After Patrick held me for a few minutes, I decided I should be getting to my friends. They were going to be worried. Patrick let go of me and patted me on the back. We stood up.

"Thanks, Patrick." I said grabbing my stuff off of the ground. He smiled at me.

"No problem. I don't want to see you sad." he said, squeezing my shoulder. I nodded. "Nothing happened. Okay? We're friends and we know that. We don't need to prove to anyone we're straight." he said. I didn't know what to do.

"Alright. I'm going home. I'll talk to you tomorrow." I said, before turning around and walking out of the alley. I put my skateboard in my backpack and put on my headphones. I thought about what Patrick just said. I kissed him. He kissed me. He held me. And after all of that, we're still just friends? I'm not gay. But this is tearing me apart inside. I sat down on the curb and stared into the sky. Now its time to think about all of this. And what it really means. All my life, I've loved girls. Look at Cara Jones. Talk about obsession. And Joe, Taelor and Andy knew about my major hard on for Selma Blair. Hell, everyone knew. So why did I kiss Patrick? Maybe I should talk to him about that. I stood up and skated back to the school. I looked in the alley and there he was. Sitting in the same spot as when I left him.

"Patrick." I called out. He looked up and smiled. I walked over to him and sat down next to him. "Patrick, I thought about what you said."

"What?" he said.

"About us just being friends." I said, playing with the frayed bottom of my jeans.

"Yeah, that's all we are and all we'll ever be." he said. I took a deep breath and got ready for what I was about to say.

"Well, what if I want more than that?" I said. I looked away from him and waited for an answer. When I didn't get one right away, I looked at him. He was sitting there watching me.

"I only said all of that, because I thought it was what you wanted." he said. I shook my head. "You said you aren't gay."

"There's that other thing. I think they call it 'bi-sexual'. I guess I'm that." I said, half jokingly. He laughed a little. I reached over and took his hand in mine.

"Have you ever gone out with a guy before?" he whispered.

"No. But I think I'm ready for it." I whispered. He put his head on my shoulder.

"Okay." he said. "Then I'm ready, too." We sat there for a few minutes in silence. Me rubbing my thumb over the palm of his hand. Him breathing on my neck. "Should we really be doing this here?"

"We're not doing anything wrong." I said. "But if you want to leave, then we can." He nodded, so I stood up and pulled him to his feet. We stood there for a second facing eachother, not saying anything, but studying eachother's features. He had really pretty eyes. They were deep and inviting. His bone structure was nice.

"What do you want to do now?" he asked, picking up his stuff. I bent over and got mine, too.

"Hmm, whatever you want to do. We could go get a pizza." I said, as we started walking out of the alley.

"Sounds good to me." he said. I was in the process of putting my skateboard in my backpack when they were both ripped from my hands. I looked up. Nash was standing there with our bags. He threw them to the side and backed us both up to a wall.

"You fucking faggots." he spat. He reared his arm back and punched Patrick in the stomach.

"Leave him the fuck alone!" I screamed. He turned to me and got right in my face. I turned to see Patrick crawling on the ground holding his stomach.

"What did you say?" Nash said. I shook my head. He grabbed my shoulder and slammed me against the wall hard enough to knock the wind out of me. I slid to the ground choking.

"Why...are you doing this?" I breathed. He laughed like some sadistic movie psycho. He knelt down next to me and grabbed my shirt collar.

"Because you're both a disgrace. Homosexuality is a sin." he said. He hit me against the wall again. I started choking and gasping for air until he punched me twice in the jaw. He stood up and laughed. "You deserve worse." he said. Then I heard a loud crack. Not really a crack, but more of a bang. Like a car backfiring. Suddenly, Nash fell on top of me. I looked at him, and then I slowly looked up. I saw Patrick standing there with a gun aimed in my direction. He was crying. I looked back at Nash and saw the bullet hole in his back. I quickly, pushed him off of me and stood up. I felt his wrist and he didn't have a pulse. I ran over to Patrick and pulled him into my arms.

"Pete, I'm so sorry." he said through tears. I ran my hand through his hair.

"Its okay, Patrick." I said, taking the gun from him. "Where'd you get this?"

"Its my dad's." he said. "I took it from his room. I wasn't planning on using it. Especially on Nash. Oh, Pete. What am I going to do?"

"I'll think of something. Don't worry." I said. What the hell were we going to do?

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I forgot to say this on the previous chapters:

Title Credits:
Ch.1: Right Place, Wrong Time by the Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies
Ch.2: Surfacing by Trust Company
Ch.3: Always by Saliva