Reed
I pulled back from Quincy when the doorbell rang, confused. Who else was coming? It's not like we had anymore family members that came to this dinner.
Watching the door as my dad pulled it open, I saw a man and a woman standing outside.
"Renaldo! It's great to see you again," the woman said cheerfully, stepping inside.
As soon as she had spoken, Quincy stiffened in my arms before slowly turning around. The woman gasped slightly when her eyes landed on my boyfriend.
"Hi Aunt Karen," Quincy said. This was his aunt? Why was she here?
"Quincy?" she asked, like she couldn't wrap her head around why he was here. "Is that really you?"
"Yeah," he said simply, still not moving out of my arms. I didn't want to let go of him either. Obviously there was something going on between them that I wasn't sure I liked.
She smiled widely before turning to the man she had walked in with. "Dave, look! Oh my God. Quincy, it's really you!"
"What are you doing here?" Quincy asked, backing up slightly into me. I tightened my arms around him. "Is this what you used to do when you would leave me at home for weeks at a time? Just travel around the country, stopping by family dinners when you're not even their family?"
Something was definitely up between them. Quincy doesn't get like this. And to his actual family? I may have been an ass to my family for a while, but Quincy wasn't me. He was a whole lot nicer than me. And the way that came out of his mouth was downright nasty.
His aunt looked hurt. "Is that why you left, Quin? You thought we weren't there for you?"
He shook his head but didn't reply as he unwrapped himself from my arms, grabbed my hand, and started pulling me back down the hallway towards my room. As soon as we were there, he closed the door and leaned his back against it.
"Why are they here?" he asked softly. "Them, out of all people?"
I shook my head, starting to feel bad for bringing him. "I've never seen them before in my life. Honestly, I didn't know anyone else was coming. Sorry."
"It's alright. It's just a shock, that's all. I never expected to see them again, ever."
I didn't know what to do. This isn't what I'm good at doing - comforting people. He wasn't crying, thank god, but he still looked upset. I didn't do well with emotions.
I still hadn't figured out what to say when there was a knock on my door. "Renny? Quincy? Are you guys okay?" I rolled my eyes at my younger sister just as Quincy pulled open the door. "Thank god you guys are clothed."
"What do you want?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
She closed the door again before copying my movement. "I came to apologize to your boyfriend."
"What?" Quincy asked, stepping closer to us. "Why?"
Reya turned to him, dropping her arms. "'Cause I invited them. David is helping me with my service project this semester. Them and my parents have gotten pretty close, so we figured, why not have them over too?"
Quincy made a face before going over and sitting on my bed, tucking his knees into his chest.
"Just 'cause you're working together doesn't give you an excuse to just invited them over for dinner like this."
She rolled her eyes. "Well I didn't even know you were going to be here, let alone their missing nephew!"
I glanced over at Quincy when she said that, but he showed no reaction to even hearing it. It wasn't until Reya started talking again that I realized she was speaking in Spanish.
"I don't know what happened between them, but they miss him. Maybe this will be good for them, all of them." I just shrugged. "Talk to him, Reed. He's your boyfriend, and you brought him home for a reason, right? You can actually talk to him like a normal human being?"
I watched Reya leave my room without waiting for me to answer before I sat down next to Quincy. Gently tucking his hair behind his ear, I placed a kiss to his temple. I wanted to ask what had happened between them, but I didn't know the right words to say.
Turns out, I didn't have to ask. "I told you my parents died, right?" he asked. He hadn't looked at me at all, keeping his chin resting on the top of his knees.
"Yeah."
"I was six when it happened. After the accident, I went to live with Karen and Dave who never should have had to raise a kid, first because they never wanted one and secondly because they were awful at it. I'm actually surprised she still knows my name, with how little she said it while I was growing up."
I felt bad for Quincy. I really did. I may have hated my dad for years, but at least I knew he cared about me. Him and my mom. Quincy didn't have anyone.
"Hey," Quincy started, turning his head to look at me. "Have I ever told you that I love you?"
"No."
He gave me a small smile. "Well I do. Just thought you should know."
I didn't know how to feel about that. Prior to Quincy, I never really thought about love before, even though I've told a couple of my past girlfriends that I loved them, nothing really felt like the way I felt about him. Was that love? Yes, I did care about him a lot, and I wanted to spend as much time as I could with him, and buy him whatever he wanted, and I brought him here, to meet my parents when I haven't even brought my old girlfriends home from college. I'm getting over the fact that I was actually dating a guy, and liked him. But how much did I like Quincy? Did I love him?
Quincy
Reed was staring at me with this blank look on his face after I confessed my feelings to him. I didn't mean to break him! I just wanted him to know how I felt, even though I had just figured it out myself, when he kissed my temple. That tiny action alone is what tipped the scale, sending my heart into the frenzy that was love.
"It's okay if you can't say it back," I said softly, giving him a small smile. "I get it."
"Why?" he finally asked.
"Why what? Why do I love you?" He nodded, so I took my legs away from my chest and turned to face him. "Because, even though you're an asshole, you're not always one. You have the sweetest heart, when you find it in you to let that shine through. You care about me, Reed. No one has ever done that before, and I couldn't have asked for a better boyfriend. Maybe one who was a little less homophobic at times, but I love that you're working on getting better with that. I just..." I hesitated, trying to find the right words. "I just love you, Reed."
