What the Heart Wants

Chapter 1 (February 14th 1998)

It all started when two soon-to-be sets parents had their sons on the same date- February 14th 1998. Now you have to understand that these two sets of parents believe very heavily in fate. So when the parents saw each other as they were each watching over their boys in the nursery they, of course, started chatting.

"Which one is yours?"

My parents looked over at the parents sitting not far from them. They smiled proudly and pointed me out of the crowd of children in cribs "Ours is Jake. The boy with blonde hair" my dad joked, knowing fully well that there were like, ten babies with blonde hair.

Adrian's dad laughed before pointing out a baby with dark hair whom was currently looking up at the ceiling "His name is Adrian."

My mother smiled softly "He's so precious" She tilted her head thoughtfully before looking to Adrian's mother "Where are you from?"

Adrian's mother looked up at her husband with a soft smile "We live in Crestview" she turned to look at my mother who laughed "Us too! You don't happen to be going to the new mothers class, are you?"

Adrian's Mother laughed as well and nodded "I am!"

So basically? That's how our parents became BFFs. Short, I know but that's really all you need to know.

Between August 2010 - June 2016:

Everyone has multiple turning points in their lives where everything just seems to be turned on its head. I've had many in my past 17 years of life.

One of my firsts occurred in 7th grade when a couple of the boys in my class were talking about girls during lunch. Now, I like girls. Don't get me wrong. But... I just wasn't sure. It didn't seem appealing to me. I had a lot of girl friends in my life. They were all pretty and I enjoyed listening to them. Not to mention they could be great listeners. I could never imagine... Like liking them though... So, what did I do? I just told myself that I just hadn't met 'The One' yet and my adolescent brain wasn't developed enough yet to see girls the way other boys my age did.

So skip forward a year to 8th grade and the boys in my friend group were talking about their girlfriends and crushes and that's when I realized something.
I had never liked a girl.
Now, hear me out. I should have liked girls, right? I mean, I hit puberty! I had acne and facial hair so shouldn't that mean that I should be looking up 'boobs' or whatever in the Google?
The more I sat and listened to my friends the more I realized that I really didn't fit in and something was wrong with me. I mean... I was shopping with one of my girl friends and she legitimately asked me to look at the tag on her bra to see what size it was and I just did it without a hitch. I wasn't weirded out at all!
At this point I started panicking some and had to excuse myself, stumbling off to the bathroom as I tried to evaluate my life and figure out if I really was... Gay.

What really sealed the deal was the summer after 8th grade when my best friend, Adrian, left for a month to tour Italy with his parents and little sister (fancy, I know) like most friends, we promised each other we would Skype and call everyday but that soon turned into a huge flop between him touring fucking Italy and me being stuck at home working 4 jobs over the summer
(Okay, I actually had a good reason for all the jobs I had. You see, I figured that if I took on enough jobs then I would have enough money to buy a car by the time I turned 16. Anyway,) we of course had no time and started to just text each other.

Now you never really notice people when you see them everyday. You just never notice that you and the people closest to you are changing because you see them all the time. So then after, like, a year, you see some picture on Facebook (you know, the one where you're wearing your rattiest looking shirt and you have bed head but your friend is over there looking like a stupid prince) that was posted that time the year before and you realize how much the two of you changed.

That's basically what happened to me when Adrian went to Italy.

So, this month passed (kinda slowly if we're being honest) and I was sitting on Adrian's front porch, waiting for my best friend of 14 years to come home.

I recognized his parents' car immediately. They drove this old, greenish blue van that was kinda beat up. Their bags were all stacked up on the top of the van which was seriously amusing to me for some unknown reason. I watched the van pull into the the driveway and the car come to a stop. It wasn't even ten seconds before the back door flew open and Adrian came out of the van. Now in the five seconds I got to admire Adrian before we were squeezing the guts out of each other. What I noticed was: 1. He was now a good three inches taller than me. 2. His skin was miraculously a darker tan color than when he left. 3. He let his hair grow out. 4. He was wearing the most adorable button up shirt he must have gotten in some shop on his Italy trip. And 5. He was the most beautiful human being I'd ever seen. Like, no offense to the girls I knew then and know now but he's more beautiful than any of you.

I slowly closed my eyes and took in the feeling of hugging Adrian for the first time in a month. His soft, black, curly hair tickled my pale cheek and made me envious. What was I envious of? Everything. His hair, his smooth, golden, acne free skin, his smile, his dimples, his gorgeous brown nearly black eyes, the stubble on his chin and jaw, and most of all?

The muscles I could feel under his shirt.

That... I kinda wanted to run my hands over... Without fabric separating my hands from his soft skin...

I blushed and tried to force the thoughts out of my head. Yeah, I might have an itty bitty tiny gay crush on Adrian but that didn't mean that Adrian was gay too, you know? I just couldn't let myself entertain my homosexual thoughts. I had heard so many stories about guys getting uncomfortable with their friends because they come out as gay and then those guys would stop talking to the gay friends. You have to understand, I just couldn't let that happen to Adrian and I.

I squeaked loudly before giggling like a little kid as Adrian picked me up and swung me around like I weighed nothing. I felt so relieved to feel my worries just melt away with one small gesture from the boy in front of me. "Adrian!" I laughed loudly. "Ugh! I missed you so much, Jake!" He laughed as he gently set me down. I looked up at Adrian and gave him a smile "I missed you too, Adrian." I said softly as my blue eyes looked into Adrian's, trying my hardest to not go all rainbows and sparkles on him. The boy in front of me ruffled my messy brown hair "Cutie." He mumbled under his breath.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay

That could not have just happened.

I tried to ignore my mini panic attack as I followed Adrian and started helping him get down his bags.

Adrian looked down at me and gave me this look that honestly made me melt like he knew the affect it would have on me.

Or...

Maybe Adrian had already pieced it together? I mean, we had been friends for 14 years...