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1.
Ethan was terrified.
The eighth grade formal was in an hour and while usually that isn’t anything to be afraid of, tonight was the night he was going to ask Cynthia Johnson to dance with him. She was the epitome of popular, she had all the in style clothing, gorgeous blonde long hair she usually wore in a high pony and she was tall, she had a good few inches on Ethan (who was quite short for his age).
Ethan paced in his bedroom while he waited for Rory and Benny to arrive. They were all meeting up at his house because his mom wanted to get photos of all of them in their suits for her scrapbook and offered to carpool them all.
His panicked pacing was interrupted by five knocks in a pattern he's come to know means Benny is on the other side of the door. Ethan briskly walks over to the door and upon opening it freezes. On the other side of the door is Benny, leaning against the door frame, slightly out of breath from the bike trip over, dressed in a tight fitting auburn suit. “He looks good” Ethan thinks before dismissing the thought.
“Hey Ethan! Hey Benny!” Rory shouts as he pops out from behind Benny, scaring the other two boys.
“Jesus Rory!” Benny all but yells in response. “You’ve got to stop sneaking up on us”
“Sorry guys, I’m just so excited to go to the dance, I wonder if Jessica is gonna be there”, Rory says with a sense of awe and wonder.
“Probably, I doubt she would miss out on going to the dance” replied Ethan who finally stopped zoning out, “We should probably head downstairs to take photos before we end up being late”.
All three boys piled out and headed down the stairs to the foyer, where Ethan’s mom waited by the front door with her camera in hand. “Gather together boys” she said before promptly corralling them in front of the door “smile!”.
As the camera flashed, Ethan thought back to Benny in his doorway. He couldn't stop himself from wondering, why did his heart race? Why was he so stunned at the sight of his best friend all cleaned up? His internal monologue was interrupted by his mom shooing the three of them out the door and to her minivan.
It was a short drive over to the dance, their middle school only being about ten minutes away. Through the gym windows they could see the multi-colored lights flashing and hear the faint sound of the bass. There was a small line out the door where kids handed over their tickets to the dance and were allowed entrance.
“Alrighty Kiddos, be careful and don’t have too much fun!” Ethan’s mom said as she slowed down and pulled up the curb to drop them off. The boys all responded with chorused goodbyes as they shuffled out the car doors. The boys walked over to the entrance and joined the end of the line, which has since grown quite a bit since the dance was now in full swing.
Benny, realizing he left his ticket in the car, turned around and started to flag down Ethans mother, ultimately running towards her car. Leaving Ethan, unfortunately, alone and at the mercy of Rory’s whim.
“Do you guys plan to dance together or are you keeping it a secret for now?” Rory said cheerfully, interrupting the comfortable silence that filled the space between them.
For the second time that night, Ethan froze.
“What do you mean keeping it a secret?” he asked, his heart racing as his mind tried to fill in the blanks.
“You and Benny’s relationship, duh!” Rory said, looking dumbfounded at the other boy, “I see the way you guys look at each other, you guys are so obvious”.
“Rory, me and Benny aren’t together. We’re just friends, plus neither of us are even gay”
“Please”, he said, drawing out the word and feigning nonchalance, “you don’t have to lie to me, I’m not gonna tell anyone. We’re best bros, I’ve got your backs!”.
Ethan grabbed Rory by both shoulders and shook him slightly, “Me and Benny are just friends! There is nothing going on between us!!”.
Interrupting the two boys, Benny sprinted back up to them out of breath. “Sorry, I got caught up asking Anna if she wanted to dance. What did I miss?” he asked, looking between his friends.
“We were just talking about…um, who we were gonna dance with!” Ethan said after giving Rory a very pointed look.
“I asked Ethan if you two were-” Rory began to say before Ethan covered his mouth with his hand and gave the boy a sharp glare.
Benny looked between the two boys, giving them a quizzical look, before pointing towards a girl just barely visible through the open gymnasium door. “Look! It’s Jessica!” he all but shouted, ultimately diffusing the situation and distracting the two.
