* Max Irons (in the gif above) is honestly one of the cutest actors I've ever come across. Anyway, that's enough of my unsolicited opinions; carry on!*

D A R K O ' S P.O.V

I angrily shoved a tater tot in my mouth as I watched a random girl ask a guy out. She pulled him aside, out of the nauseating love nest that the cafeteria has become, and popped the question. Overjoyed, the boy swallowed up the girl in his arms and they walked off, hand-in-hand.

Lucky straight fuckers.

I glanced over at Bella's table. She had her arm draped over Taylor, who was smiling at something Nicole told him. I rolled my eyes before groaning dramatically as Owen joined me.

"Hey bud," Owen said, plopping down next to me, indulging in a heart-shaped cookie. "How are you holding up?"

I glanced at Bella and Taylor again. She fed him a part of a cookie. "I highkey want to die. Does that count as holding up?"

Owen patted my back as I dropped my head on the cafeteria table. "I'm sorry he didn't see the note, dude. Maybe I should have given it to him in person. I feel terrible."

I turned my head to face him, half frowning. "Don't say sorry. In a way, it's good that he's over there and not here. Don't think I'd be able to contain myself near him."

Owen giggled. It's true - if he were to talk to me, I'd probably try something stupid, like kissing him. I'm so sick of Bella. I just want Taylor.

"Uh, heads up dude..." Owen mumbled. I lifted my head slightly.

Nicole was walking over to us.

Stifling a groan, I sat up, locking eyes with her. She slid into the seat in front of us, a smile on her dolled-up face.

"Hey, Darko. Owen." She said, nodding to both of us. Owen smiled in response.

"What do you need?" I asked, my tone catching her off guard. She sighed quickly before running her fingers through her blonde hair.

"Do you... do you want to go to the dance with me tomorrow?" She asked calmly, a small smile forming on her pink-washed lips.

After breaking into my car and assisting Bella with her blackmail against me, she think's I'd say yes?! Is she denser than a stack of concrete slabs?

I was about to shout 'No!' at her, but Bella was staring straight at me. I made eye-contact with her, and she shot me a withering glare, piercing my bravado. She mouthed 'do it' before mimicking a phone with her hand. She returned her attention back to Taylor after nearly catching on to what she was doing. I groaned, running my fingers through my hair, before nodding.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever."

Nicole beamed. "Sweet! I'll be with Lyra tomorrow. Meet me there with Stefan?"

'Ah yes, my three favourite people,' I thought to myself. Realising that I needed to respond to her, I nodded. She flashed a quick smile before getting up and walking back to her table. I dropped my head on the desk, groaning loudly as Owen rubbed my back.

"Hey, at least she's gone. Can't get any worse than-" Owen said, stopping abruptly. He leaned in closer and whispered, "I take that back. Brace yourself, Stefan's coming."

My eyes widened. Stefan sat where Nicole did, unable to make eye contact with me. He faced Owen, half smiling.

"Hey, Owen. Could I talk to Darko, privately, please?" He asked. Owen looked at me, then Stefan, then lifted a brow.

"He's having a shit day. Are you going to make it worse?"

Stefan's eyebrows furrowed. "No. Hopefully not."

Owen reluctantly nodded, before getting up, pulling out his phone. "Fine. I needed to call someone anyway. Text me if you need me, Darko."

He walked off. Stefan looked up at me, his expression perplexed, and somewhat nervous. He glanced around the cafeteria, before standing up.

