Lucky (boyxboy) (complete)

Chapter Three

I had to be at the bus station by 8:30 am Sunday morning to go home. Nothing more was ever said about me (or the book) being gay. I kept overanalyzing mom to see if she suddenly started acting differently, which would mean Robert told her. She never acted any differently, and neither did he for that matter. I managed to avoid him most of the time until mom assigned him to drive me to the bus station at which I quickly protested.

"Why can't you take me? It's not like we see each other that much. I think you would want to see your son off." I didn't really care that much, but anything was better than spending a half hour in a car with Robert. Unfortunately the guilt card wasn't paying off.

"Look, I need to bring your grandma to church because your granddaddy can't drive anymore. You know she never misses church."

"So then why can't Robert bring her to church and you can drop me off at the bus?" I asked.

"Look, Robert and your grandma don't get along real well, okay?"

"Oh, there's a surprise," I interjected. I always thought of my grandmother as a smart lady and this just reinforced my opinion. It also made sense now why Robert was absent from Thanksgiving dinner.

"So," she said, ignoring my snotty utterance, "having him bring her is out of the question. I would love to be able to see you off, hon, but grandma is expecting to go to church with her daughter."

I was trying to think of better arguments, but I saw that I wasn't going to win this battle. I got together everything I had brought and waited in the kitchen. Mom was running out the door, but stopped to kiss me goodbye and promised she would see me again at Christmas. With that, she was gone, and Robert walked in and asked if I was ready to go.

*****

The first ten minutes of driving were spent without much being said. Robert eventually broke the awkward silence.

"Listen, Travis, in case you were wondering, I didn't say nothing to your mom about that book."

Now I knew that he knew. He knew and he wasn't telling my mom. This made me both very nervous and very relieved at once.

"Thanks," I said, staring at the cracked dashboard in front of me.

"No problem. We all have things that the people we love the most just won't understand."

I wasn't sure exactly what he meant by that. He was either being ultra-cool about the situation or had some relatable secret at some point in his life. I wasn't really interested in finding out which. I just wanted to forget the whole thing.

"Thank, you, Robert," I said.

"Hey, you can call be Rob, you know," he said.

"I know."

I spent the remainder of the ride contemplating what negative effects, if any, would come from the first actual adult in my life knowing my biggest secret. I envisioned a hundred scenarios that might have played out if my mom found out, but never once thought about if it was her boyfriend. His indifference made the situation even more puzzling. For most people, coming out is a significant moment in a person's life. Now I was out to a person who just simply didn't seem to care one way or the other. I didn't know how to process that.

We got to the bus station about fifteen minutes before I needed to board so he waited with me there.

"So anyway, did you finish it?" he asked.

"Huh?"

"That book you was reading."

"Well, no, I'm only about half way through it," I told him. "You were right though," I said.