Dedication
Dedicated to my three older brothers. If you’re actually reading this, I appreciate the support, but please don’t go any further than this page. Thank you for always accepting and supporting me. I am the person I am today because I have the three of you to look up to. I love and appreciate you more than you’ll ever know.
Chapter 1: Reagan
“Reagan Cooper. Paging Reagan Cooper,” a voice boomed over the intercom. I opened one eye, then slowly opened the other, as I continued to hear my name being called. Realizing it wasn’t going to stop, I hopped out of bed and made my way down the hallway.
Once in our living room, I glared at my roommate, Jamie. “What do you want?” I groaned. “It’s not even 8:00 yet.”
Jamie brushed me off with a shake of his hand. “I’m still on school time. I’ve been up for hours. Plus, I love using our new intercom system. It’s so cool that we live somewhere big enough to have one of these.”
I rolled my eyes at his excitement. “It’s not that big. It’s just not the sardine can we shared in the city.” A few weeks ago, Jamie and I had moved from the apartment that we’d shared in the city to a New Jersey town about 25 minutes outside of New York. It had been a tough decision to give up living in the city, but we both agreed this way we could save money, while not completely losing the city experience. It also gave us the chance to move from a small one bedroom to a significantly bigger two bedroom.
Jamie pouted. “Don’t rain on my parade. It’s still exciting.”
I picked up the box of cereal he had sitting out on the counter and poured myself a bowl. “So, is that the only reason you interrupted my precious beauty sleep?”
“You’re already beautiful, darling. No more sleep is needed,” Jamie joked. “But I also wanted to talk to you about my trip next week.”
I pushed my bottom lip out at the mention of his trip. He was going back to his hometown for five weeks, and I honestly wasn’t sure what I was going to do without him. He might drive me nuts most of the time, but he was still my best friend in the whole world. “I thought we agreed not to talk about that. It’s too sad to think about spending over a month apart.”
“That’s exactly why I brought it up,” Jamie said excitedly, but something about his tone told me that I should probably be worried. He hesitated a beat before adding, “I was kind of hoping you would come with me.”
I laughed at his suggestion. “To your family reunion?”
Jamie brought his hands together in a praying motion, giving me his best puppy dog eyes. “Please. You work from home so it’s perfect. And it solves the issue of us being apart.” I was confused by his suggestion. Why would he want me to come home with him so badly? He had never told me a ton about his family. I knew they were super conservative, hence the reason he had yet to come out to them. Did he want me there as some sort of buffer? Would it make him feel more comfortable to have the presence of his liberal lesbian bestie?
“I’m confused why you want me to go so badly and why you are just asking me now. You’ve been talking about this trip for a year.” I raised an eyebrow at him to show that I was questioning his motives.
Jamie smiled at me in return. “I want to spend some time away with my bestie. Is that so hard to believe? And I’m asking now, because I just thought of it. My mom suggested that I bring you actually.”
I let out a hearty laugh. “Your super conservative mother with a super conservative family suggested you bring along your lesbian roommate to the big family reunion?”
Jamie ran a hand through his short blond hair. “She did actually. Of course, she doesn’t know you’re a lesbian. That’s the funny part. I think you might laugh,” he said nervously. “She actually thinks you’re…” He turned away from me and spoke the last part of his sentence into his hands, making it impossible for me to hear.
“She thinks I’m what, Jamie?” I asked, leaning forward to hear better. His demeanor had me worried. What could he possibly say that I wouldn’t want to hear?
“She thinks…” Jamie took a deep breath before looking me in the eyes. “She sort of thinks you’re my girlfriend.”
His girlfriend? The thought that I could be the girlfriend of anyone of his gender was hilarious to me, the girl who had been out since ninth grade. I tried my best to stifle my laugh, since Jamie looked significantly bothered by this confession. “And why would she think that, Jamie?”
He looked down at the foot he was dragging in circles across the floor. “I may have told her that when we moved in together. I figured she would find it weird if I was just moving in with some girl, so I told her I was moving in with my girlfriend. Of course, I didn’t think about the fact that she would lecture me about us living in sin, but…”
I put my hand up before Jamie could continue and shook my head in confusion. “I have so many questions right now. We moved in together four years ago. Your family thinks that you have been dating someone for four years and they don’t find it strange that they have yet to meet this girl? Also… living in sin? Really? I knew your parents were religious, but sheesh. That’s a lot, man.”
Jamie cleared his throat a few times, clearly nervous. “They actually think we have been dating for six years. There was no way I could tell my mom that we were shacking up right after we started dating. Because yes, to answer your question, they are that religious. And, they do find it strange that they haven’t met you. They are pretty pissed about it, to be honest. Which is why I panicked when my mom asked if you were coming, so I told her that you were.”
“And when did you tell her this?” I asked, not even trying to hide the annoyance in my voice.
Jamie tilted his head and bit his bottom lip, which was a nervous habit of his. “Last year,” he answered softly. When my brows furrowed in response to this confession, he raised his voice a bit and added, “I was planning to just say that something came up and you couldn’t make it, but she has been all over me about it. Pretty much if you don’t come, you’re going to be banished from my family.”
I dramatically placed my hand over my chest. “Oh dear. How will I ever survive?” Jamie didn’t even crack a smile at my dramatics and it made me feel a bit bad for teasing him.
“You wouldn’t understand,” he said softly. “Your family is nothing like mine. You grew up right outside of Philadelphia. Your parents come up to New York City every year for Pride, and your brother makes huge donations to LGBTQ organizations in your honor. I don’t think anyone in my family has ever even met a gay person. They were appalled when gay marriage became legal a few years ago. I love my family, but they have a ton of expectations that I’ll never be able to live up to.”
I squeezed his shoulder. His family was the one part of his life that Jamie hadn’t really shared with me, and I never realized how bad it was. “You can’t keep it a secret forever, you know.” I tried to keep my voice soft, so it didn’t sound like I was chastising him.
His shoulders dropped just a little. “I know I can’t, but I just need to find the right time and this family reunion isn’t it. Trust me.”