"Let's talk somewhere less noisy. Follow me."

~~~~~

By the time we reached the oval bleachers, my heart was in my throat. What the hell has Stefan got to say? Can he just spit it out already?

He sat down, looking out towards the oval. Feeling my hands begin to get clammy, I wiped them on my jeans as I sat next to him. I cleared my throat.

"What do you need to talk to me about?"

Stefan lowered his head, letting out a long sigh. He turned it, making eye contact with me for the first time in days. He shook his head.

"I'm sorry."

I lifted a brow, my expression unimpressed. "Sorry about what?"

He scoffed. "You know what about. Me being a dick regarding your... preference. I'm sorry."

I rolled my eyes. "What has made you come to this grand conclusion? I assumed that you made your mind up and that we weren't going to speak to each other, ever again."

"Part of it was me, and dad's, but most of it was Lyra."

I groaned. Of course.

"What did Lyra do?"

"She didn't know that I was ignoring you. Believe it or not, I didn't tell her how I felt about the situation. All she did was text me what Bella told her. She wanted to come and talk to you about it - she was really excited to talk about boys with you. But..." he paused, sighing. "Lyra noticed that you and I stopped talking. She assumed that I was just being a good bro, giving you some space before talking to you about it..."

"Lemme take a wild guess," I said, cutting him off, "she found out that you're a homophobic asshole and told you to fix things with me?"

He shook his head, earning him a confused eyebrow lift from me. "Not exactly."

"Elaborate?"

He sighed. "Half of what you said is true. Lyra did find out about what I said to you, thanks to your friend Owen. She ended up confronting me about it. Basically, she called me out on all of my shit and told me to be a better brother. She even threatened to dump me if I continued to be like this."

He shook his head, before resting his face in his palms. After a few moments, he let out a groan before sitting up and looking at me. "She got me thinking really hard about this, Darko. All my life, I've believed that being gay means you're a shitty excuse for a person. I'm so conflicted because I know you're not that. You're my brother, you're amazing, and my closest friend."

There was a small silence after he said that. I felt myself begin to tear up, but I fought them back as Stefan began to speak again.

"Look, that was... messy. All I wanted to say was sorry to you, Darko. I know now that I treated you like shit. If I could take back everything I called you that night, I would in a heartbeat. I'm trying my hardest to learn and be more understanding, for your sake. I just need more time."

Without even thinking, I fiercely wrapped Stefan in my arms. Shocked, he tensed up as I embraced him, but eventually returned it. I felt happy tears streak down my face.

That's all I wanted to hear from him.

He patted my back, before laughing awkwardly. "All right, pull yourself together, dude. The footballers are giving us weird looks."

I got up and stuck the finger up at the footballers, who just shrugged and continued to play. Stefan laughed at my gesture.

"Anyway..." Stefan said, leaning back to rest his arms on the seats behind him. "I need some advice."

I lifted a brow. "What do you need?"

He forced out a short laugh. "The dance is tomorrow. Dad's going to be at my throat if I don't break up with Lyra by the time it's finished. I'm so fucked."

"Just disobey him?"

He shook his head. "You saw how powerless I was at dinner the other night. I don't think I can resist his influences forever-"

Suddenly, the lunch bell rang, cutting off Stefan mid-sentence.

"Ugh," He said with an exasperated sigh. "Look, I'm going suit shopping this afternoon for the dance. You wanna join me? We need to talk more and I don't think home is the safest place. Plus, if what Owen said was true, then I guess this'll be the fix to your shitty day."

I smiled. "Sure thing."

~~~~~~~~

Thursday Evening

"So, explain me this," Stefan said, pretending to search through a rack of suit jackets, "how does being gay work?"

I lifted a brow. "What do you mean?"

He let out a short laugh. "I don't know; are the stereotypes true?"

Furrowing my brows, my expression warped into further confusion. "Stereotypes? Which ones are you referring to?"

He picked up a jacket and held it against his body. "There's the first stereotype - are all gays great with fashion?"

I shook my head, smiling slightly. "Oh my god, no! Well, kind of. Not all gay guys are good at fashion, but some are. I'm no spokesperson for all of us, but in my opinion, gay guys are generally more willing to try new styles of clothing - all straight guys do is wear the same crap."

"The same crap? Like what?" Stefan asked, putting the jacket back down on the rack. I eyed down his outfit - a t-shirt with a skating graphic on it, cargo shorts, flip-flops and a cap.

"Look in a mirror."

Stefan scoffed. "What do you mean? I like the clothes I'm wearing."

I folded my arms, my lips turning into a smirk. "Fine, go outside the store and look around the shopping centre - I bet you you'll find at least ten other guys with the same style as you."

Stefan rolled his eyes, smirking too. "Whatever, jackass, I doubt that other people-"

He was suddenly cut off by a random guy colliding with him after turning the corner. Recovering, the boy apologised before running away. Stefan eyed his outfit and surely enough, it was the same thing he was wearing.

"My god, you're right."

I picked up a jet-grey suit set. "See? My point was made and you didn't even leave the store! Straight guys tend to just follow the trend of what other guys wear, or they just throw on whatever is nearby. In my opinion, the stereotype shouldn't be that gay guys are good with clothes, it should be that straight guys don't give a fuck."

He smiled. "Hey, kind of random, but this gives me an idea. You wanna play a game?"

I lifted a brow. "Uhm... sure? What's the game?"

"It's a really simple game. 20 questions. The catch is that I'm the only one that's going to be asking the questions."

I scoffed. "So, an interrogation?"

Stefan laughed, earning a glance from passing shoppers. "No! Well, yes, technically, but It's going to be fun. It'll help me understand you better."

I grabbed a black suit set from a rack and faced him. "Sure, whatever. What's your first question?"

Stefan smiled. "How many guys have you liked since you realised you were gay?"

