Jo pulled into Cas's driveway about forty five minutes later. She glanced over at him and he was sleeping soundly. That is, until she slapped him in the arm.

He jerked awake, though still half asleep. "Huh? Wha?" He rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"We're here. You don't mind me staying over again do you?"

"No problem. Parents still fighting, huh?"

"Yeah. But I'm sure everything will... patch itself up. Just not by tonight."

Cas gave her a look of sympathy. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. C'mon, let's go inside."

They went inside, the cold December breeze pricking at their skin as they treaded the lawn. Once they got inside, they decided to stay up watching a movie on the couch.

About halfway in, they still weren't sure exactly what it was. They just found it when they turned the TV on.

"Jo, do you have any idea what we're watching? 'Cause I sure as hell don't." He looked over at Jo, who was asleep on her side of the couch.

He unfolded the thick blanket on the back of the couch and wrapped her up in it, making sure she was nice and warm. He glanced at his palm and saw the number. He had to call him.

He wasn't sure what it was about this boy, but he just couldn't get enough of him. They really connected. They connected in a way that Cas had never connected with anyone. Not even Jo.

"Fine," He muttered to himself, digging his phone out of his pocket. "Dean Winchester... prepare to be impulsively dialed."

He dialed the number and awaited an answer. He suddenly realized how late it was. Oh man. What if this is putting out a bad signal? A very bad signal?

"Hello?" Dean answered, shaking Cas from his thoughts.

"Uh... hey, Dean. It's, uh, it's Cas. Remember me?" He chuckled nervously.

"Oh. Yeah, hey, Cas. What's up?"

He paused, unsure of the answer. "I have no idea."

Dean chuckled. "Just wanna talk, huh?"

"I-I guess."

"Well, I know this is gonna sound a bit forward of me, but maybe you could give me an address, and we can talk... at your place?"

Everything froze in a split second.

"At... at my place?" He practically squeaked.

"Yeah, but if that... makes you uncomfortable-"

"No! It's fine! I just... well, Jo's here, and then there's my brother-"

"Trust me, I know the feeling. So... how bout it?"

"Um... sure. I guess." He smiled.

He gave Dean his address and they both hung up. Cas couldn't help but feel a sense of self pride at that moment. He wasn't even sure why.

"Yes," He got up off the couch. "He's on his way here!" He whispered, bouncing on the balls of his feet just a slight. "Right now! Like... now! Yes! Yes! Yes!"

Why he was acting this way was a mystery to him, but he didn't care at the moment. Dean was on his way to Castiel Novak's house. His house.

He couldn't help but do a little victory cheer, but he still didn't understand why. He kept shuffling along on his feet. "Oh yeah! That's right! He'll be here! He is on his way! Castiel Novak, for the win!"

He was still shuffling until he realized there was a clear view of him in the hallway where a now awake Gabriel stood. When Cas realized he was there, his phone actually flew right out of his hand, straight up into the air, and he was scrambling to catch it.

"Sup, Cassie?" Gabriel greeted amusedly.

"Keep your voice down," Cas whispered once he caught his phone. "Jo is asleep."

He walked past him, walking into the kitchen. "Shame she had to miss Dancing With The Novak's."

"I was not... I was not dancing."

"Oh really?" Gabe got a box of Snickers ice cream out of the freezer. "I happen to know you, Cassie. And I know that whenever you're covering up something, you never use contractions."

Cas scoffed. "That is so not true. I cannot believe that you are saying that."

Gabe bit into some of his ice cream. "Really now?"

"I am not covering up anything."

"Is that why you were bouncing around like a fifteen year old girl going on her first date?"

"It is not a date!"

Gabe chuckled. "Oh yeah. You are not hiding a thing." He teased.

"Oh shut up. I do not talk like that."

"Yeah. Sure you do not."

"Shut up!"

"Alright, c'mon, spill. Who is it?"

"No."

"Well excuse me for wanting to know who my little bro's love interests are. C'mon. C'mon c'mon c'mon!"

"Take your ice cream and get the hell out!"

"Harsh, bro. Harsh." He took the entire box of Snickers ice cream and went back to his room.

Cas went back to the living room and sat at the couch where Jo still slept. He couldn't help but feel bad for her, as her situation was a bit depressing.

Her real father died when she was a kid, leaving her mother, Ellen to raise her up alone. Until she met Jo's stepfather, Bobby. But lately, all they ever seem to do is fight. Which left Jo in a horrible situation. She always felt like she had to pick sides, so she usually stayed at Cas's place until things died down for the time being.

He kept watching TV, waiting for Dean to arrive. Of course, it was past midnight, he shouldn't even be doing this. He was, as Gabe put it, a goody two shoes.

But he didn't think he was a goody two shoes. He just thought he was an obedient son. Nothing wrong with that, right?

His phone went off in his pocket, and he looked at the text he recieved. It was from Dean.

D: How did the intruder get into the house?

It didn't make much sense. What intruder? What house? What the hell was he-

The window suddenly opened, and when Cas jumped off the couch and turned around to look, he saw Dean outside, who grinned and said; "In-tru-da-window."

