"What do you know about how people become homosexual?"

"Not very much." 

"People become homosexual because of a trauma, called a root. Some roots are very serious traumas, like abuse or neglect from a parent. But some can seem very small, like feeling like you didn't really have any friends at a close age. You can't stop being homosexual by trying to be normal. You have to work through your root, which caused you to inappropriately sexualize your desire for closeness with other men."

He nods. 

"Tell me about when your homosexuality first began."

"...the earliest I can tell was my best friend in elementary school —" and he describes Leo, who'd been the smallest kid on the playground and the smartest kid in their class and who Marlo had protected from bullies, and how Marlo had thought he just admired and wanted to be friends with him but in retrospect it was almost certainly a crush.

"It sounds like you felt a lot of affection for him."

"I did." 

"What was that like for you?"

"He was also my best friend. It was — good to be someone who could protect the people I was close to." 

"It's important to you to be able to take care of people."

"Yes." 

Christine continues to do her best to extract opinions from Marlo.

He isn't being uncooperative, but even so it's difficult to get a real opinion that doesn't sound edited for an audience out of him. 

Asher spins a beautiful line of bullshit in response to Christine's questions. Oh, yes, he's now realized that he's been gay his whole life, he had a crush on this person and that person and the other person, he wants to kiss guys but he understands that he won't ever be able to experience real love unless he's straight, he absolutely wants to hear about how the recovery process will work...

He's not paying that much attention. He's thinking about Raine. 

And when he gets out he taps her on the shoulder and says, "I'm gonna go to the bathroom."

"Kay." 

He follows, after a couple of minutes. 

"Do you want to be my girlfriend?"

"I would love to be your girlfriend." 

"Because I'm straight but-- you aren't really a guy? And I was thinking about that and then I realized that I want you and you're beautiful and also, like, I'm half in love with you already."

"...you're the sweetest," and Raine kisses him, very carefully on the cheek. 

"I'm yours."

"And I'm yours. — we should probably get out of the bathroom before someone else comes in." 

"Probably." Asher kisses her.

Raine kisses him back for a second, two, three, and then pulls away and kisses his other cheek and then steps back. "No, really." 

"You're mean."

But he leaves.