Page 89 of Unexpected Boyfriends

Justin goes off to make his phone call, and I wait, idly fiddling with the TV controls trying to keep my own nerves in check.

Fifteen minutes later, Justin throws himself down on the couch with a heavy sigh. His head falls back onto the headrest and he closes his eyes.

“That was… exhausting,” he sighs.

“Are you okay?”

He huffs out a breath and opens his eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine. It was a lot though.”

“Want to talk about it?”

He sighs again, and scoots closer to me on the couch, laying his head on my shoulder and running his fingers up and down my thigh. I put an arm around him and he starts to recount the conversation.

“They spent the first five minutes getting mad at me.”

“For leaving the Centre or for not getting in touch after?”

“Both. They calmed down a bit when I told them some of the things going on there, although they tried to justify it. Tried to tell me it was for my own good, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah. Fuck that for a joke.”

I growl. Justin's fingers move up to trace the arm that’s holding him.

“They didn’t disown me though. I guess that’s a plus,” Justin looks slightly hopeful. “And they’ve invited us to lunch.”

“Us?”

Justin looks embarrassed. “Well, they wanted me to come on my own, but I said I wouldn’t come if you weren’t invited too. Sorry. I guess I should have checked with you first. It’s… probably not going to be that comfortable.”

“It’s okay. I’d rather come with you. At least then you have someone in your corner if things get tough.”

“Thanks. That’s kinda what I was thinking too.”

I give his poor abused lips a soothing swipe with my tongue.

“So, when’s lunch?”

“Next Sunday.”

Really?

“Fucking hell.”

I can’t believe it. Their son’s been missing for months now, and they can’t find time to see him for another week? Their son, who still wants a relationship with them so much he refused to report them forillegallysending him to discredited and banned therapy, even though that would have meant he didn’t have to worry about getting sent back there? I don’t know them, but I know they don’t deserve him.

I don’t say anything but from the look on his face, I know he’s noticed their lack of urgency to see him. I capture his mouth with mine and try to put it out of his mind.

Chapter 37

Coming Home

JUSTIN

I’m a nervous wreck as we pass through the familiar streets of my childhood. It’s just as well Axel is driving, because my hands are shaking so much, and I’m so distracted that I’d be a menace on the road. Not that I have my license yet. Just another thing I’ve fallen behind with because of being sent away for ‘re-education’. Myactualeducation has suffered from my disappearance for at least four monthsof my final year, dammit!I’ll have to apply for special consideration, but even if I can somehow manage a pass, I won’t get the marks I need to enter Vet College. All in all, the year has been a total fuck-up. I'm putting on a confident front, but I’m nervous it’s about to get worse.

We pull up outside the neat suburban cottage in the middle-class street I’ve lived in all my life. I wait a minute before getting out of the car, taking in the familiar scene, absorbing the small details in case it’s the last time I come here. I still hold out a little hope, but it’s tenuous.

The Sweet Gum in the front yard is covered in the bright green of this year’s new leaves starting to shoot. I fell out of that tree when I was five, quickly dusting myself off and looking around in embarrassment to make sure no-one had seen.

The lawn is green, neat and trim, as always. I remember picnics in the front yard with my mother before I was sent off to school at six years old.

---