His phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket and saw a message from Will:

'Made it home.'

'Glad you got home safe,' Taylor replied.

'So formal?' Will wrote back. Taylor could almost hear the teasing in his voice.

Taylor chuckled and thought about what he could say to sound more… boyfriendly.

'Today was so much fun,' he sent, then quickly added before he could regret it, 'now all my dreams be about you.'

He stared at the three little dots… and they disappeared. Again, three dots… then gone. Taylor panicked a little, thinking maybe he had said something wrong. He sat on the bed, staring at his phone.

Just as he was about to type something, Will sent another message:

'I hope so. I’m terribly jealous and I don’t want my boyfriend having dirty thoughts about other boys while he has me. Next time you have a dream, tell me, and we’ll see which parts we can make real.'

Taylor froze. The phone slipped from his hand and fell to the floor.

Taylor’s face burned red hot, and he covered it with both hands.

Today felt like a rollercoaster—ups, downs, and unexpected twists, all pushing his relationship with Will forward in ways he never imagined.

When he finally picked his phone back up, he saw another message from Will: a winking face blowing a kiss.

Taylor grinned and quickly sent back a heart emoji.

He was still so full from their amazing day together that he decided to skip dinner. After a shower, he caught his reflection in the mirror—and noticed the small mark Will had left on his neck. A hickey. It was faint, but unmistakable.

Taylor smiled to himself, chest swelling with pride.

When he entered his room he wanted to get into bed and talk with Will, but he didn’t expect the tiredness to hit him and that he’d fall asleep.

In the morning he woke up to the rays of sunlight coming into his room. He looked at the clock and saw that it was still early. He heard noises from downstairs and understood that his family was already awake—probably his parents got up and were making breakfast.

He started daydreaming about scrambled eggs and toast.

He got out of bed and checked his phone. He saw that Will had sent him a message while he was asleep: 'Sweet dreams. Kisses' and he added a blowing-kiss emoji.

He smiled and texted Will back: 'Good morning.'

He went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face. He looked again in the mirror to see if the hickey was noticeable or not. He decided it wasn’t too obvious and went downstairs to the kitchen.

“Good morning,” he said cheerfully to his family.

His sister was sitting at the table eating and scrolling through her phone. His parents were by the stove. It looked like they had been talking about something important, because the moment Taylor entered the kitchen, they went silent.

He didn’t give it much thought because his parents had just taken a pan of fresh scrambled eggs off the stove. He grabbed a plate and filled it with the steaming eggs, took two pieces of toast, and went to sit at the table with his sister.

He piled scrambled eggs onto the toast with his fork, and before taking a bite he said to his sister, “I brought you a surprise from yesterday. It’s in my room.”

His sister put down her phone and hurried upstairs to get the surprise from Taylor’s room. Taylor chuckled and took a big bite of his food.

His mom and dad sat down beside him. There was a frown on their faces, which wasn’t like them. Taylor began to worry and set his food back down on the plate.

"Is everything okay?" he asked them. His parents looked at each other and then lowered their gaze.

"Did I do something?" Taylor asked quietly, a hint of fear in his voice.

"No!" his parents said together.

"I want you to understand—you didn’t do anything wrong. We’re here to listen," his mom said firmly.

His dad laced his fingers together on the table. "I was outside when you came back yesterday," he said, waiting to see Taylor’s reaction, to check if he understood what he meant.

Taylor’s eyes widened. He bit his lip and nodded.

"I know your mom and I agreed that I’d be the one to give you 'The Talk'. But I think it’s better if we all talk together, in an open environment," his father continued.

He looked to his wife for support.

"Sweetie, we love you no matter what. So… how did you meet him?" his mother asked, shifting her tone to something lighter.

"Who’s him?" his sister asked from behind him, coming down the stairs hugging the big unicorn plushie Taylor had won yesterday.

Once again, silence settled over the kitchen.

His parents kept their eyes on him, leaving the decision of how to move forward entirely up to Taylor.

His sister sat back down at her plate. A thought crossed Taylor’s mind: Why hide it at all…?

"Will. My boyfriend," he said.

He had expected it would be harder to say the words out loud, but in the end, it was much simpler than he thought.

His sister stared at him for a long moment, then shrugged.

"Figure," she said, surprising all three of them.

"How?!" Taylor asked, stunned.

She lifted her fork and popped food into her mouth. "Your friend Morgan is totally… you know," she said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Morgan?!" his mom whispered in shock, looking at Taylor for confirmation.

"Morgan isn’t gay!" Taylor said firmly. His sister was now the second person—after Will—to tell him otherwise.

"You sure? I always thought the two of you would end up together," his sister added. Her tone was calm, casual, as if her brother hadn’t just come out in front of the entire family.

"Morgan? You’re sure?" his dad asked her. She nodded.

Taylor gasped. "He’s not! He has a girlfriend," Taylor said. Both his sister and his mom raised their brows at him.

Taylor picked up his toast and bit into it.

"The three of us will continue this conversation later," his dad added quietly.

