Chapter Twelve: The End is Just the Beginning Backwards
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I stared intently at the empty water glass in front of me, watching the ice slowly melt. I felt that if I stared at it long enough it would refill and give me something to do rather than avoid a conversation.
"So why is it you wanted to meet for lunch? I assume there is a reason, right?" My dad stared at me the same way I was staring at the water glass. He was examining the expression on my face, seeing if he could guess just why we were sitting in a small diner around the corner from his house.
It wasn't like we never went out to lunch. We actually did at least twice a month. Just my dad and I, the only thing was it was usually when I spent a weekend at his house or he asked me to go with him. There was rarely a time when I just called up and invited him.
"Matt, did you hear me?" my dad asked.
I mumbled an incoherent response.
"What was that?"
"Yes," I said, not taking my eyes off the glass.
"Is that, yes, there's a reason, Matt?"
"Yes," I responded for the second time. I picked up my water glass and dumped an ice cube into my mouth.
"Okay, well are you going to tell me what it is?"
"What's new with you?" I asked. It felt weird saying a full sentence after avoiding conversation for the past five minutes. I felt if I avoided his questions I would have a longer time to stall.
"Not much, same as always. What about you?" he asked.
I knew he knew I was avoiding saying anything to do with the reason I brought him here. I was thankful for that and went along with the distant conversation with one-word answers.
"Are you two ready to order?"
I looked up and saw a girl with her hair in a ponytail, holding a notepad in one hand and a pen in the other. She was smiling what looked like a forced smile. I couldn't blame her, though. The work uniforms at this diner were horrible. Bright blue and red looks horrible on almost anyone. Possibly even Jon.
I stared at my menu for a few seconds, since I apparently forgot that you eat at diners. I glanced over to the burger section and I picked a cheeseburger. I figured picking my comfort food was the best thing to do at this time.
My dad, like always, took almost five minutes to order. He would pick something then ask what exactly the waitress thought about it. Then he'd look for something else. This would go on and on, until finally, he was satisfied with ordering a turkey sandwich.
The waitress smiled at us again, and then walked away from our table, leaving me alone again with my dad. This whole thing was silly and I knew it. No matter how long I waited to tell my dad I was still going to have to eventually. It was either that or my stepbrother would tell him which would definitely not be a pretty thing. Especially with all the colourful ways he could put it.
"Dad, well, the thing is…"
"Yes?"
"I…um, well, I'm..."
"Yes?"
"Wellthethingisi'mkindofgay," I said, glancing down at my lap.
There was silence. I twisted my hands together, nervous, and chanced a look up. "Dad?"
He looked kind of confused. Not really the reaction I was expecting. But he kind of cleared that up with the next words out of his mouth. "What did you say, Matt?"
Oh.
"Dad, I'm…" I took a deep breath. "Dad, I'm gay."
He laughed. No, I'm serious. I got all worked up over this, and he laughed at me. "Matt," he said, still laughing a little. "Matt, that isn't funny."
I just stared at him. "Dad, I'm not trying to be funny."
He stopped laughing, and stared. "You aren't?"
"Well, no."
He took a deep breath. "Are you sure about this, Matt?"
My thought process went something like this: Well, Dad, yeah pretty much. I mean I have this fabulously hot boyfriend and all. Whom I really should stop thinking about before my thoughts turn inappropriate. But all I said was: "Yes, Dad, I'm sure."
I didn't think he was quite ready for the boyfriend bombshell just yet.
"Well, you have to know I don't exactly approve…"
Yeah, I thought, I get that much.
"…but you are my son, so I'll try and accept it for your sake."
I blinked. "Really? You're not going to, I dunno, freak out on me or something?"
He smiled. "No, Matt, I'm not going to 'freak out' on you."
I didn't really know what to say to that. "Umm, cool, I guess."
"Was that all you wanted to tell me?"
Well, there is the whole boyfriend thing, but I really didn't want to say too much right now. "Yeah, that's all."
He nodded, and took a sip of his water. Like nothing had even happened.
Well.
-
When I got home that evening, Jon as sitting in my room at my computer chair looking very deep in thought. Which was very usual for Jon, but the unusual part was that he would randomly grin every few seconds. I stood in my doorway a few seconds before walking in to see if he'd even notice me. He didn't. He actually even spun around in my chair twice and didn't notice me staring at him. This was way too amusing. I snuck up behind him, in all his grinning glory and placed my hands gently on his shoulders.
"What the bloody hell?" Jon spun around in his—my—chair. "You bastard."
I laughed. The expression on his face was priceless. "Since when have you been British?"
"Since you started thinking scaring poor defenseless kids was amusing," he answered.
"Sorry, it was just too hard to resist. Especially since you're so damn happy today." I walked away from Jon and sat down on my bed. "I walked into the room and it looked like someone else possessed you."
Jon huffed and folded his arms across his chest. "I'm not allowed to be happy?"
