Chapter Eight
Adam got ready for school, certain the day would feel endless, but he got up early enough to plug in his phone and actually sit down for breakfast. Even his mom was surprised. She made him eggs, bacon, and a stack of pancakes. He ate, only pausing when he noticed she sat across the table staring at him. “What?”
“Do you have a girlfriend, Adam?” she asked.
Adam swallowed hard. She’d never asked that before. “No.”
“Boyfriend?”
How to answer that? He wasn’t used to hiding anything from his parents. He’d just never been interested in anyone before. “Maybe?”
“The boy you were out with last night?”
He nodded and just stared at the plate, food in his gut churning. Maybe he should have lied...
“Do you want him to be your boyfriend?”
Adam glanced up and searched her face for any sign of disgust or anger, but found none. “Yes.”
She smiled and reached across the table to pat his hand. “As long as he makes you happy.” Her eyes scrunched up for a moment. “I wonder if I should have your dad talk to you about the birds and the bees again.”
“Oh no, Mom. Really. I know all about that stuff. We had health class, remember?” Even old Mr. Whittleson explaining the needs of personal hygiene hadn’t been as embarrassing as Adam’s dad trying to tell him about sex.
“Are you planning to have sex with this boy?”
He nearly spit out his orange juice. “Mom!”
“It’s a legitimate question. You’re sixteen. Boys your age are having sex. Do you need condoms? I should probably research gay sex. Would you need something more than condoms? Do boys use condoms with other boys?”
Adam was pretty sure his face was bright red and couldn’t get any darker when his dad walked into the kitchen. Now he was really going to die.
“Did I hear something about condoms?” his dad asked. “Adam, do you and I need to talk about the importance of safe sex again?”
Oh God!
Adam had never been so grateful to get to school. He left his parents chattering at the kitchen counter about sexual empowerment, gay equality, and how Adam would have condoms available if he needed them. His mom promised to go to the library and look up things about being a gay teenager, and Adam begged her not to.
His dad was finally the voice of reason. “He’s not ready to be out to his friends, Clara; just give him time. You know how judgmental kids are. How many of your friends told you not to date me just because I was the weird, blond, Jewish boy?”
So just like that, Adam had come out to his parents, and they’d accepted that he was gay. It all felt a little anticlimactic, but he harbored no delusions about it being so easy should he ever decide to let out the secret at school. In fact, that morning he had a creeping sense that someone knew and was just waiting for the right time to break out the news. Maybe it was a lot of teenage paranoia, but Adam kept glancing around searching for someone who might have it in for him.
Nate waited beside Adam’s locker near the end of the day. Bas stood there too, looking pissed. “Everything okay, guys?” Adam had to ask as he stored away his algebra book, really hoping this wasn’t some sort of intervention/welcome to the Club Gay deal.
“Nate thinks you should skip study hall to go run. I told him you’ll be running after study hall anyway, so why skip it?” Bas told Adam.
“I was just saying that it couldn’t hurt to get more practice. We have a bunch of games coming up,” Nate pointed out.
“I have a French midterm on Friday, and I really need to study. No skipping study hour. I can stay late if you want to keep going after practice.” It’s not like Adam had anywhere to be, since Ru wasn’t in town. His only text had been a briefI miss uand that had been after lunch.
Nate frowned. “Fine. See you at practice, Corbin.” He wandered off down the hall in the direction of the gym.
“That guy is a total meathead,” Bas grumbled. “And he wants in your pants, in case you can’t tell. A gay man knows these things.”
“Bas, Nate is just pushing himself really hard for that scholarship.”
“Uh-huh.”
Adam held out his French book to him. “Are we going to study, or are we going to discuss the boring jocks of this school?”
