"Alright, these aren't the best, but they should work until you figure out how to use an iPad."

I hand Fish a stack of hand-made communication cards that I had just finished putting together for him. Some were index cards written by me, others were pulled from one of Emilio's Cards Against Humanity decks that I'd had lying around in my locker for forever. 

Me and Fish were standing just outside of the school trying to figure out ways to talk to each other. After missing most of my classes for that day thanks to Fish diving into a tank and Anderson showing up at the last minute, I figured I might as well give up on trying to accomplish anything worthwhile today. 

Fish takes the cards from me, starts shuffling through them, then holds one up and gives me this look that says everything.

"Steel Buttcheeks."

"Oh!" In a matter of seconds, I turn bright red. "Um... I swear to God I don't know how that slipped through," I reply, and then I reach over and pluck the card out of his hand before throwing it over my shoulder. 

Fish shuffles a little more, then he pulls another card and shows it to me. 

"Thank you."

I instantly feel at ease, and then I laugh. "Hey, no problem," I say, because making a couple of cards for him wasn't a big deal, especially if it meant learning more about who he was and why he was here.

And then another thought hits me. 

"Aren't you trying out for the swim team later on?" I question, and Fish holds up another card.

"Yasss, Queen."

"I knew that was going to come in handy," I mutter, and take the card from him, more pleased with myself than I wanted to admit. "You want to hang around until everyone gets to practice?" I ask Fish after a beat of awkward silence passes between us. "I can show you some of my sick moves in the pool. There's a dive that I do where I--"

"Hey, Tennyson!" 

I spin around when I hear a shout, and there's a moment where I can't breathe, because one of the hottest guys in school was coming right towards us and my little heart couldn't take it. 

Luke Asher was drop-dead gorgeous, There was no fucking way he was actually walking over here to talk to me, though. Guys like Luke were even more popular than I was, and that was saying a lot. Mostly because he had beauty and brains, plus a shit-load of money thanks to his two filthy rich dads, who owned their own business. 

"Tennyson!" Luke calls again, and then he jogs over, glistening in sweat from playing football with the guys. "Hey man, are you busy?" 

My jaw drops open and I look both ways and then point to myself, shocked, "Who? Me? " I ask, sounding like a total idiot at this point.

"You're the only Tennyson around, aren't you?" Luke replies, and then he chuckles, his perfect teeth flashing like white chiclets against his tanned skin. "Yo, anyway! I've been looking for you all over the place. I gotta ask you something really important. Life or death, man. "

I glance over at Fish, who's busy flipping through his cards, seemingly uninterested in our conversation.

Or was he?

"What's up?" I finally ask Luke, and I turn back to him and shrug, "I was just about to head over to the pool. We got a new guy who wants to join the team. "

"Is that him?" Luke gestures to Fish, who turns at the mention of his presence, wrinkles his nose a little, and then turns away again, as if annoyed by Luke's divine body. Which was insane, because it was Luke Asher, the hottest, most attractive guy around.

I wondered how it would feel to squeeze his ginormus pectorals. 

If maybe he'd let me hold his hand and kiss him in public if we went out on a date.

"Oh, yeah! This is Fish, the new guy! " I blurt, and then I touch Fish's shoulder and pull him over, clapping him on the chest a few times like he was a new car ready for a test drive. "Smith wanted me to show him around school so he can get used to his classes and all that good stuff."

"Okay then..." Luke squints a little at Fish, eyes him up and down, and then he smiles thinly. "I'm pretty sure I've seen you before. Are you from here? "

Fish tightens his lips and lowers his eyebrows, but he doesn't move to pull out a card.

"He can't really talk," I say as I push my way back into view, interrupting their glare session. "Smith said he had an accident and lost his voice." "

"Oh yeah? That happened to me a couple of years ago. The doctor's all said it was an allergic reaction or something," Luke responds, and then he turns back to me and takes me by the shoulder. "Anyway! You're gay, right? " He asks me.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

"Y-Yeah, well, I'm kind of still figuring things out, but yeah!" I stutter when he leans in close, practically about to die on the spot from sheer embarrassment. Even all sweaty and grass stained, he smelled amazing, salty and earthy at the same time. 

Was that a thing? I'd never been this close to someone like him before, who was on the verge of graduating and moving on to bigger and better things.

 "What do you know about coming out? particularly to two gay dads? " Luke presses, "That's what I really wanted to ask you earlier. But you're super hard to track down. "

I'm speechless, just like Fish was. I mean, the words just get stuck in my throat like chunky peanut butter.

"What's this?" Luke asks suddenly, and then Fish hands him one of the cards that I had made. 

"Go away."