Cas chuckled and went to help him in. "What's with the sneaking through the window? Too embarrassing to walk through the front door?"

Dean chuckled as well, managing to get inside. "Well, the way you were talking on the phone, I guess it just sounded like an 'in-tru-da-window' situation."

Cas knew they had to talk about what happened at that convention. During the dance. "Dean. Um... we should talk about what happened earlier."

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean."

He nodded in understanding. "Oh. That."

"Yeah, that. What was that exactly?"

"I - I really don't know. I mean... I'm straight, y'know? I don't really... do that sort of thing. Not with guys anyway."

"Oh, yeah, same here." Cas nodded along. He was lying to himself and Dean and he knew it. He always had his suspicions about his sexuality. He'd never really been into girls, so he tried to see it from a different point of view. A much more... gay point of view.

He tried looking at guys rather than girls, but it only confused him more. Did he really like looking at guys this way? He couldn't be sure. He wasn't sure of anything anymore. Gay or straight? Homo or hetero? It was mind boggling.

"So," Dean's voice shook Cas from his thoughts. "That... almost kiss. Where do we go from there?"

"I'm not sure."

What he really wanted to do was finish it. He wanted to finish it more than he wanted to finish high school, and that was pretty high on his goal list. He had plans to go to college, get a job as a lawyer or something, anything to do with the law really. He'd meet a girl, or so he thought, and he'd move to Florida with her and settle down and have kids and watch them grow up and send them to college and grow old with his wife even if he didn't really love her, but he'd do it anyway because that's what people do, right? Marry someone. And if he did turn out to be gay, he'd sort that out in his head, because there was not a person on planet earth that he'd trust with such personal information because his greatest fear was the disapproval of others. And if he turned out to be gay? There'd be so much disapproval from so many people, and he knew it. He knew Jo wouldn't judge, since she's got a girlfriend of her own, Charlie, who would also be fine with it, but he'd still keep it inside, this was his secret, and he'd take it to his grave if he had to. He would never speak of such a thing. What if he turned out to be wrong? What if he was straight and this was all a delusion? He'd just end up offending a lot of people who were gay. He couldn't do that to them, or himself, or anyone. This was his secret, and he'd keep it forever.

"I mean, I've never questioned myself," Dean commented. "I know I'm straight. And all my ex girlfriends would definitely agree." He chuckled.

Cas chuckled awkwardly. "Right."

"I mean, I'm fine with anyone who swings that way. I've got no problem. I mean, obviously. I was just at a gay rights thing. Against my will, but still."

Cas nodded. "Yeah. Right." He thought Dean's rambling was kind of cute. Oh god, he was hella homo.

"What about you? Ever... question yourself?"

And, of course, Cas decided to lie through his teeth. "Course not. I mean, I've had so many girlfriends."

"Really?" Dean didn't seem convinced.

"Yeah, totally."

"Who were they?"

Cas seemed to find a little flaw in this otherwise flawless plan. "What?"

"What were their names?"

"Um... well, I don't really like to... talk about it." Since it was all a huge lie to make him look straight.

"C'mon, you can tell me."

Cas nodded. "Yeah. Right. Um... okay. Well... I guess I should start with my first... girlfriend. Her name was, um... Har...per." He spoke rather slowly.

"Harper?"

"Yeah! Yep. Harper... Finkle. She was... nice. Really nice. And... pretty. And we were dating for... six months. But... we both agreed that things were... moving a bit fast. I mean... we were barely high school freshmen. And... neither of us really felt like we were ready for such... commitment."

"How many girlfriends have you had?"

"Three," He answered quickly. "Three. I've had... three. My second was... Kath...leen."

"Kathleen who?"

Ugh, you're killing me, man! "Kathleen... Smith. Great girl. Blonde. Also pretty. But... she had to move to... Alaska."

"Alaska? What for?"

"Parents. Work. They were... biologists. And... they were given an offer to... study the... penguin population there, so... Kathleen had to move with them, so...."

"There are no penguins in Alaska."

"Huh?" His voice went up an octave or two.

"Penguins don't live in Alaska. I think they live in the North and South Poles, maybe even Antarctica, but I know they don't live in Alaska."

Cas had to salvage whatever pieces of his plan he had left. He couldn't come out to the boy he almost kissed. "Exactly!"

"What?"

"There were an abundance of penguins found in Alaska, and Kathy's parents were asked to contribute to the... research that they needed to do to... figure shit out."

"Um... I thought her name was Kathleen."

"Oh. Yeah. It is. But... I've always called her Kathy. It's... a pet name. Haven't you ever had a pet name for your girlfriends?"

"Okay then. So... is Kathy still in Alaska?"

"'Fraid so. It's been a long time since I last saw her... beautiful face."

"But I guess you found a way to move on."

"What? Oh! Right. I did meet another girl. Her name was... Hannah."

"Hannah. So, what was Hannah like?"

