“Are you excited?” Mom asked, smiling sweetly at me.

I yawned while looking out the window of the car, then I turned my head to the left to look at her. “Yeah, sure.”

“You don’t seem very enthusiastic,” she said, nudging me lightly from the driver seat. “You haven’t seen him in months, at least give me a smile.” She tickled my ribs, knowing that was the trick to make me wake up more.

I squirmed a bit and let out a small laugh, prying her hand off of me. “Careful, or we’re gonna end up crashing into something!”

“That’s okay, we have insurance,” she giggled.

“Yeah, right, as if the insurance covers idiotic driving!” I exclaimed, laughing a little. I shifted in my seat, straightening my new jeans. I wanted to make the right impression on him. I wanted him to see that I had managed to change in a good way. My new haircut would surely be a surprise on him, since I always kept it so long. Now it was short for a change, as I had cut it for Nicky’s party. I was also wearing a white long-sleeved shirt under a black t-shirt with a logo on it. This was my new style - the new Joshua - not that loser Bradley knew back in New York.

The airport came into view. Mom had agreed to drive there, to the airport in Portland, and pick up Bradley this Friday morning. I was still half asleep, since we had left so early in order to be there when the flight from JFK, New York landed. I hadn’t received a text or an email from Bradley on my cell, telling me he didn’t make the flight, so my assumption was we were all on track.

I felt more excited now, as we were getting closer to the airport. That meant we were closer to Bradley.

Mom parked outside by the arrival hall, on the parking lot, and I hurried out of the car and towards the rotating door that led into the airport. I noticed my mom walking behind me, but she wasn’t as fast as me. She knew we were early, and even though I knew we were early as well, I just wanted to get in there. I felt like a kid again.

I walked up to the arrival gate and stared at it as some people came walking out there with their bags, trolleys and backpacks. Some happily greeted friends and family, while others kept on walking towards any form of transportation.

All of a sudden, I felt my pocket vibrate, and I pulled my cell phone out to have a look at my new text message. It wasn’t from Bradley, but I wasn’t disappointed with the message. It was Andy. It said: “Say hi to Brad-man from me.”

A smiled crossed my face at the sight of the heart made with text symbols at the end of the message, and I didn’t even notice my mom moving closer, peeking over my shoulder.

“Did you get a message from him yet?” she asked.

I quickly exited the message and glanced innocently back at her. “No. No, that was Andy.”

“I see,” she replied, smiling widely. “I bet he misses having you in class with him now.”

“Yeah, ‘cause I’m ditching school today, as my mother told me to,” I said jokingly.

“Oh, sure, blame me!” she exclaimed, also jokingly. “Blame your poor, innocent mother for everything!”

I was secretly happy to spend more time with my mom. We have the same type of humor, because we’re often sarcastic. So if I want to joke around with her, all I have to do is say something in a sarcastic tone, and I’m there.

“Is Bradley sleeping in your bed, like Andy did?” she suddenly asked me, after we had both stared at the arrival board for a while.

I felt a bit taken back at her question, and turned my head to give her a stare. “No, no, of course not! He’ll sleep on a mattress on the floor.”

“Funny…” she muttered. “You didn’t have any issues sharing a bed with Andy.”

“Mom, I told you already,” I started. “I can’t share a bed with someone like Bradley, because that’s not how we do it. Andy and I wouldn’t tell anyone that we slept in the same bed, so there’s your difference.”

“I thought that talk was about whether or not Brad spent the night at your place,” she reminded me.

I frowned. “Whatever! You get the point! I don’t want him sleeping in my bed, ‘cause I don’t want him to think I’m gay.”

“He’s been your best friend for ages, I think he wouldn’t worry about those kinda things,” she said. “Plus, it’s less trouble for your dad and me if we don’t need to get the spare mattress down from the attic.”

“I can get the mattress,” I muttered, turning my head away from her.

“Alright, alright,” she said, surrendering. “It’s your choice, sweetie. Don’t get so grumpy. Bradley’s plane has landed.” She nudged me to make me look at the arrival board.

