I stood at the corner of a cross road, staring at my phone, he had sent that just about five minutes ago, so I wondered where he was. Until he jumped onto my shoulders and promptly scared me so badly I nearly dropped my phone.

"Boo!" He greeted, sliding back down to the ground.

"Goodness!" I said, clutching at my heart.

"You don't like surprises do you?" Greg asked, standing in front of me, he was pretty short.

"Um, I mean. It's different for you." I admitted. "But usually, no."

"I'll keep that in mind." He promised. "So what're we gonna do? What romantic endeavors do you have planned for me Micah Halabi?"

I blushed. "I dunno, I just figured we'd get coffee and walk around."

Greg nodded. "That sounds prefect, I love it."

We got our drinks and started strolling down the street. There were people walking by and kicking up dust, but was mostly empty. The sun was setting. I lied about not having much of a plan, there was a little nature reserve up ahead that I wanted to walk though and just be alone with him.

"This is a weird question sorry, but do you feel like I've been acting weird lately? Like I feel like it's been weird for you for me to act so different." He asked. "I mean, I'm trying to be nicer to you, it's still really easy for me to get...angry, but uh, I'm trying not to."

"I mean kinda, but you always seemed so genuine, and quite frankly it's not that hard to get used too." I pointed out.

He nodded. "Okay, that's good. And, uh, all those other times I might of hurt you, I'm sorry for that."

I shrugged. "It's fine, I don't even-"

"Yes you do. I was horrible for doing that. I didn't..." He paused, trying to look for the right words. "I don't think about repercussions...a lot. I'm trying to change."

"That's...really responsible of you." I said after a bit.

"Thanks. There's also some other stuff I want to tell but," his voice cracked, "I don't know if I can quite yet. It's not that I don't trust it's just...personal."

I was kinda alarmed, not that he was withholding information, no I didn't care about that at all, I was surprised he had already shared this much. It was somewhat heartwarming to see he put so much merit into me.

"That's alright, you don't have to tell me anything if you're not ready." I insisted. "I mean, it kinda feels like we're rushing into this, but also not?"

"Yeah." He agreed. "Like I want to just stay friends but at the same I really don't, I don't want to do anything you don't want to do."

"Yeah that's how I feel too." I agreed, as we started walking through grass instead of street.

Greg shot me a look. "Where are you going?"

I tried to hide a smile. "Okay, I might actually have some plans."

"You little trickster." He snorted and followed me through some under brush.

We entered through a clearing and there was a quilt spread out over the grass. The sky was clear above and the sun made the sky dark orange, you see some of the stars already. I sat down and gently patted spot next to me. Greg looked a little starsrtuck but numbly followed suit.

"Wow." He started, laying down, sand staring up at the sky.

"What?" I asked, turning to look at him.

His eyes were open wide. "You've really outdone any expectations I might have had for this afternoon."

I snorted. "You had low expectations."

He smiled. "No I'm serious, this is actually really nice."

He was blushing, I was blushing. We were two emotional train wrecks just chilling and having nice time. At one point I reached out and brushed my fingers gently against his, and he responded by curling his fingers into mine. My heart was beating pretty fast, and my emotions consisted of trying to not to make this awkward while also desperately wondering if Greg was picking up on how nervous/excited I was.

Then I felt it.

It was subtle, but now that I had picked it out it was hard to concentrate on anything else. I could feel another heart beat, thudding a long just a little faster than my own. I was feeling our heartbeats, and Greg was extremely nervous.

"Do I...never mind, sorry."

"No, what is it?" I would say I demanded, but I don't really demand anything.

He bit his lip. "I don't know. I just feel like I'm being...clingy. I feel like I'm intruding on you and Abby's friendship."

I took his hand, my heart started glowing in our dark little secluded corner in the forest. "Absolutely not, she loves you."

Greg smiled weakly. "I know, I just...I don't want to do something that make you not like me anymore. Um, I don't have that many friends, you two are the only ones who know I'm gay, not even Julia knows that. there's...more, but I don't know how open you are that kinda stuff so I just don't know."

I squeezed his hand gently. "Well, I just found out I'm bi, and most of my friends are queer. I don't thing there's anything you could tell me that would cause me to walk away right now."

He sat up, letting go of my hand to run his hand through his hair. "Okay...okay...geeze...I'm sorry."

I sat up and stared at him, wondering what I should do. Was whatever he had to say really that bad?

