Excerpt:

“And I always feel very safe talking to you especially Arden. I feel like I can tell you anything.” Elia started bouncing his legs up and down, and now he was staring intently at his hands, which he was wringing nervously.
Arden could tell that Elia wanted to tell him something big. “Yeah. I feel the same with you. And you can tell me anything.”
Elia took a deep breath. “Okay. I want to tell you something. I can’t believe I’m going to do this. And in public too.”
“There’s no one here right now. No one will hear you but me,” reassured Arden, looking at the side of Elia’s face.
“Okay. Okay. Um… I…” he trailed off, and then looked at Arden and said quietly, “I think I’m gay.”
Arden’s heart stopped. He continued staring at Elia, completely speechless. He had imagined this so many times, and now that it was true, he had no idea what to say. Elia looked at Arden for a few seconds, and then turned bright red. He looked down at his hands, and started to get up.
“I’m sorry if I over shared. I’ll just go now.”
Arden found his voice enough to say, “Wait, Elia.” He grabbed Elia’s hand, and pulled him back down to sitting. “I just want to ask you something. Do you find me attractive?”
Elia tried to pull away from him. “You’re just making this more uncomfortable. Will you let me go?”
“Please just answer the question!” implored Arden. He knew he was being weak in refusing to say that he was gay too until he knew if Elia liked him or not, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it until he knew he wouldn’t get rejected.
Elia looked in the opposite direction and said quietly, “Yes, I do. Are you happy now?” Arden could hear the tears in Elia’s voice, and he realized how cruel he was being.
“Elia, I am too, and want to go out with you.” He finally was able to speak his true feelings out loud. Elia turned his head slowly to face Arden. There were two tears on his face trailing down past his nose.