I sighed loudly. “You really want me to pretend to be your girlfriend? I’m like, super gay, dude.”
Jamie looked up at me and his eyes lit up, clearly aware that I was close to giving in. “Yeah, but you don’t look gay,” he pointed out.
I looked down at the shirt I was wearing that was tie-dyed rainbow with a big chicken nugget in the middle and had the words Chicken Nuggets turned me gay written on it, then looked back at Jamie with a raised eyebrow.
He shrugged in response. “I mean, your hair is long and you don’t always pull it into a ponytail. Just leave your flannels and rainbow prints at home and we can easily pull this off.”
“That’s like half of my wardrobe,” I whined. “I don’t know, Jamie. This seems like a bad idea. I’m really sorry, but I’m not sure if I can do it.”
***
One week later, I stood in my room staring at the suitcase I had packed with the most “straight” clothes I could find. I wasn’t sure why I had agreed to this. Actually, I knew exactly why. Since becoming friends, Jamie had been there for me through everything. Long nights of studying for exams. Even longer nights of partying, some of which ended with me in tears over some girl. He had even driven me back and forth to my hometown when my mom had a cancer scare a few years earlier. I closed my suitcase and lugged it down to the car, where Jamie was waiting for me.
“Just for the record, I still think this is a bad idea,” I groaned as Jamie started his car, and we began our three and a half hour drive to his small Maryland hometown. “But I refuse to mess this up, so give me a rundown of your family.”
Jamie grinned over at me. “Ready for this? You will be attending the Miller Family Reunion. It’s my dad’s side of the family. The oldest person there will be my great gran, Olivia. We call her Nana. Her son is my grandpa, Oliver. He is married to my grandma, Pam. They had four kids and I’m honestly not sure who is coming in terms of great aunts and cousins twice removed and shit like that. They don’t really matter. I barely know their names, so you certainly don’t have to.
“The most important part is my dad’s immediate family. He is the middle child and has two brothers. Uncle Shane is the oldest. He is married to Aunt Dina. They have three boys. John is married to Susan. Jacob is married to Naomi. Jeremiah is married to Kathy. God knows how many children they all have at this point. I swear they just keep popping them out. They’re pretty close in age to us, but they all have sticks up their butts just like their parents.
“My uncle Mike is the youngest of the three siblings. He and my aunt Sarah are kind of the black sheep of the family. They have two kids—David and Kim. They seem pretty cool, but I don’t see them much. Plus, they’re younger than us. Kim just graduated from high school and David is like a junior in college or something. Then, of course, there’s Charlie, my twin…”
“Whoa. Hold up,” I interrupted, shaking my head vigorously in shock. “You have a twin brother and you never told me? I assumed you didn’t have any siblings. Now I find out that there’s a Jamie clone out there.”
Jamie chuckled. “We’re hardly clones.”
“Okay. So you’re fraternal. Whatever. Tell me more about this mysterious twin. What does he do?”
Jamie smirked, like this was some sort of joke. “Charlie just graduated from optometry school. That’s kind of the reason for this family reunion. Charlie was in California, so now that the whole family is back on the east coast, it seemed like a good time for a reunion.”
“And the whole family is able to take over a month off of work to hang out in Maryland?”
Jamie laughed again. “Oh, no one really has to take off of work. We just have family fun planned out for most weekends and some nights. The term ‘reunion’ is used very loosely in this case, since almost my entire family lives in the same town. You know how I said Uncle Mike and Aunt Sarah are the black sheep? That’s because they chose to move to Florida. Gasp. They also waited until they were twenty-eight to birth any children, and that’s unheard of in my family. They’re only coming for the last two weeks.”
I exhaled loudly, as I took in everything he was telling me. I was starting to think that maybe Jamie’s family was much more than I had bargained for. “So, what about you? Are you in trouble for staying in New York after college?”
Jamie gave me a guilty smile. “Not exactly. But that’s only because my parents think that we will be moving back to town before we have kids.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “I feel like you’re living a double life.”
“You have no idea,” Jamie groaned. He chewed on his bottom lip and added, “Like seriously, no idea. I feel like I can’t fully prepare you for how my family, heck, even my town, sees me. I was kind of the golden boy star QB back in high school, and that’s how they still see me.”
I scrunched my face up, wondering where he was going with this. It’s not like I didn’t know about Jamie’s athletic side. We both played on a kickball team with other faculty members from the school he worked at, and we went to the gym together a few times a week. “I’m not sure why you think I would be surprised by that. I knew you played football. We’re literally such good friends because of how much we love watching sports together. As far as gay stereotypes go, I’m much more gay than you.”
“But I’m more fashionable,” Jamie pointed out with a laugh. “Seriously though, you know those guys we always make fun of at the gym? The ones who hit on you and try to impress you by talking about their days playing high school or college sports? That’s how I am around my family.”
“I have a hard time believing that you’re actually a secret douchebag,” I argued.
“Okay. Maybe not. But I do act like I’m a lot more caught up in high school than I actually am.”
“Fair enough.” I studied Jamie’s face and noticed how overwhelmed he looked. I had never seen him like this, and I felt for him. I patted his knee. “Don’t worry, bro. I got you. You’re my best friend. Nothing about this trip is going to change that. We’ll get through it together.”
He gave me an appreciative smile, and the rest of the trip was spent in a comfortable silence.
As we pulled into his parent’s driveway, a small red car pulled in at the same time. “Awesome! There’s Charlie!” The same smirk from earlier returned to his face. Instead of questioning it, I looked over toward the car that had just parked beside us. As I watched the person emerge from the car, my mouth went dry. Charlie did look a lot like Jamie, with the blonde hair, blue eyes, and perfectly olive skin. But Charlie had long slender legs and a very petite build—a very feminine build; which made sense, since Charlie was, indeed, a woman. I couldn’t tear my eyes away as I watched her reach up toward her hair, which was currently pulled into a ponytail, and let it out, shaking her head as it came to rest on her back. For a moment, I forgot where I was and felt like I was watching a movie play out in front of me. It almost seemed like the scene was happening in slow motion. I was entranced, as those big blue eyes focused on mine and the most gorgeous smile spread across her face. Then, all at once, it hit me. This wasn’t a movie. Charlie was Jamie’s sister, and I was currently staring at her as if I wanted to devour her, which, in all honesty, I kind of did.