JC picked up the CD case and tried to fit it back together. When he couldn't, he tossed it at Justin. "Could you throw your own shit, please? Because I like my shit."

"Sorry," Justin said. He fiddled with the plastic for a minute and then dropped it on the ground. "He's just driving me so fucking crazy, you know? It doesn't matter what I say, it's like he's decided in his head what's going to happen and nothing I say matters, but he keeps making me say it. He keeps making me, and then if there's any way possible to interpret it badly he does, he always picks the worst fucking option, and I swear to God I'm gonna kick his ass if he doesn't quit it."

"You can't expect everybody to want change, J, just because you do."

"I don't!" Justin said, and JC looked at him and raised an eyebrow. Justin flushed. "I do," he said, "but it's not like I want everything to change, I just want this one thing and then everything else can be the same."

JC laughed. "That's the thing, though. You can't just change one little thing and expect everything else to hold still. I read this thing once, it was about how a butterfly can flap its wings a little faster in the Amazon and it completely changes the weather in China."

"Really?" Justin said. "That's kind of cool."

"Yeah, well, turns out it might not be, um, completely true." Justin laughed. "For butterflies, anyway. But for people, it totally is. Once you start changing one little thing, everything's up for grabs."

Justin chewed his lip for a minute. "But I don't want -"

"You want what you want, baby," JC said. "I'm the last person in the world who's gonna blame you for that."

"But I don't," Justin said, "not everything, I don't want everything to change."

JC didn't say anything.

"I love you," Justin said, and JC closed his eyes and waited for Justin to tell him that was never going to change.

"I don't want that to change," Justin said.