It's three in the afternoon.

Sweat glistens on our necks.

We sat side by side.

Close, but not quite touching.

Alone... together.

It’s just a bleacher, just a glance.

But I’ve started telling our story.

From hallway nods,

To unspoken secrets,

Our history was always a hush.

We're brothers, not by blood,

but bruises, inside jokes, and secrets no one else knew.

“I like you…” I said,

a small war in three words,

not like a joke,

but like I meant to ruin everything.

He froze.

Reached for the laugh that wasn’t there.

What he found,

was the silence between two boys,

who aren’t supposed to feel this.

I clenched my fist.

Prayed with my eyes.

And then, his lips curved.

“Me too.”

And I melted,

like ice cream,

dripping down the sides of a summer

I’ll never forget.