by Jay Argent
Chapter 11
Alex drove home. Liam’s parents had wanted to talk to their son alone. Alex was a bit worried about his friend, but he had gotten to know Mr. and Mrs. Green quite well over the past couple of months, and nothing indicated that Liam would be in trouble. He assumed that Liam’s parents had simply not expected the news and wanted to talk with him.
He parked his car in front of the garage where his father kept his black Audi. The tall snowdrifts that had dominated the scenery were mostly gone, and only a few small piles of snow were persistently fighting against the sunlight. The garden lighting illuminated the front yard nicely.
Alex watched how the water that came from the melting snow created bigger and bigger streams when it flowed into the ditch. Suddenly, he remembered how he and Rick had dammed up the water with their tiny plastic shovels. He also recalled his mother’s reaction when the boys had run into the house with their muddy rubber boots and rainwear. Alex smiled at the memory. That had been over ten years ago.
He checked his cell phone. There were no messages from Liam. He was pondering whether to text his friend when he heard footsteps at the gate.
“Hi, Alex,” Sofia said.
Alex stopped tapping his phone and put it into his pocket. “Hi,” he said, smiling, and hugged his girlfriend quickly.
“What’s up?” he asked merrily, but she just let out an angry snort.
“I want to talk to you,” she said.
“I’m here,” Alex said, confused. Sofia’s expression indicated that this answer wasn’t good enough.
“Okay, let’s go to my room. We can talk there,” he proposed finally. His parents were visiting his mother’s sister for the weekend, and he was home alone.
Sofia rushed to Alex’s bedroom. He picked up a milk carton and a box of cookies from the kitchen and followed her, assuming that she would like the chocolate cookies. He and Liam could easily consume a couple of boxes with cold milk while they played video games. Sofia didn’t seem interested in them, however, and he put them on the table.
“Do you want to be with me?” she asked bluntly. There was no need for any empty chitchat with Sofia, and Alex knew where this discussion was going.
“Sofia, I like you a lot,” he answered honestly.
She shook her head. “That is just what I mean. You didn’t answer my question. I have no clue where we are,” she said, her voice growing louder. She seemed to be trying to calm herself—she was on edge, but this discussion was too important to lose her temper. She looked at him and smiled weakly.
“I don’t know where we are, either,” Alex said, sadly but sincerely.
“I think I am falling in love with you,” Sofia tried again. “I just feel like you don’t want to be with me.”
Alex swallowed and sat on the bed next to Sofia. “You are my girlfriend. Of course I care about you,” he said.
“But you never have time for me,” she hissed and stood up. She seemed to be having trouble containing her anger.
“That’s not fair. I have school, swimming practice, and other things in my life,” he replied, raising his voice, which he regretted immediately.
Sofia couldn’t hold it in anymore. She took the box of cookies and threw it to the floor. The crumbs flew all over the place.
“You have lots of time for Rick,” she yelled, “but whenever I want to be with you, your practice is just about to start, or you have homework to do. Not to mention Liam. You just came from his place, didn’t you?” Her eyes were full of anger.
Alex was speechless. He felt like there was nothing he could do or say to make it better. There was no denying that Sofia was partially right. They had been on a couple of dates during the past weeks, but their time together was still rather limited. He tried to think of what he could say to keep from losing his girlfriend.
“I asked you whether you still want to be with me, and I want your answer now,” Sofia said.
“Yes, I do,” Alex answered promptly.
“Good,” she said, and a victorious smile rose to her face. Alex sighed. It was looking promising. Apparently, he hadn’t lost her.
“Then I want you to stop seeing Liam and spend more time with me,” Sofia declared.
“What?” Alex said and jumped up. “You can’t be that jealous of my friend,” he said, looking at Sofia in disbelief.
She didn’t back down. “It’s your choice. Me or Liam,” she said bluntly and decisively.
“You don’t get to tell me who I can be friends with!” he screamed. This time, he didn’t regret his angry tone. Sofia was giving him totally unfair conditions for their relationship.
“Fine. We are officially over,” Sofia yelled back and marched to the door.
To emphasize her words, she made sure to step on every unbroken cookie on the floor. The love story of the century had ended. Strangely enough, it hadn’t ended in tears.
Alex fetched the vacuum cleaner from the utility room and cleaned what was left of the cookies from the floor. He was happy that the milk carton was still on the table, untouched. Since he already had the vacuum cleaner there, he ended up cleaning and wiping the dust from his entire room. He was alone in the house, and he had nothing better to do.
Once his room was clean and shining, he dressed in his running clothes and left the house. He ran the path that followed the riverbank. It was already dark, but since the area was rather popular, especially on weekends, the city had installed lights there.
Alex passed some older couples walking on the path, but other than that, he was alone with his thoughts. He was sad that his relationship with Sofia had ended, but it was a relief at the same time. Sofia was without question the prettiest girl in the school, but there were many things about her personality that Alex didn’t like. She was shallow and selfish, and she could be mean to people she didn’t like.
“Maybe it’s better that we broke up … but how am I going to explain this to my teammates?” Alex said to himself. Sofia had asked him to choose between her and Liam, and it would be too easy for his teammates to decide that he had chosen the gay guy. He had not really chosen anybody, but he didn’t like being given ultimatums.
Actually, the events at Liam’s house just before he had left bothered him more than breaking up with Sofia. Liam had been upset, and his father had heard things that he shouldn’t have heard. Alex felt that both things were his fault. It was he who started the discussion that had made Liam upset and outed him to his parents. He wished he had never started asking Liam those questions.