Furrowing my brows, I thought about it. "Well, I've found several guys attractive, but I've only liked one guy."

Stefan hummed. "Interesting. Okay, question two..."

I rolled my eyes. This is going to be a long shopping trip.

~~~~~

One suit shop, 17 invasive questions and a drink later, we got back into Stefan's car and drove out of the parking lot.

"Okay, final three questions," Stefan said, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"Haha yeah," I said, my tone amused. Although the previous questions were personal as fuck, this game is entertaining. "Ask wisely."

He turned a corner. I started sipping a drink I bought as he asked the question.

"So, does anal hurt?"

Taken aback by the question, I began choking on my drink. I heard Stefan laugh like a maniac as I dry heaved onto my lap, forcing him to pull over. He was still laughing by the time I recovered.

"Stefan, what the fuck? You can't just ask that so casually! Warn me next time, holy shit!"

Stefan continued to giggle. "Jesus Christ, that was hilarious., I only asked it because I wanted to see your reaction."

'Like I was going to answer it anyway,' I thought to myself. He began driving.

"Two more questions, then I am NEVER playing this game with you ever again," I said, earning a smirk from him.

"Okay, I've got a question," Stefan declared. "When did you know for sure you liked Taylor?"

All of a sudden, I found my chest warm up at the thought of that day. Smiling warmly, I looked out the window, my face periodically bathing in a golden orange light as Stefan passed the streetlamps. "That day was amazing. I'll never forget it."

"Care to explain?"

I turned to face him, a grin refusing to leave my lips. "You remember my 13th birthday?"

Stefan narrowed his eyes, seemingly lost in thought. After a few moments, he shook his head. "Nope."

I lied back and closed my eyes. "Well, I think it was after the birthday party that the 'rents put together - Taylor wanted to sleep over. We were watching a movie in my bedroom when he shot up, remembering that he had a second gift to give me. He darted out of the room, fetched it from his bag downstairs, and ran up to me, shoving it in my lap."

"So you realised you liked him after he got you a gift? That's borderline gold digger behaviour, dude." Stefan said, teasing. I punched him lightly in the arm.

"Let me finish!"

"Okay okay, fine! Keep going."

"He handed it to me and I peeled the paper off. It was a box with an envelope in it, wax sealed, with handwriting on the front of it, saying 'Open me'. I opened it, and it turns out, it was a glitter bomb, and rainbow glitter exploded all over me and my bed. Taylor was bouncing up and down on the bed, clapping like a seal, absolutely howling with laughter at the sight of me fuming, covered in glitter. That's when I started noticing it. His smile was perfect. His laugh made me feel so warm and happy. That's when I started liking him."

We pulled into the driveway. Stefan turned off the engine, before turning to me. "Okay, final question."

I half smiled. "Shoot."

"Do you love Taylor?"

I slightly furrowed my brows. "Huh?"

Stefan rolled his eyes, before grinning. "Just answer the question. Do you love Taylor?"

I looked away, toward our porch. Catching myself smile, I knew the answer to his question.

"Yes. Absolutely. One hundred percent."

Stefan nodded, before smiling contently. "You love him..."

I lifted a brow. "Did I answer wrong?"

Stefan shook his head almost immediately. "No! This just gives me another reason to get over myself and forego my upbringing."

He softly grabbed my shoulders, locking eyes with me. "Darko, you know I'm a sucker for cute romances. I'm a strong, passionate believer in true love. You know that. Do you know how bad I'd feel if I got in the way of you and him? I'd feel fucking terrible!"

Stefan loosened his grip, sighing. "I've kind of said this earlier, but imma say it again. The point I'm trying to make is that if you believe you love him, then I have no right to get in the way or force my beliefs on you. You are your own man and you do not need your naggy older brother condemning you to hell for having a different perspective to me. I fully support you now, bro. Fuck our parents. Love has no gender. If you like dicks, then I'll just have to accept it. You are my little bro, and I'll always love you, unconditionally."

He wrapped me in a tight hug. Who knew that Stefan could make me cry twice on the same day?

"I fucking love you, Stefan. That's all I've ever wanted to hear from you." I mumbled into his shoulder. He gripped me tighter.

"I love you too."

He released me, nodding once, before flashing a reassuring smile. He popped the trunk open.

"Okay, let's go inside. Today's been exhausting."

=========================

A/N:

Stefan has always been my second favourite character in this novel. He is my sweet cinnamon bun and he's now been made redeemable. Pls, love him.

Questions time!!

QOTC: Favourite character in this book? Why?

AOTC: Darko. He's everything I aspire to be.

Please don't forget to vote/comment/share!! xx