I smiled in the darkness as he kept his hand on the back of my neck as I lifted my head. "Yeah, here we are."

"So, tomorrow, Robert asked me if I wanted to go to the trampoline place in town with him and Jenny. I don't want to be a third wheel with them, so would you want to go with me?" He asks me as he pulls onto the road where my

house is.

"Uh, sure, would you mind picking me

up?"

He shakes his head. "Yeah, I can do that. I'll pick you up around nine with some coffee, sounds alright?"

I was surprised. "You've noticed my addiction to coffee?"

 He nods his head as he pulls into my driveway where the lights are still on, which means my parents are still awake and watching TV in the living room where they can see outside. "Well, when you bring it every day, I think everyone notices that you have a slight habit."

I nod my head. "Yeah, maybe."

He takes off his seatbelt before turning to me he bites his lip while he thinks about what to say. "Thank you for coming, it means a lot to me."

I smile at him. "I can't say I'll ever do it again because sports absolutely suck, but you never know. Thank you for inviting me, that means a lot to me".

He leans over to me his handsets on top of my thigh while our lips meet in a soft kiss. I reach over and set my hand on the back of his neck, lightly pulling at some of his hair. I pull away, scared that my parents are looking through the window with my sister to see what's going on.

I look up at him while he plays with a strand of fabric in my jeans that's frayed from the rips. "I should probably get inside."

He nods. "Yeah, probably."

He slides out of his car and I watch as he runs around to open up my door for me. He walks me up to the door where I bring us to the corner where I know my crazy family wouldn't be able to see us. I clear my throat as I grip the hem of his hoodie. "l see you at nine?"

"Sure, nine it is," he whispers before he leans in to give me another kiss that's just as soft as the rest of them. Every single time our lips meet, mine are chapped and his are the softest I've ever felt that always shocks me.

Immediately he pulls away, he brushes back some of my hair that's falling into my

face. A soft smile plays along his lips while he stares down at my face and rubs his thumb against my cheek. I clear my throat and force my eyes away from his. "Drive safely"

"I promise I will. Get some sleep and text me if you need anything," he said. Archie and I had been texting for the past two days because Jenny stole my phone to put his number in it at lunch and ever since then, whenever I was bored, he was the one I went to.

He was kinda dry at texting and I'm assuming it's because he doesn't do it too much, but I was able to get him to open up after a while.

"I will," I tell him before giving him one more kiss and then walking into the house where Jasmine and Mom were standing by the window in random positions that were probably supposed to seem natural.

"Oh, hey, we were just seeing if the moon was visible tonight" Mom said as she scratched her head and went to sit back down on the couch that was covered in pillows and blankets while a movie was paused on the TV.

"Oh, yeah? Is it visible?" I ask, knowing they haven't even noticed how cloudy it was tonight so I could catch them in their lie.

"Yeah, it's huge tonight, didn't you see it while in the car? It's so beautiful, isn't it?" Jasmine said as she went over to sit down next to Mom who was hugging a pillow to her chest.

"Nice try, you can't see the moon tonight, so were you guys just being creepy and staring at me or what?" I ask and they share looks before Mom opens her mouth to say something until my sister opens hers.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" She blurts out with a huge smile on her face, hoping that I'll say yes, even though I'm honestly not sure. He never officially asked me, but he also never said we weren't, so I don't know what to think. I believe that since it's his first relationship with a guy he would want to ask before we do anything too crazy, so guess not?

"I don't think so, but probably soon. His name's Archie, I told them as I sat down on the leather loveseat and pulled a blanket over me since I was cold again from standing outside.

"Aw!" Mom said as she placed a hand over her chest as she had a big smile on her face. "When do we get to officially meet him?"

I sigh. "He's picking me up in the morning to go hang out with our friends at the trampoline place we passed when we went to dinner, so maybe you'll meet him then, but don't hope for anything."

"Aw!" Jasmine and my mom said. Ever since I came out, my mom had asked about every single guy I hang out with because she was hoping I had finally found someone that was actually gay or whatever and wasn't just hanging out with me for a fuck. While that was what my mom and sister were like, I noticed the way my dad sat on the couch with his phone in his hand as he tried to ignore this conversation as he always did when my sexuality came up.

I roll my eyes at my family's ridiculousness before standing up.

