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By third grade, Christopher has already started learning how to disappear.

Then a boy keeps coming near him. Protecting him. Walking beside him. Making school feel less like something to survive.

Christopher calls him a friend because that is the word he has.

In this part of From Before I Had a Flag, Christopher and Eric revisit a childhood friendship that was probably a first crush, though the child inside the memory had no language for that yet. The story is tender, funny, and quietly devastating: a tiny playground bodyguard, a metal spider thing, and the moment adults saw danger where Christopher saw safety.

This is a pre-coming-out story about affection before identity, safety before suspicion, and the loss that happens when a child learns not to trust the place where comfort appears.

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