I looked up at it, and suddenly felt more excited. Now all he had to do was get through the airport and get his bag, and he would finally be reunited with his very best friend.

Growing even more impatient, I had to go buy myself a bottle of Coke to get my mind off of things. It made me have to wait in line, say hi to a stranger, deal with money for a brief moment, and then saying goodbye. At least that kept me busy for about a minute and a half. I brought the bottle with me back to my mother and sat down on the bench she had found for us. I opened the bottle and had a sip. Then another.

God, I hate waiting.

At last, new people arrived through the door opening from the baggage claim area. It was the passengers from the JFK flight. And finally, a familiar face popped up among the loud New Yorkers and their giant bags.

Mom nudged me to make me notice him, before waving like an idiot, but I was already grinning widely at him.

I stood up and hurried towards the taller boy with the dirty blonde hair, and threw my arms around him, hugging him in a guyish fashion. I patted his back while he patted mine. Memories came rushing back as I remembered everything about him, now that he was here. We let go of each other and grinned happily.

“Well, at least none of us were late, huh?” Mom said as she walked over to us. She pulled Bradley into a hug. “How are you, Brad?” She let go of him again and smiled. “Is it just me, or have you grown?”

“Maybe a little,” he said, still grinning.

I offered to take his bag, although he didn’t bring much and probably was capable of carrying it himself, even though he had a backpack with his laptop in it on his back. The three of us walked out of the airport and towards the parking lot. After getting into the car, Bradley started telling me about how life went on in New York.

“You know, it ain’t so bad in Sanford,” I told him. “Hint, hint, move your ass here, dude, so I won’t have to fly down there to see you!”

Bradley laughed a little. “Yeah, I’ll consider it. Or maybe you should move back there, so I won’t have to fly up here to see you, hint, hint.”

“I’m actually very happy Josh likes it here,” Mom suddenly said. “Wait until you meet his friends!”

“Oh, right,” Bradley said, not sounding too enthusiastic. “Andy.”

“Well, him, too, but there are other friends. Right, Josh?”

“Yeah, sure,” I muttered, wanting to avoid the topic of Nicky’s party. As long as I didn’t talk about the party, I wouldn’t need to talk about Nicky. And if I didn’t need to talk about Nicky, I wouldn’t need to tell them I was rather disappointed in her right about now.

We talked some more, mostly about friends and family, updating each other on how things were. Mom was very talkative, wanting to know how Bradley’s parents were doing and so on. She even asked about some of our neighbors and how they were doing.

Once we came home, I showed Bradley the house.

“It’s kinda big, but what we lack is a guestroom,” I told him, jokingly. “Kitchen, dining room, living room, dog’s basket, which you’ll be sharing with Austin, by the way, and over here we have Dad’s office.”

“Hah-hah, sure!” Bradley joked along. “As long as Austin doesn’t kick in his sleep, it’s all good. I can spoon with him. I bet he’d love that.”

I let out a short laugh. “Alright, let’s go upstairs.” I led the way up to the corridor outside our rooms. “My room!” I opened the door to a clean and tidy bedroom.

“No, this ain’t your room!” Bradley exclaimed. “Where’s all the dirty clothes on the floor, the overfilled garbage can, the collection of Coke cans on your desk and nightstand?” He stepped inside.

“Mom made me clean it up,” I admitted. “Shame, isn’t it? My Coke can collection was getting rather impressive.”

“Yeah, I don’t doubt that,” he chuckled. “So, where am I crashing?” He flopped down on my bed, removing his backpack.

“Well, we need to get one of the spare mattresses down from the attic first, but then you’ll be crashing in here, next to my bed,” I replied. “Unless you desperately wanna share the dog bed with Austin, or sleep in the bathtub. Your choice.”

“I’ll take the mattress,” he said, smiling at me.

I showed him the rest of the house – Jessica’s room, the bathroom, Theo’s room, and my parents’ room. Oh, and the towel closet.

