Page 6 of One Little Problem
“Why, what are they doing?” he asked, focusing on totally the wrong thing. The weird nervous tension emanating from him vanished as his protective instincts took over.
“Mostly nothing,” Luke said.
“Don’t lie to me.” Dad used his ‘I mean it’ voice. Aww, he thought that thing worked, how adorable.
“No, it’s true,” Luke assured, standing straighter and looking serious. Guess the voice worked on him. “It’s just a lot of stares and veiled comments and the aura of displeasure hangs heavy in the air.”
“That’s ridiculous. You’re a good kid,” he said to me, angry on my behalf. “They’ve got no right to have a problem with the two of you.” He shook his head, face full of indignation.
“You have a problem with the two of us,” I reminded him. Should I not have said anything? Nah, he would have realized eventually.
“Not because you’re gay!” Wasn’t sure which one of us he was referring to, but it was true enough.
“Bi,” Luke interrupted and Dad glared.
“Perhaps not the time for semantics, babe,” I suggested since Dad wasn’t in the mood for logic and reason.
“Got it,” he said, nodding a lot. Super cute but also a little unfair because I probably didn’t look as adorable when I did that.
We stood there for a moment, all looking at each other and unsure what to do next. Sort of awkward, but a lot better than with Luke’s parents. “Look, why don’t I take Ryan home with me,” Dad offered. No, that was definitely not what were going to do next.
“Thought you were going out for a drink,” I reminded him. I wanted to throw my arms around Luke and hold on tightly. That might be an overreaction, but also, I didn’t want to be separated from him yet.
“It’s fine,” Dad said. “Remember I have no life.” Ugh, I hated when people used my words against me. Didn’t they know I just liked talking and couldn’t be taken seriously?
“I don’t mind taking Ryan home,” Luke volunteered.
“No, it’s out of your way,” Dad said innocently. “Him and I happen to live in the same house.”
“Not for long,” I said, just to be contrary.
It was an idle threat, so Dad ignored it. “Say goodnight, boys.” He stepped away for a moment to give us some privacy. Guess that was something.
Luke and I had been through a lot together. Fake dating schemes, over the top displays of affection, him outing me, Luke coming to terms with his own sexuality. We survived all that, we could definitely handle our date ending early, even if I was tempted to grab his hand and run away. Unfortunately, Dad knew where I lived.
Maybe some of those needed a little more explanation. The jock hadn’t intended to out me, but he’d been clueless and unthinking and had come a long way since then. I’d hated him for a while, but those days seemed so far away. To me, not to my dad. He didn’t think Luke and I were a good match. Even though Luke had basically saved my life once and was a knight in shining armor except for no armor unless his baseball jersey counted.
Luke and I stood on the corner of the street, saying our goodbyes. “Does this count as a good date or a bad date?” I asked Luke. Clarity would be important when explaining this trauma to my therapist in 10 years.
“Having to deal with both of our parents wasn’t great,” he admitted. He kinda frowned when thinking about it but the corners of his lips lifted again when he focused on me, like he couldn’t help it.
“At least it wasn’t both at the same time.” Didn’t have a ton of practice looking on the bright side, so I accidentally scared myself. Oh god, was there a scarier thought in the world than facing all of our disapproving parents at once? Boobs! See, there were really no limits to my gayness.
“Oh god,” he said, putting a hand to his chest. “Not even ready to think about that.”
“No one got injured,” I said, listing the positives of this date. I appreciated not having a black eye.
“And no one threw up on us,” he added. Yeah, that had happened too.
“These are weird standards we have,” I mused.
He made a noise of agreement. “Think this was a good date.” His mouth smiled on purpose this time as he eyed me fondly.
“Aww, yay for us.” We kept smiling at each other like fools. If this were a movie, the music would play and everyone else would fade into the background.
This wasn’t a movie, so there was no romantic music, just the ambient noise of the town and people talking, but all that faded from my mind anyway. It was just me and Luke, our lips brushing together sweetly, his hands resting on my back and fingers pressing in just a little, like he wanted to cling onto me too. My lips tingled against his and too soon he pulled back slightly, but then came forward towards me again, deciding he wasn’t done after all. I approved. I could do this forever.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Dad said, right on cue. We listened, going our separate ways for the night, even though Dad was wrong.
It wasn’t enough time with Luke. When it came to Luke, there was no enough.
