Mateo

"Are you nervous?" Alex asked.

I sat in his passenger seat as we drove to my parent's house.

"No," I said. "What is there to be nervous about?" I had to appear strong in front of Alex. I didn't want him to suddenly change his mind about me and dump me. I had to give him the best image of myself.

"It's okay to be nervous," Alex said.

"I'm not though," I said. I looked out the window at the passing houses so he wouldn't see the lie in my eyes.

Alex kept one hand on the steering wheel, but the other reached out and took my hand. I squeezed his hand as if to show I was the one giving him strength. I told him where to turn and sooner than I liked, we were parked in front of my house. The yellow paint on the house was chipping in places and so was our white, wooden fence. I suddenly wished I had painted it over the summer. If Alex noticed he didn't give any indication as he smiled at me kindly. Man, he was handsome.

I noticed my aunt's car in the driveway which meant not only was this dinner with my sister, little brothers, parents and grandpa, it would now also include my aunt, uncle and cousins.

Damn Vincent for making me come out like this.

I had no idea how my family was going to react. I really hoped - prayed actually - that it wouldn't give my grandpa a stroke or a heart attack.

Alex let go of my hand and started to get out of the car. I quickly got out with him. I had to act like this wasn't a big deal. Maybe if I acted well enough, I'd believe it myself.

The front door flew open and Serafina sprang down the porch steps, ran to us and threw her arms around Alex in a tight hug as if she had known him all her life and this wasn't the first time she had ever seen him. My twin brothers stared at us in the doorframe. My parents had given them cellphones on their twelve birthday three months ago, but they had both dropped and broken them before the second day. They were now banned from having a cell phone for at least another year. They did not know I was gay let alone that I had a boyfriend.

Alex looked at me unsure if he should hug her back or not. I pulled my sister off my boyfriend.

"I'm so happy to meet you," she said as I made her take a step back. "You are more handsome than your pictures." She completely ignored me as she stared at my handsome boyfriend.

"Thank you," he said.

Sera finally turned to me. "I can't believe you are bringing your boyfriend home to the family so soon. You must be serious."

I smiled in response hoping that I looked strong and brave. I wouldn't be doing this yet if Vincent hadn't forced my hand. And it wasn't just because I was worried about my grandpa having a heart attack although that had been my excuse.

"Come in, come in." My sister grabbed Alex's hand and began to pull him inside.

"Hello," Alex greeted my little brothers.

"Hello," they said in unison.

"I'm Alex."

"Hugo."

"Adrian."

"It's nice to meet you both," Alex said politely and it seemed like he genuinely meant it.

"We're twins," Hugo said.

"But not identical," Adrian added. It was the same thing they always said when they met someone new.

"Move out of the way," Serafina said as she pushed her way through them and pulled Alex with her.

I patted them both on the head as I followed my sister and Alex. One of them closed the door behind us and they followed us in.

"They're here," Serafina announced as she dragged my boyfriend into the dinning room. My dad and aunt were in the middle of putting food on the table.

My mom peeked her head around the door frame to the kitchen and said. "Just in time," the food is ready. "Hugo, Adrian, go get your grandpa, uncle and cousins please."

They both groaned, but left the room to comply.

My dad rounded the table and roughly shook Alex's hand. "You're the first college friend Mateo has brought home. He used to bring his high school friends home all the time."

Alex raised a blond eyebrow at me.

"Friends," I emphasized and he smiled gently so I knew he understood that I meant friends only. I had never brought home a boyfriend before.

"Gareth and Chet used to come over the most," my dad went on as he dragged Alex to the table and offered the seat to the left of where my dad usually sat. "Have you met them?"

"I've met them," Alex said as he sat.

My dad sat in his usual seat at the head of the table. I hesitated. I did not like my dad so close to Alex. What if he didn't react well to the fact that I was gay and Alex was my boyfriend? No. I couldn't panic over that. It wasn't like my dad would hit him or anything. I hoped. I prayed. I sat in the other seat next to Alex. I did not want to be here. I wanted to be back in my apartment sitting on the couch making out with Alex. That would be much better.

