"Woah," Fern mumbled as he looked outside the limousine window. Ani scooted next to him and looked outside too. He smiled and looked to Fern.

"What's the woah for? Looks like an average high school get together."

"I knew school dances were popular but I didn't expect..." His eyes were trailing over people a mile a minute.

Typically sloppy high school guys were looking strapping in tight nicely colored suits. Their hair was gelled down to, and they actually looked washed and cleaned. The girls were a sight to behold, at least to Fern. Their dresses were extravagant, their makeup was on point, and all the hair was amazing.

Ani and Fern inhaled and exhaled at the same time. "It's a good night for a bisexual," Ani said dreamily, Fern nodded it was a good night for him too.

"Come on party people let's party!" Dillian leaned over him then and opened the door. He didn't bother waiting for either Ani or Fern to get out, instead, he climbed on top of both of them onto the other side.

"Party people let's party?" Carson said questioningly. Quinn sighed and patted his shoulder.

"I didn't say my second group of friends were very cool, at all." Quinn clarified. Ani pushed on Fern's shoulder.

"I don't want to have to climb over you Fern, but we have to get down and dirty. No time to fucking spare."

Fern knew Ani was good on his word, and he really didn't want sparkly blue pumps digging into his thigh. He scooted out until he was standing outside. He sidestepped and let the other three get out, while Dillian spoke with the driver.

They stood in a huddle with Ani looking the most excited. Fern checked his watch then at the still entering students. "I'm surprised people are still coming in, we're pretty late."

"Um, it's called fashionably late. Only student council members ever get there when it starts." Ani patted down a strand of his hair and took Fern's hand.

"So Ani, how are you going to keep our little wallflower from drifting away from the dance floor?" Quinn asked, his hand was slipped into his pocket fiddling with something inside.

"Just going to hold his hand and keep dragging him back." Ani swung his and Fern's hands almost hitting Dillian behind them.

"Okay, Jerry knows when to pick us up. Let's head inside."

"Who's Jerry?" Carson asked.

"He's our driver." Dillian clarified. "He's also my moms best customer."

"Dillian's mom owns a nail, hair, and feet salon. It's pretty popular around town. We should all take a trip down there one of these days." Ani suggested, he began walking forward the other boys following close to him.

All the men gave Ani a side eye, then looked at each other. "No thanks Ani, I'm good," Carson said slowly.

"Sorry...salons are not my thing..." Fern said awkwardly.

"My mom would accuse me of not wanting to full transition." Dillian shrugged, he pocketed his phone and held the door open.

"I'll go with you. I'd just get a clear coat at the nail place though. The other stuff, well...I don't exactly have enough hair to need a hairdresser." Quinn patted on his short gelled hair for effect.

"Quinn is a real one, the rest of you are fake." Ani huffed, he pushed a strand of his hair to the side and walked through the doors, Fern still right by his side.

Fern's eyes widened as soon as he saw the decorated gymnasium. "Woah." He murmured.

"They did a pretty nice job," Carson yelled over the music. He stood close to Quinn almost touching elbows.

"Homecoming committee really pulled through," Ani said with a smile.

The theme for the year was Wizard of Oz. There was a signpost right by the door that had three different signs in different directions. It read; Kansas, Emerald City, and Munchkinland. There was also a yellow brick road leading all the way to the food table.

"We should find a table before anything else," Ani said, he took Dillian's hand as well and began dragging the three of them towards the table area. With Carson and Quinn following behind.

They made to a small gathering of tables, a lot of bags and suit jackets were hanging by chains of specific tables. Ani hummed and located a completely clear one. He came to stood in front of it and picked up a discarded sharpie.

"How are we going to stake claim to this? We have nothing to put on the table." Dillian said he adjusted his suit jacket no plans on removing it.

"All we need is a name for our group then write it on top." Ani uncapped the sharpie.

"Is that even allowed?" Fern asked.

Anakin shrugged, "I do it all the time and usually I go by myself."

"I have the perfect name!" Dillian quickly took the sharpie from Ani and sidestepped so that he would be away from the table. He bent over and began writing before anyone made any objections.

"He's going to write it isn't he?" Quinn smiled and shook his head slowly.

"What's he going to write?" Carson asked Quinn put an arm on his shoulder.

"You haven't caught on yet have you?" Quinn said slowly, Carson looked increasingly confused.

Dillian turned around re-capping the pen. "Big D and his hoes, that's our table and that's our group name." Dillian looked between the vaguely amused faces. "We can come up with hoe names later, but Ani is the main hoe."

"Well, that's a given." Ani shrugged, he took Fern's hand again.

"Well hoes, let's get down and dirty." Dillian pointed ahead and lead the way to the dance floor.

"I really hate the times when he talks," Carson said with a head shake. It was almost amusing watching him follow after Dillian. He had at least 6 inches on Dillians 5,5 height.

"We all do," Quinn assured him, he patted the top of Carson's shoulder.

They all made it to the middle of the dance floor. They systematically made their own circle for dancing. Ani had to tug Fern into his spot and let go of his hand.

