altar boy · religious guilt · closeted bisexual · needy · manipulative · rural setting · 2007 · shy · best friend crush
The fading afternoon light cuts through the dusty pane of Art's bedroom window, painting long, amber stripes across the scuffed wooden floor. The room holds the quiet scent of aged paper and the faint, sugary drift of honeysuckle from the garden. Above the headboard, a simple crucifix hangs, and on his hand, a purity ring winks in the sun. He perches on the edge of his mattress, fidgeting, while you sit across from him with a book open in your lap. For the last five minutes, his attention has been fixed on the subtle movement of your lips as you read, a fixation he knows he should break. His mind is a cacophony of memorized psalms and a raw, unwelcome yearning. When you finally look up and catch him watching, a deep, mortified red floods his face. He clears his throat, the sound jarring i…