Author's Note: Sorry again for the late chapter. I was busy with stuff and so writing got delayed, plus this chapter was longer than initially expected.

*Back to the story

~~~~~~~~~~

Riley was making some spaghetti for lunch the next day, and during that time Lucy wanted to give Jessie a makeover during their little play date.

Jessie was squashed into a tiny chair as he became Lucy's new doll. Blush was applied to his cheeks, edible lip balm was added so that his lips looked shinier and fuller, and Lucy topped it up with a curly blond wig that matched her own hair.

"Am I as pretty as you now?"

Lucy giggled as she grabbed a mirror to show Jessie his makeover transformation. "Riley says no one is prettier than me. But you're prettier than when Riley does this."

Jessie couldn't contain his laughter at the sass from Riley's little sister. He was convinced it was an inherited family trait, and she was bound to grow up to be as confident and as snarky like Riley.

Jessie faked shock and wow as he looked in the mirror. "I look gorgeous!"

He pulled his phone out so that he could take a picture to further prove this. Jessie then pulled Lucy next to him as they both cheekily grinned into the camera.

The photo was saved when Jessie got a notification from his phone afterwards. Jessie smiled when he saw that it was Olivia who sent him a text message.

"Is that your girlfriend?"

Jessie didn't think a 4 years old child would understand the complexity of their 'relationship', as he thought about what was happening between him and Olivia.

Before they left for Easter, they talked about how they would continue things when they were back in school together. As for now they weren't exactly exclusive, despite the fact that they both admitted to having feelings towards each other.

"Technically no." Jessie answered.

"Oh. Is it your boyfriend?" Lucy asked curiously. "My mommies say that boys can like boys - just like how mommies can like other mommies."

Jessie was amazed at how open minded the small child was. He took notes on how she was confident whenever she spoke about things on her mind, and Jessie knew that Lucy was going to be a little madam when she grew older.

"I don't like boys in that way."

"Did you know my brother likes boys?" Lucy proudly told Jessie. "He likes boys and girls. Ry Ry said it's alright to like whoever you want, so he likes both."

Jessie thought about the contrast between both of their families. The Williams were more open minded and loving, while his parents were more cold, calculating, and unforgiving.

Lucy wasn't aware that she was over sharing, as more information began to spill out like word vomit. "I heard him tell mommy that he likes a boy yesterday."

"Really? I don't think that's true Lucy."

Lucy nodded her head as she recalled the late night conversation between the mother and son. "He likes this boy for a very long time."

Jessie was perplexed as he never recalled Riley mentioning some boy that he liked. If he had a crush on someone for this long, then surely Cameron would know and then tell him about it too.

"Are you his boyfriend?" Lucy questioned.

Jessie couldn't help but laugh after Lucy asked something so innocently cute. "No I'm not his boyfriend."

"Why not?" Lucy asked genuinely. "Riley knows you for a very long time, so he must like you. Don't you like Riley?"

"It's not that simple Lucy, me and Riley are just very good friends." Jessie tried to explained. He was out of his comfort zone when he had to explain relationships to a young child, especially when the same young child couldn't even write cursive.

Riley had finished cooking their lunch when he climbed the stairs and walked into Lucy's room. Seeing the back of a wig on Jessie's head, Riley immediately took his phone out so that he could take a picture.

"Jessie." Riley called out to get his attention.

When Jessie turned his head after his name was called, Riley grinned wickedly as he took the photo of a fully dolled up Jessie.

"You look so pretty!" Riley mocked. "I didn't know you could be even cuter."

Jessie took the wig off as he put it on the table. Now pointing an accusing finger at the laughing guy, "You better not post that anywhere!"

Riley made his point as he pocketed his phone. He pinched Jessie's cheeks and brought out the naturally rosey colour to his cheeks. "I'm just teasing."

"Jessie was just telling me about boyfriends and girlfriends." Lucy admitted to her brother, "I said you had a boyfriend, but he said you didn't."

Riley wished he came upstairs sooner so that he could hear what they were both actually talking back. But for now Riley had to just live with the mild regret.

"Jessie's right Lucy, I don't have a boyfriend."

Lucy then asked her brother if he wanted one someday, and so Riley told his sister. "Eventually. I would like one someday, but I need them to like me too."

Having enough of the interview, Riley told his sister to wash her hands before they sat down and ate together.

Riley then passed a wet wipe to Jessie so that he could remove the makeup on his own face. Jessie removed the blush and lip balm of himself when Riley then gestured towards the eye shadow his sister beautifully and unexpectedly applied.

"Close your eyes."

Jessie listened as Riley held his face firmly so that he wouldn't squirm. Riley leaned in forward to make sure it was all removed, and Jessie eventually opened his eyes to see Riley looking back at him.

"All done?" Jessie asked, referring to the eye makeup removal.

Riley stared at the beautiful brown eyes in front of him, and he noticed how clear and sparkling they were. It was the first time Riley truly noticed them, and he was so completely captivated with them that he was speechless.

With a slap to the face, Jessie laughed as he woke Riley up from his seemingly daze. "Wake up stupid, you got the makeup off me?"

"Yeah." Riley forced out as he coughed nervously.

"I'm starving." Jessie stood up from the chair and ran his hands over his own face. He smiled at Riley as he told them that it was time to eat. "I'll meet you down there?"

As Riley watched Jessie leave, he slapped himself for being so caught up with looking into Jessie's eyes. Riley felt like he was in deep shit when it came to Jessie, and with every moment he fell deeper for the boy that occupied his entire mind and body.

This was the exact reason that he read the painful letters last night. Riley felt that he needed to be reminded of how gut wrenching his first experience at love was, and the fact that it was the same guy in front of him just made everything worse.

Love was painful. Riley had briefly experienced it at a young age, but the brutal rejection and abandonment was the reason he never had a proper romantic relationship ever since.

Riley began jumping on the spot so that he could metaphorically shake everything out that was running through his brain. He didn't want to fall deeper into the rabbit hole of liking Jessie, and he knew that it was just going to end in disaster all over again.

