Chapter 25 #2
“It was a brief interaction,” Gabriel reassured them. Miles wished he didn’t think he needed to.
“More importantly, did Amy say you were missing?” Miles’s dad questioned, slathering up a piece of bread with butter.
“That wasn’t the case, it was a misunderstanding. I was visiting a friend and unable to get ahold of anyone for a few days.”
“Hey, Dad,” Miles jumped in. “How did that poltergeist job go the other day? I forgot to ask.”
Adam took pity on him, launching into a description of the poltergeist haunting a restaurant over in Bellingham and how close it’d come to locking him inside the walk-in refrigerator.
He was a good storyteller, adequately dramatic and overplaying the danger, and Gabriel seemed interested, questioning around bites.
“Jenna and I are going to start helping with jobs soon,” Amy shared with Gabriel. “If you ever need a partner.”
Charlee snorted into her bite of salad.
“He doesn’t do that kind of thing,” Miles told her.
“I’ve taken a more recent interest in it,” Gabriel amended. He shifted and pressed their knees together under the table. “Your brother has told me a lot about what your family does. It’s very admirable.”
“We try our best.” Sarah smiled contentedly at Adam. “I’m sure it’s nowhere near as interesting as…” She faltered, and Miles knew she’d been about to mention Felicity. He’d made her promise there’d be none of that while Gabriel was over. “What other families in the area do,” she finished.
“I don’t expect you to censor yourselves in your own home. My mother is a rather unavoidable topic.” Gabriel’s eyes gleamed with amusement. “Though she has plenty of other wicked qualities, saying her name won’t summon her like a demon.”
Miles choked into his glass of water.
“I was actually hoping you might tell me more about her,” he continued. “From when you knew her before.”
Under the table, Miles nudged his foot against Gabriel’s. He glanced over and gave a reassuring nod.
“It was years ago,” Miles’s dad started after a moment of hesitation. “I think we must’ve been around…” He trailed off.
“Fifteen,” Sarah filled in. “Remember, we had to sneak her out of the house for my birthday party? The one where you got knocked into the pool?”
Miles’s dad chuckled. “I’d forgotten about that.
” He took Sarah’s hand, turning back to Gabriel.
“Your mom was hilarious. I’ve never met anyone who could come up with a comeback as quickly as her.
She was a terrible skateboarder, but she insisted on learning no matter how many times she scraped herself up, and she showed me how to drive a stick-shift on one of her dad’s old classic cars. ”
“Until you almost wrecked it,” Sarah pointed out.
“Almost being the operative word.” He gave an exaggerated wink.
“She didn’t even get mad,” Sarah told Gabriel.
“She just switched seats, cranked up the music, and backed right out of the ditch onto the road like she’d done it a million times.
The next day, she showed up with a toy car for him and told him if he cared about the safety of the public, it was the only car he’d ever put his hands on again. ”
Both Miles’s parents laughed.
Gabriel set his fork down gingerly. A complicated series of emotions crossed his face. “I can’t even picture her like that,” he admitted. “You’re talking about a stranger.”
Miles wanted to reach over and comfort him. He hoped Gabriel got to meet the real Felicity when they broke the curse. He and his brothers deserved a second chance with her, to know the woman she’d once been.
His mom’s mirth faded. “Most curses have a loophole, no matter how tricky the magic. If there’s a way to bring her back, we’ll find it.”
“That’s kind of you to say.” He didn’t sound like he was holding out hope.
“Hey, Amy,” Charlee jumped in. Miles supposed she could relate to having a complicated relationship with your mom. “Why don’t you tell everyone about the school musical you want to try out for.”
Amy happily did exactly that, filling the silence with relentless chatter and unrestrained glee at being the center of attention. She only paused for a breather when everyone’s plates were clean and Miles’s mom brought dessert to the table, a cheesecake she’d been finishing when Miles got home.
His dad jumped on the opportunity to interrogate Gabriel about his classes and how he liked being in public school.
“It’s very loud,” Gabriel responded primly, making everyone laugh.
“He’s getting culture shock from Spirit Week,” Miles clued the table in. “Seeing Thistle High at its finest.”
