"So Henry," Jake began as they left the art room and Collier's shoulders dropped with a large sigh. They had made it through the entirety of first period without that name coming up, but of course Jake would want more details after Collier flat out refused to talk about it anymore the day before at work. "Have you spoken to him yet?"

"I said at lunch today," Cole said, hugging his language arts book to his chest. When he looked up at Jake, the boy rolled his eyes.

"You said you'd talk to him about you guys at lunch, like, as an item," Jake reminded and Collier winced.

"Please don't use that phrase. It makes me uncomfortable," Cole pleaded and Jake snorted but ignored the statement.

"You can talk to him about other things. Aimless chit chat, you know. The weather, cloths, other people," Jake explained and Collier raised his eyebrows.

"If you're asking me if Henry and I spoke about the weather yet today, that answer is also no". Jake just narrowed his eyes. "I haven't even seen him yet today. We haven't really had a chance to talk".

"You didn't see him before school?" Jake asked and Collier just shrugged and shook his head like it wasn't a big deal.

It seemed like a big deal though. Every morning, Henry waited in front of his locker until the last minute before going to class. That morning, Collier had stood in front of his own locker and watched Henry's, waiting for him to appear, but he never did. It made him a bit nervous.

"He must have come in late," Cole said quietly and Jake nodded.

"Well, I wish you luck". The tall boy stopped walking, and it took Cole three stride to realize it.

"What are you doing?" Cole asked, turning back to him. They were just a few feet from Cole's language arts room and he was itching to get in it and see Henry for the first time since Saturday night.

"Well, I want things to work out for you, and Henry Stone doesn't seem to like me much, so I'm going to let you go ahead from here".

Collier raised his eyebrows. "He doesn't dislike you-"

Jake interrupted him with a laugh. "Did you see how he was looking at me during lunch that one day I sat by you guys for like, five minutes. I thought he'd rip my dick of".

"He was mad at me, not you". Jake looked as if he didn't really believe this but said nothing more about it. "So you're not going to walk me to class anymore?"

"Nope". Jake grinned, and then turned around and walked away.

At that moment, Ian stepped into Jake's place. "Trouble in paradise?" The brunette glanced over his shoulder to watch Jake go. "Can't say I'm upset that he's walking away though". Ian whistled to prove his point and Collier rolled his eyes.

"What does Ryan say about your need to stare at everything with a cock?" Cole questioned. It was Ian's eyes turn to roll.

"He doesn't say anything because I don't do it around him. I only look at the most attractive man in the room, and whenever I'm with Ryan he is he most attractive man". Ian grinned fondly.

"What if you were in a room with Ryan and Mr. Drake?"

"Don't make me think about that," Ian said, reaching out and grabbing Cole's arm, pulling him towards their classroom. "But at the moment, I really really want to be in a room with Mr. Drake. His face makes my day better".

"You're having a bad day?" Cole asked and Ian looked back at him, pausing a moment before pushing the door open.

"No. It could still be improved though".

Collier followed him into the room, his eyes immediately fell to Henry's seat. Emerson was sitting in the seat next to it, which meant that Henry would have been next to him.

He wasn't.

"So, I was wondering-" Ian began but Cole wasn't listening to him, leaving his side and already making his way to his spot.

When he sat down, he did so in a way that left him facing Emerson. "Where the fuck is Henry?"

Emerson's eyebrows rose in surprise at the question. "Why do you care?" Collier must have looked extremely exacerbated because a second after studying his face Emerson sighed. "He's skipping".

"Skipping?" Cole repeated.

"You know, saying he's sick to get out of school while not actually being sick-"

"I know what skipping is," Cole cut him off, sparing Ian a glance as he took the seat across from him. "I'm asking why he's skipping".

Cole wasn't stupid. He could easily assume that Henry was skipping most likely to avoid him after Saturday night, but he was hoping Emerson would prove him wrong by saying that Henry's mother was sick or he just got a new horror movie he desperately wanted to watch. Anything but the truth.

"You tell me," Emerson said immediately, his blue eyes carefully watching Collier's face, as if he was trying to read his his mind through his features.

Collier winced, his heart aching, and dropped his eyes to the floor. Emerson said it as if he already knew the reason why, and Collier was terrified that Henry might have told him.

"Did he tell you?" Cole asked softly and his eyes flicked up to meet Emerson's. He was surprised to notice the other boy's expression was one of confusion.

"There's something for him to tell me?" He questioned and Collier felt his cheeks flush as memories from Saturday night came flooding back to him, memories of Henry's slick skin gliding against his own, Henry's thanks whispered into his ear. "There is something-"

"If you don't know, why the hell did you ask me why he was skipping. Why did you immediately assume that I would know why Henry didn't want to come to school today?" Cole asked. At some point during the conversation they had gotten Ian's attention, and the boy was silently listening to both of their words with a confused expression on his face.

"But you do-"

"I have an idea," Cole corrected quickly before the statement could fully leave Emerson's lips. At this point, it seemed Collier's idea was most definitely a reality, which would make his plan to talk to Henry about everything- about Saturday and about his feelings- rather difficult, but of course he couldn't say this with Emerson. "But that's not the answer to my question. Why did you think-"

"I heard the question the first time you asked it," Emerson cut in, taking his turn to interrupt. Collier swallowed heavily, biting his lip to keep himself from snapping then answer it. "I just assumed that you knew because you and Henry have grown so close over the last couple of weeks. I thought maybe he had talked to you about whatever it is that's keeping him home".