Ethan, ecstatic that the conversation had shifted, couldn’t help but think about what had transpired. About the fuzzy feeling he got at the idea of him and Benny together, about them holding hands, dancing, maybe even kis-
“No, get yourself together Ethan.” he thought, shooing it away and promptly tuning back into the heated discussion between Benny and Rory on who would win in a fight, Obi-wan Kenobi or Captain Kirk.
2.
Ethan let out a deep sigh, he was relieved this whole situation was over. Evil Benny and Evil Hannah not only gave him a run for his money but were infuriating to try to track down and stop.
After everything was resolved and he and Hannah escaped the locked dark room, they went about the rest of their school day like normal. Now, properly acquainted through the supernatural and tentatively friends, they exited the school after their last class side by side.
“My twin really ruined the yearbook photos. We’ll have to take them again” she said somewhat cheerfully towards the boy, not letting the events that transpired ruin her peppy mood.
“Well, when you have some free time, maybe you’d feel like a movie?” Ethan said, chuckling slightly.
“Great idea! My boyfriend loves movies!” she said, in a bubbly tone, “Maybe we could do like a double date!”.
“Double date?”
“Yeah! Me and my boyfriend and then you and Benny!!” she responded, giving him an incredulous look and gently putting her hand on his shoulder.
The gentle touch shot the boy instantaneously into a vision, one he never expected to see.
There stood himself, in front of the mirror in his bedroom. He wore a black suit with a long tie, that was, unfortunately, on incorrectly. The knot of tie was mangled beyond fixing, Ethan started tugging hopelessly on it in an attempt to get it sorted out.
“Here, let me babe” said a familiar male voice, as a pair of arms wrapped in baby blue turned him around before his vision came to a halting stop.
“Ethan! Are you okay?” asked Hannah as she shook him gently as he snapped out of his daze.
“I’m.. alright” he said hesitantly, shook by what he had just witnessed.
“That can’t be right” he thought “We’re both straight but my visions have never been wrong before”
“What happened?” she asked concerned for the younger boy, who had tensed up when he replayed the events that just transpired.
“Nothing!” he answered quickly, trying to quell her concern and brush off his shock, “I just remembered I forgot to, uh, water my plants today! Yeah, I have some house plants that are my responsibility to take care of. Haha…”
“Ethan… oh!” she says as a car honk interrupts her train of thought. Turning to their left they see one of the senior boys pulling up to the curb, lean over to the passenger seat and pop open the car door. Smiling, he waves over towards the two. “I’ve got to go, we have a science project due tomorrow! Let me know about the double date, bye Ethan!” she shouts behind her as she scurries to the car and climbs in.
Sarah and Benny, exiting the school, walk up next to him and watch as Hannah gets into the car with the upperclassman.
“Boyfriend?” Sarah asks gently, giving him a pitying smile as Ethan hesitantly nods in response.
“That rots, dude” Benny says as he looks over towards the parking lot. Suddenly, he begins to rapidly tap the other boy multiple times on the shoulder, “Ethan! Evil Benny rented a go-cart! Come on!”
Ethan gives the other boy a shocked but ecstatic look, “Later Sarah” they both shout before the two start sprinting towards the student parking. He’ll worry about the vision later, he’s got a go-cart to ride
3.
“I'm not gonna do it Benny” Ethan all but shouts at his best friend over the video call.
“Come on, I’m trying to help” the other boy responds, giving Ethan a somewhat frustrated look.
“I don’t need help, look I’ve got my lucky socks, a clean shirt and a fresh bottle of cologne”
“Dude, you have absolutely no game. I might have none either but my dad is currently on the dating scene, which means I have unrestricted access to this'', Benny says as he holds up his fathers issue of Be a Man magazine.
“Fine…” he responds, reluctantly.
“Okay, now I’ll pretend to be Sarah”
Sighing in resignment, Ethan states how stupid this plan is while Benny shoves a towel on his head and gets into character. He starts batting his eyelashes, widening his eyes and giving the seer a gentle, loving, smile.
“Be my man” the warlock says, teasingly.
“Why did that make my heart flutter, what is it about him?” Ethan wonders before he shakes himself and starts to focus on the task at hand.