"Why did we make a mini circle?" Fern asked he turned to Ani for clarification.

"That's just what you do at dances. That way we all have enough space to dance," He clarified.

"Eventually if the music gets really hot it ends up collapsing anyway," Quinn added.

"Good music is better danced to as close as possible," Carson said finally.

The lights finally dimmed and the proper DJ came forward. He went behind a small podium typically used for announcements and turned off the random song that was playing before.

"If we're lucky maybe the songs will have swears in them," Ani said nudging Fern's side.

"I doubt it, the student council gave him a list of specific songs they approved," Carson called over the new song.

Fern watched as Ani began slowly moving to the song. It had a loud bass and a sexy feeling beat. When the singer began the dance floor really shot to life.

Fern watched as Quinn's smile widened and he began moving his shoulders and arms in an interesting lean in and out motion. Carson leaned down and whispered something into Quinn's ear that made him laugh. Carson smiled triumphantly and copied Quinn's lean in and out dance moves.

Fern's gaze switched to Ani, he had begun to move his hips to the song. His mouth moved, mouthing some of the lyrics as he moved his torso up and down.

It dawned on Fern that he had no real idea how to dance to this type of music. If he was given a more Latin beat he might have been able to put something together. He looked over to Dillian for help. By the way, Dillian was vaguely jerking to the beat, Fern assumed neither did Dillian.

"Come on Fern you're just standing there. Ani turned so that he was facing Fern as he danced.

"I don't really know how." Fern took his hands out of his pocket and let on his fingers strum on his thigh instead.

"Come on, you just move to the music. There is no real way to do it wrong." Ani assured. Fern's eyes slowly lead to Dillian then back to Anakin. "Okay, maybe you can sort of do it wrong. But here I'll help you."

Ani walked over to Fern. He took both of Fern's hands in his and swung them around a bit. "Just do what I do," Ani instructed. He began to slightly wiggle his hips back and forth, not exactly matching with the music like he had before.

Fern squinted his eyes and tried to copy his movements the best he could. His hip movements were stiffer and more forced. Ani giggled at his efforts and tried shaking his shoulders. Because of their connected hands, Fern's shoulders immediately shook with them.

Fern smiled and admired how amused Ani looked. The music changed to something more swingy and dance like. Ani, in turn, began to swing both of their arms.

They both moved their arms and brought them in then out, then back again. Fern occasionally figured out how to turn Ani in his arms. He then proceeded to complete the move too many times. He almost spinning Ani right into Dillian in the process.

"Woah, dude chill out with the spinning." Anakin laughed, he took Fern's outstretched hand and stood in front of him again.

Fern blushed and adjusted the strap of Ani's dress. "Sorry, I'll stop with the spinning."

Ani smiled and touched his cheek. "You're so cute. Why don't you try picking me up and setting me down."

"Like in the movies?"

"Yeah sort of," Anakin was moving slightly as they spoke.

"Doesn't that require more spinning?" Fern asked, remembering a specific scene in singing in the rain.

Ani looked thoughtful for a moment then grimaced. "You're right, the song is changing anyway. Just do whatever you think feels right."

Fern listened to the music, he recognized the band and the song surprisingly. He began humming to September and bobbing his hand.

He moved his shoulder similarly to how Ani was. That earned an encouraging smile from Ani. Fern let go of Ani's hand began snapping to the beat of the music. He felt kinda dumb but Ani was smiling so much that everything he did felt encouraged.

He moved his head from side to side, his body following. Ani caught on pretty quickly and mirrored his movements. He even shook part of his hip as he danced.

Fern spared a quick glance at Dillian who was doing basic disco moves, pointing from his hip to the sky and shaking his hips. He even managed to woo a few girls to copy his moves. They were giggling obviously seeing how ridiculous they looked.

Fern took Anakin's hand and did a similar pointing motion with their hands that had him laughing. Anakin let Fern direct his hand movements, but countered it by hip bumping him to the sound of the music.

Fern looked over to Quinn and Carson who looked like they were in a world all their own. Their moves were almost synchronized like they had practiced before.

Quinn shimmied in and out while Carson grooved on either side of him. At one point Quinn raised his arm and Carson held it waving it from side to side as they both swayed to the music.

The arm holding turned into hand-holding, Carson wrapped his arm around Quinn's midsection and dipped him for a dramatically long time. Quinn began chuckling and was pulled back up. They kept their hands together and pulsed out always coming back into a hip bump, or high five.

"They're really in sync right?" Fern yelled over the music. He tilted and finally looked at Ani who was singing the lyrics loudly out loud. He strained his ears finally able to differentiate the tone of Ani's voice from the actual singers.

They repeated the same swaying motion, Fern not wanting to distract from Ani's singing. He realized how little he had heard Ani sing for a theater kid. '

"Let's groove tonight!" Ani, Quinn, and Dillian all yelled. Fern hadn't realized it but the song had changed, but it was still the same singers.

