Fire and Freedom - Book One of the Café Latte Trilogy

Chapter Seventeen - Jasper

I winced. I'd forgotten to set up an albib "Uh, yeah, I wound up not staying with him. Sorry, that must have worried you, I just wound up staying over with another friend cause Tom wanted to stay out later than I did. I'll let you know next time."

Mum looked like she was about to explode with something, and I suddenly clocked Andrew's apologetic look. "You didn't," I gaped at him.

Andrew held his hands up. "She just asked who you might be with, I said everyone's names, they're the ones that pieced it together. I'm merely a terrible liar."

I quickly said, "Mum, Dad, it's not what you think, I swear-"

Dad, who was stirring vegetables in a pan, turned to look at me in disbelief. "Jasper, you are nineteen years old. He's thirty."

"Twenty-eight," I corrected, and then groaned. "Look, I know it must look a bit weird, but I swear he's a really nice guy. Tom's parents have been friends with him for years, since he was my age, and I promise they would have stopped anything if he wasn't trustworthy."

"When you said you were gay, we thought you would date someone your own age," Mum was horrified. "I'm not having you dating people in a totally different stage of life than you!"

"I'm nineteen," I said, realising as I said it, I was getting extremely defensive. I tried to calm down, knowing it wouldn't help anything, but I couldn't help folding my arms across my chest. "If I had liked the apprenticeship, I'd be living independently in a flat right now. Surely I have the right to choose who I spend time with?"

"Jasper, he lives in a completely different world!" Mum exclaimed. "You can't seriously be dating someone who is that different to you!"

"I'm not dating him!" I retorted. "I would have told you if I was in a relationship with him!"

"Jasper, you've got to understand where we're coming from," Dad sighed. "You're our kid, you're only nineteen, and you're just finding your feet in adulthood. We don't like the thought of you being with someone that's so much older than you."

"We're not dating," I snapped.

Dad frowned. "Then why are we having an argument about you dating him?"

Andrew interjected deftly. "We have neighbours," he reminded us. "Let's not turn this into a shouting match, okay? Look, it threw me for a loop at first - but this is a very specific situation here. Jasper and Ross met via friends, a tight-knit group that are clearly very nice people. Jasper wanted to explore sexual experiences, and he went for someone that is in the group of people that he trusts. It's not a relationship, it's just Jasper blowing off steam. You can't seriously expect Jasper to not experiment?"

"With boys his own age," Mum snapped.

"Andrew, this is very serious!" Dad exclaimed. "Jasper's..."

"Having sex," Andrew filled in for him, to which Dad cringed. "He's nineteen, Dad, are you really that surprised? I'd started having sex by nineteen, too. Jasper just figured out his sexuality, it's not like you're dealing with him being fifteen and banging people left and right."

"Yes, but I would have thought he'd have more common sense," Dad said crossly. "He's getting involved with someone so much older."

"Alright, next time I choose someone to sleep with, I'll pick someone younger!" I rolled my eyes.

"Jazz, please," Andrew sighed. "Spare us the sarcasm."

I frowned. "I thought you were on my side."

"I am on your side," Andrew said. "Now I've had time to think about it, I see no reason why you shouldn't date whoever you want, as long as you're careful and it's all with informed consent. But you haven't given them much time to think about it. It's only a few months until you move out, they're still adjusting to that."