Alright, I'm going to take a shower and go to sleep. I'll see you all in the morning."

They say goodnight while they press play on their movie as I make my way up the stairs to the bathroom where I turn on the water to heat up. I turn around to look in the mirror at my lips which are severely chapped and probably uncomfortable for Archie, even though he never said anything about it.

I sigh as I run a hand through my hair and just hope that I don't do anything stupid tomorrow that could ruin my new relationship type thing.

When I wake up, I'm so tired that I don't

even want to move from my comfortable spot under my warm blanket. I forced myself up after a few minutes of scrolling through my phone and texting Jenny back because she asked if I was coming with today. I go to my closet and pick out some army green joggers, a dark blue crewneck

with white stripes, and some white Converse.

I realize l have some extra time, so l go

downstairs to sit at the table with Jasmine who's texting someone on her phone and I'm assuming it's Emilie from the way she laughs at whatever's said. I sit there for a few minutes with my sister who's telling me about how she already doesn't understand

something in her math class.

She stops when she hears Mom talking

to someone and we look at each other

confused because Dad and our grandparents weren't home, so we don't know who it could be. When I hear the deep voice, I immediately know who it is and I shoot up from the chair as does Jasmine, who realizes the same thing.

She pushes me back, so she gets there

First, I almost fall to the floor, but I catch myself on the wall as I try to grab her and pull her back so my mom and sister don't embarrass me in front of Archie. Jasmine and I race to the front door for who will get there first.

She does by how tiny she is and how fast. Once we do, Archie stares up at me with a smile while he holds a cup from Starbucks in his hand with my mother standing in front of him. He's wearing black joggers, a checkered hoodie, and black Vans and he's pulling his hair back so it's not hanging in his face.

"Hey, we should go," I said, rushing over to him to pull on his hand, trying to leave as quickly as possible to not let my mom and sister embarrass me too much.

Archie nods, sticking his hand out to shake her hand. "It was a nice meeting….. Mrs Diego. I promise I make him feel comfortable and safe.

Mom reaches over and kisses my cheek before nodding to Archie who gives her another soft smile while Jasmine stands there just watching it all play out. "It was great meeting you, dear"

I glare at my Mom as Archie walks down

the porch steps and she gives me an innocent smile before I close the door so they can't watch us walk out like some creepers. When I get to Archie's side, he hands me the iced coffee cup.

"Here's your iced white chocolate mocha with almond milk," he says, telling me the order I had texted him last night since he asked what I wanted when he went to Starbucks this morning.

"Thank you," l said as we got into his car and started the journey into town where Jenny and Robert already were because they decided to go for breakfast beforehand.

"How'd you sleep?" He asked me as he turned down the radio to be able to hear my answer while he held the white coffee cup against his thigh that was probably still hot to drink at this point.

"I slept well, but I'm still so tired," I tell him as I set the back of my head on the headrest and get comfortable in my seat as Archie looks over to me.

For the rest of the ride, we just sit in comfortable silence as the radio a hum in our ears while we sip on our coffee to help us wake up.

We get to the place and sign in before we sit on the benches to wait for our turn since the place is somewhat busy on this cold Saturday morning. Archie and Robert sit on an open bench a little bit away from Jenny and me.

"How was the making out?" Jenny asked me with a small smirk

.

I chuckle, shaking my head. "I'm going to assume Archie told you about it."

"Yep, now spill it. How was it?" She asks as I play with the bracelet that's on my wrist while I stare out at the people jumping on the trampolines on the floor with their friends and families.

I look over at the other boys to see that they're deep in conversation about something that looks pretty serious.

"It was good, but I'm not talking with this about you," I say with a chuckle. She links her arm with me while we stare out at the rest of the people in the room.

"Well, we are all going to a party at my house later tonight. Some of the football players are gonna be there and the whole dance team will be there. Want to come?" She asked.

"Yeah, sure. That sounds good to me, I'm going to have a good time with Archie.

"I tell her and we all stand up when they call our group up and walk into the room where we were instructed to take our shoes off. Archie walks over to me as I'm putting my shoes in a locker to show off my maroon and purple mismatching socks.

"So there's a party at Jenny's?" I ask him as I wait for him to put his shoes with mine. He looks up at me with a confused look before it clears up and he shakes his hand.

