(YOU MAKE ME FEEL) SHINY AND NEW

“So, he takes me to Breadstix. We have a really nice and proper dinner, and then we're having dessert and a really good time, like, we're laughing and everything, and you know what he manages to say after that?”

Annie doesn't really need an answer to that. She's been talking non-stop about her last date for the past hour, reporting even the smallest detail, so that Leo's almost got the impression that he was there too. The only thing he is required to do is nodding or shaking his head at the appropriate time, and he better not mess it up because otherwise she'll know. So, as they sit down on the bleachers around the McKinley High School's football field, he shakes his head vigorously, waiting to hear what the latest jerk let slip out of his mouth.

“He says that he wanna be just friends,” Annie goes on, answering her own question. “And you know why? Because I'm intimidating, he says. And I was, like, intimidating? Am I intimidating?” This time, Leo's about to open his mouth and give an actual answer to that, because as a matter of fact Annie can be quite intimidating sometimes, but she doesn't let him. “No, I'm not intimidating. I'm self-confident, you idiot, learn the fucking difference! I'm sorry if I'm not one of the blonde bimbos you usually go out with! God!” Her sigh of frustration is so loud that a couple of boys a few feet from them actually mistake it for a growl and move along, perfectly proving the point of her being intimidating. “And then it turns out that it's not really because I'm intimidating, but because I hang with you two all the time. Can you believe it?!”

“Oh, so, let me get this straight, he can't handle you, but it's our fault?”

“That's exactly what I told him,” Annie says, loud enough that they can hear her two rows below. “But you know, I think he was just afraid of Adam, like all the others before him. Your boys are never afraid of Adam, why can't you find one for me?!”

The field is still empty, but the bleachers are slowly filling up with friends and families. This is not a big match, but it's the first sunny day in weeks, and watching the local football game is a better way than most to spend a sunny day out in Lima, Ohio. “First of all, there are no boys, just one. Blaine doesn't count because he's a man and he's gay,” Leo answers. “Secondly, if I find one for you, he won't probably like girls.”

“Well, I know there are bisexuals out there,” she insists, very proud of her knowledge of sexual orientations. She started educating herself the moment Leo came out, and she now knows more about the LGBTQ community than Leo. “You are. Pete is. Just find me another one.”

“It's not that simple, Annie. We are mythical creatures,” Leo says, pretending to be very dramatic when, in reality, he couldn't care less about the current situation among bisexual individuals as far as acceptance is concerned. He is not, in any way, that kind of interested and aware person. “And despite our need for human contact – literally any kind – we shy away from it because gay and straight people alike shun us.”

Annie arches an eyebrow. “Oh, really?” She says. “You're one of the less shunned people I've ever met. People either want you or want to be you. And even when they hate you, they still kinda want you around to look at you. You don't even know what being shunned means, Leo.”

Leo grins widely. “Yeah, you're right.”

Annie shakes her head. “You're an insufferable spoiled prick, do you know that?” She knows she's the only one except Adam who can say something like that without Leo getting offended. The two of them can get away with almost everything with him. As he can with them, after all.

“Yes, I've been told that several times in the past,” he shrugs it off. “Anyway, we don't know what Pete is just yet. He likes me, but that's it. He could be just curious. He's not in the club, yet.”

“Which means he could actually be straight,” Annie says, hopefully.

Leo turns to glare at her. “But he would still be off limits for you, because he would be my ex,” he points out.
“Oh, come on! Even if he turned out to be straight?”

“Of course. It doesn't matter. He would still be my ex,” he answers. “That's a sacred rule. You don't go out with your best friend's ex. Didn't you get the memo?”

Annie huffs. “I would let you go out with one of my exes, tho.”

“But I wouldn't, so don't get any idea.”

Annie hears his grumpiness leak in his last words, so she drops it. There's no point in ruining a perfectly good day over some stupid speculation. “Still, he's not afraid of Adam,” she says, resuming their previous conversation. “He didn't refuse to be with you because you hang out with him.”

“That's because Pete actually knows Adam. Nobody in their right mind who knows Adam would ever be afraid of him, because they would know there's nothing to fear from the idiot. You should hunt among the football team players.”

“That's exactly why I am here.”

