Contains: abusive parent, implied homophobia, planned attacks, mental and physical abuse

Logan was on a grassy field looking at the setting sun with Roman. They had a lot to think about and celebrate.

"We finally did it, Geek Charming. Freedom," Roman stated.

Logan wanted so badly to jump up and down in excitement with Roman as well as hug him and kiss him so many times that he'd lose count. If not for the effects of his past, he would do such actions.

Ever since Logan was younger, he was trapped under the roof of his scared mother and the bastard that would dare call himself a father. Nicholas was more of an angry power addict than anything else.

He couldn't keep Logan stuck in the house without the school getting suspicious, but he was able to control how long his wife can be out of the house. He dropped by to allegedly pay his wife a visit as she was managing a construction project. Anyone can see that she felt proud of herself as a leader and contributor. It was a shame that beam was weakened conveniently causing a lot of heavy equipment to crush some of her bones. There weren't a lot of witnesses of the accident and those who were witnesses couldn't easily tell the cause of the weakened beam. Until there was enough evidence to blame Nicholas, it was ruled as a work accident that put her on disability. By the time her bones healed, her spirit was broken by that man berating her and blaming her for all the inconveniences that weren't even under her control. As a result, he continued his work, but she ended up just being a stay-at-home mom tricked into thinking that she made the decision on her own.

Logan has made attempts to protect his mother from Nicholas, but it usually ended with the poor being shoved aside with the first thing the man could grab. As Logan would run up the stairs, Nicholas would shout that he was weak and hopeless.

Being berated by the man he wasn't sure he should call his father kept Logan from being like the other students as he grew up; he mostly stayed in his room to stay out of Nicholas's way caused him to want bury his face in various books and poems, he learned to repress his emotions after being called weak for expressing fear, he even felt skeptical as people tried to make friends with him due to the behavior he witnessed. Eventually, he even joined clubs in high school and got himself a job under Nicholas's nose mostly to just stay out of the house for a longer while.

At the Goodwill he worked at, he saw a guy with white jeans and a red tank top drop off a box of (from what he could tell) Disney Princess dolls, so Logan decided to take inventory. Yes, take inventory. He wasn't curious about the guy. He cleared his throat and walked over as the guy was looking at the box he brought in.

"Greetings, mind if I check for damages or missing pieces?" Logan asked.

"Oh, um, sure. I'm sure you might've found this drop off odd," the guy responded.

Logan acted like he was doing a thorough inspection, but he glanced up every once in a while to see if the guy was still there.

"So, to whom did these dolls initially belong?" Logan asked as the silence thickened.

"Well, they were mine. I absolutely love Disney, but I haven't played with these dolls in a long time and it seemed better for them to be donated than just collecting dust," the man explained, slightly self conscious.

Logan was surprised to hear about a guy playing with dolls since Nicholas would always try to shove sports down his throat whenever they were alone together.

"You know, Tinker Bell used to be part of the Disney Princess franchise, but then the status was revoked, I guess due to her being a fairy," Logan told the man from what he remembered randomly researching.

It was a slow day, so they spent a decent amount of time talking. He found out the man's name is Roman, that they go to the same high school, that he's hoping for an artistic career in the future, and even his number. Although Logan couldn't express it, he felt such a large amount of eagerness and hope for seeing Roman again. Since he didn't have a platonic relationship to compare that feeling to, he wasn't sure if it was just because he made a friend.

Ever since then, they had been finding ways to reach out to each other during school, during Logan's job, during Roman's community theatre rehearsals, and when they both had time off. It wasn't a secret that they were different types of people, but they found topics they both were fond of in order to meet each other halfway. Logan felt bold enough to tell his mother about Roman, but they made sure not to tell Nicholas due to the fear of interrogation and fear of Roman getting hurt.

One day, while Nicholas was working overtime, Logan had the confidence to give Roman his address and invite him over to see a movie. Roman hugged Logan once he entered and was polite to Logan's mother while introducing himself. Before Logan could ask, Roman showed him that he had a DVD of The Space Between Us and Logan didn't mind, especially since Roman was near and remembered that Logan liked space. Logan alternated between watching the movie and looking at Roman. He felt grateful that he had met him and felt warmth in his heart upon the thought of Roman being in his life.

