Waiting For You

Chapter Twenty-two

"You don't have to say it..." Tamaki told her, running his hand over her back. She seemed to disagree.

"I moved on, but I'll never forget Vivian. She was my best friend since Kindergarten. We were practically dating before our bond was formed. When it did form –back when we were sixteen- we were so happy; we immediately told our parents. You see, she was already family before that, so everyone was ecstatic... everyone but her parents. They forced her to go to therapy, sent her to priests for cleansing..." her voice broke and I could almost see tears in her eyes. "In the end, she couldn't take it anymore, so she took her own life". I beat her to it, as a tear started running down my cheek.

"Alex..." Hunter started. Celeste gasped as she saw my tear and I rushed to wipe it away. "Are you...?"

"I'm fine," I snapped at him.

"Just because Vivian's parents were like that doesn't mean that –".

"I said I'm fine". I saw Hunter pulled back a little at my outburst and I sighed. 

"I'm sorry... Just know that everyone's here for you".

"I know Hunt".

Around an hour later we had finished eating and everyone but Aurora and Ron's daughters were sitting by the table. We were all chatting away, Hunter had finished telling Celeste the story of how we met –leaving out the part where Matt was one of my friends-. I wasn't eager to tell anyone about that.

"So, Alex..." Ron started, snapping our attention to him, "what's your last name?"

"Eh, Richardson," I replied, not really wondering why he had asked. He seemed skeptical for a second.

"You're not by any chance related to Andrew Richardson, are you?" he then asked. Both Hunter and I froze, a cold shiver running down my spine.

"You know my father?" I asked, my voice small. All chatter hushed and everyone looked at us, but I didn't really care.

"Yeah! I was sure you looked familiar," the man said excitedly. Isn't he feeling the mood? "He's my boss," he added.

Oh, fuck me!

"Damn, if only I had known I'd be spending my afternoon with his son. He's always talking about you, you know". Hold up, what now? "He's very proud of you; always saying things like 'my son's doing this and that'. It even gets annoying sometimes," he went on, unfazed by my perplexed expression. "I don't know why but I pictured you older. You're studying at Stanford, right?"

"Oh, you're talking about my brother," I exclaimed, making him look at me confused now. Now it makes sense.

"Your father never mentioned having two sons," Ron said.

"Of course he didn't," I replied with an annoyed laugh. "If he mentioned that, he'd have to praise me too and he wouldn't be able to do that even if he was hypnotized to do so". Hearing my exasperation, no one pressed on the matter and Ron seemed to regret even mentioning it.

"Do your parents know about you two?" Marcella asked with a warm smile.

"Eh, no they don't..." I said awkwardly. Aaron seemed to go on high alert, as he sat up in his chair glued his eyes on me.

"How come?" David asked back. "Won't they be happy you've found your soulmate?"

"Oh, they will. They just won't be happy about it being a guy". All smiles faded and were replaced with angry glares. Something, though, told me they weren't directed to me.

"You're still in the closet?" Celeste asked, her eyes being the softest right after Hunter's. I just nodded.

"Truth be told, I didn't know I was bisexual until I met Hunter," I said, to Celeste mostly.

"His parents hide behind religion," Hunter muttered, reaching out to grab my hand.

"Just what might happen if they find out?" Elaine wondered, trying to ease everyone. I shrugged.

"I'm not exactly sure... but it wouldn't be too hard for them to send me to conversion therapy," I said. A loud thud made us all jump as Aaron hit his fists onto the wooden table.

"Over my dead body will that happen," he growled. Celeste was holding her right forearm, right over her tattoos. And pretty much everyone bore a disgusted expression.

"Sick people," Jean muttered spiting down on the grass. "I've lived for so many decades. I lived through so many wars. Nothing angers me more than parents abusing their children".

"They don't abuse me..."

"Don't they?" Stefan now asked. "They have driven you to the point of fearing to tell them who you really are. I can't even imagine all the awful things they must keep saying to you".

"Being homophobic toward your own child is abusive," Georgia said agreeing with the two old men.

"Being homophobic in general is abusive," Jean corrected his daughter. "You had to deal with this from outside the family but it still hurt you. I still scarred you," he added.

"They kinda lost me," I told Hunter, feeling as if I was missing something.

"Georgia is trans. She was born male," he answered. Oh...

"Alex, whenever your parents find out if things go awry, just come to us. Our door is open to you. We've learned from our mistakes and no one in this family is going to be taken from us anymore," Elaine assured me, reaching over to me. Everyone agreed with her and with a smile I turned to Hunter.

"Goddamn, I love your family".

"More than you love me?" he asked with a teasing smile.

"Nah, that's not possible".