The Gallery was a very warm place. It was all dark red bricks, inside and out, and stained hardwood flooring that added charm while deducing the price of the property. At the moment, Collier was only standing on the sidewalk outside of the building, but he knew that the second he walked inside, he'd be greeted with the familiar smell of paint and the less familiar scent of red wine that the adults weren't supposed to drink around the minors that worked for them, but did anyways.

"We're artists," Petra had told him, the skin of her lips stained with lipstick and her tongue red with the sweet liquid. "We're supposed to drink wine. You will some day too".

It was a stupid claim that didn't make much sense, and to which Cole responded with "that's awful stereotypical, don't you think?" and she had laughed at him in a slightly drunken haze.

Cole loved his boss, Petra. She was both crazy and strict, drinking casually as she managed the gallery, but yelling at her employees for being anything over a minute late. It was easy to make her laugh, and she did quite often, but it was also not rare to see her snap at someone for spilling a drop of paint. The only person who got away with that was Collier because they all knew he couldn't help it at this point, but he still got deductions from his paycheck every time his pallet ended up on the floor.

He loved it here. It felt more like home than his actual home did at the moment, and he couldn't keep the grin off of his face when Petra pulled open the large wooden door at the front of the building and leaned out to look at him. "Welcome back my little sunflower," she greeted, showing him her very white teeth and wine stained mouth. "Did you walk?"

He had walked, since it wasn't too far from home, but he knew if he admitted this she would scold him for not calling her for a ride, even though she was busy. Cole ended up just ignoring the question all together.

"Petra," he greeted, and she held the door open for him and ushered him inside. "How was your summer?" He wasn't really asking about her summer, since he knew she had probably spent the three months with her motorcycle riding, leather clad boyfriend Kyle, but the summer of the business.

He (sadly) hadn't been able to work that summer after being unexpectedly sent out by his aunt, and even though summer wasn't a busy time for them (there were no major holidays in which gift giving was customary) they still had plenty of birthdays and he knew the would have been behind without him.

She understood what he was asking immediately. "Busy, without you here. We had to hire a new guy, we got so backed up. He's good, but no Collier Jacobson".

"Is anybody?" He asked, following her through the front room which was mostly empty on the Saturday morning. Not many worked on the weekends, only a few, and they were closed to the public, only accepting requests submitted via the internet until the door opened on Monday.

"Of course not, little sunflower," she assured, stopping at the staircase in the back and making a short gesture for him to go up. "But it was nice to have another set of hands. He's actually the only one who took a weekend shift with you, so it'll be just you two over the weekends- don't make that face at me- you'll be fine. You both work fast".

The amount of work they got was crippling, the idea that two of them would be able to get it done would have made him laugh if he had never experienced Petra's anger before.

He didn't say anything more about it, only turned back around and made his way up the stairs. "So I'll be meeting this new boy today, right?"

"I'm guessing you already know him," Petra said and Collier could hear her heels clicking as she climbed the stairs behind him. "He's in your grade at Valley, and is also an art student. I'd actually be surprised if you didn't-"

"Jake Oliver," Collier said the second he stepped onto the landing of the second floor. The only man in the room, standing before an easel looked up and smiled at him, though his eyes showed his surprise.

"Cole," he said, his voice fond. "I really should have known. They kept talking about the boy who I was covering for, about how amazing he was". Collier flushed at the compliment. He wished he could say the same about Jake, about his undeniable talent, but he honestly hadn't been paying attention. Feeling self centered, Collier opened his mouth to- to what? Apologize maybe, but Jake must have read his face because he said, "it's okay, beautiful. I've never had as much reason to display my work as you".

"And yet you work here," Petra said from behind Cole while he was busy flushing at the fact that Jake had just called him beautiful. "I don't hire people without talent. Tell him, Collier".

"She doesn't". Collecting himself, Cole went and took the easel along side Jake. It seemed like the right thing to do after standing next to him in painting class every day. Jake smiled at him.

"Collier?" He asked and Cole's eyebrows raised.

"What?"

"No, I mean, your full name is Collier? Your names not just Cole?"

