Tony was forced to walk home from what would be his last ever pratice since he refused to get a summer job, and his parents refused to help pay his car insurance. The walk home would be a long one, but one he didn't mind taking.

On his long walk home, he decided to call Payton, for more reasons than one. Mostly, however, because he would have to pass her house to get to his, and thought that would be the perfect excuse to stop by and see her.

Payton, who was surprisingly awake, picked up the call immediately, glancing at the clock. It was barely eight-thirty a.m. "Tony, Tony, Tony, you're going to have to get up earlier than this if you're still dead set on getting back at me." Chuckling as the words came out of her mouth, she smiled the entire time.

"I wasn't trying to wake you up, I thought you would be up since you like to get up early for some apparent reason, I will never understand. I'm actually in your neighborhood and wanted to see if you wanted to hang out. Maybe get breakfast?" he countered in a cheerful voice, though nowhere near as chipper and outgoing as Payton, who had been up but wasn't even close to being ready.

"No, you're not. I bet you're still sitting on your couch, in your boxers playing Halo," she replied, hesitation in her voice. For although she didn't believe him, there was a part of her that wasn't certain. "Wait, where are you?"

"I don't know exactly, I'm like a block to the right of the church. I know you live close by," he said.

Payton was sitting in her bedroom, still in her PJs and not dressed nowhere near ready to be seen. She peeked her head out of the window. Based on what Tony was saying, she knew he was close—closer than she cared for him to be. Although she wouldn't dare to tell him, from her bedroom window on the third floor, Payton could see him walking.

"Yeah, about that. Just hang out by the church, I'm in the middle of something... I just have to finish up and I'll meet you there in twenty?" As panicky and nervous as she was, Payton sounded calm.

Tony, smiling as he walked, chuckled slightly. "Did I interrupt your personal time?" he asked, coming off casual as if it were an everyday question.

Payton paused for a moment, taking a second until she gathered what it was Tony had been getting at, then her reaction was anything but what Tony expected. "Ew, no, that's gross. I would never do that. That's disgusting."

"What? You would never do that? So, you would never let a guy...?" Tony went on to ask. Not to be overbearing, but actually curious, for he'd never heard a girl say something like that before.

"No. That's nasty. I would have sex. Like if I like the guy, I'll have sex with them, but that's it," she said without hesitation.

Tony, not thinking anything of it, said boldly, "What if a guy, your boyfriend or something, tried to go south of the border?" Using overture, his question came out direct, all while veiling his feelings. In his own way, without a doubt not the most kosher expression, Tony was trying to put himself out there.

"Absolutely not!" Payton shouted.

"I hope this doesn't cross any lines or is too personal," Tony said before Payton interrupted. "Too personal? I'm pretty sure we're past the point of things not being too personal."

Payton chuckled.

"Are you a virgin?" As the words came out of his mouth, he felt almost instant regret. It's a lose-lose, he began to think. On one hand, if she isn't, then everything that happens next, her thoughts are going to be, is he just trying to get into my pants? Does only like me because he thinks I'm "easy"? That would make every romantic gesture or something as simple as him confessing his feelings to her just a way to "get into her pants" instead of a genuine expression of emotional affection. All of his thoughts came crashing down at once.

"On second thought, it's none of my business," Tony muttered out before she had a chance to answer the question.

Payton stared into the abyss, biting her lower lip, eyes glued to the wall as if it was the TV playing her favorite show. "I am. A virgin. I'm not scared to have sex; I would sleep with someone if I really trusted them. My only thing is, how do I know they're not just going to leave me when it's over?"

Underneath her strength, Tony could hear the fear in her voice. Not that she was weak or fragile, because she wasn't, not in the slightest bit. Payton, like every girl, and even guy her age, was vulnerable (even though no guy would ever admit it). She feared being used, led on, being taken advantage of, and was terrified of putting herself out there only to be rejected, to feel unworthy... to have her heart broken.

Meanwhile, after hitting the showers and cleaning out his locker, Josh headed home. Much like Tony, Josh didn't have a ride home and had been forced to walk.

Jade, driving past the school, saw him walking along the sidewalk as she was forced to slow down for the speed bumps. Her car slowed almost to a complete stop as she crept next to him, driving a little slower than Josh was walking.

"Josh... you're Josh, right?" she called out to him from the rolled-down window. Josh took a minute, trying to decide what to do. Though they hadn't officially met, he already knew who Jade was. Partly from dating one of her best friends, but mostly because her reputation preceded her, or so it had been said in the showers and during locker room talk.

