“It’s called a surprise,” he says, punching me on the shoulder.
Beth moves towards me, drawing my attention.
“Hey you,” she says, but as she pulls me into a hug she whispers, “I’m sorry, have we fucked up?”
Understatement of the fucking century.
“Kind of,” I whisper, “I’m going to need your help.”
“Anything,” she says, letting me go. “You look great, Winbrook clearly agrees with you.”
“Thanks,” I say, keeping my arm around her.
My plan is completely shot to shit. What the fuck am I going to do now?
We spend the rest of the day on the loungers, and I tell them what I can about Winbrook, obviously leaving out anything to do with Stephen, and Jamie and Max, and gay bars, and drag shows… all the fun stuff. It’s mainly me reassuring Mom that I’m looking after myself.
I can’t get rid of this feeling of needing to vomit, it’s even worse now that my brother is here. He always spends his birthday at the clubhouse with the guys, I never in a million years expected him to be at our mom’s. I haven’t even thought up a plan to tell him yet; I wanted to start with Mom and Miguel and ask them to keep it a secret until I figured out what to do about Diablo.
Seeing him here with Beth confirms that they’re together, he seems lighter somehow, happier than I’ve ever seen him for sure. I always thought she’d be a good influence on him, and I’m happy to see that I’m right… wait… that’s it… she’s a good influence on him…
Beth stands and offers to get everyone a refill, so I jump up to say I’ll help and follow her inside.
“What is going on?” she whispers, as soon as I close the door behind us.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were both going to be here?”
“I literally found out yesterday and was told it was supposed to be a surprise. I thought you’d be happy to see your brother, well, and me. Also, why the football game last night? Is this to do with your hot roommate?”
“Shh,” I say, “I’ll catch you up on the gossip another time, today, you need to help me.”
“I already said I’d do anything, what’s going on?”
“I’m going to come out to my mom and Miguel tonight.”
“Oh my god, Donovan, that’s amazing,” she says, pulling me into a hug before leaning back, realization dawning across her face. “Ohhh… and now we’re here.”
“Exactly.”
“I mean, of course I’ll be there with you if you need me, you can tell all three of them together; I’ll hold your hand the entire time.”
“No fucking way, I can’t tell them all together, it’s too much.” My heart starts pounding in my chest and it’s getting hard to breathe at just the thought of that.
“Okay, okay,” she says, holding my shoulders to steady me. “It’s however you want to do it, whatever you need.”
“Thanks,” I say, taking some deep breaths. “I need you to tell Diablo for me.”
It takes her a moment to process as she looks at me confused. “Wait, what?”
“I need you to tell him for me.”
“Donovan,” she sighs, “I can’t even imagine how scary this must be, but I genuinely don’t think he’ll react how you think he will, he loves you so much.”
“Then it doesn’t matter if you do it for me,” I say, making sure to give her my best puppy dog eyes.
I’m praying inside that she says yes, I definitely can’t tell him myself, but she seems to have softened him. Coming from her it might not sound as bad.
“I don’t know, coming out… it’s a big thing, I don’t want to take that away from you.”
