After the girl was done singing a few more songs, she walked of the stage and everyone applauded, including Noah and Luke. Noah got up and stretched and Luke did the same.

“So,” Luke began with a yawn, “what do we do now?”

“Are you tired?”

“No, no, stretching does that to me, I’m totally awake.”

“Ahuh,” Noah said with a smile. “I can tell.”

“Well, maybe a cup of coffee would help,” Luke said tugging at Noah’s shirt, grinning.

“Coming right up.”

Noah walked over to Gabe who just finished serving the last customer and ordered coffee for Luke.

“So did you guys have fun? I saw you all snuggled up on the couch over there,” Gabe said with a raised brow.

“Shut up,” Noah said playfully. “But we did have a great time.”

“What do you mean did? It’s only six! The night is still plenty young!”

“Yeah, but—“

“No buts! Listen, the guy I told I was dating, Josh, he’s picking me up in a few minutes and we’re gonna go hang out and watch a movie. You guys should totally come along! It would be our first double date,” Gabe said, handing Noah the cup of coffee.

“Um, I’ll have to ask Luke and see if he—“

“Ask me what,” Luke said appearing to Noah’s side and taking the cup.

“Gabe, wanted to know if you wanted to go on a double date tonight,” Noah said.

“Sure! But, will the girl be ok with us going?”

“Um, actually, I’m gay too…so I’m thinking he won’t have a problem with it,” Gabe said with a laugh.

“Oh,” Luke said looking at his coffee, trying to be slightly less embarrassed.

Noah figured he could’ve told Luke that Gabe was gay, but seeing Luke blush a little was pretty entertaining seeing how Noah’s usually the one that does the blushing. He heard the noise of an engine and saw a car pull up into the parking lot.

“That’s him,” Gabe said with a huge smile on his face.

Before, Noah couldn’t remember the Josh that Gabe talked about before, but when he saw the car, he remembered. What surprised Noah was that the Josh he saw seemed to be very different from what he remembered. He remembered the Josh that was somewhat scrawny, wore glasses, was extremely quiet, and was always reading. This didn’t look like that Josh at all now, but as it turns out, he still acted the same. This Josh was taller, a more muscular build, but still pretty small. He had contacts now.

They introduced themselves, Noah again happily introducing Luke as his boyfriend.
Noah and Luke sat in the back while Gabe sat in the front with Josh while they caught up on what was going on with them now and everything.

The date went really well, nothing spectacular, just good fun with amazing people, laughing at a movie and enjoying each other’s company.

Josh pulled into the hotel parking lot and they all said their goodbyes, and Noah promised Gabe he would try to keep in touch with him more.
Noah and Luke walked into their hotel room to find it empty.

“So I know that I’m in an empty hotel room with you right now, but I’m exhausted. Can we just go to bed?”

“That sounds good me ,” Noah responded falling onto the bed.

“Uh…I better sleep in the other bed.”

“Yeah, that…that would probably be best.”

Noah watched Luke settle into the other bed and almost instantly fall asleep. It had been a long day, one of the most memorable days ever actually. He never wanted it to end.

Unfortunately, the weekend ended too soon and before Noah would have liked, they were on the road once again, but this time they were going back to reality.

“Son, I’m tired and it’s been a long weekend. Do you think you could take Luke home from our house? I need sleep.”

“Uh, yeah, that’d be ok.”

Colonel Mayer finished driving to their house, and as soon as he pulled up, he uncharacteristically left everything that was packed in the car and went inside. It must have been more tiring than Noah thought.

Noah happily climbed into the drivers seat and Luke sat in the front with him.

“I’m really glad you decided to come with us. I had a lot of fun.”

“Yeah, me too,” Luke said, his head resting on his seat, but looking up at Noah.

“So, I was thinking on the way back…”

“Mhm,” Luke said, eyes closed.

“And I was wondering…what are we going to do at school?”

“What?”

Noah could see Luke was only half-awake, but kept talking.

“I mean, I know what we are now, but what do we do?”

“Just…keep…doing what we do.”

“Yeah but, I really like you Luke, and it took a really long time for me to be ok with that, and I don’t want to put up this…this guard anymore.”

“You thought about a lot in three hours.”

“Luke, I’m serious.”

“I know,” Luke muttered.

“So…”

“Noah, do we have to talk about this now?”

“When else are we going to talk about it?”

“You know, I really liked the weekend up until about…two seconds ago.”

“You know, you’re right. I’m sorry. I guess…I guess I don’t know what to do when things aren’t planned you know? Just forget it.”

“No, Noah, it’s ok,” Luke said, starting to wake up. “Ok, well…let’s see. A few people already know I’m gay, so are you ok with doing that? Like, telling Maddie and Casey?”

“What about Kevin?”

“Kevin doesn’t even know I’m gay.”

“Why?”

“It’s…it’s hard to explain. He’s been my best friend for a long time. I don’t want to lose him.”

“But…I thought that you wouldn’t want people in your life that didn’t accept you?”

“I know…it’s…like I said, it’s hard to explain.”