Gabriel cracked a smile. “The school certainly has more… character than I expected. Though there are aspects I don’t agree with—required physical education classes, for one, and impractical electives—my experience overall has been pleasant.”
“Only because you bullied your counselor into giving you a pass for workshop.”
“I prefer to think I simply educated her on the ways my time would be better spent.”
Miles laughed—he still didn’t know how Gabriel had managed to do it. The counselor was a notoriously stubborn, stoic woman who didn’t take no for an answer. It must’ve been an immovable object meeting an unstoppable force.
“Are you planning to stay there until graduation?” Sarah asked.
Gabriel hesitated. Miles didn’t know the answer, they hadn’t talked about it. “I’m hoping to,” he replied, and it sounded like the truth. “Especially if I’m fortunate enough to have most of my classes with Miles next year too.”
Feeling his mom watching him, Miles took a long drink of water and hoped she didn’t notice his red cheeks.
It was halfway through his slice of cheesecake, listening to Gabriel explain exactly why he’d refused to go to his workshop class, that it hit Miles: things were going well.
Around the table, there were real smiles and chuckles, his parents nodding enthusiastically at Gabriel, his sisters watching him with silly adoring expressions, and Charlee shaking her head in good-humored disbelief.
Against all odds, Gabriel looked like he fit here, at the cluttered dining room table of Miles’s kitchen, eating strawberry cheesecake off a chipped plate while muffled music played gently from his dad’s record player in the other room. Warm and safe and comfortable.
Miles loved his family fiercely in that moment, so much that his heart ached, for making Gabriel belong here with them.
Safely hidden under the table, he looped their pinkies together, beaming at Gabriel when he gave him a curious glance.
When the cheesecake was gone and everyone else filed into the living room, Miles took the plates to the sink with his mom. It filled with hot, soapy water as the record scratched then turned off, Miles’s dad swapping to Led Zeppelin per Gabriel’s tentative request.
“He’s not what I expected.” Sarah took the top plate from the stack and scrubbed it down.
Miles rinsed it, settling it on the drying rack. “Yeah. Me either.”
“It’s hard to imagine Felicity capable of raising a good kid, but she managed.”
“Three of them,” he corrected. “They’re all good.”
She hummed thoughtfully, scraping at a stubborn bit of pasta sauce. “I like the way you are around each other. You need friends in your life who get you, and I can tell he does. You two are a good pair.”
He knew she didn’t mean anything by it, but a swell of emotion rose in Miles’s throat. Everything felt so right in this moment, he wanted to freeze-frame and capture it forever.
“I like him,” Miles said softly, rinsing a bowl and watching the water swirl down the drain as snippets of Gabriel’s voice floated from the other room.
“I do too.”
“Mom…” The words were there, suddenly in reach when they’d been impossibly far away before.
His heart wasn’t even racing, his fears subdued by the gentle kitchen light, the rushing water on his hands, and the love radiating from his mom beside him.
Maybe this was what he hadn’t realized he’d been waiting for.
For it to feel natural and easy. Right. “Gabriel and I… the thing is, I like boys. And I like him. We’re more than friends. ”
After everything, it wasn’t even hard to say. The words practically fell out of him, eager to finally be free.
She went still beside him as she processed his words. He could pinpoint the moment it clicked and she understood.
Without a word, she dropped the plate she’d been holding into the sink with a plopping splash and turned to gather him into a hug. Her hands were wet, soaking into the back of his sweater, and the top of her head nearly knocked his chin.
It was the best hug he’d ever had.
“I love you,” she declared fiercely. “Don’t you dare think this changes a thing, okay? Not even for a second.”
“Okay,” he managed to get out, his voice more than a little choked up.
She didn’t let go of him for a long time.
When they pulled away, he wasn’t the only one fighting back tears. “If you cry, I’m gonna cry,” he told her wetly.
She sniffled. “They’re good tears. Every mom wants her kids to live a happy, honest life as their true selves and I’m just… I’m so proud of you. Thank you for telling me.”
The way she was smiling up at him made his heart swell to the point of bursting. Miles couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so light.