~~~~~~~~~~

The next evening, Jessie nervously walked down the staircase as it was time for another dinner with his parents. He was dreading it even more when he learnt that Cameron wasn't joining them today, because he was catching up with some old friends that were back for only today.

Jessie bowed his head at a 90 degree angle to both of his parents, and took one of the empty seats in between them with regret and dread.

After his mom served his father and herself, Jessie served his own food as he was accustomed to doing it for himself. By the time he reached out for the lasagna, they had already started eating without any food even on his own plate.

Lasagna was one of Jessie's favourite food, but he wasn't able to savour the taste since the room was overwhelmed with toxicity and suffering.

Keeping his head down, Jessie ate quietly as he tried to avoid the conversation his parents were currently having.

"My friend Shonda told me that her son found naked pictures of someone that looked awfully like Riley the other day."

Jude rolled his eyes as he felt second hand embarrassment from even knowing Riley. "I'm not surprised, we've met his whorish mother..."

"Right!" Kathy chuckled, "No wonder where he learnt how to become the town's bike."

Jude laughed too as he added onto his wife's comment. "That tramp showed her son it's okay to be gay, but gay people do this behaviour all the time. Constantly sleeping around, catching STDs left and right, and sending disgusting photos to each other - it's sickening!"

"He's bisexual..."

Kathy glared at the meekly voice that spoke for the first time since they sat down together. "What was that?"

"Riley's bisexual, and there's nothing wrong with that." Jessie voiced a little bit louder.

Kathy's vein was popping out of her head as she grew tired of Jessie's backchatting attitude. Jude on the other hand stayed calm as he held his hand up to his wife. "Relax Kathy, Jessie's too easily impressionable. That boy has always been a little slow when learning the right from wrong."

"You're right," Kathy agreed. "Our youngest child never did listen to us properly when we told him that he wasn't allowed to be around that fag and his family anymore."

"Mom!" Jessie yelled out with disgust. "You can't talk about them like that, it's not right!"