A full minute went by with neither of us saying anything. I was started to wonder if maybe I shouldn't have told him yet when his lips landed on mine and I felt myself being pushed onto my back.
As much as I wanted this, and as good as a distraction it would be, we couldn't.
"Reed stop," I said, pushing against his chest. "We can't. Your parents, my aunt and uncle. They're waiting on us."
Reed groaned, but sat up, pulling me back up as well. "As soon as we get back to campus, you're mine."
I smiled. "I'm already yours. But deal, so long as we survive tonight."
"Why wouldn't we?"
I shrugged, looking down a my hand that Reed was playing with gently in my lap. "I never told them I'm gay. I'm sure they know now, but I have no clue how they're going to react to it."
He stood up, making me stand up with him when he tugged on my hand. "You'll be fine. Know why?" I shook my head. "'Cause you have a boyfriend that loves you, too, standing by your side."
My heart leapt into my throat as I threw my arms around his neck. "Really?" I whispered into his ear. I was not expecting him to say it back, and part of me still couldn't believe it.
He nodded before pulling away from me. "Yeah. But I'm not getting all sappy over it, alright?"
I smiling, laughing a little bit. "Alright. Now come on. Let's go face the music. Together."
Grabbing his hand once again, I led us back into the hallway and towards the sounds of chatter. Facing my aunt and uncle again after not having seen them for two years was definitely not what I thought this weekend would be comprised of, but I knew I could handle whatever happened because I had Reed with me. Reed, who loved me back. I could face anything with him by my side.
"Quincy, I think we need to talk about all this," Dave said as soon as Reed and I walked back into the room where everyone was.
I nodded my head slowly before following him and his wife into the next room, dragging Reed with me.
Once it was just the four of us, I spoke. "So I'm sure you have a bunch of questions for me, but I just need to say this one thing first." I glanced at Reed, taking a deep breath, before looking at the people who were supposed to raise me. "I'm gay. This is my boyfriend, Reed."
Karen's face softened, looking almost sad. "Oh, Quin. We already knew that. Or, at least, the you being gay part."
I felt my mind go blank. "What?" Shaking my head, I got some thoughts back. "You barely even knew what I liked to eat or the grades I got in school. How the hell did you know I was gay?"
Dave stepped forward. "It was that Ricky kid, right?" I nodded very slowly. How did they know about Ricky? "Every time we got home, especially when it was late at night, we'd check on you. There was a period of time when you weren't alone in that bed of yours. It wasn't hard to figure out."
"We never meant to make you feel like you couldn't come to us," Karen said. "We cared about you Quin, so much. We cared about your grades, but you always kept them up, so we never had to pester you about them. And as far as food, you absolutely loved baked ziti. Ever since you were little until you left."
For some reason, tears were starting to cloud my vision. I blinked them back, turning to my boyfriend. "Can you give us a minute?"
He nodded, tucking the strand of my hair that had fallen into my face behind my ear before leaving the room to go join his own family.
I waited until he was completely out of the room to speak. "I thought you guys didn't care about me, that you never wanted me. After Mom and Dad -" I stopped, choking back a sob. I wasn't going to cry here. I wouldn't. "I felt like you thought I was a burden or somethin', just an extra person to have to deal with. That's why I left - because I wasn't goin' to stay where I wasn't wanted."
The next thing I knew, Karen had her arms around me, pulling me in for a tight hug. I relaxed against her, hugging her back. There was so much I missed from my childhood because I thought they didn't care about me at all. But they did, even if they didn't always show it.
I remember that there was always baked ziti in the fridge, among a bunch of other things, but I always went for that first. I never thought that they knew how much I enjoyed the meal, figuring it was just one of those things that were always there.
And they knew about Ricky, even though they never said anything to me about dating. But, thinking about it, Dave once tried to give me a sex talk, that was really awkward, considering it was about a week after Ricky and I had done it and he had already broken up with me.
"I'm sorry," I muttered, still holding onto my aunt. "I'm sorry I was such an ungrateful child."
Karen pulled back from me, but left her hands on my shoulders. Her makeup was running down her cheeks in streaks. "Don't apologize for that, Quin. We should have noticed that you were feeling neglected. Your parents would be so mad at us."
I shook my head but didn't say anything. My parents, if they could be mad at anyone right now, it would be me. First, for getting them killed, then for being so ungrateful growing up.
"Are you okay?" Dave asked us both. "We should probably rejoin the Garcia's and the Morales' for dinner. We can talk more about everything later."
I had almost forgotten that we were at Reed's mom's house. With everything going on, it had completely slipped from my mind.
"Yeah," I said, nodding. "Yeah we should. Although, you might want to stop by the bathroom first, Aunt Karen."
She reached up to touch her cheek, probably realizing that her makeup was running down her face. "Oh, my. Yes. I'll join the party in just a moment." She was just about out of the room when she turned to face me again. "I'm so glad we found you again, Quincy. We've been so worried about you these past two years."
"I'm really sorry about leaving like that," I said, surprising even myself at the truth in the words.