Roman smiled as he saw Logan looking at him. He gently placed a hand on Logan's cheek, but it caused Logan to flinch away from the hand without thinking.

"Logan?" the cowering nerd heard the buttery voice of his friend call out.

Logan looked at Roman and cleared his throat with the attempt of acting like nothing happened. Roman moved his hand to Logan's hand and it got Logan's attention again.

"Logan, what would you do if I kissed you?" he gently asked.

Logan was taken aback by the question since the only relationship he saw the most of was his own parents.

"Guys can't kiss... can they?" Logan retorted.

"Well, I want us to, but only with your permission," Roman admitted.

Logan felt nervous from the thought, but he still felt warmth in his chest and trust towards Roman. They both leaned in towards each other and their lips made contact. Logan didn't really know what he was doing, but he knew that he was in Heaven during that moment with Roman. Roman pulled Logan closer by the shirt and Logan wrapped his arms around the thespian's neck. While they remained in their position, they pulled away for air and noticed smiles and red faces from each other. Roman had an embarrassed look on his face upon seeing past Logan's head and, as a result, Logan looked behind him and noticed his mother was in the doorway looking surprised. Logan backed away from Roman and approached his mother in an attempt to explain himself. All she said in response was "I am okay with young love regardless of sexuality, but Nicholas might think otherwise" before placing a finger to her lips as a sign that she'll keep it a secret.

Apart from kissing, cuddling, Logan asking about the symptoms of being in love he found out he has, and Roman asking small enough questions about Logan's "father," not much has changed between the pair. They made many discussions about their futures and Roman made it very clear that he wanted Logan to be safe. They walked together instead of Roman driving them so that Nicholas wouldn't question an unfamiliar car by the house. Roman did many actions to make sure Logan didn't get scared: he asked permission to touch Logan on some areas, he didn't raise his voice, he invited Logan to cry when he really needed to, he even reminded Logan that there was a town in Florida he looked into where they could live after graduation where Nicholas won't find them. They both saved up paychecks and stipends to make that hope a reality.

One day, Logan was having his lunch break and Roman stopped by to visit. The other colleagues didn't mind since Roman came by often because of Logan. They had sandwiches with Crofters Jam and were goofy towards one another. They kissed one another plenty of times and Logan, eventually, went back to work, but Roman stuck around with the excuse of sightseeing.

Logan was taking inventory of the items that were already on the shelves as well as putting newly donated items on display. He thought he saw movement from the shelf he was at, but he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. It wasn't until he was shoved by Roman that he noticed that the shelf was actually falling in his direction. Everyone approached to inspect the damage and Logan hadn't taken in the fact that he was almost severely injured or worse until he looked at the security camera footage with his boss. He saw a familiar looking man through several tapes and was able to get an idea of what happened: Nicholas saw Logan and Roman together, shoved the shelf Logan was at, and used a piece of his clothing to wipe off potential fingerprints. Logan looked angry as he remembered there wasn't enough evidence to prove he pulled a similar stunt before. Logan explained as much as he could to his boss and the boss called the cops.

Logan stayed with Roman for the night since it was summer and Logan anticipated a shitstorm. After a lot of struggle from the man and evidence being shown, Nicholas got charged with intended assault and property damages as well as other charges of violence and had restraining orders filed against him. Once Nicholas was gone, Logan and Roman told their families and peers that they would be moving. Due to the restraining orders, they felt confident in telling them where they would move to. Roman told his fellow thespians good-bye and Logan told his mother that she has a lot more potential than Nicholas would admit.

"Hey, nerd?"

"Yes, prep?"

"If you could go back in time, would you escape from him sooner?"

"Well, there's no doubt that he was terrible to us. On the other hand, the path I was forced on led to one of the best and most melodramatic people that I had ever met."

Roman smiled and blushed at the statement. Logan wasn't the type to be mushy, but he had his moments where he was subtly romantic. They looked at the setting sun and knew they had plenty to look forward to: Logan's new job of being a museum curator, Roman's first day of rehearsing for the upcoming musical in town, their own place that they'll experience a lot in. They were free, they were with each other, they were safe.