Mia's news stunned Billy, who only moments ago had been playing one of his new tower defense games on his phone. His eyes tracked upward from where he sat on the floor against the couch until he was looking at Mia, the dissonant sound of his crystals being stolen by the encroaching minions of his game serving as the soundtrack to the confusion that flashed through his eyes.
As Teddy asked his question, Billy clicked the phone off and shoved it in his pocket. He pulled his knees to his chest. He, like everyone else it seemed, had no real idea on how to respond to that information. Yeah, it sucked. Billy got that, but not really. To him, HIV and AIDS were things that the Seniors liked to threaten he'd get for being a pillow-biter or whatever colorful words they had for his sexuality that day. It wasn't something that he thought of when he thought of funny, sarcastic, awesome Mia.
But now it was real, as he was pretty sure that not even Mia would screw around with them about something this big. Maybe Tommy... nah, not even he'd do it.
Mia said that she didn't want any sort of 'kumbaya campfire feelsies time'. He could respect that. He was pretty sure, if the situation were reversed, he wouldn't want his friends and teammates making a huge deal about it either.
"I've still got your back," he voiced quietly, feeling like some sort of affirmation was needed on his part.