Instead, Leo is here for Pete. His relationship with football has always been confined only to other people, really. First, his father. Dave being a football coach – this school's very own, nonetheless – he was bound to at least try and make him love this sport, but it didn't work out. Leo knows all the rules and he can easily follow a match, he played for a little while when he was about seven or eight and he would throw the ball with his father every Sunday 'till he was twelve, but then his true nerd nature kicked in in full force and that was it. The call of RPGs, video games and tons of TV shows and book series was stronger than anything else.
Then, he started going to the matches because Adam was playing and he wanted to be a good friend. He also wanted to hang out with Adam after the match, and waiting for him on the bleachers was way better than getting bored alone somewhere else. In time, spending a few Sunday mornings at the field every now and then became an habit. It's now safe to say that he supports the McKinley Titans, even if just because he'd rather have Adam's winning than anybody else.
And then, Pete came along. Leo loves to watch him play. He actually loves to watch him doing everything. Laughing, studying, eating at the school cafeteria, even throwing away the remnants of said lunch. It's amazing the way he's caught up with him. It only took him a couple of weeks to turn into some perfect sweetheart from a chick flick. It would be embarrassing if Leo cared about what other people say. But he doesn't, especially when he feels good, and he feels great with Pete.

It's weird because he's not used to any of this. He's been out as bisexual for almost two years now but nobody has really seen him with a boy (or a girl for that matter!). In the beginning, he would make out with girls at parties, but never getting together with any of them. Then, that stopped too because Blaine happened – but nobody at school can know that. So for everybody he's been a bisexual nun until Pete appeared out of nowhere in his line of sight. And everything changed.

Leo passed from spending whole afternoons locked in a hotel room with his twenty years older boyfriend to being in a relationship with a guy his age, which is completely different and kinda new to him because it includes doing things he can never do with Blaine, like hanging out all the time out in the open, having lunch together in the cafeteria and sharing dessert (or better, Pete giving him his own pudding, since he can't have it. Coach rules), holding hands, making out at the movies, actually going to the movies, and loving the same things.

Pete too likes the Living Dead Chronicles and Chace Blackwell's movies, and even if he's in love with Yuka Hasegawa, Leo can forgive him because Pete is also crazy for The Shifters, which are Leo's all time favorite band. It's amazing for him to be able to say all these names and titles in the same sentence and see Pete nod and make comments, knowing what the hell he's talking about. Blaine would only stare at him with a blank face, patiently waiting for him to stop fanboying over stuff that was happening while he was too busy being a grown up only interested in Broadway stuff and mortgages. It's refreshing and elating to be able to have proper dates and make projects to go to comics conventions and concerts and skate parks and everywhere really. Leo is so excited about the whole situation and so involved with him that he doesn't even care that they need to take the sex slow because Pete is not comfortable with it yet. Of course, given the green light, he would have sex with him all the time, but he doesn't suffer as much as he would normally do because there are all these other things that they do together and he gets distracted long enough to get through any frustrated phase. Everything is new with Pete, and that makes Leo insanely happy.

“Are you lost in your thoughts again?” Annie's voice comes through the mess in his head, a mess made entirely of Pete, at the moment.

“Uh?” Leo turns to her and he has the decency to blush. “Yes. Sorry. Were you saying? I swear, I heard the majority of it.”

She doesn't seem offended, possibly because she knows him and she's aware that there's no solution to the way his brain works sometimes. “I swear, if I didn't know better, I'd say he's your first boyfriend.”

“Well, he actually is the first one.”

“What about Bl–”

“Blaine is different,” Leo instantly says. “He can't be included in any parameters whatsoever, of boyfriendhood or anything else.”

“That's not even a word,” Annie points out.

“It is now. I just invented it,” Leo says. “Oh! Here they are!”

While he was busy ignoring Annie's report of her latest disastrous date to lose himself in the sweet, sweet memories of the time spent with Pete in the last few weeks, the two teams came out of the lockers room and are taking their place on the field. Spotting Adam among all the players in the McKinley uniform is pretty easy. One, he knows his position. Two, he can recognize his body and posture despite the shoulder pads and the helmet. Adam is just something he's been used to look at for the past fifteen years. It'd be like recognizing his own arms and legs. It's not easy to do the same with Pete, yet. That's why he reads every single back to find his number, until he spots him next to the side line.

“There!” He shouts, pointing. And waving. It doesn't matter if Pete can hardly see him.

Annie glares at him, her voice a pit of disapproval. “You are embarrassing.”

“I know,” Leo nods. “And I don't care.”

The match is not particularly exciting. It appears clear from the beginning that the enemy team is inferior and, despite a few good balls, the Titans basically destroy it. Leo manages to scream for the entirety of the match and, if nobody had noticed him before, they surely do when he stands up shouting That's my best friend! the moment Adam score the last winning point.

