Chapter 22
Trevor
“I remember when you read that book cover to cover,” my uncle says, standing in my doorway.
I huff a laugh, setting down the old dictionary Isaac reminded me of. “Yeah?”
He nods, coming into my room and sitting on the edge of the bed. I stretch my legs out on the floor next to my bookshelf.
“You wanted to be smart,” Rafael says with a fond grin. “Or, well, smarter than you already were. And it worked. I mean, what eleven-year-old uses the word impignorate correctly in a sentence?”
A smile curves my lips as my uncle goes on, looking lost in the memory.
“For weeks, every dinner included you schooling me in words I’d never heard of before. I had a hard time just keeping up with you.”
“Sorry about that.”
“No, no. Don’t apologize, peque. It was good for me, too. Taught me I’m never too old to learn new tricks.”
I knock his foot with my own. “You’re not old, Raf.”
He only hums. “What are you doing here on a Saturday? Figured you’d be spending the day with your guy.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Is this your subtle way of asking me how that’s going?”
“And if it is?”
I can’t stop my grin as my thoughts turn to Isaac. “It’s good. We’re good. He’s picking me up soon to drive to his mom’s.”
“Ah,” Rafael says, rubbing his hand over the ink on his knuckles. “I can’t help but notice he hasn’t been back here. Is it me?”
“What?” I ask quickly. “No, of course not.”
“You’ve been gone most nights lately,” he points out. “Which is fine. Of course it is. But he’s welcome here, too. You’re both adults, and I don’t want you to feel like you can’t act as such in your own home.”
“I know,” I tell him softly, appreciating his support more than he could possibly know.
My uncle has always given me a safe place to call home.
When I was younger, he never let me doubt any version of myself would be welcomed within these walls.
Even now, he reminds me of it often. “Isaac knows he’s welcome here.
I think he’s just not used to being so open around someone he considers a parental figure. ”
My uncle snorts. “Surely he knows I’m aware the two of you are more than likely…intimate with one another?”
“I’m sure he realizes that on some level,” I agree, trying to hide my amusement at imagining Isaac’s blush if he were here. “How about I ask him over for dinner again soon?”
“Yes, good.” Rafael nods decisively. “Just, you know, keep it in your pants when I’m in the apartment.”
I chuckle as my phone chimes. “We will, Raf. Promise.”
“That him?” he asks, nodding down to my phone.
“Yep.”
My uncle stands as I do, clasping me on the neck and squeezing once. “I’m happy for you.”
My chest floods with warmth. “Yeah. I’m happy for me, too.”
I find Isaac’s car waiting behind the tattoo shop. Todd waves exuberantly from the back as I round the vehicle and climb into the front passenger side.
“Did Isaac call shotgun for me?” I ask, directing my question at Lumi, who’s sitting in the back next to Todd.
She feigns offense. “I’ll have you know it was my idea to save the front for you. It’s an hour-long drive, and you’re…”
“Big,” Todd fills in.
“That,” Lumi agrees.
“Well, my legs thank you,” I say honestly, turning my attention to Isaac. He’s biting his lip, looking both happy to see me and borderline shy, like he’s still unsure of what’s allowed in these moments when we first meet again, however short our parting was.
I don’t mind reminding him.
I grasp his chin gently, tilting his face up to place a small kiss on the corner of his mouth. “Hi.”
“Hi,” he responds, his shoulders coming down, the red beneath his freckles a welcome sight. “Um. Ready to go?”
“Oh, he’s ready,” Lumi says, her tone overtly playful.
Isaac’s eyes flick to hers in the back seat, a warning there. “Behave.”
Lumi bats her eyelashes. “Todd, darling. Am I misbehaving?”
Todd looks between the three of us, a furrow in his brow. “Um. I feel like I’m missing some context here.”
Lumi pats Todd’s thigh as I buckle in. With a check of the mirrors, Isaac backs out and pulls onto the road.
His mom’s house is in a residential neighborhood a decent ways outside of Las Vegas.
Isaac parks in the driveway, a white two-story home greeting us with neatly maintained hedges forming a fence of sorts around the property.
Lumi and Todd hop right out, clearly comfortable heading for the door without Isaac along.
“Anything I should know?” I ask once we’re alone.
“My mom is nice,” Isaac answers. “She knows I’m gay and is supportive. I haven’t brought a boyfriend around in a while, though. She’ll like you, Trevor. Just be yourself.”
“So…tell her I make porn in my spare time?”
He sputters. “Lead with anything but that.”
I huff a laugh, tugging Isaac close to kiss him properly now that we don’t have an audience. He’s warm, the curve of his lips familiar, the two of us slotting together in a way I no longer have to think about. It’s instinct, a push and pull as natural as the tide.
A rather loud whistle has us splitting apart. So much for no audience.
Lumi looks unrepentant as we get out of the car, but her attention quickly turns toward the opening front door.
A woman Isaac’s height is standing inside the house, a warm smile on her face as she hugs first Lumi and then a very happy Todd.
She rubs circles over Todd’s back as her eyes ping to Isaac and me approaching.
After kissing Todd’s cheek, she waves us in. “Look at you,” she says to her son, taking his shoulders in her hands before giving him a hearty hug. “And oh my goodness, he’s so tall, isn’t he?”
Isaac snorts as he’s let go, his mom’s regard on me now. “Just a bit.”
“Would you like a hug?” she asks me, her hair not Isaac’s startling red, but a dark brown. Her eyes, however, are the same ringed blue. “You can say no and I won’t take offense, promise.”
“A hug would be great,” I tell her, bending to make it easier on her. She smells of Italian herbs. It reminds me immediately of Rafael.
