"So..." Daya slammed her body against the locker, announcing her obnoxious entry with a bang of metal. I flinched slightly, not even turning to look at her as I continued retrieving my books. "How was your date?"

I rolled my eyes, sighing heavily. I knew I shouldn't have told her, but she practically forced it out of me, "Good." I said simply.

"Really? What did you guys do? Did you wear that cute jacket I told you to take? Oh my god, what did he wear? Did you go back to his...or did he go back to yours? Oh my god, does your Mum like him-?"

"Daya." I hissed, shutting her up. "We went to a movie, I wore my football jacket and we slept at his."

She smirked, "Bet you didn't do much sleeping though, did you?"

"Daya." I sighed.

She glanced down at her shoes thoughtfully, "The movies, huh? That's not a great idea for a date, Luca, I would've gone for strawberry picking or-"

"It's not even strawberry season." I pointed out. "Plus, it was a scary movie-"

She gasped, "Oh my god, was he scared? That's adorable, you totally did that on purpose! Tommy took me to a horror movie on one of our first dates but it backfired since he was way more scared than I was-"

"Daya, can you stop talking so much?" I groaned in complaint. "It was fine...more than fine." I smiled proudly to myself.

"Fuck, you did it?" She whispered, lowering her voice.

"No, no, not...it. Just...stuff." I shrugged, quickly opening my mouth to change the subject before she could pry any further, "So, you guys invited him to hang out with us?"

"Yep. It'll be fun, don't worry. We all love him."

"He hasn't even met Tommy and Phoenix." I reminded her. "Just...don't be weird. He's not like you guys."

Before either of us could say another word, Theo had marched over to us, his face burning blood red from embarrassment as he held something in his hand, "Are you fucking insane?" He hissed. No stutter.

"What?" I asked innocently, leaning back against my locker nonchalantly, smirking to myself.

He held up a small wrapped up gift, the paper torn away, "You left this in my l-locker?" He challenged threateningly, but he just looked more adorable.

"Oh, yeah, that." I chuckled, deciding to play along a little longer. "It's a present. All for you."

"E-Ever heard of flowers or chocolates or something?" He retaliated. "Not f-fucking lube."

I'd never seen him like this before, it made me smile. All these different sides of him I was discovering, it meant we were slowly evolving into something real - that made me happy. Daya burst out laughing beside me, doubling over to clutch her stomach as giggles radiated from her chest, "Oh, wow." She chuckled, catching her breath. "You guys are cute but super weird."

"I'm sorry, Theo." I laughed, "I just thought that...you know, maybe you - we - would need it at some point..." I trailed off, still chuckling.

Theo opened his mouth to scold me some more but he was silenced by Tommy and Phoenix's arrival. We all stiffened, and Phoenix cleared his throat awkwardly, "Hey."

"Uh, guys, this is Theo." I introduced hastily, "This is Phoenix and that's Tommy." I told him.

They all murmured quiet greetings as Theo's face grew visibly hotter by the second, the package still clutched in his grip. Once silence surrounded us, Phoenix's eyes fell to Theo's hands. Perhaps he was merely looking for an excuse to break the heavy silence, but he made the dumb decision of asking, "What's that?"

Theo gulped, trying to hide it behind his back but Phoenix had already seen it. I didn't know whether to be terrified or amused. Maybe I was a little of both. Theo looked ready to jump off a cliff - after murdering me of course - as he tried to salvage the situation, "I-It's not-"

"He has a date." Daya chimed in. "He's super hot, Teddy was just showing us some pictures of him. Italian, right?"

He stared up at her in mortification before hesitantly nodding, "R-Right."

Phoenix nodded understandingly, digging his hands into his pockets. "Oh, cool." Perhaps he didn't know what else to say.

"Sam said you hooked up with a Spanish guy too." Tommy commented, his eyes flicking to the hickey on his neck. "D'you have a thing for foreign boys or something?"

Theo's gaze met mine and he sighed deeply before turning back to Tommy, "Yes." He replied plainly, and I had to stifle a laugh.

Luckily, the conversation was cut short when the bell started bouncing off the walls and echoing through the corridors, signalling the start of class. The boys left, followed shortly by Daya once she'd informed us that that was the funniest experience ever. I was left alone with Theo as the halls emptied, "Okay, I am so sorry." I apologised sincerely, "I didn't think..."

"It's okay." He sighed, stuffing the lube into his backpack reluctantly.

"Wait, what?" I deadpanned. "That was all my fault, why are you forgiving me so easily?"

He shrugged, "Y-You didn't know." He responded simply. "It's not your fault, but I-I guess I just completely ruined that first impression." He groaned, squeezing his eyes shut in frustration.

