Blake's POV
I woke up to sunshine streaming across my face. It's Christmas Eve and we have dinner with my whole family. Aiden said that he's nervous about it. Luckily, it's being held at our house so he doesn't have to be in a strangers home. Plus, if he gets overwhelmed he can just come up to the bedroom for a little bit. I looked over at Aiden, who was still sleeping, and smiled. I won't ever get tired of waking up next to him every morning.
There was a knock at my door. I got up, carful to not wake Aiden and walked over to answer, and found Anna. "Hey, sorry if you I woke you."
"No. I was awake."
"Okay. Mom just realized that we forgot to get more cranberry sauce because we were low and now she's freaking out. She wants you to go get some."
"Right now? We have all day still."
"Like I said, she's freaking out. It's our first time hosting and she's afraid that something will go wrong."
"Okay, give me a few minutes. Do me a favor and look at what we have to see if there's anything else we may be missing. I don't want to have to take multiple trips to the grocery store."
"Yeah okay. Just don't take too long please."
I walked back to the bed and slightly shook Aiden. "Baby. Baby I have to go." He groaned and slowly opened his eyes. "There's my prince." I smiled at him. "Hey, mom's freaking out and I have to go to the grocery store for her."
"Do you want me to come with?"
"That's up to you."
He yawned. "I think I'm going to go back to sleep."
I chuckled at him. "Okay. I'll be back soon." I gave him a quick kiss and then went to get dressed. "Anna, is there anything else I need to get?" I asked as I walked downstairs.
"I would get some butter just to be safe."
"Okay. I'll be back soon."
Aiden's POV
When I woke back up, the house seemed quiet. If I listened really close I could just make out someone walking around downstairs. I got up and stretched, then walked down and found Anna in the kitchen. "Good morning. Just to warn you, mom is slightly freaking out about getting everything ready." She told me.
"Where is she right now?" I asked as I walked over to the fridge.
"Shower." I opened up the fridge and looked around for some juice.
"Is all of this juice off limits?" I asked Anna.
"No. There should be an open one in the back somewhere." I finagled some things around and finally found it. "Hey, can you pass me the open cranberry sauce?" I found it sitting in the door and passed to Anna as I walked over to get a glass.
"What are you doing?" I asked as I poured some juice.
"Just getting some basic preparations done." She responded pouring the sauce into a small bowl. "So mom doesn't freak out any more about getting it all done." She covered the bowl and placed it back into the fridge.
"Is there anything you want me to do?" I asked as I walked to the table and set the juice down on it.
"I think we're okay until we start the actual cooking process now." She walked to the table and we both sat down. "You excited for tonight?
"I think nervous is the appropriate term."
"Yeah, I don't blame you."
"Can I ask you a question?" She nodded her head. "Do you know if Blake has told anyone about him and I dating?"
She paused for a moment and then looked at me. "I don't think so."
"Should I be worried?"
"I don't know. I don't even know where everyone in my family stands on same sex couples." I nodded my head in response. "Could I give you some advice?"
"Shoot."
"Talk to Blake about it before tonight. I think your biggest problems might be Grandma and Uncle Jim. Either way, make sure you both are going to be comfortable."
"Yeah. I just.... do they know that I even live here now?"
"I think mom might've told Grandma that she took someone in, but didn't give many details." I nodded my head in response right as Blake walked in with a grocery bag. "You're back? That was really fast."
"Yeah it was creepily empty today." He went and put the stuff away and then grabbed a glass to join us at the table. "How's it going?" He asked as a poured a glass of juice.
"Fine. We were actually talking about tonight," Anna responded.
"Oh yeah. I was going to talk to you about that Aiden," he replied. "I haven't told any of my family that we're dating, so, I asked mom for some advice the other day."
"Okay," I said to let him know that I was listening.
"She said that she feels our main problem might be that Grandma may not agree with you staying here since we're dating. She also doesn't know about Uncle Jim."
"Called it," Anna blurted out. "Uncle Jim has always been an uptight, judgemental prick."
"Anyways," Blake said to bring the attention back to the conversation. "I don't mind whether we tell them or not. I just want you to be comfortable."