“Well, I would really like to go on a date with you. You and I have this connection that’s really special.” Unbeknownst to Ethan, behind him his father begins to slowly open his door, peeking the smallest bit in, listening in on their conversation, “I feel like there's some cosmic reason we were thrown together”.
“That's beautiful Ethan”.
“Plus, you are like really pretty”
“Oh!” followed by a quiet crash “Haha…” said Ethan's father, awkwardly, who accidentally dropped the laundry he was holding while leaning against the doorway.
“I… uh dad this is not what it looks like”.
“Yeah, I’m teaching him how to be a man!” shouted Benny through the computer monitor.
After a quick conversation, Ethan’s father uncomfortably exited the room, leaving a pair of tickets for a professional hockey team on his dresser. Ethan sighed once more, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. “First Rory, then Hannah, then my dad, whose next fucking Jesse?” He thought before turning around and facing his best friend and the main source of this dilemma, who was blissfully unaware and rambling about the cage of eternity.
4.
“I don’t know, there’s just something about Sarah. She’s so… different from other girls but-” Ethan pauses as he struggles to gather his words, “I just, I think I love her but I don't know if it's romantic. I don’t see a future between us where we’re more than friends. ”, the younger boy rambled over the phone to Erica. Since the events of the lucifractor, the two have gotten weirdly close much to the dismay of the other three.
“Ethan,” Erica says in a calm and surprisingly gentle tone, “have you ever considered that maybe you don’t like girls?”
Ethan freezes, his heart climbing his way into his throat.
“Haha”, he laughed stiffly and forced, “Me? No way! I’m as straight as they come. Would a gay guy kiss Sarah Teller at the 7th grade dance? I don’t think so”
“It’s okay if you are. What about Benny?” Erica asked imploringly, “I’ve seen how you look at him, it’s…” she pauses before taking a large breathe, steadying herself, “It’s how I look at Sarah”
For the second time that night, Ethan freezes.
“You like Sarah?” he asks incredulously, his voice progressively rising through the question.
The older girl sighs, “I think this conversation is better had in person, can I come over?”
“Always”
From outside his bedroom window, a telltale whooshing sound could be heard that meant Erica flew over. Ethan clambers out of his bed, shoves his curtains to the side and slides open his window. Floating just outside is Erica, she’s wearing a graphic tee she stole from Ethan a few months ago and a pair of pink striped pajama pants.
“Hey nerd,” she says affectionately, “Can I come in before someone sees me?”
Ethan nods and she proceeds to float into his room and makes herself comfortable at the foot of his bed. She pats in front of her, signaling for the seer to join her on the bed. He stumbles slightly before making his way towards her and making himself comfortable among his pillows. With only a few inches between them on Ethan's twin bed, the tension between them is palpable .
“I'm a lesbian”, Erica says suddenly breaking the slightly awkward tension between the two friends.
“What about Dirk Baddison? You’re like in love with him!” Ethan states somewhat bewildered.
“Have you ever heard of comphet?” Ethan shakes his head and waves his hand indicating for Erica to continue, “It’s essentially pressure and expectation from society to like the opposite gender. It’s more complicated technically but that’s the basic premise. I felt the need to like men, so I latched onto the easiest and somewhat unattainable people I could. I realized a bit ago I’ve never actually had feelings for a guy but the way Rebecca Shoen looked at me during our 8th grade dance made me feel like I was in Heaven”.
Ethan took a minute to process everything and let her words wash over him.
Oh.
OH.
“I think I’m in love with Benny” Ethan says frantically looking at Erica, imploring her for a response, “I also think I might be gay”.
Erica looks at him sympathetically and closes the distance between them, giving Ethan a tight hug. “Thank you for trusting me enough to confide in me” she says, resting her head onto his shoulder.
The younger boy nods before resting his head on her shoulder, a few tears slipping out as he mumbles, “Thank you too Eri, thank you for trusting me with this secret, thank you for helping and listening to me, thank you for being my friend”.
They separate, both young adults discreetly wiping their eyes, both wordlessly agreeing to not mention it. Erica leans over and punches him hard in the shoulder. “dork” she says before both of them burst into laughter.
