"Do you want to go out to lunch?" Jake had asked him that morning in painting, his cheeks flushed and eyes downcast. "I mean for lunch. We have the same period, right? Wanna go out to eat today?"

It wasn't like Jake had been asking him on a date, but still, something was implied in the request, and Collier just wasn't ready to agree to it. Besides, he kind of wanted to sit by Henry for lunch. They always talked about things that actually interested him; art, anime, or horror movies.

Collier had declined Jake's offer, though he had agreed that he would go to eat with him some other day.

And that's how he ended up sitting next to Henry at lunch, the table empty except for the two of them since Sarah and Emerson seemed to have the same idea as Jake and left to go get food.

"Just you today?" Cole asked, dropping his backpack onto the floor and sinking into his regular seat to Henry's left. The blue eyed boy grumbled something, looking up at him from his book for a second before dropping his eyes back down.

"They're at your house fucking," Henry claimed and Collier grimaced at this.

"Not something I wanted to picture right before I eat lunch, but thanks," Cole said, making a move to rise from his seat. Henry's eyes snapped up to him in alarm.

"You're going to leave me alone?" He asked, his voice guarded and Cole grinned at him.

"Are you scared?" He taunted and Henry just scoffed. "I'll be back in a minute. I'm just going to get food since Sarah's not here to get it for me".

Henry said nothing then, his attention moving completely back to his book as Collier shrugged and walked away.

He hadn't stood in the lunch line since last year, so Cole felt a bit uncomfortable doing so, especially since all he ended up taking were french fries, a bottle of water, and cut pieces of cucumber.

"That's all you're eating?" Henry demanded when he returned to the table and Collier looked over his food once more.

"Oh no," he assured, gesturing his hand to all of his food. "Most of this is bound to end up on the floor".

Henry looked annoyed with him. "This is why you're so fucking small".

"I am not small," Collier snapped, annoyed and Henry's eyebrows snapped up at his hard tone.

"You don't scare me, little flower," Henry said, amused and Collier just scowled, picking up his water and opening the cap.

"Whatever". Angrily, he ripped the plastic off of his silverware and throwing it down onto the table before stabbing a cucumber with his fork. Henry was still looking at him from over his book, his eyes very blue and Collier just glared back at him. "What?"

"Do you like marshmallows?" Henry asked suddenly, and Collier almost laughed at him. It was unusual to see someone say marshmallow with a completely serious face in a bored tone.

"Do I like marshmallows?" Cole repeated, and Henry deadpanned, which was impressive since he hadn't been making much of an expression beforehand.

"That's what I just said".

"I know it is". Cole spoke slowly. "Why would you ask me such a stupid question?"

"Well-" Henry was interrupted by the clatter that was Collier's tray hitting the ground a second after he had shifted in his chair. They both looked down at the spilled food. "Collie-"

"Well I told you," Cole claimed with a shrug, leaning down at picking up his tray but leaving the fallen food on the floor. "Yes, I like marshmallows. Why do you ask?"

"I don't really want to share anymore," Henry said, but despite his words he still lifted his navy backpack up onto the table and unzipped the largest pocket. Cole just watched him with furrowed eyebrows as Henry looked back at him evenly.

"I don't-"

"Dear god, how are you so airheaded-"

"Hey ass hole," Cole snapped and Henry smiled. He smiled. "Fuck-"

Henry reached out and grabbed his hand, but before Cole's eyes could widen in surprise Henry had thrush both of their hands into the open backpack. "Marshmallow," Henry said, delighted, and as Collier's mind registered what his hand was touching, he couldn't really find it in himself to care at the second.

For years, Collier had watched Henry from a distance. He had described him so many different ways: Beautiful, handsome, sexy- he had even gone as far as dapper before, but never had Cole thought about Henry the word he was thinking now.

Adorable. Absolutely fucking adorable. He looked so happy as he pulled a handful of mini marshmallows out of the bag and brought them to his lips, his eyes shining as he chewed slowly. Collier just blinked at him, a little shellshocked as he was reminded of Henry's age.

Typically, he came across as much older than he really was. Hostile and serious, traits more likely to be found in older men than a teenage boy, but at that moment, he looked younger than he was. Thirteen or fourteen as he happily sucked the sticky sweetness off of his fingers before going to get more.