"I don't care. I mean, I don't really want to go flaunting it around, or have an annoucment or anything. But, if it comes out in a conversation, so be it. Doesn't matter."
"Agreed. That's exactly what I was thinking."
"Okay, but if Uncle Jim, or even Grandma, says something poorly judgemental about lgbtq plus, I swear, I will raise hell," Anna remarked.
"Okay calm down there hot stuff," Blake told her and she glared back at him.
* * * *
It's about 10 minutes until the "start" time of the dinner and I'm helping Julie prepare the last of the food, while Blake and Anna moved around the furniture so we could all sit in the living room. I had just place the last dish on the counter when the doorbell rang.
"I got it," Anna called out and walked to the door. "Hi, Grandma Jean." I heard her say as she opened the door.
"Hi sweetie." I still haven't moved from the kitchen, but I could hear them talking. "So, where's the boy that's been staying with you?" I could hear Jean ask.
"He's in the kitchen finishing up a couple things for me," Julie answered.
"Oh, I'll go get him," I heard Blake say. I turned and started going towards the living room. "It's just Grandma and Grandpa right now. Remember, if you get overwhelmed, you can step out for a couple minutes."
"Yeah," I responded and walked into the living room.
"You must be Aiden," Jean called out and embraced me in a hug. "I'm Grandma Jean, and this is Grandpa Pat."
"It's nice to meet you," I told them. The doorbell rang indicating that more of the family had shown up. I took a deep breath, Alright, here we go.
Blake's POV
I've been keeping an eye on Aiden and he seems to be doing fairly well. Right now some of my cousins have roped him in to talking about who knows what. I'm sitting across the room watching on. I sensed someone sat down in the chair next to me. I looked over and found my cousin John. He's only three years older than me, making him 20. I never really cared for him, he's one of Uncle Jim's kids, but then again, we haven't talked much.
"Hey kid. How's it going?" He asked.
"You do realize that I'm three years younger than you right?"
"Exactly." I rolled my eyes and looked back over towards Aiden. "He seems like a nice kid."
"You need to stop calling everyone younger than you kid. And yeah, he is."
"So, how long has it been?"
"How long has it been since what?" I questioned.
"Oh are you two not official? Is it just a flirting game right now?" I looked at him shocked. "Oh, c'mon. It's not that hard to see man. When you two are sitting next to each other, you have your arm on his arm rest. When you're standing, you're almost always touching shoulders, or you stand a little in front of him like you're his protector." I looked back at Aiden. "And when you're not next to each other. You watch him. You keep an eye on him so you know where he's at, making sure he's okay. Like you are right now."
"He's been through a lot. I want to make sure he doesn't get too overwhelmed," I rebutted.
"You took his plate for him at dinner," He stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
"So?" I questioned him.
"Blake, you don't even do that for your own mother unless she forces you."
"Yeah, okay. You got me there."
"So, how long has it been."
"Officially. For about three and a half months."
"Man. What's that? You're longest relationship?"
"Ha ha. No. Remember that girl in third grade?" We went to the same school as kids, before he moved away. When I was in third grade, he was in fifth.
"Oh yeah. That small brunette that you hardly talked to. I remember. You two would hide in the corner of the playground and hold hands. But then act like you didn't know each other. Didn't I catch you two kissing before?"
"Shut up."
"How long did you two drag that on for?"
"I think it was six months. The middle chunk of the school year."
"Well, you and Aiden are getting close to that. And I see that your preference for appearances hasn't changed. He looks similar to her, doesn't he?"
I rolled me eyes, "Whatever."
"Okay you guys, who's ready for some gifts?" Grandma asked.
"Hey," I said before John got up. "Try not to tell anyone. No one besides my mom and Anna know."
"No problem." He got up to go sit by his siblings and I waved Aiden over to me.
"How's it going?" I asked as he sat down.
"Good. You're cousins seem nice."
"Okay. Let's get started," Grandma called out.
