Page 75 of It's Just You

22

Kane

Sadly,the weekend ended far too soon. I had to go back to work — back to reality — and Finn’s parents returned from their vacation. It didn’t stop us from seeing each other, but it was kind of weird being in Finn’s bedroom with his parents being there. They had to know what we were up to, right? That only made it worse.

It was the same with my parents, but there was also Sam, who still refused outright to talk to me unless it was about Dad. Then he could talk, even though he could barely manage to keep the hostility out of his voice. He shut down immediately as soon as I tried to broach the topic of anything other than Dad’s needs.

At least Dad was improving a bit, even though it was far too soon for the treatment to really help. He now at least knew what was wrong, so he had new hope. The same went for Mom, who finally seemed to be in a little better of a mood even though Sam was still mad at her, too.

The baseline was that Sam was mad at everyone and I just wanted time alone with Finn without nosy parents — or siblings — around. There was no way to fix either of those things, though. Not unless I moved out, which I could never do. Not only financially, but also because of the support my father would continue to need.

Which led to the next problem we were faced with: Finn would return to college in about two weeks. We needed to find a way to make this work. There wasn’t any doubt in my mind that we would find a way, but I would prefer to see him more often than a few weekends during the school year.

We spent a lot of time at the lake, just lying next to each other and looking at the sky, talking and holding hands. He’d been very, very hesitant the first time I’d offered my hand, but in the end, he’d taken it. The bullying had left deep scars on the inside, maybe even worse than the ones his makeup hid on his face — which I still hadn’t seen, but it didn’t take a genius to know they were bad if he was so determined to hide them. I didn’t care at all about them, since my love for him went far deeper than his skin, but I wished he didn’t feel the need to conceal any part of himself. But if that was what made him feel better, I would accept it.

Even harder was the part about showing attraction in public. He didn’t believe anything had changed in the past few years, even though the town had grown far more progressive and accepting. Besides, I wasn’t exactly scrawny, and with my tattoos, people weren’t eager to get up in my face. It was like the ultimate badass symbol even though I was a kitten inside. It might be a total cliche, but hell, should someone look at us the wrong way, I wouldn’t mind scaring them a little.

So far, I hadn’t had to do anything of the sort, so I simply took Finn’s hand, holding it in mine while we lay side by side on the blanket I’d brought.

“You know, I can always drive over here, or you can come to me,” Finn said, picking up the talk after a moment’s silence. “Or I’ll really just look for some place to live closer to here, then the drive wouldn’t be as long.”

“But your commute to college would be.” It wasn’t like we hadn’t had this talk already, but so far, we were at an impasse. Either one of us would have to change something, or we’d have to have a long distance relationship, and it was looking like the latter. It was already a four to five hour drive, depending on traffic, which was too much to do all the time. Not to mention that when Sam returned to school, I’d need to be at home with Mom and Dad, and I had to work most weekends.

“I’m out of ideas.” Finn sighed deeply, something that resonated in my heart. Now that I’d found him, I didn’t want to let him go.

I rolled over, putting my head on his shoulder. “Me too. Can we just live in our little bubble forever, without all the adult stuff?”

Finn snorted. “Dude, I hate to point it out, but you’ve been enjoying some of the adult stuff very much, if I’m remembering right. And sadly, you can’t have one without the other.”

I chuckled. “Damn, I hate it when you’re right. Okay, then back to thinking.”

We fell silent again.

“The only thing I can think of is for me to finish college, which will be another two years, with you staying here. We’ll just have to figure out how to make the details work. And then, once I’m done… We can, you know, look for a place to live.”

It wouldn’t be here, I knew that. I knew he hated this city and would never want to live here.

“But the commute…”

“It’s the best I can come up with.” Finn sighed. “I would love to find something else, but I can’t do online classes, and you can’t care for your dad from afar, so… What else can we do?”

It was my turn to sigh. “Nothing, I guess. This will just be how it has to be.”

It took him another week,but when Sam finally came around to at least talk to me again, I was sitting in my room, looking through my work schedule so I could plan my time with Finn. There was a knock at the door, then Sam opened it and stuck his head inside.

“Next time, wait for me to reply, please,” I told him, eyeing him.

“I knew Finn wasn’t here, so I figured it would be safe.” His expression was still a little sour, but he wasn’t instantly ending the conversion, so that was progress. He closed the door behind himself, leaning against it.

“Uh, yeah, well… We could be facetiming,” I pointed out.

Sam cringed. “Duly noted. Next time, I’ll wait… Or no, I guess I’ll never come to your room again if the door’s closed.”

I chuckled. “Now you’re getting the point.”

Sam was far more relaxed and less hostile, even after my comment about facetiming his best friend, so I figured I’d been forgiven — at least partially.

“Yeah, okay. I… Uh, I wanted to talk to you about… stuff.” Sam started looking at my floor like it was the most interesting thing he’d ever seen.

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