“You and Emily…” A crease formed between his mom’s eyebrows. “I mean, she isn’t…”
“I’m gay,” Miles clarified, realizing he hadn’t been specific. Every time he said it, it got easier to get the words out. “Boys only, so no. We’re just friends.”
She covered her mouth, horrified. “Oh my God, I’m the worst. I’m the worst mom in the whole world.”
“You’re not the worst.” Miles couldn’t help but laugh. “Only a teeny tiny bit. But I know you were trying to help.”
“I’m sorry. And I love you so much.”
“It’s okay. And I love you too.”
She hugged him again, like she couldn’t help herself. They probably looked like a couple of weirdos, crying and grinning and embracing over a sink full of dirty dishes.
There had to be a million things going through her mind. She hadn’t even mentioned Gabriel, but part of her had to be panicking that he was dating a cursed Hawthorne boy. But she was holding herself together for him.
“Mom.” A minute had passed and she still hadn’t let him go. “This is nice, but Gabriel and I have to go soon or we’ll be late for the football game.”
She did a weird, wiggling squirm, like a snake had dropped down the back of her shirt. “Is it a date?” He realized he was witnessing a disturbing display of excitement. “Miles Warren, are you going on your first date tonight?”
“No,” he insisted, too loudly, and flushed. “I mean… yeah. But it’s not a big deal.”
Muttering to herself, she went and dug around in her purse on the counter, fishing out a twenty. “Buy yourselves a treat,” she commanded, making Miles take it despite his protests. “And be home at a decent time.”
“On job nights, I don’t get home until three in the morning,” he pointed out.
“Be home before sunrise,” she amended, swooping in to kiss him on the cheek. “Have a great time. And run Robin her dinner before you leave.”
He grabbed the covered plate from the counter, skirting around the edge of the living room where Gabriel was on the couch with Charlee, talking about the ghost hunting show bingo she was putting together for the new season.
Aunt Robin’s door was closed, so he knocked. “Come in,” she called.
The curtains were drawn, the only light coming from the stained-glass lamp on her desk where she was sitting, writing in a journal.
In a silky cream shirt with her hair up, silver earrings gleaming, you’d think she was the one who’d dressed up for dinner.
When Miles got close enough, he could see the weary downturn to her mouth, but she looked better than she had in a long time.
“Hey.” Miles had to resist flipping the light switch on— the weak lamplight barely illuminated the room, the corners cloaked in deep darkness. “I brought you dinner.”
“Thank you.” She slid a ribbon into the pages of her journal and closed it, taking the plate when he offered it. “How did your parents take meeting Gabriel?”
She’d remembered his name. “Not too bad,” he told her, passing the fork he’d bundled in a napkin. “Thanks again for not telling them. I know they found out anyway, but…”
“Things worked out the way there were supposed to.”
In a way, they kinda had.
“I’m sure Mom’s going to invite him to the next one too. You should join us. We missed you tonight.”
She gave one of her smiles that he could never quite pin down. “I doubt it.”
Her grief was an awful, uncomfortable thing. It would be pointless to deny it, but it could never make her unwanted. Miles would gladly weather the pain if it meant sharing a meal with her. “I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.”
She turned away under the pretense of tucking her journal in a drawer. “You don’t speak for everyone.”
It was clear she meant Charlee. He was always careful not to say anything, it wasn’t his business, but she’d brought it up first. “I know for a fact that everyone would’ve been happy to see you tonight. Even if they aren’t good at showing it. Little steps can make a big difference.”
“Sitting down for a dinner won’t fix things,” Robin murmured. “Not with so much unspoken.”
“Then speak it.” That was the biggest obstacle between Charlee and her mom.
She wanted to yell and demand apologies, but she was too stubborn.
And Robin needed to make amends, acknowledge that she’d let her grief destroy her relationship with her daughter.
“I think we build up conversations we’re scared to have into these big, scary monsters in our head, until we forget the most important thing—we’re talking to someone who cares about us. ”
Even if she and Charlee ended up screaming at each other, saying ugly things, it had to be better than this limbo they were trapped in.
Aunt Robin didn’t say anything, so Miles gave her hand a quick squeeze. “All I’m saying is, you might be pleasantly surprised. I’ll see you later, okay? Have a good night.”