How did Tyler know if someone liked him? When Justin with the dark skin and wavy brown hair waved at Tyler in the halls, butterflies formed in his stomach and a giddy feeling followed him around all day. That only explained how Tyler felt about the other boy; it didn’t show what Justin thought of him.
Friendly greetings led to careful conversation that gradually turned more genuine as the butterflies inside Tyler grew and got tired of living in their cramped confines, beating their wings so ferociously they threatened to tear out of his body and soar into the air above him.
Looks in the hallways, a flirty word here or there. It could all mean something. It could also be completely innocent. The rules of dating were vague. Yet he wasn’t quite desperate enough to turn to Cosmo or Teen Vogue for tips on how to know if your guy was into you.
What was it his mother said? ‘If I want something done right, I have to do it myself.’ No, he wasn’t going to ask his mom to find out if a boy liked him; that would be worse than turning to a lady’s fashion magazine for advice.
The time for coy words and fond gazes was over. He had to find out for himself. If Justin wasn’t going to ask him out, he’d ask Justin instead.
Infatuation and crushes don’t last forever. Heartbreak doesn’t last forever. To build something solid, you have to put in the work and lay the foundation. To start something great, first you had to start.
“Oh god, is that really necessary?” Three sets of eyes swiveled to Stephen, who was looking around the table with disdain. “Do you need to post pictures of your lunch?” he continued. “No one cares.” I set my phone down, guilty, while the other two carried on without shame.
“But… it’s pretty. It’s sushi!” defended Abby with a pout from across the table.
His withering look was one of my top five favorite looks, which he delivered now while saying, “All of your acolytes have seen sushi before.”
“Is this an acolyte?” Milo said to Abby, pointing at an item on his plate. “I thought it was a California roll.”
Stephen stared at him in horror from across the table. It gave me a chance to speak up, so I did. “Come on,” I shoved him playfully with an elbow and he turned to me and resumed a haughty look. With his blue argyle sweater and wide, dark brown glasses, he was the most adorably offended nerd ever. “Even you know they’re called followers and not acolytes.”
He only scoffed at my remark and I tried to look as bored with him as everyone else instead of pleased. I had a perfect view of the spark in his amber eyes that always appeared when he really got going before he turned to address everyone.
“It’s superficial. Social media is all so fake.” He reflexively moved a hand to sweep his chestnut locks out of his face even though his perfectly coiffed hair was still in place and neat as ever.
“No,” Milo defended, “All my followers are real. I’m not using bots or something. That’s cheating.”
“I’m sure they exist,” Stephen said dryly. “If you can call being attached to a screen 24/7 existing.” He merrily started in on a rant about technology and the superficial nature of consumerism or something.
Abby looked annoyed at Stephen starting another patronizing speech and looked to me for support. I shrugged. Yeah, the words weren’t great, but he looked so good when lecturing about something. I used to be annoyed by it until I got the feelings. It was a pretty good strategy, I thought, having a crush on your most pompous friend made everything he said more bearable.
“Taking picture after picture of the best moments of your life and adding a fun filter is so trivial,” Stephen continued.
“…Sometimes I add a caption too,” Milo muttered, which apparently wasn’t worthy of a response as Stephen turned to me again.
“I can’t believe you’re participating in this too, Will.”
“We’re out of school today and we’re having a nice lunch,” I argued. “That’s something to celebrate.”
That answer didn’t sway him. I pretended to listen to his rant while watching the way his face flushed as he continued to talk and talk.
“No one is authentic anymore. Nothing is real.” Those words filtered through my admiration of his features and his passion. He said he wanted real, but my real big crush on him might be enough to shock him into silence for a full minute. Maybe two if he was especially horrified.
“And that’s what you want?” I asked.
“Desperately,” Stephen said with feeling while looking me in the eyes. He didn’t know what he was asking for. But maybe he was right. Maybe I was tired of pretending. I thought I knew how he’d react if I told him, but all the disaster scenarios I imagined weren’t real. There was only one way to find out for sure.
“Okay, if that’s what you want.” I leaned over and kissed him on the mouth.
I discovered Robert Downey Jr. later than those who fell in love with him in Ally McBeal or his movies from the 90’s but earlier than those who discovered him as Iron Man. It was a few years before his Marvel days and a movie was playing on some cable channel when I should have been going to bed. It was ‘Only You’ and I almost turned it off and went to sleep like I should until the most attractive man came on screen and I watched the entire thing for him.
The movie is about a woman who strongly believes in destiny who’s searching for her soulmate, Damon Bradley, because a fortune teller and a Ouija board told her that’s her true love and instead of asking for credentials, she believed them. Robert Downey Jr. is of course, not Damon Bradley. Therein lies the conflict, where she must reaffirm her commitment to a man she’s never met because of her belief in fate or take a chance to find love where she wasn’t expecting it.
That’s what I thought of for the prompt premonition, this movie. So how would it work as a gay teen love story? Maybe the main character has a dream of himself in the future. He’s everything in college that he isn’t in high school: he’s confident, he has lots of friends, his acne has cleared up and he has a boyfriend. Of course he doesn’t see his boyfriend’s face, but he’s wearing a distinctive shirt that he sees clearly. I’m going to say a St. Louis Cardinals jersey because the red color could stand out in a dream; everything else would but be hazy but the red cardinal on the shirt would be vivid and clear as day,
The MC lives on the west coast or somewhere far away from the Midwest, but a new kid at school arrives the next day. He’s a transfer student from Missouri, he’s gorgeous, he plays baseball and he’s wearing the same Cardinals jersey that MC saw in his dreams. The main character is convinced this guy is his One True Love, and what makes it even better, it could actually happen because they have a flirty interaction that leads the MC to think the guy is gay.
Except his best friend doesn’t think so. Best friend thinks the baseball player is just fooling around or in the closet and will just hurt and use his friend. And of course, the best friend just happens to have a Cardinals jersey too, but the MC doesn’t find this out until the climax of the story when he shows up to his friend’s house unannounced because he’s on the cusp of getting the guy he’s been chasing over for the first half of the novel and wants to celebrate with his best friend. Only he sees the shirt and asks if his bff just bought that but nope, he’s always had it, he has family that lives in St. Louis. BFF tries to play it off at first but then he kisses the MC and tells him that he thinks he’s the one from the MC’s dreams instead of the other guy, or at least he wants to be.
And then there’s confusion and chaos, but probably a happy ending. The MC just has to figure out who he wants the happy ending to be with.
An hour ago, I was livid. Now, I’m content. There’s just you and me. I existed only in the space between your arms.
Gay Paranormal Romance 