The circle that had been originally formed met back in the middle. Ani, Quinn, and Dillian all began singing the lyrics loudly. Dillian and Quinn were both pretty out of tune but they sang enthusiastically. Fern didn't understand exactly what was happening, there was just a lot of singing pointing and dancing from the rest of the boys.

Fern tried to catch Carson's eye to see if he felt just as confused. Carson on the other hand just had his hands around Quinn's waist and was dancing with him.

"We can boogie, on down! Down!" It felt like the whole gymnasium was yelling the lyric, and all of the high schoolers had begun to dance until they were all basically crouching. Ani shook his ass to each 'down' a lot more control and balance than the rest of the boys had in that positioned.

Fern's eyes widened and followed their movements until they all popped back up to continue regular dancing. Fern nearly fell over trying to stand up from squatting.

Dillian and Ani snorted out a laugh and they both took one of his hands and pulled him back up. They didn't let go for the rest of the song. Both of them were dancing in different ways and Fern was being pulled back and forth. Fern closed his eye and just followed whichever direction his body was taken to.

The music continued much the same way, the genre of the song was switching up rapidly, and the songs blended together seamlessly. There were a few songs that Fern remembered from middle school nightmares, like the Cotton Eyed Joe and the Cupid Shuffle. As amazed as he was watching Ani dance in a dress and high heels, it didn't help how clumsy he was.

Besides the songs they all knew, the gang would continue to break up and dance. Then eventually find themselves back in the middle again, dancing together. Fern began to understand how girls in 6-inch heels could dance for so long in the movies. He began to feel a dancing high and barely remembered what life was like outside of the dance floor.

A certain song came on and the entire atmosphere of the gymnasium changed like a switch. Fern's heart was racing and he looked around, as the tone of the song smoothed out.

"I'm going to take a quick break at the table," Dillian said quickly, he didn't wait for the response of the other and weaved his way in and out of the students.

Fern didn't quite understand what was happening, he didn't think it was a slow song. It was more laid back than the other songs, he looked around a bit and realized what was happening.

"Maybe I should go with Di-"

"No no no, you are staying and dancing with me." Ani insisted, he took both Fern's hands and moved in closer as the singer of the song came on.

Ani let go of his hands and began dancing in front of him, his moves were small but had a lot of expression in them. Fern stared blankly for a while just watching Anime as his heart rate picked up.

He caught his breath and began swaying slightly from the side letting Ani do most of the dancing. He glanced around then back at Ani. He slowly put one hand on Ani's waist.

Ani responded better than Fern could have imagined. He put his hand on top of Fern's hand and made sure to move his hips more so that Fern could feel the movement.

The beat picked up slightly and the atmosphere picked up with it. Ani turned around so that his back was to Fern, and began doing what Fern could only describe as grinding on him.

Fern was almost paralyzed. He felt like he was on a roller coaster just before it reached its first plummet. Ani didn't let up, his ass was barely a centimeter from Fern's dress pants. Then it wasn't.

Fern tried to look at Quinn to get some bro help but was dumbfounded to see Quinn doing almost the exact same thing. Unlike Fern, Carson seemed to know exactly what he was doing.

He had both his hands on Quinns hips and moved whatever way Quinn was. He encouraged Quinn by pressing his hand flat against his lower back and pulling him back up by the shirt collar. They were both smiling clearly into everything that was happening.

Fern slowly pressed his palm against Ani's lower back. Ani was much more flexible than Quinn was and nearly bent all the way over. Fern had no collar to pull back up on so he waited until Ani naturally came up by himself.

They fell into a rhythm. Ani did most of the dancing while Fern occasionally helped with a thigh touch, or getting closer or farther to him.

When the song ended Ani was proudly fanning his face. Fern tried to non-discreetly adjust his pants, he made painfully awkward eye contact with Carson doing the same thing.

"You're getting so good at dancing," Ani said catching Fern's attention again.

"Thanks, I have one hell of a teacher." Fern was panting finally realizing his own tiredness as his high began to diminish.

"Aw, you'll make me blush."

"Your face is already red so I don't think you'd notice," Quinn said as he walked over to them. He was fanning his face as well.

"I love this DJ, I have no idea who the hell gave him the song choices though. That song was literally about fucking on a dance floor." Carson pushed back his hair, sweat was evident from the line at the top of his forehead.

"I have no doubts some children were made on this dancefloor tonight." Ani chuckled, "Did you see Jess? She was basically fucking Anthony Clark on the dance floor." A thought dawned on Ani and winced. "Sorry Quinn..."

"No no don't worry, I'm glad she found someone new. I'm the one who broke up with her anyway." Quinn assured him.

"At least he looked like he wanted to have dance floor sex with her," Carson added, he rubbed Quinn's shoulder. "Ah, that could have been you."

"Dance floor sex is not only appealing, it's extremely not classy." Quinn looked a bit revolted at the notion.

"You think most sex is gross, that's why I have no idea why Jess didn't break up with you first."

"Because I didn't want to have sex with her?"

