“Geez, nothing!”
“Em, dish it. What has the two of you acting so secretive?” Mark asks as I walk over and sit on the edge of the bed.
“You have to promise to not say anything to Mom and Dad.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Okay, so there’s this guy, Travis, that is totally hot and all. I mean, seriously. This guy is like—”
“Get to the point,” Mark interrupts.
“Anyway. Erin is like madly in love with this guy—”
“No, I’m not!”
“Okay, I’m out,” Mark tells them as he starts heading for the door.
“Fine. Jase will help us,” Emily says.
“I don’t even know what’s going on here,” I say in complete confusion.
When Erin finally stops molesting my chest with her eyes, she looks up at me and pleads, “You have to take us to this party tomorrow night.”
“What?” Mark asks.
“Umm, excuse me. I’m talking to Jase.”
“Why do you need us to take you to a party? Just go,” he tells her.
Getting up from the computer, Emily walks over and sits down on the bed with Erin and me. “Because, there is no way that Mom will let us go to a party the night before Thanksgiving. But if we say that the four of us are going out together, you know, like a brother-sister type thing, then I know they won’t question it.”
Laughing at their scheming, I say, “I’m in.”
Erin wraps her arms around me when Mark glares at me with a look of complete betrayal, and I laugh at him. “It sounds completely harmless,” I tell him.
“I already love you,” Emily tells me as I hear Mark let out a deep breath. “Oh, come on, Mark. Even Jase is cool with it.”
“How old is this guy?” he asks.
“I don’t know. He’s in his third year,” Erin says when she finally lets go of me. “What does it matter?”
“Because you’re nineteen and my sister. It matters.”
Suddenly thinking about Candace, I stand up, taking Mark’s side, and tell them, “We’ll go, but we’re staying with you.”
“Yeah, I agree,” Mark says, probably understanding my change of tone.
“Are you serious?” Emily questions, clearly not liking that her older brother is, in a sense, chaperoning them.
“Em, who cares?” Erin says. “Maybe Travis will get jealous when he sees me with Jase.”
Tilting my head at her in disbelief, she defends, “What? I get that you’re gay and all, but who knew my brother would snag a hottie? So yeah, I plan on using you.”
With mild laughter, I say, “This is slightly uncomfortable.”
“No shit,” Mark says as he turns to walk out, and I follow.
When we get back into bed, I replay the last ten minutes and begin to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Mark asks.
“You weren’t kidding around about them.”
“No, man. They’re crazy as hell. All the women in this family are.”
I’m glad that they are because it takes my mind off of the nerves of being here. I like Mark’s family, and his sisters make it all that much better, because even though they are completely different than Jace, they kinda remind me of her.
Mark runs his hand behind my neck and asks, “What are you thinking about?”
I tug him close to me, when I say, “I’m glad I came.”
“Me too.”
We lay there for a moment, silent, before I say, “Your dad seems really great.” I just wish my own could be as understanding as his.
“It’s not easy on him, you know?”
“What do you mean?”
He shifts slightly before continuing. “He had a really difficult time with it at first. It’s just been hard on him. He’s a work in progress.”
I nod my head, not really knowing how to respond. I’d like to think maybe my father could come around as well, but I think that’s a far cry from my reality.
Interrupting my thoughts, he adds, “I don’t want you to think my family’s perfect. Things weren’t always like they are now, but they’ve known for a few years. It wasn’t just me coming to terms with it; they had to as well.”
“I don’t see that happening for me, for my parents, I mean,” I tell him. I can hope, but what’s hope? My hopes are rarely ever fulfilled.
Mark pulls me in closer, his body warm against mine. “Maybe it’s just another piece I can fill for you.”
I smile and remember our conversation from the other week. Not wanting to deny his words, I simply whisper in response, “Yeah, maybe,” before I cover his lips with mine.
Although the both of us are exhausted from the day of traveling, we spend a good amount of time quietly kissing before falling asleep.
There’s a knock on the door as I’m slipping on one of my old UW hooded sweatshirts. I open the door to Erin standing there, still in her pajamas. Walking into the room, she jumps onto the bed and asks, “Where’s Mark?”
“Taking a shower.”
“Is he gonna talk to Mom about tonight?”
“He didn’t say,” I answer as I sit next to her.
“Say what?” I turn to see Mark as he’s walking out of the bathroom.
“Are you going to talk to Mom about tonight?”
“Yeah, I’ll talk to her,” he says as he grabs his clothes and heads back into the bathroom.
I turn to look at Erin, and she has a huge smile on her face.
“Who’s going to this party anyway?” I ask.
“People from Kent State that live around here.”
“That’s where you go?”
“Yeah. Em and I are freshmen,” she tells me. “So, you’re an Architect major with Mark?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve known him this whole time?” she asks as she leans against the headboard, getting comfortable.
“Sort of. We never really spoke until this summer.”
“Well, for what it’s worth, he seems really happy,” she says with a grin right before Mark comes back out. “Why are you guys dressed so early?” she asks as she looks between the two of us.
“It’s not that early, but Mom wants the lights up today, so we’re gonna be stuck on the roof for the next several hours.”
Hopping off the bed, she prances out of the room, calling, “Have fun with that!”
Mark closes the door and locks it before walking toward me and hovering his body over mine, pushing me back onto the bed.
“What are you doing?” I barely get out when Mark starts kissing me.
Mumbling over the skin on my neck as he moves his lips down, he says, “Not being able to touch you is going to drive me crazy today.”
His words unintentionally make me feel guilty. He knows I’m not comfortable with anything physical in front of his family, and I hate that I’m still holding back with him. I don’t want to. I don’t want to pretend to be something we’re not. And we are not distant.
When he drags his lips back to mine, he pushes back off of me and smiles. “I need coffee.”
Sitting up, I hold his face and pull him down to me once more, kissing him slowly, allowing myself to taste him. He moans as I lean back and stare up at him.
“I love you,” I say with all seriousness.
Running his fingers through my hair, he confirms, “Not even close to how much I do.”
And I don’t need to hear anymore as I smile up at him.
I follow as he walks to the door and unlocks it. Heading down the stairs, I take his hand, and when he looks at me, surprised, I just give him a slight grin. No more pretending. No more wavering.
We walk into the kitchen where his mom and dad are sitting at the table and drinking coffee. They look up at us, and for a moment my stomach knots when his mother looks down at our hands. She stands and walks over to us, smiling, and says, “Good morning. You boys want anything to eat?”
Returning the smile, knots vanishing, I say, “Just coffee.”
Mark and I fix our coffee and join his parents at the table.