"Your birthday is this week," John stated one week in early January to his boyfriend. Alexander's mouth dropped.

"How did you figure that out?" Alex exclaimed, shocked. For all the years his friends had known him, he had made sure they never found out his birthday. Except, now one them had. John smirked.

"I asked your dad," John said in a smarmy tone. Alex glared at him.

"That's cheating," Alex said. "I don't want you knowing what my birthday is." John rolled his eyes.

"Why not? What's the harm in that, babe?" John asked.

"Because I don't want it to be a big deal. I don't like being a big deal," Alex said. "Just, don't tell any of the others," Alex pleaded. John nodded, reluctantly.

"Fine," John promised. "But you best believe that I'm taking you to dinner." Alex rolled his eyes as the bell rang. "I'm counting down the days until January 11th," John said, winking. Alex glared at his boyfriend, as he walked out of his room. Well, somebody had to figure out his birthday eventually.

That wasn't the worst part of his day.

"What the hell did you do, Jefferson?" John practically yelled, walking into Thomas's classroom. Thomas cringed for a second, then regained composure and avoided eye contact with John.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jefferson responded, feigning innocence.

"Alex won't talk to me, won't answer his phone, won't respond to emails or texts, and you two were arguing. What in hell did you say, because if you said what I think you said then so help me I will make your life miserable," John threatened. Thomas grimaced once again, and slowly turned to face John.

"I-I said it in the heat of the moment and I wasn't thinking and I tried to apologize but he wouldn't listen and-" Thomas was cut off by John's livid voice, on the verge of shaking from anger.

"What. Did. You. Say?" John was practically spitting his words out at this point, and Thomas couldn't even meet his eyes.

"I said... I said if he had so much energy when he argued with me then maybe he try using it up with some exercise... and then I said a few other things.. and-" John cut him off again.

"Shut your mouth. Never talk to me, or my boyfriend, ever again. I hope I have your face out of my life forever." John walked out of the room, anger seething from him. He didn't mean it. Thomas could get temperamental and he probably genuinely didn't mean what he said. But he still said it. For now, that was what mattered to him.

John checked Alex's classroom, but Alex was nowhere to be found, with his door locked and his lights off. John sighed, running out to his car to drive by Alexander's apartment complex. He saw Alex's car in the parking lot, but saw all of the blinds in his apartment windows shut. He sighed and parked relatively close to Alex's car. He walked into the building, taking the elevator up to Alex's floor. He tried opening the door but it was, unsurprisingly, locked. He knocked but there was, unsurprisingly, no response. He tried calling, picking the lock, and even just sitting outside of the apartment.

None of it worked.

He walked out of the apartment, about to give up. That is, until something caught his eye. Alex lived in a slightly old fashioned apartment complex. It had a fire escape, that went from window to window. One time, him and Hercules decided to see if they could get into Alex's apartment through the window. They did. John remembered how. He felt slightly ridiculous doing this, but he didn't want Alexander doing anything.

He climbed up the stairs, deciding that counted as his exercise for the day. He got to the window, and messed around with the lock until he got it opened. He slowly slid the window up and climbed inside, being careful not to make much noise. He quietly closed the window and looked around the living room he was standing in.

"Now, where would I be if I were Alex?" John muttered under his breath. Knowing his boyfriend, either in his bedroom, sleeping or crying, or in his bathroom, taking a bath. John decided he should check the bedroom first. Sure enough, there was his boyfriend, on the bed. He was curled up, tears still damp on his cheeks. There were empty pints of ice cream on the nightstand, along with a diary and pen.

John sighed. He knew that at some point somebody was destined to be an asshole to Alex about his weight, but it coming from a friend makes it ten times worse. He sat down on the end of the bed, laughing to himself a little about how Alex was so short that his feet were about a foot away from the end of the bed. He thought of whether or not he should wake Alexander up. He decided yes.

"Alex, honey? You okay?" he asked softly. Alex slowly opened his eyes, mildly confused. Then realization quickly hit him of why he was in this state, and he turned so that his face was buried in his mountain of pillows.

"No."

John sighed. "Do you wanna talk about it?" John asked, tone still gentle.

"No."

"Well, I'm just going to wait here until you are ready to talk about it, okay?" John didn't get any response, but Alex didn't say no, so he stayed anyways. He sat there for almost two hours, completely silent, Alex stubbornly lying down with his face in his pillows. When the time was slowly creeping towards two and a half hours, Alex turned over, avoiding John's eyes.

"Why do we need to talk about it? You already know what happened. I already know what you're going to say. It's pointless," Alex said.

"We can stop talking about it when it stops hurting you," John said. "For now, though, we have to talk about it."

"How do you know it hurt me?" Alex snapped. John raised his eyebrows.

"Because, no offense, you are an emotional wreck right now," John explained. "Ice cream is your automatic comfort food, you've clearly been crying, and if you weren't hurt then you wouldn't have just snapped at me."

"Okay, Sherlock. Looks like you've been spending too much time with Angelica," Alex mumbled. "Fine. It hurt me. Happy?" Alex asked sarcastically. John sighed.

"Do you really think Jefferson meant that?" John asked him. Alex shook his head no, and John sighed a little. "Then why does it hurt you so much?" Throughout the whole conversation, John's voice was consistently soft and understanding.

"Because.. well... just.. how can you like me like this?" Alex said it like he was ripping off a bandage. John tried to intervene right then and there, but Alex wouldn't let him. "It's not like Jefferson was wrong. It's just... I don't understand how you could ever find me attractive. I have this and this and-" Alex had started gesturing to parts of his body that he disliked before John grabbed his hands.

"I've said it once, I'll say it again," John started. "I like every single inch of you. Every single one. You can talk about having lots of things, and trust me, I like that part of you. If your insecurities all come down to you thinking I don't like you for them then you need to stop worrying." At some point while talking John had turned Alex's head in order to make eye contact with him. Alex nodded. The silence stayed in the room for about a minute, not awkward, just calm.

"So, do you have any more ice cream left?" John asked Alex. Alexander furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and nodded slowly. "Well, it's already 7, so we might as well stay up late and eat ice cream." Alex laughed a little, and agreed.

"It's really not all that late, John," Alex pointed out. John shrugged, going out to the kitchen to get the ice cream. They settled in and started flipping through channels on the TV, settling on Gravity Falls, because Gravity Falls is the best show ever.

"How did you get into my apartment?" Alex asked after one shared pint of ice cream and two episodes.

"When I was in distress and you somehow managed to creepily get into my apartment, I didn't question you," John said, not taking his eyes of of the show. Alex snorted.

"Touche."

They watched a couple more episodes, until Alex was drifting off to sleep. "Thanks for all this, love," Alex said as he nodded off to sleep. John breathed a soft laugh.

"You just called me love," he informed Alex.

"I know," Alex responded, before falling asleep in John's lap.

Long chapter, but also a cute ending. :) Also, the movie Love, Simon is amazing. Also,

John

Is

The

Best

Boyfriend