I leaned towards Aiden. "Every year Grandma and Grandpa gets everyone a gift. They go oldest to youngest by family. So, they put all of our families into a hat and draw one out to see who gets theirs first and so on." He nodded his head in response.
"First is Jim's family." We watched as they opened their gifts and waited to see who was next.
"Alright secondly is, Kathy's family." More waiting. "Next. Amanda's family." They have the biggest family with six kids. "Okay last, but not least, Julie's family." Grandma handed me my gift.
I opened it to find an ITunes gift card, a new pair of headphones, and a new pair of basketball shoes. "Thank you Grandma and Grandpa."
"You're welcome sweetie," Grandma responded.
"Aiden's next," Grandpa called walking a gift over to a now surprised looking Aiden.
"You're a part of this family now. We couldn't forget about you," Grandma told him.
"It's okay," I told Aiden, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Go ahead, open it."
He took it from Grandpa and carefully opened it to find a ton of art supplies.
"Julie told us that you were into drawing. There's also a sketch book from my sister in there. She was quite the artist and I just never knew what to do with it. I felt like you should have it."
He pulled out the clearly used sketch book and flipped through some of the pictures. "Wait, these look familiar." He flipped to the front cover. "Amy Pickett. As in the Amy Pickett? With art work in the art gallery just outside of town? I love her work."
"Yeah, that would be the one," Grandma answered.
"You didn't tell me that you were related to her." He turned to me and I just shrugged my shoulders. "Thank you so much."
"No problem. Now for Anna's."
Aiden was still looking through the book in awe.
"Alright. Time for desert," My mom called out a couple minutes later. Everyone slowly made their way to the kitchen but Aiden didn't move.
I placed a hand on his leg. "I'm going to get some. You want any?"
"No." He turned his head to look at me. "But could you get me a glass of water?"
"Yeah." I gave him a quick kiss and walked into the kitchen.
"So you're gay?" My cousin Eliza asked as I walked in.
"What are you talking about?"
"I saw you kiss Aiden. So, you're gay?"
"Yeah, why does it matter?"
"Oh it doesn't. Besides the fact that you haven't told anyone."
"I don't need to be going around flaunting it to people."
"So you're keeping it a secret?"
"No. If it comes up, it comes up. But I'm not going to make a big deal telling everyone."
"So, you wouldn't mind if I told people?" It is not hard to remember that she's Jim's.
"Yes I would." She turned to face where everyone was at and I could tell what she was about to do. "Eliza don't you..."
"BLAKE'S GAY!" She yelled and everyone stopped what they were doing.
"Oh, no you did not just do that." I heard Anna.
"Yeah I did." Eliza remarked.
"You bitch. That's none of your business. It's up to Blake if he wants to say anything or not."
"Anna. It's fine," I told her.
"No. It's not. You need to learn to keep you judgmental nose out of other peoples goddamn business."
"Anna stop."
"What? Are you going to defend her?"
"No. You're right. But who cares? Yeah, I'm gay. I have a boyfriend. Why does any of it matter?"
"It doesn't honey," my Grandma said.
"Well I think that it is just wrong," My Uncle Jim butted in.
"What? Being gay?"
"Yeah."
"Well you know what Uncle Jim? I don't give a damn what you think. You've always been a judgmental prick and you just passed it down to your kids. Love is love and there's nothing wrong with falling in love with someone. So, I don't need to hear anything from you. Nothing you can say will change anything about me."
I felt Aiden step up beside me. "Breathe baby," he whispered obvious that he could tell I was getting upset.
I took a deep breath. "I agree with Blake," my Aunt Kathy said. "It doesn't matter who he falls in love with. Who anyone falls in love with. He's our family and always will be our family. Just because he likes someone different from you doesn't mean he's wrong. You need to get your head out of your ass and realize that he's still your nephew. The one you knew since he was born," she called Jim out. "And if you can't accept him for who he is, you don't need to be here."
Jim stood there in shock. A moment later he said, "I may not agree with it. But she's right, you are my nephew so I'll try to look past it."
"Good. Because I did not want to kick my own son out of our Christmas party," Grandma remarked. "Now Blake, when do we get to meet this boyfriend of yours?"