"Love of my life, or so I thought. Wavy dark brown hair that reached her shoulders. Bright blue eyes that remind me of diamonds," He began to get lost in the thought of his fake ex. "Fair skinned and... pure hearted. As smart as a girl can be. Just as funny as she is pretty. She's absolutely amazing."

"Oh yeah. I think I know her."

Cas nearly had a full on heart attack. "Huh - wha?"

"Yeah. I think I met her some time ago. In one of my classes."

"Oh. Right. Course you did."

"She never said anything about a breakup."

"Well, it did happen pretty recently."

"How recent?"

"About a month. Maybe two."

"We just talked yesterday."

"Well maybe it just never came up in the conversation." He sounded a bit irritated, just wanting to move on from this topic.

"If it was just a month ago, I bet she's still pretty broken up about it. Maybe I should talk to her."

"No! No. She... needs time. To heal, y'know? Just let her recover on her own time."

Dean nodded slightly. "Right. Totally. How long should I-"

"Maybe you should just never bring it up. Ever. Just to be sure. 'Cause... you know how girls can be. So... catty."

He tried to hide a smile. "Yeah. So catty."

"What about your old flames?"

He just shrugged. "Not much to tell, really. Just some girls I thought were hot, and we would start dating, and about a month or two later, we'd end things. That's just life, I guess."

Cas nodded. "Hey, let's watch a movie."

Since Jo was asleep on the couch, they decided to go into Cas's room where he had a less-than-adequate TV. But, fortunately, it had Netflix on it. After spending some time trying to find a movie, they decided to watch The Interview. The Eminem bit absolutely slayed them.

Cas soon found himself thinking about the whole Hannah thing. He realized how he came up with that "fake" ex. He knew her. And he never actually thought about her that way before, but now... he didn't know who he was anymore.

For the longest time, he thought he was he gay. He met this boy, Dean, who was sitting right here beside him, laughing at some joke James Franco made, and he thought he might have liked him. But out there, when he was making up that story of his ex girlfriend, he realized how he thought of Hannah. Ugh, life is so unfair.

Then he thought, maybe he was bi. He liked this boy, and now he realized he liked a girl, he must've been bi. Of course, the thing with Hannah could've just been his mind's way of covering up those gay thoughts. Jesus Christ, this was all so complicated.

Was he gay? Was he straight? Was he bi? Was he anything? Who was he? What was the point? What the hell?

He couldn't even watch the movie properly with this thunderstorm of contradicting thoughts clouding his mind. It was impossible to think straight. Or gay. Or bi. Or at all.

Did he like Dean? Did he like Hannah? Did he like anyone? But the question was... did they like him back?

It was too overwhelming, and he couldn't process any of this. He didn't want to like anyone anyway, why was he self-debating this, anyway? He didn't believe in high school romances. Not about that life.

Dean kept watching the movie, trying to control his laughter. They had reached the part where everything was slo mo, and the acoustic version of Katy Perry's Firework was playing. He'd never seen this movie, so it was difficult for him not to laugh.

"Cas, have you seen this movie before?" Dean asked, eyes still glued to the screen. He didn't get a response. "Cas?"

He glanced over at Cas, who had fallen asleep. Dean smiled down at him, unable to resist his thoughts. Mostly thinking about how sweet Cas looked when he slept. Earlier, he spoke of all his ex girlfriends. He was lying so much. He never had a girlfriend. He never even liked a girl in his life. But, while he knew he was probably gay, he hid the truth. He had to keep up appearances. If anyone found out the star quarterback of the Fergus Macleod Hellhounds was gay? That just couldn't happen. His coach and teammates were a bit homophobic, though he doubted they were aware of it. It's just, some of the things they said, while they were probably just innocent little teasing quips, it still worried him about coming out. So as far as anyone was concerned, Dean Winchester was straight up no homo.

He wanted to come out, he really did. But the fear just took control, and his thoughts always spiraled out of control. Cas just seemed so sweet and genuinely caring, and he had everything Dean could've wanted in a relationship. Of course, there was some stuff there that made him question his whole existence in the infinite universe. Like the fact that Cas was a guy. Just as an example.

He felt so stupid. He knew he and Cas could never happen. Even if that whole ex girlfriends story wasn't true, the way he talked about Hannah... well, that was way too straight.

He watched Cas as he slept, watched the way he breathed so steadily, how peaceful he looked. He was entranced by his insurmountable beauty. How could one boy look so... angel?

He decided he should probably get some sleep. But he didn't want to go home, so he decided to sleep there. Right there, at the foot of the bed, with Cas resting beside him.

He got the pillow from the other end of the bed and gently lifted Cas's head so he could tuck the pillow beneath it. Cas hummed with content, shifting slightly in his sleep. Dean grinned and retrieved the blanket from the floor that had once been at the foot of the bed, wrapping Cas up in it. He turned off the TV, the room suddenly plunged into darkness. He got comfortable, holding Cas so he was pressed up against his body, not caring about fighting his gay thoughts. Because he was here right now with this sweet boy with wild raven colored hair.

"Good night, Cas my angel."

He inhaled deeply, breathing in Cas's scent, and closed his eyes. It wasn't long before he managed to get some sleep.