The Boss [LGBT]

Chapter 4

"Why did your dad call?" I asked.

"My family doesn't like me, but we still get together a lot. They all live in my townhouse and my dad will call us all and make us get together. Usually everyone asks for money or they ignore me or tell me how messed up I am. Sometimes I bring Michael or Emilio or both when I want to make them mad, or otherwise another male friend as a date."

"Tell me about Vince and Donald - if you don't mind," I said.

"Right. Well, Vince and Donald lived next door to us. The neighbor boy my father caught me with lived on the other side of them and they saw us go off into his shed and knew what happened. The boy ended up getting sent away actually. I don't know what happened to him exactly. Anyway, Vince and Donald were very nice and let me know my sexuality is not wrong. They were like my replacement parents. I'd always go over to their house secretly, and once I befriended Michael and Emilio they'd come over as well. We'd all go there and just be ourselves. It was a safe haven. My father hated them. He'd always talk about how he wanted to kick them out of the neighborhood. I'd always go over there before my dad came home. Even though I paid for his retirement he was still mad." He was looking away, at the ground. He stopped massaging my hand, his hands in his lap.

"Well...if it means anything, I like you."

He glanced up at me, and then he laughed, covering his mouth as he kept laughing. "Tell me about your family," he said, chuckling.

"My family? They're the exact opposite of yours. My mother and father met in community college, got married, had me and then they worked for the same place and loved me a whole bunch, even though I'm gay. My grandparents lived down the road and everyone in my family lived close. We were a very close family and we just love each other. My dad was an only child and his parents were only children, and so my grandparents on my dad's side are close with my mom's side of the family. My grandmothers were actually friends in high school and dreamed of their kids being together and it happened."

He nodded. "They sound nice."

"They are. We're really close, and the nice thing is that no one has ever passed away in my family. I never met any of my great grandparents and the only people who've passes are people I've never met. There's just my grandparents on my dad's side, then on my mom's side there's two aunts and two uncles, a great aunt and a great uncle and then my cousins. I have a total of...five cousins. It's kind of a small family, but that's probably why we're close."

"Hopefully I can meet them one day."

"They'd love to see this place," I said.

He smirked. "Maybe we can set up a tour."

"I hope so." I sighed, thinking about my family. I loved them to death. They were amazing. "You know, it's kind of scary thinking about how none of them have passed. It makes me realize that eventually they will. It's really scary. Since I couldn't drive in high school then a lot of my family members would drive me around. When I go home they still drive me around. It's scary to think about how as I get older it means others get older." I shook my head, tearing up already. "Damn it," I mumbled, turning my head. "I'm sorry," I said. "I cry about everything. I can't help it."

"It's fine, Em," he said, reaching to move my arm but I turned my back to him, leaning over the side of the couch.

"No, no. You don't want to see this," I said.

He laughed and stood up, putting his hands on my shoulder. "Come on. It's fine to cry, Emmy. You don't mind if I call you that do you?"

"No," I said, leaning on my arms, smiling. In fact, I freaking love that name and I want you to say it more. I want to say your name, too. Hell, I want to moan it. Ugh. There's something wrong with me.