Author's Note: We hit 1k and over two hundred votes. Omfg I still can't believe it
Heath's mom came to pick him up soon. They looked so alike. They shared the same straight dark hair, thin faces and a reedy body. The only thing that set apart were their eyes. Heath with his amber ones and his mom with her black ones. She looked kinder and softer than her son. Conan understood where he had gotten his polite and calm nature from.
"Would you like me to drop you off too?" she asked when they both approached the car after trudging up the slant hill.
"I thought I would walk back home," Conan said. Gus had promised to pick him up but he doubted he would be there on time.
"Don't be silly," she said, reversing her car. "Come one, Conan. You live only two streets away from us."
"Okay, Mrs Charles," he said a little hesitant and wondering how Heath would react.
"It's Miss Locke," she said happily. "Besides, it's Janet for you."
Heath's mom had a photo of him in the car. It was probably from the start of middle school. His face was still soft and boyish. He was smiling shyly as if he didn't even want to look at the camera. His hair were a little curly back then and he couldn't believe how straight his hair had turned out to be when he grew up.
"He used to steal rubber bands and tie up his damp hair to make them curly," Janet laughed as she narrated. Heath had buried his head in lap, covered by his hands out of abashment.
"That's so cute," Cone said, poking Heath on his hand playfully.
"That's just the beginning," she said, tapping on the steering. "He started looking up expensive surgeries to edit his genetics so he could get naturally curly hair."
"Mom, he didn't need to know that!" he yelled like a child and Janet laughed, staring at her son from the rear view mirror.
Conan burst out laughing, seeing them both bicker.
Heath's mom insisted he stay for dinner too. He called his mom, telling her he would be back after dinner. Surprisingly enough she didn't disagree but instead told him he could even stay the night if he wanted to. At first he thought she was being sarcastic but when he continued talking she said they had had lunch together so he could have dinner elsewhere.
His house was the same size as his but mostly empty. There was no staircase lined with pictures that one could use to track the progress of Heath's life. The photos above the fireplace were only of him and his mom from over the years. One caught his eye. It was one of them sitting in Cone's favourite diner where Heath was smiling and his mom seemed to be listening to something he was saying. They were seemingly close but Heath didn't visit her very often. There was a framed book cover of 'Wuthering Heights' and a couch that had quotes from the book printed all over it.
"I will bring out dinner in fifteen minutes," his mom said, hanging the car keys on a hook on the wall. "How about you both go up to Cliff's old room?"
Heath lead him the creaky old staircase. There were three door, one on the left that was a few meters away, one to his immediate right and one at the end of the hall.
"The last one," he murmured as they both made their way to the end of the hall. The door was unlocked and needed a slight push to be opened.
Entering his room was like leaving the planet to walk into another. Unlike most of his house that was pastel and cream colours, Heath's was a ray of light.
There was a huge rainbow flag above the head board of his bed, a canopy made out of three rainbow flags, posters of some old boybands, a Draco Malfoy poster, a brown desk and a blue dresser with rainbow knobs above which was a oval shaped mirror bombarded with stickers of the Achillean flag.
"I guess I wasn't very subtle about being gay as child," he grinned. "Most of the flags are from freshman year of college."
"There are so many colours," Conan said, feeling dizzy.
"My mom put most of my pride merch in boxes because they were getting dusty," he said. "Wanna see?"
"Sure," he said.
He opened the door of his closet and pulled out a cardboard box filled with articles of colourful shades. They sat on his bed seeing all the things he owned.
"I got this bi pride flag because I came to her as bi first," he said, pulling out a pink, purple and deep blue flag. "She got me this from amazon and I freaked out."
Conan laughed lightly as Heath pulled it over his head, wearing it proudly like a scarf. "When did you tell her?"
"Seventh grade," he replied. "I swore to god I would marry girl and would never have to tell anyone. My mom was very supportive but I was a freaking coward."
"You're not a coward. You aren't allowed to be self demeaning, okay?"
He nodded, smiling a little and showed him a small sheet of stickers with people dressed as flags. "I thought this was so cute that I never even used one."
"I want that," he said and Heath gave it to him without a second thought. "Wait-really?"
"Keep it if you like it," he said. "I am out now and I don't like it as much."
He had so much of pride stuff. From rainbow flasks to rainbow nails.
"Wait," Conan said, "You hid this stuff?"
"I tucked them in the bottom drawer of my dresser," he said sadly. "My dad saw me paint the knobs of my dresser one summer and he s-slapped me. Mom told him to get the fuck out of our house if he was gonna be so perceiving and violent."
"He hit you?"
"He was a violent man," he said calmly, closing the box, "Who never set his priorities straight. Mom never let him meet me again."
"It feels so weird," Conan admitted. "I always thought of you-"
"As the perfect prince?" he countered, smiling lopsidedly.
"Yes," he finished. "I wish had talked to you and tried to help you through it back then."
He looked away. He always did that when he tried to approach him with a sensitive topic. Perhaps he had understood that Conan liked him. Maybe he liked him back.
"You're helping me through it now," he said, placing the box on his dresser. "That's enough."