Page 29 of Ancient History

Mr. Brightside: There are kids that like mushrooms on pizza.

SoccerStar: Name one.

Mr. Brightside: I’m Googling this.

SoccerStar: Me, too.

* * *

Mr. Brightside:It’s 2 am

SoccerStar: 2:01

Mr. Brightside: Should we go to sleep?

SoccerStar: Probably.

SoccerStar: You first.

I stared at my phone, eyes wild. A half-eaten pizza sat in a box on the floor. My body was tired, but my mind was wired. I was talking with Amos again. My whole body buzzed, but that could’ve just been the mushrooms.

SoccerStar: Still there?

Mr. Brightside: Yeah :)

* * *

SoccerStar:A milestone. I just got my first dickpic message.

Mr. Brightside: Was there any message or just the pic?

SoccerStar: Just the tip.

SoccerStar: *pic

Mr. Brightside: And?

SoccerStar: Someone needs to trim.

Mr. Brightside: Yeah, that’s just rude. If you’re going to send a picture, clean up down there.

SoccerStar: Pop was right. Guys love showing their ding-a-lings on here.

Mr. Brightside: So was your dad cool with you coming out?

SoccerStar: Yeah. He wants me to be loud and proud. Rainbow flags everywhere.

Mr. Brightside: I like the way he thinks.

SoccerStar: How did your family take it when you came out?

Mr. Brightside: They didn’t really care.

SoccerStar: As in, super supportive?

Mr. Brightside: As in…they didn’t really care.

My heart sank at the honesty of the answer. From what I remembered, Amos didn’t talk much about his family when we dated. We kept our families out of our business to stay private. Yet even when I mentioned Pop showing up at games, Amos never mentioned his parents doing anything similar for him.

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