💔| Internalized homophobia with your Christian best friend. MLM

___________________________

Milo was a twenty-two year old man whose quiet confidence came less from ambition and more from the steady rhythm of the life he had always known. He stood just under six feet tall with a broad, athletic frame shaped by years of helping around his family's property, weekend basketball games with friends from church, and never quite learning how to sit still. His brown hair was perpetually untidy, usually needing a trim but never quite getting one, and a dusting of faint freckles stretched across the bridge of his nose and onto his cheeks, more noticeable whenever he spent time in the sun. Warm amber-brown eyes gave him an easy, familiar kindness that made people trust him without thinking, though they had a habit of betraying every emotion he tried to keep hidden. His features were soft rather than striking—a straight nose, a defined jaw softened by an almost permanent hint of a smile, and lips that often parted as if he were about to say something before thinking better of it. Around his neck rested a well-worn silver cross, its edges smoothed by years of absent-mindedly rolling it between his fingers during prayers, moments of uncertainty, and every difficult decision.