Cheryl stood up and started dancing, “I’m not a grandmother!”
“Does this mean I’m not an aunt?” Kelly asked obnoxiously.
“What the hell do you think it means?” Noah asked her.
Brick took the paper back from Noah, “I just can’t believe this is the truth. Yet I do, unfortunately.”
When Noah first found out that the baby would more than likely not be Brick’s, he was so happy. Yet now he just felt bad for his brother. He knew that Brick was ready to be a father because he had just spent nine months prepping to be one. “I mean do we celebrate or grieve?” Noah finally said out loud.
His mother clearly got the hint because she finally stopped dancing. She sat next to her eldest child, “I’m glad we are finding this out now and not eighteen years later. Does she even know who the actual father is?”
Brick shook his head no, “I don’t think so. I mean, if she does, then she isn’t telling me. I highly doubt that any of the guys she might have potentially been with are going to step up.”
No more Amber in their lives. This was a relief. Yet, no more Timothy. That was a different situation altogether. He ducked out of the living room and went down the hall to his bedroom. He got out his phone went to call Timothy. He had his hand on the screen about to hit call, but he just couldn’t do it. It was hard to break up with someone that you knew you potentially would never see or hear from again. Sure, they had social media to look at, but never again would he probably speak with Timothy Powell. The first boy he had ever loved. The first boy that had ever loved him. Some people needed to have multiple loves in their life. Timothy obviously had loved another at one point. Yet, for Noah, he was now having trouble imagining what a life without Timothy was going to look like.
He thought about Timothy’s warm lips as they pressed up against his own. Noah thought of wrapping his arms around Timothy’s thin body. The smell of Timothy’s overpriced but very sensual cologne. This was all starting to hit him. There was a knock at the door. It was Brick. “Hey,” Noah said.
“Are you doing alright?” Brick asked.
“I officially broke up with Timothy, and I officially regret it a hundred and ten percent.” Noah’s head fell on to his pillow, “What did I do?”
Brick sat down on his bed, “Something you clearly regret. Noah, you don’t need to live in California. You’ve never lived in California. You could be miserable there for all you know.”
“Yeah, but I won’t know until I actually live there,” Noah pointed out.
His brother rolled his eyes, “You said to me the other day. What is left in Kansas? Nothing. I’m just going to add the fact that you don’t know what you are going to find somewhere else. That goes for anywhere you go.”
He knew that Brick was trying to go somewhere with this conversation, but he couldn’t figure it out. “So, where are you heading to yourself exactly?”
“I’m probably going to go out to Boston, actually. I’ve always wanted to see the landmarks, if I’m honest. Then I’m going to look into a few colleges in Illinois when I get back. It normally takes people an extra semester or two to graduate college, so I can start up now and still finish up around twenty-three hopefully,” Brick admitted.
Clearly, his brother had already realized that this kid wasn’t his. He wouldn’t be this prepared if he didn’t think otherwise. “Well, two college-educated Peters children. Kelly is going to have no choice but to go now.”
“Honestly, I think one of us might need to take Kelly with us wherever we go. It might be the only way to yank her out of this place,” Brick said out loud.
It was sadly the honest truth, but Noah didn’t want to have to say it himself.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
TIMOTHY
Phillip had left five hours ago. It took him the entire five hours to read the entirety of the story that Noah had written. It was official. Timothy was going to miss Noah for the rest of his life. The way that this boy wrote was just so moving. It was so different than anything he had ever read in his life. It was like reading something he shouldn’t be reading but never wanting to put it down. It was so hard to explain.
There was a knock on the door. It was his mother, “Are you alright? Dinner will be done soon.”
“Yeah… I’m fine.” He was actually a little bit drunk from the vodka still.
Ana looked at her son, “I know you aren’t right. I can always tell when something is wrong.”
“I broke up with my boyfriend,” Timothy said. It took him a minute to grasp what he just told his mother. “I mean,” he sat up in his bed. He didn’t know what to say. His mother walked further into the room and over to him. She just hugged him, “You’re gay?”
Timothy wasn’t expecting to be hugged by his mother when he came out. He really never knew what he was expecting, “I mean…”
“I never was a fan of that Tara. Jewish or no, she was not the person for you,” Ana admitted out loud.
That confirmed a few theories that Timothy had over the years, “I’m actually bisexual.”
Ana sat down next to him, “Still, Tara is not the person for you.”
Well, he already knew that, “Ok… Great. I was dating Noah, though. You know from Kansas.”
She brushed her hair back, “Well, he wasn’t a Jew either. I did like him, though. At least in comparison with Tara. I sort of figured he was gay.”
“Did you think I was gay?” Timothy decided to ask. It was a valid question to ask.
“I never really cared about what you were so long as you were happy. Your father was a different story. He suspected,” Ana explained.
That made too much sense and kind of hurt Timothy to find out, “Well… We broke up, and I’m heartbroken.”
She continued to hug him. Potentially a little too tight, “Well, if it is because of the distance, you can always move back with your father. I’m going to be going back to the old law firm at the end of the month. This domestic thing was fun for a few weeks but got old quickly.”
“It is because of distance but not the distance of Connecticut to Kansas but Connecticut to California. He wants to move out West,” Timothy explained.
She shook her head, “Who on earth would want to live out West? It’s hot, no snow, too much sunlight. No. No, never.”
His mother was not helping as much as it seemed like she was trying to be supportive; it just wasn’t helping. This was just so typical of how she acted around him. Timothy thought for a moment. The tall boy never really thought of how he would come out to his parents or if he ever would. Noah was the reason why he wanted to come out. It just felt so weird to have to say I’m bisexual to his parents or anyone for that matter.