Josh took a deep breath and turned towards her. "Yeah," he muttered, uncertain of just what she could possibly desire from him. Being Chasity's best friend, he had been almost certain Chasity told Jade not only what happened, but god knows what else. So that raised the question—what could she possibly want from him?

Jade pushed down on the brakes, sending her already slowly moving bug to a complete stop. He noticed but didn't stop walking. "I'm Jade. We go to school together... Weren't you in my English class last year?" She smiled, looking at his varsity basketball shirt.

Josh knew that they never had any classes or even lunch hour together. However, he did know that she had transferred in last year from some private school. Although they were never officially introduced, they were friends on Myspace, and he'd seen her pick up and drop off Chasity a few times at his house.

"Yeah, I think we might have. I'm not sure," he replied.

"Where are you headed?" she asked in a flirtatious tone, eyeing him up, not giving it a second thought.

"Was just heading home."

"You want a lift? I'm a great driver, I promise." She grinned and placed her fingers up to her mouth—a nervous tic. Likely craving a cigarette, trying to resist the urge as long as she possibly could. Knowing Josh wasn't a smoker, Jade didn't want to drive him away by lighting one up.

"Are you sure? I don't want to impose. I kind of live far," Josh muttered as he slowly walked to the car. Though his house was only a few minutes away and Jade knew its location, he wanted to give her an out—a chance to reconsider. He also wanted to read her reaction and evaluate the situation at face value.

Jade and Josh barely spoke on the ride back to his house, for what could they really talk about? Would they partake in a conversation about Chasity, where she was? What she might be doing? Maybe her thoughts on the idea of Jade offering Josh a ride home?

Instead, they decided to engage in some good old fashion rubbernecking. Josh would gaze at her as she drove, never for too long, then she would glance over, taking her eyes off the road to catch him. He would maintain eye contact only briefly before awkwardly breaking it off.

Of course, once or twice Josh would catch Jade gawking at him, beating him to the punch. But it wasn't quite as often—all things considered, Jade wasn't that irresponsible of a driver.

As she pulled up to Josh's house, Jade drove around towards the back of the home, the same spot she would always go to when dropping or picking up Chasity.

Josh took a deep breath, thinking about all the possibilities, all the outcomes of a situation like this. Then just like that, he stopped thinking and acted on instinct, planning to ask her in.

Jade beat him to the punch. "Do you have a bathroom I could use?" she asked—not that she really needed to use the restroom, but she wasn't going to wait for Josh to invite her inside.

Taken back by her making the first move, he paused, speechless.

"Come on, I really need to pee. Don't worry, I'm sure your parents won't find out you had a girl in the house when they weren't home," Jade said flirtatiously, playing the role she knew best.

Usually her ploy worked, but it backfired this time. Hearing her say those words, the same phrase Chasity use to use, took him out of the illusion and put the three-thousand-pound elephant right back in the center of the room.

The fact they both knew each other, without knowing each other. Knowing their connection, how it could affect someone close to them. Unethical in every way. Blatantly fucked up in every sense.

"I'm sorry. I was having a moment. It's not often that I freeze up when a beautiful girl asks to use my bathroom," Josh blurted out, with a half-smile, giving it his all not to mess things up. He'd known from the start that it wasn't about the "bathroom." She just wanted a reason for him to invite her in. And in that moment, he decided he would give her a reason to stay.

"Oh, a lot of girls ask to use your bathroom after giving you a ride home?" she inquired innocently.

His reply only heightened her desire for him. "Only my friend's mothers. So you can see why I was taken back."

As they walked in through Josh's personal entrance, he showed her everything she thought she already knew. He directed her to the way of the bathroom, then went down and sat on the couch, calm and collected on the outside, nervous as hell on the inside.

As Jade checked her hair and makeup, out of nowhere she felt a tingle in the pit of her stomach. Staring at herself, she started second-guessing some of her beauty choices, then realized she was nervous for the first time since her first date with Cody. The thought was both overwhelming and terrifying, almost bringing her to her knees she grabbed onto the sink and began to breathe heavily.

Standing in the bathroom, she took deep breaths; the walls felt like they were closing in on her. "Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out," she kept telling herself, trying to get a grip. All too much, can't focus. Thoughts ran through her head, inconsistent and scattered like a puzzle. Thirty seconds, that's all you need. Just keep it together, for thirty seconds, she mentally screamed to herself.

She walked out of the bathroom, and Josh looked over at her. " Can I get you something to drink?" His delivery was so smooth that, even if she hadn't been overwhelmed and struggling to maintain her composure, she wouldn't have been able to tell how nervous he really was.

