For a moment all I could do was stare at him, aware that my mouth was hanging open. “You wear glasses?”

Jasper walked past me and went to sit on his bed, gesturing for me to do the same. While I carefully sank onto the edge of his bed, he said, “Contacts, usually. Without them, I’m as blind as a bat. I don’t really wear them in front of others, but you’ve already seen me hyperventilating with snot on my face, so . . .”

I wasn’t sure why, but this new-won knowledge had the same effect on me as the smear of paint on his cheek had. My shoulders relaxed almost imperceptibly and before I could think better of it, I blurted, “You should wear them more often.”

“So you’re into the nerdy type?” Jasper asked, a broad grin on his face. “Good to know.”

“N-no, that’s not what I meant—”

“No need to be ashamed, mignon,” he chuckled. “There’s stranger stuff to be into, I can tell you that much.”

Before the conversation could progress any further in that direction, I quickly pointed at the picture on his drawer. “So, you have two sisters?”

“Yes, Alice and Catherine. They used to go here, too, but they graduated two years ago.”

“Are you guys close?” I asked.

“Yeah, they’re great. I just don’t see them that often since they moved back to Marseilles.”

“Is that where you’re from?”

“Yes. My sisters moved back into my parents’ house there.”

“Are you planning on doing the same?” I inquired.

Jasper absentmindedly flicked a finger against his lip piercing.

“I want to go back to Marseilles someday, yes. But I don’t want to move back in with my family if I can avoid it.”

“But I thought you and your family were close?”

“My sisters and I are,” he said. “My parents and I not so much.

They still don’t know I’m pansexual.”

“What?” I asked, staring at him in surprise. Jasper seemed so confident, so sure of himself and his sexuality that the thought he wasn’t fully out to everyone hadn’t even occurred to me.

He shrugged, lowering his eyes to where his fingers were plucking at his bedsheets. “Why do you think I wanted to go to a boarding school? What happens here, stays here.”

“Do you think your parents would . . . react badly?” I carefully asked.

“I honestly have no idea,” he said. “I think my dad would probably have a bigger problem with it than my mom. They’re both more on the conservative side though, and not really educated about things like this. I would probably have to give them an hour-long explanation of the term pansexual first.”

“That sucks,” I murmured.

We were both silent for a moment before Jasper asked, “What about you? Have you come out to your parents yet?”

“I don’t know if you can call it that.” I chuckled, scratching at my neck. “Basically, I was watching a movie with my entire family and my sister said something like Oh my God, Timothée Chalamet is so hot and I was like I know, right . . . and that’s how my parents found out.”