With the tension completely broken and the two friends sitting comfortably, Ethan gets up briefly to put on a vinyl of Single Tear as background noise. While he’s up, he quickly travels downstairs to grab some snacks and a few blood substitute juice boxes he keeps hidden here for when his friends visit.
When he gets back in his room, Erica is laying on his bed and taking photos of herself on her phone. Ethan chuckles before she moves and gestures back to his spot on the bed, he clambers on and drops the arm full of snacks in between them.
“How did you know you liked Sarah?” he asked in between handfuls of Cheetos.
“I think I always knew deep down, I would daydream about her. When he was around, I would get insanely jealous of Jesse. I wanted all of her attention, I wanted to do the things Jesse was doing to her. I wanted to be the person that held her hand, kissed her in the hallways, took her on cheesy dates and had movie marathons with. Once I got my head out of my ass, it all made sense, friends don’t get jealous like that. How did you realize?”.
“It was similar” He responded, “I was in denial for a really long time but it’s been getting harder and harder to deny. Every time anyone had misconstrued us as dating my heart flutters and I always wished we were, I used to imagine us cuddling and sharing stolen kisses between rounds of Dark Ops II. Sarah was an easy person to latch onto, she's conventionally attractive, nice and was relatively unattainable”.
Erica nods before slurping up the rest of her juice box, “Look at us, a pair of gays hopelessly in love with their best friends!” Both of them bursted out in laughter. The two of them sat there for another hour or so just talking and eating their respective snacks.
“Hey,” Erica says as the vinyl comes to an end, “We don’t have school tomorrow, do you wanna stay up and have a dusk marathon?”
Ethan grins in response, “Absolutely, in here or downstairs?”
5.
Ethan wanted to clear things up between him and Sarah. After the realization he had and consequently the multiple other conversations he had with Erica, it didn’t sit right with him potentially leading Sarah on. About three weeks after coming to terms with the fact that he was gay, he decided that he was finally comfortable to tell her.
Him and Benny were walking to school per their usual morning routine. However one thing was different today, instead of comfortable conversation flowing between the two friends, a stunted silence hung in its place. Ethan's anxiety spiking so much he couldn’t find the strength to speak to the other boy, opting to stay silent as he ruminated on the conversation to come.
He knew that telling Sarah meant that it was possible that Rory would find out and once Rory found out, everyone found out. Overall, he wasn’t too worried about others knowing his secret. Sure, he already got bullied but logically, he thought, it couldn’t get much worse especially with Erica having his back. However, one person in particular worried him, Benny.
Benny mattered more than anyone in his life. His lifelong best friend, his partner in crime and the number one person in the world that owned his heart. Just the thought of Benny sent Ethan's heart racing, every time the magician looked at him it took his breath away.
The idea that Benny not only didn’t reciprocate his feelings but could possibly resent him for being gay terrified him. He’d rather never tell Benny then possibly lose him but he knew he would find out one way or another and he would rather be the one to tell him.
Said boy, looked over towards the seer, a look of worry washing over his features. The silence, however not uncommon, was troublesome. Benny worried for him, knowing his proficiency for anxiety attacks, and ultimately wanted to make sure that he was doing okay.
“Ethan,” Benny said, putting his hand on his shoulder, stopping the other boy in his tracks, “Are you doing alright? You’re being unusually quiet even for you”.
“I’m gonna talk to Sarah today about something kinda important,” Ethan said after taking a deep breath.
“Finally gonna ask her out?” he asks while gently punching the seer in the shoulder, both boys resuming their walk to the school.
“Not exactly, I’ve been meaning to tell her something important but I kept brushing it off”.
Benny gives him an imploring look, subtly urging him to continue but before he got the chance they both arrived at the front steps and had to go their own ways once inside.
“Close one”, Ethan thinks as he rubs the back of his neck and briskly walks to Sarah’s locker, secretly wishing she wasn't there and he could put this off for another day.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t so lucky.
Just as he was about to approach her, she shut her locker door and spotted the other boy. “Hey Ethan”, she said smiling, both arms wrapped tightly around her textbooks.
