Page 114 of All That History
“Flynn...”Her voice sounded brittle.
“You heard me, mom.”Finally, he broke his stare at me.Turned, to look at her instead.“Oli and I are together, and he’s going to move in with me.”
“This is the liquor talking,” she said, sourly.It came with a glare in my direction, leaving no confusion as to who she thought had been plying him with booze.
“It was beer,” Flynn corrected.“And no, this is honesty talking.Oli’s my boyfriend, I think he’s fucking amazing, and that’s all there is to it.”
The juice of a thousand lemons and limes would look upon his mom’s pursed lips with awe, I decided.
“Language, Flynn,” she snapped, as though his cursing was the very final straw, and then stalked back into the house.
For a moment I thought the wind was picking up, that a gale was sweeping down the street.Almost turned, in fact, to look at the trees to gauge their bending; to see if the last of the dry, brown leaves had finally been dragged loose.
Realized, a second later, that the roaring was all in my own ears.
“That was...”Stupid.Unnecessary.A complication neither of us needed.
Flynn’s stare was unblinking, even if his eyes were still somewhat glazed.“We’re doing this, okay?You and me.We’re giving this the best fucking shot we can, and that means no reaching for easy excuses down the line.”
“You drank too much.”
He hissed in frustration.“That has nothing to do with it.Or, if it does, only in that it gave me the courage to say something that needed to be said.”
“You needed to out us both, at midnight, on your front step?That seemed like the very best way to tell your mom, not only that you’re gay, but you’re in a relationship with someone you know full well she disapproves of?”
“Should it make a difference to us, whether she approves or not?”
I frowned.“No, but...”
“You know what would’ve happened, Oli,” he interrupted.“You’d have moved away, and we’d be living together, and all the time this would be the secret that hung over it all.Maybe not a lie, not if they didn’t ask something directly, but a deception all the same.Souring every thought of home, complicating every visit.”He gestured at my house.“We’d get to be one way, the very best way, when we saw your parents, and then a different way with mine.Always on edge, worried that someone would say something carelessly, and give the game away.”
“I don’t think, based on her reaction just now, that your mom is going to be suggesting ‘dinner with the in-laws’ any time soon.”I sighed.“It’s a nice idea, it really is.Only you ignored the fact that she might not be okay with there being a ‘you and me’ at all.”
“Then at least we’d know!”Flynn pushed his hands through his hair.Looking exasperated and suddenly a lot more sober.“She doesn’t have to like it, Oli.She just has to know about it, so that I can make the most of the opportunity I’ve got, now.”
“It just feels so awkward,” I admitted.
“No, it feels liberating,” he insisted.“I want her and my dad to be okay with us, I want them to be happy that we’re happy together.But if they’re not, well, now I’ll know I can’t expect that from them.Which fucking sucks, but lots of things fucking suck in life, and so you just have to hope you can close the door on them and move forward.”
I stared at him, at the intense expression on his handsome face.Thinking about what he’d said, and how he’d said it; I’d been so caught up in the secret being spilled, I hadn’t really processed the words he’d actually used.Just the memory of them now was enough to leave me blushing.
“It’s funny.All the times your mom boasted about you, I don’t think she ever mentioned how brave you were.”
Flynn made a face.“Don’t be ridiculous.”
I stepped back up, onto the porch.Ignoring the fear that we might be being watched; the prickling sensation down my back, at the idea that his mom might be glaring daggers at me from some crack in the curtains.Focused instead on how good it felt to wrap my arms around him and pull him in tight to me.
“There are lots of ridiculous things about this week,” I said, softly, “but you being brave is not one of them.I’m really looking forward to living with you.”
“Oli...”
“Just shut up and take the compliment,” I warned him.“Stop ruining the moment.”
Flynn shut up, and took the compliment, and we had our moment.
