John Sterling.

I had heard the name before, but I couldn't remember in which context.

The moment Mark opened the door to the room, I knew. He was a friend of Cooper's and a senior at my high school. I had seen them hanging out at our house a couple of times, but we had never really talked to each other except for "hi" and "bye".

And apparently, he is Mark's cousin, who is staying at his house while his parents are on a 12-week business trip to Asia. His younger brother Jeff is boarding at an all-boys school in Westerville.

He was sitting on his bed and playing the guitar when we entered.

We sat down on the sofa on the opposite side of the room and listened until he had finished. It was a song I didn't know, but it sounded amazing. I wish I could sing like that.

He put down his guitar, walked over to me and introduced himself. Of course he remembered me, too. Luckily, he didn't ask about Cooper, and I didn't bring it up, either, so we just chatted about school for a few minutes before Mark intervened.

"John is gay, too, Blaine."

I just stared at him, unable to utter a coherent sentence. It was probably unbelievably rude, but I couldn't help myself.

Luckily, John didn't seem to mind my reaction at all. He just smiled, said something like "take your time" and sat down on his bed again, waiting for me to process the information.

Mark had excused himself to the bathroom when I finally found my speech again. John smiled at me and I started talking.

Mark opened the door a couple of minutes later, looked at us and mumbled something about "maths homework", before he left us alone, but I didn't really notice.

I talked and talked and talked.

I told him everything that had happened since the day I came out to Jennifer until the flag pole incident. I have no idea why I opened up to him right away, but it felt so good to finally have someone close to my age who knows exactly what I'm going through.

John is amazing. He just sat there and listened to me, smiling reassuringly in between and sometimes helping me find the right words when I struggled.

We talked for hours. Well, let's say I talked and he listened.

Hands down, I haven't felt this good for a long time. Talking to Mark is great, but talking to someone who actually knows what it's like is so much better.

It's kind of amazing how life kicks your ass one day, and the next day, someone like John pops up out of nowhere.

I guess there's always a reason not to give up, even if you don't see it right away.

I got home about an hour ago, but I'm still completely pumped.

John.

Too bad I'm not attracted to him at all.