“Hey, I was just looking for you!” he said, chuckling and nervously playing with his backpack strap, “I actually have something I wanted to talk to you about privately”.
Sarah, sensing his nervousness, suggests skipping class and going somewhere quiet and far away. Despite usually being resistant to the idea, unlike his best friend, he agreed and the two friends put away their school books and headed out.
Once outside the school and hidden by some trees, Sarah grabbed his hand and used her super speed to usher them away to a secluded bench at their local park. The bench was fairly off the beaten path and was surrounded by thick pine trees. Ethan, shivering, burrows into his winter coat and sits himself beside his friend, only bothering to sneak a glance towards the other once or twice before looking straight ahead.
“Sooo,” she says, drawing the word out, “what was it you wanted to talk to me about?”
“I'm gay” Ethan spits out quickly, his heart beating so quickly he can feel it in his throat.
“I know Ethan,” she says softly, putting her hand on his shoulder gently, prompting the boy to turn and look at her. “I’ve seen the way you’ve looked at Benny… and David” she says, both of them chuckling, “Thank you, though, for trusting me enough to let me know. It means a lot ”.
Ethan lets out the breath he didn't even realize he was holding. “I also wanted to say I'm sorry if I was leading you on at all. It genuinely wasn’t my intention”.
“I never took it that way, you’re all good” she responded, removing her hand from his shoulder and turning back towards the trees in front of them, a grimace growing on her face, “You know I never told you, but I’m bisexual. I don’t usually talk about it, especially because Jesse didn’t take it so well”.
“Thank you for trusting me” He responded, flashing her a quick smile, “Do you wanna skip the whole day, go to my house and binge horror movies?”
“Okay but just this once! I can’t skip school all the time, I do wanna graduate”, she says as a happy but nefarious smile grows on her face, “But you have to give me all the deats about you and Benny”.
Ethan smiles.
“Alright, as long as you tell me all about you and Erica”.
+1
Benny knew Ethan was keeping a secret from him. The two best friends usually told each other everything, and on top of that, he’s noticed that the seer recently has been ignoring him all together.
Benny, desperate to change that, started to come up with a game plan. 1st, he was gonna buy the two of them coffee, an iced latte with vanilla for Ethan and an iced caramel macchiato for himself. 2nd, he was gonna try to corner him at school. If he caught him by his locker after school ended Ethan couldn’t use classes starting as an excuse to get away and both his parents were home tonight so he wouldn’t need to go take care of Jane. 3rd, find out what he did wrong and apologize.
The thing is, unbeknownst to Ethan, Benny was madly in love with him. A few months ago, during one of their all-nighters, it clicked. The reason he struggled so badly to actually hold a relationship was because of the other boy. To Benny, he always came first. It didn’t matter if it was a date or anniversary, if Ethan needed him, he was on the way. He could be on a date with Megan Fox for heaven's sake and if the seer called him asking for his help, he would ditch the date in a heartbeat.
Being in love with Ethan didn’t change a thing for him. To him, their friendship was the most important thing, he would rather never tell the brown eyed boy about his feelings and live in heartache then ever potentially lose his friend. He knew Ethan didn’t love him back, he knew this for a fact. He was as straight as they come and endlessly in love with Sarah. Benny couldn’t stand the idea of losing Ethan and was determined to patch things between them in any way he could.
He did run into a few small problems. 1. It was winter break, so his plan would have to wait until another few days. And 2. He would have to skip last period to pick up the coffee. Normally, he doesn't really care about missing class but his grandma threatened to spank him with lightning again if he got caught skipping for a non life threatening reason. He figured this was as good enough reason as any to skip and hoped his grandma would take pity on his love sick soul.
A week passed and Benny barely saw the other boy. For the most part, Ethan was avoiding his messages and video calls and when he showed up at the seer’s house, he had pretended to be sick.
Benny, walking to school by himself, decided today was the day to enact his plan.
