Now that Wrex and I had solidified where our relationship was headed the day before, I felt lighter as I drove my town car down the country roads. Taylor Swift was blaring on the car stereo, thanks to my phone’s bluetooth connectivity, and I was screaming the lyrics into the void with the windows down as I took my leisurely drive. My parents only being a forty-five minute drive didn’t bother me. I hadn’t taken my car out of the garage I was forced to have it in downtown in way too fucking long. So being able to roll all the windows down and sing along to my favorite music without a care in the world was such a liberating feeling. One I needed to remember to do more often.
Pulling up to my parents driveway, the usual anxiety kicked in. Would my family hound me for more details about my personal life? About the divorce? I’d told them that I was able to get Matty to sign the papers, but I hadn’t updated them on anything about ORBIT, assuming they hadn’t seen everything that had happened down at the warehouse on the news. I loved talking about my life with my family, but to say I was a little nervous about mentioning that I was dating an Orb would have been the understatement of the year. Would they judge me for dating someone so soon after the finalization of my divorce? Would they shun me for dating outside my species?
My family was usually pretty liberal when it came to those social issues, but I still had a knot in my stomach that they’d turn on me for some reason. An irrational thought, for sure, considering that neither of my parents had condemned me to hell or any other fictional location for being gay. I knew that the worry was worse than the reality, so I shook myself mentally as I got out of my car and made my way up the steps of the updated Victorian my parents called home.
Before I could knock on the door, my mother opened it with enthusiasm, beaming at me with her coffee stained smile and the green eyes I’d inherited from her. “Wally, I’m so happy to see you!”
Only my parents were allowed to call me Wally, and never in public. Inwardly cringing, I smiled and accepted the hug she enveloped me in without hesitation. She smelled like apricots and linen, taking me all the way back to when I was a kid in this house. I smiled at the nostalgic olfactory memory and plumped a hand at her blonde hair.
“You cut your hair,” I grinned, seeing that she’d gone for a shoulder cut. Last time I’d seen her, the golden locks had been halfway down her back. “It looks great.”
“Thanks, sweetheart.”
Coming into my childhood home, I could see my father putting the finishing touches on lunch in the kitchen. No sooner had I slipped my shoes off at the door (before my mother had to chastise me to do so), I heard the sound of a teenage stampede as my sisters approached.
I gave my mother one last look, staining a finale of a smile on my face. “It was nice knowing you.”
She began to laugh as my sisters appeared from the hall, running at me full speed, yelling “Wallace!” as they ran up and threw their arms around me. Giggling with them, I did my best to hug them back haphazardly from the weird sibling ball they’d made us form. My sisters and I had quite the age gap, but we loved each other all the same.
“Girls, let your brother get in the house before you break him,” I heard my dad call from the kitchen, the sound of something sizzling as a savory aroma wafted comfortably in the air.
Snickering, I looked down at my sisters, who were refusing to let me go, talking over each other as they spewed questions at me. At least I thought they were questions, I couldn’t quite tell over their conjoined excitement. Barbara, who went by Barbie, was the middle child at the ripe age of thirteen, sharing the red hair that had been handed down to us from our father. She was wearing an adorable pink ribbon in her hair. Edith, who went by Edie, was the only other blonde, getting most of her genetics from our mother. Both were wearing pink and blue overalls, respectively, and were talking so fast and so much that I had to break apart from them and bend down to their level.
“Let’s take a breather,” I laughed. “Then you can tell or ask me whatever you want.”
“Why haven’t you been home?” Edie asked with a pout that I was sure my parents had perfected every time I denied their request to meet up in D.C.
“Yeah, it’s been too long.” Barbie agreed, crossing her arms over her chest. “You didn’t even get to hear about how I made the soccer team.”
“And I’m in cheerleading now!” Edie was quick add.
“Girls,” My father chastised again. “Come get the food and set the table so I can get a minute with him.”
“But dad!”
“Now, girls.” My mother said with a smile, backing up her husband. “Go on.”
Scampering to listen to our parents, Barbie and Edie wandered into the kitchen, accepting the kiss to the cheek and the head ruffling our dad gave them as they grabbed the food and headed to the dining room to set everything up for lunch. It appeared we were having cheeseburger sliders for lunch, one of my dads favorite things to make. Of all the things he’d mastered in cooking, his specialty was appetizers and things of the sort. I never left my parents house without a salaciously good meal. The perks of having a chef for a father.
“Baby boy,” My dad said with a grin, his scraggly beard matching my own as we went into a warm embrace. He patted me exactly twice on the back (per usual) before unfurling to stare at me. “It’s good to see you, son.”
“Good to see you too, Dad.” Footsteps sounded in the kitchen as my mother walked over to give my father a side hug and a quick kiss. “You too, Mom. I’m sorry it’s been so long.”
She waved me off, but I knew it had bothered her. Both of them hadn’t seen me since…fuck, how terrible of a son was I that I couldn’t even remember? It hadn’t been since Matty and I first separated, had it? That would’ve been a little over two years ago by now.
Had I really not been home in two years?
“Shit, it’s beentoo long.” I sighed, running a hand over my beard in frustration. “I’m really sorry. I could say it’s because of how things were with Matty and work, but it’s not a good enough explanation. I’m really sorry I haven’t been up to see you, or accepted your invite to come to D.C.”
“You’ve been busy.” Dad shrugged. “Plus, you’re a hero now.”
“Oliver, don’t embarrass him!” My mom chastised, but she squared a look at me. “We’ve seen every mention of ORBIT on TV. And we heard about what happened at that warehouse where the kidnapped petrylle were being held.”
Which only made it worse that it’d been so long since I’d seen them. I realized, watching them hold on to each other, watching me, how much I’d truly missed them. I definitely needed to come home more often to avoid this disparaging pit of guilt I was now harboring in my gut.
“I’m definitely not the hero in that situation,” I scoffed, again using the usual nervous tick of running a hand over my beard at my unease. “That was all Detective Hudson Rowe. He’s the hero, I just happened to be there.”
“Modest and humble,” My mother squished my cheeks together and kissed them tenderly. “You haven’t changed after all.”
