“We sat down and Lend put his arm around me. Every single jaw at the table dropped."Man," John said, shaking his head. "All this time I was pretty sure you were gay.”

“It's a good thing we're pretty to look at," I said as Lend sat down on the orange plastic seats next to me. "Because we don't have much else going for us as bowlers.”

“Lend sat up,craning his neck to see down my shirt,which I hurriedly pushed back into place. "Last time I checked, you couldn't see souls."He shrugged,an exaggerated look of innocence on his face. "Still,it wouldn't hurt for me to try,would it?""You have got to be the most sefless boyfriend alive.""Like I said,anything worthwhile is worth making sacrifices for.""Speaking of which,weren't you going to give me a tongue demonstration?”

“He smiled at my reaction, the stupid smile of his that was like he knew something you didn’t. And he knew something I didn’t pretty much all the time, so it was pretty much every smile on his face.”

“Jack was mid-jump when I burst into my room. I snatched his ankle,flipping him horizontal.He crashed down hard to my bed and rolled off onto the floor.And laughed."Let's do that again! But this time I'll jump even higher.""No! No,you won't! What are you going here?"He sat up on the floor and shrugged. "I was bored.""I don't care! I'm not your babysitter!"His blue eyes twinkled.Honestly, whose eyes actually twinkle? Then his face crumpled,his lower lip jutting out.He blinked his ridiculously long eyelashes at me. "I thought we were friends.""Oh,knock it off.”

“I followed the sensation,thinking of Lend. What it felt like to hold his hand. Watching him draw.Those precious times when he got to be nothing but himself around me. The way he laughed. The look he got in his eyes when he was about to say something he knew was clever. The way he looked at while I talked, like I was all he had ever wanted in the entire world.”

“He's just a little unbalanced and lonely."He put his arms around my waist, frowning. "Can't he be lonely and unbalanced around someone else's girlfriend?""I'll suggest it.”