Jude finally stopped eating as he had lost his appetite from listening to his disruptive son. "They parade their disgusting lifestyle all the time in front of us - and they have a young child that is suffering, because they are around that behaviour 24 hours a day."

These were the views that were internalised into Jessie's mind when he was younger. Jessie was just as impressionable like any other young person, and the need to be in his parent's good books meant that he followed whatever they said.

When they told him that Riley wasn't allowed to be his friend anymore, his parents would criticise their entire family as more people learnt how they weren't considered 'normal'.

For years and years, Jessie grew uncomfortable around Riley because of what they fed him. But the more Jessie was driven away by his parents, the more he rebelled against their views and learnt to think for himself.

It took Jessie several years to undo the their views of sexuality that was embedded into his mind because of them, and Jessie knew for certain that what they were saying was wrong.

"Loving the same sex isn't disgusting," Jessie expressed confidently. "And Lucy is a wonderful, open minded, sweet kid. They are doing a much better parenting job than you two messed up freaks."

Jessie felt his cheek sting when the impact of a slap landed on him. The ring made it worse as the pain was sharper, and Jessie held his face as he looked back petrified at his furious mother.

"We raised you the way we did, because we know better!" Kathy screeched. "That faggy family is an abomination to this neighbourhood, and that is why we wanted them gone - away from you!"

Jude joined his wife as he then berated their child. "You've always had an attitude problem Jessie. You never did obey us when we told you to do something."

"The minute we found out the mom was gay, we told you to stay away from Riley because he was infected." Kathy added. "And to protect you from being infected, we made sure you two couldn't be around each other."

Jessie felt a sinking feeling as he started to have a better understanding of why he started to hate Riley when they were younger. Although it didn't rule out his own behaviour of how he treated Riley, Jessie realised that their was a puppet master behind it all.

"What do you mean exactly?"

Jude leaned over the table and aggressively whispered to Jessie's face. "All you need to know is that we knew best, and we did what was best to keep that sick family away from you."

"But you never listened, did you? You brought that parasite back into our home after all these years, and look at you!" Kathy scoffed as she spat on the floor. "You were always a disappointment Jessie."

Tears began to slide down Jessie's face as every word left a harsher impact than before. Jessie couldn't take listening to this anymore, and he didn't want to stick around to find out what would happen next.

Throwing his napkin over his plate, Jessie fled the room and ran out of the house. He took Cameron's key and drove away from his poisonous parents - wishing that everything they said was untrue.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Jessie? Please call me back."

Cameron ended the voicemail as he couldn't get a hold of his brother. He learnt about the blow up he had with his brother, and he was exasperated that he wasn't around Jessie to help support him - again.

Cameron learnt about the harsh words that their parents used, as he was sickened to think of how Jessie had to suffer through all of this alone and repeatedly.

He just wanted to make sure his brother was safe and unharmed. But he wasn't sure if that was possible when he noticed a blood droplet, their mom holding ice over her reddened hand, and his car missing.

Cameron banged on Riley's door as he didn't know who else to turn to. He became antsy as he stood on the porch, eventually watching the hallway light flicker on as a tired Riley answered the door.

"What's the emergency?" Riley laughed, "You're breaking down my door and it's already pretty dark outside."

"Jessie's gone," Cameron told him flatly. "He had another fight with my parents, and I'm scared they damaged him even more."

Riley gulped nervously as he listened to the seriousness from Cameron. "Is he not answering his phone?"

Cameron shook his head as he held back the sarcasm that was tempted to come out. "He's taken my car and driven off somewhere. They said some really horrible stuff Riley, and I don't want him to suffer alone."

Knowing his difficult relationship with his parents, Riley knew that Jessie wouldn't be handling any of this healthily. He was also scared for Jessie, and Riley wanted to undo all of the harm his parents were inflicting on him.

"We'll go looking for him." Riley grabbed his jacket and his mom's car keys, as he then locked his own front door. "You walk around and see if he went anywhere local. I'll drive further away so that more ground is covered."