Right before eleventh period, he scurried into the closest janitor's closet and used a reliable spell to teleport him to the alley behind Lotta Latte. After entering the coffee shop, he made himself comfortable at one of the tables and did some of his homework while he waited for school to end. Ten minutes till, he got up and ordered his and Ethan's usual, walked back to the alley and teleported himself to the janitor's closet.
Unfortunately, the spell backfired just a little bit and he landed in a full mop bucket. Groaning, he stepped out of the bin and dried his shoes slightly with one of the rags before giving up and leaving the room.
Hunting down Ethan was a little harder than he anticipated but he eventually found him by the library’s entrance. Benny walked up to him and silently held out the iced latte for him, taking in the other boy's expression that flickered for a second with fear.
“Hey, can we talk?” Benny asked before giving him a somewhat pleating look.
“I’m actually meeting up with Erica, maybe we can -”
“Please”, Benny begged, interrupting the other boy's sentence.
“Okay”, Ethan states before rubbing the back of his neck, something the other boy knew was an anxious habit of his, “but I can only talk for a little bit, Erica was planning on cutting my hair for me”.
The two boys walked side by side in a tense silence until they reached a picnic bench outside. Sitting one on each side, Ethan stared down counting the bugs he could see beneath the hole filled table, until Benny cleared his throat.
“Why have you been ignoring me?” Benny asked, anger and betrayal leaking into his voice.
“I haven’t bee-”
“Please,” he begged, “please, don’t lie to me. I don’t know what I've done or what happened between us that upset you but if you let me know I can fix whatever I did. You’re my best friend Ethan, I can't stand to lose you. You’re the most important person in my li-”
“I’m in love with you!” Ethan all but shouts, interrupting Benny's rambling.
He freezes.
“You’re what?” Benny asks, trepidatiously.
“Never mind, ignore me, let's pretend like this never happened”, the seer responded, getting up from his spot at the table.
As he gets up to walk away, Benny snatches his hand, stopping the boy in his tracks. He intertwined their fingers together, prompting Ethan to glance up and lock eyes with the magician.
“Ethan Jeremiah-”
“That is not my middle name and you know it”, Ethan interrupts while giggling.
“Morgan”, Benny picks up where he left off without missing a beat, “I’ve been madly in love with you since I could remember. You mean the world to me, I can’t Imagine my life without you in it. I adore you”.
With no hesitation, Ethan gently cradles the other boy's cheek, silently asking for permission before leaning in and kissing him. The kiss didn’t feel like fireworks like most people said, it felt like home, comfort and like he perfectly fit, like they were meant to be together. Benny’s lips were chapped but the feeling of his lips against his own was something he could never get tired off.
When the magician pulled away to breath, the other boy chased his lips prompting the spell caster to quietly chuckle.
“I never imagined you would have feelings for me” Benny stated as he looked down at their intertwined hands and back up at the others face.
“Neither did I”, Ethan stated, making both of them giggle, “I should probably tell Erica that I’m gonna be busy for the rest of today and possibly the next few after school”.
“Yeah?” Benny asked, giving the seer a hopeful smile.
“Yeah”, he responded, returning the others' smiles, “also, quick question, do you wanna be my boyfriend?”
“Forever and always” the magician stated before grimacing, “God, that sounded like a line from Dusk. Wait! I have an idea on how to tell Erica that you’re gonna be busy!”
Benny taking out his phone, quickly opened up the group chat consisting of all of their friends. He quickly pulls up his camera and turns to take a picture of him kissing Ethan on the cheek. At the last moment, Ethan turned and kissed the other on the lips, capturing it on film. After grinning dopily at the photo for a few minutes, he began to type out the message “Guess who has a boyfriend!”.
He turned the phone slightly to the side and awaited Ethan's approval. After he grinned and nodded, Benny pushed send and waited for a response with baited breath. Within seconds, the group chat exploded with responses. All of them congratulating the two boys, cheering them on and demanding details on a later date.
Ethan glanced at Benny and back down at their hands, still intertwined and grasping at each other. He thought back to the vision he had a year ago, thinking about the future they have together and he smiled to himself.
“What are you smiling about?” Benny asked, squeezing his hand.
Ethan glanced up at the other boy and cupped his face with his free hand.
“You.”