Noah started to lose his confidence. Did Luke want to hide the relationship? Obviously he wasn’t any good at hiding his emotions because Luke started apologizing.

“Noah, I’m sorry, I didn’t want it to sound like this doesn’t matter, it does!”

“Yeah?”

“Absolutely.”

Noah could feel his confidence starting to come back.

“So, how did you tell your parents? Because I…I want to tell my dad, but you know him! I’m…I’m kind of scared to.”

“I know how you feel, I haven’t told my parents either.”

“Really? I thought they knew.”

“If they knew, I never would’ve gone on this amazing trip with you.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, but I want to tell them. I’ve been thinking about it a lot. More in the summer, but when I started talking to you…I knew I’d have to tell them.”

“When?”

“Seventeen days.”

“You…you know exactly how many days?”

“Yeah,” Luke said with a smile. The first smile of the day since he’s been sleeping the whole ride. “I’ve had it planned since you asked me to go to Branson with you. See, if I tell them too soon, they’re going to think I did it just to hook up with you.”

“Didn’t you?”

“Maybe. But that’s beside the point. Anyway, I give them some time, and it’s right before basketball starts and my sisters have an all-night thing, so it’ll just be me and them, and I can finally tell them.”

“Wow. You’ve really thought ahead.”

“Maybe your just rubbing off on me,” Luke said as they pulled into the driveway.

“Ok, well…this is it.”

“Yep. I really did have a great time Noah.”

“Me too.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye.”

“Bye.”

And with that, Luke kissed Noah on the cheek, grabbed his bag, and went into his house.

Noah couldn’t wait to get home and sleep. But more importantly, it’s what happens when he wakes up the next morning. He’d get to see Luke again. Then he began to wonder if it was too much that he wanted to be around Luke a lot, but then he decided that they are high schoolers after all, and he’s seen girls be way more clingy to guys than he was to Luke.
-------------

Noah walked into the school building ten minutes before the bell, just like he does every morning. He’s taken note before that kids in high school don’t come in until necessary. He walked into homeroom and everything was normal. He passed Casey and Maddie in the hall, say Kevin putting his hands certain places on Liv that weren’t ‘school appropriate’ , and walked in Mr. Wilson’s class and sat behind Luke. Everything was normal.

Except the fact that he just had thee most amazing weekend ever with his boyfriend that he couldn’t tell people about. Not yet anyway.
Kevin came in and waved at Noah and started talking to Luke about some fight he missed at the courts this weekend. Noah watched Luke’s reaction to the news, just like he watched his expression when we was thinking about something.

Casey came in milliseconds before the bell as usual. One day he just might be late from walking Maddie to her class, but Noah doubted it.

The class picked up where it left off: nowhere interesting. When they had free time at the end of the block, which they always do, Casey asked Noah about fall break.
“It was good,” Noah said glancing at Luke who was dragged to the other side of the room by Kevin to talk to Liv and her friends.

“So,” Casey said leaning in quietly, “are you guys dating yet or what?’ Cause you’ve really got to stop flirting with each other if you’re not.”

Noah was absolutely in shock. He didn’t know what to say. He never does.
“Wha-what?”

“Oh c’mon. You guys are horrible at hiding it. Besides, Luke told me and Maddie he liked you two weeks ago. Plus, you guys have it written all over your face.”

“How…how you know? I mean, Luke talked about me? How can you tell, are we that obvious?”

“Well,” Casey began with a smile and was scratching his head, “ let’s just say I’ve had to watch many a chick flick and I know the tall tell signs. And yeah, Luke talked about you.”

“And your not freaked out?”

“Why would I be?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, whatever man. I’m happy for you guys. I just wish Kev would stop trying to set Luke up. I also wish Luke would quit wearing stripes,” Casey continued looking up. “Does he not get there are other patterns?”

Noah laughed and felt a relief that he’d never felt before. He just inadvertently came out to Casey, kind of.

“So did you, you know, at Branson?”

“What?! No!”

“Ha-ha! Well, it’s still early in the relationship.”

Noah rolled his eyes and laughed. For once, the bell rang sooner than he anticipated, and he walked up to Luke to make sure they would still walk to second block, which Luke said ‘of course’ to.

As they were walking, Noah didn’t know what to say to fill the silence. He obviously can’t talk too loudly about the weekend, but then again, there wasn’t anyone in the hallway.

“So,” Luke began. Again, Noah like the fact he could always seem to make things more comfortable. “I was think you should go to the library for study hall.”

“Why?”

“Duh, I want to have my way with you in the encyclopedia section!”

“What,” Noah asked, highly amused.

“Just kidding. But I do want you to go, I have to finish a report and I’ll need some company.”

“Ok.”

“And if I get done early we can talk about what you wanted to talk about in the car some more.”

“Ok.”

“Cool. Now, let’s get ready for some creative writing!”

“Can’t wait,” Noah said mimicking Luke’s fake enthusiasm.

They both chuckled as they walked into a class Noah once thought was boring, but since Luke was there, it suddenly got a lot more interesting.