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Chapter 30- Grief at a Gathering (Part I)

"Never would've thought it," Paul said as he turned to Janette, who nodded at his comment, but looked down at him without a trace of disapproval on her face.

"You see, young man?" Greg got Connor's attention once again, reaching out to the teen sat on the ground, placing his large hand on his bony shoulder, "We didn't expect our kids to be happy together, but we were going to be there for them either way. We'll do the same for you, you know. Make sure we can meet the boy at some point, won't you?"
Connor's family Christmases were never unwelcoming or awkward, very much unlike the case of his lover.

For Jonah, his Christmas was always spent at his father's parent's house a few hour's drive away from where they had moved to. There was something dull and dark about the house that they lived in, but maybe that was down to their view on him. Luckily, his mother's side of the family were always in attendance, including his uncle, Richard, who always brought his wife, Aunt Lindsey, and Jonah's cousin, Chloe appeared once every few years, but never making much time to speak to the family. She would eat with them, and then retreat into a quiet room to continue with whatever work she had decided to bury herself in, and thus, Jonah remained clueless about what she was like. Sometimes he forgot he even had a cousin, and he definitely couldn't recall a time he ever told Connor about her.
Everybody in his family now knew about Jonah's sexuality, the day Dominik found out being the day that he told his parents, partially because he didn't know what else to do following the argument he and his son had gotten into after finding out. The following gathering (that he was extremely glad wasn't Christmas, but was in fact during the summer previously the same year) when they then found out that Richard and Lindsey already knew, having been told a similar time to when he had come out to Hazel, who had helped him then come out to her parents, Mack and Ellie. It was his father's side of the family that seemed to frighten him when it came to the thought, and upon hearing Lindsey confirming that she'd found out a few years previously, Dominik's father, Lewis, had released a deep sigh and simply told him, "They experiment at this age," earning a lot of attention from the more accepting members of the family around him, Jonah falling completely silent in his seat, even going so far as to holding his breath, "you'll figure out eventually, Jonah, that whatever boys you have your eyes on now will become disgusting to you."
Jonah never mentioned Connor in front of Grandfather Lewis, at least not by name, following the response he got to the retort he thought of right at the moment he heard him say such a horrible thing.

"What if I actually have a boyfriend now?" he answered back in dull tone, mirroring the one his grandparent had used to address him, and bordering on the emotionless way of which his father regularly spoke, his voice strained having held his breath for so long, "and let's just say I've been with him for over a year now?"

"You'll learn," Lewis repeated, "and so will he. Both of you will soon be free of this stupid delusion or at least, you will with your brain. You're a smart boy, Jonah, and if this boy of yours doesn't too, then he's a fool unworthy of your time. Already is those things, just claiming to be who he is."

Jonah had felt his grip on his fork tightening, his mother laying a hand on his when she noticed his knuckles turning white under the pressure. Although, he hadn't let her grip last very long, as he'd quickly slammed his hands against the table, aggressively placing his cutlery down before leaving the table and leaving the house.
His mother and father approached a nearby park a few minutes later, both of them deciding to go and seek out their son, seeing him sat alone on a bench at the end of a nearby street. Behind him, he could hear the creaking of chains and the joyful cries of children enjoying their summer holidays, some parents accompanying them out. Every so often, he shifted to one side to let a small child climb over the bench he was sat on, running around and playing whatever game that Jonah couldn't muster the creativity to even imagine anymore. As he sat there, he was tired, concerned about the support he was going to be receiving from his grandparents now that Lewis had said such a thing; was he going to be able to afford rent without the money they'd set aside for him? He began to concern himself about the apartment that he hadn't even chosen yet, interrupted when he saw his mother's face appearing in front of him, the woman in question crouching to see his dejected expression. Dominik sat beside him, still no trace of emotion on his face; however the thought that he had arrived to attempt to comfort his son was enough to warm him just a little. They explained to him that once he'd left, Dominik had begun a long discussion with his own father about how ridiculous the views he just expressed were, saying that even if he, with the emotional detachment and lack of understanding for society and social interaction, could accept that a member of his immediate family was a homosexual, then so could Lewis. To which, he had apparently scoffed, although Jonah found himself amused at the information that his wife, Agnes, had then agreed with the rest of the table. Lindsey and Richard had expressed much more calmly that they thought it was a good thing that Jonah could be open and proud of himself to the rest of the family, and Hazel's parents had admitted to not fully understanding, but being proud that he could find somebody to make him feel special and happy, regardless of their biological sex. With the promise that Grandfather Lewis wasn't going to say anything else to him for the rest of the afternoon, Jonah returned to the house, not even making eye contact with his grandfather from the moment he stepped back though the door, to the moment they left to return home.