Collier glanced at Ian out of the corner of his eye, curious as to how the boy had responded to the knowledge that Henry Stone and him had grown close, but Ian didn't seem to interested in that. Cole was, for only a second, confused as to why Ian wasn't freaking out over the fact that Collier and his childhood idol had become sort of friends, but then he remembered the night at Carter's house, the six of them drinking and realized that Ian had already known and just decided not to mention it.

"It's complicated-" Cole began, but at that moment the bell rang, and a second later Mr. Drake was moving to the front of the classroom.

His eyes were exceptionally green that moment, his brown hair mussed as if he hadn't bothered to brush it that morning. He was gorgeous, really. Cole understood why Ian's day got better after seeing him. Mr. Drake was almost proof that perfection isn't just an idea.

"Alright," Mr. Drake began, pushing his hand through his hair and leaning back against the front of his desk causally. There were more than one sigh throughout the room, once of which came from the desk directly to the left of Cole. "Now, someone, somehow got into my classroom last night, and left a rather inappropriate message to me on my laptop. This wasn't the first time something like this has happened; throughout the last few weeks multiple female students have invited me out to coffee, or to a movie with them, and I realized that even though I've been your teacher for three weeks now, you know absolutely nothing about me".

Collier's eyebrows raised and he glanced out of the corner of his eye to Ian, who looked just as confused.

"I'm recently married," Mr. Drake said, cutting to the chase. Emerson laughed loudly as multiple noises of distaste filled the classroom. Mr. Drake's eyebrows raised. "We're very, very happy, and we've been together since I was your age".

It was very quiet as everyone processed this and Mr. Drake chewed his lip.

Then, a question. "What's your wife like?"

And another. "What's her name?"

Mr. Drake was grinning at this point, but chewing his lip to hide it. "My husband is amazing". The entire room feel quiet again and then Ian cleared his throat to speak.

"That doesn't really tell us what he's like".

Mr. Drake smiled fondly as his eyes glasses over with thoughts of his husband. "He's a sophomore in college and ridiculously smart. He's really short and cute and he loves to laugh". Mr. Drake cut himself off, still smiling. "Adrian's really different-"

"Adrian?" Cole asked, not really thinking and cutting his teacher off. Mr. Drake looked up at him in surprise and Collier flushed.

He had asked because he knew a gay Adrian who would be a sophomore in college at this point and a musician.

"Adrian," Mr. Drake confirmed, nodding his head. "Adrian Vang- well, Adrian Drake now- do you know him?"

Collier did know Adrian Vang.

"You're Adrian Vang's husband?" Collier demanded and his teachers eyebrows raised. "You're Ezra Drake".

"Guilty," the attractive man said, grinning. "How do you know my husband?"

"Music camp," Collier said quickly and Mr. Drake's eyebrows raised. "I played the saxophone for a few years and we roomed together at music camp four years in a row, and up until he went to Harvard we'd get coffee together sometimes. He talked about his boyfriend a lot. That was you?"

Ezra's eyes were very wide as he nodded. "Yeah, that's me. He's not actually at Harvard anymore..." the English teacher trailed off. "What kinds of things did he say about me?"

"They're not very appropriate for school," Cole mumbled and Ezra's eyes widened. Emerson laughed.

"That boy," Mr. Drake groaned, exacerbated.

"What kind of inappropriate?" A girl on the other side of the classroom asked, her brown eyes shrinking with mischief and before Collier could answer Ezra took to damage control.

Seeing is this seemed as this seemed like it would take a long time, Collier took the opportunity to turn to Emerson once more.

If Henry was going to skip school to avoid him, Collier would just have to go to him. They couldn't avoid talking about their relationship forever, Henry had to know that.

"Could you drive me to Henry's after school?" Cole asked and Emerson's eyebrows raised.

"Why do you think I'd do that?"

Collier thought for a moment. "Because if you don't, I'm going to sit in my room all night and sing out of tune very loudly so you can't get it up when you're trying to fuck my best friend tonight". Ian snorted at this and Emerson actually looked a bit annoyed.

"I'll drive you to Henry's tonight if you really want, but you should know that he won't be there".

"Huh?"

Emerson nodded. "Tonight's his first shift at the bookstore. He won't be home, he'll be working".

"Oh". It made sense. Henry had said that him and Remy switched off every three weeks, and if he thought about it, he could remember Henry and his boss discussing him working this Monday.

Collier knew it would be a bit strange to show up at Henry's work and demand the other boy to talk to him about feelings, but Collier didn't know what else to do at this point. Who knows when the next time Henry would decided to show up to school would be.

"Can you drive me there instead?" Cole asked, chewing his lip.

Emerson's eyebrows raised. "You have to see him that bad? I'm sure he'll be back tomorrow-"

"I need to talk to him tonight," Collier insisted. He didn't think he would be able to survive another night not knowing what was on the other boy's mind.

Emerson seemed to be thinking for a moment, but then to Collier's relief he nodded. "Alright, I'll take you to Henry". Cole's shoulders dropped and he let out a large breath of air. "But-" he tensed again, "you're going to have to tell us sometime what's going on with you two".

Pressing his lips together, Collier just nodded.

It seemed like he would know soon enough.