“I really like the house,” Brad told me as he had a closer look at the shiny tiles in the bathroom. “It’s nicer than the place you had back in New York, I’ll tell ya that much.”

“Agreed,” I muttered. “The bad part about living here is that everyone knows you… The neighbors already know us all by name, and even the fucking dog.”

“And you like to blend in, I know, Josh,” he said, and smiled at me. “Don’t worry about it. It sounds like you’re doing rather well for yourself. You even got a haircut.” He ruffled my hair.

“I got sick of it being so long,” I told him. “It was covering my eyes a lot, so I couldn’t see anything at school when the teacher wrote something on the board. And Andy and Jess suggested cutting more than just the bangs and the hair in my neck…and this was the result.”

“It’s so short, though,” he remarked. “It’s so…not you!”

I lowered my head, realizing Bradley didn’t approve of the new me too much. Or maybe he just didn’t care for seeing his best friend changing all of a sudden. “I know, I’ll let it grow back out again.”

“That’s alright,” he told me. “The longer hair suited you better, though.”

…

Jessie was really excited about seeing Bradley. She brutally glomped him, dropping her school bag on the floor and clinging to him. It’s not like I blame the girl, though. Bradley was a part of both our childhoods. He was a friend of us both, but he was more mine than hers, naturally.

I had set myself one certain goal this weekend. And that goal was telling Bradley about me and Andy. He had the right to know. I wanted him to know it, so I didn’t need to feel like I was hiding something from him anymore. I mean, everyone at my school knew about Andy and me, so why couldn’t he know? It was better he heard it from me than from someone else. I just knew that telling him wouldn’t be easy.

Incase anyone wonders about my week before we finally got to pick Bradley up from the airport, it went surprisingly well. People seemed friendlier, they smiled, greeted me. Some even told me that they admired me for my courage. The homophobes gave me dirty looks, naturally, but there were more people supporting me than there were people like Eric Walker. Walker had left me alone, surprisingly enough, but I was still very relieved I wouldn’t need to face him in P.E. this Friday.

And here I was, in the living room of my house, a week after the strange coming-out-of-the-closet experience, once again hiding in my closet from my best friend and my family, while watching Bradley catching up with Theo and Jessie.

“Hey, guys, why don’t you go down to the park for a bit?” Mom suggested. “It’ll take an hour or two before dinner’s ready.”

“Yeah, let’s go play ball!” Theo cheered, bouncing up and down.

“Alright, that sounds like a good idea,” Jessie agreed.

Bradley and I didn’t protest, so we all brought some gloves, baseballs and bats, and headed down to the park together. I had brought my cell phone, incase Andy wanted to meet up with us.

It was like old times. Playing ball brought back memories of our childhood. I suddenly remembered an episode from when I was about seven or eight, and I was playing baseball. I was running after the ball and hit a fence, while the ball flew over it. As I hit the fence, I managed to knock out one of my baby teeth, and my friends found it hilarious. Of course, I didn’t find it as funny at first, but later on we joked about it. I was not about to hit a fence this time, however.

“You know, Jess, the girls really miss you,” Bradley told my sister as he threw the ball to her. “I met Brittany and Tina at the mall a few days ago, and I told them I was going to see you guys. They wanted me to put them in my bag.”

Jess caught the ball and laughed. “Yeah, that sounds like Brittany and Tina, alright!” She then threw the ball at me.

I caught it easily.

“Come on, guys!” Theo complained while waving the bat. “I wanna hit the ball, already!”

“Relax, Theo,” our sister told him. “We have plenty of time.”

I was the only one listening to poor Theodore, so I threw the ball at him, and he hit it with the bat, making it fly quite a bit before hitting the grass farther ahead. It took a while before we started to play for real. Of course, it kind of sucks playing baseball with four people, but we tried anyway. Some kids from our neighborhood joined in eventually, and we made the game a bit more interesting.