"Yeah, I mean sex in and a relationship kind of go hand in hand in high school." Carson scoffed, and Quinn just shrugged brushing the comment off.

"Hey, I'm going to go get my flats from the table. Fern you stay here, I'm afraid if you leave the dance floor you'll never come back." Ani looked to Quinn and Carson. "You two watch him."

Anakin began walking back to the table, the loud click of his shoes were actually decipherable against the quieter song.

Almost as soon as he left Dillian returned with a blonde freckled teenage boy that Fern only vaguely remembered. He was wearing a green velvet suit, that hugged his body nicely. His hair was shaggy but it matched his whatever 'I don't care' vibe he was trying to exclude.

"Look who I ran into," Dillian said smacking the kids shoulder.

"Yo! It's Brian." Quinn smiled and moved away from Carson to go to him. He gave him a quick guy hug and scanned him over with his eyes. "Damn, you make a shitty velvet suit work. You clean up nicely,"

"Thanks my guy, you look pretty smacking' yourself." Brian gave him a once over. "Oh damn, I'd tap that."

Fern frowned a bit confused and concerned, but by the way, Dillian and Quinn laughed at him he assumed that was a joke.

"I didn't know you were friends with Brian." Quinn said to Dillian.

"He's like my cousin on my mom's side." Dillian clarified.

"Wait, he's Asian too? I thought he was white." Fern said dumbly, earning a look from everyone in the circle.

"My mother is white Fern," Dillian said slowly.

"Yeah, I knew that."

"Brian is from the white side of my family."

Fern made an oh with his mouth and nodded. "Oh, makes sense. You can ignore me now."

The other guys smiled a bit and shook their heads. Brian turned back to Quinn and nudged his shoulder with the back of his hand. "Hey, we missed you and Carson at the pre-party. What happened?"

"Just some shit went down, Jess and I are over now."

"Well I'd hope so, she looked like she was well on her way to carrying an Anthony Jr. with the way she was moving." Brian laughed and Quinn smiled a bit.

"We might go to the after party, will it be at your house?" Quinn asked.

"Oh yeah definitely, my parents know the drill. They're probably still sipping martini's in Hawaii." Brian laughed, Dillian chuckled too.

"Hey, do you know if the student council really made this playlist? Because it's way too good for dear old class president Britney Sterling and Vice-president Matt to put together." Quinn said while nudging Carson. Carson just nodded stoically, his eyes glancing between Brian and Quinn.

"I was expecting Christian Rock honestly." Dillin laughed.

"Oh don't worry, there was plenty of Christian rock..." Brian smirked, "On the original playlist! I sent the dude a different one and told him to burn the other one. He was more than obliged."

"Dude you're a fucking legend." Quinn clapped Brian on the back.

"Thanks, I need to make the ladies and Quinn wet somehow. Maybe if I do something really great Carson might drop his panties for me too." The rest of the guys laughed except Carson, who looked minorly annoyed the entire conversation.

"How about Dillian?" Fern asked.

"Psh Dillian? He's in my bed twenty-four seven, eight hours a day every day. We're already tight, well at least I am."

Quinn and Fern made an oohing sound, Dillian breathily laughed and shook his head. "Yeah yeah whatever, go spike the punch bowl or something." Dillian waved him off.

"Actually that's good." He stepped back saluting. "Bye cuz, bye Fern, bye booty call, and goodbye football player who looks like he could kill me right now." He waved and disappeared into the crowd.

Once he was gone Quinn turned and looked at Carson his arms crossed. He looked like an angry mother who yelled at her kids once they were at home. "Why do you always do that?"

"Do what?"

"Act like a complete douche with my friends,"

Carson narrowed his eyes a bit, "You know why."

"Yeah, I fucking know why. Just because I know doesn't give you a free pass to keep doing it."

"I don't do it with all your friends!"

"But you do it with enough and it's bullshit. It's like your blaming me!"

"I am blaming you, Quinn, because you don't even want to talk about it!"

"There is nothing to talk about!" Quinn countered.

"There is fucking too! And having Brian talk about making you wet doesn't make me feel any better."

"He was joking!"

"I don't care!" Carson and Quinn both stared at each other hard in the face. Neither one of them budging.

Quinn took Carson's hand and dragged him away without saying anything to Dillian and Fern.

"Trouble in paradise much?" Dillian said slowly. He looked at Fern who slowly shrugged. "You know what you have to do right?"

"Um...keep a healthy distance away and then talk to Quinn if he needs emotional support?"

"No! We have to go follow and snoop on them."

"I am not doing that." Fern said firmly. "It's their domestic shit, they need to sort it out."

Dillian rolled his eyes, "I guess I'll be a super spy by myself. I'm going to go to the broom closet. Only people fucking, or yelling will go in there."

Fern shook his head, "Whatever Dillian. I'm going to the bathroom and wiping the sweat off my face before Ani comes back."

"Oh yeah, can't be all sweaty when you Anthony him."

"What?" Fern furrowed his brows.

"You know, fuck him on the dance floor?" He smiled wide and jogged into the crowd before Fern could swear at him.

