It was hard growing up as both an owl and a boy, but Soren found it even harder trying to figure out where he fell on the rainbow-colored sexuality spectrum as the second oldest of the family. 

He didn't have anyone to ask except Rocky, and Rocky had always been adamant about being a gay man who just so happened to like wearing skirts sometimes and the occasional Louboutin pumps with a nice jean. But Soren liked him with or without heels, with a scruffy face and bedraggled hair, and he liked girls, too.

He knew this because he'd discovered his brother Rowan's porn magazines hidden under a bed and tried looking through them one day while home alone, amazed at the massive amount of tits plastered across each page. Unfortunately, the magazine hadn't made it back under Rowan's bed that night. 

And this is where the real trouble started. 

When Soren started high school, he hooked up with his very first girlfriend, something that he was extremely happy about. He thought for sure that a girl like Lydia Elanor would have no interest in a guy like him who wrote poetry and skipped half his classes. She was the head captain of the cheerleading squad. She was blonde and beautiful, and she wore tiny clothes that showed off her amazing body. 

They were complete opposites. But Soren Moon was a mountain to be scaled, an unattainable conquest to be explored—her words, not his. They'd had sex once in her bedroom while her cookie-cutter dad watched reruns of How I Met Your Mother, unaware that Soren was, in fact, being ridden by his daughter so hard that her bra flew off.  

Apparently, he'd left such an impression on her that she'd come back for more, even when they agreed to just be friends when he dropped out of high school.

"Soren!" Lydia calls as she rounds the corner of the house in all her glory, "Hunny! Why aren't you answering my texts? I was so worried about you, baby!"

Soren could almost feel Rocky's gold eyes cutting right through him like a deli meat slicer. His face was flushed, but of course, the other boy played it off as if Lydia showing up was one big joke. 

"Oh my God, Soren, you rascal! You didn't tell me you found a sweet little Barbie Dreamhouse!" Rocky exclaims, his eyebrows jumping, "Was this before or after I left for college?"

"She's not my girlfriend," Soren replies coolly when Lydia nears, "Besides, you left me. I had to do something to keep from going crazy. What? Did you want me to sit around moping in my bedroom? You know I'm not like that, Rocky."

"Soren, love," Rocky replies, trying to keep his voice steady, "You spent three months as an owl when our dearest parental units refused to let you run away to boarding school so you could reenact Dead Poet's Society. Don't talk to me about moping!" He shrieks quietly.

"Rocklin! I swear to God, you're the biggest pain in the ass I've ever met!" Soren hisses back, fists clenched. Had he been able to show his wings, they would have fluffed in anger and annoyance. 

"Is this where you keep your birds?" Lydia interrupts their argument when she breezes over and tosses her ponytail to one side. "I know you, like, used to talk so much about them! But I never believed you. I mean, who honestly has a bunch of birds behind their house? That's like serial killer shit, isn't it?" 

"Oh, hello!" Rocky chimes and he whirls to face Lydia, his expression smoothing in an instant. "You must be Soren's adorable little girlfriend. He's told me so much about you. Love the tan, by the way! It's very Barbie-esque!"

Soren slaps his shoulder to get him to shut up and glares. "Lydia, this is Rocky--I told you about him when we first met, remember?" He greets her, and he turns his attention from Rocky to the gorgeous girl, "I wasn't expecting you to show up here. How the hell did you find my house? We're like in the middle of nowhere."

"Well, that's for me to know and you to find out!" Lydia smiles from the other side of the cage, her cherry red lips curving when she tilts her head, "I was kind of hoping that we could talk in private. It's totally important. Life or death."

"Is that what they're calling it these days?" Rocky mumbles and Soren elbows him. Hard.

"I would love to," Soren replies smoothly, "But I'm kind of tied up right now. I still need to feed Marley and her babies, but if you want to hang around, I'll be done in a few."

"Try not to go near the shed," Rocky beams, "We have a nest of snakes living under the boards."

Lydia gasps in horror, and Soren watches, somewhat in shock, as Rocky breezes past and exits the birdcage, the redhead tossing his hair back before he shoots Soren an alluring look from over his shoulder. It was, in fact, a look that Soren knew well. The cogs in Rocky's little mind were turning, and now that Lydia was around, he had competition.

The game was on.