(THIS ONE IS SO LONG YALL I CANT)

Quinton’s hands trembled as he wrote and revised a text to his closest friend, River. It was a simple 7 letter text, and yet it was taking all of his energy to not have a panic attack mid-text. After a few moments of hesitation, he clicked the blue send button.

“Hey, I have something to tell you.”

Quinton shut off his phone before rushing to turn it back on to see if River had responded yet. He was still on delivered. ‘Maybe I have time to unsend it’ Quinton thought to himself. Before he could, a ding noise rang from his phone, causing him to nearly drop it to the wooden floor.

“Oh me to lol”

“Want me to go first or u?”

Quinton’s heart must’ve assumed he was running a marathon because it was beating as if he was. What the hell could River be thinking about? He was 87% sure that he was the only one…but…

Maybe he was wrong.

Quinton quickly gathered his bearings and typed out a response.

“I want to go first, if you don’t mind. Can we call? It’s okay if we can’t or you’re too busy.”

“Nono we can call”

Quinton hurried to press the call button and brought the phone to his ear. God, he was shaking like a wet dog. Was he really that nervous? Was he excited? He couldn’t tell. The phone rang once.

He had been wanting to tell the truth to River for so long, but the risks involved seemed too big. However, after 2 long years, he caved in. The floodgates were opening and the waters were quick to escape captivity. The phone rang out twice.

There were bees rushing in Quinton’s head, all shouting about their own concerns. However, they all came to the consensus of wondering what River meant by them also having something to say? If it was anything similar to his situation, he might actually pass out in his own apartment. He rubbed his fingers against the textured couch while almost in a daze. The phone rang out trice.

“Yellow?”

Quinton’s throat almost closed in on itself when he heard his friends voice on the other side of the call.

“Oh, hi.”

Silence.

“…Sooo, you gonna say what you wanna say or can I start?” River laughed a bit on the other end.

“Oh, um, okay okay. So. This is a lot and I understand if you don’t want to be around me anymore because of what I’m about to say and I just want you to know that if this does mess with our friendship I’m sorry and um, I don’t know really-“

“Quinny. Breathe.”

Right, he forgot how to do that for a second. He took a few deep breaths (shaky, but deep) and spoke again.

“Sorry.”

“You don’t have to be. Now, what’s up? At this point, I might as well straight up-“

“I want to be with you.”

‘Oh dear god. Was that too quick? No, no. No no no nononono. No.’ Quinton’s face was turning red and tears fell from his eyes.

“I’M SO SO SORRY FOR-FOR TELLING-ING YOU THAT LIKE THIS!” Quinton’s voice hiccuped and rasped as he started yelling apologies into his phone.

“Quinny. Did you mean that? Just answer with yes or no.”

Quinton rubbed his face and eyes as hard as he could while he spoke.

“…yea.”

“That’s nice to know, and I agree.”

Quinton shot up to his feet and quickly sat back down due to how dizzy he got from both getting up too fast and the rush of adrenaline spinning him silly.

“You do?”

“Yeah, have been for the past, what, 3 years? I was too much of a wimp to admit it, so thanks for the reassurance.”

A stupid grin crawled onto Quinton’s face as he laughed to himself.

“You’re welcome, I guess. Is that what you wanted to tell me?”

“Ohh, right. No, it’s not but I’m glad we got that out of the way. But no, it’s something else.”

“Well what is it?” Quinton’s voice was 10 times brighter as well as his face. He felt overpowered, in a sense and nothing could drag him down.

“I’m Silver Eagle.” River’s voice was their usual nonchalant tone as they basically said that they were the same person who saved the word at least 5 times within the last few months.

Quinton was now a bit confused. Before he could ask for clarification, a calm knock came from his window on the 3rd floor of the apartment complex. He whipped his head to the noise and saw River, who was flying, wearing Silver Eagle’s uniform and clicking end call on their phone.

As River opened the window with ease, Quinton remained on his couch appearing stunned with his eyes wide and face turning white. River closed the window behind them and sat next to the pale-faced boy while having a hand on his shoulder, both for comfort and to make sure Quinton wasn’t about to fall onto his face.

It took a short while of breathing exercises and talking to get Quinton to calm down. Actually, it took a lot less time then River assumed to get him to fully accept the reality of them being a superhero. He was too thrilled about the reciprocated feelings.

“So, not to sound pushy or anything, but what are we now?” Quinton asked while picking at his nails.

“Wanna go ou-“

“Please.”

River couldn’t contain their hyena laugh at Quinton’s excitement and the boy soon joined in until both of their ribs ached. They figured just a simple movie night was good for today, nothing crazy. They held hands with each other and binged horrid comedies till they fell asleep on each other.