"Oh," Cole said, looking at his empty easel for a moment before nodding at it. "Yeah".

The blank canvases were kept in a supply room at the back of the studio, and Collier went to it, a bit embarrassed that he had forgotten before standing before the easel next to Jake.

As he found a clean canvas and began rifling through the printed our copies of pictures they were to transfer into portraits, Petra came to lean in the doorway of the small room.

"You think he's cute," she said quietly, quiet enough that Cole hoped Jake couldn't hear in in the other room, though it probably wouldn't be a surprise to the taller male. Ever since Collier had stupidly blurred out that he had found him attractive Tuesday, Jake had been acting differently towards him. Collier highly doubted this was because the brunette had forgotten about Cole's attraction to him.

"So?" Cole asked Petra and she just laughed at him.

"So you should totally go for it". Cole turned to her quickly, narrowing his eyes. "Oh come on. You think he's cute, he thinks you're cute. He's an artist, you're an artist. You have to try. There's no reason not to".

But that was the problem. There wasn't a reason not to, but Collier still thought of Henry Stone. He still wanted to know if there would ever be anything between him and Henry, and the slight chance of that made him not want to take risks with anyone else.

"I'll think about it," Collier grumbled, and he would. He'd have to think about it.

Despite everything he had been telling himself about what to feel for Henry Stone, and how to deal with the whole situation, he still just didn't know.

"What is there to think about?" She asked, and Cole just shook his head, grabbing a random picture and then the closet paint brush. "He's perfect".

"Just because he has a dick and looks at me a second longer than most people doesn't make him perfect for me". As Collier went to exit the room past her, Petra's mouth opened. Pausing in the doorway, he added "and, him knowing how to paint means nothing. How do you know I want a painter".

Before she could answer, he went back to the main room, this time with his brush and clean canvas, which he propped up onto the easel next to Jake.

"Which one did you choose?" Jake asked, not looking up from his own canvas and Cole leaned over to look at what he was working on.

The portrait was of a young girl, and Collier admired the detail in which Jake had used. He was talented, and Cole couldn't believe he hadn't realized it before.

Without a word, he handed the picture he had chosen over to Jake, who stopped painting for a minute to look at the face of the old man for a second before nodding. "I can't paint people past the age of fifty, or anyone with wrinkles, really," Jake claimed and Cole just hummed thoughtfully before going to chose his paints.

"You know," Jake said as Collier rifled through the many different colors, finding what he needed easily without having to mix anything. They had more options at The Gallery than he did at home. "I applied here for a summer job, and they liked me so much that I was offered a full time position here".

"Are you bragging?" Collier asked with an undertone of teasing and when he turned back around with his paints he was greeted with Jake grinning as he worked.

"Just making conversation," he claimed, his voice very even and Cole just blinked at him once before returning to his easel.

It proved true once more that Jake was very good at making conversation.

By the end of their shift, Collier had learned more about him than he had ever expected to learn.

Jake was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, though had moved down south at the beginning of the summer. He greatly missed the city, but said he liked Florida better because it was warm, and he was closer to his grandpa on his mother's side. His mother had been born and raised in Florida and had moved to Wisconsin for college, where she had met his father, and then married him three years later. Jake's father's parents were older than his mother's, so they stayed in Wisconsin until they had passed, and then some time after that so Jake could grow up with his friends. The only reason they had moved to Florida was because his mother's parents were getting old, and his grandmother had died unexpectedly.

"I'm sorry," Cole had said immediately when Jake had told him this, and the other boy had just smiled kindly at him.

'It's alright," he said, and Cole must have given him a skeptic look because he laughed softly at him. "I know that's what most people say when it's not but it is. I've only met seventeen times, and can only remember twelve of those times. They came back for christmas every year. They couldn't last year though, said they were too old to fly. It's upsetting, sure, and it's hard to watch my mother mourn, but I'm really okay".

And then Jake had changed the subject by directing many questions at Cole, though he really didn't like to talk about himself.

