"Who's your favorite Marvel character?" Haley asks me. She stayed over last night, and we are currently asking each other random questions to get to know each other better. It's really fun with her here, so I can have a friend to hang out with. However, she looks so much like her little brother, so my mind keeps wandering to him and then I get in a sad mood.

"Iron man and wolverine," I reply. I used to be unsure if Wolverine was even a marvel character, but when I got it on DVD, the logo popped up before the movie started, so I'm guessing that he is.

"Okay, your turn." I lay across my bed in a weird way, with my arms straight across and my head dangling over the edge of the bed. This position is making me really dizzy from all the blood rushing to my head, but I don't care, because everything looks cooler upside down.

"What do your parents do for a living?" It's a very simple question, yet for some people it can be more on the personal side. I still do not know much about Haley's parents or her brother.

"My mom works nights at the hospital and my dad runs a business," she replies instantly, and the way she says it makes me cringe. She sounds like she doesn't even care what her parents do. I still don't know why she despises them so much. "How many boys have you kissed?" She asks, not giving me time to question her relationship with her parents. I don't mind, though, considering it's none of my business.

Upon hearing what she asked me, I realize that, even though I have been in a fair amount of relationships, I've never gotten so far as to getting intimate with a guy, let alone kiss one. This should affect me more than it does, but it really doesn't bother me. The way I see it, every relationship ends painfully, so it's better to have less good memories to cry about afterwards.

"You have kissed someone before, right?" She asks. I raise my eyebrows and shake my head. "What?!? How? I mean... how?!?" I scoff.

"Right, like I don't have enough saliva of my own." She starts to say something else, but I don't want to talk about it anymore, so I cut her off. "Okay, my turn! My question is... what is Jason like?" She rolls her eyes.

"When are you going to get over him?"

"Never," I reply. "Now answer the question." She sighs in frustration, but answers nonetheless.

"Well, he loves to read," she says, causing me to smile a little. My precious nerd. "He's really good at singing, but the chances that you'll ever actually hear him are very low. He's very insecure about his looks and his voice and a lot of other things, probably. He's really smart and funny." She finishes talking, but I'm still curious about one other thing.

"How is he with girls?" I ask quietly. Haley shrugs.

"I don't know," she responds. I sigh in frustration, for that does not help me one bit. "From what I know, he's never been on a date. Maybe he's had one or two girlfriends before. I'm not sure, I try to stay out of his love life." I roll over on the bed, so I'm laying normal again. I feel the blood rush from my head, making me even more dizzy than before. "You know, it would be easier to get to know him if you came over to our house, say, for dinner tomorrow night?" I smile a little, as I can already tell what she is planning.

If I go over to her house for dinner, then Jason will be there, too, and I can talk to him and get to know him better.

_________________

I take a long deep breath before knocking on the front door of Haley's house three times. She gave me the address, and Jared was going somewhere near her house, so he just dropped me off on his way.

I furrow my eyebrows when no one answers. However, I do hear two female voices yelling back and forth at each other, one of them definitely belonging to Haley. Suddenly, I remember how she said she gets in fights with her parents a lot. She's probably arguing with her mother.

Deciding that now is probably not the best time, I turn on my heel and start to walk down the front steps. But I freeze when I hear the door open, and turn around to see Jason standing there.

"Charlie," he says simply, sounding a bit shocked to see me. "What, uh—what are you doing here?" I shrug a little, as I quickly take in what he's wearing. He's dressed in blue jeans, a black t-shirt, and a red flannel, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, of course.

"Haley invited me over for dinner," I respond. "But if now isn't a good time—"

"It's the perfect time!" Says the female voice that was yelling at Haley thirty seconds ago. I look behind Jason and see her standing there. Sure, she seems calm right now, but I can tell that she was just screaming at her daughter. This idea sends many little rage tingles through me, and I fight back the urge to yell at her. "You must be Charlie. I'm their mother; you can call me Lynn." To say I was surprised at her sudden change in attitude would be a major understatement.

"Okay," I respond, more of a scoff than a word, and step inside the house.

"Their father is at work," Lynn continues on, as if I'm listening. Instead, I just follow Jason through the house.

"You can just sit on the couch until the food is ready," Jason says to me, pointing to the sofa in the living room where Haley is sitting already. She looks like she has been crying for a while. I immediately sadden at the sight of her looking like this. I take a seat next to her and awkwardly put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey," I say quietly, giving her a small smile. She returns it, which surprises me.

