"I've gotta get going, Anthony. I have to talk to Kelly before she goes to sleep." Greg had been talking on the phone with his boyfriend for over an hour. He lay on his bed in his darkened room, he had never bothered turning on his light as the sun had gradually set.

       "What do you mean; 'is it about Tyler?' I just have to talk to her about some stuff and she'll be going to sleep soon. She works tomorrow morning." Greg lied. He was planning to talk to Kelly about Tyler.

       "Ok, I love you too. Good night, sweetie." Greg hung up the phone and jumped out of his bed. He tripped through the doorway into the well-lit hallway. He collided into Tyler, who was coming out of the bathroom.

       "Sorry." They both said simultaneously, grabbing each other for balance.

       "I'm sorry. My eyes aren't used to the light. I've been sitting in the dark, talking to Anthony."

       "I heard."

       "Was I too loud?"

       "No. I just heard you when I walked by your room."

      Greg wondered why Tyler made a point of saying he had heard him on the phone. Had he heard Greg talking about him? His door had been partly open, so he could have heard any part of the hour-long conversation.

       "Are you going to bed?" Greg asked.

       "I was going to watch some TV. Otherwise I'm ready to hit the old futon."

       "I was going to talk to Kelly for a while. But after that, if you're still awake, maybe I'll come out in the living room with you for a while." Greg had a TV in his room, but he wanted to spend some time with Tyler.

       "Ok." Tyler walked down the hall to the living room.

      Greg tuned and knocked on Kelly's door. "It's me. Are you decent?" He knew she was still awake, because of the light escaping from under the crack of her door.

       "Contrary to rumors, yes, I'm decent."

      Greg opened her door. "Well, I'm coming in anyway."

      Kelly was sitting Indian-style on her bed, with CD's and magazines surrounding her. "I'm just working on a mix tape, with some CD's I got from the library. What's up?"

       "Nothing. I just got off the phone with Anthony." Greg looked down the hall before shutting Kelly's door. "He's being weird about Tyler."

       "Weird?"

       "I don't know. He's jealous, I guess."

       "Jealous?"

      Greg pushed some magazines out of the way and sat on the corner of Kelly's bed. "Like I'm gonna dump him for Tyler, or something. As if!"

       "Speaking of which..."

      Greg grimaced. "Not you too! Come on, he's jail-bait!"

       "No, I don't mean that. I don't think you have a thing for Tyler. But I was talking to Tyler, and..."

      Greg's mouth dropped. "Don't tell me he thinks I like him like that!"

       "Let me finish."

       "What?" Greg glanced at the door behind him, wondering if they were talking too loudly.

       "He doesn't think you like him. At least I don't think he does." Kelly got up from her bed to change the CD in her stereo. "We were talking. You never told him you were gay."

       "I didn't?"

       "No. He said he figured it out on his own. He asked me, to be sure. I would've thought that's something you would've told him. He's having a hard time dealing with being gay. I would think knowing someone else that was gay would help him."

       "I guess."

       "So why did you never tell him you were gay?"

       "I don't know. I didn't do it on purpose." Greg scratched his chin. "I mean I didn't make a decision not to tell him."

       "He needs someone to confide in, to help him deal with all the crap he's going through." Kelly sat back on the bed, after programming the new CD for recording.

       "But..."

       "But what?"

       "But I didn't go through what he's going through. My parents never threw me out. I was already living on my own. Sure my Mom cried a lot when I told her, but she bounced back. She told me she loves me, the whole time." Greg looked down at his feet. "I still have to come out to my Dad. But he won't throw me out either. He doesn't even live in the same state."

       "What's throwing you out of the house have to do with anything?"

       "Tyler was; that's what he's dealing with. I didn't have half the shit he's going through."

       "Well, your sister hasn't been a picnic."

       "That's true. Sometimes she's like Sybil. One day she acts like she'd willingly carry me on her back in the Gay Pride Parade, the next she's trying to find a padlock to lock me back in the closet."

       "Greg, either way, it doesn't matter. Nobody goes through exactly the same experiences in life. But Tyler's gay and you're gay. You're all he's got right now."

      Greg knew Kelly was right. His life had been easier than Tyler's, but perhaps there was some wisdom Greg could impart on Tyler and make things easier on him as well.