He thought about running to Liam’s house, but he told himself that there was probably not a third World War going on. Instead, he ran home and checked his phone again for messages from Liam. As there were none, he took a shower.
When he walked from the bathroom to his wardrobe, he saw that he had two incoming messages on his phone. The first one was from Rick asking why he and Sofia had broken up. The tone of the message was oddly blaming. He decided to ignore it and talk with Rick at school on Monday.
The second message was from Liam. “Can I come over?” Alex read from the screen.
“Sure,” he replied, hoping that everything was okay. Liam’s message didn’t reveal any details. He went to the kitchen and found that there was still one box of chocolate cookies left. Liam would not throw them to the floor.
“Liam, come here and calm down,” his father said after Alex left the house. Liam wiped his tears and sat in an armchair in their living room. His parents were sitting on a couch opposite him.
“Honey, we’re not going to ask you to leave your home,” his mother said. Liam looked at her and then his father.
“Thanks, I guess,” he said. “So, you’re okay with me being….” He started the sentence but couldn’t complete it. His parents waited patiently.
“You’re okay with my being gay?” he asked quietly and looked down, embarrassed.
“First, all that matters to us is that you are happy. Second, we have known it for a long t
ime,” his mother said. Liam raised his eyes to look at his parents, who were smiling a little. His jaw dropped.
“You’ve known? Why haven’t you said anything?” he asked.
“Well, of course we didn’t know for sure, and we wanted to let you tell us when you felt comfortable,” his father answered.
“I wish you had said something. Just guess how long I have wanted to tell you,” Liam sighed. They hugged each other for a long time.
“How did you guess?” Liam asked, wiping his eyes. This time, his tears were happy and relieved, and they felt much better than the sad and painful ones he had experienced just moments ago.
“Your friend Alex is a handsome boy. We’ve seen how you look at him,” his mother said, smiling. Liam’s face went red.
“Is he your boyfriend?” his father teased.
“No. We’re just friends. Alex has a girlfriend. Sofia,” Liam replied.
“What a shame. He would’ve been such a nice son-in-law,” his mother said.
“Mom!” Liam protested and rolled his eyes.
“Liam, there is still one thing I need to tell you,” his father said, getting serious. “We moved here because we thought that you might be gay, and we thought it would be easier for you to continue high school here,” he said. “I know Fairmont isn’t San Francisco, but still.”
“You did it for me?” Liam asked, his eyes wide open.
“You are our only son. We love you, and we would do anything for you,” his mother said. Liam couldn’t hold in his tears anymore. Neither could he count how many times he had cried already.
Liam’s mother looked at her son, who seemed reborn. “Are you okay now?” she asked after Liam had wiped his tears again.
“I’m much more than okay,” he replied. He hugged his parents one more time before he went to his room and sat on the bed.
It was done. His parents knew, and nothing bad had happened. A massive burden dropped from his shoulders, making his whole body shake. Soon, Liam felt like crying again, but he had run out of tears for one day.
“Come have some blueberry pie!” Liam’s mother shouted from the kitchen. Both Liam and his father arrived quickly. Blueberry pie was their favorite. They ate and talked for a long time, and Liam felt that he had the best family in the world.
Suddenly he remembered Alex, who had left the house earlier, quite confused. He had to talk to Alex. He texted quickly, and when Alex welcomed him to come over, Liam asked his mother if he could borrow her car. She agreed.
“What did your parents say?” was the first thing Alex asked when he answered the door.
Liam walked inside and repeated most of the conversation to Alex. He left out the parts where they had cried, but Alex couldn’t have missed Liam’s moist eyes. It amused Alex that Liam’s mother had assumed that Alex was his boyfriend.
“Do I look that gay?” he joked and twisted his wrist.
“That must be the worst gay imitation ever,” Liam replied and smiled.
“Maybe you need to teach me,” Alex teased.
“I am so happy that they know,” Liam said, growing serious. He was silent for a long time, watching the darkness outside of the window.
Alex wrapped his arms around Liam. “I am so happy for you,” he said quietly.
Liam was surprised by the hug, and Alex noticed. “You said once that I needed to compensate for all those stupid things that I did by hugging you. Consider that my payment,” he said, smiling.
“Besides, you said that it isn’t contagious. Don’t tell me you were lying,” Alex joked.
Liam smiled. He was lucky that Alex was so casual about his being gay. Alex was definitely not a dumb jock.
“You might get an infection if you are exposed to it too much,” Liam said and watched as Alex acted scared, withdrawing to the corner of the room.
“By the way, I broke up with Sofia today,” Alex said, trying to act nonchalant.
Liam could see that the breakup was bothering Alex even though he didn’t want to admit it. He looked at his friend sympathetically, though he couldn’t say that he had liked Sofia that much.
“Don’t act like it’s a big surprise,” Alex said, referring to him and Sofia’s on–off relationship. He didn’t tell Liam that Sofia had asked him to choose between her and Liam since he didn’t want Liam to feel guilty about their break-up.
“I’m not really disappointed. I never felt like Sofia was the right one for me,” Alex confessed. “She’s pretty and everything, but I’m relieved that all that hassle is over.”
“Wanna play some games?” he asked to change the topic to something less heavy.
“For sure,” Liam replied enthusiastically.
The evening, which had started in a very confusing way, had a happy ending. Liam hoped that everything would settle down and stay settled for some time. Little did he know.