Ryan and Nolan both seemed cool. Oscar and Finn were both lucky to have them.
Ezra was the same as ever. Warm, and kind, and funny.
Mike was glad he’d agreed to have his back. Havingsomeonein his corner made him feel better about his chances of getting through the wedding celebrations without feeling like crap the whole time.
“Shame,” his dad said. “You could do a lot worse than a doctor. Hell, you couldn’t do muchbetter.”
Right. Of course not.
“Yeah, well,” Mike said, playing with his beer bottle. “Plenty more fish in the sea.”
“You were two years old when I was your age,” his dad said. “Time’s a-wastin’.”
“I think I’ve got a few more years where I could manage to have and raise kids ahead of me,” Mike said.
It wasn’t that his dad wanted grandchildren. Not really.
He just liked to find fault with literally everything Mike did.
“So I guess that means you’re going to the wedding alone, huh?”
Mike hesitated, and then a surge of bravery flowed through him. He wasn’t going to let his dad havethisone. “Actually, I’m kinda going with Ezra.”
His dad raised an eyebrow.
Yeah. Now that he said it aloud, it did sound… a little pathetic. Like going to prom with your cousin.
At least Ezra wasn’t actually related to him.
“What are you, gay now?” his dad asked, and Mike couldn’t help hearing the disgust in his voice. Like he was one wrong word away from anger, like shouting wasn’t far behind.
There was areasonhe hadn’t let on that this was a gay wedding, that Oscar was marrying another man. He hadn’t wanted to have that argument.
What he wanted to say was that Ezra had offered to go as his friend, but if hehadbeen gay, there wouldn’t have been a damned thing wrong with that. That it was okay to be whoever he was. That half his friends weren’t straight, and he’d just found out that Ezra wasn’t straight, either.
Mike wanted to defend Ezra. To tell his dad that it was absolutely fine that his best friend was bi, that it wasn’t anything to be ashamed of.
But he also knew how well that’d go down. He could hear the argument already.
He’d come in here toavoidan argument. The last thing he wanted was to start one now.
So he swallowed the bitter taste of betraying his friend, and shook his head.
“We’re acting as each other’s wingmen,” he said, uncomfortable with the lie. It wasn’t as though Ezra would ever know he’d said that, and hell, maybe thatwasthe idea, but…
Something about it still felt wrong. Mike had never been great with dishonesty, and what he really meant was that they were going as friends.
Why was that so hard to say to his dad?
“Well, I guess you needsomeoneto look good next to,” his dad said.
Mike’s stomach clenched. Great. He hadn’t stood up for Ezra, and it hadn’t even saved him from another insult.
But at least this was directed athim. That, he could accept. It wasn’t as though he wasn’t used to it, after all.
“Yeah, that’s basically the idea,” Mike agreed, forcing himself to smile and take another sip of his beer. “Listen, I’m beat. You mind if take the rest of this upstairs?”
“Go for it,” his dad said. “Just don’t let your mother find the empty bottle in your room when you leave. I’ll never hear the end of it.”