"Oh, yeah, I'm not going because there'll be alcohol and that's just not something I want to deal with, but if you're going, maybe I can reconsider or we could go to my dad's apartment where we would be alone and we could just watch movies all night," he says, giving me the option.

"I think I'll take the latter, '' I told him, making him smile. I immediately start sweating from my palms because of the nerves getting to me about what could happen tonight.

Once we got onto the trampolines, we started to have fun and it made up for us having to get up early on the weekend. Jenny comes over to me and we jump together until she decides to make me do a bunch of the gymnastics stuff I've trained to do.

I decided to do a no-hand cartwheel, also known as an aerial, because it's So much easier to do on a trampoline because of the momentum you get from the jumps. They all look pretty impressed when I land without embarrassing myself by falling on my ass.

"Hey, you should teach me how to do a flip" Jenny suggests with a fierce smile that tells me that she won't take no for an answer.

I chuckle. "All right, I'll help you complete

it.

 To start, all you need to do is jump up without too much height so I can help you and push your arms back to help yourself push forward. Dip your head to your chest, so if you land wrong, you won't hurt your neck. I'll push you to help you land on your feet and complete it."

"You make it sound easy," she says as I motion Robert to come help me. I chuckle. "You got this."

After a few failed attempts because she's too Scared to commit to it, I'm able to push her to do it. Once she's halfway around, I put one hand on her back and one under her legs to help spin her around and keep a hold of her back to help her balance.

Once she gets it, Robert and Archie clap while I give her a thumbs up while we all take a break to get some water.

Jenny clears her throat as she looks over at me. "Well, that was crazy."

"Fun, right?" I ask while taking a sip of the water that Archie and I were sharing.

"Yeah, I never expected it to be, but it was,' she says with a small chuckle while she puts her hair up into a bun again.

We make our way to the foam pit where we go from the trampoline straight into it. Jenny was able to do another flip by herself since she would land in a cushy pit where she was unlikely to hurt herself. I also found out that Archie was pretty flexible from football and could hold a handstand for about five seconds while Robert could only do two.

We all decided to leave after about an hour or two once we finished playing two two-on-two basketball. We all found out that I was terrible at it, but Archie made up for it since he was on my team.

We decided to eat at a small diner that's about a mile away from the trampoline place. We sit at a booth in the corner where we all order milkshakes and of course, I get the mocha milkshake because I need to wake up if I'm going

to Archie's apartment.

"You have an addiction to coffee, don't you?" Archie asks with a small chuckle as I sip the milkshake through my straw while we wait for our food to come.

"It's good" I defend myself while I lean back against the booth and look out the window at the cars driving in the intersection right next to us. Robert looks over at her girlfriend who is sipping her shake through the straw.

Oh, you know they're not going to the party, right?"

Jenny looks up at us with a confused look. "Wait, what? Why?"

"Well, I'm not going because people are so annoying when they're drunk, so we're going to go to my dad's apartment and just have a movie night or whatever," Archie tells them as he sips on his peanut butter

milkshake.

"Oh, so you two are going to be alone at your apartment for a whole night?" Jenny says with a small smirk. I glare at her as my palms start to sweat again from the anticipation and the nervousness hits me again for tonight.

"Nothing's going to happen, we both can promise you that," I tell her, and Archie nods, making me feel better that we're both on the same wavelength on what's not going to happen between us.

We sat at the diner for about two hours since we didn't have anything else to do because Jenny didn't need to be at her house until about seven to get her house prepared for a bunch of drunk people to be there. Once they do we get up to leave, we say goodbye before we get back in Archie's car.

He started the car and when I expected him to pull out of the parking lot, he just sat there. I look over at him with a confused look. "What's up?" He looks a little nervous by whatever he's thinking of and I have to wait for him to talk because I have no idea what's going on right now. All of a sudden, he turns to me with a confidence that I didn't know he had. "Will you be my boyfriend?"

I smile, not expecting this to happen so soon, but also happy that it is. "Yes, of course.

He smiles, leaning over to give me a soft kiss before pulling out of the parking lot and making his way to the apartment. Archie told me that his father got the apartment to be able to go to when he was working on a project for work or needed to privately meet with any clients. I was told that his dad worked for an "Alpha" company that hadn't released any of its capabilities to the public because of how new it was. I don't know if that's a real term

or if it's a working title they're coming up with.