Fern shook his head and slipped his hands into his pocket. He looked around making sure Ani wasn't close by and began to walk to the bathroom. He could feel the sweat sticking to the top of his head, he could guarantee he looked too much of a mess to be seen with Ani.

The area near the bathroom was surprisingly sparse, he doubted that anyone but him would be around there. Fern didn't blame them, the music was actually pretty good.

The door of the boys bathroom had a paper scarecrow with its leg already torn. Fern pushed against the door and entered, the first thing he could hear was heated yelling.

Fern peaked his head inside, the yelling was coming from inside the stall. He debated just leaving but figured as long as the door didn't squeak he could avoid awkwardness.

He slowly got inside and closed the bathroom door, taking great care to avoid squeaking. He slowly crept past the stalls and to the sink and mirror areas. By the sound of the voices, it was more of a domestic dispute the one that would resolve into the physical kind. Fern just felt bad for any handicapped kids that needed to use the toilets.

"You always do this! You always freak out, I'd say I'm being pretty reasonable. I know you like me, but I still want to be friends. I just want to be friends Carson."

Fern froze immediately recognizing the voices. He kept his hand hovered over the sink, not turning it.

"No, you don't! I know you don't I can see it. I've known you for forever and you do not want to be friends."

"You're not me Carson, I know what I want. And I know what you want, and you're the only one who wants anything more from this friendship."

"I'm not you, but I know you. Do you even know the reason why I allowed myself to fall in love with you?" Carson asked, there was radio silence from Quinn. "Because you used to tell me you loved me," His voice sounded accusing.

"That's just what friends say to each other Carson, it's not my fault that you took it the wrong way." Quinn's voice was quieter, less angry than before.

"I'm not a fucking idiot Quinn, I have other friends. And some of them tell me they love me, but I can tell the difference. Maybe you meant it as friends when we were 12 years old, but not last year." There was more silence from Quinn. "Do you just not want to be with me? I know it seems like I'm a shitty boyfriend, but I have potential. You know that you're the one who tells me that." There was an even longer pause. Fern leaned closer to the stall trying to pick up on anything they said.

"I don't want to have sex with you." Quinn said finally. Fern could feel Carson's surprise, but he wasn't surprised. By the way, Quinn talked about Carson during the party he hadn't been interested in him sexually but did sound like he wanted to be.

"Oh. But do you love me?"

"I don't want to have sex with you, Carson."

"That's not what I asked Quinn! I want to know if you are in love with me romantically!"

"Yes, I love you asshole! But it won't work."

"Why not?" Carson demanded. It dawned on Fern how guilty he felt for listening on this intimate moment.

"Because I don't have sexual feelings for you. I wish I did, I wish I could be gay or bi, even pan for you. But most of the times I don't think I could ever."

"Why does that matter? Why didn't you ever just talk to me about this before? We could have made this work ages ago."

"You said it yourself, we're high schoolers! High Schoolers just want someone to talk to and someone to have sex with."

"I never said that."

"Bullshit Carson, you were just talking about how high schoolers love sex. How do you think that makes me feel? It makes me feel like I can never be enough for you because I can't be with you like that, a lot."

"Well, you shouldn't feel that way, because if you communicated with me I'd have eased your worries a long time ago."

"Carson you can't tell me you can go from sexual relationships with women to little to none with me."

"Quinn you're such a hypocrite. You always get on peoples cases for assuming that I'm a shitty person for dating a lot of girls. Even though all of them ended respectably. But here you are thinking I'm some sex-crazed douchebag, who can't hold a relationship if I'm not sticking my dick into something.

"That's not what I said..." Quinn whispered Fern could barely hear it from outside the stalls.

"But it's what you meant. Listen, if you're ace it's fine. Dillian's sister is like that, we can make something work. I won't lie, I have needs. But I have a hand for a reason,"

There was a slight chuckle. "I'm not ace Carson. I didn't hate sex with Jess, and I think I was attracted to her? Maybe...it's hard to tell if I did it because of libido or because I thought she was attractive. Either way, I'm just scared okay? I don't want to ruin what we have."

"Okay so it's either we ruin our relationship by trying to make something amazing. Or ruin our relationship because of romantic tension that we both can't resolve."

"I-" Someone slammed the bathroom door open and the talking stopped immediately. The heavy door made a loud banging as it hit the tiled walls. Two guys walked in, sweaty and talking excitedly about the dance. Fern quickly grabbed a paper towel, wiped his face, and left before any of them could name drop him.

Fern let out a heavy breath as he stumbled out of the bathroom, it was definitely warmer on the other side but he felt like he could actually breathe outside. He tried filtering through his new thoughts when he remembered one important thing. Ani.

He decided then and there that he had to resolve his feelings for Ani. He didn't want to be stuck in a situation like Carson and Quinn, arguing about affection in a bathroom stall.

He looked to the side and caught a glimpse of a sparkly blue dress by the food table. Fern pushed back his hair and lightly jogged the table. It was labeled 'ruby red food' with different red treats made to eat.