"I'm sorry, I can't stay. I just remembered I have to drop something off at my mom's office. Raincheck though?" she said quickly, walking straight for the door, not waiting for a confirmation.

Josh gazed after as she strolled out of the door—and possibly out of his life. "Sure, sounds good," he said barely above a whisper, as if he had been talking to himself.

Not that she would have been able to hear him anyway. By the time he got the words out, her key was already in the engine. The starter turned, bringing the bug to a less than roaring start before it took off up the road.

Marc sat in his basement playing Gears of War on his Xbox. Battling through the campaign on legendary mode, killing the hordes, trying what he believed to be impossible, unlocking the ultimate achievement—beating the game on legendary.

Bing, bing. Two notifications went off, the first one asking him to join a party, the second asking him to join a game, from gamertagMrBoh007.

Who the hell is MrBoh007? he thought to himself, ignoring the alerts.

Bing, bing. "Goddamn Tony, always changing your goddamn gamertag!" he yelled out loud, for MrBoh007 invited him to a group chat—again. "I'm not getting up and getting my mic," he muttered.

His phone went off—a text message from Tim. Marc felt his blood pressure rise; the audacity of him. After a moment, Marc's anger slightly turned into curiosity—not only was he low-key dying for Tim to text him, but the thought of what the message contained began eating away at him.

BAM! His hesitation got him killed, forcing him to start all over from the beginning. It had been the hardest level, the one he'd been stuck on for hours, and he'd been so close to making it to the checkpoint only to be distracted, costing him everything.

Usually this would be something that would set Marc off, pissing him off to the point of throwing the controller. A stereotypical action of a gamer expressing frustration.

But this time he didn't scream, curse, or throw the controller. He wasn't even angry. On some level, he held resentment towards Tim, and disgust for his actions on their date. Yet when the opportunity came to express the pent-up emotions, lust and desire overwhelmed the anger until it dissipated almost completely.

After starting at the phone for at least a good minute, maybe two, he finally picked it up, opening the text message from Tim. "Join the party," the text message read. As tempted as he was, Marc weighed the options and outcomes.

There was the possibility that Tim could explain the whole thing, for he had told Marc from the start that he was still not out. But he never mentioned a girlfriend, Marc thought to himself.

He engaged his emotions, even if they were clouding his judgment. He got up, grabbed his mic off the coffee table, and joined the chatroom, which had been set to invite-only, so no unwanted guests could join and overhear their conversation.

"Marc?" Tim asked in a hesitant voice. He was sitting on the edge of his twin-sized bed, which was covered in The Legend Of Zelda bedsheets. His leg was nervously shaking as he awaited a reply.

"Yeah."

"What's up? You haven't been answering my messages or game invites," Tim said.

"Just playing Gears, trying to finish it on legendary," Marc replied, monotoned and emotionless.

Tim paused, then exclaimed, "What the fuck, man?"

"Dude, really? Castle Crashers isn't that hard. For a die-hard Zelda nerd, you should be able to crush Castle Crashers." Marc's tone hadn't changed from his emotionless state.

"I'm not talking to the game; I'm talking to you. What the fuck?"

"Okay... You lost me. What's your issue with me? Because last time I checked, I don't have a fake girlfriend. Or is it a real girlfriend and I'm a nonexistent piece of side dick?"

"I told you from the start that I wasn't... ready and I wasn't sure when I would be. That this is all still new to me."

"This is new to me too, but that doesn't mean that I'm going around fucking girls to fit in. You don't have to have a girlfriend in order to stay in the closet," Marc replied, temper starting to flare.

"It's not that easy... You don't get it." Tim exhaled heavily, feeling defeated.

"You're right, I don't. What's the endgame? Keep dating her until you might one day be ready to accept yourself? That is if you don't marry her first, because why not, that's what people will expect you to do." Now fully engaged with his anger, Marc didn't hold back, completely unfiltered. His words took blows, going for blood.

"I've known her since I was five. She's been my best friend since the third grade. She's the first girl I've ever kissed. She's the only girl I've ever kissed. We've literally been planning out our life together since we were thirteen. I'm not fucking her to fit in, we've only ever done it once. We're still together because I can't break up with her. I can't break her heart. I love her, even if it's not the same way she loves me," Tim declared, voice cracking. His breathing steadied as the burden of his secret lifted.

Unsure what to say, Marc sat in silence for a moment, pondering a response. "I understand what you're saying," he said at last, "and I feel for you, I do. You're fucked seven ways from Sunday. You're eventually going to break her heart one way or another, that's inevitable. At this point, it's just a matter of when and how."