Caleb was lost and had been for as long as he could remember. He tried to walk the path his parents wanted, but he couldn't see it through the darkness. With his brothers away for college everything became worse. The once warm home felt ice cold, the halls devoid of sound and his life devoid of colour. Then he bumped into Lucas. His long time neighbour who he was certain only saw him as his best friends little brother. Until he didn't. Until Lucas inserted himself further into Caleb's life, getting closer to him than anyone had ever been. Too close. Or maybe that's just what Caleb needed, someone to see more than what was on the surface. Maybe the love he sought was right there in front if him, and so was the help he needed. --- *This is a bxb that deals with sensitive themes, religion, and mature subjects. Read with care. It's also a really. really slow burn.* Slow updated, but still updating (promise)! No AI was involved at any point in the writing of this story.

At first glance, nobody would be able to tell that Nathaniel Jean had a problem. Or second glance, or third, or fourth. After all, he had everything. He was a captain of his school's soccer team and one of the top players in the state. He had a big house and money to spend. He had family, he had friends, he had fun, he had faith. He never meant for it to happen. He never wanted to look at another man in the way he should have been looking at a woman. The idea had disgusted him for most of his life - living in a heavily Catholic town with heavily Catholic parents, homophobia was the only response he knew. That didn't change when he first realized that he didn't like girls. No, Nathaniel Jean was still homophobic. He hated the idea of a man sleeping with another man. He was raised on the notion that all gays went to hell, and he believed it. He despised them, and so he despised himself. Nathaniel Jean was more fortunate than most, because help did arrive for him. Help by the name of Lucas Morgan, they boy he'd always known but never known. The boy with big dreams and bigger talent. The boy that changed Nathaniel's life over the course of their thirty-six week long senior year.