All of a sudden, I noticed Andy in the corner of my eye, and neglected the game for a bit as I watched him walking closer. He sent me a warm smile before sitting down on a bench a bit away from us.

I waved at Jessie to alert her I was going off the field, and then I hurried over to Andy. “Hey!”

He smiled wider at me now that I was closer. “Yo.”

“Ready to meet Bradley?” I asked, grinning.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” he replied. “Did you tell him I said hi?”

“Yeah, I did,” I told him, and then I turned around to look at my siblings and Bradley.

Jessie and Bradley thanked the other kids for the game and went off the field with our baseball things, as the other kids continued to play. Then the three of them walked over to us.

Andy stood up and smiled at them. “Bradley, right?” He reached his hand out to my best friend.

“And you must be Andy,” Bradley replied, taking his hand.

I felt a bit weird, having the two of them shake hands right in front of me. One of them knew the old me, the other knew the new me. Both of them knew secrets about me that I never wanted the other one to know about.

Jessie started talking to Bradley again about the people back in New York, while I spoke to Andy.

“I’m guessing you haven’t told him about us yet,” he said with a low voice, so no one would hear what we were talking about.

“No, not yet,” I muttered. “I think I have to wait for a moment where I know it won’t freak him out all that much… You know?”

“Yeah, I get it,” he replied. “Although I doubt there is a perfect time for telling him such a thing.”

“Maybe, but I wouldn’t drop the bomb on him the instant we got home, either.”

After hanging around in the park for a little while, Mom called me up on my cell phone, telling me to bring the others with me home, as it was dinner time. Andy was invited to stay too.

I was a bit quieter than I had expected myself to be. After all, my two best friends in the whole world and my sister were all seated at the table while we all had dinner, but I still felt so awkward about everything.

“So, how are Ashley and Greg doing?” Jess suddenly asked Bradley.

“Oh, good!” he replied. “Very good, actually. I don’t think they’ll break up in a while, at least.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” my dad asked jokingly.

“No, not for me and Brad, but maybe for Josh,” Jess giggled.

I lifted my head and stared at her across the table.

“After all, he’s the one that was so in love with her,” she continued and let out a small laugh.

“Josh has a girlfriend, Josh has a girlfriend!” Theo mocked in a sing-songy fashion.

“No, that’s exactly it, Theo, I don’t,” I told him, rolling my eyes.

He stared blankly at me for a moment, and blinked a couple of times. “Oh...” Then he smiled. “Josh doesn’t have a girlfriend, Josh doesn’t have a girlfriend!”

Andy looked at me, smiling slightly. “You never told me you were in love with Ashley.”

“Because I wasn’t!” I exclaimed. “I liked her, granted, but it’s not a big deal! She didn’t like me either way, or she wouldn’t be with Greg right now.” I poked my mashed potatoes with the fork.

“Don’t worry about it, Josh, dear,” Mom said. “I’m sure you’ll find some other nice girl.”

“Yeah, how about that Nicky girl, huh?” Dad asked. “She’s nice, isn’t she?”

I shook my head slightly. “I wouldn’t count on it, Dad...”

...

“What do you guys do for fun around here?” Bradley asked, finally turning away from my computer, after having spent some time on his MSN account to update our friends there.

Andy looked up at him from his place on the floor. “Oh, you know, drugs, weed, alcohol, butt-sex, streaking – all the usual stuff.”

Bradley let out a laugh. “Nice.”

“Nah,” I muttered, leaning back on the bed. “We tend to just hang out, watch TV, play some games, go for a walk, and all that.”

“Really?” he asked, seemingly surprised. “That’s all you two do?”

“Well, we’re both new in town,” I reminded him. “We don’t have that many friends here. The friends I’ve made have either disappointed me, or they sit at home and play WoW all day.”

“Fun,” he muttered, sarcastically. He then stood up. “I’ll be right back, I need to use the bathroom.”

“Knock yourself out,” Andy said, raising a hand and gesticulating towards the door.

