The Dream Chaser

F O U R T E E N: I can't stop fucking thinking about you

F O U R T E E N: I can't stop fucking thinking about you

This year's Christmas didn't go too smoothly.

Of course, there were a lot of nice family moments and all, but there was one thing that kinda changed the mood, and that happened when we were having our lovely dinner on Christmas Day.

Damien came out.

I knew he was going to. I'd known about it for a while now, a bit longer than a year to be exact. I had always thought it was strange that he'd never had a girlfriend before, so I had just asked him, without any beating around the bush, if he was gay. And I had been right. So now I had told him that it was about time that he'd tell the rest of the family. And why not with Christmas?

We'd went through all the details the day before, and I'd told him to just say it when he felt like the timing was perfect.

However, when we were all seated at the dining table, rays of sunshine were shining brightly through the windows, making it look like it was spring already, and we were eating our main dish; some ham and veggies thing, I'd noticed that Damien was fiddling extremely nervously, so I had given him a slight nod, telling him to just stand up and get it over with.

So he stood up and cleared his throat, before quickly blurting it out: "Mum, dad, I wanna tell you something, I'm gay."

And then, after he'd said it, everybody was silent for a while, trying to process what their son/brother had just said.

And then, everybody gave a different reaction.

I just smiled at him encouragingly, since it wasn't a surprise to me anymore, and just kept sitting in my place quietly, observing the others.

Trevor started laughing. Not because he thought it was funny that his brother was gay, but because he thought he was making a joke. It was obvious that he wasn't though, and when Trevor realised that, his laughter died down quickly. He stood up from his chair and gave his brother this handshake-man-hug thing, trying to reassure Damien that he'd be there for him when he needed him to. It was a nice reaction.

James just looked at Damien with extremely wide, angry eyes, as if he couldn't believe what his brother had just said. He was also mumbling things as "That declares a lot" and "I knew it" under his breath. He was mostly just being quiet though, and I didn't think Damien liked that reaction.

Mum just had a small smile on her lips, when she took her son into her arms. I think she already suspected that Damien wasn't straight. I mean, the woman raised him, and she could read him like an open book. She could read all of us like an open book actually. Anyways, I think she'd kinda already thought he was gay, since the guy was 20 years old, pretty good looking, talked to girls a lot, but had never had a girlfriend before. Yeah, the signs were pretty obvious.

And then there was dad.

I think we, Damien and I, had both expected dad to stand up from his chair, grab a bottle of rum or something and walk angrily out of the kitchen, to his study or wherever he could be alone, think, and drink.

That wasn't what he did, however. No, in stead of getting a scowl on his face, dad smiled brightly. "Wow, son", he said, leaving us all sitting there, speechless, "that's great." He did get up to get another bottle of wine, though, because according to dad, two glasses of wine weren't enough for celebrating his son's coming out.

After he sat back down again, he looked at Damien, "So, when will I meet the boyfriend?"

And that was the moment that Jamie got up from his seat and stormed out of the kitchen, leaving the rest of us sitting there speechless. Kinda what we'd expected dad to do...