      Greg looked up at Kelly. "You're partly wrong."

       "What do you mean?"

       "I'm not all he's got. He's got you too. Which brings me to what I came in here for."

       "What?" Kelly looked up from her CD's.

       "I wanted to talk with you." Greg looked down and thumbed through one of Kelly's magazines. "We need to make some decisions about Tyler."

      The next day, Tyler leaned against the open doorway of Greg's bedroom. He watched Greg write in his journal for several minutes, before speaking. "I called my mom this morning." He knew Greg would be interested in this news, because he had urged him to call several times in the past.

      The early afternoon sun glared into Greg's face through the window, as he sat on his bed. "Really?" Tyler had not spoken to either of his parents since they had thrown him out. "What'd you say?"

       "I told her I was all right, and that I'd been staying with you for the last two weeks. Although I acted as though I hadn't just met you - and I lied and said you weren't gay. That was one of her first questions, after I said your name."

       "It was? I would have assumed that she'd have a tough time saying 'gay' or 'homo.'"

       "Oh, she did. She asked, 'is he a...' and I had to fill in the blank for her."

       "Did she say anything about... your father?" Greg asked hesitantly. Tyler's father had been the driving force behind Tyler being thrown out. He could not handle having a gay son. Tyler knew Greg's hesitance to ask too many questions was because he did not want to dredge up bad feelings for Tyler.

       "She said my father still won't talk about me. She says she wants me back, but she's afraid to bring up the topic to him."

      Greg remained poker-faced. "How does that make you feel Tyler?"

       "Well, I'm glad my mom said she wants me back home. But I can't believe that my dad could throw me out like that. I mean... he's always been kinda' distant. And he's always yelled a lot. Though I always assumed that he loved me. But now..." Tyler trailed off. He sat down on the floor. It was hard for Tyler to talk about the situation. He could not understand how his father could dismiss him so easily, over something that he had no control over. Tyler was drained from thinking about his parent's callousness; he had had plenty of tearful sleepless nights because of it.

      Tyler looked up at Greg. "My mother did say that she wants me to finish school." He purposely changed the subject. He felt tears welling up and did not want to start crying again.

       "That's great. I told you I'd help you with that. How much more school do you have?"

       "Well, I'll have to take summer classes, because of missing these last few weeks. Then I can go ahead with my senior year when school starts in the fall."

       "Now, how do you do that while you're staying with me in Fairview Park and not still in living in Berea?"

       "My mom said she'd cross that bridge when she comes to it."

       "I do think it's important that you finish school." Greg paused as he laid his notebook on the bed. "While we're being serious, there's something else we need to talk about. Kelly and I have been talking."

       "I think I know what it is." Tyler feared what Greg might say next. Greg had been generous to take in a stranger, and Tyler had been lucky that Greg and Kelly had allowed him to stay as long as they had. However, it could not continue forever.

       "We decided that at this point it's OK for you to stay. We want you to stay, Tyler." Greg said encouragingly.

      Tyler breathed a sigh of relief.

       "However," Greg continued, "I can't afford to support you with just the money that I make as a server."

       "So what are you saying, Greg?"

       "Just that you'll need to find a job, so you can buy your own food, clothes, and stuff. Kelly and I won't make you pay rent or anything."

      Tyler stared at the floor.

       "We're very close to Westgate Mall. I'm sure there's work there for a seventeen year old." Greg looked puzzled by Tyler's silent reaction.

      Tyler looked up at Greg, "For a minute there, I was afraid you were going to throw me out," he finally said. "I heard you on the phone last night, with your boyfriend. He's mad that I'm here, isn't he?"

       "No, he's not." Tyler knew Greg was lying. "Well... maybe a little. But it's nothing I can't smooth over with a few reassuring words, a nice dinner, and a little romance." Greg paused for a moment, then continued. "I want you to stay. I want to help you. My coming-out process has been relatively easy, I want to make things easier for you."

       "Greg, you and Kelly have already helped so..." Tyler hesitated. "Thank you for letting me stay. I'll get a job, that's no problem." Tyler stood up and walked over to the bed where Greg was sitting. Tyler threw his arms around him and held tight. "I'm so lucky that I met you." Tyler held on to Greg as though he were grasping on to a life preserver.