The friendship quickly blossomed over the next two weeks. Together they walked upstairs into the foyer of the third floor in order for Emily to get her stuff for her next class. 

"Thanks for coming with me. I hope this isn't too much of a hassle for you." Emily thanked in an apologetic voice.

"No problem. My next class is on this floor anyways." Ethan assured her. She seemed to let out a breath of relief to know she isn't causing him trouble.

"You're always so nice, Ethan. I wish there were more people like you in the world." Emily smiled. Her body language would suggest she's nervous but her openness said otherwise.

Ethan had just been acknowledged and complimented. Something he didn't think was possible.

"Really?" Some of his insecurities suddenly began to melt away. Like he was stripping himself of a heavy winter coat in the middle of summer. "You want more people like me? Are you sure you're not blind?" He almost refused to believe her.

"Mhmm." she nodded. "You always say yes when I ask for help with astronomy and whenever I'm alone at lunch you come sit with me. Or you'll invite me to sit with you and Josh." she mentioned.

"Wait. Where is, Josh?" Ethan checked behind himself to see Josh waiting there, leaning against other lockers. All of sudden that winter coat was thrown back on him. "There you are mate. How's your day been so far? What class do you have next?" Ethan tried to include his seemingly distant friend.

"I'm doing good, I guess and you already know what class I have next." Did Ethan just hear sass in his tone? And was it funny sarcasm or dry?

The trio exited the row of lockers and ventured out into the open.

"Hey, Ethan!"

All three turned around simultaneously. Approaching them with an over-confident stride was none other than Simon. There was a terrifying gleam in his crystal eyes and a vicious grin on his face.

"Oh no." Josh grumbled before hiding behind Ethan.

"What do you want?" Ethan snapped.

"Why don't you look at your fingernails for me." Simon spoke loud and sounded cocky as if he was asking for everyone's attention.

Ethan did so by looking down at the backside of his hand with his fingers stretched out.

"Oh yeah you would look at them like that because you're gay. You see real men, we look at our fingernails like this." He held up hand to demonstrate. His palm faced Ethan and his finger were curled. "You look at them that way because you're a homo. The whole school-! Knows how much you want it in the ass. You probably look at porn on the internet, and as much as you wanna look at the-the girls you can't stop looking at the cocks." his voice suddenly became frantic. "I mean even if you wanna look the girls you can't!"

Ethan glanced around and noticed more and more people joining the crowd that was forming around them. They watched as mere spectators.

"You, you fucking queer. You're probably confused about it." Simon's eyes repeatedly darted off to the side. "You prob- It probably makes no sense to you, you wanna tell somebody but you know you can't go back in the closet once you've come out. I mean you saw what happened to your cousin Jared and I mean your mom works so hard and she loves the church and your dad would never understand. And-and-and it would break their hearts to know that they couldn't have grandkids, that you couldn't have a family. Even though you should be able to have a family! Because isn't that what we all want in the end?! Someone to just love and feel accepted about how we love them...?"

Ethan's heart pounded so hard in his chest it sounded like someone was beating a drum in his head. The way Simon was looking at him: His eyes were pleading for help. He looked afraid of what was inside him. For just one second, Simon was vulnerable.

Then that one second ticked away.

Simon realized what just happened, what he just said, that people were surrounding them. His face immediately shifted.

"Y-You faggot." He swallowed. "You gay boy." He slowly backed up, glancing past Ethan. He glimpsed at his hand first the "homo" way then the "hetero" way. He quickly ran off.

"Josh?" Ethan peered over his shoulder. His friend wore the same shocked face as he did. "What just happened?"

"I... don't know." Josh readjusted his backpack, making eye contact with Ethan. "Look man, I gotta get to class like right now. Meet me in the bathroom at 1:50, we'll talk about it then." He sprinted down the hall. Ethan was left there so confused. Simon just went through an existential crisis in front of a whole bunch of people.

~

He is going to get answers at 1:50 which is five minutes away. The boy excused himself to restroom. As soon as he stepped foot outside the classroom, Ethan realized he didn't know which bathroom to go to.

He was still shaken from what happened only an hour ago. It was Simon's facial expression that stuck in his head. Watching Simon break like that...

Ethan carefully pushed open the door to the first boy's bathroom he was checking.

"Josh?" he softly called out. No response. "Shit. Where is he?" Ethan sped-walked to the second and only other bathroom on the third floor. He silently prayed Josh will be there so he wouldn't have to go all over school in search.

Ethan pushed open the second bathroom door and peeked his head in. That's the moment his world fell apart.