Frustration -SERIES- [Part 1] [boyxboy]

Chapter Seven

'I could not hate you any more right now.'

'Oh come on! That was funny! You know, cos we're on a rooftop, at nighttime... No?' My Hangover reference didn't seem to be going over that well.

'You're ruining my rooftop for me.'

'Is it where you come to scream your heart out?'

'Are you just going to try and get two months worth of comebacks into the next twenty minutes?'

'No, I'll stop, really. Sorry. Come here, you're shivering.' I finally worked up the nerve to wrap my arm around his shoulders and pull him closer to me, rubbing my hands up and down his arms to try and get rid of his goosebumps.

'Thanks, mom,' he muttered sarcastically, but settled against me, our shapes moulding together into a comfortable fit. It felt right. 'Wanna know a secret?' Conor whispered after a while.

'Okay.' It was like someone had taken the old Conor and replaced him with a newer, nicer version. With the old Conor, I knew how his tongue tasted and how it felt when he shivered in my arms as I ran a finger lightly up his spine, but I didn't know how he took his coffee. This Conor wanted to tell me a secret.

'My dad is gay.'

'Your – what?' Neither of us moved but I was in a state of shock. Conor's chest was still rising was falling regularly; I think I may have stopped breathing altogether.

'My dad's gay. When we were little he and my mom used to fight all the time. We didn't really understand it, but we knew he was cheating. She'd get these "mysterious" black eyes and sometimes we couldn't hug her because her ribs would be bruised; my dad pretty much took his frustration at himself out on her. Then one day we woke up and he was gone. Haven't seen or heard from him since.'

'Jesus. Conor. I'm so sorry.'

'Yeah. Well. Now you know.' He paused. 'And now it turns out that homosexuality actually is hereditary, which is what I've been scared of all along, and I'm gonna turn out just like him. I'm already just like him.' Conor glanced up at my forehead meaningfully.

'That's not how it works.'

'Of course that's how it works. Didn't you listen to Mr Doherty? As if the evidence isn't enough, look at me. I'm becoming him.'

'I think you're living in a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. You thought all along you were gonna turn out like your dad so you've resigned yourself to it. Whereas, if you'd actually researched it, you'd know that the hereditary theory comes from the mother.'

Conor pulled away from me and stared. 'What?'

I sat up straighter. 'Well first of all, it's only a theory. They've only studied like, sheep. And the study showed that in gay sheep, sometimes the X chromosome was a lot stronger than the Y. This happened while the foetus was still in the uterus. I bet you've got a couple older brothers, right? When you said we?'

'Yeah, two. How'd you know that?'

'It's an evolutionary, alpha male thing. Supposedly, while the male foetus is still in the womb it lets off these hormonal secretions, or something, that make it a little less hospitable to the next male foetus. It does something to chromosomes that causes the X one to become stronger, meaning that when the kid is born he'll be less of a threat, or something.'

'So...'

'So, you have nobody but yourself to blame for being a total asshole.'

'My brothers made me gay?!'

'Um. I guess. If you choose to believe the theory. I'm an only child though, so you know, it could still be environmental. Why did you never look it up if you were so worried?'