Soren's thoughts suddenly seem to be composed of tiny ants that scatter in all directions when Lydia drops the news that she knows his secret. As a result, these ants carried their own crumbs, some of which involved becoming an owl. Others merely carried sugary hints of his sexuality and love for a particular redhead.

The thing was, they were Soren's secrets, not Lydia's or anybody else's to pick apart and dissect. He wasn't afraid of the consequences of being found out, but of who his secrets might affect down the line when they finally got out.

"Should I tear my eyes out now or cut out my tongue, Lydia?" Soren asks Lydia, "I'll ruin myself before you ruin me."

"Always so dramatic," Lydia fake pouts at him as she takes a few steps backwards towards her car, "Why don't you come back to school, baby? We'll finish off the year together. We're a hot couple and you know it," she scoffs, "Ditch your freaky gay friend and let's have some fun. I'm having a party at my house on Friday. Be there or be square."

Soren glances back at the house and sees Rocky standing on the porch, his arms crossed, as he watches them from a distance. But by the time he turns back to Lydia to argue with her, she's getting into her Kia and slamming the door shut.

Tyres squeal as she backs out of his driveway and down the road, a smug smile on her face the entire time, as if she knew she'd won this round. As if his life were a straightforward game with insignificant pieces.

"I'm just wondering what you saw in her," A voice speaks up from next to Soren, who nearly has a heart attack until he sees that it's just Quince, peering at the road from behind thick black bangs that cover his eyes. "She's like the Wicked Witch. Or like Jennifer's body type psychotic."

"Dude. Seriously? She wasn't like that when I met her." Soren admits, grimacing, "You won't understand it until you start dating people. People change, all the time. It's like a part of life, you know? Sometimes it just doesn't work out."

"Okay," Quince sighs, "for one thing, I'm ace as fuck and that's never going to change. Also, you literally banged Lydia just because she wrote some dumb poem about nobody knowing her real face behind all her makeup. And honestly, Soren? It sounded like hot garbage." 

"You keeping tabs on me now, Pink Floyd?" Soren asks him, and he slides out a joint from one of his pockets and starts looking for his lighter. 

"Yeah," Quince shrugs his shoulders, "someone has to, right?" 

Soren gives up on finding his lighter and exhales through his teeth, his head pounding at this point. The day had started off fine but had progressively gotten worse as time went on. His only saving grace was hoping that working the night shift at Jack in the Box would go smoothly and that everyone would decide to stay home.

"So you and Rocky, huh?" Quince asks him curiously, "When did that become a thing?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Soren lies, and he starts for the woods, hoping to find peace among the branches, away from the world and all its noise. Instead, Quince follows him into the bushes, their bare feet crunching on the leaves as they walk together.

"Well, are you guys bonded or not?" Quince presses, "Because mom and dad need to know."

Soren whirls around so fast that Quince doesn't have time to stop. Instead, the younger boy bumps into his chest and falls back a little. "No," Soren hisses, "they don't need to know anything. Whatever I have with Rocky, I'm not ready for it to come out. I want to keep it inside my heart, like a bluebird. Do get why I'm saying this? I love him, Quince."

Quince stares up at him, wordless.

"I don't know if I'll ever bond with him," Soren says softly. "I want to, but not until he's ready. You know how Rocky is. He's got dreams and glitter and all kinds of shit. I can't take that away from him."

There's a rustling from the trees, and they both look up at the same time and spot a suspicious-looking owl with wide eyes and crooked ear tufts peering down at them. It was Rocky, of course, judging by the flecks of glitter on his feathers, a result of wearing sequins and sparkles on his clothing. "Hoo-hoo!" He calls down to them, his voice a raspy, highly upset cry.

Soren lets his owl take control and, in a matter of seconds, glides up to join the other boy. Though, by the time he gets there, Rocky has already disappeared, falling as spectacularly into the forest as possible.

"Better go find him!" Quince calls down from the ground, "It's supposed to rain soon! You know Rocky hates storms!"

Soren takes off with a screech and leaves the world and all his worries behind for the moment.

Finding Rocky was more important now.