His lively expression fell once he felt Collier's hand still in the bag and looked up at him. "You don't have to eat them, but then get out of my way".

Collier's hand closed on it's own and he pulled out a handful of marshmallows. "You like these then?"

"Yeah," Henry said, opening his hand to reveal a bunch of white sweets resting on his palm. "They remind me of my birthday".

"Your birthday?" Collier asked and Henry just nodded.

"Yeah. Since I was little, my mom would wake me up the morning of my birthday with hot chocolate with marshmallows in it. It just brings back good memories". Collier's eyebrows furrowed.

"You're still seventeen? For some reason I thought you were eighteen?"

"What makes you say that?" Henry asked, avoiding his eyes as he ate his marshmallows one at a time.

"Well if you're woken up to hot chocolate, I'm assuming your birthday is in one of the colder months". In Florida, it didn't snow during their winters, but every year the temperature would drop to the sixties and all the inhabitants of the state would act as if it was forty below and bundle up in blankets while drinking hot drinks.

"Well maybe I like hot chocolate all the time," Henry grunted and Collier snorted.

"Yeah, sure. Why wouldn't you want to drink warm liquid in the sweltering heat?"

"Alright," Henry said with a sigh. "I'm seventeen. Emerson's birthday is over the summer. About a month after Jordan's actually. They're almost the same age, Jordan just started school early".

Maybe it was the mention of his boyfriend, or maybe it was the hand full of marshmallows he was still holding, but Collier was reminded of a time in Sarah's kitchen with Carter Vanroy.

"You know," Cole began, raising his hand to his lips and tilting his head back so he could finally taste some of the sweets, "your friend Carter caught me stealing Caroline Olsen's marshmallows at one of her parties last year".

Henry's eyebrows raised. "Which party?" Of course he would want to know. Henry was invited to, and attended, quite a few of the parties that were thrown by students. Cole wasn't sure if it was perks of being Emerson's best friend, or if people invited Henry because he was Henry.

"Oh. Um, it would have been towards the beginning of the middle of the school year, right before Carter and Caroline had come out as a couple".

"Oh," Henry said softly. "I remember that party".

Collier hummed and thought for a moment. "What's the full story behind Jordan and Carter's relationship?"

"Huh?" Henry asked, digging in his backpack some more.

"Like, Carter and Caroline were together on Friday, and then the next Monday he was with Jordan," Cole reminded, as if Henry had forgotten this about his close friends. "What happened there?"

"It apparently took Caroline for both of them to realize that they were in love with each other. Carter dumped Caroline in Friday, fucked Jordan on saturday, and then came out on Monday".

"They sound kinky," Collier commented, holding out his hand towards Henry, who looked at his hand for a second before dropping three marshmallows into his palm.

"You think they're kinky because I told you that they had sex a day after he broke up with his girlfriend? I don't think that makes them kinky, it just makes them terrible people who are very in love with one another".

"I don't think they're kinky because they had sex right after Caroline and him broke up," Cole said. He actually thought that Carter dumping Caroline for Jordan was a bit romantic. "I asked if they're kinky because Emerson told me that Carter screamed Daddy when cumming over phone sex".

Henry snorted. "Oh that," he said, zipping his backpack closed before Collier could put his hand back into it. "They are way to comfortable with their sex life. I can't even count on one hand how many times I've walked in on them having sex, which you think would be impossible, right, since as Emerson had revealed to you, Carter is a screamer, but they have long since discovered gags and such to get him to shut the fuck up, which is nice, of course, but, as I said, we keep walking in on them".

"What's the worst you've seen?" Collier asked, unable to help himself. As a virgin, he was always very curious about the sex lives of gay couples. Luckily, Henry didn't seem to think this was a weird question and jumped right into his story.

"We were all in Rob's bedroom paying X-box-"

"Who is we?" Collier asked and Henry immediately glared at the interruption. "Hey, I just want to know all the details".

Henry sighed. "We would be Me, Emerson, Carter, Jordan, Ryan, Rob, Xander, and Brandon. The rest of the boys were busy or something. Now shut up and don't ask anymore questions". Collier just nodded his head. "So we were playing X-box and could only use four controllers at a time, so we were rooting turns on this car racing game. It was Carter, Jordan, Xander, and Emerson who were playing at the time, and Jordan, to sabotage Carter, put his hands down the front of his pants and started jerking him off right there".

