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It’s the winter of their sophomore year that Eddie realizes he’s in love with Mike Hanlon. He’s standing outside in the snow, walking home from Bill’s with Mike. Mike’s ahead of him a little, jogging with a burst of energy while Eddie is content to follow with his hands shoved into his jacket pockets. The snow has a way of softening every sound, the winter always so quiet. Even now, with Mike laughing and calling for Eddie to hurry, it is not loud in Eddie’s ears, but sounds as if there is a wall between him and Mike. The cold has stolen his breath and he feels himself reaching for air with each breath he takes in, the cold biting at his lungs the way the smoke from Richie and Beverly’s cigarettes always do when they stand outside the school together. It’s dark out, the moon hidden by clouds and little snowflakes dancing under the streetlights as they fall. Mike turns, standing under the yellow light, flakes of snow settling on his hat and surrounded by a quiet world of soft white snow. It is in this moment Eddie realizes his truth: he is undoubtedly in love with Mike Hanlon. He cannot deny this truth, not now. The feeling warms him, the cold shaken from his lungs as he steps forward to meet Mike under the streetlight.
“I’m in love with you.” He says it so simply, as if it is not a ticking time bomb, something that could end their friendship, but as if he’s told Mike this a thousand times before.
And Mike stands there, breath caught in his throat and he wants to say something, he does, but his mouth is frozen and he can’t get the words out and Eddie is looking up at him, smiling sweetly and not expecting Mike to say it back. He really isn’t, he doesn’t think Mike loves him in that way, but still praying by some miracle he does.
Mike’s hands, wrapped in the soft wool of his mittens, come to land on Eddie’s cheeks, soft and warm on Eddie’s reddened by the cold cheeks, and his lips come to meet Eddie’s, soft and warm against the cold of Eddie’s and for this moment, wrapped in the silence of the winter night, Eddie thinks this is the best moment of his life.