“Do we wait them here?” Annie asks, as the teams go back in the locker room and the people start emptying the bleachers.

Leo sits back down, straddling the bench, his legs stretching until they touch Annie's foot on one side and her bag on the other. “Yep. Adam knows where to find us.”

“People from Mars know where to find you now,” Annie points out. “There was no need to scream like that.”

“I was just cheering for our team. I was being a responsible supporter.”

“The only thing you support here is your boyfriend's abs,” she snorts.

“And you should see them,” Leo smirks.

“Has he let you play with them?” Annie asks, both curious and wanting to get a little revenge on Leo's smugness. She knows they're taking it slow. In fact, Leo's face instantly turns into a mask of sadness.

“Not yet,” he sighs. “We make out alright, I can touch under his shirt and he let me jerk him off once with his pants on, but we are light-years from doing major stuff. He's still very awkward when it comes to it.”

“You must be patient. Not everybody has an older teacher ready to show them the marvelous world of sex,” Annie mocks him with a chuckle. As expected, Leo pouts.

Luckily, the boys arrive before his pout turns into annoyance – it usually does that when nobody can be bothered to address it, and Annie almost never can. The first one to get there is Adam, in his usual jeans and t-shirt, but with his hair still damp. “You know, I consider myself personally offended.” That's the first thing he says as he climbs up the bleachers.

Leo leans backwards, watching him upside down. “And why is that?”

“You have never screamed like that for me,” he says.

The sound coming out of Leo throat is even more embarrassing than all the other he let out today. “Aw, you're jealous!” He says it like it's a good thing, which kinda is. He likes for Adam to be jealous of him. He is of Adam, after all. And of all that he considers his. He stands up and hugs Adam. Or better, he embraces him like an octopus would, being both silly and tender at the same time. “But you don't have to be! You know you're my other half!”

“And the better one, to boot,” Annie butts in.

“Annie, shut up!” Comes Leo's angry voice, as he hides his face in Adam's neck. That's the sign for Adam to respond to the hug and wrap him in his arm. Annie chuckles and then sighs. They are ridiculous, the both of them. And the fact that them swinging left and right cuddling each other is a sight she's used to says a lot about the amount of time she spends with them and the amount of it they spend doing it.

“Wanna take a room, you two?”

Pete's playful remark brings Leo back on Earth, out of Adam's arms and straight into Pete's. “Ah! My boyfriend! Finally!” He says dramatically, kissing him on his mouth nonchalantly.

“You know he has a name, right?” Adam snorts. “You don't have to repeat that he's your boyfriend every time. We know that already.”

“He's got the tendency to remind people what's his and what's not,” Pete smiles, holding Leo by his hips. “Too bad everything is.”

“See?” Leo smirks at Adam. “He gets me.”

“Enjoy him while he still doesn't know you very well,” Adam replies bonking Leo on the head. “After that, he will send you straight back to me with a refund request.”

Pete nods. “That's totally possible.”

Leo frowns. “You are both horrible people.”

“Which is something coming from you,” Adam comments. “Now, shall we go? I'm starving.”

“Go ahead you two,” Leo says with a smile, nodding to Annie and Adam. “I wanna do something first.”

Adam's face can only be describe as a mix of pain, annoyance and desire to find himself a new best friend. “Oh, come on! I just played! I'm hungry!” He whines.

“Just five minutes!” Leo insists. “You go ahead. We'll be there soon.”

Leo waves them away and keeps looking at them until they have disappeared from his sight. Only then, he turns around and smirks at Pete. “Where were we?”

Pete tilts his head, his red mane catching the sunlight and turning almost gold. “I'm not sure. What's going on with you?” He asks, amused.

“You'll see.”

As Leo drags him down the bleachers and under them, realization must dawn on Pete. “Oh, I think I know what you want to do,” he says.

“Yes?” Leo says, pushing him in the dark space just under the stairs. “And what is it?”

“You want to kill me, then cut me into pieces and possibly eat me,” Pete says, obviously joking. It's pretty clear what Leo wants from him. There's basically no moment when Leo doesn't want that, after all.

Leo frowns as he leans him against the wall. “And why would I do that? If anything, I want you all in one piece.”

“I don't know, because you're evil?”

“Shut up!” Leo chuckles. And Pete shuts up because Leo kisses him. They fit in like two pieces of a puzzle. Same age, same height, same life. There's nothing wrong in them being here right now. And for once, just for once, Leo can enjoy the normality of it all.

For everything else there's still time.