"Damn," Cole said, taking a long drink of his water. "I don't know if that turns me on or not".

"It doesn't," Henry answered for him and Cole just nodded in agreement. "Anyways, they both lost, and then had sex in Rob's bed behind us as we turned up the volume really loud".

"So you've seen them having sex? Like, not just walking in and catching a glimpse, but like... actually seeing them".

Henry's eyebrows furrowed. "Well I didn't look". This seemed highly unlikely. As a gay man, with two uber attractive men having sex a few feet away, Collier couldn't imagine not looking, if even for a second. He narrowed his eyes at Henry and the boy looked back at him with a level expression. After a moment, he spoke again. "Alright, so I did look".

"Well I would hope so," Collier said, and then addressed Henry's confused look. "The story was about the worst you've seen. A handjob under the pants doesn't sound too bad. Though, watching them have sex doesn't seem too bad either".

"And what's the worst you've seen?" Henry asked suddenly and Collier felt his cheeks heat.

"I-"

"Not even porn?" Collier shook his head, his golden eyes dropping. "Do you even know where you put it in?"

"Yes," Collier snapped, exacerbated and embarrassed. Henry just smirked at him, and Collier, just to get the message across that he didn't want to talk about this anymore, turned away and tore open his own backpack. He retrieved his sketch book and one of the pencils at the bottom of the bag. Flipping the book open, he purposely turned his back to Henry before leaning over the blank page.

Before his pencil could touch the paper, Henry was tapping on his shoulder. "Could I watch you draw?"

"Why?" Cole demanded, but he shifted to a more open position, the empty pages on display.

"Because you're talented, and the process is very interesting to me". It seemed like the second part was added to cover the complement in the first part.

Collier didn't voice this, only nodded at him before asking, "what do you want to see me draw?"

Henry reached out and moved Collier's water bottle to the middle of the table to keep it from blocking his view, and then propped himself up onto his elbow to lean towards him. "I don't care. Draw what you want".

"Oh". Collier tapped his pencil nervously. "Can I draw you?"

Henry looked up at him in surprise, the sudden jerk of his head causing some of his dark brown hair to fall in his eyes. "Uh, if you want," Henry said, uncertain. "I'm intrigued".

Collier nodded, and then he drew.

The soft lines came as easy to him as the hard ones. The sharp edges and the smooth curves, the wide eye shape and full lips. Eyebrows and hair and cheekbones and chin. Everything came together easily, almost as if Cole was drawing himself.

When he had finished everything but the shading, Collier looked up, wondering what exactly Henry was thinking of his ability to draw him without glancing at him once for reference.

Henry was staring at him with an unreadable expression, his eyes narrowed slightly and lips a straight line. "I-" Collier began a bit panicked. He pushed his sketch book away from him quickly, knocking it into his water, which tipped and spilt all over the pages.

"Oh".

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Henry asked, though it wasn't spoken unkindly, just as if it was an actual question, which made it worse, Cole believed.

"I can't help being clutzy," Collier argued half heartedly, standing from his spot. Henry just looked up at him with bored blue eyes.

"I suppose not". He leaned back over the sketch book and Collier watched him closely. "You've ruined it". Looking back up at him, Henry seemed to just realize that he had stood. "Where are you going?"

"To get napkins-"

"Don't bother". Henry picked up his sopping sketchbook with careful hands, holding it out over the table for a minute to drip before shaking it and handing it back to him. "Just go".

"What?"

"Go," Henry repeated, and then looked incredibly annoyed with Cole's confused expression. "You never stay for the full lunch period. You either go by Ian, or to art. I'm not expecting you to stay now just because it's me alone". Collier's mouth opened to protest. "Go away, Cole".

"I-" Henry's glare had his mouth snapping shut loudly. Silently, he picked up his backpack and dropped his wet sketch book into it before zipping it closed. He was going to leave without another word, but something about the way Henry was looking up at him reminded him of what he had been thinking the entire morning. "Oh".

"You're still here," Henry observed, though it was a strange statement since his eyes had yet to leave Cole since he first told him to go. "What do you want?"

"To come over". Stop holding back, Cole. "To your house. Later. Tonight". Henry's eyebrows raised, but he didn't say anything. "Will you be home?"

"I will," Henry said slowly, and Cole just smiled at him.

"Good".

Collier left him there to wonder what the hell that was about.