Riley watched Cameron run through the neighbourhood as he tried to find his brother. Riley turned the ignition on his mom's car as he began to drive down the open road.

The only thought on his mind was to find Jessie, and bring him home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

A little while later and a concerned Riley continued to look for a missing Jessie. Riley feared at the state Jessie could be in, and he desperately wanted to just find him sooner.

Riley felt relieved when he recognised Cameron's car in the parking lot in front of him. With this being the first place he thought to go, Riley stopped his car by the beach and began to walk onto the sand.

From a far distance Riley was just able to make out Jessie's figure in the darkness. He quickly texted Cameron that he found Jessie safe and alive, and so Riley walked closer to comfort the lonely boy.

With footsteps approaching him, Jessie blinked away his tears as he looked at an approaching Riley. "How'd you know I was here?"

Standing under the pier together, "This was always our special place where we could hang out alone, without anyone bothering us."

They both looked up together and saw the still visible carving Jessie wrote on there when they were younger. "Jessie and Riley, BFFs."

Riley sat down next to his friend and pulled him close for a hug. He could feel Jessie's body shaking, and heard the whimpering noises coming from Jessie.

Riley took his jacket off and put it around Jessie's shoulders to keep it warm. Jessie offered him a weak thank you when Riley looked at his face again.

"You're face is bleeding." Riley saw the small cut on Jessie's face, and his blood immediately began to boil at the people who did this.

Jessie averted Riley's gaze by resting his own head against Riley's shoulder. He felt too ashamed to look or even talk to Riley. "It's nothing, I've had worse."

Riley ignored how Jessie was trying to dismiss everything that was worrying him. Riley reassuringly squeezed Jessie's arm as he asked, "Will you tell me how they upset you so much tonight?"

Jessie looked towards the ocean as the waves began to calm him down enough. After a while, he finally felt like he could speak to Riley without breaking down. "They were saying some horrible stuff about you and your family, and I couldn't stand to listen to it anymore."

"What did they say exactly?" Riley had no doubt he was going to hate what he was going to hear, but he needed to know what Jessie had to listen to.

Jessie relived the explosive fight he had with his parents, as he recalled how no one was left unscathed. "They said that you were all disgusting for liking someone the same gender. They were extremely cruel after they found out your photos were leaked, and they took that out on your mom by being describing her with very nasty words."

As much as Riley despised what he was hearing, he didn't want to make this about himself. Right now Riley only cared about what an emotional Jessie was feeling, so he held back his own thoughts on what he would love to do to Jessie's parents.

"And then they called me a disappointment for constantly letting them down. They hated how I was trying to correct what they were saying, and they hate me because I was always disobeying what they taught me."

Riley felt a strange sense of pride after hearing how Jessie was defending his entire family. The feelings he had felt for Jessie grew rapidly - despite the fact that he didn't want to.

"Jessie, you are one of the most strongest and bravest people I know." Riley couldn't help but smile at Jessie when he said those words. This boy was defying his own parents to stand up for him, and Riley didn't where he could begin to thank Jessie. "It might not mean much, but you can never be a disappointment to me."

Jessie was smiling again at Riley, and Riley could never imagine being tired of seeing this look on Jessie. "It does mean a lot."

"At least we're still friends after all of this." Riley chuckled. "Maybe we should make another carving to solidify it again."

Riley wiped away the tears that was falling from Jessie's face, and held back the ones that were glistening his own eyes.

Soon later, Jessie hated Riley's suggestion when he told them they should go back home after being out here for so long already. "I don't want to go back there. I think I just want to go back to the dorms."

Riley pulled out his phone as he called Cameron to pack Jessie's bag. Giving him the idea that they were going to go back to the dorms together, Cameron told them that he was joining them too.

Once he hung up the phone, Jessie gently grabbed Riley's arm. "Don't you want to stay with your family? It's still the holidays, and you shouldn't be away from them just because of me."

Riley gave Jessie a heartwarming smile as he shook his head. "I want to go wherever you go."

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