“Thank you, Mrs. Maxwell,” said Josh. “I’ll have some tea. Matt could probably use some as well.”
Call-me-Janet stepped into the kitchen.
Adam spoke for the first time. “It’s southern, sweet tea,” he warned, in a quiet voice.
“That’s what my mom makes too,” Matt said. What he didn’t say was that he hated the stuff.
Matt wished Adam would speak again, would grace him with his hazel eyes. Adam was a Christopher Robin looking kid (the eighteen-year-old version): Thick, brown, unruly hair. Triangular face. A stripe of freckles across his cheeks and button nose. Eyes with a slight downward droop at the outer edges. He was the puppy dog in the window.
Matt felt a twinge of jealousy that Josh, as Adam’s sponsor, had kissed this boy, probably shaken hands with him as well. Then Matt felt guilty for having such thoughts.
Call-me-Janet returned with tall glasses of iced tea, which Matt and Josh accepted courteously. Matt laid Adam’s card on the couch beside him.
A nervous pall settled on the room. Call-me-Janet took a seat in a La-Z-Boy recliner facing the couch. She smoothed imaginary wrinkles on her slacks, looked at the floor. “I just don’t understand,” she finally said. She sounded utterly defeated.
“She knows,” Adam volunteered. “I told her that I’m…..gay.” His voice trailed off. He looked at his mom apologetically, as if he were sorry for having burdened her with this knowledge.
Call-me-Janet blinked back tears. “I love my son.”
Matt’s heart ached. His eyes clouded. “I wish I could hear my mom say those words. She won’t even return my phone calls.”
Call-me-Janet looked at Matt, gazed into his eyes. They shared an entire conversation in a heartbeat, an unloved gay kid connecting with a distraught mother, who had thought her son was some sort of freak.
“You’re….?” she asked Matt, unable to even say the word.
“Gay,” Matt said, nodding.
Adam shot Matt a surprised look.
“I’m gay, too,” Josh said, seemingly begrudging being required to talk.
Chapter 15: Getting Kicks on Route 66
Friday, September 1, 1995
Call-me-Janet would not leave her son alone with his guests. She sat glued to her La-Z-Boy, gabbing her way through a laundry list of questions. It seemed to Matt like she was working up the nerve to ask something intrusive.
Meanwhile, Adam was the ghost of a beautiful boy, hovering on the periphery of the conversation, blinking occasionally, but otherwise disengaged.
Matt wished he could make the beautiful boy smile, that he could restore the spark that Colton and Dean Smith had extinguished.
Call-me-Janet motioned to Josh and Matt. “May I ask you all a personal question? How can you boys be so sure you’re …that way? Have you even tried dating girls? Adam hasn’t. His father thinks he should give it a chance.”
“Say the G-word, mom,” Adam said, his voice emotionless. “‘Gay.’ It’s not a disease.”
“I tried dating girls,” Matt said. “I was just going through the motions, and it didn’t change anything.”
“Ditto,” said Josh.
“GAY!“ Call-me-Janet blurted. “There, I said it.” She sniffled and wiped her eyes.
An awkward silence ensued.
Josh fidgeted nervously, held up his glass. “This is great tea, Mrs. Max—”
“Call me Janet,” Adam’s mom interrupted. “Please.”
Matt picked up the card and carried it over to the wingchair where Adam was sitting. Held it out. “SGA voted to send you this card. They wanted you to know that they care about you.”