Fern looked around trying to seem as casual as possible. He grabbed a red cup and took the scoop in the punch bowl. Careful he poured himself a cup and brought it to his lips. His eyes widened and nearly spit back the sip.

The drink had a strong bite to it and burned as it went down his throat. Fern whistled and took time to actually smell the contents of the cup. It was clear that the drink had been spiked. Fern rolled his eyes and placed the cup down, he went back to scanning the room.

He caught sight of a person he could guarantee was Anakin. He smiled and picked the cup up again.

"A little liquid courage." He mumbled, figuring that the men on TV had to have their theory found in solid fact. He tipped his head back and gulped the rest of his drink. The back of his throat burned, and he felt fire coming through his nose as he breathed.

Fern wiped his mouth and walked over to the direction he had just scene Ani stand in. He had to weave through some lazily dancing kids until he was near the bathrooms again. He caught sight of Ani talking to another one of the theater kids.

"Hey." Fern stood in front of them interrupting their conversation.

"Oh hey, Fern, I figured you had to use the bathroom." Ani still looked impeccable, his hair was a bit out of sorts but it only added to his charm in Fern's opinion.

"Yeah, thanks for waiting." Fern looked at the girl, he vaguely remembered her. She had pigtails and a short pink sparkly dress.

"It's Darren." She said.

"What?"

"My name, you were giving me the whole 'I don't know who you are' look. My name is Darren, we used to work together on the set."

"Oh! Sorry, yeah I'm bad with names." Fern said awkwardly, Ani laughed a bit at his expense.

"I can't find Quinn and Carson, and I think Dillian is flirting with some girls." Ani said, he stopped leaning against the wall and Fern noticed that he was shorter than him again.

"So it's just me and you...and Darren." Fern glanced at Darren again feeling she was intruding on his perfect opportunity.

"Not for long! We're were just about to head to the stage. They're about the announce the kings and queens." Ani took Fern's hand and swung it a bit. "Then we can dance after,"

Fern swore mentally in his head but plastered a smile on his face. "Yeah sounds good let's go."

"You sound excited," Darren said sarcastically, she pushed her pigtails back.

"That's just how Fern always sounds." Ani teased, he began tugging on Fern's arm to lead him to stage.

The music began to lull and announcers came on stage. Fern zoned out for awhile, he only took real notice when he saw a pretty girl or handsome guy walk across the stage.

"Anakin Begay!" The Vice Principal announced grandly. Fern blinked several times then looked at Ani not processing the information. Ani looked shocked and elated, a hand falling over his mouth. "You have been crowned as our LGBT Homecoming King! Come and get your crown." There was an explosion of clapping and cheering.

Ani flashed Fern a wide smile and had to move past him to get to the stage. Fern shook his head finally processing what was happening.

The cheers continued until Ani had made it to the top of the stage. There was a lull of quiet as Ani stood in front of their Vice Principal. He turned his back to the Vice President and closed his eyes as an extravagant rainbow crown was placed on his head.

There was another round of applause and Ani looked like he was glowing. Fern bit his lip, dragging his eyes away from Ani to look at Darren. "What just happened?"

Darren side eyed him as she clapped, "Ani just won LGBT Homecoming King."

"That's a thing?" Fern said, she just nodded in response and went back to cheering. There was a lull of clapping and cheers as their vice principal put the microphone to his mouth.

"Anakin Begay is a junior, the lead actor in our school Musical La La Land, he is also an honors student, has signed up to be part of the swim team, and has won a medal for first place in swimming in the past. He identifies as a bisexual male, and he's single."

Ani's cheeks darkened as there was a small amount of whooping and whistles that came from the crowd. Ani waved stiffly at the crowd but still looked happy. Fern couldn't keep his eyes off of him, once again he was reminded how amazing Ani was. His stomach churned at the thought of confessing his feels for him.

"He's so out of my league..." Fern whispered to himself.

"Next is our LGBT Queen, Patricia or Trisha Tanaka!" The Vice president announced. There was an even louder explosion of cheers as an Asian teen came through the crowd.

At the sound of her name, Fern looked over at her watching her make her way to the stage. She was wearing a slim red strapless dress that hugged her body and dark red stilettos. Fern couldn't get a good look at her makeup but something told him that it was flawless.

She elegantly made her way to stage her hips swaying, the cheers of the crowd following her all the way to Anakin. She hugged him and whispered something in his ear before laughing. Whatever she said made Anakin smile, and blush shyly. She patted his arm and went to the Vice President.

Trisha had to crouch just a bit so that the vice principal was able to put a crown on her head. As soon as the crown was on the cheering was revamped. She smiled and waved to her adoring fans blowing dramatic kisses.

"Trisha is a-" The Vice President began. Trisha held up her hand interrupting him. She gently took the microphone and winked before turning around to face the crowd.

