It had been one of those rare occasions when my parents had agreed to stay in the same room for longer than ten minutes, mainly because we had begged them to. They were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, my sister and I wedged between them like a rampart, though I wasn’t quite sure who we were protecting—them or ourselves. Throughout the movie, neither of them really spoke, but with my sister chattering away next to me, the tension had been a bit easier to ignore.

It was only after my accidental coming-out that it fully dissolved. Both of them were smiling, my mom’s arm wrapped around my shoulders and my dad’s hand ruffling my hair, and afterward, when my sister and I had gone upstairs, I could faintly hear them talking in the living room. That, more than anything, was why I had gone to bed happy that night; not because I had come out, but because I had managed to establish a cease-fire, however brief, between them.

Jasper’s surprised laugh ripped me out of my thoughts. “Wow.

Well done, Seth, I’m sure that was really smooth.”

I had to grin, too, mostly because of the way my name rolled off his tongue.

“What do you want to do?” he asked once he had pulled himself together.

The answer that lay on the tip of my tongue wasn’t one I could say out loud, so I kept my mouth shut and gave a noncommittal shrug.

Jasper gestured at the small TV on his desk, in perfect view from where we were sitting. “Do you want to watch anything?

Sherlock, Criminal Minds, any conspiracy theory you haven’t looked into yet?”

“Sure,” I said. “You decide.”

“Mon dieu. A bisexual and a pansexual guy together. How will we ever decide anything?” Jasper joked but got up nevertheless and turned on the TV.

Then he returned to the bed and lay down next to me, his back leaning against the wall. Upon his inviting pat to the mattress beside him, I hesitantly kicked off my shoes and stretched out next to him, leaning back against the headboard.

Jasper squinted a little as he opened Netflix and selected an episode of Sherlock. I already knew all of them by heart, which made it all the more difficult to focus on the screen instead of staring at Jasper.

The entire time I couldn’t help but steal quick glances at his profile, at the way the light flickered across his face and tinted his hair blue.

“A shame they didn’t have the balls to make Johnlock canon,”

Jasper said.

I hummed in agreement.

“You know, that’s part of why I want to become a director.

I want to produce things that are straightforward. No hidden signals that can be read this way or that, or vague al usions in interviews to draw in LGBTQ viewers desperate for any shred of representation. Just something unapologetically queer.”

“I would watch everything you make,” I said. My voice came out softer than I expected, and it was only when Jasper turned his head to look at me that I realized I was staring again.