"That's not it I didn't mean---"
"Relax, I'm just joking." Jon smiled. "When you were gone today Hannele called and said her aunt and uncle would be happy to take me in. They have wanted to foster a teen for a while but haven't had any luck. So I went over there and they're really nice. Then they called my parents, who were surprisingly and not so surprisingly fine with me moving out."
"That's great. Actually, that's beyond great." I got up from the bed and hugged Jon, who looked a little surprised at my sudden act of niceness.
"I know, it really is." Jon sighed. "So how did it go with you and your dad?"
I removed my arms from Jon and sat back on my bad. "Well, uh, he knows I'm gay," I started saying.
Jon gasped. "You told him? Wow…"
I didn't tell Jon I was going to have lunch with my dad to explain to him that I was gay because in all honesty I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it. Even if the alternative was Caleb telling my dad, I still wasn't sure if I was able to. And I really didn't want to tell Jon something and then not go through with it.
"Yeah, I know. I was really amazed I could actually say it to him. He actually took it quite…well, I guess. I mean he wasn't thrilled with the idea that his son was gay, but he didn't hate me. He actually didn't say much about it."
"That's good. Just be glad it didn't go the same way it did with my parents," Jon said.
Yeah.
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The next day, school was pretty much back to normal. Well, as normal as it could get after all that had happened these past few weeks. I ignored Joey and Jessica as much as possible, which was actually very easy since they ignored me just as much. There were a few dirty looks thrown here and there just for fun but we pretty much pretended the other didn't exist and that was perfectly fine with me.
After school, I helped Jon pack up his stuff, which wasn't a lot since most of it was still at his parents' house. I was seriously going to miss him living here because being an only child did get boring, and it was always nice to have someone around, especially if the said person was your boyfriend. While I was helping him pack up his stuff the house phone rang. I ran over to my room to pick it up.
"You asshole," said the voice at the other end of the line.
"Excuse me?" I replied.
"You told your dad, didn't you?"
It didn't take me that long to figure out the person calling was my stepbrother. You'd think by now I would know what his voice sounds like, but I really never paid enough attention to care.
"Told my dad what?" I asked.
"That you're gay, you moron."
Caleb sounded pretty annoyed. This was going to be amusing.
"Oh, that. Yeah, we had lunch and then I told him. It was lovely. Too bad you couldn't be there," I replied.
"I'm fucking grounded because of you. Just because I mentioned an 'off colour' joke about you and your…preference." He growled. Seriously, he growled. "You're so dead the next time I see you."
I laughed. A lot. This was way more amusing than I thought it would be. "I'm dead? Right. Caleb, have you looked in the mirror lately? You trying to beat me up will be amusing. Now I can't wait until the next time I go to my dad." I laughed again. "Well, it's been nice talking to you but I have to help my boyfriend pack. Bye!"
I walked back into the spare bedroom and Jon glanced at me. "Who was that?" he asked.
I smiled. "My stepbrother. He's an idiot."
"Oh," Jon replied. "That must suck."
Cute.
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Later that day, since it was Friday, Jon and everyone else we hung out with met up at the lovely local coffee shop that I still hated. We did this in honor of Jon moving in with Hannele's aunt and uncle.
"I still can't believe this happened," Hannele said. "Somebody pinch me."
May did just that.
"Ow!" Hannele screamed. "I wasn't serious."
May humphed. "You sounded serious enough. But I do agree with you. This is amazing. No more Jon with the evil Wicked Witch of the West."
"See, Kevin," Corin said. "You worried for nothing. Everything turned out all right." Corin took a sip of his hot chocolate and put an arm around Kevin, who was sitting next to him drinking tea."
Kevin looked up, looking a bit annoyed. "What? I never said it wouldn't be okay. I was just worried. Aren't I allowed to be worried once in a while? It's not my fault I'm not Mr. Calm Cool Relaxed and Hyper like you."
Corin laughed. "Oh, Kevin." Then he surprised all of us (including Kevin) and leaned over and kissed Kevin right on the lips.
Kevin backed away after a few moments. "What the hell?" He looked shocked but definitely not annoyed.
"You know you liked it," Corin said and smiled at Kevin, who was still shocked.
"He did. I could tell," May said.
"Yeah, there's no denying it, Kevin." Hannele laughed.
"Ugh, either way I'm never going to here the end of this, so screw it." Kevin leaned across his chair and kissed Corin on the lips, and this time they didn't separate for a while.
"Well, this is, um, amazing," Jon said while staring quite noticeable at Corin and Kevin. Though, it's not like they were going to notice any time soon.
"It's not fair. Now everyone's coupled up except for us, Hannele." May huffed. "Be my girlfriend?" May batted her eyes at Hannele.
"Sorry, but no. I have a boyfriend." Hannele smiled.
Life.
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The End
I feel horrible. When I uploaded this I forgot to put that the scene where Matt tells his dad he's gay was written by A Tarnished Rose. She's awesome. Now go read her stories.
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