As they left the studio together, Cole knew all about Jake's childhood, and the older boy only knew about Cole and his painting, and how he had learned by watching others.

Cole was hoping that Jake didn't realize this, but the last thing Jake said to him was, "you may not want to tell me about yourself now, Collier, but I'm gonna figure you out. I'm gonna get you to open up. I promise you".

Cole just shook his head and laughed, though the idea of Jake getting close to him both terrified him, and excited him.

***

When he got home, Collier at first thought he was alone. Emerson and Sarah typically spent their time in the living room when they were together, so Cole thought it was a safe assumption that he had the house to himself.

This was proven untrue when he went up to his bedroom. He didn't actually enter the room, only stood outside it for a moment, alarmed.

There were sounds that he couldn't quite place for a moment, but the second he did he was turning around and quickly hurrying back down the stairs.

Cole was not alone. Emerson and Sarah were most definitely home, and they were currently having sex in Emerson's bedroom.

Collier was annoyed. It had happened a couple years ago, but Cole still thought it meant something. At least, to him, it did.

Their Freshman year, Collier and Sarah had decided to make a pact. The rules of the said pact were:

You don't have sex with someone until you know that you're in love with them

Sarah hadn't really broken this rule, Cole didn't think. At this point, he was sure that what he had seen between Sarah and Emerson was love.

And:

2) Wait until you're of legal age

This was actually Sarah's idea after watching Caroline give away her body to anyone who asked nicely all throughout her high school career. Cole was a bit skeptical about this, his freshman logic being "what if I meet the one?" But Sarah had insisted that:

"the one will be willing to wait".

Sarah turned eighteen in less than two months, and Emerson had been eighteen since the beginning of August at this point. She didn't even have that long to wait.

"Whatever," Collier grumbled, not really sure why he was so upset about this.

To distract himself, he took out his phone to call his mother.

That was how desperate he was to get the sounds of his best friend being fucked out of his mind.

She answered almost immediately. "What do you need, sweetie?" For a second, it bothered he that she thought he was only calling because he needed something, but then he felt a bit sad, because these days, he only called when he needed something.

"Nothing," he said, his voice softer than it usually was when addressing his mother. "I was just wondering where you and-" Cole took a deep breath to avoid sounding rude when he said his name, "Ron are?"

"You didn't see my note?"

"Uhh..."

She laughed sweetly, and Collier almost smiled at the sound. He hadn't heard it for a long time now. His mother had never laughed around his father. "It's on the kitchen counter, honey. Ron and I are out celebrating his birthday for the night. We won't be back until tomorrow night so you're on your own for dinner tonight".

"Oh". Collier moved into the kitchen and ground the sticky note on the counter.

Going out tonight. Won't be back until tomorrow. Left money under the fruit bowl for dinner. Have fun!

"Did you find the money?" She asked in his ear and Collier lifted up the fruit bowl. There was nothing there, but that didn't mean that there never had been. He was assuming that Emerson had taken it all.

Probably to buy Condoms. Or lube- do straight people even use lube?

He was just being salty. It didn't matter anyways. Cole wasn't hungry.

"Yeah mom, everything's good here. I'm gonna head out and go get something so I'll talk to you later. Have fun". He didn't really want her to have fun; a small part of him hoped that if she didn't enjoy her evening with Ron she would leave him and go back to his father, but Cole recognized he was being selfish and pushed all these feeling back.

"Alright dear, you too. I love you"

"Yeah mom". Cole hung up and put his phone in his pocket.

Above him, he could hear the sound of Emerson's bed frame hitting her wall. For a moment, Cole considered yelling and throwing things at the ceiling since they clearly hadn't realized he was home yet, but instead he left, taking his keys to the front door with him, and locking it behind himself.

Even though he didn't like it, Cole wasn't going to be a cock block, but that didn't mean he was going to sit there and listen to it.

Clutching his key chain, Collier looked at the closed garage for a second, thinking about how easy it would be for him to go in there and start his car.

Not easy.

Instead Cole walked, in the opposite direction of his father's empty house.

For the first time since Tuesday, Cole was going to the house of Henry Stone.