She pats my shoulder before stepping back. “Come on in. Lasagna is in the oven. You kids want something to drink?”
“Do you have orange soda?” Todd calls from further inside the house.
Isaac’s mom smiles fondly as she heads that way. “In the fridge like always.”
Isaac blows out a quiet breath, toeing off his shoes. I do the same, wondering if his nerves are simply a product of having his boyfriend over to meet his mom or something else.
“Would now be a good time to bring up the porn?” I ask, making sure my voice doesn’t carry.
The comment works as I’d hoped. Isaac gives me a shove, a smile on his face as he grabs my hand. “Come on.”
Isaac lets go as we round the corner into the kitchen.
The smell of herbs is stronger here, coming from the baking lasagna.
Lumi and Todd are seated on a padded bench inside a bay window, their legs drawn up so they can both fit.
Each has a glass of orange soda, and another two are waiting on the table nearby.
“So, Trevor,” Isaac’s mom says, launching into conversation as she places frozen breadsticks on a baking sheet, “Isaac tells me you’re a business major?”
“I am,” I answer, glancing quickly at Isaac. He appears to be biting his tongue. I avoid the topic of my videos. “I’m in my last semester.”
“That’s wonderful. Three of you are graduating this year.”
Isaac’s expression flickers, the reminder of Todd and Lumi nearing the end of their schooling seemingly having dropped his mood. I take a seat next to him at the table, letting my thigh rest against his.
“I’m glad I’m nearly done,” I say. “I’m not sure I could manage as many years as Isaac will be tackling.”
“You could if you were studying English,” he tosses out. “You’d be in heaven.”
I can’t refute that.
“You like literature, as well?” his mom asks.
“He’s a damn poet,” Isaac answers, his gaze piercing me, steady and bright. “Although I’m positive he’d never admit to it.”
“Because it’s nothing,” I put in.
Isaac’s eyebrows pop up. “Who was it that told me words have weight? That they carry intent? Are you telling me yours are worthless to the people who hear them?”
Well, shit.
“He’s a poet,” Isaac insists, voice firm. “And the most modest person I’ve ever met.”
I’m trying to formulate some sort of response when I see Todd lean forward on the bench seat. I run my gaze from his frowning face over to where Isaac’s mom is standing near the stove, her hands braced against the countertop.
“Ms. Newport?” Todd asks, causing Isaac’s gaze to flick that way, as well. “Are you all right?”
“Fine,” she says quickly, shaking her head a couple times as if coming out of a fog. “Just a dizzy spell. Good thing lunch is almost ready, hm?”
Todd is still frowning, and Isaac is now, as well.
But Ms. Newport straightens and tosses a smile over her shoulder. “I’m fine. Trevor, do you read your poetry anywhere?”
“Oh, no. Isaac is the only one who’s heard any of it.”
“Any?” Isaac asks, stressing the word. “Is there more I haven’t heard?”
I smirk, and his eyes widen.
Lumi snickers. “I’d ask to hear some, but from Trevor’s expression, I’m fairly certain it’s not meant for our delicate sensibilities.”
Isaac flushes hard, but he recovers enough to retort, “So you should be just fine, then.”
“I can be delicate,” Lumi combats.
Todd is looking between us all again. “Is it, like, sex poetry?”
Isaac groans.
His mom politely pretends not to have heard as she pulls a steaming casserole dish from the oven, setting it atop the stove to cool. She pops the breadsticks in and sets a timer. “Ten minutes, and we can eat.”
“I’ll go wash my delicate hands,” Lumi says, dropping her feet to the ground and striding from the room. It’s clear she loves giving Isaac shit, the same as he does with her.
They really are like siblings.
“Bathroom?” I ask Isaac.
He nods, standing and motioning for me to follow him. At the stairwell, he directs me up. “First door on your left. Can’t miss it.”
“Thanks.”
He hesitates for only a moment before nodding and walking back toward the kitchen. I take care of necessities and return downstairs within a couple minutes, where I find Lumi looking at a picture of Isaac on the living room wall.
“This is his graduation picture,” she says, motioning to it.
I walk her way, getting a better look at Isaac in his graduation cap and robes. He’s smiling wide, looking proud, his mom’s arm around his shoulder and a matching smile on her face.
“There’s something I’m going to tell you,” Lumi says, her voice quiet. “Because I know Isaac won’t bring it up himself. And he likes you, Trevor. A lot.”
“Okay…” I say hesitantly, wondering if whatever this is is something I should be hearing from Lumi in the first place.
But she doesn’t give me even a second to contemplate it. “I like you, too, you know. Which is why you should know Isaac’s dad paid his last boyfriend to get lost.”
Lumi must see the shock on my face because she continues quickly.
“We don’t have proof. But Isaac suspects it. The guy just…dropped off the face of the planet where it concerned Isaac. He broke things off, and not a week later, he was posting pictures from his dream European vacation. He didn’t have that kind of money, Trevor. Not even close.”
Lumi sighs as my brain runs overtime, the conversation Isaac and I had during our bookstore date starting to make a lot more sense. When he brought up my jobs, asking if I resented him. Saying that money matters.
Lumi’s voice is soft as she turns to face me fully. “Isaac’s dad doesn’t want to see him happy because he doesn’t want his son to be gay. I really, really hope I’m right about you. Because money can sway a lot of people.”
With that, Lumi leaves me alone to consider her words. I hear the timer going off in the kitchen, but I stand in front of Isaac’s picture for a minute longer, looking at the twin smiles on his and his mother’s faces.
His dad isn’t in the frame. Nor any other on the wall.
He’s not in Isaac’s life, at least not in the way Isaac needs him to be.
And I’m starting to understand why.