The Break Up Plan (BoyxBoy)

He Needs Help!

When we got to my house, Rin stood at the bottom of the steps, smiling as he watched me head inside. I tried to look normal. Tried to remember how Elly walked into his house when he wasn't keeping secret opinions from his friend.

I think my normal self waved goodbye and stumbled into his own house. Or maybe he didn't and I was just telling myself that so I wasn't completely mortified.

Because I sent Rin the biggest wave I could muster before turning around and tripping on nothing.

The lies were already getting to me. The presence of secrets that should never exist in such a sacred friendship was already driving me mad.

Safely inside, I made a beeline for my bedroom, racing up the stairs three at a time. My parents weren't home to hear it, otherwise I would've gotten an earful for stomping up the stairs like an elephant in high heels.

But elephant noises be damned, I had work to do. Not the four assignments burning a hole into my backpack.

No. I mean important work.

This groundbreaking turn of events could not be left in my possession alone. And there were only two people I could trust to share it.

In my rush, I slammed my bedroom door and something fell down with a clatter.

"Shit."

My bag was flung to the floor, forgotten, as I kneeled down. It didn't look damaged but my body was still clenched with nerves at the thought that I broke it. With a delicate touch I picked up the photo frame. I dragged my fingers along the edges, tilted it to inspect the glass, then sighed in relief. Not a crack in sight.

The frame held my favorite picture of Rin and I. It was from 3 years ago, right before we hit puberty. At that time, my face still didn't match my nose and Rin's ears were still as big as Dumbo's. But being good looking or popular didn't matter to us back then. We had our cheeks pressed against each other's, wearing the biggest smiles. Just being near one another made us happy.

I guess at some point, my thick-headed best friend forgot that.

Since the frame was still intact, I hung it back over the nail in my door. It did stick out from the other things on my walls. Like my laminated green lantern comic book and the gazillion TLC posters. (It's important to recognize the best music group of all time on a regular basis)

But, with the picture hung on the back of my door, it was the first thing I saw in the mornings. Seeing our pimply, grinning faces always reminded me of what really mattered. I wouldn't want to have the picture anywhere else.

With our middle school photo safely secured, I got back to business. It didn't take long to invite them onto the call and within a few minutes, Coby and Tyler had their faces covering my phone.

"When's Rin coming?" Coby asked because of course he did. Not taking a group census before every conversation would go against his hyper-extroverted nature.

"He's not. This meeting is about him."

Tyler, the most mellow dude I knew, had his mouth dropped open. We never did a call without Rin. Or more specifically, if I was on a call, Rin was always there with me. And now I was planning calls behind his back. If I was Tyler, I would have called the hospital for a quick psychiatric check. On me.

"Are you guys sitting down? Because I'm about to drop a bomb."

Half of my screen was just them rolling their eyes but Tyler actually sat down on his bed. I propped my phone up above my dresser, aligning it right below the TLC FanMail tour promo poster.