~ Tawson ~
The fallout of what happened was still lingering. Tawson made sure that Vic was okay with their family when they came back to the house Saturday. Vic explained that Paxton traded places with their dad to work with them in the barn. They talked a little and Paxton apologized. Then, they sat down and had a conversation with their parents.
Vic recounted the conversation in highlight form. Their parents had a lot of questions, were still concerned about their relationship, but ultimately couldn’t stop them. It wasn’t what Tawson wanted to hear. He hated that Vic had to have that conversation at all. Tawson could see the tears welling up when Vic told him about explaining how they identified. Their parents had questions about that too, what it meant.
“Those questions weren’t mean,” Vic explained. “I think they were really trying to understand. Paxton helped me explain it. Mom and Dad made it clear that they weren’t upset with me, personally, just the secrets that had been kept. I know they don’t approve of us. They just need time to see us together and happy.” By the end of the recap, Tawson felt like Vic wastrying to convince themselves of that statement.
Xander and Wright talked to them together. Wright sent an invite via text to both of them for Sunday night. After talking about it, they both decided to go and see what Wright had to say. That dinner lasted for nearly three hours.
Wright opened up and told his whole story. He explained how he knew without a doubt that Xander was who he’d end up with pretty early on. Despite the age difference and some people looking at them quizzically when they went out, Wright loved Xander. And that had been more than enough. He ended the conversation by apologizing to Vic for not speaking up when Tracy said something about the age gap.
Now, it was Wednesday and Tawson was doing a couple extra hours of office hours after his classes. He kept the door shut, adding a note on the other side of the door to knock if they were a student. He hadn’t heard anything from Meredith. He still had no idea what she hoped to accomplish with showing up the way she did.
His phone vibrated from an incoming text.
I miss you. Wish we could come out altogether.
I know, baby. Maybe one day. I think your family knowing is more than enough right now.
He sent the text back as a knock sounded on his door. Tawson stood up and opened it, expecting a student. He stepped back in surprise when William was on the other side. He held up cups and a bag of greasy fast food. It sounded perfect.
They settled into the chairs and Tawson cleared off his desk before either of them spoke.
“I want to start off with saying I was a grade A jerk,” William said. “I literally stand for the LGBTQ+ community. I have built my entire life around it and the one time someone I see likemy own family is being forced to confess their gender identity, I do nothing. I have felt terrible about it and I’ve spoken to Vic. I just came from their apartment where we had a long, emotionally exhausting talk. But I also owe you an apology.”
“Why me?” Tawson asked. They split the food between themselves and Tawson bit half a fry.
“Because I respect my tenants and friends,” William said. “And I think we were all shocked about the relationship, the fact that you had to relive your past trauma got overlooked.”
“Oh.” Tawson looked down at the food on his desk. “I’m okay now, though. Vic came up to the house and he helped me through the panic attacks. And I’ve spoken with Megan since. She’s worried about how often I’m having these attacks and triggers so she prescribed me a medication for it.”
“Do you need anything else from me? Any resources from the foundation or anything from the friend capacity?”
“If you could get me in touch with a lawyer,” Tawson said. “I want to try and file for a restraining order. I had to delete my email address because they keep sending messages from random emails. They sent three before I deleted it. But I don’t want them to get a chance to come back.”
“Of course,” William said. “Did you save the emails before you deleted the account?”
“I did. And I have my mom from back home saying that she’s spreading lies. I just don’t know how she turned out like this. She is not the woman I fell in love with in college.”
“We’ll get it sorted,” William promised. “I’ll have them call you later this week sometime.”
“There’s one more thing,” Tawson said. “I’d been thinking about it for a while but with everything that went down, I’m looking into getting my own place. I have a few open housesthat I’m going to for some apartments over the next two weeks. I’ll let you know for sure if I’m going to take one of them or not.”
“We’ll be sad to see you go,” William said. He paused to gulp down his drink. “But you should know by now that dating a Lawson means automatic invites to all the events and then some.”
“I’ve noticed,” Tawson said with a smile.
They settled into silence while they ate. It wasn’t awkward. Tawson thanked William for the food and tried to pay him. He waved it off, though.
“Thank you for coming by,” Tawson said. “It means a lot. While the way everyone reacted initially wasn’t ideal, I’m happy to see that people are reaching out and apologizing, promising to do better.
“It really hurt Vic. And myself. I spent months telling them everyone would be okay and that they were worried about nothing. They might be known as the one of little words and a bit standoffish, but that was because they were scared. I can promise you that if you take the time to let them get comfortable, they are so funny and kind and wicked smart. They aced all of their midterms.”
“Damn, that’s impressive.” William started gathering their things. “I think we all fell into that ‘younger sibling’ vibe with them that we forgot they also grew up as we got older. I did invite both of you out for drinks and dancing with us. We’re going the next weekend and would love for both of you to join us.”
“We’ll talk about it,” Tawson said.
“Again, Tawson, I am sorry about how everything was handled. I admire how strong you are with everything you’vefaced. I forget that we’re only a year apart in age. We will do better in the future. The foundation will do better. I’ll do better.”
