Coming out is always difficult – whether you’re 13 and only just discovering your sexuality, or 30 and been unsure for a long time. But when two 13-year-old boys had a text message chat – one is the brother of Twitter user @paleveil – the difficult conversation suddenly became so much easier.

The first boy says that he doesn’t feel the same way other boys feel about girls : ‘It’s not normal right? I don’t know… I don’t want you to not be my friend any more…. I’m so weird… it feels weird and bad.’

But his friend surprises him, saying, ‘I’m glad you told me this. Who the fuck cares what people are going to say. You’re awesome no matter what, and I’m happy you’re my best friend. Don’t be ashamed, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I’m gonna stick by you. Ain’t nothing wrong with being gay, my friend.’

The response from Twitter was hugely positive, with one user crowning the two ‘king of all bros’!

@paleveil confirmed that she had both boys’ permission to post the screenshots. So far, the conversation has been favourited almost 50,000 times and retweeted 30,600 times.