My mom came in with a pitcher of lemonade and sat on the opposite side of Alex. She smiled kindly at him. "Would you like some lemonade?" she asked him. "Or we have water or is there something else you would like?"

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"Lemonade is perfect," he said. He went to reach for the pitcher, but my mom beat him to it and poured him a glass. Then she set it back down on the table and didn't offer to pour any for me, my dad or Serafina that had just sat down next to my mom.

The others entered the room then, the twins bounced to their seats next to me. Grandpa sat at the other end of the table and my uncle and aunt sat across from my brothers each with a small child on their laps.

It was only then that I noticed my mom was serving seafood for dinner. You'd think the smell as soon as I walked in the door would have given me a clue. I had no idea if Alex liked seafood. We'd never eaten it together. What if he was allergic to it?

"Would you like some shrimp?" My mom said sweetly to Alex.

"I love shrimp," Alex said. It didn't seem like he was lying. My mom put an extra generous portion on his plate. The rest of us had to help ourselves.

The pudgy baby on my aunt's lap immediately reached for the bread on her plate. He grabbed it, twisted it in his chubby hands and crushed it to his mouth. The twins next to me were already arguing over who was better at a particular video game.

Grandpa smiled kindly at the baby who giggled as it stuffed even more bread into its mouth.

"How did you two become friends?" my mom asked Alex.

"We have general chemistry together," Alex said in his gentle voice that I loved so much. I had also loved it when he had raised his voice to Vincent at the party. That was a side to Alex I hadn't seen before.

I loved discovering all the new sides to Alex. Like when he side-eyed Josh in General Chemistry for asking a question that the professor had just literally answered 5 minutes before, or when he quietly tapped his pen on his book during the professor's lecture, or the way he moaned when I kissed the hollow of his throat. Wait. I couldn't think about that now. I was in the middle of a family dinner and there were innocent children around me. It was suddenly very hot.

I looked over at him as he answered my parent's questions. He was handsome, smart, sweet and he could be passionate. How had I lucked out in finding him? My mom was now bragging about how I was the only one in the family to go into the sciences.

I turned my attention back to my almost finished meal. My aunt took her two little children into the other room to play.

"Do you want to hear the story of how I first met my beloved late wife?" Grandpa asked Alex.

Alex nodded eagerly while my twin brothers groaned. We had heard this story many times.

"I first came here when I was 16," Grandpa said with that dreamy expression he got whenever he spoke of the past. "I didn't meet her until 6 years later. I attended my younger sister's college graduation. She was the first woman in our family to get a real education. Throughout the entire procession there was one young woman who stood out almost like she was glowing. I couldn't take my eyes off her. When the ceremony was over, I went up to this young woman and congratulated her instead of my sister. It turns out she was friends with my sister and they both scolded me for not congratulating my sister first, but she agreed to go out with me when I immediately asked. We had 4 children together. Two in this very room." He indicated my mother and uncle. "We spent almost 40 wonderful years together before she got sick and passed away. There isn't a moment that goes by where I don't miss her terribly."

There was a short silence as none of us knew how to respond to grandpa's sudden sorrow. Honestly, I still missed my grandma too and probably always would.

"Do you have a girlfriend, Alex?" my mother asked sweetly. "Mateo has never brought home a girlfriend for us to meet."

Alex gave me that side-eye and paused as if waiting for me to answer for him. But my tongue had suddenly stopped working and I had forgotten how to breathe.

"I have someone," Alex said politely.

Serafina stared at me. She gave a slight nod of her head to encourage me.

"He's my someone," I said quietly hoping no one would hear, but that it would still count as my coming out anyway.

The table grew quiet. We could hear the giggles from my young cousins from the next room.