His sister laughed. "The Talk? If you need help, the internet’s full of details."

“Chloe Smith! Watch your words,” their mother warned her.

“Wow, no… I didn’t mean it like that. I meant that nowadays you can find more things like this, for example there are stories and movies. If you want, I can recommend a really good series that my friends and I watch… really romantic… and the actors are so hot…”

“I think you’re losing the point of the conversation,” their father said, stopping her mid-flow.

Their mother chuckled softly, “What kind of series?” she asked quietly. Her husband looked at her in disbelief.

“Hey… we need something for movie night, maybe we can all learn something…” she said in an innocent tone.

Their sister started laughing, and soon everyone was laughing.

Taylor felt lucky to have been born into his family. They always stood by him during hard times, and now they were supporting him and trying to learn more about him.

*

*

*

*

"I'm a genius, or what?" Morgan said to Daniel one night through the phone.

"What?" Daniel replied, and Morgan laughed.

For the last two weeks, Morgan had been calling Daniel every night to update him on Taylor and Will’s progress.

Morgan told Daniel how, ever since the movie tickets they bought for them, Taylor and Will had been openly affectionate. Morgan was thrilled to share that Taylor and Will held hands constantly in the school hallways and always sat pressed close together at lunch.

Daniel chuckled to himself at Morgan’s definition of public affection.

Will filled him with more details about their friendship, and it made Daniel wonder if Taylor did the same thing with Morgan.

Daniel sat at his computer, checking what Will had asked him to look into weeks ago. Thanks to Morgan, he’d managed to uncover the names of the boys Will wanted information about. His instincts prickled when he discovered that their phones were protected with security far beyond what normal high school students would ever have.

Even though what he was doing was illegal, his gut told him he needed to keep going.

Morgan kept talking, finishing up about their mutual friends and moving on to basketball.

At some point Daniel stopped listening. His eyes widened, his breath caught in his throat as he stared at the data he had managed to hack into. His hand on the mouse began to tremble.

He grabbed his phone. “Morgan, I have to hang up.”

Morgan heard the tension in his voice. “Did something happen??” he asked quickly.

“Yes… no…” Daniel stammered. He took a deep breath to calm the pounding of his heart. “I need to talk to Will. This isn’t something I can put off.” Daniel said, sounding a little steadier now.

“Uh… okay. Talk to me if you need anything. Good night,” Morgan said, and hung up.

Daniel pressed Will’s contact on his phone and waited in suspense until Will finally picked up on the third ring.

“What?” Will’s sleepy voice came through.

“I can’t believe you’re actually asleep at this hour!” Daniel said in an accusing tone.

Will stretched and glanced at the time on his phone. “It’s almost midnight, and we have school tomorrow. The real question is—why aren’t you asleep?” he answered, sitting up in bed.

“I’m not asleep because I’ve been busy with that little favor you asked me for…” Daniel said, still sounding accusatory.

“What favor?” Will asked, trying to dig through the fog of his half-awake memory. Remembering anything just minutes after being pulled out of sleep wasn’t exactly easy.

Daniel let out an irritated sigh. “You wanted information about the kids from the wrestling team…”

“Oh, right. Wow, I almost forgot about that. Did you find anything interesting?” Will asked.

Daniel didn’t answer. The silence on the line made Will uneasy.

“Daniel?” he pressed.

“I’m pretty sure I need Big Sis’s number,” Daniel said.

Will groaned. “You really need to stop calling her that,” he told Daniel.

“Do you even realize what I just found?!” Daniel shot back, accusingly.

“That’s exactly what I want to know!” Will answered in the same sharp tone.

“I think I’d rather share this with my one and only FBI contact,” Daniel said quietly, emphasizing the last word.

“FBI?! So that’s why you want her number. What did you find?” Will was now fully awake.

“Yes! Please, just send me her number,” Daniel begged.

“I’m sending it now. But you’d better tell me what you found,” Will said, already forwarding Daniel the number of his cousin—the first grandchild in the family—who’d earned the nickname Big Sis.

You need to promise me something…” Daniel said.

“What?” Will asked him.

“Promise me you won’t try to handle this on your own…” Daniel said, though he already knew what Will’s answer would be.

“Angel… you know I can’t promise that,” Will admitted honestly.

Daniel sighed. “I know… what was I even thinking…” he muttered sarcastically.

“Just be careful not to get yourself hurt…” Daniel added.

“I will,” Will answered.

“Alright… I’ll let you get back to sleep while I stay up, watch over things, and send this information to Big Sis,” Daniel said quietly, preparing to return to the task of digging through the data.

“If you want, I can stay on the line with you so you won’t be alone… You don’t have to tell me the details, I’ll just be here as emotional support while you work,” Will offered.

Will stayed on the line with Daniel until he finished in the early morning hours. The two of them talked about random things, drifting into easy conversation.

Things that had nothing to do with what Daniel was uncovering. Every so often, Daniel would gasp, or blurt out an “OMG…” followed by a muttered “f***ing shit.” Each time, Will realized the situation was far worse than he had imagined.