Externalizing [mxm]

Chapter 19

Laura seemed disappointed to hear that, to say the least. Bill just refused to acknowledge that he'd heard anything.

"I teach Marc's daughter at school," Brendan said, obviously pushing for a change of subject. "I'm the art teacher there, on top of my personal work with the studio."

"They don't have a problem with..." Laura gestured to Brendan as a whole.

Brendan decided to take it as his tattoos that she was talking about. "I just wear long sleeves to keep it professional. It gets a little warm, but oh well."

Laura only grunted in reply that time and an awkward silence fell over the dinner table. Brendan picked at his food—Marc realizing only too late that they had made Brendan a steak to eat as well, despite being vegetarian. Brendan at least picked at the vegetables that had been put on the side to balance out the meal. Marc forked more of his over then and earned himself an appreciative smile out of Brendan.

"So you take care of your daughter?" Laura finally asked. "Does she know about your relationship?" She waved a fork between the two of them.

"To an extent. She knows Brendan and I are dating, but like most kids, she just thinks that means we watch movies together and such," Marc explained, knowing that it sounded like he and Brendan were doing a lot more than they actually were. It still got the point across though. "Besides, I think she likes having her own personal art teacher over," Marc tried to make a laugh out of it then but didn't get much of a response.

Bill finished his steak and took it to the kitchen without another word. Brendan seemed done then as well as he fixed everything on his plate and forced a smile. "Thanks for the dinner, I think it's time for us to go."

Laura scrambled then, gathering up their dishes and stopping by in the kitchen. She came back out with a pamphlet. "Well, Father Leroy would love to hear from you. I'm sure he could help your friend out here, too."

Brendan's face went cold and he refused to take the paper from her hands. "No, mom. Bye." He left it at that and dragged Marc out of the house and back to the car.

Marc didn't go so far as to ask about who Father Leroy was—obviously someone involved in Brendan's past of trying to 'pray the gay away'. Brendan slumped against the door without speaking, and Marc aimlessly drove around as he tried to think of something to at least dig Brendan out of the pit, even if only a little.

Eventually he stopped for ice cream and got them both two large servings covered in fudge. It earned him another tight smile out of Brendan as he went in on the ice cream. "I think it was kind of funny, them hearing that you were married and it didn't work out. They usually pressure me a lot more about it," Brendan finally spoke up. "Even though in the end, they still would rather call you 'my friend' than boyfriend."

Marc shrugged. "Well it's at least over for now." He gave Brendan a pat on the leg and let his hand rest there. "Do you want to stay the night again?"

Brendan snorted. "If I stop going home anytime soon, Blueberry will start giving me shit for spending too much time at your place."

"Two nights in a row isn't that bad," Marc scoffed.

"Yeah, but maybe two turns into three, and who knows..." he trailed off playfully. "But okay."

They went home from there, and Marc paid Terri for watching Ariel over the few hours. Ariel insisted on staying awake, so they settled down into the couch with a movie until she couldn't keep her eyes open. Marc carried her up to bed and tucked her in.

He found Brendan downstairs stuffing left over food from the party into his mouth, making Marc chuckle slightly. "You would think they didn't feed you," Marc said.