"You don't have to-"

"Yeah but I really want to." He interrupted me. "I really want to tell you, so just shut up for a second and stop being so good to me."

I blinked. "Okay, I'm listening."

"Okay so um. God, I've never done this before." He breathed shakily.

I looked down at his tiny little hands and noticed they were shaking. I wanted to take his hands and hold them close. I didn't like seeing him like this. He took a deep breath and clenched his fists, the looked straight at me.

"I'm...I'm trans. As in gender. I'm transgender. I'm a trans guy." He finally gasped out, then looked at me fearfully.

I blinked. "Is that it?"

He gasped out suddenly, I wasn't sure if he was laughing or crying. "You're not...? You're not gonna freak out?"

"Are you kidding? I thought you were gonna tell me you were a drug addict or you got a girl pregnant or something." I laughed nervously.

He smiled shakily. "That...that would actually be physically impossible for me."

Oh yeah. I could still feel his heart though, it had grown in intensity. Greg reached up to wipe his face, and I noticed he was crying.

"Hey, come here." I comforted, opening up my arms.

He promptly started sobbing as he leaned into my embrace. "I-I'm sorry. I just thought you would be disgusted or something, this is so embarrassing."

"I stand by what I said, I don't think there's anything you could do to make me walk away right now."

He started crying harder and pushed his face into a the crook of my neck. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, is there anything else you wanna talk about about?"

He sniffed and paused for a moment. "Uh, that one time Alex caught me in the bathroom. I didn't steal those tampons, Julia, she helps me with that stuff. She gives them to me. I don't have a weird fetish or anything, I actually need them."

He paused and suddenly sat up straight. "Oh and my family doesn't know. They think I'm a girl. I tried-"

His voice suddenly gave it out and he started stammering through apologies again.

"Sorry, I tried telling them once, before I knew I was gay, and my dad forced me to wear nothing but dresses or skirts for whole month, and I...considered suicide. It was so bad. Julia found out accidentally because I was crying somewhere and ended up telling her the whole story. She...she helped me cut my hair, and she helped me find better clothes, she even got me a binder for my birthday a few years ago...I owe her everything." He stuttered out.

So that explained their weird secret friendship. I didn't say anything though, I just rubbing his back as he told me all of this.

"My parents never pay attention to what I do in school, so I pretended to be a new student sophomore year, as a guy, and if anyone confronted me about, I would threaten them. It-it was the only thing I could think to do, I guess it got out of hand, but I feel so much better. And my sister doesn't go to the same school, so it was perfect. That's why I didn't want to tell you about her in the diner yesterday because I was scared you might know her, and I wasn't ready to tell you yet."

He clutched onto my shirt, as if for dear life. "I'm so sick of keeping all these secrets."

I thought about all that. It was strange because usually I wouldn't know what to in this situation, because I felt strangely calm.

If this was his first time coming out, then I'm glad it was with me.

"I'd love you no matter what, you're the handsomest guy I've ever met." It slipped out of my mouth, and it was true.

Greg leaned back from my hug for a second, and stared at me with his huge blue eyes. I stared back, I'm not sure what exactly was going through his head, but before I really knew what I was doing, I leaned forward.

I was kissing Gregory Smith.

I was kissing a boy.

Greg let a little mph of surprise, both of our glows flared up dramatically, he kinda relaxed into my arms and we broke apart for a moment, gasping. We locked eyes again and then he put his hands on the side of my head and kissed me again, but with force. He tilted his head and leaned into it, both of our mouths open and panting heavily whenever we broke apart, which was only for a few seconds at most. I ended on my back, with Greg on top of me again. I could smell the grass and taste the minty latte he had sipped on earlier. I was in heaven.

Greg had started kissing my jawline when all of a sudden he stopped and laughed, rolling over on his back next to me. I didn't know exactly what was so funny but I giggled to. We were both laughing for some reason.

He slipped off his grey hoodie for probably the first time since I'd met him. He put his hands around my neck and pulled me into another quick kiss. I noticed that at night, our glows were a lot more intense. Greg's was dimmer because it was behind his binder, which stood out now that he had taken off his hoodie. I didn't dwell on that for very long though, because he was staring at me.

"This is one of the best nights of my entire life." he breathed.

"Yeah me too." I agreed, and untwined my fingers back into his.

We stargazed for a long time after that.