When he was ten years old, Tyler met a strange and brilliant kid named Abraham. Within five minutes, Abraham had convinced Tyler to sign The Contract. The Contract bound Tyler and Abraham together in a sacred alliance for over a decade, through friend group after friend group. It covered everything: seat saving, hassle-protection, free delivery of pertinent gossip... Tyler and Abraham never became friends. But plenty of people never find an ally like Abraham.

Philio X. MacDonald is a good Catholic boy who has made it his mission in life to help less popular students find a friend. But when he starts high school, he realizes two things. One, you can't help people find friends when you don't know anybody yourself. And two, he's gay. At a school where being different is lovingly but passive aggressively discouraged, he realizes if he wants a space to feel welcome in, he's going to have to create it himself.