"What?" my uncle asked in a way that was almost threatening.

"He's my boyfriend," I said a little louder even though it was so quiet now everyone would have been able to hear me regardless. "I'm gay."

My sister smiled proudly at me. My twin brothers looked at me, then at each other, but I couldn't decipher their expressions. My grandpa stared at his empty plate with his bushy, gray brows knotted together, but at least he didn't have a heart attack. My mom stared at my dad who in turn looked at the knife next to his plate. My uncle stared at me while his face darkened.

"You're kidding right? This is a joke," my uncle's harsh voice broke the silence.

"No," I said.

"You're a fuckin' fag?" my uncle said.

My sister and mom gasped. My twin brothers reached up and covered their ears at the same time even though I knew they had heard worse at school. My grandpa rose from his seat and smacked my uncle hard on top of his head, but my dad...my dad stood up so fast his chair fell backwards. He slammed both fists hard on the table so that the entire table jolted. I had never seen him this angry. My heart stopped. My lungs forgot to work. Then my father stormed away and my parent's bedroom door slammed shut so hard it echoed through the deathly quiet house. After a pause, my cousins started crying - screaming crying from the other room. My grandpa hit my uncle again. I had never seen my grandpa like that either. My sister ran to my grandpa's side and pulled him away from my uncle. My two brothers took that opportunity to run out of the room as fast as they could.

My mom stood and grabbed Alex's arm pulling him from the seat. "You should leave," she told me.

She pulled Alex urgently, but gently towards the door. I followed. I wasn't sure how I followed as I didn't think I was still in my body, but I moved.

"Mom," I said as she opened the door. My question and worry set in that simple word.

My mom's face softened even as tears sprang to her eyes. "I love you always," she said and kissed me on the forehead. "I don't know what set your father off, whether it was my brother or your announcement, but I'll talk to him. Don't worry about your grandpa either. As for my brother," she paused as her jaw tightened. "Well, if he can't be civil, he won't be allowed in my house any longer."

She turned to Alex and took his hand. "It was nice to meet you," she said. "I'm sorry dinner turned out like this. You seem really sweet and I do like you. I think we just need some time to wrap our minds around this."

Alex nodded his head gently too understanding as he always was. "The dinner was delicious," he offered.

My mother smiled. "I do hope we see you again under better circumstances, Alex," she said. Then she turned to me. "Go now. I'm sorry it must be like this, but the house needs to calm down. This can't be good for my father's health."

I nodded and gave my mom a quick hug. Then I took Alex's hand and walked quickly back to his car. We got in, but neither of us put our seatbelts on right away. He didn't start the car either.

"If you went back in without me, could you fix this?" he asked in his soft voice.

It melted my heart and all my worries and stress were suddenly gone. I took his hand, brought it to my lips and kissed the back of it.

"I'm not going back in without you," I said. "And we are not going back in tonight. I'll let everyone process that I'm gay and have a boyfriend and then we can try this again."

Alex smiled, leaned in close and kissed me chastely on the lips. I would have taken the kiss further, but he quickly leaned back into his seat and nodded towards the passenger side window just as there was a gentle knock on it. I turned to see my sister and brothers right there. Alex lowered the window for me.

"I'm sorry it turned out like this," Serafina said to Alex. "I really like you."

"We like you too," Hugo and Adrian said together.

"Thank you," Alex said. "That means a lot to me."

"I love you," Hugo said to me and he reached his arms in the open window to hug me around the neck.

"Me too," Adrian said and he wrapped his arms over Hugo's to hug me too. I reached out and hugged them both.

"I love you too," I said. They pulled away, but Serafina quickly took their places.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you," I replied.

"You'd better get going," she said as she pulled away from the hug. "I'll text you later to let you know how things are going here."

I nodded and waved goodbye. Well, Vincent, your plan might have caused a slight rift between me and some of my family members, but Alex and I were still together.