“You’re not that bad,” Gabe reassured me at the exact moment my mom finally snapped.
“You what?” she yelled. “How can you love him? You’re not even gay! I’d know if you were. What has he been doing to you since you moved down to Wilmington?”
Gabe opened his mouth to say something, but I elbowed him in the ribs hard enough he doubled over.
“Mom, he hasn’t been doing anything to me except showing me that I’m the center of his world.” Since the cat was officially out of the bag, I laced Gabe’s fingers with my own, resting them in plain sight on my knee. “We’ve been together since junior year, but it wasn’t until we moved out that we were able to actually be together.”
“That’s a lie!” Mom was pacing the room, Dad behind her, trying to get her to calm down. “I’m your mother. I would’ve known….”
You could practically see the moment the light bulb went off in her head. She whipped around to bury her finger in Dad’s chest. “You knew about this, didn’t you? When they went to New York at Christmas, you helped them, didn’t you? How long, Randall?”
Oh, she was working up a good head of steam. As I watched their interaction, I wished I’d gotten more of Dad’s levelheadedness and less of Mom’s doomsday obsessions. He guided her back to her chair, and Gabe’s parents excused themselves. I watched them walk to the sitting room adjacent to the kitchen, close enough to jump in if the need should arise.
“Yes, Dee, I knew they were seeing one another,” Dad admitted. “Gabe’s a good man and he treats Trevor right. That’s what you need to focus on right now.”
“But it’s unnatural,” she argued. That was the straw that broke this particular camel’s back. I lurched out of my chair and hovered over her. Yeah, I knew it was a bad way to de-escalate conflict, but I didn’t care. She was not going to talk about Gabe and me that way. Not now. Not ever. One good thing that’d come from the past twelve hours was I honestly believed we’d be okay. My mom may come around, she may not, but Gabe and I were not degenerates for loving one another, and we had enough family who accepted us as we were.
“Why Mom? How are Gabe and I disgusting to you? Is it because we’re two men? Would your opinion change if Gabe was the daughter of your best friend instead of the son?”
“It has nothing to do with whether he’s a man or a woman,” she countered, still breathing so hard I could see her nostrils expand on every exhale. “Gwen isn’t just my best friend, she’s my sister.”
“Your stepsister,” I clarified. Four little letters made all the difference in this situation. “This is why you didn’t know sooner. Gabe wanted to be honest with everyone, but I knew you’d act like this. I love you, but I also love him. You’re my family, but so is he. And I’m not going to break both of our hearts just because it makes you uncomfortable.”
“What about my heart?” she pleaded. I backed away slowly, needing the physical connection to Gabe so I wouldn’t crack under the pressure.
“Mom, I’m an adult. You need to remember that you raised me to be intelligent and independent. I was never going to be your baby boy forever.” Gabe squeezed my fingers, giving me the strength to continue. “Yes, our relationship is a bit different because of Gramma and Grandpa, but I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to turn my back on the man who’s my entire world. A piece of paper from two generations ago binding our families to one another doesn’t make us blood-related. I love him and I’m going to keep on loving him as long as he’ll have me. Someday, I hope you’ll be able to be as happy for us as everyone else has been so far. I truly wish you’d see how happy I am, how lucky I am to have someone like Gabe in my life.”
“I don’t know if that’ll ever happen.” Mom stood from the table and walked out of the house without another word. We all stared at the back door, stunned by how poorly she’d taken the news.
I kept waiting for the guilt, the shame, the feeling that I’d disappointed her. Instead, I felt Dad’s strong arms around my chest. My boyfriend’s fingers still gripping mine tightly. And over Dad’s shoulder, Gwen and Joel with matching sad smiles on their faces. Maybe mom would come around, maybe she wouldn’t, but this was what family was supposed to be. These were the people I would always be able to count on to love me unconditionally.
“I’m proud of you, son,” Dad whispered. That’s when I lost it. Tears streamed down my face, some happy, others sad. “Give her some time and she will be too.”
“I hope you’re right, because I meant it when I said I can’t leave him.”
“And that’s how I know you two are going to last.” He turned and offered a hand to Gabe. “Take care of him. It’s going to be rough for a while.”
“Always.”
We left home that weekend knowing things had forever changed. Eventually, I hoped my mom would realize there were worse things in the world than me falling in love with Gabe, but that would be up to her. I couldn’t fight, not when I finally felt free for the first time since I realized I was attracted to him as something more than a friend. We’d been inseparable since birth, and God willing, we’d stay that way our entire lives.
