"Dad, I-" He stopped. His voice sounded groggy and foreign to his own ears. If he couldn't even say gay aloud to himself, he had no idea how he was going to tell his dad.

"The only reason my parents said yes to helping us rent a condo was because it was my graduation gift and because there were six of us going so it was so cheap. I don't know if they'll pay the extra money."

"Same for my mom," Leah said.

"Well," Abby said slowly, "Why don't we see if we can find someone who wants to go instead?"

It wasn’t until she got to the band room that she heard the singing. It was instantly recognizable as the lead singer of her band. Leah hesitated outside the door for a second before turning the handle. Taylor was singing one of the songs they were narrowing down to for their talent show performance, and smiled at Leah without missing a note.

“…and my parents are shaking hands with Bram.”

He recognized Simon’s hair and his jawline almost immediately. His heart thudded heavily. Before Bram could say anything, Simon said, “Please don’t be weird, guys.”

The word secret went with Simon a little too well for Bram. Not even Garrett knew about his longstanding crush on Nick’s Hufflepuff best friend.

[SVTHSA Hogwarts AU]

“Pink Floyd and pajamas; big plans tonight I see,” Nick said.

Nora looked up. She already had her glasses on, and her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail. It fell over her shoulder in messy curls as she repositioned her fingers. “Says the fifth wheel.”

In retrospect, skipping two days of lunch together gave six other AP English nerds forty-eight hours to figure out exactly how they wanted to make Simon and Bram’s return as embarrassing as possible.

All of the baristas at the coffee shop on campus were ridiculously hot. Simon thought it must have been a job requirement.

-or-

The Simon Vs. Coffee Shop AU no one asked for.

If his step-mother’s cousin was the reason Bram first realized he was gay, then Simon Spier was the final checkmark, confirmation stamp, seal of approval.

The world just seemed a little brighter after you spent lunch kissing a cute boy.

Creekwood really blows its load on costume days all at once.

He thought about his and Jacques' talk about walls coming down. There was one more wall in Bram's life that he needed to take care of.