"Where are you guys taking me?" Eli asked, but continued to be led around by Luke and Sid.

"Oh, nowhere." Sid chuckled. "Right, Luke?"

"Yeah, we're just going to have a little fun." There was laughter in his voice. Oh great... What were they going to do now, take him to Ecuador and leave him in the middle of nowhere? They truly were something... Although that idea was ridiculous, he could never be sure with his friends... But, they'd already taken their drive, which could have only been ten minutes; it wasn't a long enough drive for them to arrive at the airport.

"Okay, Eli, we're at some steps now." Luke warned him, which he appreciated. It was better than having to fall on his face and get injured. He took each step at a time, slowly. He'd barely climbed a flight of stairs before they lifted him up and finished the deed themselves.

"Thanks, guys. Real mature. You could have waited, I wasn't that slow."

"Shut up." Sid sighed. "We're here." Eli heard a door being opened, and then soon enough, it was closed. "Okay, you can take the blindfold off now."

"Thank you." Eli sighed, taking the blindfold off. He was surprised to be in Roscoe's apartment. Blake and Jesse were sitting on the couch, and Roscoe was leaning on the edge of the loveseat. There were decorations everywhere. If he did say so himself, they were pretty badly hung up... "What is all of this?" He eyed the balloons that were nearly at ground-level. Blake must have blown those up, since he never put any work into what he did.

"We decided to throw you a going away party." Jesse smiled.

"...And we sort of wanted to apologize for how we acted." Wow, Sid saying sorry? "It wasn't right. This is about your future."

"No, fuck my future."

"Hey, let me finish. ... "We could have ruined your meeting, and your parents would have probably made you movejust to find another school. Forgive us?"

"Course." Eli smiled. "But why all of this? You could have just said 'We're sorry that we fucked up. Can we go get some Chinese?'"

"You deserve this." Roscoe spoke up.

"Oh, and while we're being honest..." Blake took a deep breathe. "...I'm gay."

A few of the other boys, especially Jesse, stifled laughs.

"What's so funny?" Blake asked.

"We already knew, duh!" Luke's laugh threatened to escape his lips.

"You told them?" Blake turned to Jesse.

"I couldn't help myself." Jesse burst out laughing. "And besides, they could already tell."

"Whoa, how could you tell?"

"Well, we never expected Jesse to be gay."

"-Bi."

"Whatever. We never expected Jesse to be bi, but you kind of gave off a little hints. Like how you always talk with your hands. And how you always get excited when we watch a Kevin Bacon movie.. Or when-"

"-Hey, hey, hey. He is kind of adorable." Blake protested. "But not as adorable as this one." He gestured to Jesse.

Jesse blushed slightly when Blake leaned in to kiss him. Loud "ewws" erupted from each boy's mouth, but then turned into sighs when Blake and Jesse laughed at their audience and shared an Eskimo kiss instead.

"You guys are such nerds." Sid shook his head. Jesse and Blake both looked at each other, coming up with a plan. Then both got up and stood in front of Sid. "What are you guys doing?" They both leaned down to kiss one of Sid's cheeks. "Eww…" He rubbed his hands against his cheeks, trying to get rid of their mark.

"Enough of this kissing…" Eli interrupted. "Where are my presents?"

"Oh, we forgot." Blake exclaimed.

"Uh, I was kidding." He laughed.

"Oh, well we each got you something anyway."

"Oh, well, where is it?"

"I'll give you mine first." Luke grabbed a present from under a couch pillow, and handed it to Eli. "Open it."

Eli ripped the blue wrapping paper off of the rather large present. It was a scrapbook. He opened it up and the first page had pictures of each of them in kindergarten. His favorite picture was of Luke and Blake fighting over their new plaything: Sid. He had started the year late, and kids love meeting new people.

"Open up mine next." Sid handed him a small box.

Eli shook it the box, hearing a jingly noise. Inside were his parents' keys. "What?"

"Just in case you still wanted to stay. You could have always driven to Mexico or something."

"Uh, thanks."

Jesse's gift, a new cd, was not wrapped. He just handed it to Eli. Blake's gift, also not wrapped, was a new Dead-Hand t-shirt. Eli looked at Roscoe.

"I will be honest and say that I could not think of a gift idea. But I threw the party, so I guess that counts…"

"Hey, the party was my idea, and we all helped out." Jesse complained.

"Hey, you still want permission to kiss in my house?"

"Fine."

What would he do without his friends?