"Hey, don't worry about it." I assured him, "Tommy and Daya have sex nonstop, they're not going to think you're a total pervert or anything. And Phoenix would definitely like to have sex nonstop, he's probably jealous just thinking that you're getting any." I teased.

He nodded faintly, his mind clearly in another place, "I-I should go."

"Yeah, I'll see you later-?" But he'd already taken off, hitching his backpack up his shoulder as he glided through the corridor, heading to his lesson. Huh. Maybe he was angrier than he was letting on.

I slipped in late to Mr Gabarro's history lesson, shuffling into my seat beside Sam without a scolding. I wasn't surprised, I was already well aware that Gabarro would never even look at me again unless absolutely necessary, let alone punish me. Sam asked what took me so long, but I merely brushed her off. I knew the others would unfortunately inform her of this morning's events eventually and I was in no rush to get into it. Instead, I used up all my brain power to decide how I was going to make things up to Theo.

I knew Sam was starting to get suspicious recently. She kept making subtle advances which I had no choice but to brush off. Though I couldn't recall a time when I'd been this sexually frustrated, I could never do that to Theo. I was happy to wait for him. In the meantime, I had to make up excuses as to why I hadn't had sex in so long. I contemplated pretending to have an STI, but knew that would only lead to a lifetime of teasing. So I'd been casually slipping names into conversations about girls I'd fucked, trying to ease their curiosity. It seemed to be working. For now.

After enduring another painful five hours of lessons, I was finally free. I headed straight to the store to pick up a few things before driving to the pet shop, not even caring how pathetic I was for knowing Theo's work schedule off by heart. After gathering my things into my arms, I headed in, sprinting from the car to the door to avoid the pelting rain.

However, once I was inside, I noticed a different pair of green eyes staring me down. "Milo?"

"That's me." He rolled his eyes. He was leant against the counter lazily, scribbling away with his pen, presumably doing homework. He glanced up, pausing once he saw the single rose I held, accompanied by a slab of chocolate. He scoffed, "Do I smell a marriage proposal?"

I sighed, placing them on the counter, "I fucked up."

"Aw, so soon?" He cocked his head to the side mockingly. "Damn, I'd of given it at least a few months before the shit hit the fan and you found a brand new toy to play with."

"Hey, I didn't fuck up that badly, okay?" I defended myself. "It was just some stupid joke which kind of turned out shitty. Where's Theo?"

"Hopefully out somewhere realising how much better he can do."

"Why do you hate me so much?" I asked curiously, my brows furrowing as I asked the question that had been nagging me for so long.

He snorted, "Hate? Please. Don't flatter yourself with such a strong emotion. I vaguely dislike you."

"Why?" I asked incredulously.

He took a long, deep breath before letting it out in an exaggerated sigh, "You're kind of a piece of shit." He shrugged. "You're a bit of a wanker and I don't really want my brother spending his time with someone like you. Plus, I could do without you making him moan like that when I'm trying to sleep."

I blushed involuntarily, a colour which definitely suited Theo more than it did me, "Y-You heard that?" I gulped.

"Oh, yeah." He laughed. "Call me a stereotypical, protective, older brother, but I care about him. Besides, I don't think you're really gay. Or bi. Or whatever you're pretending to be. You're going to realise sooner or later that Teddy hasn't got the right body, and you're probably gonna break his heart."

"I'm not gay." I said bitterly.

"Yeah, that's what I just said." He laughed sarcastically.

"I've been doing research." I assured him, leaning over the counter a little, "Maybe I'm bi, or pan, or straight with the odd exception, but..." I grunted in frustration, running my fingers through my hair in irritation. "I don't know, and I don't know why it should matter, anyway. I like Theo, isn't that enough?"

"He's at the doctors." Milo told me eventually, "You can leave these here, I'll tell him to call you."

"Wait, what? Is he okay?"

"Is he ever?" He asked, breaking eye contact as he turned back to his homework, signalling that the conversation was over. Once I made no move to leave, he sighed and continued, "Teddy is fine. He's just getting his prescription changed or something, I don't know."

That just succeeded in tangling my thoughts further, "What're you talking about?"

He sighed dramatically, "Fucking hell. His meds. They're not right, I think they're trying to balance them out. But I don't know. Ask your boyfriend."

"Meds for what?" I questioned seriously, ignoring his demand. Boyfriend.

Then, he froze. His fingers twitched before he dropped his pen, dragging his gaze up to meet mine, "Shit." He hissed. "I thought you knew. Teddy's gonna kill me."

"Milo, what's going on?"

"It's not my place to say, Luca." He said weakly, his eyes finally softening. "Just don't break his heart and I won't break your legs. Okay?"