Bradley walked past him and out into the corridor.

I waited until I heard the bathroom door close before I opened my mouth again. “You don’t really like him, do you?”

Andy glanced over at me for a moment, then he looked heavenward. “Oh, no, I absolutely adore him!” He sighed and shot me a discontent look. “You know how possessive I am of you, so considering the fact that he’s a bit weird and doesn’t really get our sense of humor, Brad’s a bit of a drag, really.”

“What do you mean he doesn’t get our sense of humor?” I asked, feeling insulted. “Bradley and I have the same type of humor. It’s you who has a twisted sense of humor, dude.”

“Twisted?” he asked, smiling wickedly. “I’ll show you twisted.” He leaped up and dove at me, pushing me down on the bed while pinning my arms to the mattress. His lips were now pressed against mine, and his crotch right on top of my own.

I suddenly heard the toilet flush, and began to struggle against Andy, but we both knew he was stronger. He just continued to kiss me, as if he wanted us to get caught.

Maybe he does want us to get caught, I thought. Maybe this is how he wants Bradley to find out. But this is the worst way to let him know. This is the lowest form of giving my best friend the news, even for Andy.

I started to get desperate as I heard the bathroom door opening and squirmed roughly.

Andy finally stopped kissing me, and sat up a bit as Bradley entered the room.

“I’ll hold him, and you tickle him!” Andy told Bradley, grinning widely.

“That’s what you two are doing?” Bradley asked in confusion, his face showing he was a bit freaked out.

“What, you’ve never tickled him before?” Andy asked, frowning at him. “It’s fun! He laughs like mad and begs you to stop.”

“Don’t even think about it!” I hissed, as I really hate being tickled.

Bradley couldn’t help but smile, apparently finding the idea of me begging in laughter somewhat amusing. He walked over to the side of the bed, poking my ribs lightly. “I remember how you’d squirm and scream when you got tickled when we were younger, dude,” he told me.

I twitched at the poke. “No tickling!”

“Yes, tickling,” Andy snorted and started to tickle my ribs.

I started to laugh and squirm, and just like Andy had told Bradley, I began begging him to stop. Of course, the two other boys thought it was hilarious, but I hated it, like I always had. They were both tickling me, none of them stopping, no matter how much I cried for them to quit it.

It wasn’t before we heard someone entering the room that the two boys took their hands off of me and turned their heads to the doorway.

“Oh, my God, they’re having a threesome,” Jessie muttered breathlessly, a shocked expression on her face. Of course, she was just kidding, we all knew that.

“Hell yeah!” Andy shouted and grabbed my thighs, lifting me a bit up from the bed before pretending to hump me from behind.

Bradley let out a laugh, and even my sister giggled at the sight.

“Enough, already!” I told him and tried to squirm out of his grip, although I was still smiling.

“Say my name, bitch!” Andy continued, and as they all found it so amusing, I decided to play along.

“Oh, yes, Andy!” I squealed with a girly voice and grabbed onto the duvet underneath me, having a hard time not to laugh out loud at the whole situation. “Harder! Harder, Andy! Fuck me deeper!”

Jessie and Bradley both laughed louder at the scene. She was holding onto the door, and he flopped down next to me on the bed. I hadn’t seen my best friend this amused in a long time. Ever since he heard we were moving, he started acting a little distant, although I knew it was merely because he was sad. But now he was his old self again; even with Andy around, he could relax and just have fun.

The night went on, and the four of us had fun playing games, joking around and watching TV. Once it was curfew for Andy, he said goodnight to us and headed home.

I hated the fact that I couldn’t kiss him goodbye, but it was very important not to let Bradley know the truth just yet. I was afraid of making his whole stay rather awkward, which was why I postponed it in the first place.

Bradley and I decided to watch a scary movie before finally hitting the sack. Before that time, Andy, Bradley and I had been on the attic, getting one of the spare mattresses down, so Bradley had his own bed, although he was sitting next to me while we were watching the movie.

