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"Umm..." I said trying to fill in the silence as my brain tried to think of what to say to him. "Maybe, I don't know. I've only known him like a couple weeks."

"Oh right," he nodded. "Your name's Alden?"

"Yeah."

"Cool. I'm Roman. I've seen you before actually. At college, I think. You have that pretty friend with the cool purple hair."

"Dahlia. She's a lesbian." Now I didn't usually go around announcing people's sexuality to other people, but he just called her pretty and it made me want to make it clear that he didn't have a chance with her. I was kidding myself if I thought I had a chance with him though. For all I know, he could be as straight as they come.

"Oh...okay. Cool. Umm...I'm bi so I'm not like homophobic or something." Okay, so maybe he's not as straight as they come. Only like half straight unless his percentages were a little uneven. Bi people have percentages or something right?

"I'm gay." Seriously. Our first conversation ever and the only thing I could talk about was sexualities.

"Okay, umm...I have a cousin who's gay?" he questioned like it was some game where we had to keep taking turns saying ever LGBTQ+ person we knew.

"Cool..." He chuckled probably a little confused.

"This isn't usually the kind of conversation I have with new people," he admitted.

"Neither." Apparently, I couldn't say a sentence that was more than one or two words around this guy.

"Okay, well...you want a drink?" he offered. I just nodded my head and let him grab us both a random beer from the fridge. "C'mon, don't wanna be caught with these when whoever they belong to comes back in here to grab one."

"Shit, yeah. Let's go upstairs," I offered finally saying more words. I was mostly just panicking that Arwyn would come looking for me and disturb us when I finally had a chance to talk to the guy I'd been admiring since year 12. I'd have to thank Charlie later when I got the chance.

"You know where you're going?" Roman asked as we ascended the stairs careful not to step on couples that had decided this would be their mating ground.

"No idea, it's my first time here," I admitted. "That weirdo you met earlier, that was Charlie my foster brother. This place belongs to one of is mates."

We wondered in one of the first rooms we saw hoping it was empty. When we noticed that it was and that there was a small balcony, we obviously made our way over and sat down on the balcony floor.

"Yeah, a mate of mine told me and a bunch of our other mates to come. You know they have a game's room here? That's where we were. I kept losing at the pool table though."

"Don't you wanna go back to them?"

"I'm alright. I've found a balcony, why would I want to be anywhere else."

"Yeah, balconies are pretty cool." I smiled.

We didn't say anything for a bit after that. Roman was just quiet and I had no idea how to carry the conversation. I was worried that I'd just blurt out that I fancied him so I decided to keep my mouth shut until he said something else. In the meantime, as he looked up at the sky and the what seemed to be a large back garden below us, I tried counting the moles on his face now that I was close enough to see them more clearly. He had one which sat on the left side edge of his cupid's bow which I'd noticed before, and then above the arch of his right eyebrow, one on his cheekbone, and then just a few random freckles dotted about.

"Can't hear the music much from here," he commented.

"I guess not..."

"Don't like drum and bass much anyway."

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