"I am Trisha Tanaka!" She raised the arm not holding the microphone and there was another surge of cheers. "I am a senior so I am out this bitch in a few months! I've been part of zero sports my high school career because I honestly didn't care enough. I'm Asian so I joined the mathletes, I thought my ethnicity would give me some sort of edge. I was wrong," She smiled and the crowd laughed.

Fern looked around him and looked back at Anakin who seemed completely enthralled with Trisha. "I'm the worst person on the team but I've been there for four years. Uh, oh I'm part of the play this year. I'm personally proud of my progress, to be honest, I went from shrub number 3 in middle school to humming person in the crowd Senior year." There was more cheering and Anakin laughed on stage.

Trisha adjusted the crown on her head. "Even though I'm fine as fuck I'm asexual as hell, and identify as a female." She blew one more kiss and almost dropped the mic, she turned around realizing the Vice Principal was still waiting for the mic back. She smiled and handed it back to him and stood back next to the Vice Principal.

From her confidence, to how wonderful she looked next to Anakin Fern could honestly say she was a solid 10/10. Next, to Ani, she might have even been a 10.5/10. Fern was regretting even thinking about asking Ani consider going out with him.

"Before we give another round of applause for our King and Queen, a GSA representative will discuss why we have an LGBT Homecoming King and Queen. Please come to the stage, Dillian Tanaka!"

There was another round of applause as Dillian in his white suit came to the stage. He smiled and threw up a peace sign all the way to the Vice Principal. The mic was handed to him and he cleared his throat.

"Uh hey, I'm Dillian, obviously. So basically the GSA was hanging out in the library bored as fu-frick...and we decided that the LGBT students in the school need a little more recognition. After having our LGBT exclusive dance idea turned down, we decided this was just as good. Probably more fun too, because we all know the gays can't dance." He laughed and Trisha raised an eyebrow to him.

"Speak for yourself, sweetie." Trisha said to him, she elbowed Ani who chuckled and looked at her with nothing but admiration.

Dillian gave her an evil eye and turned back to the crowd. "So we decided to take this opportunity to pass around a donation box. We want to raise some money for the LGBT teen suicide prevention organization. A lot of us might not realize but a lot of LGBT teens don't have great schools like us where guys can dress feminine, and girls can become guys if they want..." There was a serious tone to his voice. He cleared it and smiled again. "Anyway, donate, dance, kiss whoever the hell you want to, I'm sure half of us are either drunk or tired out of our minds so no one will care. Thanks for listening and have fun!" Dillian raised his arm in the same way his sister did and there was a large round of applause.

The Vice Principal looked a lot more worried than he had before as he took the mic away from Dillian. "I am Vice Principal Allen Cook, and I wish you all a great night. Kings and Queens, please remain on stage for a picture." He smiled and put the microphone back on the stand.

The donation box was passed around and most kids including Fern slipped a dollar bill or two inside. After a while, most of the kids had dissipated from the stage site. Fern stood waiting for Ani to finish taking pictures.

Fern hated how jealous he felt watching Ani take pictures with the other homecoming royalty, especially with Trisha. He looked happy, and natural like he belonged with the rest of them. Fern hadn't felt this type of jealousy before, it was more sadness than anger. He just felt defeated.

Before he realized it Ani came down the steps and off the stage and towards Fern. The music had begun getting hot again and Ani looked ready for it. Fern hoped he didn't look too sick.

"Hey! Like my fancy pride crown?" Ani gestured to his overly extravagant crown, it was even brighter and gayer than it was before.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool." Fern stuck his hands into his pocket. He felt an awkwardness set in between them.

"I'm happy Trisha won, she deserved it. She didn't mention it in her speech but she does help out a ton. Even though she's not formally a part of anything, she's just a joy to be around. I'm just surprised anyone would vote for me."

Fern was still trapped in his own mind. He couldn't unhear all the good things about Trisha there were. "Yeah," He said half-heartedly. He turned to look at the dance floor, missing a quick frown from Ani.

"Did you want to take pictures or dance?" Ani asked hopefully.

"Whatever you want to do." Fern looked back at Ani and tried to make his voice sound sincere. Ani frowned a bit more and looked down at his shoes thinking for a moment.

"You look kind of tired, did you want to go home early? I mean that's totally cool you did a great job tonight, really came out of your shell!"

"Ani I'm not five, and I'm not a complete lost cause. You don't have to constantly encourage me."

"I know you're not a lost cause, but you're my lost cause. But about being five...that's debatable." Ani smiled and it was obvious he was teasing Fern, but Fern couldn't help but feel irritated. Fern assumed Ani would never call Trisha a lost cause.

"How will we find Quinn, Carson, and Dillian if we leave?" Fern asked.

"Quinn texted me that he and Carson left early. And Dillian can just go in his sister's limousine. So we're free to go."

"Yeah let's head out." He slipped his hands out of his pockets flexing his fingers. He glanced down and saw Ani's hand move towards him, he began walking not giving their hands a chance to hold.

He heard a small huff from behind but he ignored it. He didn't want Ani getting used to holding his hand when there were plenty more guys that he'd prefer.

