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“Well, we’re a couple of pretty gay guys, apparently.”

His laughter sounded more like the usual Dustin now, and A.J. took that as the signal that gay-bro bonding time was over.

He decided that the top of his socks were the most interesting thing in the room, giving Dustin time to get his face back to something less waterlogged, and turned his gaze up when the big guy cleared his throat.

“So, uh, welcome to the club,” A.J. said now that Dustin had pulled himself together. “I can probably get you a complementary T-shirt if you tell me your size.”

“Bro, I’ve been a member longer than you.”

A.J. understood at once. “Wait. You and Suveer? How long?”

Dustin laughed as he fell back on the couch, head tilted up like the ceiling was covered in stars.

“Since pewee hockey.”

A.J. plopped down next to Dustin with less than the former straight/gay-guy divide between them.

“I guess I should come to you the next time I need relationship advice, huh?”

“Nah, you’re the ones out there in public and stuff.”

The admiration was nice, but it wasn’t like he and Bren had really been given a choice. “So, uh, all those girlfriends you had?” A.J. asked, not sure of a tactful way to approach it.

“Never felt right, bro.” He looked down at the ground like he was being weighed down by six years of bad decisions. “That’s another reason I’m not giving anyone advice. Me and Suveer have broken up, like, twenty times.”

“And do your parents know?”

“Fuck no.”

“I’m guessing Suveer’s parents don't, either.”

Dustin grunted at his feet as his hands ran along his temples and into his fade.

“What do you think I should do?”

A.J. leaned back against the couch, closing his eyes so he had one less stream of information to deal with. He went from barely being friends with him at the start of the year to being asked for advice that could fuck up the rest of his life if things went sideways.

“I’m going to support the hell out of you, no matter what, but if you do this, I mean—” He didn’t like to think people were capable of stuff like this, but he’d looked up the stats back before he’d come out to his parents. “How do you think your parents will react?”

Dustin frowned at the floor as his shoulders pulled in. Then he shook his head and sat up straight.

“I think they’ll be cool about it. I hope. But I mean, fuck, how do you tell your parents, ‘Hey, guys, I like dick real bad’?”

A.J. couldn’t keep himself from snorting.

“Maybe leave anatomy out of it until they’re a little more advanced.”

Silence filled the gap between them and Dustin’s gaze returned to the floor. “I’m gay, bro.”

It came out well below Dustin’s usual decibel range, like he didn’t know how to say it any louder now that the rush of nerves had passed. Still, A.J. thought he saw the trace of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth this time.

“Me too,” A.J. said, leaning over so their shoulders bumped.

“Hey, uh, you can tell Bren and everything. Just—” Dustin’s arm twitched in a spasmodic way and he clenched his fist. “Just not anyone else for now, OK?”

A.J. tried to look him in the eyes, but since Dustin was intent on staring at the floor, he had to settle at taking in his fuzzy profile.

“Don’t worry, I got you. And if you ever come to Ireland, we can show you and Suveer around. Double date, like.”