"Hey, thanks for coming." She rubs her eyes, wiping away the tears. I wince a little, feeling a sudden rush of pity for her. What kind of parents would make their daughter feel this way?

"No problem." I rub her back a little, but only for a second, because honestly I suck in these types of social situations. Or any social situation, for that matter.

"I put Lou to sleep for you, babe." I look up as a tall dirty-blonde haired woman comes into the room and sits on the other side of Haley. I freeze a little in shock as I register the pet name 'babe' that the woman used towards Haley.

"Charlie, this is my fiancée, Emily," Haley says, looking at me. A wave of shock goes through me. She is engaged to a girl. That's why she froze up the first time I asked about her ring. That is probably why she gets in fights with her parents all the time.

Suddenly, this shock is replaced with rage. My hands nearly start to shake. How could her parents treat her any differently because of what gender she likes?

However, I do manage to force a smile. "Hi, Emily," I say simply. "Who's Lou?" I question, looking at Haley. She looks a bit relieved that I did not question her engagement or sexuality.

"My little sister. She's six." I smile at the thought of a tiny little girl running around the house and annoying the crap out of Haley and Jason. Speaking of Jason, the kitchen door opens and he walks in, motioning for us to come eat.

"Food's done, ladies," he says, and he holds the door for Haley, Emily, and I as we enter the kitchen. I smile at him as I walk by, and he returns it, his hand accidentally brushing across mine as he walks ahead of me and sits down on the other side of the table. I try my hardest to ignore the sparks created by the skin-on-skin contact.

I sit down right across from him, watching in adoration as Haley pulls a chair out for Emily. Emily sits down and smiles, grabbing her fiancées hand and pulling her in for a quick kiss.

"Come on, Haley," her mother says quietly, as if she doesn't want me to hear. I do anyways. "We have a guest." I am taken back by this comment, irritated with the way she has been acting. Parents are supposed to be supportive of their children's choices.

"God," I scoff under my breath, almost laughing in amusement. I notice Haley's mom give me a weird look as she sets down her fork.

"Something wrong, Charlie?" She asks, raising her eyebrows. Just the way she does that makes me want to cringe.

"No, I just think you should show your daughter some more respect." Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Jason giving each a look that is combined with shock and amazement.

"Are you trying to tell me how to raise my kids?" She fires back. I immediately put my hands up in surrender.

"No, I'm merely suggesting—"

"Charlie, don't," Haley tries, but I ignore her.

"—that you respect the decisions she makes. She's not stupid. She knows what she's doing; she's a fucking adult." Lynn gives me a shocked look.

"So you don't think that it is at all wrong how she just kissed another woman right in front of your face?" I purse my lips together and shake my head.

"No, I don't," I respond, my voice raising with each word. "I think it's awesome how in love they are with each other. I don't understand why you think it's wrong, because Emily might be the best thing that has ever happened to Haley. You really want to try and take this away from her? One of the only things that actually make her happy?"

"So, if burning a city to ashes was what made her happy, I'd have to let her do that?"

"You're stretching my words," I say, trying to hold in the urge to smash everything within ten feet of me. "We're not talking about murder here, we're talking about two people who are judged for loving each other because they are the same gender." With at, I push my chair away from me and get up angrily, leaving the house.

I lean my forehead against Jason's truck in the driveway. I can feel it getting harder to breath by the second.

"Charlie." I look up and see Jason coming down the front steps. I didn't even have time to think that I may have possibly just ruined what could have been a really good relationship for me.

"I'm sorry, Jase, I didn't mean to—" he cuts me off as he pushes his lips against mine. My eyes immediately fall shut, and I try to convince the anxious part of me not to get all confused and worried.

I guess it works, because in the next second, I am moving my lips with his and putting my hands on the back of his neck, pulling him closer to me. I feel his hands wrap around my waist and pull me against him. Suddenly, the intensity of the situation hits me like a ton of bricks, and I have to pull away, kind of breathless.

Jase looks at me confused, as if to say, 'why did you stop?' He keeps his firm grip on my waist and looks me in the eyes, waiting for an explanation.

"I—I've never done that before," I say, a breathless whisper as I keep my gaze on his lips and dare myself to trace his jawline with my thumb and pointer finger.

"Oh, shit," he murmurs, a look of regret crossing his features. "I'm sorry, I just... you're gorgeous and you're funny and you stood up for my sister. No one ever really does that." I smile a little, staring into his eyes and kissing him once more, considering whether or not I could drown out all my invisible pain in the taste of his lips.