I Still Need ✓

7. I'm disgusting and I don't give a fuck

Unfortunately, it was indeed family stuff. We were going to my grandmother for her 80th birthday. I almost gagged at seeing the text. When I got home, my parents immediately pushed me and Eve into the car and rode off to her place, and I nagged all the way. And Eve nagged at my nagging. And our parents nagged at our nagging.

"Hugo!" Mom snapped as she drove up to her mother's house. I glared at it and she ordered, "Just calm down. It'll be fine."

"You know it won't be," I groaned.

"We're here!" Dad announced cheerily, so I groaned again. "Come on, Hugo. Let's go."

"Can't I stay in the car?"

"No."

"Please."

"No."

"Fine." I reluctantly got out of the car and slouched towards my grandmother's front door, letting Eve ring the doorbell. The old lady opened the door with a smile, but when her eyes fell on me, the corners of her bright red lips dropped down.

"Happy birthday," I mumbled. My father nudged me inside and I proceeded to ignore my grandmother's glare for the rest of the day.

The whole family was there. All our cousins and aunts and uncles. Even my grandmother's neighbors were present. But Eve and I weren't interested in having conversations with any of them, so we sat in the deep couch in the corner of the room, scrolling through Eve's Twitter feed together. I was fascinated by all the messages she got from strangers from all over the world and she seemed to know all of them and replied to their tweets with her usual snarky remarks.

Suddenly, a girl I don't know sunk down beside me and Eve and I both looked up in surprise. She seemed to be about our age. She smiled and said, "Hi, you're Edna's grandchildren, right?"

"Unfortunately yes," I automatically grumbled.

"Why unfortunately? She's a lovely woman."

"A lovely woman? Please."

"It's because Hugo's gay," Eve said nonchalantly, dropping her eyes down to her screen again. "She hates him because of that."

"Wha—" The girl blinked. "Really? Because she's religious or something?"

I nodded.

"I told you Hugo," Eve said. "You had to bring your boyfriend so you could piss her off."

"I don't even have a boyfriend, Eve."

"What about Dylan?"

"He's not my boyfriend. I don't like him."

"You're dating him, aren't you?"

"No, I hate him."

"But you went over to his place this very afternoon."

"Yeah, because Olivia is making us."

The girl beside me looked like she was following a tennis match, her eyes flicking from me to Eve, getting more and more confused with everything we said. Couldn't blame her. It was confusing.

"What about Floyd?" Eve asked, making me drag my hand down my face with a deep sigh. She just didn't know when to stop.

"Eve, shut up." I turned to the girl and asked her, "So what's your name?"

"I'm Riley," she told me with a friendly smile. "I live next door. Too bad your gran isn't supportive. My family is catholic, too, but yeah... It's ridiculous to think gay people are sinful and all that. God loves everyone."