True to Dillian's word once they got outside they could see their limousine waiting in the parking lot. Ani shivered a bit and moved closer to Fern.

"It's like a sauna in there compared to out here."

"Yeah, you're dress isn't meant to keep you warm." It wasn't the most charismatic he could say but Fern thought it was better to be civil. He hated that he couldn't just shake off his feeling of jealousy. It clung to him tightly, like a jacket.

"You're right, it's not." Ani stumbled over his words and looked away from Fern and focused on the car. They walked silently to it and climbed inside. Ani leaned over the seat to talk to the driver. His back was to Fern as he did so. Fern just took a breath and looked out the window.

After a few more minutes of Ani talking to the driver, the car began moving. Ani turned back in his seat, he was sitting across from Fern. He was trying to smile but Fern could see the strain on Ani's face.

"So that was fun huh?"

Fern shrugged and leaned his head against the wall of the car. "It was fun, yeah."

Anakin sighed and looked defeated. "Did I do something? You're being mopey and I don't like it."

Fern bit back a comment about how not everything would be how he liked it and rolled back all of his sass. "I'm just tired Anakin, it's not about you."

"Oh, okay." Ani said softly, he sounded unconvinced but didn't it push it further. Fern's phone buzzed with a message from Dillian.

<The Asian Dill Pickle: I saw you two leave together good luck bonin' brotha>

Fern looked at it then shut his phone off. He crossed his arms and stared out the window until the limousine pulled up to Ani's house. When the car stopped fully Ani opened his door, he paused like he was waiting for something. Fern hadn't moved he barely looked at him.

"Aren't you going to walk me to the door?" Ani gave Fern a small smile, but when it wasn't returned it fell.

"Sure if you want," Fern waited for Ani to leave the car before following after him. He walked next to him as they slowly made their way to Ani's door.

At the top of Ani's steps, they stood by the door. Ani turned so that he was facing Fern, and Fern did the same. Ani forced a small smile and touched the hem of Fern's sleeve.

"I know you said you were tired but maybe you could...you know come upstairs with me? If you don't want to do anything we can just lay on my bed, listen to music."

"I don't know Ani I'm really not feeling it tonight..." Fern rubbed the back of his head unsurely.

"But I'd even sing for you. And you could just talk to me about countries sexualities again. Please?" Ani looked up at Fern, his eyes were wide and his lip was jutted. It did well at tugging on Fern's heartstrings. But every time Fern thought he might say yes he thought of Trisha or the guy Ani has been holding on to. The guy who wasn't him.

"Sorry Ani, maybe tomorrow okay?" He had to start thinking of them as just friends. He took deep breaths trying not to notice every strand of hair that was covering Ani's face. He resisted brushing them away, complimenting how nice he looked, begging him to stop being so amazing.

"Oh...it's okay. Sorry, I'm being needy." He cleared his throat, his hands were behind his back. He looked from the ground to Fern, and back again.

"No no, it's fine."

Ani looked back at Fern, he sucked in a bit of air. He took a half step closer to Fern and leaned up slowly. Fern's heartbeat picked up rapidly, he didn't know what Ani was doing. Even though he doubted, that what he thought was happening was actually happening he still felt panic.

"I know you've been with a lot of other guys." Fern said suddenly, Ani stopped in his leaning and went back to standing flat. He stared at Fern not saying anything. "And I think that's cool and stuff...but I kind of want to have a relationship with someone that's built on more. So, I think it'd be better if we just stayed friends rather than whatever...you have had in the past with other guys."

The look on Ani's face was soul-crushing, he was a mix of shock, embarrassed, and disgusted. He took a step back his cheeks red. "I am so sorry, I...I just thought..."

"Sorry, I just wasn't sure where this was going." Fern said softly, despite doing what he thought was best he couldn't imagine hating himself more.

There were now tears brimming the edge of Ani's eyes. "Don't apologize, I'm the dumb one who assumed that you wouldn't just see me like a slut. Because I do care about you Fern, I thought that was pretty clear."

"But the guy..." Fern said weakly, his defense and reasonings where dissipating with every quiver of Ani's lip.

"The guy was you, you absolute idiot! I honestly should have fallen in love with a fucking bag of rocks!"

"I just..."

"You just what Fernando? You just stare at my ass every single day, so excuse me if I assumed you'd want any sort of physical contact with me. I guess you're just better than a common whore like myself. Goodnight Fern." There were full-fledged tears falling down Ani's face, he turned and wrestled with the doorknob trying to make it open but his hands were shaking.

"Ani I'm so sorry." Fern whispered his chest was tightened so much he didn't think he could breathe. He put his hand on Ani's shoulder just as Ani got the door unlocked. Ani just shook his head and stepped inside slamming the door shut behind him.

Fern debated knocking on the door, he thought about ringing the doorbell or climbing through Ani's window. But he didn't, he turned from the door and slowly walked back to the limo.

With his hand on the handle of the car door, he realized all at once that he was the reason that Anakin was crying. He could add himself to the list of awful men in Ani's life, all of them letting him down.