For some reason, I didn’t feel very comfortable. Something was amiss. It wasn’t like it used to, the whole situation was kind of awkward, but I couldn’t find the specific reason for it. I figured it had to have something to do with Andy.

A scary thought crossed my mind; what if Bradley and I suddenly got together? I shuddered at the thought, and my stomach turned. I felt even more uncomfortable than I already had, and I glanced over at Bradley. It wasn’t like I thought we ever would be together, but I get scared sometimes when I just let my mind wander.

He glanced back at me. “Do I have something on my face?”

“No, it’s not that, dude,” I muttered.

He turned his head fully towards me. “Oh?”

“I just thought about something weird…”

“How weird?” he asked, raising a knee in the air to rest his arm on top of it.

“We’ve known each other for a very long time, so it’s important that we trust each other, right?” I started.

He nodded.

“And we should never worry about speaking our minds, no matter how crazy it might sound, right?” I continued.

“Get to the point, dude,” he groaned.

“Well, how weird would it have been if you and I were, like, a couple or some shit like that?”

“What?!” His eyes were wide, and it seemed like he started to scoot away from me.

I rolled my eyes. “Relax, you idiot, I don’t want you to be my boyfriend!”

He let out a sigh in relief, then he shot me a glare and hit my arm lightly. “Don’t scare me like that.”

“I just wanted your opinion, asshole,” I said. “You agree, right? It would’ve been beyond weird if we suddenly ended up together, am I correct?”

“Err, yes, dude!” he shouted. “What made you think about that, anyway? You’re not gay, are you?”

I blinked. “What? No, no!”

He frowned at me, seemingly suspicious. “Josh… You were never like this for as long as you lived near me.”

“Like what?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Like this!” he cried, gesticulating with his hands at me. “You cut your hair, you changed your clothes, you have many more gay jokes, and you even imagine yourself with other boys! What has happened to you? You’re not the Josh I used to hang out with every single day after school back in New York, man. You’re not him! It’s ‘cause of Andy, isn’t it? He’s changed you completely!”

“Excuse me?” I sat up more, turning around a bit so I could face him. “Andy is not the one to blame here. If you want to blame anyone, blame me. I’ve changed because it was better for me. You’re not here with me, Brad, you don’t know what it’s like to be alone about everything you are and everything you do.”

“So you feel the need to let go of the real you just so others will like you?” he asked, folding his arms over his chest. “Very nice, Josh. Impressive.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “What is your problem?”

“My problem?! What’s your problem?!”

“My problem is that you won’t accept your best friend, even though he’s changed his style a little. I’m still the same person in here.” I laid a hand on my chest, over my heart. “You never stopped to think that maybe moving away got the best of me and made me feel depressed, did you? I’m not doing any of this to piss you off. I’m doing it because I’m insecure and broken… I hardly know what to do with myself anymore, and you being here gives me at least a bit of sanity back.”

He was speechless now, just staring at me. A few more seconds passed before he broke the silence that had fallen between us, and his arms dropped, no longer folded over his chest. “I’m sorry, Josh… I-I never saw it like that before…”

“I understand how you must feel, though,” I told him. “Your best friend moves away, and the next time you see him he has changed, and you were never there to follow the transformation, so therefore it hits you like a brick in the face.”

“Something like that,” he muttered, nodding. “It’s not that I don’t let you change if that’s what you want. I just want to be your friend. As long as that never changes, I’ll be happy.”

“I promise you,” I said, “-that will never change.” A goofy smile lit my face up slightly as I held my arms out. “Hug?”

He smiled back and hugged me gently, yet manly, before letting go and getting off of my bed. “Let’s go to sleep. I’m beyond tired.”

I agreed and turned around again to face the TV. I turned it off, as well as the DVD player, and got comfortable under the duvet. I turned the light on my nightstand off, leaving the room dark.

Bradley got comfortable, moving around a bit, before he sighed of tiredness. “Goodnight, dude.”

“Nighty night, man.”