We park in front of an apartment building that seems to have about 10 floors. It's a brick complex that has a few spots where white paint is covering it along with "wet paint" signs, which means they're probably painting the whole building to give it a new

style. I manage to get out of the car along with Archie as we walk to the doors where he has to swipe a card before the door unlocks.

We walk up the stairs since the elevator is under construction as well and I notice that he's on the top floor, which also means I am out of breath when we get up there and I have to hold in my heavy pants to not embarrass myself since he doesn't seem affected whatsoever by the long

climb.

He unlocks the apartment with a key before stepping in. The living room was really cute with a light brown sectional facing the large screened TV. The rug was soft with a maroon color with a glass coffee table placed on top of it. I see a desk on the other side of the room with two monitors along with a stack of papers on the side.

"Here's some water," Archie said, handing me a bottle before we sat down on the couch as he turned the TV on and put on a movie. I start to notice the droopiness in my eyes as the screen plays out the plot before I slowly let my head fall onto his

shoulder to take a nap.

After however long of sleeping, I let my eyes open to look around the room. I'm laid down on the couch with a soft blanket placed over me with a pillow underneath my head. Friends play on the TV and I sit up as my muscles start to wake up from my amazing nap. I hear the shower going in the other room, so l get up to look around a bit more.

I walk over to the dining room that's in the same space as the living room which has a table with chairs around it along with some art hanging on the gray walls. The kitchen is right across from the dining room and it looks pretty empty, except for a few dirty dishes in the sink.

I make my way through the hallway to reach the bathroom door that's shut with the sound of water spraying coming from underneath the door, telling me that that's the room that Archie's in. I continued my snooping to come up to a bedroom with a king-sized bed that had a dark blue comforter on it along with a black sheet and pillows. There's another TV displayed on a dresser in front of the bed along with a closet that's slightly open to show a few shirts hanging up.

There's a bookcase on the other wall that holds a few books along with tons of picture frames that show Archie and his family in different scenarios.

There's one at a camping ground with a huge tent behind them and they're all smiling together along with Robert and what I assume is his family. There's another picture in front of a huge house with just Archie, his mom, and his dad from what I assume.

There's another picture of Archie's dad standing at a podium with his hands raised as if he's giving an important speech with hundreds of people sitting in chairs in front of him. Maybe he speaks at schools or something for his job? I honestly have no idea what that picture could be from.

There's another picture of Archie's dad and mom standing under an arch in a field with people watching them from lined chairs. It looks like a wedding, but they look a bit too young for that. His mom is wearing a yellow floral dress with her hair spilling over her shoulders along with a huge smile on her face. His dad is wearing khaki pants, a white button-up shirt tucked into his pants, and a brown belt. A man is standing by their side while they face each other and the man's wearing some type of robe while he holds a book in his hand. Is this some type of cult?

Underneath that picture is one that I know is their actual wedding because his mom is wearing a beautiful, flowing dress that's lace in the breast area with small straps along with a small train while it flows in the wind. She has a white flower crown on her head while she holds her husband's hands in hers. He's wearing black dress pants with a white button-up shirt tucked in his pants along with black suspenders. I notice that the same man is standing in as their minister in the same robe with the same book.

There are more pictures of Joey and his parents in random locations that I look at before I walk out of the room to go into another room that's dark since there are no windows. l see some boxes stacked up around the walls along with filing cabinets and stacks of papers. This was just a storage room, but I got a weird vibe from it. I noticed that a few of the boxes had claw

marks scratched into them along with one of the walls with long claw marks running down it.

I walk out, not having any explanation for what happened in that room. Did they have a dog at one point that went crazy and started to tear things up? Or a cat? I had no idea what to even think.

The bathroom door opened and Archie

stepped out as he was securing a towel around his waist his body and hair l dripped with water and some steam traveled out from the room. He looked up to see me as I looked over his glorious body that had strong muscles in his arms along with abs on his stomach.

"Oh, you're awake, how'd you sleep?" He asks me as he pushes his dripping hair back while making sure his towel stays around his waist.

I have to tear my eyes away from his body to look up at his face and I notice the small smirk playing on his lips as he seems to be enjoying me eyeing him. "l slept fine." "Well, let me get dressed and then I'll order pizza or something," he tells me before he walks into the bedroom and closes the door. I have to tell my body to calm down before something super embarrassing happens.