Looking at the big picture

"I just think we should make it, official...you know." Connor looked at Bree waiting for a nod or something. They had to be on the same page on this. They were more than friends. Weren't they?

They were already in to 3 weeks at school. And they ate lunch together, everyday. He'd feel better if she just said it. He was her boyfriend.

"Make what official?" Of course, Will could always look like a dufus without even trying. He didn't care if he got snickered with the pink or purple Tee shirts he might wear. Nothing phased him.

"Oh..its..um.." Connor winced. He didn't want to say it was nothing. It was not nothing.

But those very words came out of Bree's mouth, and it just about gave him Connor a heart-attack.

Connor pressed his lips tight and walked on. She couldn't do this to him. Not now. The summer had been bearable, all because of spending it with her and her family.  His parents were on autopilot with his brother's sentencing. They still waited for a reprieve of some kind. But it wasn't happening. His brother was in jail for killing someone.

Connor looked up to see Cody, but it was like Cody didn't really see him. Perhaps he'd never put two and two together, that Connor's brother shot Cody's brother at a house-party.

Connor was straight lipped. Finally, Bree caught up to him.

"Its OK. We are OK. We don't have to be official." She looked at him as if she would always be there for him.

"But, I want to make it official." He almost had tears in his eyes.

"Like..how?" She looked him in the eye.

"I dunno." He switched the books around and got the one he needed for the next class. "I could walk you to English."

"Sure." She smiled.

Will defied labels. He always had. Of course, he'd been a nervous kid. Maybe even hyper. They'd wanted him on meds in first grade. His teacher couldn't stand all his questions. Then... there were sports, but he was not really a competitive person.

Of course, he'd already got in one rumble in the bathroom, this school year, in the few weeks of the start of he semester. Some teenager, pushed him against the wall, asking him he was gay.

Will looked at him as if he might be flattered.

"Really, you're not my type." He'd shrugged. "I think of my self as asexual. No... Nonsexual." But then that might not have been true. There were some days, where everyone looked beautiful, that he somehow wanted to capture in his comic books. Honestly, he didn't like  this world. But he had to get through this one, to get to the one in his head.

He just went on, not really wanting any friends, but there was Connor and Bree. It felt mandatory to like them, but then, if they didn't want him around..that was OK, too. He wanted everything to be OK. It would all be OK. His grandpa's very words. Well, the new one, he'd met.

Perhaps, they were a lot alike, And yet so very different.

Yes, in his head, he was trying to figure out what his grandpa had ever seen in his grandmother. Sure, she was small and thin. Always a bit glam in her big shades and clothes from the best retailers. She was impressive, yet no one was to her liking, but money.

Yes, money. He'd seen what it did to his own mother. Always wanting a bigger house, with bigger things. Thinking big for him, too. Like a private school. Away from her.

He was the only child she ever had. And secretly he knew, she didn't like him very much. Never did.

But hey, he was OK with that. He'd somehow bounced here, And this was where he wanted to stay. With his father.