said, "and I can't even get a thought out without you reprimanding me."

"I don't know what to say to you, honestly."

"Okay, then don't say anything," I said, shrugging, "listen."

He chuckled, shaking his head as he took a sip of water. "You amaze me."

"Yeah," I scoffed, throwing another strawberry down on my plate.

He looked over at me. "Continue."

"I don't even want to."

"Jo, I'm not playing this game."

"Are you going to listen?"

"I'm all ears," he said.

"I've been on Mom's side," I continued, "but she just acted like everything was okay. Like I wasn't supposed to be confused. And now I feel like she's using Dad for sex. Or maybe he's using her. I don't know."

He was doing exactly as I'd told him to- he was listening. No comeback this time, just silence.

"It's just selfish of them," I said, "I don't know how else to put it. And Henry knew, and didn't tell me. That's kind of annoying."

"Probably because he knew you'd react like this."

"Oh, my God," I said, "like what?"

"Like you always do when there's a minor inconvenience," he said, chuckling, "you turn into a raging teenage girl."

"I am a teenage girl, Eros."

"Josephine," he said, sitting upright.

"I hate when you call me that."

He placed his tongue in his cheek yet again, and he only did that when he had something to say, but was holding it back in hopes of sparing my feelings.

"Well, now I want to know what you have to say," I said, looking at him.

"I'm going to be brutally honest with you, because you need it," he said, "okay, their lives, unfortunately, surprisingly, do not revolve around you and your wants and your schedule. They have their own business to take care of."

I kept my eyes locked on his, knowing that he was far from done.

"You are being inconsiderate," he said, nodding, "both of your parents are going through emotions that they probably don't even know how to navigate. I mean, Jesus, you've nothing short of thrown your dad to the wolves. You are his entire world, Josie. And you talk to him like he's never cared about you a day in his life."

I bit down on my lip, blinking back tears that were stinging my eyes.

"And your mom, she feels guilt from every direction she could feel it from. She's sad. She doesn't need you, behind her back, shitting on her, too. Things aren't always going to go your way, Josephine. If they feel like this is what's best for them, then let them do it. Yeah, it might not be the best for your wants. Yeah, you might find it to be selfish. But you need to stop thinking about only you for five seconds, and try to understand what they're going through."

I wiped my cheek, sniffling as I looked away from him.

"I mean, Jesus, I put together this picnic because I am in love with you, Josie," he said, "I am literally in love with you. I wanted to talk about us. Our days. Us. But you're worried about someone else's business. You want to talk about selfishness-"

"If you're so in love with me, you wouldn't have said that," I sniffled, shaking my head, "if you were in love with me-"

"I said that because I'm in love with you," he snapped, "because you needed a snap back into reality, and I am the only person you'll listen to these days. Hell, I'm not even sure you'll listen to me anymore."

I wiped my cheeks, clearing my throat.

"Yeah, let's have a fucking conversation about selfishness," he muttered, looking away from me.

I sniffled, quietly sobbing as I looked at anything except him.

He looked over at me, and I watched the anger he'd just shown completely fade away.

"I'm sorry I made you cry," he said.

"No, you're not," I said, standing up.

He stood up, gently grabbing my face. "Josie."

"I don't want to look at you," I said, looking away from him.

"Jo," he said, his forehead against mine.

"Leave," I said, pushing him away, "right now."

He backed away from me, his jaw taut.

I couldn't tell why I was so bent out of shape- because Eros, the person that I thought only saw the good parts of me, had told me all of those things, or because he was completely right.

~*~

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